The surname Butler is Norman in origin, and once
meant 'wine steward'. The name was then extended to denote the chief
servant of a household and amongst the nobility a high ranking
officer concerned only nominally with the supply of wine. In
Ireland the most prominent Butler family is descended
from Theobald Fitzwalter who was created Chief Butler of Ireland
by Henry II. His descendants became the Earls and later the Dukes
of Ormond. Up to the end of the seventeenth century the Butlers
were one of the most powerful Anglo-Norman dynasties sharing
effective control of Ireland with their great rivals the
Fitzgeralds.
This comment system
requires you to be logged in through either a Disqus account
or an account you already have with Google, Twitter,
Facebook or Yahoo. In the event you don't have an account
with any of these companies then you can create an account
with Disqus. All comments are moderated so they won't
display until the moderator has approved your comment.