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 expense a regiment of not less than fifteen companies (ten being the usual number in the imperial army). Very possibly, since Gustavus Adolphus is said to have cherished a deadly hatred against him, he was the Butler who, after having in 1627 shared in a defeat of the Poles near Danzig, in the following year contributed to the Polish success against the Swedes at Osterode. It was certainly he who early in 1631 opportunely brought up his regiment, which was largely officered by Irishmen, including his kinsman [q. v.], to Frankfort-on-the-Oder, in Silesia, where the imperialists under Tiefenbach were awaiting the approach of Gustavus Adolphus at the head of a much superior force. Before the arrival of the Swedes, James Butler, in order if possible to obtain more soldiers and supplies for Frankfort, proceeded to the camp of Tilly, who was marching upon Magdeburg. Butler came too late, but he appears to have taken part in the siege of Magdeburg, the result of which terribly avenged the fall of Frankfort. After the capture of Magdeburg and before the battle of Breitenfeld he appears to have rejoined Tiefenbach, who had invaded Lusatia with such forces as he could command, but whom the news of the great defeat of Tilly obliged to retreat into Bohemia, where he occupied Nimburg on the Elbe, November 1631. A Saxon army under Arnim having taken position on the other side of the river, Butler was with his Irish regiment, as it is now called, sent across a wooden bridge to fortify and hold the tête de pont on the enemy's side; and his defence, ending with the burning down of the bridge, was so vigorous that finally Arnim returned to Prague.

Not long afterwards, however, the Irish colonel, who had many adversaries or rivals, quitted the imperial service, and, making use of the liberty which he had reserved to himself, returned into Poland, where he fought against the Muscovites in the war which lasted from 1632 to 1634. He was at least in so far consistent in his choice of side, that he served against an enemy who on principle excluded mercenaries professing the faith of Rome (, Geschichte des russischen Reiches, iii. 54). After this nothing certain is known of him, for there seems no reason for accepting a conjecture which identifies him with a Butler said to have fallen at Ross in March 1642, fighting on the side of the Irish catholics under General Preston against the royal troops under the head of his house James Butler, earl (afterwards marquis and twelfth duke) of Ormonde.

 BUTLER, JAMES, twelfth and first  (1610–1688), was the eldest son of Thomas, Viscount Thurles, and Elizabeth Poyntz, and grandson of  of Kilcash, eleventh Earl of Ormonde in 1614 [q. v.] He was born on 19 Oct. 1610 at Clerkenwell. His pedigree reaches back to [q. v.], hereditary butler of Ireland. His earliest infancy was spent at Hatfield under the care of a carpenter's wife, during his parents' absence, but in 1613 they sent for him to Ireland. In 1619 his father was drowned at sea, and his mother then took him back to England and placed him at school under a Roman catholic tutor at Finchley. On his father's death he became, by some legal subtlety, a royal ward, although holding no lands in chief of the crown. The king, anxious to bring up the head of so powerful a family as a protestant, placed him at Lambeth under the tutelage of Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, where, however, he appears to have received a very meagre education, and where, the whole estate of his family being in sequestration, he was in great want of money, 40l. a year being all that was allowed him. His grandfather [see was released from the Fleet prison in 1625, and the youth, who was termed by courtesy Lord Thurles, went to reside with him in Drury Lane. Here he continued for two years in the enjoyment of town life, and in constant attendance on the court. Upon the occasion of the Duke of Buckingham's projected expedition to Rochelle he went to Portsmouth in the hope of being allowed to volunteer for service, but the duke refused permission on finding that he had not secured his grandfather's consent. Six months later he fell in love with his cousin, Elizabeth Preston, the sole daughter and heir of Richard, earl of Desmond, and Elizabeth Butler, the daughter of his grandfather's brother, Earl Thomas. She was herself a ward of the crown, or rather of the Earl of Holland, upon whom Charles I had bestowed the wardship. A marriage between them appeared a convenient way of putting an end to the lawsuits between the families, and of uniting the Ormonde and Desmond estates. The opportune deaths of the Duke of Buckingham, who had warmly espoused the cause of the Desmond family, and of the Earl of Desmond, the lad's guardian since 1624, removed the chief obstacles to this step; while Lord Holland's approval was purchased for 15,000l. Charles gave his 