General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

the Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...

Charles FitzRoy (5 September 1762 – 18 October 1831) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer.

Biography

The second son of General

Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton General Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton (25 June 1737 – 21 March 1797) was a British Army officer who served in the Seven Years' War and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1759 to 1780. The second son of Lord Augustus F ...

and Anne Warren, the daughter and co-heir of Admiral Sir Peter Warren and a descendant of the Schuyler family, the Van Cortlandt family, and the Delancey family, all from British North America.,Patrick Cracroft-Brennan
Southampton, Baron (GB, 1780)
in ''Cracroft's Peerage''. Retrieved 10 February 2013. FitzRoy entered the Army on 27 August 1779 with a commission as cornet in the 11th Dragoons, and in 1782 was made aide-de-camp to General Richard Whyte at Jersey. He was promoted to lieutenant in a newly raised corps, and on 26 March 1783 to the rank of captain-lieutenant in the 96th Regiment of Foot; when the regiment was reduced following the Peace of Paris the same year, he was placed on

half-pay Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Past usage United Kingdom In the En ...

. He was made a captain in the

66th Regiment of Foot The 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1756. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 49th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) (Hertfordshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Princess Char ...

in 1787, and lieutenant and captain in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards on 9 July 1788. In 1793 he served in Flanders, including at the siege of Valenciennes and the siege of Dunkirk. On 21 February 1794 he was made captain of a company in his regiment, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Army, and in May he returned to England.

John Philippart John Philippart (1784?–1874) was a British military writer. Born in London about 1784, Philippart was educated at a military academy, and was subsequently placed in the office of a Scottish solicitor. His inclinations, however, tended more to mi ...

, ''The Royal Military Calendar'' (1820), vol. II
p. 177
FitzRoy was granted

brevet rank In many of the world's military establishments, a brevet ( or ) was a warrant giving a commissioned officer a higher rank title as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct but may not confer the authority, precedence, or pay of real rank. ...

as colonel on 26 January 1797, and in 1799 commanded the grenadier company of the 1st Foot Guards during the expedition to Holland. On 5 January 1801 he was made an extra equerry to the King. He was later appointed aide-de-camp to the King, and major-general on 25 September 1803. He served on the staff of the Eastern District, and from 1804 of the Western District. On 25 March 1805 he was made colonel of the

25th Regiment of Foot Fifth is the Ordinal number (linguistics), ordinal form of the number 5, five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth ...

, on 27 August 1809 appointed regular equerry to the King, and on 25 July 1810 he was promoted lieutenant-general. He had resigned his post as an equerry by 11 October 1811, when he was replaced by

Brent Spencer General Sir Brent Spencer ( – 29 December 1828) was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army, seeing active service during the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Peninsular War he became General Wellesl ...

. On 21 September 1816 he married Eliza (née Barlow), widow of Clavering Savage; they had no children. He was promoted to general on 19 July 1821. Fitzroy is probably best known for his romance with

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

's favourite daughter Princess Amelia. Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom fell in love with Charles Fitzroy, desiring to marry him.Purdue, A.W. (2004). Retrieved 25 August 2011. (subscription required for online access) Her mother,

Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...

, was told of the affair by a servant, but turned a blind eye. It was hoped that such discretion would prevent the King from discovering the liaison, which may have risked sending him into one of the bouts of mental illness to which he was becoming increasingly prone. Though she never gave up hope of marrying him,Purdue, A.W. (2004). Retrieved 25 August 2011. (subscription required for online access) Amelia knew she could not legally marry FitzRoy due to the provisions of the Royal Marriages Act passed by her father's Parliament (at least until she reached the age of 25, after which she could receive permission by assent of the Privy Council). She would later tell her brother Frederick that she considered herself to be married, taking the initials A. F. R. (Amelia FitzRoy).Purdue, A.W. (2004). Retrieved 25 August 2011. (subscription required for online access) Upon the untimely death of Princess Amelia at the age of 27, on 2 November 1810, her will dictated that all of her possessions be given to Charles FitzRoy. 1

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FitzRoy, Charles 1762 births 1831 deaths Younger sons of barons British Army generals 11th Hussars officers Grenadier Guards officers King's Own Scottish Borderers officers British Army personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Schuyler family English people of Dutch descent