Butler

The Butlers were a Hiberno-Norman family descended from Theobald Walter, Chief Butler of Ireland around 1185. Their name came from that hereditary office, and their arms bore three cups. Theobald received lands in eastern Munster; his descendant James became Earl of Ormond in 1328, and Kilkenny Castle became their principal seat.

The earls upheld English rule in Ireland. The fifth earl, a Lancastrian, was executed after the Yorkist victory at Towton in 1461; his brother recovered the title in 1476. Piers Butler was pressured into surrendering it to Thomas Boleyn in 1528 but recovered it in 1538.

James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde, led the royalists in the Irish Confederate Wars and twice served as Lord Lieutenant. His grandson, the second duke, was attainted as a Jacobite in 1715 and died in exile; the main line dwindled while junior branches kept many titles.