Sir James Ormond
| Sir James Ormond | |
|---|---|
| Father | John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond |
| Mother | Reynalda O'Brien |
| Died | 17 July 1497 Kilkenny, Ireland |
Sir James Ormond alias Butler (died 17 July 1497) was the illegitimate son of John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond. He was Lord Treasurer of Ireland from 1492 to 1494, and helped to defend the Lordship of Ireland against the forces of Perkin Warbeck. He was allegedly murdered by Sir Piers Butler on 17 July 1497. Piers would later hold the title of Earl of Ormond.
James Ormond was the eldest of three illegitimate sons of John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond (d. 14 October 1476), by his mistress Reynalda O'Brien, daughter of Turlogh "The Brown" O'Brien, King of Thomond. In 1458 one of his younger brothers, John Ormond (d. 5 October 1503) married the heiress Joan Chaworth (d.1507), by whom he had three daughters. Nothing is known of his other younger brother, Edward Ormond, apart from his name.
He is thought to have been raised at court by his uncle, Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. In June 1486 he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn. In 1487 his uncle, the 7th Earl, appointed him as his deputy in Ireland after the death of Sir James Butler of Polestown; however the appointment was disputed by the latter's son, Sir Piers Butler.
In December 1491 Ormond was sent by King Henry VII of England in company with Thomas Garth and 200 soldiers to defend the interests of the Crown against the pretender Perkin Warbeck, and was appointed Governor of both Kilkenny and Tipperary. In June 1492, having become one of Henry VII's councillors, he succeeded Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, and he and Walter Fitzsimons, Archbishop of Dublin, were appointed jointly as governors of Ireland, to replace the Earl of Kildare. The Earl's dismissal 'stoked the old Butler–Fitzgerald feud' until, in the early summer of 1493, Ormond and Kildare were reconciled in St Patrick's Cathedral, where Ormond had sought refuge, by shaking hands 'through a hole cut in the chapter house door'.
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