Frederick Schomberg (6 December 1615-1 July 1690) was a Marshal of France and a general in the English and Portuguese armies.
Biography[]
Frederick Schomberg was born in Heidelberg, Electoral Palatinate in 1615; he was of German noble and matrilineal English descent. Orphaned within a few months of his birth, he started his military career under Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange during the Eighty Years' War and joined the Swedish Army in 1634 and the French Royal Army a year later. Schomberg served under Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne during the Fronde and became a lieutenant-general in 1665, partly due to his family ties to Charles de Schomberg. In 1659, King Charles II of England hired him to aid Portugal against Spanish invasion during the Portuguese Restoration War, leading a brigade of Royalist and New Model Army veterans at the Battles of Montes Claros. He then returned to France, holding commands in Spain and becoming a Marshal of France on d'Auvergne's death. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 forced the Huguenot Schomberg to enter William of Orange's service, aiding him in securing the English throne during the Glorious Revolution. While he was deprived of his French estates by a vengeful King Louis XIV, Schomberg was compensated by the House of Commons. He went on to serve as a lieutenant of William during the Williamite War in Ireland, and he was killed by a gunshot to the neck during the Battle of the Boyne.