James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde 29 April 1665–16 November 1745
James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde Place of birth Dublin, Ireland, Kingdom of Great BritainAllegiance Kingdom of Great BritainService/branch British ArmyRank GeneralBattles/wars Battle of the Boyne
Battle of Cádiz
Battle of Vigo Bay
Jacobite rebellionAwards KG, KT

James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde KG, KT (April 29, 1665 – November 16, 1745), Irish statesman and soldier, son of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory and his wife Emilia von Nassau, Countess of Ossory, and grandson of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, was born in Dublin and was educated in France and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford. On the death of his father in 1680 he became Earl of Ossory by courtesy. He obtained command of a cavalry regiment in Ireland in 1684, and having received an appointment at court on the accession of James II, he served against the Duke of Monmouth (1685).

Having succeeded his grandfather as Duke of Ormonde in 1688, he joined William of Orange, by whom he was made colonel of a regiment of horse-guards, which he commanded at the Battle of the Boyne. In 1691 he served on the continent under William, and after the accession of Queen Anne he became commander of the land forces co-operating with Sir George Rooke in Spain, where he fought in the Battle of Cádiz and the Battle of Vigo Bay. Having been made a Privy Councillor, Ormonde succeeded Rochester as Viceroy of Ireland in 1703, a post which he held till 1707.

On the dismissal of the Duke of Marlborough in 1711, Ormonde was appointed Captain-General in his place, and allowed himself to be made the tool of the Tory ministry, whose policy was to carry on the war in the Netherlands while giving secret orders to Ormonde to take no active part in supporting their allies under Prince Eugene of Savoy.

Ormonde’s position as Captain-General made him a personage of much importance in the crisis brought about by the death of Queen Anne. Though he had supported the Glorious Revolution of 1688, he had traditional Tory sympathies, and politically followed Lord Bolingbroke. During the last years of Queen Anne, Ormonde almost certainly had Jacobite leanings, and corresponded with his cousin, Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye, who commanded a Jacobite regiment, and James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick. He joined Bolingbroke and Oxford, however, in signing the proclamation of King George I, by whom he was nevertheless deprived of the captain-generalship.

In June 1715 he was impeached, and fled to France, where he for some time resided with Bolingbroke, and in 1716 his immense estates were confiscated to the crown by act of parliament, though by a subsequent act his brother, Charles Butler, Earl of Arran, was enabled to repurchase them.

After taking part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, Ormonde settled in Spain, where he was in favour at court and enjoyed a pension from the crown. He even took part in a Spanish plan to invade England and put James Francis Edward Stuart on the British throne in 1719, but his fleet was disbanded by a storm near Galicia. Towards the end of his life he resided much at Avignon, where he was seen in 1733 by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Ormonde died on 16 November 1745, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

With little of his grandfather’s ability, and inferior to him in elevation of character, Ormonde was nevertheless one of the great figures of his time. Handsome, dignified, magnanimous and open-handed, and free from the meanness, treachery and venality of many of his leading contemporaries, he enjoyed a popularity which, with greater stability of purpose, might have enabled him to exercise a more commanding influence over events.

He was married to Lady Mary Somerset, Lady of the Bedchamber, daughter of Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort and Mary Capel.

He served as the eighth Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin between 1688 and 1715. His father was the sixth Chancellor.