Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Andrew Thomas Blayney, 11th Baron Blayney (30 November 1770 – 8 April 1834) was an Anglo-Irish peer. He ruled the Blayney estate at

Castleblayney Castleblayney (; ) is a town in County Monaghan, Ireland. The town had a population of 3,607 as of the 2016 census. Castleblayney is near the border with County Armagh in Northern Ireland, and lies on the N2 road from Dublin to Derry and Let ...

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Cou ...

for fifty years from 1784 to 1834, and was one of the most illustrious soldiers ever to come from County Monaghan. As commanding officer of the 89th Regiment of Foot, 'Blayney's Bloodhounds' as they were called, he fought with distinction in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. He was taken prisoner at the

Battle of Fuengirola The Battle of Fuengirola (15 October 1810) was an engagement between a small Army of the Duchy of Warsaw garrison of a medieval Moorish fortress in Fuengirola against a much larger Anglo-Spanish expeditionary corps under Andrew Blayney. Blay ...

, when making a raid from Gibraltar into Spain against a small group of Polish soldiers a tenth his number, and was kept prisoner for four years by the French government. His

sabre A sabre ( French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...

is currently on exhibition in the

Czartoryski Museum The Princes Czartoryski Museum ( pl, Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich ) – often abbreviated to Czartoryski Museum – is a historic museum in Kraków, Poland, and one of the country's oldest museums. The initial collection was formed in 1796 in P ...

, in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. He wrote a two-volume account of his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars - ''Narrative of a Forced Journey through Spain and France as a Prisoner of War in the Years 1810 to 1814, by Major-General Lord Blayney (London, 1814)''. He was captured by one of the O'Callaghans of Cullaville, a colonel in the French army and a prominent United Irishman who escaped after 1798. It is said he insisted on Blayney being held to ransom for some of the

United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional refor ...

who were in British prisons. During Blayney's long incarceration, the 2nd Earl of Caledon looked after his financial, domestic, and political affairs, and on his return, Blayney was given a seat in parliament for Caledon's infamous "

rotten borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...

" of

Old Sarum Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the now ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest re ...

, Wiltshire. Lord Blayney died on 8 April 1834 and was succeeded by his son Cadwallader, the 12th and last lord.

References

External links

The Blayney of Castleblayney Papers - Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blayney, Andrew Blayney, 11th Baron 1770 births 1834 deaths People from County Monaghan Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Barons Blayney British Army lieutenant generals British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs who inherited peerages Napoleonic Wars prisoners of war held by France Royal Irish Fusiliers officers British prisoners of war (Napoleonic Wars)

See also

References

External links