Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/79

BUT of Lixnaw, one of Desmond's chief followers, submitted to the Earl of Ormond, who interceded for and obtained his pardon. In 1583 he obtained supplies of men, money, and ammunition from England, and made a determined effort to capture the Earl of Desmond, to this end carrying on a war of plunder and devastation in Munster. Within the space of a few months he cut off, of Desmond's party, "46 captains, 800 notorious traitors, and 4,000 common soldiers." Before long nearly all the great lords of the south submitted to him at Cork, and the Earl of Desmond was left a wanderer with but a few companions. It is much to Ormond's credit that he positively refused to accede to Burleigh's directions that he should disregard the protections he had accorded to the native chiefs. He wrote: "I will never use treachery to any man, for it will both touch Her Highness's honour and my own credit too much; and whosoever gave the Queen advice thus to write, is fitter to execute such base service than I am." The wars that desolated Munster were at length ended by the capture and death of the Earl of Desmond (11th November 1583). In the ensuing confiscations, Ormond was given 3,000 acres in Tipperary, and a "great tract of poor land" in Kerry—less than he considered his fair share after the part he had taken on the Queen's side in the war. In the operations against O'Neill he commanded in different parts of the country. On 10th April 1600 he accompanied Sir George Carew and the Earl of Thomond to a parley near Kilkenny with Owney O'More. The parley resolved itself into a skirmish. Ormond was taken prisoner—Sir George and Thomond escaping with difficulty. At the instance of O'Neill, the Earl was released in June, giving Owney hostages for the payment of £3,000, should he thereafter seek revenge for the treacherous injuries he had received. After Elizabeth's death, he was confirmed in his office of Lieutenant-General by King James. He was blind the last twelve years of his life, and died at his house at Carrick, 22nd November 1614, and was buried at St. Canice's. Carte styles him "a man of very great parts, admirable judgment, great experience, and a prodigious memory; … very comely and graceful, … of a black complexion which gave occasion to the Queen (in her way of expressing kindness to such as she favoured) to call him her 'black husband.'" This favour doubtless occasioned the undying hostility between him and the Earl of Leicester, whose ears he on one occasion boxed, and was therefor sent to the Tower. He repaired and beautified Kilkenny Castle, built an hospital at Kilkenny, and castles at Holycross and elsewhere. Thrice married, he left no heir. This Earl was a Protestant. 

Butler, Walter, 11th Earl of Ormond, Earl of Ossory, eldest son of Sir John Butler; nephew of ; grandson of the 9th Earl; succeeded on the 10th Earl's death in 1614. He was born in 1569. His right to the estates was traversed by Sir R. Preston, Baron Dingwall, afterwards Earl of Desmond, a favourite of King James I., who claimed them through his wife Elizabeth, sole daughter of the late Earl. Carte cites the documents upon which these claims were founded, and then proceeds: "Nothing is clearer than that according to these feoffments all the estate of Earl Thomas (except what he had given to his daughter at her marriage) ought to have descended immediately to Sir Walter Butler, Earl of Ormond. But King James interposed so warmly in the case, and wrote such a number of pressing letters to the Deputies and Council of Ireland … requiring them to stand by the Earl of Desmond, that the Earl of Ormond could never get into possession. Vast sums were spent in law; but the power of the Crown still prevented a decision. At last King James took upon himself to make an award, which Walter, Earl of Ormond conceiving to be unjust, refused to submit to, and was by the King's order taken up and committed to the Fleet prison. He remained in that prison for eight years before the death of King James, who, during that duress, seized on the liberties of the county palatine of Tipperary, and persecuted him in all the ways he could contrive, to the inconceivable detriment of the family." Recovering his liberty in 1625, he lived for a time in London, and then removing to Ireland, died at Carrick, 24th February 1632, aged about 63, and was buried at St. Canice's. In his youth he had distinguished himself in the Irish wars. A devout Catholic, he was styled "Walter of the Beads and Rosaries." He married a daughter of Viscount Mountgarret, and by her had two sons and nine daughters. His second son died young and without issue. His eldest son, Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles, father of the 12th Earl, was drowned off Skerries, near Holyhead, on a voyage to England, 15th December 1619. 

Butler, James, 12th Earl and Duke of Ormond, the "Great Duke," grandson of, eldest son of Thomas, Viscount Thurles, and Elizabeth Poyntz, was born at Clerkenwell, London, 19th October 1610, in the house of his grandfather, Sir John Poyntz. Shortly after his 55