Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (15 April 1721 [N.S.] – 31 October 1765), was the third and youngest son of George II of Great Britain and Ireland and his wife, Caroline of Ansbach. He was Duke of Cumberland from 1726. He is best remembered for his role in putting down the Jacobite Rising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, which made him popular in certain parts of Britain.For example, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow. Hannah Smith, 'Georgian Monarchy', Cambridge University Press, 2006 He is often referred to by the nickname given to him by his Tory opponents: 'Butcher' Cumberland.MacDonald, Callum (27 December 2005) "Butcher Cumberland among Britain's greatest villains". Glasgow. The Herald. Retrieved 12 October 2013.

For much of the War of the Austrian Succession, with the assistance of John Ligonier, Cumberland commanded the main allied field army in Flanders acting in defence of the Austrian Netherlands and the Dutch Republic. At the head of the largest deployment of British troops on the continent since the days of Marlborough and opposed to the experienced French Marshal Maurice de Saxe, Cumberland's campaigning could not prevent the fall of the Dutch Barrier Forts. Between 1748 and 1755 he attempted to enact a series of army reforms that were resisted by the opposition and by the army itself.Davies, p. 277; Glover, p. 148; Royle, p. 25 Following the Convention of Klosterzeven in 1757, he never again held active military command and switched his attentions to politics and horse racing.

Early life

William was born in Leicester House, in Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square), Westminster, London, where his parents had moved after his grandfather, George I, accepted the invitation to ascend the British throne. On 27 July 1726, at only five years old, he was created Duke of Cumberland, Marquess of Berkhamstead in the County of Hertford, Earl of Kennington in the County of Surrey, Viscount of Trematon in the County of Cornwall, and Baron of the Isle of Alderney.

The young prince was educated well; his mother appointed Edmond Halley as a tutor.Van der Kiste, p. 46 Another of his tutors (and occasional proxy for him) was his mother's favourite Andrew Fountaine. At Hampton Court Palace, apartments were designed specially for him by William Kent.Thurley p. 279

William's elder brother Frederick, Prince of Wales, proposed dividing the King's dominions. Frederick would get Britain, while William would get Hanover. This proposal came to nothing.Van der Kiste, p. 150 (1736 plan suggested by Prince of Wales)

Early military career From childhood, he showed physical courage and ability, and became his parents' favourite.Van der Kiste, p. 111 He was enrolled in the 2nd Foot Guards and made a Knight of the Bath, when aged four.Van der Kiste, p. 78 He was intended, by the King and Queen, for the office of Lord High Admiral, and, in 1740, he sailed, as a volunteer, in the fleet under the command of Sir John Norris, but he quickly became dissatisfied with the Navy, and, instead secured the post of colonel of the First Regiment of Foot Guards on 20 February 1741.

War of the Austrian Succession In December 1742, he became a major-general, and, the following year, he first saw active service in Germany. George II and the "martial boy" shared in the glory of the Battle of Dettingen (27 June 1743), where Cumberland was wounded in his right leg by a musket ball. After the battle he was made a lieutenant general.

In 1745, Cumberland was given the honorary title of Captain-General of the British land forces and in Flanders became Commander-in-Chief of the allied British, Hanoverian, Austrian and Dutch (known as the Pragmatic Army) troops despite his inexperience. He initially planned to take the offensive against the French, in a move he hoped would lead to the capture of Paris, but was persuaded by his advisors that this was impossible given the vast numerical superiority of the enemy.Browning p. 206

As it became clear that the French intention was to take Tournai, Cumberland advanced to the relief of the town, which was besieged by Marshal Maurice de Saxe. In the resulting Battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745, the Allies were defeated by the French.Browning p. 212 Saxe had picked the battleground on which to confront the British, and filled the nearby woods with French marksmen. Cumberland ignored the threat of the woods when drawing up his battle plans, and instead concentrated on seizing the village of Fontenoy and attacking the main French army nearby.

Despite a concerted Anglo-Hanoverian attack on the French centre, which led many to believe the Allies had won, the failure to clear the woods and of the Dutch forces to capture Fontenoy forced Cumberland to retreat to Brussels, where he was unable to prevent the fall of Ghent, Bruges and Ostend.Browning p. 219 Cumberland was frequently criticised for his tactics in the battle, particularly his failure to occupy the woods.Browning pp. 207–13

Jacobite rebellion – "The Forty-Five"

As the leading British general of the day, he was chosen to put a decisive stop to Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a grandson of James VII of Scotland and II of England (James VII/II was the last Stuart king on the male line), in the Jacobite rising of 1745. His appointment was popular, and caused morale to soar amongst the public and troops loyal to King George.Longmate p. 155

Recalled from Flanders, Cumberland proceeded with preparations for quelling the Stuart (Jacobite) uprising. The Jacobite army had advanced southwards into England, hoping that English Jacobites would rise and join them. However, after receiving only limited support, such as the Manchester Regiment, the followers of Charles decided to withdraw to Scotland.Pollard pp. 41–42

Cumberland joined the Midland army under Ligonier, and began pursuit of the enemy, as the Stuarts retreated northwards from Derby. On reaching Penrith, the advanced portion of his army was repulsed on Clifton Moor in December 1745, and Cumberland became aware that an attempt to overtake the retreating Highlanders would be hopeless. Carlisle was retaken, and he was recalled to London, where preparations were in hand to meet an expected French invasion. The defeat of his replacement as commander, Henry Hawley, caused great panic in England in January 1746, when, under a hail of pistol fire, "eighty dragoons fell dead upon the spot" at Falkirk Muir.Tomasson, p 119

Culloden

Arriving in Edinburgh on 30 January 1746, Cumberland assumed command of his forces and marched them to Aberdeen. There, he ordered them to undergo training for approximately two months in preparation for engaging the Jacobite army. On 8 April, he set out from Aberdeen with his troops for Inverness; eight days later on 16 April, he engaged the main Jacobite army near the village of Culloden. In the ensuing battle, his army decisively defeated the Jacobites. The battle lasted only an hour, with the Jacobites suffering between 1,500 and 2,000 casualties, while approximately 300 government soldiers were killed or wounded.

On the morning after the battle, Cumberland issued a written order reminding his men that "the public orders of the rebels yesterday was to give us no quarter" and ordering his men to treat Jacobite wounded in the same manner.Roberts (2002), p. 178. Cumberland alluded to the belief that such orders had been found upon the bodies of fallen Jacobites. However, for the two days after the battle, Cumberland's order was not followed upon; though in the following two days, government troops scoured the battlefield and put to death many wounded Jacobite soldiers they came across.Thompson, p. 519

Government forces subsequently embarked upon the pacification of Jacobite regions in the Scottish Highlands, which took several months. They carried out searches for rebels across the Highlands, confiscating property, destroying nonjuring Episcopalian and Catholic meeting houses and summarily executing numerous suspected rebels.Plank, p. 116 While he had been in Inverness, Cumberland emptied the city jails of all of those who had been imprisoned by Jacobites and replaced them with Jacobites themselves; after the battle at Culloden, Jacobite prisoners were taken south to England to stand trial for high treason.Clee, p. 42

"Butcher Cumberland" Following Culloden, Cumberland was nicknamed "Sweet William" by his Whig supporters and "The Butcher" by his Tory opponentsJonathan Oates, 'Sweet William or The Butcher: The Duke of Cumberland and the '45 (2008) the latter being a taunt first recorded in the City of London and used for political purposes in England. Cumberland's own brother, the Prince of Wales (who had been refused permission to take a military role on his father's behalf), seems to have encouraged the virulent attacks upon the Duke. Cumberland preserved the strictest discipline in his camp. He was inflexible in the execution of what he deemed to be his duty, without favour to any man. In only a few cases he exercised his influence in favour of clemency. The Duke's victorious efforts were acknowledged by his being voted an income of £25,000 per annum over and above his money from the civil list. A thanksgiving service was held at St Paul's Cathedral, that included the first performance of Handel's oratorio Judas Maccabaeus, composed especially for Cumberland, which contains the anthem "See the Conquering Hero Comes".Speck, p. 170.

Return to the Continent

The Duke took no part in the Flanders campaign of 1746, during which the French made huge advances capturing Brussels and defeating the Allies at Rocoux. In 1747, Cumberland returned to Continental Europe. He again opposed the still-victorious Marshal Saxe and received a heavy defeat at the Battle of Lauffeld, or Val, near Maastricht, on 2 July 1747.Stanhope, p. 334 This and the fall of Bergen-op-Zoom compelled the two sides to the negotiating table and in 1748 the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was concluded and Cumberland returned home.Sosin, pp. 516–35

Peacetime

Cumberland's unpopularity, which had steadily increased since Culloden, interfered greatly with his success in politics, and when the death of the Prince of Wales brought the latter's son, a minor, next in succession to the throne, the Duke was not able to secure for himself the contingent regency. As a compromise, the regency was vested in the Dowager Princess of Wales, who considered him an enemy, but her powers were curtailed and she was to be advised by a committee of twelve men, headed by Cumberland.Van der Kiste, p. 195

Attempts at army reform Whilst in the office of Commander-in-Chief, Cumberland attempted to reform the peacetime army with the support of his father. He wished to wrest control over promotions from the government to the army itself and to limit or curtail the practice of purchase. Cumberland further wished to create a special standing force which could be quickly deployed overseas in time of crisis.Glover, p. 148 The Whigs, who only tolerated the army's existence in peacetime and had confidence only in the commanders' control over the militia, saw the expansion and further professionalisation of the army as absolutist. Critics such as Horace Walpole argued the institution of purchase was one of the safeguards of parliamentary sovereignty against Royalist insurrection. Cumberland's opponent in government Charles Townshend wished to instead further reduce the peacetime army and reform the militia by creating a volunteer force for home defence, a precursor to the volunteers of the 19th century which would be under the direct control of civil authorities.

Seven Years' War

North America