James Butler 1st Duke of Ormonde: Encyclopedia II - James Butler 1st Duke of Ormonde - Commander of Royalist Alliance

James Butler 1st Duke of Ormonde - Commander of Royalist Alliance

Ormonde attended King Charles during August and October 1647 at Hampton Court Palace, but in March 1648, in order to avoid arrest by the parliament, he joined the queen and the Prince of Wales at Paris. In September of the same year, the pope's nuncio having been expelled, and affairs otherwise looking favourable, he returned to Ireland to endeavour to unite all parties for the king. The Irish Confederates were now much more amenable to compromise, as 1647 had seen a series of military disasters for them at the hands of English Parliamentarian forces. On 17 January 1649 Ormonde concluded a peace with the rebels on the basis of the free exercise of their religion, on the execution of the king (30 January1649) he proclaimed Charles II, who made him a Knight of the Garter in September 1649. Ormonde was placed in command of the Irish Confederate's armies and also English Royalist troops who were landed in Ireland from France. However, despite controlling almost all of Ireland before August 1649, Ormonde was unable to prevent the conquest of Ireland by Cromwell in 1649-50. Ormonde tried to re-take Dublin in August 1649, but was routed at the battle of Rathmines. Subsequently, he tried halt Cromwell by holding a line of fortified towns across the country. However, the New Model Army took them one after the other, begining with the Siege of Drogheda in September 1649. Ormonde's lost the English and Protestant Royalist troops under his command when they mutinied and went over to Cormwell in May 1650. This left him with only the Irish catholic forces, who distrusted him greatly. Ormonde was ousted from his command in late 1650 and he returned to France in December 1650. In Cromwell's Act of Settlement 1652, all of Ormonde's lands in Irleand were confiscated and he was excepted from the pardon given to those Royalists who had surrendered by that date.

Ormonde, though desperately short of money, was in constant attendance on Charles II and the queen mother in Paris, and accompanied the former to Aix and Cologne when expelled from France by the terms of Mazarin's treaty with Cromwell in 1655. In 1658 he went disguised, and at great risk, on a secret mission into England to gain trustworthy intelligence as to the chances of a uprising. He attended the king at Fuenterrabia in 1659 and had an interview with Mazarin and was actively engaged in the secret transactions immediately preceding the Restoration.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Commander of Royalist Alliance", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki