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Tag Archives: Thomas FitzGerald (10th Earl of Kildare)


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Death of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond

Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, 1st Earl of Ossory, also known as Red Piers, dies on August 26, 1539. He is from the Polestown branch of the Butler family of Ireland. In the succession crisis at the death of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, he succeeds to the earldom as heir male, but loses the title in 1528 to Thomas Boleyn. He regains it after Boleyn’s death in 1538.

Butler is born c. 1467, the third son of James Butler and Sabh Kavanagh. His father is Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord of the Manor of Advowson of Callan (1438–87). His father’s family is the Polestown cadet branch of the Butler dynasty that started with Sir Richard Butler of Polestown, second son of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond. His mother, whose first name is variously given as Sabh, Sadhbh, Saiv, or Sabina, is a princess of Leinster, eldest daughter of Donal Reagh Kavanagh, MacMurrough (1396–1476), King of Leinster.

In 1485, Butler marries Lady Margaret FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare and Alison FitzEustace. The marriage is political, arranged with the purpose of healing the breach between the two families. In the early years of their marriage, Margaret and her husband are reduced to penury by James Dubh Butler, a nephew, heir to the earldom and agent of the absentee Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, who resides in England. Butler retaliates by murdering James Dubh in an ambush in 1497. He is pardoned for his crime on February 22, 1498.

Butler and Margaret have three sons: James (1496–1546), also called “the Lame,” who succeeds him as the 9th Earl, Richard (1500–1571), who becomes the 1st Viscount Mountgarret, and Thomas, who is slain by Dermoid Mac Shane, MacGillaPatrick of Upper Ossory, and six daughters: Margaret, Catherine (1506–53), Joan (born 1528), married James Butler, 10th Baron Dunboyne, Ellice (1481–1530), Eleanor, married Thomas Butler, 1st Baron Cahir, and Helen, also called Ellen (1523–97), married Donough O’Brien, 2nd Earl of Thomond.

Butler also has an illegitimate son, Edmund Butler, who becomes Archbishop of Cashel and conforms to the established religion in 1539.

During the prolonged absence from Ireland of the earls, Butler’s father lays claim to the Ormond land and titles. This precipitates a crisis in the Ormond succession when the seventh earl later dies without a male heir. On March 20, 1489, King Henry VII appoints him High Sheriff of County Kilkenny. He is knighted before September 1497. The following year (1498) he seizes Kilkenny Castle and with his wife, the dynamic daughter of the Earl of Kildare, likely improve the living accommodations there. On February 28, 1498, he receives a pardon for crimes committed in Ireland, including the murder of James Ormonde, heir to the 7th Earl. He is also made Seneschal of the Liberty of Tipperary on June 21, 1505, succeeding his distant relation, James Butler, 9th Baron Dunboyne. 

Henry VII is succeeded by Henry VIII in 1509. On the death of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormonde on August 3, 1515, Butler becomes the 8th Earl of Ormond.

In March 1522, Henry VIII appoints him Chief Governor of Ireland as Lord Deputy. He holds this office until August 1524 when he is succeeded by Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare. However, he holds on to the position of Lord Treasurer.

One of the heirs general to the Ormond inheritance is Thomas Boleyn, whose mother is Lady Margaret Butler, second daughter of the 7th Earl. Thomas Boleyn is the father of Anne, whose star is rising at the court of King Henry VIII. As the king wants the titles of Ormond and Wiltshire for Thomas Boleyn, he induces Butler and his coheirs to resign their claims on February 17, 1528. Aided by the king’s Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Butler is created Earl of Ossory instead. On February 22, 1538, the earldom of Ormond is restored to him.

Butler dies on August 26, 1539, and is buried in St. Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny.


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Death of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone

hugh-o-neill

Hugh O’Neill (Irish: Aodh Mór Ó Néill), the 3rd Baron Dungannon and 2nd Earl of Tyrone, dies in Rome on July 20, 1616. His career is played out against the background of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and he is best known for leading the resistance during the Nine Years’ War, the strongest threat to Tudor authority in Ireland since the revolt of Silken Thomas. The defeat of O’Neill and the conquest of his province of Ulster is the final step in the subjugation of Ireland by the English.

Although born into the powerful O’Neill dynasty of Ulster, O’Neill is fostered as a ward of the Crown in County Dublin after the assassination of his father, Matthew, in 1558. His wardship ends in 1567 and, after a visit to the court in London, he returns to Ireland in 1568 and assumes his grandfather’s title of Earl of Tyrone. By initially cooperating with the government of Queen Elizabeth I, he establishes his base of power, and in 1593 he replaces Turlough Lynagh O’Neill as chieftain of the O’Neills. But his dominance in Ulster leads to a deterioration in his relations with the Crown, and skirmishes between his forces and the English in 1595 are followed by three years of fruitless negotiations between the two sides.

In 1598 O’Neill reopens hostilities. His victory over the English on August 14 in the Battle of the Yellow Ford on the River Blackwater, Ulster, the most serious defeat sustained by the English in the Irish wars, sparks a general revolt throughout the country. Pope Clement VIII lends moral support to his cause, and, in September 1601, four thousand Spanish troops arrive at Kinsale, Munster, to assist the insurrection. But those reinforcements are quickly surrounded at Kinsale, and O’Neill suffers a staggering defeat in December 1601 while attempting to break the siege. He continues to resist until forced to surrender on March 30, 1603, six days after the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Elizabeth’s successor, King James I, allows O’Neill to keep most of his lands, but the chieftain soon finds that he cannot bear the loss of his former independence and prestige. In September 1607 he, with Rory O’Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, and their followers, secretly embark on a ship bound for Spain. The vessel is blown off course and lands in Normandy. From there the refugees make their way via the Spanish Netherlands to Rome, where they are acclaimed by Pope Paul V. This “Flight of the Earls” signals the end of Gaelic Ulster and thereafter the province is rapidly Anglicized. Outlawed by the English, O’Neill lives in Rome the rest of his life. He dies there at the age of 66 on July 20, 1616. He is interred in the Spanish church of San Pietro in Montorio.