SCHOMBERG, Charles (1645-93)

Charles Schomberg, the youngest surviving son of the first duke of Schomberg, followed in his father’s footsteps both in his career as a professional military officer and in his adherence to the Protestant faith. Throughout his career he followed his father closely, accompanying and serving under him in his military campaigns in Portugal, Roussillon, Catalonia and Flanders. Kazner, i. 358-9. He also joined him in his flight from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, first to Brandenburg in 1685 and eventually to England, where he was naturalized an English subject with his father on 8 Apr. 1689. Letters of Denization and Naturalization (Huguenot Soc. Pub. xviii), 215. Shortly thereafter he returned to the continent and led the regiment of the Royal Scots in action on the Rhine against Louis XIV. Kazner, i. 359.

At his father’s death on 1 July 1690 Charles inherited his English titles. A special remainder in his father’s patent of creation gave these titles to Charles, his youngest son, first, and in default of him or his heirs, to the next youngest son, Meinhard. The eldest surviving son and heir to his father’s other titles, Frederick, had by this time become estranged from his father and brothers, having retired to private life after 1670 without having taken up the family’s military vocation. Schomberg père was apparently anxious to ensure that his new honours be passed on to his favoured younger sons, and especially to Charles, who had followed him so faithfully. Ibid. ii. 374-91.

The new duke of Schomberg did not obtain landed property and was dependent on the crown and the pension of £4,000 per year granted to his father for his income. HMC Lords, iii. 381, 387; iv. 169; HMC 13th Rep. vi. 166-9; Bodl. Carte 130, ff. 330-1. He first sat in the House on 15 Nov. 1690, but only attended the House three more times in that session which ended in January 1691. In late 1690, after Savoy had joined the grand alliance, Schomberg was appointed lieutenant-general to all of the allies’ forces which were to aid the duke of Savoy against France. Schomberg arrived in Savoy in June 1691 and continued to campaign there, often reluctantly, until he made a brief return to England in the winter of 1692-3. Add. 38014, ff. 1-6, 21-32. He reappeared in the House on 20 Dec. 1692 and attended infrequently until Parliament was prorogued on 14 Mar. 1693. On 3 Jan. he voted with the court to help to defeat, narrowly, the place bill. Thomas Bruce 2nd earl of Ailesbury, a supporter of the bill, commented in the margin of the division list he drew up for this extremely close vote that the bill had been ‘thrown out by two Dutch votes’ – referring to Schomberg (who was not Dutch) and Hans Willem Bentinck earl of Portland, both foreigners in the Lords closely associated with William III. It is likely that Schomberg’s renewed and concentrated attendance on the House at the turn of 1692-3 was a result of urging from Portland, acting as one of the court’s parliamentary managers, for the specific purpose of defeating this bill so offensive to the court.

Schomberg returned to Savoy for the campaign of 1693 and was fatally wounded at the Battle of Marsaglia on 4 October. He died in the Savoy capital of Turin on 16 Oct. 1693. Kazner, i. 362. In his will, drawn up with multiple witnesses as he was dying of his wounds, he gave money to the poor ‘of the reformed religion’ both in Turin and in London, while to his eldest brother Frederick he bequeathed 1,000 crowns on the stipulation that Frederick would no longer make any claims on his estate. His next elder brother, Meinhard, by this time also duke of Leinster in the Irish peerage, was his general heir, and succeeded to the English titles. PROB 11/417.