the MacMorrogh Kavanagh; the
earldom had been long in the male line; all Irish sentiment was against the
feudal custom which would take it out of the family, and the two co-heirs
were widows of English knights. In 1522, styled "Sir Piers Butler
pretending himself to be earl of Ormonde," he was made chief governor of
Ireland as lord deputy, and on the 23rd of February 1527/8, following an
agreement with the co-heirs of the 7th earl, whereby the earldom of Ormonde
was declared to be at the king's disposal, he was created earl of Ossory.
But the Irish estates, declared forfeit to the crown in 1536 under the Act
of Absentees, were granted to him as "earl of Ossory and Ormonde." Although
the Boleyn earl of Ormonde and Wiltshire was still alive, there can be no
doubt that Piers Butler had a patent of the Ormonde earldom about the 22nd
of February 1537/8, from which date his successors must reckon their
peerage. His son and heir, James the Lame, who had been created Viscount
Thurles on the 2nd of January 1535/6, obtained an act of parliament in
1543/4 which, confirming the grant to his father of the earldom, gave him
the old "pre-eminence" of the ancient earldom of 1328.

Earl James was poisoned at a supper in Ely House in 1546, and Thomas the
Black Earl, his son and heir, was brought up at the English court,
professing the reformed religion. His sympathies were with the Irish,
although he stood staunchly for law and order, and for the great part of
his life he was wrestling with rebellion. His lands having been harried by
hit hereditary enemies the Desmond Geraldines, Elizabeth gave him his
revenge by appointing him in 1580 military governor of Munster, with a
commission to "banish and vanquish these cankered Desmonds," then in open
rebellion. In three months, by his own account, he had put to the sword 46
captains, 800 notorious traitors and 4000 others, and, after four years'
fighting, Gerald, earl of Desmond, a price on his head, was taken and
killed. Dying in 1614 without lawful issue, Thomas was succeeded by his
nephew Walter of Kilcash, who had fought beside him against the Burkes and
O'Mores. But Sir Robert Preston, afterwards created earl of Desmond,
claimed a great part of the Ormonde lands in right of his wife, the Black
Earl's daughter and heir. In spite of the loyal services of Earl Walter,
King James supported the claimant, and the earl, refusing to submit to a
royal award, was thrown into gaol, where he lay for ei