Anthony Hamilton PC (Ire) ( – 1719), also known as Antoine and comte d'Hamilton, was a soldier and a writer. As a Catholic of Irish and Scottish ancestry, his parents brought him to France as a child in 1651 when Cromwell's army overran Ireland.
At the Restoration the family moved to England and lived at the court of Charles II. When Catholics were excluded from the army, Anthony followed his brother George into French service and fought in the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678). He was wounded in the battle of Battle of Entzheim. After the accession of the Catholic king James II in 1685, he joined the Irish Army and fought for the Jacobites in the Williamite War (1689–1691). He saw action in the battles of Newtownbutler and the Boyne. The defeat led him to his final French exile.
Hamilton sought refuge at the exile court at Saint-Germain-en-Laye where he became a courtier, poet, and writer. He chose French as his language and adopted a light and elegant style, seeking to amuse and entertain his reader. He is known for the Mémoires du Comte de Grammont, which focus on the time his brother-in-law Philibert de Gramont, spent at the court of Charles II. These Mémoires are a classic of French literature and a document of the history of the Stuart Restoration. He also wrote many letters, poems, and five tales.
Birth and origins
Anthony was born in 1644 or 1645 in Ireland, probably in Nenagh (), County Tipperary. He was the third son of George Hamilton and his wife Mary Butler.
His father was Scottish, the fourth son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn. He supported the lord lieutenant of Ireland, James Butler, Marquess of Ormond, during the Irish Confederate Wars and the Cromwellian conquest and called himself a baronet.
Anthony's mother was Irish, the third daughter of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles (courtesy title), who predeceased his father, Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond, and therefore never succeeded to the earldom. She also was a sister of James Butler, making her husband a brother-in-law of the lord lieutenant. Her family, the Butlers, were Old English.
Anthony's father has been confused with his granduncle George Hamilton of Greenlaw and Roscrea. Both are called George and both married a Mary Butler. In 1640 Ormond had granted Anthony's father Nenagh for 31 years. Anthony was probably born there, despite some giving Roscrea, where the granduncle lived. Hamilton's parents had married in 1635, despite earlier dates reported in error, due to the mistaken identity.
Anthony was one of nine siblings. See the list in his father's article but also James, George, Elizabeth, Richard, and John individually. Anthony's parents were both Catholic, and so was he.
Irish childhood
Hamilton was born during the Irish Confederate War. His father, despite being Catholic, sided with the lord lieutenant against the Confederates. The war had been halted by a truce in 1643, and was believed to have ended when the first Ormond peace was signed in March 1646. However, strong opposition to the peace from the Catholic Church caused the Confederates to split into a clerical and a peace faction. In May, Lady Hamilton, with Anthony and his siblings, left Nenagh and was brought to Dublin for her security. In August the Papal Nuncio Rinuccini rejected the first Ormond peace. In September the Confederate Ulster army, in support of the clerical faction, took Roscrea, where Hamilton's aunt (not his mother despite contrary opinions) was living.
In January 1647 Hamilton's father returned to Dublin from a mission to the king for Ormond. He brought secret instructions directing Ormond to hand Dublin over to the English rather than to the Irish when the need came. Ormond therefore abandoned Dublin to Michael Jones in July and left for England. Little Anthony, his mother and siblings seemed to have stayed behind in Ireland until 1651.
In summer 1648, Ulster troops stormed Nenagh, but Inchiquin with his Protestant Munster army soon retook the town for the king. Anthony, his mother, and siblings avoided both these dangers by having been removed to Dublin. In August Hamilton's father was in France at Queen Henrietta Maria's exile court, preparing Ormond's return to Ireland in September.
In 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest, Ormond made Hamilton's father receiver-general of the revenues and governor of Nenagh Castle, which he in vain tried to defend against Henry Ireton in November 1650.