The Letters of the First Duchess of Ormonde

Elizabeth Butler, Naomi Mcareavey

ISBN 10: 1649590180 / ISBN 13: 9781649590183

Published by Iter Press, US, 2023

About this Item

This volume is the first to bring together the entire extant correspondence of one of the most significant women in early modern Ireland, Elizabeth Butler, first Duchess of Ormonde. She was the wife of James Butler, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormonde, who, as Ireland's only duke and three times its lord lieutenant, was a figure of considerable importance in seventeenth-century Ireland. But far from being overshadowed by her powerful husband, Butler was a person of significant power and influence in her own right. Descended from the tenth Earl of Ormonde, she brought a hefty portion of the Ormonde estate to the marriage. As Countess, Marchioness, then Duchess of Ormonde, as well as three times vicereine and a high-status courtier, she sat at the pinnacle of Irish and English society, unmatched by any other Irish woman of the period in terms of her wealth, social standing, and power. Her surviving correspondence reveals her importance within the Ormonde-Butler family and in the social, cultural, and political life of seventeenth-century Ireland. The volume comprises more than three hundred letters written by Ormonde to her husband and family, agents and servants, and friends and clients. Spanning six decades, these letters are meticulously transcribed, edited, and annotated, and the volume includes a substantial scholarly introduction, family trees, a glossary, and other resources.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781649590183

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Letters of the First Duchess of Ormonde
• Publisher: Iter Press, US
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1649590180
• ISBN 13: 9781649590183
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 862 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This volume is the first to bring together the entire extant correspondence of one of the most significant women in early modern Ireland, Elizabeth Butler, first Duchess of Ormonde. She was the wife of James Butler, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormonde, who, as Ireland’s only duke and three times its lord lieutenant, was a figure of considerable importance in seventeenth-century Ireland. But far from being overshadowed by her powerful husband, Butler was a person of significant power and influence in her own right. Descended from the tenth Earl of Ormonde, she brought a hefty portion of the Ormonde estate to the marriage. As Countess, Marchioness, then Duchess of Ormonde, as well as three times vicereine and a high-status courtier, she sat at the pinnacle of Irish and English society, unmatched by any other Irish woman of the period in terms of her wealth, social standing, and power. Her surviving correspondence reveals her importance within the Ormonde-Butler family and in the social, cultural, and political life of seventeenth-century Ireland.

The volume comprises more than three hundred letters written by Ormonde to her husband and family, agents and servants, and friends and clients. Spanning six decades, these letters are meticulously transcribed, edited, and annotated, and the volume includes a substantial scholarly introduction, family trees, a glossary, and other resources.
 

About the Authors

Elizabeth Butler, née Preston(1615–1684), was the wife of James Butler, Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Naomi McAreavey is a lecturer of Renaissance literature at University College Dublin. She is coeditor, with Julie Eckerle, of Women’s Life Writing and Early Modern Ireland, and, with Fionnuala Dillane and Emilie Pine, of The Body in Pain in Irish Literature and Culture.