Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/292

 BUTLER. 281 embraced the profession of arms, with every difficulty and danger attached to it, arising entirely from a spirit of enterprise and gallantry implanted in them by nature, and a desire of no other recompence for their services, than the just applause of their countrymen, and the enrolling their names on the banners of fame. He was the eldest son of the celebrated James, Duke of Ormonde, and was born in the castle of Kilkenny, on the 9th of July, 1634. After having received an excellent education both in England and France, he resided with his mother in London, where, by his talents and modesty, he gained the esteem of persons of all ranks, which excited the jealousy of Cromwell, that, on some pretence, he committed him to the Tower, where he was confined near eight months, when falling ill of a fever which threatened his life, Cromwell, with great difficulty, consented to his discharge; and his physicians being of opinion, that a change of air and climate might re-establish his health, he withdrew into Flanders, and from thence to Holland, where he married Lady Emilia Nassau, daughter of Lord Beserweest, a nobleman of the first rank. At the Restoration, he attended the king to England; and in 1662 was made lieutenant-general of horse, and succeeded the Earl of Montrath in his regiment of foot and troop of horse. On the 2end of June in the same year, he was called, by writ, to the house of lords in Ireland, and on the 16th of August, 1665, he was ap- pointed lieutenant-general of the army in that kingdom His entrance into the naval service was marked with that intrepidity and thorough contempt of danger, which was ever apparent in all his actions. On his return from Ireland, in May 1666, he paid a visit to the Earl of Arlington, at Euston, in Suffolk. The long engagement between the Duke of Albemarle and the Dutch, com- menced on the morning of the 1st of June, and the earl, informed of this event by the report of the cannon, repaired instantly to Harwich, where he embarked the same night with Sir Thomas Clifford, in search of the duke, under whom he intended to enrol himself as a