Henry FitzJames

Henry FitzJames (6 August 1673 – 16 December 1702), titular 1st Duke of Albemarle in the Jacobite peerage, was an illegitimate son of King James II of England and VII of Scotland by Arabella Churchill, sister of the first Duke of Marlborough.

Life FitzJames was born in St. James's Square, Westminster, then in the county of Middlesex, England, during the reign of his uncle, Charles II. He was the younger brother of James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, the French Marshal. He was also the brother of Henrietta FitzJames and Arabella FitzJames, who was named after her mother and became a nun. FitzJames was raised in France and educated at the College of Juilly and the Collège Henri-IV. In 1687, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to England to gain military experience aboard HMS Sedgemoor, named after his father's recent victory.

Following the Glorious Revolution in 1688, FitzJames followed his father into exile in France. At the age of sixteen, his father made FitzJames the colonel of a regiment of infantry, which he led at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 during the Williamite War in Ireland.

Ancestry