Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne

Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne (1595–1640) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman of the early seventeenth century. His short life was full of violence and disputes over the Dunboyne inheritance. His father was murdered when Edmond was a small child, and Edmond, as an adult, was forced to defend a lengthy lawsuit brought by his uncle, who sought to disinherit him. In 1627, he killed his cousin James Prendergast in a quarrel over a disputed inheritance. For this crime, he was tried by his peers for manslaughter, but was acquitted.

Background He was the only son of John Butler and Joan Fitzpatrick. His father, John Butler, was the eldest son and heir of James Butler, 2nd/12th Baron Dunboyne (d. 1624) and his first wife Margaret Fitzpatrick, only child of Barnaby Fitzpatrick, 2nd Baron Upper Ossory and his wife Joan Eustace, daughter of Rowland Eustace, 2nd Viscount Baltinglass. His mother, Joan Fitzpatrick, was the daughter of Barnaby's brother and heir, Florence Fitzpatrick, 3rd Baron Upper Ossory and his wife, Catherine O'More, daughter of Patrick O'More of Abbeyleix. Joan died a year or two after her son's birth in 1595. In 1602, his father was murdered by Richard Grace, as a result of a longstanding feud between the Graces and John Butler's mother's family, the Fitzpatricks, which had been going on since the 1570s. Wardship of the young boy was awarded to his paternal grandfather, the 2nd Baron Dunboyne.

Inheritance dispute The next heir to the Dunboyne barony after Edmond was his uncle, the 2nd Baron's younger son Pierce (whose grandson, also named Pierce, was later to inherit the title as the 5th Baron). In 1618, Pierce petitioned the Crown to declare his nephew illegitimate, on the grounds that while his parents had lived together as man and wife, his father was at all material times married to Eleanor, a daughter of Theobald Butler, 1st Baron Cahir.

He was arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle. King Charles I, who was generally willing to allow the law to take its course, even against members of the nobility, ordered that Dunboyne must stand trial, although on the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than murder. Since he had the privilege of peerage, i.e., the right to be tried by his peers, the Lord High Steward of Ireland set up a panel of fifteen peers to try him. The trial took place on 4 June 1628, and by fourteen votes to one, Lord Docwra dissenting, they acquitted him.

Last years

Lord Dunboyne sat in the Irish House of Lords in the Irish Parliament of 1634 and in that of 1639. He died on 17 March 1640 at his home, Kiltinan Castle, and was buried in the nearby town of Fethard.

Family He married firstly Margaret Butler, daughter of Thomas Butler, 2nd Baron Cahir and his second wife Ellice Fitzgerald; she died in 1632. They had at least eight children: James Butler, 4th/14th Baron Dunboyne (died 1662) Thomas, who fought in the Rebellion of 1641 Ellen, who married James Butler, and was the mother of Pierce, 2nd Viscount Ikerrin Eleanor, who married Edmond Butler, and was the mother of Pierce, 4th Baron Cahir John, Edmund, Richard and Margaret, who died young.

He married secondly his cousin Lady Ellen FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond and his second wife Eleanor Butler (who was Dunboyne's great-aunt, a daughter of the 1st Baron Dunboyne). Ellen was some years his senior and had already been twice married. She died at a great age in 1660.