Lieutenant General James FitzJames, Duke of Berwick KG

James FitzJames was the illegitimate son of King James II. His mother was Arabella Churchill, sister of the Duke of Marlborough. James FitzJames was born in France on 21 Aug 1670 and raised as a Catholic. His education included the Jesuit College of La Flèche. He eventually became a successful Marshal of France in the pay of Louis XIV. His first taste of soldiering was at the siege of Buda (Budapest) in 1684 under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine. He also fought at the successful 1687 battle of Mohács against the Ottomans. In the same year he was created Duke of Berwick. In the previous year, 1686 he was appointed Colonel of Princess Anne of Denmark’s Regiment.
FitzJames was also appointed Governor of Portsmouth, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire and Knight of the Garter. While the Regiment was stationed in Portsmouth, FitzJames attempted to impose Catholic Irishmen on the regiment, ordering that if the companies had their full establishment of men, that (Protestant) men should be discharged and replaced by a quota of Catholics. This order was defied by the Captains of the six companies that were in Portsmouth (six other companies were in the Channel Isles). Arrests were made and the six Portsmouth Captains subjected to a Court Martial and dismissed. One of the Captains was Lieutenant-Colonel Beaumont.
In 1688 FitzJames was also appointed to the colonelcy of the 3rd Troop of Horse Guards and the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues). But his tailors would have had little time to make his uniforms as this was the year of the Glorious Revolution, and the approach of William of Orange meant that King James and his bastard son had to flee to France. The fortunes of the six Captains were restored and Beaumont appointed Colonel of the Regiment at the end of 1688.
The French provided the exiled King James and his son with troops to fight in Ireland where Catholic units were raised to resist William and his now loyal English Army. FitzJames was knocked off his horse at the Battle of the Boyne and nearly killed. James left for France once more, leaving his son to fight on at Aughrim, Limerick and Cork. The conflict moved to mainland Europe and FitzJames fought under Marshal Luxembourg at Steenkirk. At the battle of Landen (Neerwinden) he was captured by uncle Charles Churchill and ransomed for 30,000 florins, finally exchanged for the Duke of Ormonde.
An Act of Parliament attainted FitzJames so that his British peerages were forfeit. But his value to the French was recognised during the War of the Spanish Succession and he was appointed Marshal of France in 1706. His greatest triumph was the Battle of Almanza in Spain where he defeated the Anlo-Portuguese-Dutch army commanded ironically by a Frenchman, the Marquis de Ruvigny (Earl of Galway). FitzJames was still the Duke of Berwick as far as Louis XIV was concerned, but in 1707 he was also to be Duque de Liria y Xérica conferred by Philip V of Spain, and in 1710 Duc de Fitz-James conferred by Louis. Further action continued with the siege of Lille and Douai, and FitzJames besieged Barcelona in 1714 for which he was appointed Knight of the Golden Fleece. But he declined to be involved in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, so creating a permanent rift with his half brother James Francis Edward Stuart, the ‘Old Pretender’. In 1718 he led an army against King Philip V of Spain which produced several years of peace. FitzJames had a rest from campaigning which lasted from 1720 to 1733 in which year he led the Army of the Rhine in the War of the Polish Succession. He was successful at the siege of Kehl in 1733 but at Phiippsburg he was decapitated by a cannonball on 12 June 1734.
FitzJames was married twice. His first wife was Lady Honore Burke. She was a 19 year-old pregnant widow when they fell in love. Her husband had been General Patrick Sarsfield who had fought alongside FitzJames in Ireland but was killed at the battle of Landen in 1693. They married on 26 Mar 1685. FitzJames raised Sarsfield’s son as his own and had another son by Honore, James Francis Fitz-James Stuart who inherited the title Duke of Berwick. Honore died in 1698 and FitzJames married Anne Bulkeley, daughter of Henry Bulkeley who had been Master of King James’s Household. They were married in Paris on 18 April 1700 and had 8 sons and 5 daughters. One of the sons was Charles de Fitz-James, 4th Duke of Fitz-James.

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