Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/328

 distinction que leurs services meriteront et que nous serons en etat de leur donner. Mais, au contraire, ceux, qui bien loin de nous aider se joindront aux oppresseurs de leur patrie, doivent s’ attendre à toute la rigueur des executions militaires. Et nous Declarons à ceux qui voudront vivre en repos chez eux, qu’il ne leur sera fait aucun mal, ni en leurs biens ni en leurs personnes.

A Ambrun, le 29 d’ Aoust 1692.

From the date it appears that this declaration was issued from the fortified town of Embrun, celebrated for its antiquity and lofty site.  

Count Mainhardt de Schomberg, second son of the Marshal, was born at Cologne on June 30, 1641. We find him in the Portuguese service under his father. In 1665 he had the military rank of major, and was captain of a company in his father’s cavalry regiment. At that time the irruption into Spain was going forward, and San Lucar de Guadiana was taken. At the head of his company he met Rougemont’s Regiment of Cavalry near that town, drove them before him two leagues and upwards, and upon their making a stand, defeated them. He was afterwards a colonel of cavalry in the French army.

In 1686, on taking refuge in Prussia, he was made a general of cavalry in the army of the Elector of Brandenburg, and colonel of a corps of dragoons. He remained in these posts when his father and Count Charles joined the Prince of Orange in 1688.

As already stated, it was for this reason that Charles was named first in the destination of the Marshal’s Dukedom of Schomberg in the peerage of England. Charles was unmarried, and ready for such an adventurous expedition as the Prince of Orange had planned. Mainhardt had married, on the 4th of January 1683, Caroline Elizabeth, Countess Rangrave Palatine, daughter of the Elector Charles Louis. On the 15th December of that year, his son, Charles, came into the world. Subsequently three daughters were born, named Caroline, Frederica, and Mary. Count Mainhardt was not prepared to remove with his infantile family to an island of the sea. He had not learned the Englishman’s axiom, that every sensible man should live in England if he can. So that when English ducal rank was bestowed on his father, it was not known that Mainhardt would ever solicit naturalisation among the English people.

The following entry was made by Luttrell in his Historical Relation: “London, 12 August 1689, Count Menard de Schomberg, General of the Brandenburg Horse, is coming over.” His German name, Mainhardt, was translated by the French into Menard and Mesnart, and by the English into Maynard; and the various modes of spelling were further varied according to the writer’s guess. The French refugees spoke highly of him as a cavalry officer. One declares, “Count Menard de Schomberg is exceedingly experienced and skilful in the art of war — in charges, combats, and pitched battles — possessing courage, activity, and admirable energy — capable of successfully commanding not only a corps, but a great army.” He was enrolled in the English army as a General of Horse, and received the Colonelcy of the 4th Horse on the 10th April 1690.

Mainhardt earned much praise at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. He carried out the part assigned to him successfully. Ably supported by Douglas and the Earl of Portland, he crossed the Boyne at the Fords of Slane to engage the enemy’s cavalry, and to facilitate the movements of the centre. Incensed at the death of his father, he pursued the enemy for several miles “with all the fury that a noble and just resentment could inspire,” until Lord Portland communicated the king’s command to return to the camp. The Duke of Berwick wrote that Count Mainhardt, in thus fiercely revenging the death of the old Duke of Schomberg, was a better general than King William, who suffered the Irish to retreat without molestation. The king’s object, however, was to avoid bloodshed, especially in consideration of his father-in-law’s person.

At the time of the festivities in Holland in February 1691 in honour of King William III., the king held consultations with foreign ambassadors as well as with his ministers and general officers concerning the war with France. Among the generals in attendance at Court, Count Mainhardt de Schomberg is mentioned. On the 25th of April he received letters-patent of naturalisation for himself and his son, “Mainhardt Comte de Schonburg et Carolo filio suo.” In order to commemorate his share in the conquest of Ireland, and to put him more on a footing with his