The Butlers, Rory O’More and Royal Connections
The history of the O’More family of Ireland becomes intertwined with one of the most powerful aristocratic dynasties of medieval Ireland: the Butlers of Ormond. Through the marriage of Rory O’More and Margaret Butler, the O’Mores were connected not only with the Earls of Ormond but with a much wider network of noble and royal families extending across Ireland, England and medieval Europe.
Rory O’More
Rory O’More (Ruaidhrí Ó Mórdha) belonged to the ancient Gaelic ruling family of Laois, traditionally known as the O’Mores of Leix.
The O’Mores were not an Anglo-Norman family. Their ancestry belonged to the older Gaelic political order of Ireland, and for centuries they exercised authority in the territory that became Queen’s County and is now County Laois.
During the sixteenth century this brought them increasingly into conflict with the expanding authority of the English Crown. The plantation of their lands and the creation of Queen’s County under Mary I formed part of the Tudor attempt to replace traditional Gaelic lordship with English administration and settlement.
Rory O’More therefore stands at an important historical junction: between the old Gaelic aristocracy of Ireland and the increasingly powerful Tudor state.
Margaret Butler
The connection with the great Anglo-Irish aristocracy came through Rory's marriage to Margaret Butler.
Margaret belonged to the extraordinary Butler dynasty, whose members had exercised political and territorial power in Ireland since the arrival of the Anglo-Normans.
Through her ancestry she was connected with the Butlers of Ormond, one of the greatest noble houses in Ireland.
Her grandfather was Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond (c.1467–1539), an immensely influential figure during the reign of Henry VIII.
Piers married Lady Margaret FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare.
This marriage united two of the most powerful Anglo-Irish dynasties of the period: the Butlers of Ormond and the FitzGeralds of Kildare.
For descendants of Rory O’More and Margaret Butler, therefore, the family tree opens into a remarkable network of medieval aristocratic ancestry.
The Butlers of Ormond
The Butler family's rise began following the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland.
Their hereditary office as Chief Butler of Ireland eventually gave the family its surname. Over succeeding generations they accumulated extensive estates and political influence, particularly in counties Kilkenny and Tipperary.
Their principal seat became Kilkenny Castle, and the head of the family eventually held the title Earl of Ormond.
The Butlers became one of the dominant families of medieval and early modern Ireland, producing soldiers, administrators, diplomats and royal advisers.
Their marriages were equally important. By marrying into the leading aristocratic houses of Britain and Ireland, the Butlers became connected with families whose ancestry reached directly into the medieval royal dynasties.
James Butler and Anne Welles
One of the particularly important marriages in the ancestry of the Ormond Butlers was that of:
James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond (c.1359–1405)
and
Anne Welles (1360–1397).
Anne was the daughter of John de Welles, 4th Baron Welles, and Maud de Ros.
The de Ros family was among the great baronial families of medieval England, and these marriages connected the Butler pedigree with an extensive network of English noble ancestry.
Further marriages in these lines ultimately lead into descendants of the medieval royal houses.
The Plantagenet Connection
The importance of these aristocratic marriages is that medieval noble families were highly interconnected.
The Butler ancestry intersects with families descended from the Plantagenet kings of England, including collateral lines descending from medieval princes and princesses.
This means that the ancestry associated with the Butler family cannot be understood simply as an Irish noble pedigree. It forms part of the much larger genealogical network of the medieval aristocracy of England, Ireland, Wales and continental Europe.
Once a documented pedigree reaches one of these royal-descended medieval families, the ancestry can often be traced much further back.
From the Plantagenets to the Norman Kings
The Plantagenet royal dynasty itself descended from earlier Norman and Angevin rulers.
Among the central figures in this ancestry are:
Henry II of England (1133–1189)
and his remarkable queen
Eleanor of Aquitaine (c.1122–1204).
Their ancestry linked the English Crown with some of the greatest dynasties of medieval France.
Through the Norman royal line it also reaches William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The pedigree consequently moves from the aristocratic families of Ireland into the interconnected royal houses of medieval Europe.
The Carolingian Connection
Many established medieval royal pedigrees eventually converge upon the Carolingian dynasty.
At the centre of that dynasty stands Charlemagne (c.742–814), King of the Franks and, from AD 800, Emperor in the West.
By the later Middle Ages, descendants of Charlemagne had married into so many European ruling families that numerous members of the medieval English and French aristocracy possessed Carolingian ancestry.
The significance of Charlemagne in a pedigree is therefore not that descent from him is uniquely unusual, but that a documented genealogical route to medieval royalty can potentially provide a bridge into some of the best-recorded dynastic genealogies in European history.
Gaelic and Anglo-Irish Worlds Meet
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the marriage between Rory O’More and Margaret Butler is not royal genealogy alone.
It represents the meeting of two very different political and cultural traditions.
On Rory's side stood the Gaelic lordship of the O’Mores, rooted in the indigenous political and kinship structures of Ireland.
On Margaret's side stood the Butler dynasty, descended from the Anglo-Norman aristocracy but deeply established in Ireland after several centuries of intermarriage and political involvement.
Their descendants therefore inherited ancestry from both worlds.
This was occurring precisely when those worlds were being transformed by Tudor expansion, plantation and the gradual destruction of the independent Gaelic lordships.
A Family Tree Within European History
The ancestry of Rory O’More and Margaret Butler demonstrates how a family tree can become something much more than a succession of names.
It passes through several layers of European history:
The O’Mores of Laois
↓
Rory O’More
married
Margaret Butler
↓
The Butlers of Ormond
↓
The FitzGeralds and other great medieval families
↓
The Anglo-Irish and English aristocracy
↓
Medieval royal dynasties
↓
Plantagenet, Norman and continental European royal ancestry
↓
the Carolingian world of Charlemagne
The marriage of Rory O’More and Margaret Butler therefore provides a particularly fascinating point in the family story.
On one side lies the ancient Gaelic aristocracy of Ireland; on the other, the Anglo-Norman and medieval European aristocratic world of the Butlers.
Their union brings those histories together.
It is a reminder that genealogy is not simply about discovering distinguished ancestors. At its most interesting, it reveals how individual families participated in the great political, cultural and social transformations of their age.