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Ormonde (JAMES BUTLER DUKE)

JAMES BUTLER, DUKE OF, an English statesman; born in London, England, Oct. 19, 1610. He was the first of the ancient Anglo-Irish family of Butler on whom the ducal title was conferred. In the beginning of the 13th century Theobald Butler, from whom the Duke of Ormonde was descended, held the hereditary office of royal cupbearer or "butler" of Ireland. The duke's father, the son of the celebrated Walter, Earl of Ormonde, was drowned in crossing the channel; and the old earl having incurred the displeasure of the king, James I., and being thrown into prison, James, who on his father's death became, as Viscount Thurles, the heir ORMONDE of the title, was taken possession of as a royal ward, and placed under the guardianship of the Archbishop of Canterbury. On the restoration of his grandfather to liberty, he also was released; and in his 20th year he married his cousin, Lady Elizabeth Preston, and in 1632 succeeded, upon his grandfather's death, to the earldom and estates of Ormonde. During the Strafford administration in Ireland Ormonde distinguish ed himself. He failed to please in 1643 when he concluded an armistice; his policy was condemned as well by the friends as by the enemies of the royalist party in England. During the long contest of Charles with the Parliament, Ormonde continued to uphold the royal interest in his Irish government; and when the last crisis of the king's fortunes came, he resigned his Irish command, and retired to France, from which country he again returned to Ireland with the design of restoring the royal authority. After a gallant but unequal struggle, he was, however, compelled, in 1650, to return to France. At the Restoration he accompanied Charles II. on his return, and was rewarded for his fidelity by the ducal title of Ormonde. His after life was less eventful, though he twice again returned to the government of Ireland. It was in 1679 as he was returning from a civic festival, he was attacked by Colonel Blood and a party of ruffians, and dragged from his coach with the intention of being hanged at Tyburn. He escaped uninjured, and lived till the year 1688. He died in Dorsetshire, England, July 21, 1688.