The duke's first wife, Lady Anne Hyde, daughter of Viscount Hyde of Kenilworth, died in January 1685, leaving one daughter, Lady Mary Butler, who died in infancy.

The earl was also appointed a Knight of the Order of the Garter on 28 September that year.

A portrait of her with her son, the Earl of Ossory, was painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller[5] In 1715, because of his support for the Jacobite rising of 1715, her husband's titles were forfeited and he was obliged to go into exile.

It was eventually ruled that the attainder enacted by the Parliament, applied only to his titles in the Peerages of England and Scotland, not to his Irish titles, which were later restored on behalf of his brother, Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran.

Nevertheless, along with the duke and their son and daughters, the duchess was buried in the family vault at Westminster Abbey.