James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton
James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton KG (born June 19, 1606 in Hamilton Palace , † March 9, 1649 in London ) was a Scottish - English peer and Swedish general in the Thirty Years' War .
Life
James Hamilton was the eldest son of James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton from his marriage to Lady Anne Cunningham, daughter of the 7th Earl of Glencairn . As apparent marriage of his father, he carried the courtesy title Earl of Arran from 1609 . He was brought up with King Charles I and had the closest personal relationships with him. From 1621 he studied at Exeter College of Oxford University . When his father died in 1625, he inherited his Scottish nobility titles as 3rd Marquess of Hamilton , 5th Earl of Arran , 6th Lord Hamilton and 2nd Lord Aberbrothwick , as well as his English nobility titles as 2nd Earl of Cambridge and 2nd Baron Innerdale . He became a member of both the Scottish and the English Parliament . In 1628 he received the court office of Gentleman of the Bedchamber and between 1628 and 1644 he held the office of Master of the Horse . In 1630 he was accepted into the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion .
In 1631 he entered the service of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden with the rank of general . He brought five regiments of English and Highlanders , which he had recruited at his own expense but with the support of the king, and helped to achieve victory in the First Battle of Breitenfeld . At the end of 1631 / beginning of 1632 Hamilton stayed near Magdeburg . He took up quarters in the nearby village of Salbke . Several of the letters he wrote during this period have survived. After the Battle of Lützen in November 1632, the Swedes moved into southern Germany and after their march marked by “terrible atrocities under General Count Horn on the Upper Rhine and into the Breisgau (they…) invaded the Klettgau under the Scottish Count Hamilton. “Already on December 4, 1632 he had moved to Jestetten with 400 horsemen to carry out the order to plunder and devastate the Klettgau . Only by serious request from the abbot of the Rheinau monastery , Eberhard III. He was persuaded to withdraw from Bernhausen- Kempten and the cities of Zurich and Schaffhausen . In February 1633 the council and mayor of Zurich asked a Swedish commander and, through him, General Horn in vain to protect the Klettgau. The farmers obviously organized themselves, but in May 1633 French horsemen under Colonel Villefranche defeated a peasant contingent near Lottstetten and then plundered and pillaged the country. (See also: Sweden on the Upper Rhine )
In March 1633 he returned home and was accepted into both the English and the Scottish Privy Council . From 1638 to 1641 he held the office of Lord Chancellor of Scotland . In 1638 he tried unsuccessfully as royal commissioner to persuade the Church of Scotland to adopt the new prayer book of the Anglican Church of England . From 1642 he was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow . On April 12, 1643, King Charles I made him Duke of Hamilton , Marquess of Clydesdale , Earl of Arran and Cambridge and Lord Aven and Innerdale .
After the beginning of the English Civil War , he was arrested in December 1643 on false charges of high treason and only released in April 1646. In 1648 he gathered an army for Charles I in Scotland and invaded England, but was defeated at the Battle of Preston by the outnumbered forces of Oliver Cromwell . A few days after the battle, on August 25, 1648, he was trapped and captured in Uttoxeter by the parliamentary general John Lambert . On February 6, 1649 he was charged with attempted invasion of England, sentenced to death on March 6, 1649 and beheaded on March 9, 1649 in London.
Marriage and offspring
James was married since 1620 to Lady Margaret Fielding (1613-1638), the daughter of William Fielding, 1st Earl of Denbigh . He had three children with her:
- Charles Hamilton, Earl of Arran (* around 1630, † 1640);
- Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton (* 1632; † 1716) ⚭ William Douglas, 1st Earl of Selkirk (* 1634; † 1694);
- Lady Susannah Hamilton (* before 1638; † 1694) ⚭ John Kennedy, 7th Earl of Cassillis († 1701).
Since his only son had died before him, his brother William Hamilton inherited the title , and after he had fallen in 1651, his older daughter Anne inherited the title of Duket.
He also had an illegitimate child with Mary Livingstone, who in turn died in childbed.
- Marion Hamilton (* 1638), ⚭ Sir Thomas Hay, 1st Baronet († 1666/67).
literature
- George Edward Cokayne , Vicary Gibbs (Eds.): The Complete Peerage . Volume 6, Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester 2000, pp. 259-264.
Web links
- James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton on thepeerage.com
- Hamilton, Duke of (p. 1643) at Cracroft's Peerage
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Matt-Willmatt : Weilheim in the district of Waldshut. The Thirty-Year War. Verlag H. Zimmermann KG, Waldshut 1977, p. 119.
- ↑ Karl Friedrich Hoogenmüller, From the history of the community Lottstetten , 1981, p. 119 ff.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| New title created |
Duke of Hamilton 1643-1649 |
William Hamilton |
| James Hamilton |
Marquess of Hamilton 1625-1649 |
William Hamilton |
| James Hamilton |
Earl of Cambridge 1625-1649 |
William Hamilton |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hamilton, James, 1st Duke of Hamilton |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hamilton, James, Earl of Arran; Hamilton, James, 3rd Marquess of Hamilton |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish-English peer and Swedish general in the Thirty Years War |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 19, 1606 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamilton Palace |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 9, 1649 |
| Place of death | London |