James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, Earl of Wiltshire (24 November 1420 – 1 May 1461) was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

and

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

. Butler was a staunch Lancastrian and supporter of

Queen consort A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king, and usually shares her spouse's social Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and status. She holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles and may be crowned and anointed, but hi ...

Margaret of Anjou Margaret of Anjou (; 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was Queen of England by marriage to King Henry VI from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471. Through marriage, she was also nominally Queen of France from 1445 to 1453. Born in the ...

during the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses, known at the time and in following centuries as the Civil Wars, were a series of armed confrontations, machinations, battles and campaigns fought over control of the English throne from 1455 to 1487. The conflict was fo ...

. He was beheaded by the victorious

Yorkists The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...

following the

Battle of Towton The Battle of Towton took place on 29 March 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, near Towton in North Yorkshire, and "has the dubious distinction of being probably the largest and bloodiest battle on English soil". Fought for ten hours between a ...

Family

James Butler, born on 24 November 1420, was the eldest son of

James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

, by his first wife, Joan de Beauchamp, Countess of Ormond (d. 3 or 5 August 1430). He had two younger brothers,

John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond (died 14 December 1476) was considered one of the first gentlemen of the age in which he lived. He was an ambassador to the most important courts of Europe. Family John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond was the second ...

, and

Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond PC (1426 – 3 August 1515) was the youngest son of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. He was attainted, but restored by Henry VII's first Parliament in November 1485, and the statutes made at Westminster, b ...

, as well as two sisters, Elizabeth Butler, who married

John Talbot, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury John Talbot was the 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury, 2nd Earl of Waterford, 8th Baron Talbot, KG (12 December 1413 – 10 July 1460) was an English nobleman and soldier and the son of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, 1st Earl of Waterford, 7th Baro ...

, and Anne Butler (d. 4 January 1435), who was contracted to marry

Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Desmond Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the ...

, although the marriage appears not to have taken place.

Career

He was created

Earl of Wiltshire The title Earl of Wiltshire is one of the oldest in the Peerage of England, going back to the 12th century. It is currently held by the Marquess of Winchester, and is used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of the marquess. The earldom was ...

, in the

Peerage of England The Peerage of England comprises all peerages created in the Kingdom of England before the Act of Union in 1707. From that year, the Peerages of England and Scotland were closed to new creations, and new peers were created in a single Peerag ...

, by King Henry VI on 8 July 1449, for his fidelity to the Lancastrian interest. In 1451 he became Lord Deputy of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

; the next year he succeeded his father in the Earldom of Ormond and was additionally appointed

Lord Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility ov ...

for ten years. From March to May 1455, he served as Lord High Treasurer of England and was made a

Knight of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system, it is outranked in ...

in 1459. Butler served as Lord High Treasurer again from 1458 to 1460. Butler's tenure as Lord High Treasurer occurred during the Great Bullion Famine and the Great Slump in England. By virtue of the rights of his wife, Avice, in the manor of

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...

he exercised patronage of the chantry of

St Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...

in the parish church at Frome in appointments made in 1452, 1453 and 1458. When the dynastic civil wars - known as the

- broke out, Wiltshire fought on the Lancastrian side, becoming one of

's staunchest supporters. He raised a significant force of

Gaelic Irish The Gaels ( ; ; ; ) are an Insular Celtic ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaeli ...

troops to serve in England. He was present at the

First Battle of St Albans The First Battle of St Albans took place on 22 May, 1455, at St Albans, 22 miles (35 km) north of London, and traditionally marks the beginning of the Wars of the Roses in England. Richard, Duke of York, and his allies, the Neville Earls ...

in 1455,

Battle of Wakefield The Battle of Wakefield took place in Sandal Magna near Wakefield in northern England, on 30 December 1460. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing forces were an army led by nobles loyal to the captive King Henry VI o ...

in 1460, Battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461 and the

Death

He died on 1 May 1461, beheaded at

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

by the

after the Lancastrian army was soundly defeated at the Battle of Towton. He has been described by Dan Jones (The Hollow Crown) as "perhaps the greatest coward of his generation, (having) previously run away from the first battle of St. Albans and the battle of Mortimer's Cross. He brought his tally to three desertions by abandoning Towton, but this time his luck had run out". He was succeeded by his brother,

Marriages and children

He married firstly Avice Stafford (1423-1457), daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Stafford by Maud Lovell, daughter and heiress of Robert Lovell, esquire, by whom he had no children. He married secondly Eleanor Beaufort (1431-1501), daughter of

Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, 4th Earl of Somerset, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Marquess of Dorset styled 1st Count of Mortain, (140622 May 1455), was an English nobleman and an important figure during the Hundred Years' War. His rivalry ...

, by

Eleanor Beauchamp Lady Eleanor Beauchamp, Baroness de Ros and Duchess of Somerset (September 1408 – 6 March 1467) was the second daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick and Elizabeth Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick, Elizabeth de Berkeley, daughte ...

, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick. The couple had no children.

Appearance and character

The Earl of Wiltshire was described as the most handsome man in the Kingdom and as Gregory records, at the

in 1455, Wiltshire "fought mainly with the heels, for he was frightened of losing his beauty"; prudently he had taken off his armour and hidden it in a ditch, donning a monk's habit.Desmond Seward: "The Wars of the Roses" pp.43-44

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ormond, James Butler, 5th Earl of 1420 births 1461 deaths James Lords Lieutenant of Ireland Lord high treasurers of England Knights of the Garter People of the Wars of the Roses Executed English nobility Executed people from County Kilkenny People executed under the Yorkists 15th-century Irish nobility People executed under the Plantagenets by decapitation Earls of Wiltshire Earls of Ormond (Ireland) Irish soldiers