Frederick Hermann Schomberg was born at Heidelberg of a German father and English mother in the year 1615. He became a Captain in the Scottish Guards of the French Army in 1652 and fought at the Battle of the Dunnes in 1658. So great a soldier was he that although a Protestant he obtained a Marshal’s Baton in 1675. The anti-Protestant legislation forced by Louis XIV of France in 1685 however, suppressed all the privileges granted by Henry IV and Louis XII to the Huguenots, inhibited the exercise of the Protestant religion, enjoined the banishment of all its ministers in fifteen days, held out rewards for converts, and prohibited keeping schools or bringing up children, in any but the Catholic religion. Dragoons were sent into Languedoc, Dauphiné, and Provence to enforce the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and it has been estimated that some half million Huguenots left France as a result. They migrated mostly to the British Isles, Holland and Germany and brought with them their arts, industry and resentment.
Marshal Schomberg and the Marquis of Ruvigny, the hereditary leader of the French Protestants, signed a “Humble Petition on behalf of the Protestants of France” which they presented to Louis XIV. Like Schomberg, Ruvigny was an eminent soldier who had served as French ambassador to England in the 1670s. He eventually took refuge there in 1686 and lived at Greenwich until his death in 1689.
The petition stated that in the past few years Protestants had been refused admission to public office, and had also been dismissed from positions of authority in which they had served with honour and fidelity. Within ten years at least 300 Protestant churches had been demolished. Protestant children were often taken away from their homes. They were only allowed one schoolmaster in each town, even when there were more than 200 children in the school. As a result, Protestants had been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge abroad. The petitioners suggested that the king had been distracted by war, and as a result, through neglect, the persecution of the Protestants had increased. They pleaded for a return to the observance of the Edict of Nantes. When this plea went unheeded, Schomberg retired to Portugal and initially settled at Brandenburg.
On 5th November 1688, however, he landed at Torbay in England as second in command of the Williamite army. In Ireland he led the Huguenot refugee cavalry regiment known as Schomberg’s French Horse, and commanded the Royal forces at the fateful Battle of the Boyne.
Schomberg had landed 10,000 men at Bangor (in County Down) on 13th August, 1689, and William and Mary had just been proclaimed in Belfast, through which James’s troops had recently marched. This town became winter quarters in 1689 for the army which had been at Dundalk on duty. Thomas Pottinger, the Governor, asserts that, at his own expense, he furnished a hospital and storehouse for the men on their return to winter quarters, and here the sick were attended to during the early months of 1690, and prepared for the deadly conflict in which they were soon to be engaged on the banks of the Boyne. The mortality of this GREAT hospital, as it is termed, is almost incredible. Dr Lawrence was dispatched from the camp to take charge of the sick, of whom, from November 1st, 1689, till May 1st, 1690, 3762 men died. The townspeople seem also to have suffered greatly. Ten or a dozen funerals of the residents passed through the streets in little more than an hour; yet at this time the town was only a cluster of thatched cabins.
Among those who accompanied Schomberg were Louis Chevalleau de Boisragon, Chevalier de la Chenaye whom he commissioned at Lisburn on 18th March 1689 and who traditionally served as a Cornet in Schomberg’s Horse, as a Lieutenant and according to family tradition as an Aide-de-Camp at the Battle of the Boyne. Another close Heugenot friend who is also said to have acted as Aide-de-Camp to Schomberg was Major Henry Foubert. Major Foubert was the son of Solomon Foubert, who ran the Royal Riding Academy in the Faubourg St Germain, Paris. On 20th January 1679, however an Edict of Council had been passed against the Protestant Masters of the Academies in France. Solomon Foubert left Paris as a result and settled in London where he established a similar institution in Sherwood Street, Piccadilly, which helped fill a major gap in English education. Major Foubert entered the army in 1685.
On 1st July (celebrated as 12th July in modern calendars) the two great armies of William and James met at the River Boyne where William defeated James’s troops. Schomberg’s son Meinhard, who had also served under the French and the Elector of Brandenberg, commanded the right wing of the Williamite forces. At a moment when William’s troops were very hard pressed, however, and almost overpowered, Schomberg, who kept a strong body around him to act as an emergency including Major Foubert and Louis Chevalleau de Boisragon, dashed into the midst of the fight and turned the fortune of the day. Sadly, however, he himself was hurried away amidst a party of James’s horse in full flight, and was killed by a discharge from his own men, who were not aware of his entanglement with the fugitives. Riding to his aid Major Faubert dismounted to assist the great General when he had been fatally wounded and was himself badly wounded in the arm. For his bravery he was promoted to the rank of Major and on his fathers death in 1696 he took over the management of the French Academy in London which was to have such an important effect on British civilisation.
Another who had followed Schomberg throughout Holland, England and Ireland was Jacques Abbadie. Abbadie’s life is a good illustration of the wanderings of the Huguenot refugees after they left France. Born near Pau, Béarn about 1654, Abbadie gained a Doctorate of Divinity at Sedan University and then went to Berlin where he was a minister for most of the 1680s. Following the Battle of the Boyne he returned to London and became minister at the Savoy church. This post he held when he wrote in praise of Queen Mary II, wife of William of Orange, who was a woman of outstandingly charitable disposition and a warm friend to the Huguenot refugees. This work, together with his “Defence of the British Nation” won him the regard of William III and in 1699 he became Dean of Killaloe in Ireland. He died in Marleybone, London in 1727.
Seldom have we seen such people since as the followers and friends
Frederick Hermann Schomberg was born at Heidelberg of a German father and English mother in the year 1615. He became a Captain in the Scottish Guards of the French Army in 1652 and fought at the Battle of the Dunnes in 1658. So great a soldier was he that although a Protestant he obtained a Marshal’s Baton in 1675. The anti-Protestant legislation forced by Louis XIV of France in 1685 however, suppressed all the privileges granted by Henry IV and Louis XII to the Huguenots, inhibited the exercise of the Protestant religion, enjoined the banishment of all its ministers in fifteen days, held out rewards for converts, and prohibited keeping schools or bringing up children, in any but the Catholic religion. Dragoons were sent into Languedoc, Dauphiné, and Provence to enforce the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and it has been estimated that some half million Huguenots left France as a result. They migrated mostly to the British Isles, Holland and Germany and brought with them their arts, industry and resentment.
Marshal Schomberg and the Marquis of Ruvigny, the hereditary leader of the French Protestants, signed a “Humble Petition on behalf of the Protestants of France” which they presented to Louis XIV. Like Schomberg, Ruvigny was an eminent soldier who had served as French ambassador to England in the 1670s. He eventually took refuge there in 1686 and lived at Greenwich until his death in 1689.
The petition stated that in the past few years Protestants had been refused admission to public office, and had also been dismissed from positions of authority in which they had served with honour and fidelity. Within ten years at least 300 Protestant churches had been demolished. Protestant children were often taken away from their homes. They were only allowed one schoolmaster in each town, even when there were more than 200 children in the school. As a result, Protestants had been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge abroad. The petitioners suggested that the king had been distracted by war, and as a result, through neglect, the persecution of the Protestants had increased. They pleaded for a return to the observance of the Edict of Nantes. When this plea went unheeded, Schomberg retired to Portugal and initially settled at Brandenburg.
On 5th November 1688, however, he landed at Torbay in England as second in command of the Williamite army. In Ireland he led the Huguenot refugee cavalry regiment known as Schomberg’s French Horse, and commanded the Royal forces at the fateful Battle of the Boyne.
Schomberg had landed 10,000 men at Bangor (in County Down) on 13th August, 1689, and William and Mary had just been proclaimed in Belfast, through which James’s troops had recently marched. This town became winter quarters in 1689 for the army which had been at Dundalk on duty. Thomas Pottinger, the Governor, asserts that, at his own expense, he furnished a hospital and storehouse for the men on their return to winter quarters, and here the sick were attended to during the early months of 1690, and prepared for the deadly conflict in which they were soon to be engaged on the banks of the Boyne. The mortality of this GREAT hospital, as it is termed, is almost incredible. Dr Lawrence was dispatched from the camp to take charge of the sick, of whom, from November 1st, 1689, till May 1st, 1690, 3762 men died. The townspeople seem also to have suffered greatly. Ten or a dozen funerals of the residents passed through the streets in little more than an hour; yet at this time the town was only a cluster of thatched cabins.
Among those who accompanied Schomberg were Louis Chevalleau de Boisragon, Chevalier de la Chenaye whom he commissioned at Lisburn on 18th March 1689 and who traditionally served as a Cornet in Schomberg’s Horse, as a Lieutenant and according to family tradition as an Aide-de-Camp at the Battle of the Boyne. Another close Heugenot friend who is also said to have acted as Aide-de-Camp to Schomberg was Major Henry Foubert. Major Foubert was the son of Solomon Foubert, who ran the Royal Riding Academy in the Faubourg St Germain, Paris. On 20th January 1679, however an Edict of Council had been passed against the Protestant Masters of the Academies in France. Solomon Foubert left Paris as a result and settled in London where he established a similar institution in Sherwood Street, Piccadilly, which helped fill a major gap in English education. Major Foubert entered the army in 1685.
On 1st July (celebrated as 12th July in modern calendars) the two great armies of William and James met at the River Boyne where William defeated James’s troops. Schomberg’s son Meinhard, who had also served under the French and the Elector of Brandenberg, commanded the right wing of the Williamite forces. At a moment when William’s troops were very hard pressed, however, and almost overpowered, Schomberg, who kept a strong body around him to act as an emergency including Major Foubert and Louis Chevalleau de Boisragon, dashed into the midst of the fight and turned the fortune of the day. Sadly, however, he himself was hurried away amidst a party of James’s horse in full flight, and was killed by a discharge from his own men, who were not aware of his entanglement with the fugitives. Riding to his aid Major Faubert dismounted to assist the great General when he had been fatally wounded and was himself badly wounded in the arm. For his bravery he was promoted to the rank of Major and on his fathers death in 1696 he took over the management of the French Academy in London which was to have such an important effect on British civilisation.
Another who had followed Schomberg throughout Holland, England and Ireland was Jacques Abbadie. Abbadie’s life is a good illustration of the wanderings of the Huguenot refugees after they left France. Born near Pau, Béarn about 1654, Abbadie gained a Doctorate of Divinity at Sedan University and then went to Berlin where he was a minister for most of the 1680s. Following the Battle of the Boyne he returned to London and became minister at the Savoy church. This post he held when he wrote in praise of Queen Mary II, wife of William of Orange, who was a woman of outstandingly charitable disposition and a warm friend to the Huguenot refugees. This work, together with his “Defence of the British Nation” won him the regard of William III and in 1699 he became Dean of Killaloe in Ireland. He died in Marleybone, London in 1727.
Seldom have we seen such people since as the followers and friends