Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg

Frederick Herman de Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg (6 December 1615 – 1 July 1690) was a German-born army officer who served in the French, Portuguese, Dutch and English armies, he was killed in action fighting on the Williamite side at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Early career Descended from an old family of the Electorate of the Palatinate, he was born at Heidelberg, the son of Count Hans Meinhard von Schönberg (1582–1616) and Anne, a daughter of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley, and Theodosia Harington. An orphan within a few months of his birth, he was educated by various family friends, among whom was Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate, in whose service his father had been. He began his military career under Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, and in 1634 passed into the service of Sweden, entering that of France in 1635. His family, and the allied house of the Saxon Schönbergs, had already attained eminence in France with Henri de Schomberg and Charles de Schomberg, both marshals of France.

After a time he retired to his family estate at Geisenheim on the Rhine, but in 1639 he re-entered the Dutch States Army, in which, apparently, apart from a few intervals at Geisenheim, he remained until about 1650. He then rejoined the French army as a general officer (maréchal de camp), and served under Turenne in the Fronde, against Condé. He became a lieutenant-general in 1665, receiving this rapid promotion perhaps partly owing to his relationship with Charles de Schomberg. After many difficulties in the first three campaigns resulting from the opposition of Portuguese officers, Schomberg and Portuguese commander Meneses defeated the Spanish in the Montes Claros on 17 June 1665. but he retrieved the failure by retaking Fort de Bellegarde in 1675. For this he was made a marshal, being included in the promotion that followed the death of Turenne. The tide had now turned against the Huguenots, and Schomberg's merits had been long ignored on account of his adherence to the Protestant religion. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) forced him to leave his adopted country. was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance, was created Duke of Schomberg, and received from Parliament a grant of £100,000 to compensate him for the loss of his French estates, seized by Louis XIV. On 20 July Schomberg arrived at Chester where the expedition's troops were gathering. Sailing with a fleet from Hoylake, he landed on 13 August 1689 at Ballyholme Bay near Bangor. He made the passage on the royal yacht Cleveland. He then marched over Bangor and Belfast to Carrickfergus, which had a Jacobite garrison. He began the siege of Carrickfergus on 20 August. The town surrendered on 28 August. Thereafter he marched unopposed through a country desolated before him to Dundalk, but, as the bulk of his forces were raw and undisciplined as well as inferior in numbers to the enemy Irish Army, he deemed it imprudent to risk a battle, and entrenching himself at Dundalk declined to be drawn beyond the circle of his defences. Shortly afterwards pestilence broke out, and when he retired to winter quarters in Ulster his forces were more shattered than if they had sustained a severe defeat.