Walter Butler of Roscrea died on Christmas Day 1634 while fighting in southern Germany for Emperor Ferdinand II.
After leaving Tipperary in 1616 when his Ballynakill estate was seized by the Crown, he spent 18 years fighting for the Habsburg dynasty in what became known as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) –a conflict informed by religious divisions and one of the most devastating in European history.
Butler distinguished himself at the siege of Frankfurt an der Oder in April 1631 where, according to his regimental chaplain Thomas Carew, he bravely resisted the onslaught of Gustavus Adolphus’s Swedish troops until wounded and taken prisoner. He was imprisoned for six months until he eventually purchased his freedom.
His best-known feat occurred in 1634 when he foiled a plot by Imperial Field Marshal Albrecht von Wallenstein to betray the empire and seize the throne. Wallenstein told Butler of his grievances against the emperor, and offered him generous rewards for his support. Although Butler declared his willingness to serve Wallenstein, he was aware that imperial favour could be gained by killing him. He sent a message to an imperial agent that he was loyal to the emperor and was only following Wallenstein under coercion.
On the night of February 25th, 1634 during a banquet at Eger Castle (in modern-day Hungary), which Wallenstein was attending, Butler had his men infiltrate the castle and kill most of von Wallenstein’s closest allies before assassinating the traitorous marshal. Butler appeared at the imperial court in Vienna shortly afterwards to claim his reward: he was ennobled as an imperial count, appointed lord chamberlain, and endowed with the estate of Friedberg, Bavaria, one of the largest of Wallenstein's domains.
Walter Butler died at the Battle of Schorndorf 25 December 1634, having entrusted his remains to the keeping of the Irish Franciscan monastery in Prague. Since his only child died in infancy, his estate of Friedberg was claimed by his grand-nephew Thomas Butler of Clonmore, whose descendants, Butler zu Pardany und Erdötelek, still live in Bavaria.
According to an Irish Franciscan friar resident in the Empire at the time, Butler ‘has made our county and nation, otherwise quite unheard of here, most famous and well known.’
Sources:
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/the-story-of-walter-butler-of-roscrea-who-died-on-christmas-day-1.4124466
https://www.dib.ie/biography/butler-count-walter-a1301
John Hewitt Jellett was born in Cashel on this day in 1817.
He was appointed Provost of Trinity College Dublin in 1881 and was the only member of the board of TCD that supported the admission of women as students. He died in 1888 while still in office. His funeral was said to be the largest procession that ever left TCD.
Following his death, The Nation newspaper commented thatJellett ‘was a gentleman of brilliant parts, being a learned scholar and a veryprofound thinker. In character, he was gentle and affable but in him thesequalities were combined with a dignified bearing suitable to the exaltedposition which he occupied’.
