ORMONDE, JAMES BUTLER, 2ND DUKE OF (1665 1745), Irish statesman and soldier, son of Thomas, earl of Ossory, and grandson of the 1st duke, was born in Dublin on April 29, 1665, and was educated in France and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford. He commanded a regiment of horse in William's army at the battle of the Boyne. In 1691 he served on the continent under William, and after the accession of Anne he was placed in command of the land forces co-operating with Sir George Rooke in Spain. He succeeded Rochester as viceroy of Ireland in 1703, a post which he held till 1707.
On the dismissal of the duke of Marlborough in 1711, Ormonde was appointed captain-general in his place, and allowed himself to be made the tool of the Tory ministry, whose policy was to carry on the war in the Netherlands while giving secret orders to Ormonde to take no active part in supporting their allies under Prince Eugene. Though he had supported the revolution of 1688, Ormonde was traditionally a Tory, and Lord Bolingbroke was his political leader. During the last years of Queen Anne he almost certainly had Jacobite leanings, and corresponded with the duke of Berwick. He joined Bolingbroke and Oxford, however, in sign
ing the proclamation of King George I., by whom he was never theless deprived of the captain-generalship. In June 1715 he was impeached, and fled to France, where he for some time resided with Bolingbroke, and in 1716 his immense estates were confis cated to the crown by act of parliament, though by a subsequent act his brother, Charles Butler, earl of Arran, was enabled to re purchase them. After taking part in the Jacobite invasion in 1715, Ormonde settled in Spain, where he was in favour at court and enjoyed a pension from the crown. He died on Nov. 16, 1745, and was buried in Westminster abbey.
See Thomas Carte, Hist. of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde (6 vols., Oxford, 1851), which contains much information respecting the life of the second duke; Earl Stanhope, Hist. of England, comprising the Reign of Queen Anne until the Peace of Utrecht (187o) ; F. W. Wyon, Hist. of Great Britain during the Reign of Queen Anne (2 vols., 1876) ; William Coxe, Memoirs of Marlborough (3 vols., new edition, 1847).