Richard Hamilton (officer)

Richard Hamilton PC (Ire) (c. 1649 – 1717) was an officer in the French and the Irish army. In France he fought in the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678) under Turenne and in the War of the Reunions (1683–1684) at the Siege of Luxembourg.

In Ireland he fought for James II during the Williamite War, rising to the rank of lieutenant-general. He defeated the Protestants of Ulster at the Break of Dromore and the Cladyford in 1689. Later that year he commanded during part of the Siege of Derry. In 1690 he fought bravely at the Battle of the Boyne, where he was taken prisoner. In 1692 he was exchanged for Lord Mountjoy and joined the exile court at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. Hamilton died in French exile.

Birth and origins
Richard was born about 1649, in Ireland, before his family fled to France in 1651 during the Cromwellian Conquest. He was the fifth son of George Hamilton and his wife Mary Butler. His father was Scottish, the fourth son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn. His father supported the Marquess of Ormond in the Irish Confederate War and the Cromwellian conquest and was a would-be baronet.

Richard's mother was half Irish and half English, the third daughter of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles and his English Catholic wife Elizabeth Poyntz. Viscount Thurles (courtesy title) predeceased his father, Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond, and therefore never succeeded to the earldom. The Butlers were Old English. Richard's mother also was a sister of James Butler, making her husband a brother-in-law of the lord lieutenant.

His place of birth and the date of his parents marriage are affected by errors caused by confusing his father with his granduncle, George Hamilton of Greenlaw and Roscrea. Both are called George, and both married a Mary Butler. Richard's place of birth probably is Nenagh, County Tipperary. Hamilton's parents had married in 1635, despite earlier dates reported in error due to the mistaken identity.

Richard was one of nine siblings. See James, George, Elizabeth, Anthony, and John. Richard's parents were both Catholic, and so was he.

Irish wars and first French exile
Richard's father was a soldier in the Irish army and fought for the royalists under his uncle James Butler, the Earl of Ormond, in the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1648) and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649-1653) until early in 1651, when his family followed Ormond into French exile. They went to Caen, Normandy, where they were accommodated for some time by Elizabeth Preston, the Marchioness of Ormond. Lady Ormond with her children left for England in August 1652, whereas Richard's mother moved to Paris, where she lived in the Convent of the Feuillantines.

Restoration
In May 1660 the Restoration brought Charles II on the English throne. Richard's father and his elder sons moved to the court at Whitehall. Charles II restored Donalong, Ulster, to Hamilton's father. About that year Charles allegedly created Hamilton's father baronet of Donalong and Nenagh, but the king, if he really went that far, refused to go further because the family was Catholic.

Richard's elder brothers, James and George, became courtiers at Whitehall. In 1661 the King arranged a Protestant marriage for James. Early in 1661 Richard's father also brought his wife and younger children to London, where they lived for some time all together in a house near Whitehall.

In French service
Wanting to be a soldier and unable to take the oath of supremacy, obligatory in the English army, Richard followed the example of his elder brothers George and Anthony and went into French service. In 1671 he was commissioned into the regiment that George had raised. This regiment fought for France in the Franco-Dutch war (1672–1678). He must have fought with George under Turenne in the battles of Sinsheim in June 1674, and Entzheim in October. At Entzheim his brothers George and Anthony were wounded.

In 1674 Richard visited England with his elder brothers George and Anthony. 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. Richard's voyage caused him to miss Turenne's winter campaign in which the French marched south and surprised the Germans in upper Alsace, beating them at Turckheim in January 1675.

In July 1675 Hamilton's regiment was at Sasbach, where George witnessed Turenne's death. At the retreat from Sasbach in August, the regiment suffered 450 casualties in the rearguard actions of the Battle of Altenheim. Louis XIV called in Condé, who stopped the German advance but retired at the end of the campaign. In the winter 1675–6 George, accompanied by either Richard or Anthony, again went recruiting and visited Lady Arran, wife of Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran, in January 1676. She called them "ye monsieurs". The regiment quartered that winter in Toul.

Luxembourg commanded on the Rhine in the campaign of 1676. In June George was killed in a rearguard action at the Zaberner Steige (Col de Saverne), where imperial troops under the Duke of Lorraine pursued the French who were retreating eastward to Zabern (Saverne) in lower Alsace. Thomas Dongan became colonel and Richard lieutenant-colonel. In 1678 Richard succeeded Thomas Dongan as the regiment's colonel. In August the Peace of Nijmegen ended the Franco-Dutch War. The regiment was disbanded in December. Richard joined a French regiment that he commanded for over six years. This seems to have been the Roussillon Regiment, according to a remark in a letter from Louvois to Avaux.

Either Richard or Anthony played a zephyr in the performance of Quinault's ballet the Triomphe de l'Amour, to music by Lully, on 21 January 1681 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye before Louis XIV. In the War of the Reunions (1683–1684), Richard commanded the Altmünster sector in the Siege of Luxembourg in 1684 under Maréchal de Créquy.

In March 1685 Hamilton was obliged to leave France after a bitter disagreement with Louvois, the minister of war, over the state of his regiment and a brawl with the over the Princess de Conti, Louis XIV's recently widowed daughter. Having sold his regiment a few days before, Hamilton took leave of the king on 16 March and left for England.

In Irish service
Hamilton left France and went to England, where James II on 20 June 1685 made him a colonel of a regiment of dragoons of the Irish Army. He was promoted brigadier in April 1686, making him the third most senior officer of the Irish Army after Tyrconnell and Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel. In May 1686 he was appointed to the privy council of Ireland. In February 1687 he accompanied Tyrconnell to Dublin to take office as lord lieutenant of Ireland.

He went to England with the Irish troops that Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, viceroy (Lord Lieutenant) of Ireland, sent to help James when the king's position became precarious in the build-up to the Glorious Revolution and was promoted to major-general on 12 November 1688. These troops should have helped to defend the English south against the imminent Dutch invasion. They caused the Irish Fright in December 1688. They surrendered to the Prince of Orange and were disbanded after James's flight. Richard Hamilton was jailed at the Tower of London.

William, the Prince of Orange, wanted to bring Ireland around to his side by proposing favourable terms to Tyrconnell. He thought to have found a suitable messenger in Hamilton. He freed him from the Tower and sent him to Ireland on parole. Hamilton landed at Ringsend in January 1689 and met Tyrconnell in Dublin. However, instead of trying to convince the viceroy to accept William's offer, Hamilton urged Tyrconnell to reject William's terms. A later investigation into his hehaviour found a witness who had observed Hamilton in a tavern in Ringsend near Dublin just after Hamilton had landed in Ireland. This witness reported that Hamilton had laughed loudly and had boasted how well he had deceived the Prince of Orange.

Tyrconnell promoted him to lieutenant-general. Early in March 1689 Tyrconnel sent him to Ulster at the head of a force of 2500 to put down the Protestant rebellion there. Dominic Sheldon commanded his cavalry. Hamilton routed Sir Arthur Rawdon's Protestant Army of the North in the battle called the Break of Dromore on 14 March 1689 in County Down and then moved northwards into County Antrim where he raided Antrim Castle and took Viscount Massereene's silverware and furniture worth £3000.

Hamilton then continued to Coleraine, which he reached on 27 March. In the meantime James II had landed in Ireland (on 12 March) and had sent Lieutenant-General Rosen, the French commander-in-chief, up north with an army. The two armies linked up near Strabane on the march to Derry. The commanders were both lieutenant-generals, but Rosen had been appointed Marshal of Ireland for the duration of the campaign. Nevertheless, Hamilton refused to submit to Rosen.

Lundy, the governor of Derry for William, tried to defend the so-called fords along the River Finn south of the city. On 15 April 1689 Hamilton attacked at Clady. The Duke of Berwick was with him. Rosen broke through the enemy's line of defence in a separate action near Lifford. Lundy fled to the city.

The siege of the town began on 18 April. James and Rosen returned to Dublin and left Lieutenant-General Jacques de Fontanges, comte de Maumont, in command. However, Maumont was killed in a sally on 21 April, and the command devolved to Hamilton. Rosen was sent back to Derry to take over from Hamilton in June. The siege was finally abandoned after 105 days on 31 July 1689. Hamilton retreated with the army southwards.

At the Battle of the Boyne, in July 1690, Hamilton commanded the centre of the Irish army, defending the ford at Oldbridge. Later in the battle he commanded the rearguard and led cavalry charges that delayed the pursuite. In the last of those he was wounded and taken prisoner. He was interrogated by William, who asked him whether his men would continue to fight. Hamilton answered "On my honour, Sir, I believe that they will". Thereupon William twice muttered "Your honour!", reminding him of his broken parole. Hamilton was detained as a prisoner of war for about two years, first in Dublin, then at Chester Castle, and at last at the Tower of London.

Last French exile
In April 1692 Hamilton was freed by being exchanged for Lord Mountjoy. He left for France where he went to Versailles to thank Louis XIV for his liberation.

He took service in King James's exile army. In 1692 he served as lieutenant-general under Marshal Bellefonds in the forces that assembled at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue and should have been carried over the Channel by the French Fleet to land on the Isle of Portland and march on London from there. However, that fleet was intercepted by the English and Dutch and defeated in several actions at Barfleur and La Hougue in May, after which the invasion had to be cancelled.

In 1696 he became James's master of the robes in addition to lieutenant-general. He lost his command when King James's force was dissolved after the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, in which France recognised William III as the rightful King of England. James II died in 1701 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and was succeeded by his son James Francis Edward Stuart, called James III or the Old Pretender. Louis XIV recognised him as James III of England.

In March 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), Hamilton was involved in an attempt to invade Scotland led by James III. He was among the about 6000 troops that were assembled at Dunkirk and which comprised six French regiments and the Irish Brigade. These troops were transported by a French fleet commanded by Admiral Claude de Forbin and consisting of 5 men-of-war, two transports and 20 frigates, many of which were Dunkirk privateers. They sailed from Dunkirk up to the Firth of Forth intending to land near Edinburgh, but a stronger British fleet under Admiral George Byng caught up with them. They had to abandon the landing, but Forbin outmaneuvered the British, escaped northwards, and brought the invasion force safely back to Dunkirk by sailing around Scotland and Ireland.

In 1713, Hamilton was implicated in a scandal in which he had plotted to usurp Lord Middleton's position as James's secretary of state. He was chased from James III's court and went to live with his niece Marie-Elisabeth de Gramont, daughter of his sister Elizabeth, Countess de Gramont, at Poussay in the Duchy of Lorraine, at that time still part of the Empire. Marie-Elisabeth was a canoness of the Chapter of Poussay, where she had been elected abbess in 1695. He died in Poussay in December 1717.