The young courtier
Ossory was a man of great public reputation to contemporaries. To Anthony Hamilton, Count Grammont, a relative through his mother, he was a man ‘of the most liberal sentiments, and of great probity.’
During his exile in Holland, Ossory met Lord Beverwaert, governor of Sluys, and went on to marry one of his daughters, despite his mother’s reservations.
At the 1661 general election Ossory was returned for Bristol, being allowed to take his seat even though it was the subject of a double return. Later in April, the coronation caused a dispute between Ossory and Jocelyn Percy, styled Lord Percy, the future 5th earl of Northumberland. Percy was able to rebut Ossory’s claim to precedence, because he was the eldest son of an English earl of an earlier creation than Ormond and because Ossory’s counter-claim as the eldest son of an Irish duke was deemed not relevant to the case.
When Ormond landed back in Ireland on 3 Sept. 1665, Ossory was relieved of his official governmental duties.
Meanwhile, Arlington’s ability as a political operator was put to work in facilitating the transfer of Ormond’s place in the bedchamber to Ossory.
On 14 Sept. 1666, a warrant was sent to the lord chancellor, Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, to issue a writ for Ossory to attend Parliament as a baron of England, being the son and heir apparent of Ormond.
In the Lords 1666-8
Ossory first sat on 18 Sept. 1666, the opening day of the 1666-7 session, being introduced by William Crofts, Baron Crofts, and Arlington. He attended on 79 days of the session, nearly 87 per cent of the total, and was named to four committees. One of Ossory’s roles in the Lords generally was as a spokesman for the Irish interest and in this session, specifically, as an opponent of the bill to prevent the importation of Irish cattle into England. On 29 Sept. Arthur Annesley, earl of Anglesey, wrote to Ormond that he had been in close consultations with Ossory concerning how best to oppose the bill.
On 29 Oct. 1666 the House took into consideration Buckingham’s complaint that Ossory had challenged him because of words said in the House. Ossory denied this, claiming other matters outside the House had occasioned the challenge. Buckingham then attempted to prove his account, which Ossory countered by attributing his actions to a quarrel of longer duration, occasioned, as Arlington reported, by ‘some sharp railleries, and unhandsome reflections the duke made upon his relations and called me for a witness, how often he had resented them, and resolved to fight him.’
Nevertheless, when proceedings on the Irish cattle bill resumed, Ossory again fell foul of the House. On 19 Nov. 1666, during the debate in committee on the bill, he attacked both Buckingham and Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baron Ashley, for which he was ordered to be admonished by the lord chancellor and forced to apologize. Ossory had accused Ashley of speaking like a member of the council of Oliver Cromwell‡, a telling debating point, but one for which Ashley was covered by the Act of Indemnity. Buckingham was merely told that something he had said was untrue.
On 29 Dec. 1666 Anglesey was able to inform Ormond that Buckingham’s latest quarrel, this time with Henry Pierrepont, marquess of Dorchester, had resulted in his imprisonment, which ‘makes my Lord of Ossory pass for the more peaceable man.’
Ossory’s search for an income sufficient to maintain his quality continued, while Ormond worried about him becoming involved in dangerous military exploits. On 16 Apr. 1667 Arlington reported to Ormond progress on a proposed purchase for Ossory of the office of master of the horse from Albemarle. Ormond had delegated the negotiations to Arlington, being adamant that he ensure that Ossory ‘go upon no such causeless adventures’ as may lose him ‘his money in a moment.’ The king refused Albemarle’s request for leave to deal with Ossory, but Ormond remained interested in securing the office for his son. He also wanted Ossory to ‘put a period to those excursions’ which Ormond viewed with apprehension.
On 20 July 1667 Ormond wrote further about his attempts to purchase the mastership of the horse for Ossory, and of Clarendon’s apparent opposition to Ossory commanding a ship. According to Ossory, however, Clarendon was supporting his pretensions to a military command. Ossory attended the Lords on 29 July, one of the two days on which Parliament sat before being prorogued. During August Ossory discovered that the king objected to his purchase of the mastership of the horse, a position different from that which Clarendon had led him to believe. Ossory also discussed with Charles II the possibility of serving Spain in Flanders but seems soon to have abandoned the idea, although at the end of November, the French ambassador reported that Ossory had ‘a treaty with them [the house of Austria], to command the corps of English infantry which will be sent to the aid of Flanders in the event of an alliance of England and Holland with Spain’, to force Louis to make peace.
In September 1667 Ossory’s wife left her husband in London and went to Ireland.
Ossory remained alert to the possibility of an attack on his father. On 13 Dec. 1667 he was able to reassure Ormond that Edward Seymour‡ was inclined to ascribe any miscarriages in the affairs of Ireland to others, rather than to the duke. Ossory also commented that Clarendon’s address and petition presented to the Lords on 3 Dec. was ‘so mean and extravagant’, that it was likely to prejudice other ministers who might also be accused, presumably including his father. On 21 Dec., two days after the adjournment of the session, Ossory informed his father that an indisposition would prevent his planned journey to Ireland but that his father should write to the king upon Irish affairs, chiefly the revenue and the charges on the Irish establishment. In January 1668 Ossory continued to inform Ormond about Irish business in London and the possible threats to his position. On 14 Jan. he informed him of the offer made by Charles Howard, styled viscount Andover, the future 2nd earl of Berkshire, to mediate between Ormond and Buckingham.
On 7 Feb. 1668, the king wrote a letter to Ormond appointing Ossory as lord deputy during his intended absence in England.
Now in England herself, Ossory’s mother discovered how extravagant he had been during his stay in London. On 22 Nov. 1668, she wrote rather scathingly to Ormond’s half-brother, George Mathew, that Ossory was ‘indebted to many tradesmen here, who complain of him to be a bad paymaster.’ Worse than that, neither Ossory nor his countess knew how much and to whom they owed money. She ended, despairingly, ‘I know not what course of life they can propose unto themselves if they run out of all compass, after all the help they have had from us both in Ireland and here.’
Military aspirations 1669-75
There had been much speculation over whether Ormond would be replaced as lord lieutenant in the winter of 1668-9, and on 3 Feb. 1669, Ormond, feeling the king’s confidence in him to be slipping away, rather revealingly counselled Ossory in Dublin not to let the impertinence or insolence of any person provoke him into losing his temper. By 13 Feb. Arlington was already discussing the implications of a change in the government of Ireland both in general and on Ossory, offering him residence at Goring House, where ‘methinks a little would suffice’ to live on. On 23 Feb., following his father’s confirmation of a change in the government of Ireland, Ossory again expressed a desire to serve abroad, possibly in command of the king’s regiments in Flanders. Ormond reminded him on 14 Mar. that he was not serving as the deputy of John Robartes, 2nd Baron Robartes, but as the king’s.
Ossory worried about his finances, perhaps constrained by Ormond’s loss of the lieutenancy. The duchess noted on 31 May 1669, he would be discontented at any retrenchment of his allowance in favour of his brother, Richard Butler, earl of Arran [I], and Baron Butler of Weston. On 12 June Ormond stressed that he was not obliged to pay him an annual allowance of £4,000 although the following month Ormond wrote that the duchess had satisfied him that he could charge his estate with £3,000 for Ossory’s allowance.
On 18 June 1669 the duchess wrote to her husband that she thought Ossory had been convinced that his scheme for a military command in Flanders was impracticable, but she felt that he wished to establish his family in London and go off himself into Italy, a plan of which she did not approve. On 20 June she added that Ossory seemed determined to leave Ireland, ‘where he might live so nobly’ whilst preserving both the duke’s and his own interest. She blamed Arlington for his attitude.
Ossory stayed in Ireland until the arrival of Robartes. He left Dublin in September 1669, attended by a vast array of nobility and gentry. He arrived in London in time to attend the opening day of the 1669 session, on 19 October.
Ossory clearly planned to stay in England, the duchess remarking in January 1670 that she feared he and his family ‘will not be able to live within the compass of their allowance, though he has gotten settled upon him since his coming over a thousand a year for his salary, as he is a gentleman of the bedchamber, which will be well paid him.’
When the parliamentary session resumed on 24 Oct. 1670, Ossory sat on 56 days, a little under 45 per cent of the total, and was named to two committees. Following the attempted kidnapping of Ormond on 6 Dec., Ossory accused Buckingham of being behind the plot, and in the presence of the king, vowed to shoot Buckingham if a violent end should befall his father.
Ossory continued his efforts to find gainful employment in one military field of action or another. In late August 1671, the French envoy, Colbert, reported to Louis XIV an approach by Ossory with an offer to serve in the armies of the French crown. Arlington, ‘his brother-in-law and intimate friend,’ as Colbert called him, supported his approach in case Buckingham declined to command the troops earmarked for French service.
With Ossory’s ambitions in the army seemingly thwarted, at the start of January 1672 Colbert reported that Ossory had taken a naval commission ‘preferring service at sea to that on land’. According to Arlington, Ossory had only taken command of a ship ‘because his father did not give him enough money to appear in France with as much brilliance as’ James Scott, duke of Monmouth.
Ossory attended the opening of the 1673 session on 4 Feb., was present on 35 days (84 per cent of the total) and was named to three committees. Again, he seemed under-employed, writing in April to Arthur Capell, earl of Essex, that he would probably visit Ireland in the summer because he was free of foreign engagements.
Ossory attended the adjournment on 20 Oct. 1673, when Parliament was prorogued. He then attended on each of the four days of the session held in October-November 1673, being named to two committees. Ossory was keen to protect his military reputation, complaining in a petition to the king in October 1673 about the omissions and misrepresentations made by vice-admiral Sir John Kempthorne‡, the result of a dispute about the conduct of the battle of the Texel.
Ossory attended on every day of the 1674 session which opened on 7 Jan., with the exception of 10 Feb., and was named to two committees. On 12 Jan., together with Francis Newport, 2nd Baron Newport, he introduced Heneage Finch, Baron Finch, into the House. When Arlington was impeached by the Commons and sought to defend himself, Ossory showed his support for his brother-in-law on 15 Jan. by accompanying him to the door of the House.
On 28 Feb. 1674 the prince of Orange wrote to Ossory of his joy at the conclusion of the peace and his hopes of seeing Ossory in Holland.
On 17 June 1674, Ormond, on the verge of departing to Ireland, wrote an illuminating letter to Sir Robert Southwell‡, which revealed the weakness of leaving Ossory as his chief protector in England, namely his lack of attention to detail. In July Ormond was also critical of Ossory’s continuing indebtedness.
The rejection by William of Orange of the French peace proposals in the autumn of 1674 led Charles II to send Arlington and Ossory on a mission to change his mind. Ossory was also to endeavour to get the prince to ask for the hand of Princess Mary, but was not to propose it formally. Ossory, Arlington and Edward Osborne‡, styled Viscount Latimer, departed on 10 November.
Final years 1675-80
On 30 Jan. 1675, while in the drawing room at Whitehall, Ossory was challenged by Henry Bulkeley‡, a younger son of Thomas Bulkeley, viscount Bulkeley [I], for which Bulkeley was committed to the Tower.
Ossory attended on 28 days of the session of April-June 1675, nearly 67 per cent of the total, and was named to two committees. He attended on 17 days of the session of October-November 1675, 81 per cent of the total, and was again named to two committees. On 10 Oct. Ossory received the proxy of Philip Herbert, 7th earl of Pembroke, which was vacated on 8 November. On 15 Nov. Ossory received his father’s proxy, which remained in force for the remainder of the session. On 20 Nov. he was one of the Lords who argued against the motion for an address to the king in support of the dissolution of Parliament. His name appeared on a list of those opposing the address.
On 4 Mar. 1676 the king granted Ossory £14,000 in consideration of his losses and charges in the royal service, with the money to be paid out of the Irish revenue over a period of 6 years.
The 1677-8 session began on 15 Feb. Ossory attended on 44 days of the first part of the session up to the adjournment on 16 Apr. 1677, nearly 90 per cent of the total, and was named to 16 committees. At around this date Ossory was marked as ‘twice vile’ on Shaftesbury’s list of lay peers. After the end of the session, Ossory was keen to facilitate his father’s accession to the lord lieutenancy of Ireland in place of Essex.
Two days after the marriage, on 6 Nov. 1677, Ormond sent a detailed letter to Ossory concerning the latter’s desire to serve as head of the English forces in the United Provinces. Following the prince of Orange’s departure on 19 Nov. Ossory spent part of the following day with Southwell getting to grips with the Irish revenue accounts sent over by Ormond.
On 1 Jan. 1678, Coventry informed Ormond that Ossory had received leave to visit Holland.
On 15 June 1678 Arran wrote that Ossory having lately come over he had consulted him about business, but he had left it to Arran to deal with. On 22 June Ormond wrote to Ossory expressing his reservations about his proposed service with the Dutch army, though accepting that ‘if a considerable body of the king’s subjects shall be kept on foot it may be proper enough for you to accept the command of them’, provided that the king and York approved and the expense did not leave him out of pocket. Meanwhile, Arran informed Ossory of discussions about Irish affairs in council ‘and therefore you should do well to be frequently there.’
Ossory attended on 17 days of the session that ran from May-July 1678, 39.5 per cent of the total, and was named to four committees. He made his first appearance on 14 June and his last on 8 July, the day on which he registered his proxy with York. On 10 July Ossory, ‘going into Holland to command the English forces’, took his leave of Evelyn. By mid July he was at Middelburg in Zealand. He saw action at the battle of Saint-Denis on 4-5 Aug., it being reported that ‘the English under Lord Ossory, who had the vanguard, have the honour of a great share of this victory’.
this noble Lord set up as zealously for his own religion as they for theirs. He brought over a discreet, learned and devout man as his chaplain ... He set up daily prayers in the field and it was a brave sight to see the duke of Ormond’s eldest son kneeling with his blue Garter in the dirt. He gave an excellent good example by coming himself to communion. And now within this fortnight he has gained this point, that not one papist or Irish (which hardly need be distinguished) shall be put into any vacancy as commands fall void.Bodl. Tanner, 39, f.97.
Ossory and Laurence Hyde (who was ambassador to The Hague) returned to England in September 1678. As Ormond wrote to the Irish lord chancellor, Michael Boyle, on 21 Sept., if Ossory stayed at court, ‘we shall have all the assistance he can give us’ in the struggle over another bill to confirm the Irish land settlement.
Ossory had returned by 20 Oct. 1678, and attended the Lords on the following day. In all he attended on 57 days of the October-December 1678 session of the Cavalier Parliament, nearly 92 per cent of the total, and was named to six committees. On 23 Oct., Ossory told his father that, as he put it, ‘upon my giving the House the occasion, falling out naturally upon a motion relating to Ireland, of your banishing priests and disarming Romanists’, Strafford had said that the Papists were ‘strangely insolent in several places of the kingdom, namely Waterford and Dublin’, claiming that ‘proclamations were pulled from the posts after they had been a second time set up; my reply was that what link-boys did (such I suppose those actors were if any) was not worth minding.’
Ossory was also fulfilling the role of his father’s advocate in Whitehall and at the treasury. With this in view Ormond suggested on 26 Oct. 1678 that ‘when you have a mind to be informed of the affairs of this place you must take pains to be it sufficiently, and not venture your interposition in them without full information; if you do you will be under great disadvantage, and some will be glad to find you so.’ Ormond recommended consulting Coventry, Southwell and Sir Cyril Wyche‡, for
I know you are not apt to undertake the reading of volumes, and of such consist what has been transmitted hence concerning the revenue, the bills, the Lord Ranelagh’s accounts, the difference betwixt the farmers, and the matters relating to the Plot. But your way will be to single out what you most affect to be perfect in, and from these persons you may have satisfaction.
On 29 Oct. Ossory wrote to Ormond that ‘we are so taken up with either the House or committees as I have scarce time to think of anything else,’ although he was keen to know whether his father would part with his office of lord steward and his views about the promised English dukedom.
As chamberlain to the queen, Ossory had a minor official role in the aftermath of the revelations of the Popish Plot. On 8 Nov. 1678 Ossory and Charles Gerard, Baron Gerard of Brandon, were ordered by the Lords to search the queen’s residence at Somerset House for arms, papers and suspicious persons. On 9 Nov. they reported their somewhat meagre findings to the House, whereupon several suspected persons were discharged. In a letter to his mother on 30 Nov., Ossory was able to note that he and John Egerton, 2nd earl of Bridgwater, had caught Titus Oates in ‘a manifest lie’, as signified in the report presented to the Lords on 29 Nov. of their visit to Somerset House in the company of Oates. That same letter recorded his feelings on the Lords’ debates of 29 Nov. where he stated that although he had been in actions of importance, he had never been more troubled than he was the previous day while the Lords were debating on whether both Houses should join in an address to the king to remove the queen from the king’s presence.
On 17 Dec. Ossory revealed the usefulness of his bedchamber post when he wrote to his father: ‘this morning I happened to discourse of many things with the king when we were both in bed, it being my turn to wait in the bed-chamber. I told him my intentions of visiting the command I had in your army when things here could permit, which he approved.’
Ossory made a short visit to Ireland early in 1679, but was back in Whitehall on 8 February.
Ossory attended on all but two days of the session of March-May 1679 (he missed 27 Mar. and 11 Apr.), just over 97 per cent of the total and was named to three committees. Ossory’s name appeared on four lists of those peers likely to support Danby in about March-April 1679. On one list Danby’s son, Peregrine Osborne, the future 2nd duke of Leeds, was deputed to lobby him. Another probably listed those peers that had voted against the early stages of the Danby attainder bill. On 4 Apr. he voted against the passage of the bill and on 14 Apr. he voted against agreeing with the Commons on the attainder bill. On 20 Mar. 1679 Ormond wrote to Ossory about the libels circulating against his conduct of the Irish government. He was deputed to ask the king to ensure that his servants provided Ormond with some protection, at least until he could be heard in person. Meanwhile, Ossory was doing his best to defend his father in the Lords. On 22 Mar. he reported the events on 20 Mar. at the committee examining the Plot, where Strafford had spoken of the dangerous condition of Ireland, an attack encouraged by George Savile, Viscount Halifax, and by Shaftesbury. Although not present at that meeting, Ossory noted that being named one of the committee, ‘I have attended, and will continue to do so both morning and evening.’
On 25 Mar. 1679 Shaftesbury made a speech dealing with Scotland and then Ireland, which ended with a motion that the Lords fix a day for taking into consideration the state of Ireland.
On 31 Mar. Ossory duly presented to the House an account of the government’s actions in Ireland. During the ensuing debate in a committee of the whole Ossory launched a defence of his father and an attack on Shaftesbury. After recounting his past services in Ireland and for the protestant cause, including rescuing the young Henry Stuart, duke of Gloucester, from the clutches of Queen Henrietta Maria, Ossory outlined what he had not done. The speech was in effect an attack on Shaftesbury: ‘he never advised the breaking of the triple league. He never advised the shutting up of the exchequer. He never advised the declaration for toleration. He never advised the falling out with the Dutch, and joining with France. He was not author of that most excellent position, Delenda est carthago, that the interest of England should be destroyed’.
Ossory was also active in attempting to defend his father informally, as he did when dining with Charles Powlett, 6th marquess of Winchester, on 25 Mar. 1679. On 12 Apr. Ossory was also able to assure Ormond that he had inserted in the London Gazette ‘those things done in Ireland in order to let the world see your care for preventing any mischief from the Irish’.
On 17 Apr. Ossory was one of seven peers deputed by the Lords to attend the king to ask him to order Ormond to put the laws into execution for disarming papists, and to help in arming the Protestants there so as to defend their religion, and for enforcing other anti-papist legislation. He was left out of the remodelled Privy Council instituted in April 1679, although, as Ossory put it, the king made ‘very kind excuses’ that he was not included in the new body.
Ossory was not free from concerns on the domestic front either. His daughter was having difficulties with her husband, Derby, to whose ‘brutality and ill-usage’, Ossory referred in a letter to his father. He continued to feel uneasy at the political situation. On 23 July, when the king held a conference with Arlington, Essex, Sunderland, Clarendon, and Halifax on the queen’s affairs, Ossory was excluded. He thought this resulted from the ‘king’s complaisance not to mingle me with company unto which I was not acceptable’, although Arlington affected to believe it was merely an oversight by William Chiffinch‡ in neglecting to call him as the king had asked for him to be present.
Ossory’s shaky finances were threatened by plans to retrench expenditure in the royal household. As he wrote on 28 June 1679: ‘the loss I receive is more than anybody’s of the court, having considerable salaries in the king’s and queen’s service.’ He was more sanguine on 5 July, when he wrote to his father of his hopes of being chosen to compliment the Spanish king on his marriage, remarking that ‘if about October things absolutely necessary does [sic] not require my being here, I should not be sorry to have a just cause of absence’ from Parliament. Ormond was sceptical that his plans would provide any financial reward and feared that not even his expenses would be covered given the increasingly frugal atmosphere at court. Arlington pitched in with his view that by carrying a jewel to the new Spanish queen, the king’s niece, Ossory would gain honour from such a task, and Ossory continued to keep this project in mind during the autumn, even writing in September that ‘my Spanish journey is resolved and I am promised money to support it.’
In July 1679 Ossory was relieved at the acquittal of Sir George Wakeham, the queen’s physician, believing that this would discourage attempts to bring charges against the queen.
On 21 Oct. 1679, Ossory, together with Feversham, accompanied York when he dined with the Artillerymen at Merchant Taylors’ Hall.
On 13 Dec. 1679 Ossory was reporting on the debates in the Irish committee of the Privy Council on the Irish bill of settlement, and the activities of Essex therein to undermine Ormond. Ossory had to admit that he had not read the act, but would ‘endeavour to inform myself of it by a breviate promised me.’ Similarly, Ossory was uneasy over the potential embarrassment his father might face over the promotion of Thomas Otway, bishop of Killala, confessing on 6 Jan. 1680, ‘I have a horror for a man in holy orders that has imbrued his hands in blood,’ a reference to the cleric ordering the death of an Irish tory captive in his house.
With Parliament prorogued, and some prominent politicians going into overt opposition, it seemed that Ossory’s political prospects at home were picking up. Humphrey Prideaux, the future dean of Norwich, wrote on 24 Feb. 1680 that Ossory ‘will now come in play again, for they say the king hath declared that he will have a court of his own.’
On 4 Apr. 1680 Ossory again wrote to Arran to say that he had no thoughts of parting with his Dutch employment. However, he was also keen to alert his brother to the manoeuvres taking place against their father, orchestrated by Shaftesbury and Essex, and backed up by Irish informants.
The coming to maturity of his eldest son, James Butler, the future 2nd duke of Ormond, presented Ossory with an opportunity to rescue his increasingly parlous finances by means of an advantageous marriage. Finances, too, may have played a part in his response, on 25 May, to Laurence Hyde’s information that both the king and York favoured Ossory to command the grenadier guards. He had declined, ‘thinking it was not decent for one of my quality that had served, to get by money a military employment, were I rich enough to do it.’
On 24 June 1680 it was reported that Ossory would command the expedition to Tangier.
One newsletter referred to Ossory being ‘very much lamented in court, being a person every way accomplished for valour and of unsuspected integrity both to his prince and country.’
Ossory’s body was laid temporarily and ‘very privately’ in the duke of Monmouth’s vault in Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey.
In March 1693, a draft of the patent for Ossory’s son, Charles Butler, earl of Arran [I], to be Baron Butler of Weston referred to Ossory as being ‘particularly known to us [the king], esteemed and loved by us as our friend, for his signal affection and services to us, wherefore we are the more pleased to see that those virtues which the world seemed to be deprived of by his untimely death, are revived and flourish in his sons.’