Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland

Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland
British Royalty
House of Hanover

George I
Children
   George II
   Princess Sophia Dorothea
George II
Children
   Prince Frederick
   Princess Anne
   Princess Amelia Sophia
   Princess Caroline Elizabeth
   Prince William
   Princess Mary
   Princess Louise
Grandchildren
   Princess Augusta Charlotte
   George III
   Prince Edward Augustus
   Princess Elizabeth Caroline
   Prince William Henry
   Prince Henry
   Princess Caroline Matilda
Great Grandchildren
   Princess Sophia
   Prince William
George III
Children
   George IV
   Prince Frederick
   William IV
   Princess Charlotte
   Prince Edward Augustus
   Princess Augusta Sophia
   Princess Elizabeth
   Ernest Augustus I of Hanover
   Prince Augustus Frederick
   Prince Adolphus
   Princess Mary
   Princess Sophia
   Princess Amelia
Grandchildren
   Princess Charlotte
   Princess Elizabeth
   Victoria
   George V, King of Hanover
   Prince George
   Princess Augusta
   Princess Mary Adelaide
George IV
Children
   Princess Charlotte
William IV
   Princess Charlotte
   Princess Elizabeth
Victoria

The Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, KG, PC (15 April 172131 October 1765), a younger son of King George II of Great Britain and Queen Caroline, was a noted military leader.

Life and Times

The Scottish Highland town of Fort Augustus takes its name from a British Army fort which was named in his honour.

He was born in London, where his parents had moved after his grandfather, King George I, was invited to take the British throne. When four years old he was created Baron Alderney, Viscount Trematon, Earl of Kennington, Marquess of Berkhampstead and Duke of Cumberland, and was well educated, becoming his parents' favourite (so much so that his father would later consider ways of making him his heir in preference to his eldest brother). At Hampton Court Palace, apartments were designed specially for him by William Kent.

From childhood, he showed physical courage and ability. He was intended by the King and Queen for the office of Lord High Admiral, and in 1740 he sailed as a volunteer in the fleet under the command of Sir John Norris, but he quickly became dissatisfied with the Navy, and early in 1742 he began an Army career. In December 1742 he became a Major-General, and in the following year he first saw active service in Germany. George II and the "martial boy" shared in the glory of the Battle of Dettingen (27 June 1743), and Cumberland, who was wounded in the action, was reported as a hero in Britain, thus founding his military popularity. After the battle he was made Lieutenant-General.

In 1745, having been made Captain-General of the British land forces at home and in the field, the Duke was again in Flanders as Commander-in-Chief of the allied British, Hanoverian, Austrian and Dutch troops. Advancing to the relief of Tournay, which was besieged by Marshal Saxe, he engaged that great general in the Battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745. Had the Duke been supported by the allies in his marvellously courageous attack on the superior positions of the French army, Fontenoy would probably not have been recorded as a defeat for Britain. Cumberland himself was in the midst of the column which penetrated the French centre, and his conduct of the inevitable retreat was unusually cool and skillful. The brigade which he commanded to capture the redoubt included the Scottish Highland Black Watch regiment, which in 1743 had been taken away from its previous role of policing its home area to join the forces on the continent. The courage of the Highlanders in the battle greatly impressed the Duke of Cumberland. Shortly afterwards, in the autumn of 1745, the Black Watch was transferred to the South of England for defence against possible French invasion while the British were preoccupied further north.

Despite being a strict disciplinarian, the young Duke was an inspiration to his men and created a very lively esprit de corps. As a general he had courage and resolution; while he sometimes lacked wisdom and tact, he displayed an energy and power in military affairs which pointed him out to the British people as the one commander upon whom they could rely to put a decisive stop to the successful career of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (The Young Pretender) in the Jacobite Rising of 1745 - 1746. Sir John Ligonier wrote of him at this time, Ou je suis fort trompé ou il se forme là un grand capitaine.

William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The tomb-stone. Print shows several men, George Grenville, Lord Bute, the Duke of Bedford, and, as a small dog wearing clerical robes, Dr. W. Scott, labeled "AntiSejanus", dancing on a sarcophagus with bas-reliefs of "Britannia" and "America" and bearing the inscription: "Here lieth the Body of William Duke of Cumberland &c lamented by his Country, which he twice Sav'd. First by overcoming ... and after by selecting a ministry, out of those virtuous few, who gloriously withstood GENERAL WARRANTS, AMERICAN STAMPS, EXTENSION OF EXCISE, --- &c, &c, &c. On the left stands Lord Sandwich (Jemmy Twitcher) holding a flagpole entwined with two snakes and flying a banner labeled "The Oriflame" [i.e., oriflamme] and on which appears the head of Medusa, perhaps suggesting that the ideal to aspire to is discord. Behind the sarcophagus stands the Earl of Halifax, and on the right stand, Earl Temple, who clutches in his left hand the tail of "AntiSejanus" and the tail of a Scottish devil standing next to him on a book labeled "Jemmy Twitcher's laws for the gang"; on the far right stand two members of the clergy.
William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The tomb-stone. Print shows several men, George Grenville, Lord Bute, the Duke of Bedford, and, as a small dog wearing clerical robes, Dr. W. Scott, labeled "AntiSejanus", dancing on a sarcophagus with bas-reliefs of "Britannia" and "America" and bearing the inscription: "Here lieth the Body of William Duke of Cumberland &c lamented by his Country, which he twice Sav'd. First by overcoming ... and after by selecting a ministry, out of those virtuous few, who gloriously withstood GENERAL WARRANTS, AMERICAN STAMPS, EXTENSION OF EXCISE, --- &c, &c, &c. On the left stands Lord Sandwich (Jemmy Twitcher) holding a flagpole entwined with two snakes and flying a banner labeled "The Oriflame" [i.e., oriflamme] and on which appears the head of Medusa, perhaps suggesting that the ideal to aspire to is discord. Behind the sarcophagus stands the Earl of Halifax, and on the right stand, Earl Temple, who clutches in his left hand the tail of "AntiSejanus" and the tail of a Scottish devil standing next to him on a book labeled "Jemmy Twitcher's laws for the gang"; on the far right stand two members of the clergy.

Recalled from Flanders, Cumberland immediately proceeded with his preparations for quelling the insurrection. He joined the midland army under Ligonier, and immediately began pursuit of the enemy. But the retreat of Charles Edward from Derby disconcerted his plans, and it was not till they had reached Penrith, and the advanced portion of his army had been repulsed on Clifton Moor, that Cumberland became aware how hopeless an attempt to overtake the retreating Highlanders would then be. Carlisle having been retaken, he retired to London, till the news of the defeat of Hawley at Falkirk roused again the fears of the English people, and centred the hopes of Britain on the Duke. He was appointed commander of the forces in Scotland.

William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The Highlanders Medley, or the Duke Triumphant. Head and shoulders of Wm., Duke of Cumberland, with vignettes of popular battle scenes and satires and verses extolling his conquest of the Jacobites. Published 1746.
William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The Highlanders Medley, or the Duke Triumphant. Head and shoulders of Wm., Duke of Cumberland, with vignettes of popular battle scenes and satires and verses extolling his conquest of the Jacobites. Published 1746.
Solomons glory, or the rival mistresses. Duke of Cumberland seated on a bank with the Savoyard girl, his arm about her neck. The Duke's rival mistresses stand behind, and are vehemently jealous. In the distance appear Windsor Castle and Eton College Chapel. Published according to Act of Parliament August 29, 1749.
Solomons glory, or the rival mistresses. Duke of Cumberland seated on a bank with the Savoyard girl, his arm about her neck. The Duke's rival mistresses stand behind, and are vehemently jealous. In the distance appear Windsor Castle and Eton College Chapel. Published according to Act of Parliament August 29, 1749.

Arriving in Edinburgh on 30 January 1746, he at once proceeded in search of the "Young Pretender". He made a detour to Aberdeen, where he spent some time training the well-equipped forces now under his command for the peculiar nature of the warfare in which they were about to engage. What the old and experienced generals of his time had failed even to understand, the young Duke of Cumberland, still only twenty-four years of age, accomplished easily. He prepared his army to withstand the aggressive charges on which all Highland successes depended and he reorganised the forces and restored their discipline and self-confidence in a few weeks.

On 8 April 1746 he set out from Aberdeen towards Inverness, and on 15 April he fought the decisive Battle of Culloden, in which the forces of the Pretender were completely destroyed. Cumberland told his troops to take notice that the Jacobite enemy's orders were to give no quarter to the "troops of the Elector", and they took the hint to reciprocate; there is no evidence of any such orders. On account of the merciless severity with which the fugitives were treated, Cumberland received the nickname of "Butcher", and he is still most commonly known to Scottish Highlanders as "Butcher Cumberland". This taunt was used for political purposes in England, and Cumberland's own brother, the Prince of Wales (who had been refused permission to take a military role on his father's behalf), seems to have encouraged the virulent attacks upon the Duke. Like Oliver Cromwell in Ireland, Cumberland dared to act in a way which would be held against him for the rest of his life, and terrorised an obstinate and unyielding enemy into submission. How real was the danger of a protracted guerrilla warfare in the Highlands may be judged from the explicit declarations of Jacobite leaders that they intended to continue the struggle. As it was, the war came to an end almost at once.

Cumberland preserved the strictest discipline in his camp. He was inflexible in the execution of what he deemed to be his duty, without favour to any man. At the same time he exercised his influence in favour of clemency in special cases that were brought to his notice. Some years later James Wolfe spoke of the Duke as "for ever doing noble and generous actions".

The Duke's victorious efforts were acknowledged by his being voted an income of £40,000 per annum in addition to his revenue as a Prince of the Royal House. The Duke took no part in the Flanders campaign of 1746, but in 1747 he again opposed the still victorious Marshal Saxe and received a heavy defeat at the Battle of Lauffeld, or Val, near Maestricht (July 2, 1747).

During the ten years of peace from 1748 Cumberland occupied himself chiefly with his duties as Captain-General, and the result of his work was clearly shown in the conduct of the army in the Seven Years' War. His unpopularity, which had steadily increased since Culloden, interfered greatly with his success in politics, and when the death of the Prince of Wales brought the latter's son, a minor, next in succession to the throne, the Duke was not able to secure for himself the contingent regency, which was vested in the Dowager Princess of Wales, who considered him an enemy. In 1757, the Seven Years' War having broken out, Cumberland was placed at the head of a motley army of allies to defend Hanover. At the Battle of Hastenbeck, near Hamelin, on 26 July 1757, he was defeated by the superior forces of d'Estrées. In September of the same year his defeat had almost become disgrace. Driven from point to point, and at last hemmed in by the French under Richelieu, he capitulated at Klosterzeven on 8 September 1757, agreeing to disband his army and to evacuate Hanover.

His disgrace was completed on his return to England by his father King George II's refusal to be bound by the terms of the Duke's agreement. In chagrin and disappointment he retired into private life, after having formally resigned the public offices he held. In his retirement he made no attempt to justify his conduct, applying in his own case the discipline he had enforced in others. For a few years he lived quietly at Windsor, and subsequently in London, taking but little part in politics. He did much, however, to displace the Bute ministry and that of Grenville, and endeavoured to restore Pitt to office. Public opinion had now set in his favour, and he became almost as popular as he had been in his youth. After the accession of his nephew, King George III, he vied with his sister-in-law, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, for the role of regent in times of emergency. Shortly before his death the Duke was requested to open negotiations with Pitt for a return to power. This was, however, unsuccessful.

Biography

A Life of the Duke of Cumberland by Andrew Henderson was published in 1766, and anonymous (Richard Rolt) Historical Memoirs appeared in 1767. See especially A. N. Campbell Maclachlan, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1876).

Titles, Styles, Honours & Arms

Titles

  • 1721-1725: His Royal Highness Prince William Augustus of Wales
  • 1725-1765: His Royal Highness The Duke of Cumberland

Trivia

In 2006, he was selected by the BBC History Magazine as the 18th century's worst Briton. (BBC)


Preceded by:
Vacant
Captain-General
1744–1757
Succeeded by:
Vacant


Preceded by:
New Creation
Duke of Cumberland Succeeded by:
Extinct

References

  • Culloden - The Black Watch

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