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 Oxford, where he resided till Lord Ossory's death in 1680. From his father he seems to have inherited some of the personal qualities which afterwards helped to make him one of the most popular men of his age. The young Earl of Ossory now resided with his grandfather in Ireland till the duke's return to England in 1682. After this various matches were proposed for him, and he was married 15 July 1682 to Anne, daughter of Lawrence, Lord Hyde, afterwards Earl of Rochester. Her premature death, 25 Jan. 1684, no doubt helped to determine him in April of the same year to betake himself to the siege of Luxemburg, of which he witnessed the surrender in June. In July he was again summoned home by his grandfather, whom he accompanied to Ireland, where he had been appointed colonel of a regiment of horse. The duke was, however, recalled after a few months, and on his way back had to leave his grandson, who had been seized with small-pox at sea, to recover at Knowsley. Although the new king James II had treated the Duke of Ormonde with studied disrespect, Lord Ossory was soon after his recovery appointed a lord of the bedchamber, and served in the army despatched against Monmouth in the west. In the same year, 3 Aug. 1685, he married his second wife, Mary, eldest surviving daughter of the first Duke of Beaufort, by whom he had a son, who died in infancy, and five daughters. The death of the Duke of Ormonde, 21 July 1688, raised his grandson to the dukedom at a very critical moment; for three weeks previously the seven bishops had been acquitted, and the invitation to William of Orange despatched. In order at once to secure a chief whose loyalty to the church of England could be absolutely depended upon, the convocation at Oxford without delay elected by a majority the young Duke of Ormonde successor to his grandfather in the chancellorship of the university. As it proved, they only escaped Jeffreys by a couple of hours (and cf. Appendix to Diary of Henry, earl of Clarendon (1828), ii. 489–92).

Ormonde, who had no reason for loving James II, and was connected by family ties with the United Provinces, pursued an independent course during the brief remainder of the reign. After the landing of the Prince of Orange he joined in the petition of 17 Nov. which called upon King James to summon a free parliament. The king's ungracious answer may have finally determined his course. Together with Prince George he supped at King James's table at Andover 25 Nov., and then with Lord Drumlanrig accompanied the prince in his ride to the quarters of the Prince of Orange. In the House of Lords Ormonde afterwards voted in the minority which approved the proposal of a regency; but he must have readily acquiesced in the decision actually arrived at, for at the coronation of William and Mary he acted as lord high constable, and declared defiance against all who should deny the title of the new sovereigns. In return, he was gratified with a garter, together with the offices of gentleman of the bedchamber and colonel of the second troop of horse guards. His support was above all valuable on account of the position held by him in Ireland; and it was in his house in London that the Irish proprietors met to discuss the situation and to request King William if possible to come to terms with Tyrconnel. When the decision of arms was resorted to, Ormonde showed no hesitation. His name had been included in the great Act of Attainder passed at Dublin in May 1689, and his vast Irish estates, of which the annual income was valued at 25,000l., had been declared confiscate to the crown. In the following year he served in King William's army at the head of his life guards, and was present at the battle of the Boyne. Immediately afterwards he was despatched with his uncle Lord Auverquerque to secure Dublin; and 19 July he had the satisfaction of entertaining King William in his ancestral castle at Kilkenny, which he had been sent forward to recover. In January 1691 he accompanied William to the Hague, and in 1692 took part, though not as active a part as he desired, in the battle of Steinkirk. At the battle of Landen, 29 July 1693, after nearly losing his life amidst the terrible carnage of the day, he was taken prisoner by the French; but after a brief captivity at Namur, where he found opportunities of munificence towards his fellow-prisoners, he was exchanged for the Duke of Berwick. His name headed the list of those specially excepted from the hope of any future pardon in the declaration issued by King James in April 1692, on the eve of the battle of La Hogue (, Life of James II, ii. 485).

He had thus been consistently loyal towards William III, though, in accordance with the traditions of his house, he was reckoned among the tories. A certain independence of action marked his conduct on the occasion of the debates about Fenwick's attainder in 1696 (, iv. 759–762); and he was in some measure identified with the popular sentiment of aversion to the foreigners in the service of the king. In 1699 William promoted his Dutch favourite