James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond

“ BUTLER, THOMAS, Earl of Ossory (1634–1680) , was the eldest son of James, first duke of Ormonde [q. v.] , and was born in the castle of Kilkenny on 9 July 1634. Here he remained, and was carefully educated, throughout the Irish rebellion, until Ormonde surrendered Dublin to the parliamentary commissioners in 1647, when he accompanied his father to England, and shortly afterwards, in February 1647–8, to France. He stayed with his brother Richard at Paris until Ormonde's return to Ireland in September. ”

“ Meanwhile Ormonde [see under Butler, James, second Duke of Ormonde] had been impeached, and fled to France at the beginning of August. The hopes which had been entertained from his influence in England were crushed. He occupied the same house with Bolingbroke at Paris. The death of Louis XIV on 1 Sept. (N.S.) was still more conclusive. Louis had induced his grandson, the king of Spain, to send money to the Jacobites, and some arms had been provided in French ships at Havre. The Duke of Orleans, now regent, was on good terms with Lord Stair, and resolved not to help the Jacobites. ”

“ Lady Elizabeth Butler, daughter of James Butler, first Duke of Ormond, second wife of Philip Stanhope, second Earl of Chesterfield. She died July, 1665 (see "Memoires de Grammont," chap. viii.) . Peter Cunningham thinks that this banishment was only temporary, for, according to the Grammont Memoirs, she was in town when the Russian ambassador was in London, December, 1662, and January, 1662- 63. "It appears from the books of the Lord Steward's office... ”

“ I am plain Bully Butler the highwayman.—So, sir, your servant;' and dashing spurs into his horse, he galloped away over the heath."
"Thomas Butler, of the princely house of Ormond—and 'twas he!" said Finland; "a braver spark old Ireland never sent forth to glory or disgrace. His father was a stout old Royalist, and shed his blood for King James on the banks of the Boyne. And so he hath taken to the road, the madcap! That is riding at the gallows full tilt with a vengeance!" ”

“ George Duke of Buckingham . . . also State Poems . . . (by various hands) (1704) ; and in The Grove . . . (1721) , a poetic miscellany, is a “Satyr against Marriage,” not found in his works.
The life of Butler was written by an anonymous author, said by William Oldys to be Sir James Astrey, and prefixed to the edition of 1704. The writer professes to supplement and correct the notice given by Anthony à Wood in Athenae Oxonienses. Dr Threadneedle Russel Nash, a Worcestershire antiquarian, supplied some additional facts in an edition of 1793. ”

“ Thomas Butler, seventh earl of Ormonde (Ware, Annals of Ireland, ed. 1703, p. 17) , and to have been early noted for his expertness in feats of arms; throughout his career he was commonly known as ‘Black James.' He followed the traditions of his family in supporting the Lancastrian house, and received knighthood for useful services rendered in Ireland during the rising of Lambert Simnel, when he proved himself most active in his opposition to the Earl of Kildare, who supported the pretender. ”

“ BUTLER, JAMES (fl. 1631–1634) , military adventurer, was one of the many members of the Irish house of Butler who in the seventeenth century gained reputation as soldiers. Not less than six officers of the name appear to be distinguishable in the imperial service during the thirty years' war. The James Butler in question is said to have belonged to the branch of his house which traced its origin to the first viscount Mountgarret, the second son of Pierce, eighth earl of Ormonde and Ossory [q. v.] ”

“ Fill up, Campbell, and I'll forget Glencoe ... while I'm drinking."
"Mr. Ormond," said Walter Butler, in a low voice, "I cannot credit ill of a man of your name. You are young and hot-blooded, and you perhaps lack as yet a capacity for reflection. I shall look for you among us when the time comes. No Ormond can desert his King." ”

“ No one can be expected to be greatly in advance of his surroundings; it is well for every one except himself if he should happen to be so, but no man is to be blamed if he is not; it is enough to save him if he is fairly up to the standard of his own times. ‘Morality’ is rather of the custom which is, than of the custom which ought to be.
“Turning now to the account of Mark, we find the following:—
“‘And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. ”

“ No man knew whom to trust or whom to obey. The material strength of the army was little diminished: but its moral strength had been destroyed. Many whom shame would have restrained from leading the way to the Prince's quarters were eager to imitate an example which they never would have set; and many, who would have stood by their King while he appeared to be resolutely advancing against the invaders, felt no inclination to follow a receding standard. 541
James went that day as far as Andover. He was attended by his son in law Prince George, and by the Duke of Ormond. ”

“ As he became a father in Boston within little more than twenty years after its first settlement, it may be presumed that he was an emigrant from Europe.
2. Benjamin Butler. The different dates in this and similar cases denote the births of different children bearing the same name; the former in all probability died before the birth of the latter.
3. James Butler probably died before 1692, if the Grace Butler, married to Andrew Rankin, April 15th, of that year, by Simon Bradstreet, was his widow. ”

“ Accordingly, Margaret turned her eyes toward Portugal for aid, and employed John Butler, Earl of Ormond, to enlist Alphonso in her cause. Ormond, who, upon the execution of his brother, the Earl of Wiltshire, after Towton, had become the chief of the Butlers, was one of the most accomplished gentlemen of his age, and a master of the various languages then spoken in Europe. No fitter embassador could have been found ”

“ After dinner he rose, filled a goblet to the brim with wine, and, holding it up, asked whether he had spilt one drop. "No, gentlemen; whatever the courtiers may say, I am not yet sunk into dotage. My hand does not fail me yet: and my hand is not steadier than my heart. To the health of King James!" Such was the last farewell of Ormond to Ireland. He left the administration in the hands of Lords Justices, and repaired to London, where he was received with unusual marks of public respect. Many persons of rank went forth to meet him on the road. ”

“ General Outram, his illustrious comrade, asked to be permitted to see him. They had confronted danger together on many a hard-fought field, and death in all its reality was to be faced now. The Christian warrior looked up into the kindly, sympathetic countenance of his visitor, and said to him, “Sir James, for more than forty years I have so ruled my life that when death came I might face it without fear.” Then pausing, as he realized that death had come, he added: “So be it. I am not in the least afraid. To die is gain!” ”

“ James Butler was bred and born in Kilkenny, and in his pupilage was kept pretty much at school, but his learning did him little service, though he spoke Latin very fluently. When he arrived at man's estate, he enlisted himself a soldier in Lord Galway's regiment, and went with the army to Spain, where he had not been long before he departed to the Spaniards as his favourite party; but meeting with some usage among them he did not relish, he soon grew tired of a military life, and gave the Spaniards the go-by also. ”

“ James, with wonderful elegance and expressiveness, calls meekness of wisdom, in our behaviour towards all men, but more especially towards these men; not so much as being what we owe to them, but to ourselves and our religion; that we may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, in our carriage towards those who labour to vilify it.
For discourse with them; the caution commonly given, not to attempt answering objections which we have not considered, is certainly just. Nor need any one, in a particular case, be ashamed frankly to acknowledge his ignorance, provided it be not general. ”

“ But Dio Cassius, with all his superstition, acknowledges that the secret meaning of the circumstance was not discovered till after the event. Nash thinks that Butler might also have in view the following story told of Oliver Cromwell, afterward Lord Protector. When young he was invited by Sir Oliver Cromwell, his uncle and godfather, to some Christmas revels given for the entertainment of King James I,, when, indulging his love for fun, he went to the ball with his hands and clothes besmeared with excrement, to the great disgust of the company ”

“ Butler?"
"An Ormond-Butler," she said, earnestly; "but--but he has had trouble--a terrible disappointment in love, they say. He is morose at times--a sullen, suspicious man, one of those who are ever seeking for offence where none is dreamed of; a man quick to give umbrage, quicker to resent a fancied slight--a remorseless eye that fixes you with the passionless menace of a hawk's eye, dreamily marking you for a victim. He is cruel to his servants, cruel to his animals, terrible in his hatred of these Boston people. ”

“ I shall consider you as the assassin; I shall treat you as such; and wherever I meet you I shall pistol you, though you stood behind the king's chair; and I tell you it in his majesty's presence, that you may be sure I shall keep my word." No further attempt was made upon the Duke of Ormond's life.
Scarce six months elapsed from date of the essayed abduction, before Blood endeavoured to steal the regalia and royal jewels preserved in the Tower. The courage which prompted the design is not more remarkable than the skill which sought to effect it; both were worthy a man of genius. ”

“ BUTLER, THOMAS HAMLY (1762?–1823) , musical composer, the son of James Butler, a musician, was born in London about 1762. He was for nearly ten years a chorister of the Chapel Royal under Dr. Nares, and subsequently studied in Italy for three years under Piccini. On returning to England, he was engaged by Sheridan as composer for Covent Garden Theatre ”

“ Johnson terms “one of those productions of which a nation may justly boast”—little further is known than that his genius was not sufficient to rescue him from its too frequent attendant, poverty; he lived in obscurity, and died in want. Wycherley often represented to the Duke of Buckingham how well Butler had deserved of the royal family by writing his inimitable Hudibras, and that it was a disgrace to the Court that a person of his loyalty and genius should remain in obscurity and suffer the wants which he did. The Duke, thus pressed, promised to recommend Butler to his Majesty ”

“ That effort of Wycherley's to bring to Buckingham's notice the case of Samuel Butler (so shamefully neglected by the court Butler had served) shows that the writer of even such heartless plays as The Country Wife may be familiar with generous impulses, while his uncompromising lines in defence of Buckingham, when the duke in his turn fell into trouble, show that the inventor of so shameless a fraud as that which forms the pivot of The Plain Dealer may in actual life possess that passion for fairplay which is believed to be a specially English quality. ”

“ There is no one creature so obscure, so low, or so poor, who may not, by the strange and unaccountable changes and vicissitudes of human affairs, somehow or other, and some time or other, become an useful friend or a trouble-some enemy, to the greatest and the richest. The late Duke of Ormond was almost the weakest but at the same time the best-bred, and most popular man in this kingdom. ”

“ Alternately he named a Butler and a Geraldine as his deputy, and although he failed ultimately to win the Earl of Ormond from the traditional party of his family, he secured the attachment of several of his kinsmen. Stirring events in England, the year after his appointment, made it necessary for him to return immediately. The unpopularity of the administration which had banished him had rapidly augmented. The French King had recovered the whole of Normandy, for four centuries annexed to the English Crown. ”

“ We have seen that one of his first acts, after he became King, was to recall Ormond from Ireland. Ormond was the head of the English interest in that kingdom: he was firmly attached to the Protestant religion; and his power far exceeded that of an ordinary Lord Lieutenant, first, because he was in rank and wealth the greatest of the colonists, and, secondly, because he was not only the chief of the civil administration, but also commander of the forces. ”

“ On the 16th he attacked Butler with great vigor, and with such success as to limit very materially the further usefulness of the Army of the James as a distinct factor in the campaign. I afterward ordered a portion of it to join the Army of the Potomac, leaving a sufficient force with Butler to man his works, hold securely the footing he had already gained and maintain a threatening front toward the rear of the Confederate capital. ”

“ And the utmost length that Butler's most earnest entreaties could prevail was, that he would, reserve "the twa pig carles for the Circuit, but as for him they ca'd the Fustler, he should try how he could fustle in a swinging tow, for it suldna be said that a shentleman, friend to the Duke, was killed in his country, and his people didna take at least twa lives for ane." ”

“ At the momentous period when Shaftesbury was committed to the Tower, the Duke of Ormond was sent for to England, that his presence might add respectability and weight to the king's councils. He entered the city with great pomp; and was every where received with the veneration due to his rank, his age, and his services. He had never linked himself to any political faction; contented to serve the crown upon the old cavalier principles, which he always asserted. He was thought, however, to go too great lengths in advising the king to maintain his authority by harsh measures ”