Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond

Red Piers lost his earldom to Thomas Boleyn in 1528, regained it after Boleyn died in 1538, and then crossed into history as the father of James, 9th Earl of Ormond. He lived seventy years inside that rivalry, marrying Margaret FitzGerald to bridge two great Irish houses and raising children while the title slipped away and came back. County Kilkenny holds the end of that life: a man shaped by succession, pride and patience, dying in 1539 with his name still tangled in the fate of Ormond.