Butler, Thomas, 7th Earl of Ormond

The youngest (third) son of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond (1393-1452), and his first wife, (d. 1430). He had two older brothers, James Butler, the 5th Earl of Ormond , and John Butler, the 6th Earl of Ormond , and two sisters, Elizabeth Butler, the wife of John Talbot, the 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury , and Ann Butler (d. 1435), which was supposed to marry Thomas Fitzgerald, the 7th Earl of Desmond , but their marriage never took place ^[1] .

In May 1471, Thomas Butler fought on the side of the Lancaster House at the Battle of Tewkesbury , where he was captured by the Yorks . On August 21 of the same year, he fell under a general amnesty and was released from captivity.

In 1476 or 1477, after the death of his elder brother John Butler, the 6th Earl of Ormond , who was unmarried and left no legal offspring, Thomas Butler became the 7th Earl of Ormond, inheriting the patrimonial castles and estates in the province of Munster .

In November 1485, the English Parliament completely abolished the confiscation of the possessions of Count Ormond. Thomas Butler, being a peer of Ireland , sat in the Irish House of Lords. However, being a personal friend of King Henry VII Tudor , he received a call to the English parliament in November 1488 as the Chevalier Thomas Ormond de Rochford . In January of the same year, the title of Lord Ormond was created for him in the peership system of England . He was later sworn in as a member of the Privy Council of England. In 1497, Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, was the ambassador of the King of England to Burgundy.

He was also known as the “ Woolen Earl ” because of his tremendous wealth. In addition to his possessions in the Irish counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary, he owned 72 estates in England itself, which made him one of the wealthiest subjects in the English kingdom.

In 1509-1512, Count Ormond served as Lord Chamberlain Catherine of Aragon , wife of the new king of England, Henry VIII Tudor .

Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, was married twice. His first wife in 1445 was (1431 - November 13, 1485), the daughter and heiress of Sir (c. 1397–1431), and his second wife, Lady Ann Montague (d. 1457) , daughter of John Montague, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (c. 1350-1400). From his first marriage, Thomas Butler had two daughters who inherited Butler's estates in England:

• Lady Ann Butler (c. 1455 - June 5, 1533), 1st husband - Esq. Ambrose Cressacre, 2nd husband - Sir James St. Ledger (d. 1509), from a marriage with whom she had two sons: Sir George St. Ledger and Sir James St. Ledger.
• Lady Margaret Butler (c. 1460–1539/40), wife of Sir (1451–1505), from a marriage with whom she had six sons and five daughters, including: Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl Wiltshire , father of Queen Anne Boleyn , second wife of King Henry VIII Tudor .

For the second time in 1486, he married Laura Berkeley (1454-1501), the widow of (c. 1450-1485), and Sir Thomas Montgomery (d. 1495), daughter of Edward Berkeley from the castle Beverston (d. 1506), and his wife, Christian Holt (d. 1468), Richard Holt's second daughter. Earl Ormond had one daughter from his second wife:

• Lady Elizabeth Butler (d. 1510).

From 1505 to 1515, Count Ormond spent in England. He died on August 3, 1515, and was buried in the chapel of the St. Thomas Acres Hospital in London . Since he had no sons, the earl's title was inherited by his distant relative, Pierce Butler (1467-1539), who became the 8th Earl of Ormond and the 1st Earl of Ossori. Pierce was the son of Sir (died 1487) and the grandson of Sir (1420–1464), grandson of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond (about 1359-1405) from Gauran Castle .

• Burke, Bernard. A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire . - New. - London: Harrison, 1936 .-- P. 55.
• Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage, edited by HA Doubleday and Lord Howard de Walden. - London: St. Catherine Press, 1936. - Vol. IX. - P. 337–8.
• Horrox, Rosemary (2004), "Blount, Walter, first Baron Mountjoy (d. 1474)" , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.), Oxford University Press , DOI 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 2700  
• Nichols, Francis Morgan. The Hall of Lawford Hall . - London: Ellis and Elvery, 1891. - p. 192–3, 314.
• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. - 2nd. - Salt Lake City, 2011. - Vol. I. - ISBN 1449966373 .

• Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormonde
• Butler family