Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret

Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret (1578–1651) was the son of Edmund Butler, 2nd Viscount Mountgarret and Grany or Grizzel, daughter of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 1st Baron Upper Ossory. He is best known for his participation in the Irish Confederate Wars on behalf of the Irish Confederate Catholics.

His sister, Helen Butler, married her second cousin, Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond. Later, he was to clash politically with his grand-nephew James, the 12th Earl. His first wife was Margaret, eldest daughter of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, who was the most powerful Roman Catholic noble in the country at the time. He specially distinguished himself by his defence of the castles of Ballyragget and Cullihill. His estates were nevertheless confirmed to him on the death of his father in 1605, and he sat in the parliaments of 1613, 1615, and 1634.

His younger brother was John Butler.

By his first wife, Margaret, eldest daughter of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, he had three sons and six daughters, of whom

The Viscount was again twice married: to Thomasine (afterwards named Elizabeth), daughter of Sir William Andrews of Newport, and to Margaret, daughter of Richard Branthwaite, serjeant-at-law, and widow of Sir Thomas Spencer of Yarnton, Oxfordshire, but by neither of these marriages had he any issue.

In 1641 he placed himself in opposition to his powerful Anglican cousin - James, Earl (later the Duke) of Ormonde. At the commencement of hostilities in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, he appeared inclined to espouse the Government side, and was appointed joint Governor of Kilkenny with the earl. Fearing, however, that the rights and liberties of his Catholic brethren would be still further interfered with, he wrote an explanatory letter to the Earl and took possession of Kilkenny in the name of the Confederates. He endeavoured to protect the lives and property of the Protestants, without relaxing his efforts for the side he had espoused. He then detached parties to secure other adjacent towns, which was done with such success that in the space of a week all the fortresses in the counties of Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tipperary were in their power.

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