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 ...

George Macartney or MacCartney (c. 1660–1730) was an Irish-born professional soldier who went into exile to escape charges for his role in the 1712 Hamilton–Mohun Duel. He was later acquitted and restored to his military rank.

Personal details

George Macartney was born in 1660, elder son of "Black George" Macartney (1630–1702) who moved from Scotland to Belfast in the 1650s and became an extremely successful merchant. His mother Martha (died 1705) was a daughter of Sir John Davies, Attorney-General for Ireland from 1606 to 1619. His younger brother Isaac served as High Sheriff of Antrim and was the father of William Macartney MP. Sir Bernard Burke, '' A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland'' (1863) vol. II
p. 926
In later life, he married Anne Douglas; they had a number of children who predeceased them.

Career

Macartney was intended to follow his father into the family business but volunteered for the army during the Nine Years War, and served with much credit under the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene. After the War of the Spanish Succession began, he was appointed Colonel of a new regiment, McCartney's Regiment of Foot, which initially served under Marlborough in Flanders before being sent to Spain in 1706. He was wounded and captured at the

Battle of Almanza The Battle of Almansa took place on 25 April 1707, during the War of the Spanish Succession. It was fought between an army loyal to Philip V of Spain, Bourbon claimant to the Spanish throne, and one supporting his Habsburg rival, Archduke Charle ...

, where the regiment suffered heavy casualties; he was quickly exchanged and returned to the Low Countries in 1709, where he served as a volunteer at Malplaquet and subsequently made Major-general. Richard Cannon, ''Historical Record of the Sixth Regiment of Dragoon Guards, or the Carabineers'' (1839
p. 96
His regiment fought at the sieges of Douai and Béthune in 1710, after which he became

. Along with Marlborough and many other Whigs, Macartney was deprived of his positions following the Tory victory in the

1710 British general election The 1710 British general election produced a landslide victory for the Tories. The election came in the wake of the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, which had led to the collapse of the previous government led by Godolphin and the Whig Junto. ...

. In 1712, he acted as second to the Whig Lord Mohun, in his

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

with the Tory

Duke of Hamilton Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in April 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that peerage (except for the Dukedom of Rothesay held by the Sovereign's eldest son), and as such its holder is the premier peer of Sco ...

, both of whom were killed. It was then common practice for seconds to join the fight and MacCartney and the Duke's second, the unrelated Colonel Hamilton were arrested. Hamilton accused McCartney of having stabbed the Duke while lying on the ground and he escaped to Hanover, where he remained until 1714, when he returned with George I. Soon after this, he demanded to be tried for the offence which had been laid to his charge, and on the evidence of the keepers of Hyde Park, who had witnessed the duel throughout all its phases, was honourably acquitted. His former regiment having been disbanded at the peace of Utrecht, he was appointed to the colonelcy of the Royal North British Fusiliers on 12 July 1716,Cannon, ''Historical Record of the Twenty-First Regiment, or the Royal North British Fusiliers'' (1849
p. 56
from which he was removed on 9 March 1727 to the Carabiniers, and he retained this appointment until his death on 7 July 1730. At the time of his death, he was commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland and governor of Portsmouth.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macartney, George 1660s births 1730 deaths Military personnel from Belfast Irish people of Scottish descent Irish Protestants Commanders-in-Chief, Ireland British Army generals Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards) officers Scots Guards officers Royal Scots Fusiliers officers Scots Guards soldiers British military personnel of the Nine Years' War British military personnel of the War of the Spanish Succession British duellists People acquitted of murder