Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg

General Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, 1st Duke of Leinster, KG (30 June 1641 – ), was a German-born military officer and peer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in 1691. He spent the majority of his military career in service to William III of England, fighting in the Portuguese Restoration War, Franco-Dutch War, Williamite War in Ireland and the War of the Spanish Succession.

Life Born the son of Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg (who was of Huguenot descent), and Johanna Elizabeth de Schomberg (née von Schönberg), Meinhardt Schomberg joined his father in the service of the English Expeditionary brigade to Portugal and served as a lieutenant-colonel and then as a colonel. He then settled in La Rochelle with his father and became a French subject. and commissioned a general of the horse on 19 April 1690. Meanwhile, Meinhardt Schomberg commanded the right wing of William's army during the battle and led the crucial crossing of the River Boyne at Roughgrange near Rosnaree on the Jacobites' flank, the turning point in the confrontation, despite a gallant defence by Sir Neil O'Neill, a Jacobite general. Schomberg then engaged in a pursuit of the retreating troops towards Duleek: and, after taking part in the abortive Siege of Limerick in August 1690, he became a British subject through naturalization by Act of Parliament on 25 April 1691. From May 1691 he was also made Commander-in-Chief of the Forces during the King's travels in Flanders.

In 1703, he was created Knight of the Garter and Queen Anne appointed him Commander-in-Chief of the British forces sent to Portugal for the War of the Spanish Succession. He commissioned the construction of Hillingdon House in 1717 as his hunting lodge and died there on .

Family

On 3 August 1667 Schomberg married Piedmontese Barbara Luisa Rizzi in La Rochelle. The couple did not have any children, Lady Caroline Schomberg (1686 – 18 June 1710) Lady Frederica Schomberg (c. 1688–1751) married (1) Robert Darcy, 3rd Earl of Holderness, and (2) Benjamin Mildmay, 1st Earl FitzWalter Lady Mary Schomberg (bap. 16 March 1692 – 29 April 1762) married Christoph Martin von Degenfeld-Schonburg