George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal
Encyclopedia
Inverugie Castle
Inverugie Castle or Cheyne's Tower is the ruins of a motte-and-bailey castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.- Location :Inverugie Castle is located two miles from Peterhead on the north east coast. The ruins are a small mound only three metres high above the River Ugie...
– 1778, Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
) was a Scottish and Prussian army officer and diplomat. Jacobite by persuasion, he was the tenth and last Earl Marischal
Earl Marischal
The title of Earl Marischal was created in the peerage of Scotland for William Keith, the Great Marischal of Scotland.The office of "Marischal of Scotland" had been held heritably by the senior member of the Keith family since Hervey de Keith, who held the office of Marischal under Malcolm IV and...
, having inherited the title from his father the 9th earl
William Keith, 9th Earl Marischal
William Keith, 9th Earl Marischal was a Jacobite politician and Earl Marischal of Scotland.-Life:His parents were the army officer George Keith, 8th Earl Marischal and the courtier Lady Mary Hay , third daughter of the 2nd Earl of Kinnoull...
in 1712.
Life
He served in Flanders under the duke of MarlboroughJohn Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...
from 1708 to 1711, but for considering placing the Old Pretender on the British throne on Queen Anne's death in he was deprived of his commission (or resigned). He fought on the Jacobite side during the 1715 Jacobite rising
Jacobite rising
The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by...
(including at the battle of Sheriffmuir
Battle of Sheriffmuir
The Battle of Sheriffmuir was an engagement in 1715 at the height of the Jacobite rebellion in England and Scotland.-History:John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, standard-bearer for the Jacobite cause in Scotland, mustered Highland chiefs, and on 6 September declared James Francis Edward Stuart as King...
) and was attainted for treason by the Hanoverian government, with his estates falling to the crown. He fled to the continent and went on to serve the Jacobite court at Avignon and to be its ambassador to Spain and then Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
. He then served Frederick the Great as his ambassador to Spain from 1759 to 1761, informing the Hanoverian government of Spanish preparations to enter the war on France's side, which gained him his pardon by George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
on 29 May 1759. Further actions by the Hanoverian government returned him his right to use his title and regain his estates in Great Britain but, despite brief return trips to Scotland in 1761 and 1763-64, eventually settled in Prussia for good, dying in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
. His brother James Francis Edward Keith also served Prussia as a field marshal
Generalfeldmarschall
Field Marshal or Generalfeldmarschall in German, was a rank in the armies of several German states and the Holy Roman Empire; in the Austrian Empire, the rank Feldmarschall was used...
.