Catherine (Butler) FitzGerald (abt. 1495 - 1553)

Born about 1495 in Kilkenny, Ireland

Ancestors

Wife of Richard (Le Poer) Power — married about 1520 (to before 1539) in Ireland

Wife of James FitzJohn Fitzgerald — married Feb 1549 (to 17 Mar 1552) in Ireland

Descendants

Died 17 Mar 1553 at about age 58 in Askeaton, County Limerick, Ireland

Biography

Lady Catherine (Catriona) Butler was notorious in the 1540s (between her 2 marriages) for her financial misdealings -- at which time she lived with her illegitimate elder half-brother Edmund Butler, Archbishop of Cashel. Edmund was equally famous for his financial ambitions (1540s) and his earlier power struggles (1530s) with their father Piers, 8th Earl of Ormond. For more details on Catherine, see Edmund's profile on Wikitree and in the Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Excerpted from History of Clonmel:^[1]

• "Among the robbers in high station not the least conspicuous was Edmund Butler, Archbishop of Cashel. An illegitimate son of Pierce, Earl of Ormond, he was educated at Oxford, and subsequently through family influence probably, was appointed prior of Athassel. From this was but a short step to the archbishopric of Cashel. But the mitre no more made the archbishop than the habit makes the monk, and Butler only differed from the rest of the family in his deeper shade of rapacity. Living with his notorious [half-]sister, the lady Catherine Power in Kilmeaden Castle, he levied blackmail on the traders of the Suir. The Clonmel jurors presented him and "his followers" for committing riot."

Marriages and Children:

• Her 1st marriage was to Richard Le Poer (Richard Power 1st Baron le Power and Coroghmore, son of Sir Piers Poer and Catherine FitzGerald ^[2]. Their children included:
  • Piers Power, 2nd Baron le Power and Coroghmore
  • John Power, 3rd Baron le Power and Coroghmore
  • Thomas Power
  • Katherine Power
  • Ellice Power
  • Margaret Power
  • Ellen Power

• Her 2nd marriage, much later in life (in her 50s) was as 3rd wife of James FitzJohn FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, with no issue.^[3][4][5]

Catherine died at Askeaton, Co. Limerick, on 17 March 1553.^[6]

Research Notes

Highlighting mistakes on ThePeerage, for the benefit of other researchers:

• Catherine Butler could not have been the mother (via different fathers) of both Ellice Power and Thomas FitzJames Fitzgerald, because Ellice and Thomas later married and had at least 5 children together.

• Furthermore, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for her husband James FItzThomas FitzGerald (14th Earl of Desmond) clarifies that the mother of Thomas FitzJames Fitzgerald was [James'] 1st wife (and great-niece) Joan Roche, whom James later repudiated. The change has been made on Joan Roche's profile.

Sources

1. ↑ William P. Burke, History of Clonmel (N. Harvey & Co., Waterford, Ireland, 1907), Chapter 3, p.28:
   • https://archive.org/details/historyclonmel00burkgoog/page/n44/mode/1up?view=theater
2. ↑ The Peerage : Lady Katherine Butler #206264 quoting : Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003 & Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. Burke's Irish Family Records. London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976.
3. ↑ Wikipedia : James FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond
4. ↑ The Peerage : Lady Katherine Butler #206264 quoting : Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003 & Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. Burke's Irish Family Records. London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976.
5. ↑ Why would Catherine marry an Earl of Desmond, their family's archrival? In 1541, there was a proposed alliance between the Ormonds and the Desmonds, in order to put aside "all manner of grudges, rancours, malices, displeasures" between the two families. Concretely, Catherine's brother James, 9th Earl of Ormond, "betrothed" his son Thomas (future 10th Earl of Ormond) to any present or future daughter of James FitzJohn FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, once Thomas reached the age of 24. In exchange, Desmond promised his son Gerald (the future 15th Earl) to any future Ormond daughter. Neither of these planned alliances came to fruition -- because in the meantime, the two Earls of Desmond had already married other members of the Ormond clan, thereby furthering the aims of the 1541 agreement:
   • In 1549, the 14th Earl of Desmond married Thomas' paternal aunt Catherine (the widow of Richard, 1st Baron le Poer)
   • In 1551, the future 15th Earl of Desmond married Thomas' mother Joan (already widowed twice)
   The original agreement of 1541 appears in the Calendar of Ormond Deeds, Vol. IV, item #253, pp.196-198:
   • https://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/digital/Calendar%20of%20Ormond%20Deeds%20Vol.%20IV.%201509-1547/Calendar%20of%20Ormond%20Deeds%20Vol.%20IV.%201509-1547.pdf
6. ↑ Wikipedia : James FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond

• The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. X, p. 626.

• Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, 1938 ed., by Sir Bernard Burke, p., 1909.

• The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, by George Edward Cokayne, Vol. X, p. 625-627.

• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1568.htm#i47127

• Her mother's tomb (Margaret FitzGerald) appears on the cover of Damien Duffy's book, Aristocratic Women in Ireland, 1450-1660: The Ormond Family, Power and Politics (Boydell & Brewer, 2021). The family is covered extensively in the section "Family, Marriage and Politics: The 6 Daughters of Margaret FitzGerald & Piers Butler", pp.105-138:
  • https://books.google.nl/books?id=5EE3EAAAQBAJ&dq