Earl of Melfort

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Coat of arms of the Earls of Melfort

Earl of Melfort was a hereditary British title in the Peerage of Scotland .

History of the title

Award and ostracism

The title was created on August 12, 1686 by Stuart King James VII for John Drummond, 1st Viscount of Melfort , the younger son of the 3rd Earl of Perth of the Drummond clan . Along with the earliest dignity , he was awarded the subordinate titles Viscount of Forth and Lord Drummond of Riccartoun, Castlemains and Gilstoun . Already on April 14, 1685, when King Jacob took office, he was given the subordinate titles Viscount of Melfort and Lord Drummond of Gillestoun .

The Earl and his older brother James Drummond , who later became the 4th Earl of Perth , were among the king's closest confidants and ruled Scotland on his behalf. Like the King, James and John Drummond had converted to Catholicism. For this reason, all of the above titles were given to John with the special addition that they were primarily inheritable to the male descendants from his Catholic second marriage, and only in the event of this line becoming extinct to the three Protestant sons from his first marriage.

When King Jacob was overthrown during the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and fled to France, the Drummond brothers remained loyal to him. John Drummond also fled and joined the exile king as one of the most important Jacobites . He was then declared an outlaw in England and Scotland in 1694 and ostracized by parliamentary resolution on July 2, 1695 ( Bill of Attainder ), which resulted in the loss of all his titles and lands.

Exile and Jacobite Duke of Melfort

In exile, however, King Jacob awarded him the English title of Baron Cleworth (also Baron Clewer ) on August 7, 1689 and the Scottish titles of Duke of Melfort , Marquess of Forth , Earl of Isla and Burtisland , Viscount of Rickerton and Lord on April 17, 1692 Castlemains and Galston . These Jacobite titles were considered illegal in Great Britain and therefore nonexistent. In France, on the other hand, John Drummond was recognized as Duc de Melfort in 1701 and treated with all the prerogatives of a duke (but without real estate in France being associated with it).

The title of Earl of Melfort was revoked for 158 years, as was the title of his brother, Earl of Perth. The descendants of the Drummond brothers were among the most important Jacobites, participated in the uprisings in Scotland and provided numerous military leaders in the French army. By marriage, the Duc de Melfort also obtained the other French titles Comte de Lussan and Baron de Valrose .

Restoring the title

After the Perth line died out in 1800, its titular claims fell to the Melfort line. John's great-great-grandson, George Drummond , 6th "Duke of Melfort" and 11th "Duke of Perth", had his French titles confirmed by a court in Paris in 1841. In the same year he sent a petition to the British Queen Victoria with the request for the restoration of the revoked Scottish peerage; this request was, after he was able to prove his parentage in 1848, finally granted by the Act of Parliament on June 28, 1853 and the titles for him as 5th Earl of Perth and 2nd Earl of Melfort restored. In part, the legal act is also understood as a retroactive lifting of the ostracism and George Drummond is counted accordingly as the 14th Earl of Perth and 6th Earl of Melfort.

When George Drummond left no male descendants on his death on February 28, 1902, the Earldom of Melfort and the associated subordinate titles eventually became extinct. The Earldom of Perth along with the associated subordinate title fell to his very distant male relative William Drummond, 9th Viscount of Strathallan .

List of Earls of Melfort (1686) and Jacobite "Dukes of Melfort" (1692)

Web links

literature

  • William Anderson: Melfort In: The Scottish Nation. Or The Last Names, Families, Literature, Honors, and Biographical History of the People of Scotland. Volume 3, 1863, p. 136 f. ( digitized on Google Books )