Elizabeth Butler, Duchess of Ormond


Elizabeth Butler, Duchess of Ormond was an Irish noblewoman who brought her husband, James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, the Ormond lands that she inherited through her mother from her grandfather, Black Tom, the 10th Earl of Ormond.

Birth and origins

Elizabeth was born on 25 July 1615. She was the only child of Richard Preston and Elizabeth Butler. Her father's title was Lord Dingwall at the time she was born. He had been born a younger son of the Prestons of Whitehill, Scottish gentry of the Edinburgh area, who was a page at the court and became a favourite of King James VI of Scotland who made him a groom of his bedchamber, Lord Dingwall in Scotland and Earl of Desmond in Ireland. Elizabeth's mother, the Countess of Desmond, was the only surviving child of Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, called Black Tom, and the widow of Theobald Butler, 1st Viscount Butler of Tulleophelim. Her parents married in 1614 not long before her father's death on 22 November 1614.

Ormond Inheritance

Elizabeth's maternal grandfather, Black Tom, had settled most of his estate on his male heir, his nephew Walter, who succeeded him as Earl of Ormond in 1614 according to the normal rules of succession of his title. However, Black Tom was a Protestant, whereas his nephew Walter, called "of the rosary beads", was a devout Catholic. King James I considered this a setback for his Irish politics. He intervened to keep the Ormond lands in Protestant hands. He decided that most of the estate should go to Black Tom's only child, Elizabeth Butler, Elizabeth Preston's mother. The king furthermore ordained that Black Tom's daughter should marry his favourite Richard Preston, her father and a Protestant.
In 1628 Elizabeth Preston, aged 13, only child, became a rich heiress when both her parents died in quick succession. First, on 10 October, her mother died and was buried in Westminster Abbey, then on 28 October her father drowned during a passage between Dublin and Holyhead. His title as Earl of Desmond became extinct, but Elizabeth inherited his Scottish title as Lord Dingwall to become Baroness Dingwall suo jure as the title had been created for her father with remainder to heirs and assigns whatsoever. As the only child Elizabeth inherited all her parent's part of the Ormond estate. As she was a minor, she became a ward of the crown. Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland was appointed her guardian.

Marriage and children

At Christmas 1629, aged 14, she married her cousin, James Butler. This made her so Viscountess Thurles as he was at the time styled Viscount Thurles, which was the courtesy title of the heir apparent of the earls of Ormond.
They had eight sons, five of whom died in childhood, and two daughters. Five children survived into adulthood:
  1. Thomas, predeceased his father, but had a son who would become the 2nd Duke;
  2. Richard, became the first and last Earl of Arran of the 1662 creation and predeceased his father;
  3. Elizabeth, married Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield and had affairs with James Hamilton and the Duke of York;
  4. John, became the Earl of Gowran; and
  5. Mary, married William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire.
As a consequence of the marriage the Ormond estate, as her grandfather, the 10th Earl, had held it, was reunited. She and James went to live in the Ormonde Castle at Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, while her father-in-law, the Earl resided at Kilkenny Castle, the seat of the family. In 1633 Elizabeth became Countess of Ormond as her husband succeeded to the earldom. Lady Ormond, as she was now, moved into Kilkenny Castle.

Irish wars

On the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, while her husband took command of the king's army in Dublin, she was still living in the castle and stayed there even when Kilkenny became the capital of the Catholic Confederation. There she helped Protestant refugees, sheltering them in the castle until 1642 when she was allowed to rejoin her husband in Dublin. In the city she continued to help refugees, and helped to reinforce Dublin's defences during a siege in 1646.
She became Marchioness of Ormond on her husband's promotion on 30 August 1642. She followed him to England in 1647 after the surrender of Dublin to the parliamentary forces. As in 1648 he renewed his support for the royalist cause, Lady Ormond moved to Caen, France, where she arrived on 23 June 1648 with her children. From September 1648 to December 1650 her husband was again in Ireland where he tried to reunite the Irish in the fight against the Parliamentarians. The family was short of money. In 1652, Lady Ormond and her children returned to England to plead with Cromwell for income from the land she owned. She managed to obtain a pension of £2000 per year under the condition that she would not correspond with her husband. In 1655 she returned to Ireland accompanied by her younger children and lived at her home in Dunmore, County Kilkenny.

Restoration, later life, death, and timeline

Following the restoration of Charles II, Lady Ormond sent her husband political information from Ireland, and the couple were later reunited in England. In March 1661 she became Duchess of Ormond as her husband was made a duke. In 1662 she became Vicereine of Ireland as her husband was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, serving until 1669 and again from 1677 to 1685. Lady Ormond hosted entertainment and spent lavishly on restoring and improving the family estates, but her personal correspondence reveals that she was concerned about the debts of her husband and sons. Her eldest son Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory, suddenly died in 1680.|
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