Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
Vice-Admiral Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory, KG, PC, PC(I) (8 July 1634 – 30 July 1680) was the eldest son of the 1st Duke of Ormonde and an Irish politician born at Kilkenny.
His early years were spent in Ireland and France, and he became an accomplished athlete and by no means an indifferent scholar. Having come to London in 1652 he was rightly suspected of sympathizing with the exiled royalists, and in 1655 was put into prison by Oliver Cromwell; after his release about a year later he went to the Netherlands and married Emilia von Nassau, accompanying Charles II to England in 1660.
In 1661 Butler became a member of both the English and the Irish Houses of Commons, representing Bristol in the former and Dublin University in the latter House; and in 1662 was called to the Irish House of Lords under a writ of acceleration as earl of Ossory. (His father held the title "5th Earl of Ossory" as one of his subsidiary titles, which made Thomas Butler the 6th Earl of Ossory.) He held several military appointments, in 1665 was made lieutenant-general of the army in Ireland, and in 1666 was created an English peer as Lord Butler; but almost as soon as he appeared in the House of Lords he was imprisoned for two days for challenging the duke of Buckingham. He became a Lord of the Bedchamber to Charles II in 1660, a post he held until his death.
In 1665 a fortunate accident had allowed Ossory to take part in the Battle of Lowestoft against the Dutch, and in May 1672, being now in command of a ship, he fought against the same enemies in the Battle of Solebay, serving with great distinction on both occasions. The earl was partly responsible for this latter struggle, as in March 1672, before war was declared, he had attacked the Dutch Smyrna fleet, an action which he is said to have greatly regretted later in life. Whilst visiting France in 1672 he rejected the liberal offers made by Louis XIV to induce him to enter the service of France, and returning to England he added to his high reputation by his conduct during the Battle of Texel in August 1673. From 1677 until 1679, he served alongside his father as a Lord of the Admiralty.
The earl was intimate with William, prince of Orange, and in 1677 he joined the allied army in the Netherlands, commanding the British section and winning great fame at the siege of Mons in 1678. He acted as deputy for his father, who was lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and in parliament he defended Ormonde's Irish administration with great vigour. In 1680 he was appointed governor of the Tangier Garrison, but his death prevented him from taking up his new duties.
One of his most intimate friends was John Evelyn, who eulogizes him in his Diary. Ossory had eleven children, and his eldest son James became Duke of Ormonde in 1688.
[edit] References
- Thomas Carte, Life of James, duke of Ormonde (1851); and J Evelyn, Diary, edited by W Bray (1890)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Stephens Sir John Knight | Member of Parliament for Bristol with Sir John Knight 1661–1666 | Succeeded by Sir John Knight Sir Humphrey Hooke |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by The Duke of Ormonde(Lord Lieutenant) | Lord Deputy of Ireland 1668–1669 | Succeeded by The Lord Robartes(Lord Lieutenant) |
| Peerage of England | ||
| New creation | Baron Butler 1666–1680 | Succeeded by James Butler |
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by James Butler | Earl of Ossory(writ in acceleration)1662–1680 | Succeeded by James Butler |
Annotations
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From Grammont’s footnotes
Thomas Earl of Ossory, eldest son of the first, and father of the last Duke of Ormond, was born at Kilkenny, 8th July, 1634. At the age of twenty-one years he had so much distinguished himself, that Sir Robert Southwell then drew the following character of him: — “He is a young man with a very handsome face; a good head of hair; well set; very good-natured; rides the great horse very well; is a very good tennis-player, fencer, and dancer; understands music, and plays on the guitar and lute; speaks French elegantly; reads Italian fluently; is a good historian; and so well versed in romances, that if a gallery be full of pictures and hangings, he will tell the stories of all that are there described. He shuts up his door at eight o’clock in the evening, and studies till midnight: he is temperate, courteous, and excellent in all his behaviour.”
[Evelyn, who became acquainted with the Earl of Ossory at Paris in 1649-50, records the following amusing anecdote in his diary: — “May 7th, 1650. — I went with Sir Richard Browne’s lady and my wife, together with the Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Ossory, and his brother, to Vamber, a place near the City famous for butter; when coming homewards, being on foot, a quarrel arose between Lord Ossory and a man in a garden, who thrust Lord Ossory from the gate with uncivil language, on which our young gallants struck the fellow on the pate, and bid him ask pardon, which he did with much submission, and so we parted; but we were not gone far before we heard a noise behind us, and saw people coming with guns, swords, staves, and forks, and who followed flinging stones; on which we turned and were forced to engage, and with our swords, stones, and the help of our servants (one of whom had a pistol) made our retreat for near a quarter of a mile, when we took shelter in a house, where we were besieged, and at length forced to submit to be prisoners. Lord Hatton with some others were taken prisoners in the flight, and his lordship was confined under three locks, and as many doors, in this rude fellow’s master’s house, who pretended to be steward to Monsieur St. Germain, one of the Presidents of the Grand Chambre du Parlement, and a Canon of Notre Dame. Several of us were much hurt. One of our lacquies escaping to Paris, caused the bailiff of St. Germain to come with his guard and rescue us. Immediately afterwards came Monsieur St. Germain himself in great wrath on hearing that his housekeeper was assaulted; but when he saw the king’s officers, the gentlemen and noblemen, with his Majesty’s Resident, and understood the occasion, he was ashamed of the accident, requesting the fellow’s pardon, and desiring the ladies to accept their submission and a supper at his house.”And again, May 12th. — “I have often heard that gallant gentleman, my Lord Ossory, affirm solemnly that in all the conflicts he ever was in, at sea or on land (in the most desperate of which he had often been), he believed he was never in so much danger as when these people rose against us. He used to call it the battaile de Vambre, and remember it with a great deal of mirth as an adventure en cavalier.”]
His death was occasioned by a fever, 30th July, 1680, to the grief of his family and the public.
http://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/grammont/notes02.html see note 49