Sir George Hamilton, Comte Hamilton

George Hamilton, comte d'Hamilton (died 1676) was a 17th-century Irish soldier in English and French service and a courtier at Charles II's Whitehall.

At Whitehall he was a favourite of the King. He courted La belle Stuart and married Frances Jennings, the future Lady Tyrconnell, who was then a maid of honour of the Duchess of York. He appears in the Mémoires du comte de Grammont, written by his brother Anthony.

He began his military career as an officer in the Life Guards but was dismissed in an anti-Catholic purge in 1667, upon which he took French service and commanded an English and Irish regiment in the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678). He served under Turenne at the battles of Sinsheim and Entzheim in 1674. He also fought at Sasbach (1675) where Turenne was killed. He then covered the retreat at Altenheim. He was killed while serving under Luxembourg at the Col de Saverne in 1676. His final rank was Maréchal de camp.

Birth and origins

George was born about 1635 in Ulster, Ireland. He was one of the nine children and the second of the six sons of George Hamilton and his wife Mary Butler. His father was Scottish, the fourth son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn, and would in 1660 be created Baronet of Donalong and Nenagh. George's mother was Irish, a member of the Butler dynasty, an influential Old English family in southern Ireland. She was the third daughter of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles and a sister of the future 1st Duke of Ormond.

He appears below among his siblings as the second child:

1. James (c. 1630 – 1673), became ranger of Hyde Park and lost a leg in a sea-fight;
2. George (died 1676), the subject of this article;
3. Elizabeth (1641–1708), a famous beauty and married Philibert de Gramont;
4. Anthony (c. 1645 – 1719), fought for the Jacobites and wrote the Mémoires du comte de Grammont;
5. Thomas (died 1687), served in the Royal Navy and died in Boston, Massachusetts;
6. Richard (died 1717), fought for the Jacobites and was taken prisoner at the Boyne;
7. John (died 1691), fought for the Jacobites and fell at Aughrim;
8. Lucia (died 1676), married Sir Donough O'Brien, 1st Baronet; and
9. Margaret, married Mathew Forde of Seaforde.

He was probably born on the Dunnalong (or Donalong) estate, which was his father's share of the land granted to his grandfather Abercorn during the Plantation of Ulster.

Both his parents were Catholic, but some relatives, on his father's as on his mother's side, were Protestants. His grandfather, James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn, had been a Protestant, but his father and all his paternal uncles were raised as Catholics due to the influence of his paternal grandmother, Marion Boyd, a recusant. Some branches of the Hamilton family were Protestant, such as that of his father's second cousin Gustavus (1642–1723). His mother's family, the Butlers, were generally Catholic with the notable exception of the future 1st Duke of Ormond, his maternal uncle. His eldest brother, James, would turn Protestant when marrying Elizabeth Colepeper in 1661. His brother Thomas seems to have made the same choice as he became a captain in the Royal Navy.

Irish wars and first exile

His father, Sir George Hamilton, served in the Irish army and fought for the royalists under his uncle James Butler, Earl of Ormond, in the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1648) and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649-1653) until he followed Ormond into exile in 1651.

His uncle Claud had lived in the Castle of Strabane until his death in 1638. In 1641 Phelim O'Neill burned the Castle of Strabane during the Rebellion and took his aunt Jean, Claud's widow, prisoner.

He was about 11 on 17 September 1646, when Owen Roe O'Neil, who had taken over from Phelim as leader of the Confederate Ulster army, captured Roscrea Castle where he lived. The confederates spared him, his siblings, and his mother but put everybody else in the castle to the sword. Owen O'Neill was leading his army south after his victory over the Scottish Covenanters at Benburb in June and was now attacking the royalists as directed by Rinuccini, the papal nuncio.

His father was governor of Nenagh Castle, 30 kilometres (19 mi) west of Roscrea, in October 1650 when the Parliamentarian army under Henry Ireton attacked and captured the castle on the way back from the unsuccessful siege of Limerick to their winter quarters at Kilkenny.

In spring 1651, when he was about 16, his family followed Ormond into French exile. They first went to Caen where they were accommodated for some time by the Marchioness of Ormond. He then became a page to Charles II, and was knighted in due course. His father was employed in various missions for Ormond and the King and his mother found shelter in the convent of the Feuillantines in Paris, together with her sister Eleanor Butler, Lady Muskerry.

Restoration

At the Restoration, Georg Hamilton was accepted into the Life Guards that Charles II and the Duke of York established, early in 1660 in preparation of their return to London in June. He served in the King's troop, which was commanded by Charles Gerard as Captain and Colonel. George was an officer rather than a private.

In addition to his military duties, he attended the court at Whitehall where he, like his brothers James and Anthony, and his sister Elizabeth, were part of to the inner circle around the King. In January 1663 arrived in London Philibert, chevalier de Gramont, who had been exiled by Louis XIV because he had courted Mademoiselle Anne-Lucie de la Mothe-Houdancourt, on whom the King had set his eyes. De Gramont was welcome at the court as he came from the court of which Whitehall was the imitation. He had no difficulties to integrate as French was the predominant language at the English Restoration court.

At the court George met Elizabeth Wetenhall and fell in love with her, but she was married. He then courted Frances Stewart, called "La belle Stuart" or the "fair Stuart", a maid of honour of the Queen, Catherine of Braganza. De Gramont warned George about courting the fair Stuart as the King had set his eyes on her. Eventually, he met and courted Frances Jennings, a maid of honour of Anne Hyde, the Duchess of York.

Marriage and children

In 1665 he married Frances Jennings. The King granted the couple a pension of £500 per year. His marriage is the sixth of the seven marriages with which end the Memoirs of Count Grammont. The couple had three daughters:

1. Elizabeth (1667–1724), married Richard Parsons, 1st Viscount Rosse in 1685, and was mother of Richard Parsons, 1st Earl of Rosse;
2. Frances (died 1751), married Henry Dillon, 8th Viscount Dillon in 1687; and
3. Mary (1676–1736), married Nicholas Barnewall, 3rd Viscount Barnewall in 1688.

The eldest was born in England in 1667 and baptised on 21 March at St Margaret's, Westminster in an Anglican ceremony. The other two were born in France and were brought up as Catholics. All three married Irish viscounts and were therefore known as the "three Viscountesses". According to the conventions of the time, the eldest, being a Protestant, married a Protestant; the younger two, being Catholics, married Catholics.

Second exile and death

On 28 September 1667 in an increasingly anti-Catholic political climate, the King felt obliged to dismiss from his Life Guards the Catholics who refused to take the Oath of supremacy, and among them, Hamilton. The king arranged with Louis XIV that Hamilton would be made the captain-lieutenant of a company of gens d'armes under Louis's direct command as captain.

His wife followed him to France and converted to the Catholic religion. She stayed in Paris. In 1671 Thomas Dongan was appointed lieutenant-colonel in Hamilton's regiment. His brother Anthony also jouned him at the regiment at some time. During the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678) he fought with his regiment first under Turenne until 1675, then under his successor Condé and finally under Luxembourg.

In February 1674 England and the Netherlands concluded by the Treaty of Westminster (1674) which ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War. This peace did not affect George as he served under French command.

George fought under Turenne in the battles of Sinsheim in June 1674, and Entzheim in October against the Imperialists under the Duke von Bournonville. At Entzheim the Régiment d'Hamilton fought on the right wing. He and his brother Anthony were wounded. George's and Anthony's wounds and the voyage to England, described below, undertaken by the three brothers, caused them to miss Turenne's winter campaign 1674/1675, during which the French marched south and surprised the Imperialists by launching a surprise attack on Upper Alsace, which culminated in Turenne's victory at the Battle of Turckheim on 5 January 1675.

In March 1675 he visited England with his younger brothers Anthony and Richard, who had also taken French service. George returned to France from England, but Anthony and Richard continued to Ireland to recruit for the regiment. The recruits were picked up by French ships at Kinsale in April after a missed appointment at Dingle in March.

On 27 July 1675 George fought at Sasbach (or Salzbach), where Turenne was killed. The French army retreated pursued by the imperial army under Montecuccoli resulting in rearguard actions known as the Battle of Altenheim where the Irish excelled.. In this the French army was commanded by the comte Guy Aldonce de Durfort de Lorges and the marquis de Vaubrun, who was slain in the battle. George and his unit were part of the rearguard under Boufflers. After this the command passed to Condé and finally to Luxembourg. George was killed in June 1676 while commanding Luxembourg's rear-guard at the Col de Saverne where imperial troops under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine pursued the French who were retreating eastward to Saverne in lower Alsace.