Like his predecessors, James’ life was characterised by political intrigue and unhappy circumstance. Little did she know that she would outlive him. James, her eldest son, became the 4th Duke of Hamilton in 1698. Unlike her father and uncle, Anne surrendered her title. James was decapitated on 9 March 1649, tried and condemned as a traitor. His forces had outnumbered Cromwell’s 24,000 to 9,000. Leading a campaign to rescue Charles I from Oliver Cromwell’s forces in 1648, he was defeated and captured at the Battle of Preston. Five years later, Charles I imprisoned the Duke in Pendennis Castle, riled by his growing misconduct and inaction during negotiations with the Covenanters.įinally freed in 1646, James met his end only three short years later. Anne, Marchioness of Hamilton, was a colonel in the opposing Army of the Covenanters she threatened to shoot James dead in 1639. He commanded forces in Scotland during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, facing opposition from his own mother. An influential military leader during the Thirty Years’ War, he returned as Charles’ principal Scottish adviser when the conflict ended.īut life was not always kind to the first Duke of Hamilton. James Hamilton, then Earl of Arran, was ennobled for services to Charles I. The first Duke of Hamilton was created in 1643. The family were also scholars and romantics, generous patrons of the arts, loyal soldiers and advisers, just sheriffs and judges, ardent supporters of the local community, charitable fundraisers, successful sportspeople and aviation pioneers. They were involved in political intrigue and the struggle for Scottish independence, plagued by insanity and disastrous financial dealings, accused of treason and illegitimacy, derided as usurpers, adulterers and egotists, and even executed and exiled from their own country.īut that’s only one side of the story. These men and women were kingmakers and kingbreakers, tied to British royalty by marriage and blood. Tracing their lineage from 1375 – when ‘David de Hamylton, son and heir of David fitz Walter’ first signed a writ – for 800 years the Hamiltons' power and importance shaped Scottish history and society. It is the third oldest in the United Kingdom, surpassed only by the Dukes of Norfolk and Somerset.Īnd the House of Hamilton has a family history to match such illustrious heritage. Created in 1643 for James Hamilton, the Dukedom of Hamilton is the premier Peerdom in Scotland.
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