House of Butler, Augmentation as Chief Butlers of Ireland

The Ormonde Coat of Arms Kilkenny Castle

Gules, three cover cups.

The origins on this are obscure, the cups or cup, may have been a badge of the Chief Butler. Theobald Walter’s seal was a “a very fair seal of green wax, the impression on the shield is a chief indented… and on either side a cup to denote the office of butler” (Carte p. 18). According to Dr. William Roberts, Ulster King of Arms, 1643-55, A Coat of Gules, three cover cups or, was granted to Theobald Walter by King Henry II, 1154-89, as an Augmentation Coat to commemorate services performed by his ancestors as cup bearers to former kings, the cup being held to be an emblem of the cup bearer rather than butler. As a heraldic device this was used by many families whose surname was Butler, English, Continental and Irish, most if not all deriving their name from an office of butler held in the household of a monarch or great magnate. Examples of the three cups can be found on the grave of Piers Rua Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, buried in St. Canice’s Cathedral and in glass in the window of the Hall of Gray’s Inn in London dating from the time of Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, in the 16th Century, and also in the widow of the Chinese Room of Kilkenny Castle today.

Peter Kenny

https://wappenwiki.org/index.php/House_of_Butler