Theobald FitzWalter, Chief Butler of Ireland

November 9, 2013 — 7 Comments

Theobald at rest

My 21st heat-grandfather was the first butler in Ireland.  This position granted him the prisage of wines.  His father had been the hereditary butler of England before him.  He lost his butler position for a couple of years because of irregularities as a sheriff.  He seems to be descended from William the Conqueror, which brings us to the Doomsday book, but there is much to investigate to know if that is true conclusively.  For one thing Henry II had so many oral bastards that he is the all time champ of British monarchs, I believe.

The ancestry of Theobald FitzWalter, the first Butler of Ireland, has been a fruitful theme for genealogists. No fewer than eight versions have been advanced at various times, including one that his mother was a sister of St. Thomas à Becket. This claim was put forward by the 4th Earl of Ormonde in 1444, when he procured an Act of Parliament declaring his descent from the martyred Archbishop. Despite this legislative authority, doubt has been cast on the claim by irreverent modern genealogists, who have pointed out that if the legend were true, the Butler ancestress would have been a grandmother at the age of eight! But while the descent from Agnes à Becket must be rejected, there is reason to believe that she was closely connected by marriage to Theobald FitzWalter, which may have given rise to the family tradition.
In 1937, the Hon. Patrick Butler (now lord Dunboyne) wrote a monograph in which he summarised the various versions of the early ancestry of the Butler family. This was followed in 1939 by Mr. T. Blake Butler’s Origin of the Butlers of Ireland. In this erudite and well-documented paper, Mr. Butler, showed that Theobald FitzWalter’s father, Hervey Walter (with whom the Ormonde pedigree commences in Burke’s Peerage) was grandson of Walter, who is mentioned in Doomsday Book as holding 27 manors in Norfolk and Suffolk, and who, Mr. Butler surmised, was connected with the Malet family. Further researchers made by him have confirmed this conjecture, and established that the above-mentioned Walter was in fact Walter de Caen, whom genealogists identify as a brother of William Malet, the great East Anglian landowner who fought at Hastings, and is said to have been the only companion of the Conqueror who was half English. It was perhaps for this reason that he was entrusted by William with the task of burying the body of King Harold on the seashore after the battle. As a result of Mr. Blake Butler’s researches, the house takes its place among the very few families in the Peerage who can trace their ancestry in the male line to the Norman Conquest.
L’envoi“The history of the illustrious house of Butler of Ormonde”, wrote Sir Bernard Burke, “is in point of fact, the history of Ireland from the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion. At the head of the great nobility of that country have ever stood the Butlers and the Geraldines, rivals in power and equals in renown.”
The families who are the subject of this memoir were cadet branches of that famous house, and they are not of course comparable in historical importance to the main line of the Ormonde earls. But the story unfolded in these pages shows that they too, played a part in historic events in Ireland which should not be lost in oblivion.

Theobald I FitzWalter, 1st Chief Butler of Eng & Ire, de Butler (Boteler) (1170 – 1206)

Theobald Walter or Theobald Butler or Theobald Walter le Boteler was the first Baron Butler and the first Chief Butler of Ireland. He also held the office of Butler of England and was the High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1194.[1] Theobald was the ancestor of the Butler family of Ireland. He was involved in the Irish campaigns of King Henry II of England and John of England. His eldest brother Hubert Walter became the Archbishop of Canterbury and justiciar and Lord Chancellor of England.

Family

Theobald was the son of Hervey Walter and his wife Maud de Valoignes, who was one of the daughters of Theobald de Valoignes.[2] Their children were Theobald, Hubert – future Chief Justiciar and Archbishop of Canterbury, Walter, Roger and Hamon. Theobald Walter and his brother Hubert were brought up their uncle Ranulf de Glanvill, the great justiciar of Henry II of England who had married his mother’s sister Bertha.

Career
On 25 April 1185, Prince John, in his new capacity as “Lord of Ireland” landed at Waterford and around this time granted the hereditory office of butler of Ireland to Theobald. Theobald’s father had been the hereditary holder of the office of butler of England. Some time after, King Henry II of England granted him the prisage of wines, to enable him, and his heirs, the better to support the dignity of that office. By this grant, he had two tons of wine out of every ship, which broke bulk in any trading port of Ireland, and was loaded with 20 tons of that commodity, and one ton from 9 to 20.[3] Theobald accompanied John on his progress through Munster and Leinster. At this time he was also granted a large section of the north-eastern part of the Kingdom of Limerick. The grant of five and a half cantreds was bounded by:

“…the borough of Killaloe and the half cantred of Trucheked Maleth in which it lay, and the cantreds of Elykarval, Elyochgardi, Euermond, Aros and Wedene, and Woedeneoccadelon and Wodeneoidernan.”

These are the modern baronies of Tullough (in County Clare), Clonlisk and Ballybritt (in County Offaly), Eliogarty, Ormond Upper, Ormond Lower, Owney and Arra (in North Tipperary), Owneybeg, Clanwilliam and Coonagh (in County Limerick).[

Theobald was active in the war that took place when Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair attempted to regain his throne after retiring to the monastery of Cong, as Theobald’s men were involved in the death of Donal Mór na Corra Mac Carthaigh during a parley in 1185 near Cork. In 1194 Theobald supported his brother during Hubert’s actions against Prince John, with Theobald receiving the surrender of John’s supporters in Lancaster. Theobald was rewarded with the office of sheriff of Lancaster, which he held until Christmas of 1198. He was again sheriff after John took the throne in 1199.

In early 1200, however, John deprived Theobald of all his offices and lands because of his irregularities as sheriff. His lands were not restored until January 1202.[9] A manuscript in the National Library of Ireland points to William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber as the agent of his restoration:

“Grant by William de Braosa, (senior) to Theobald Walter (le Botiller) the burgh of Kildelon (Killaloe) … the cantred of Elykaruel (the baronies of Clonlisk and Ballybrit, Co. Offaly), Eliogarty, Ormond, Ara and Oioney, etc. 1201.”

“Elykaruel” refers to the Gaelic tuath of “Ely O’Carroll”, which straddled the southern part of County Offaly and the northern part of Tipperary (at Ikerrin). The other cantreds named are probably the modern baronies of Eliogarty, Ormond Upper, Ormond Lower and Owney and Arra in North Tipperary.

Theobald founded the Abbey of Woney,[11] in the townland of Abington (Irish: Mainistir Uaithne, meaning “the monastery of Uaithne”), of which nothing now remains,[12] near the modern village of Murroe in County Limerick Ireland around 1200.[11] He also founded the Cockersand Abbey in Lancaster, Abbey of Nenagh in County Tipperary, and a monastic house at Arklow in County Wicklow.

Issue
Theobald married Maud le Vavasour, heiress of Robert le Vavasour, a baron of Yorkshire,[2] John Lodge in the Peerage of Ireland in 1789 gave the year as 1189, but on no apparent authority, as no other author follows him on this.  He died between 4 August 1205 and 14 February 1206, and was buried at Owney abbey. Their children were Theobald le Botiller, 2nd Chief Butler of Ireland and a daughter Maud who married Gerard de Prendergast who had an only daughter who married John de Cogan.