Major-General 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 and went into exile with him after the 1688 Glorious Revolution. He died at the palace of St Germain-en-Laye in March, 1692.
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Life
George Douglas, later the Earl of Dumbarton, was born in 1635, probably at Douglas Castle in Lanarkshire, one of 13 children of the Marquess of Douglas (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 and Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus.
By the 1630s, the vast majority of Scots belonged to the Protestant Church of Scotland 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 ordered the Douglas children to be brought up as Protestants; to escape this, George was sent to France 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-in-law of the Duke of Northumberland. They had one surviving son, George Douglas, 2nd Earl of Dumbarton (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. Such formations were common to all armies, with loyalties often based on religion or personal relationships; Marshall Turenne (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 or Civil War in France, as a foreign, Catholic-officered unit, his regiment was one of the few the young Louis XIV 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 radicals. Dumbarton's troops were sent to England but the revolt was quickly crushed and they returned to France, since the Cavalier Parliament 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 when his unit was based at Chatham 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.
