, at which Butler commanded the Queen's Troop. He obtained command of a cavalry regiment in
Ireland in 1683, and having received an appointment at court on the accession of
James II, he served against the
Duke of Monmouth at the
Battle of Sedgemoor in July 1685. Having succeeded his grandfather as
2nd Duke of Ormonde on 21 July 1688, he was appointed a
Knight of the Order of the Garter on 28 September 1688. In 1688 he also became
Chancellor of the University of Dublin and
Chancellor of the University of Oxford. In January and February 1689 he voted against the motion to put
William of Orange and
Mary on the throne and against the motion to declare that James II had abdicated it. Nevertheless, he subsequently joined the forces of William of Orange, by whom he was made colonel of the
Queen's Troop of Horse Guards on 20 April 1689. He accompanied William in his
Irish campaign, debarking with him in
Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690 and commanded this troop at the
Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. In February 1691 he became
Lord Lieutenant of Somerset. He served on the continent under William of Orange during the
Nine Years' War and, having been promoted to
major-general, he fought at the
Battle of Steenkerque in August 1692 and the
Battle of Landen in July 1693, where he was taken prisoner by the French and then exchanged for the
Duke of Berwick, James II's illegitimate son. He was promoted to
lieutenant-general in 1694. After the accession of
Queen Anne in March 1702, he became commander of the land forces co-operating with
Sir George Rooke in Spain, where he fought in the
Battle of Cádiz in August 1702 and the
Battle of Vigo Bay in October 1702 during the
War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). Having been made a
Privy Councillor, Ormonde succeeded
Lord Rochester as
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1703. In 1704 he leased and rebuilt a property that became known as
Ormonde Lodge in
Richmond outside
London. Following the dismissal of the
Duke of Marlborough, Ormonde was appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces and colonel of the
1st Regiment of Foot Guards on 4 January 1712 and
Captain-General on 26 February 1712. In the Irish Parliament Ormonde and the majority of peers supported the
Tory interest.
The Guiscard affair He played a dramatic role at the notorious meeting of the
Privy Council on 8 March 1711 when
Antoine de Guiscard, a French double agent who was being questioned about his treasonable activities, attempted to assassinate
Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford, against whom he had a personal grudge for drastically cutting his allowance, by stabbing him with a penknife (how he managed to get into the Council room with a weapon remains a mystery). Harley was wounded, but not seriously, due largely to the fact that he was wearing a heavy gold brocade
waistcoat, in which the knife got stuck. Several Councillors, including Ormonde, stabbed Guiscard in return. Guiscard implored Ormonde to finish the deed, but Ormonde replied that it was not for him to play the hangman. In any case, he had the sense to see that Guiscard must be kept alive at least long enough to be questioned, although as it turned out Guiscard's wounds were fatal and he died a week later.
The last campaign On 23 April 1712 he left
Harwich for
Rotterdam to lead the British troops taking part in the war. Once there he 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. Eugene had no intention of serving under Ormonde, and the Dutch, whose forces formed the core of the Allied army in the Low Countries and had gained a formidable reputation through decades of warfare against France, were likewise unwilling to place
their army under his command. They therefore supported Eugene, who was appointed commander in chief and took command of the larger of the two allied armies. Ormonde retained command of the British troops and most of the subsidy forces maintained in British and Dutch pay, while the Imperial and Dutch contingents served under Eugene. In July 1712 Ormonde advised Prince Eugene that he could no longer support the siege of
Quesnoy and that he was withdrawing the British troops from the action and instead intended to take possession of
Dunkirk. According to
Winston Churchill, "terrible scenes were witnessed of [British] men breaking their muskets, tearing their hair and pouring out blasphemies and curses against the Queen and the Ministry who could subject them to that ordeal." The Dutch were so exasperated at the withdrawal of the British troops that Nassau-Woudenberg and
Hompesch, two Dutch commanders, closed the towns of
Bouchain on
Douai to British access, despite the fact that they had plenty of stores and medical facilities available. Ormonde took possession of
Ghent and
Bruges as well as Dunkirk, in order to ensure his troops were adequately provided for. On 15 April 1713 he became
Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk. == Jacobite ==