James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond was the son of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond. He was called 'The White Earl' and was esteemed for his learning. He was the patron of the Irish literary work, 'The Book of the White Earl'. His career was marked by his long and bitter feud with the Talbot family.
His term as Lord Lieutenant was marked by his bitter feud with the Talbot family, headed by John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and his brother Richard, Archbishop of Dublin. The dispute reached its height in 1442 when Archbishop Talbot, supposedly acting on behalf of the Irish Parliament, presented the Privy Council with a long list of grievances against Ormonde, who was accused of being old and feeble, and of having lost most of his Irish estates through negligence; there were also vague references to treason and "other crimes which could not be named". The Council summoned Ormonde to account for his actions: he defended himself vigorously, and made detailed counter-charges against the Archbishop. The Council took no action against him. Instead it rebuked both sides to the dispute severely for disrupting the good governance of Ireland. The feud gradually cooled off, and friendly relations between the two families were finally established by the marriage of Ormonde's daughter Elizabeth to Shrewsbury's son and heir John.
Later years
Ormonde remained an influential figure in Irish politics, although his later years were troubled by fresh quarrels with the Earl of Desmond, with Giles Thorndon, the Treasurer of Ireland, with Thomas Fitzgerald, Prior of the Knights Hospitaller at Kilmainham, and with Richard Wogan, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Wogan in particular complained that he was no longer able to endure the burden of Ormonde's "heavy lordship" and asked to be allowed to deputise his duties. Relations between Ormonde and Prior Fitzgerald became so bad that in 1444 it was seriously suggested that they settle the matter through trial by combat, but King Henry VI intervened personally to persuade them to make peace. In 1440 Ormonde had a grant of the temporalities of the See of Cashel for ten years, following the death of the Archbishop of Cashel, Richard O'Hedian. He built the castles of Nenagh, Roscrea and Templemore in north County Tipperary and Tulleophelim in County Carlow. He gave the manor and advowson of Hickcote in Buckinghamshire to the Hospital of St Thomas of Acre in London, which was confirmed by the Parliament of England at the suit of his son. Since his father-in-law had no surviving son, Ormond, in right of his second wife Elizabeth, claimed possession of the Earldom of Kildare, and for some years was able to keep the legitimate heir out of his inheritance. He died in Dublin on 23 August 1452 on his return from an expedition against Connor O'Mulrian, and was buried in St. Mary's Abbey near Dublin.
He married secondly, by licence dated 18 July 1432, Elizabeth FitzGerald, widow of John Grey, 2nd Baron Grey of Codnor, and daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Earl of Kildare and his second wife Agnes Darcy, by whom he had no children.
