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Sir Edmund Butler of Cloughgrenan


Sir Edmund Butler (1534–1602) of Cloughgrenan (and the Dullough), was the second son of James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond and Lady Joan Fitzgerald. He was a Tudor rebel and scion of the noble House of Ormond.

In 1562, was in commission for presentation of the peace in County Carlow, during the Deputy's absence in the North against Shane O'Neill. He was knighted in 1567 and had a grant for the return of all Writs in the cantreds (baronies) of Oremond (Ormond Lower and Ormond Upper), Elyogerth (Eliogarty), and Elyocarrol (Ikerrin) in Tipperary.

During the Battle of Affane in 1565, Edmund wounded Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond in the right hip with a pistol-shot, cracking his thigh-bone and throwing him from his mount. With their leader fallen, the Geraldine troops were routed and the Butlers, led by Edmund's brother Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, pursued them to the riverbank killing about 300 Geraldines.

His father died in London in 1546 when Edmund was about 12 years of age. By his father's will, he received the Dullough - the western part of the barony of Idrone, which, with the Roscrea property, was considered to be worth £400 yearly. The 9th Earl had purchased the Dullogh from the Kavanaghs who had been in occupation of the land since before the Norman invasion of Ireland. Sir Peter Carew put forward his claims in right of his ancestors, the lords of Idrone. It was in defence of this property that Sir Edmund came into conflict with the Government.

Edmund, then heir to his brother, earned infamy when he led the Butler Revolt in 1569. Alongside his brothers Edward and Pierce, Edmund's rebellion was in direct response to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney who unjustly granted Edmund's lands in Idrone to the English adventurer Sir Peter Carew. Edmund and his brothers responded by raiding English settlements up and down the breadth of Leinster and were declared traitors by Sidney. This was all the more remarkable because the Butlers had long been famed for their incredible loyalty to the Crown of England.


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