John Butler of Kilcash

John was born about 1537^[a] in southern Ireland. He was the third son of James Butler and his wife Joan Fitzgerald.^[1] His father was the 9th Earl of Ormond. His father's family, the Butler dynasty, was Old English and descended from Theobald Walter, who had been appointed Chief Butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177.^[2]

His mother was a daughter of James FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Desmond. Her family were the FitzGeralds of Desmond, a cadet branch of the Old English Geraldines, whose senior branch were the FitzGeralds of Kildare. John had six brothers, which are listed in his father's article.

On 26 May 1544 when he was still a little boy, his father, the 9th Earl of Ormond, granted him Kilcash as an appanage^[6] as is attested by his territorial designation of Kilcash. The existing tower house^[7] at Kilcash was probably built at that time.^[8]

Well he did so. Because only a bit more than a year later, on 28 October 1546, when John was about six, his father suddenly died in London having been poisoned during a banquet at Ely House,^[9] probably at the instigation of Anthony St Leger, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland and a political opponent. John's eldest brother Thomas succeeded as the 10th Earl.

John Butler of Kilcash married Katherine MacCarthy Reagh, the daughter of Cormac na Haoine MacCarthy Reagh, 10th Prince of Carbery^[10] and sister of Donal, later known as Donal of the Pipes, 17th Prince of Carbery.

John and Katherine had four children, two sons:

1. James Butler, died childless before September 1576;^[11]
2. Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond (1559–1633), known as "Walter of the Beads".

—and two daughters;

1. Joan, married Sir Oliver Shortall, knight.^[12]
2. Eleanor, married Thomas Prendergast; their son James Prendergast was killed in 1627 by Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne;^[13][14][15]

Much of Kilcash's life was taken up with a fierce feud his family had with the Earls of Desmond. The Desmonds were the Ormonds' neighbours on the western and southern sides. Despite their enmity, these two families were both more or less Gaelicized Old English and had intermarried many times; the last such marriage having been that of Kilcash's parents as his mother was a Desmond FitzGerald. The Desmond wars should also be seen in the wider picture of the Tudor conquest of Ireland. In 1560 his mother's intervention secured a peaceful outcome to a stand-off at Bohermore (known as "the battle that never was").

In 1563 Kilcash was badly wounded in a fight with the Desmonds and his recovery was deemed uncertain.^[16] He was unable to participate in the private Battle of Affane, which was fought on 8 February 1565, only a bit more than a month after his mother's death.^[17] His stepfather, Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond was taken prisoner in the battle^[18] after Kilcash's brother Edmund had shot him into the hip with his pistol.^[19] Lord Ormond (his eldest brother) and Lord Desmond were called to London and promised to keep the peace.