Major-General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
George Douglas, 1st Earl of Dumbarton
KT (1635 – 20 March 1692) was a Scottish military officer who spent much of his career in the service of
King Louis XIV. In 1678, he returned to England; as a Catholic, he was a trusted servant of
King James II
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
and went into exile with him after the 1688
Glorious Revolution. He died at the palace of
St Germain-en-Laye in March, 1692.
Life
George Douglas, later the Earl of Dumbarton, was born in 1635, probably at
Douglas Castle
Douglas Castle was a stronghold of the Douglas (later Douglas-Home) family from medieval times to the 20th century. The first castle, erected in the 13th century, was destroyed and replaced several times until the 18th century when a large man ...
in
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland.
Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...
, one of 13 children of the
Marquess of Douglas
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman w ...
(ca 1589–1660) and his second wife, Lady Mary Gordon (ca 1600–1674). His elder brother was
William Douglas, later Duke of Hamilton, while half-brothers from the Marquess' first marriage included
Lord James Douglas
Lord James Douglas (1617–1645) was a Scottish nobleman and soldier.
He was born at Douglas Castle, Douglas, South Lanarkshire, the son of William Douglas, 1st Marquess of Douglas, and his wife Margaret Hamilton, a daughter of Claud Hamilton ...
and
Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus
Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, 1st Earl of Ormond (1609–1655) was the eldest son of William Douglas, 1st Marquis of Douglas, from whom he obtained the courtesy title of Earl of Angus.Vian in the DNB spells the title Earl of Ormonde. Lee in t ...
.
By the 1630s, the vast majority of Scots belonged to the Protestant
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
or kirk; Catholicism was confined to parts of the aristocracy, such as the Marquess and Lady Mary, and remote Gaelic-speaking areas of the Highlands. The
Covenanter government that ruled Scotland during the 1638-1651
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 B ...
ordered the Douglas children to be brought up as Protestants; to escape this, George was sent to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and he first appears in a safe conduct pass dated 1647 giving him permission to do so.
George and most of his immediate family remained Catholic, but his half-brother the Earl of Angus became a Protestant; his elder brother William did the same in order to marry the rich and Presbyterian Anne Hamilton.
He married Anne, daughter of George Wheatley and sister of the
Duke of Northumberland
Duke of Northumberland is a noble title that has been created three times in English and British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain. The current holder of this title is Ralph Percy, 12th Duke o ...
. They had one surviving son,
George Douglas, 2nd Earl of Dumbarton
Lieutenant colonel George Douglas, 2nd Earl of Dumbarton (1687–1749) was a Scottish people, Scottish nobleman and soldier.
Life
The Son of George Douglas, 1st Earl of Dumbarton and Anne Wheatley, Dumbarton was styled Lord Ettrick (more formally ...
(1687-1749).
Career
During the
Interregnum of 1649–1660 that followed the execution of Charles I in January 1649, many Royalists lived in exile and joined units in foreign service, like the Dutch
Scots Brigade
The Scots Brigade, also referred to as the Anglo-Dutch Brigade or the Anglo-Scots Brigade, was an infantry brigade of the Dutch States Army. First formed in 1586, by the late 17th century it usually comprised six infantry regiments, three recruit ...
. Such formations were common to all armies, with loyalties often based on religion or personal relationships;
Marshall Turenne
Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne (11 September 161127 July 1675), commonly known as Turenne , was a French general and one of only six Marshals to have been promoted Marshal General of France. The most illustrious member of the ...
(1611-1675), considered the greatest general of his time, was a French Protestant who served in the Dutch army from 1625 to 1635.
The
Régiment de Douglas was one such unit; formed in 1633 and recruited in Scotland, it had served with the French army ever since. In this period, regiments were the personal property of their Colonel and valuable financial assets; in 1645, ownership passed to the Earl of Angus, who remained in Scotland and assigned the Colonelcy to Dumbarton in 1653.
The complex politics of this period meant individuals like Dumbarton needed both political and military skills; during the 1648-1653
Fronde
The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law cour ...
or Civil War in France, as a foreign, Catholic-officered unit, his regiment was one of the few the young
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ver ...
could rely on. However, in the latter stages of the 1635-1659
Franco-Spanish War, France allied with the
English Commonwealth against Spain. Many exiled Royalists in France, including the future
James II, now changed sides and the regiment was assigned to garrison duty to prevent its defection.
In 1660,
Charles II was restored as King of Scotland and England, leading to an attempted coup in January 1661 by
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
radicals. Dumbarton's troops were sent to England but the revolt was quickly crushed and they returned to France, since the
Cavalier Parliament
The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...
refused to finance replacements for the disbanded
New Model Army; this would be an issue throughout Charles' reign.
Dumbarton stayed in France until 1678, apart from a short period during the 1664-67
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas and trade routes, whe ...
when his unit was based at
Chatham
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
dockyard. The diarist
Samuel Pepys met him in Rochester and recorded that "Here in the streets, I did hear the Scotch march beat by the drums before the soldiers, which is very odde." In 1667, the regiment was accused of looting after the
Medway Raid and ordered back to France; while awaiting transport, over 700 of the 1,500 men deserted. In October 1669, Dumbarton was so badly wounded in a
duel his death was reported in the newspapers.
Under the 1670
Treaty of Dover
The Treaty of Dover, also known as the Secret Treaty of Dover, was a treaty between England and France signed at Dover on 1 June 1670. It required that Charles II of England would convert to the Roman Catholic Church at some future date and th ...
, England agreed an alliance with France against the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
, including the supply of 6,000 troops for the French army. It also contained secret provisions which were not revealed until 1771, including the payment to Charles of £230,000 per year for these troops. The Brigade fought primarily in the
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
, to avoid potential clashes with English and Scots serving with the Dutch; a large part of it was provided by Dumbarton, whose regiment was expanded to 33 companies or 3,432 men.
However, the alliance with Catholic France was deeply unpopular and England withdrew from the war after the 1674
Treaty of Westminster. Anxious to keep his French subsidies, Charles encouraged Dumbarton and other members of the Brigade to remain in French service during the 1672-1678
Franco-Dutch War.
[Glozier, p.154-155.] Charles created him Earl of Dumbarton and Lord of Ettrick in 1675 but neither came with estates and Dumbarton complained they simply cost him large amounts of money; in 1677, Louis appointed him
Maréchal de camp or Lieutenant General in the French Army.
In 1678, concerns over the Catholic James succeeding Charles resulted in the
Popish Plot, in which over 100 people were falsely accused of conspiracy to murder Charles; 22 were executed and this was followed by the 1678-1681
Exclusion Crisis. At the same time, the end of the Franco-Dutch War led to Dumbarton's regiment being discharged from the French army in June 1678; in January 1679, it was reformed and listed on the English military establishment as the 'First Foot.' This was a temporary response to the unsettled political climate and to reduce Parliamentary scrutiny, the regiment was sent to Ireland in 1680, part of it also joining the
Tangier Garrison
The Tangier Garrison was the land force which oversaw the defence of English Tangier between 1661 and 1684 when it was evacuated. It was part of the English Army, the de facto standing army that Charles II established following the Restoration ...
.
As a Catholic military professional and long-time servant of Louis XIV, Dumbarton was viewed with great suspicion by the
Whigs; he petitioned Charles for compensation for financial losses arising from the 1678
Test Act
The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and nonconformists. The underlying principle was that only people taking communion in ...
, which barred him from Colonelcy of his regiment.
[Glozier, p.179.] In reality, nothing changed; the regiment was referred to as 'late Dumbartons' but the Colonelcy left unfilled and he was restored as Colonel in 1685.
Lacking a standing army, mercenary units like Dumbartons were a means of creating a pool of trained English and Scottish professionals; the most significant of these was the Dutch Scots Brigade, a mixture of English and Scottish regiments serving
William of Orange. While Charles theoretically controlled the appointment of officers, in reality it required negotiation and attempts to appoint Dumbarton as Brigade commander in 1680 were rejected by William.
[Glozier, p.192.]
James was sent to Edinburgh in 1681 as
Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland; over the next two years, he established a Scottish Court Party, a mixture of Catholics like the
Earl of Melfort and Dumbarton, plus supportive Protestants such as his brother, the Duke of Hamilton.
[Glozier, p.195.] In August 1681, the Scottish Parliament passed the Succession Act, which confirmed the divine right of kings, the rights of the natural heir 'regardless of religion,' the duty of all to swear allegiance to that king and the independence of the Scottish Crown. However, tolerance for personal Catholicism did not extend to Catholicism in general; the 1681 Scottish Test Act also required all public officials and MPs to swear unconditional loyalty to the King but with the crucial qualifier they 'promise to uphold the true Protestant religion.'
In 1683, rumours spread that Dumbarton was about to replace the Protestant
Tam Dalyell
Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 198 ...
as Commander of Chief in Scotland, which may explain why he was asked to lead a diplomatic mission to France in July.
[Glozier, p.197.] In 1684, Charles paid him £1,500 in compensation for losses incurred as a result of his Catholicism.
James became king in February 1685 and in June, Dumbarton helped put down
Argyll's Rising
Argyll's Rising, also known as Argyll's Rebellion, was an attempt in June 1685 to overthrow James II and VII. Led by Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, the rising was intended to tie down Royal forces in Scotland while a simultaneous reb ...
; he served briefly as
Commander-in-Chief, Scotland but was replaced in October by the Presbyterian
William Drummond, Viscount Strathallan.
However, in return for his support, he received the forfeited estates of
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1655 – September 1716) was a Scottish writer and politician, remembered as an advocate for the non-incorporation of Scotland, and an opponent of the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England. Fletcher became ...
; in 1687, he was a founder member of the
Order of the Thistle, along with his nephew
the Earl of Arran.
After James was deposed in the November 1688
Glorious Revolution, Dumbarton accompanied him into exile in France and died at
St Germain-en-Laye in March 1692; he was buried at the
Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, amongst other members of his family.
See also
*
Dumbarton's Drums
Dumbarton's Drums is a traditional Scottish song. The text was first printed in 1724 albeit with a different tune. The current tune was popularised by The Beers Family of Fox Hollow, New York in the 1960s.
The song exists in several variants. I ...
References
Sources
* Balfour, Paul; ''The Scots Peerage, Volume III;''
* Cannon, Richard; ''Historical Record of the First, or Royal Regiment of Foot: Containing an Account of the Origin of the Regiment in the Reign of King James VI of Subsequent Services to 1846;'' (2016 ed.);
* Childs, John; ''General Percy Kirke and the Later Stuart Army;'' (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014);
* Dalton, Charles; ''The Scots Army 1661-1688;'' (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1909);
* Davenport, Frances; ''European Treaties bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies;'' (1917)
* Glozier, Matthew; ''Scottish Soldiers in France in the Reign of the Sun King: Nursery for Men of Honour;'' (Brill, 2004);
* Harris, Tim; ''Scott
ormerly Crofts James, duke of Monmouth and first Duke of Buccleuch (1649–1685);'' (Oxford DNB);
* Harris, Tim, Taylor, Stephen, eds; ''The Final Crisis of the Stuart Monarchy;'' (Boydell & Brewer, 2015);
* Jackson, Clare; ''Restoration Scotland, 1660-1690: Royalist Politics, Religion and Ideas;'' (Boydell Press, 2003);
* Lynn, John; ''The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667-1714 (Modern Wars in Perspective);'' (Longman, 1996);
External links
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dumbarton, George Douglas, 01st Earl
1635 births
1692 deaths
Earls in the Peerage of Scotland
Earls of Dumbarton
Peers of Scotland created by Charles II
Knights of the Thistle
George Douglas, 01st Earl of Dumbarton
Scottish generals
People associated with West Dunbartonshire
French soldiers
Burials at Saint-Germain-des-Prés (abbey)
Royal Scots officers
Younger sons of marquesses