William Augustus Duke of Cumberland
1721 – 1765 · Generation XXX · Army commander · House of Hanover
William Augustus Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765). Army commander. The youngest son of George II and Caroline of Ansbach, he was made a duke at five and had Edmond Halley among his tutors. Wounded in the leg at Dettingen in 1743, he commanded the allied army in Flanders from 1745, losing to Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy and again at Lauffeld in 1747. Between those campaigns he crushed the Jacobite rising at Culloden in April 1746; government troops then killed wounded Jacobites and spent months harrying the Highlands. Tory opponents dubbed him “Butcher,” Whig admirers “Sweet William,” and Handel wrote Judas Maccabaeus in his honour. After defeat at Hastenbeck in 1757 he agreed the Convention of Klosterzeven, was rebuked by his father, and resigned all his offices. He later became an influential adviser to his nephew George III, and died unmarried in 1765; Prince William County, Virginia, bears his name.
Place in the family
- William Augustus Duke of Cumberland was a great-great-uncle of Queen Victoria.
- William Augustus Duke of Cumberland was the sixth of 8 children of King George II and Caroline of Ansbach recorded in this archive.
One of 35 people of House of Hanover (from 1700) in this archive. Called from Germany by the Act of Settlement; the Georges, then Victoria.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of Hanover → King George I → King George II → William Augustus Duke of Cumberland.
Parents
- King George II (1683 – 1760)
- Caroline of Ansbach (1683 – 1737)
Siblings
- Frederick Prince of Wales (1707 – 1751)
- Anne Princess Royal (1709 – 1759)
- Amelia of Great Britain (1711 – 1786)
- Caroline of Great Britain (1713 – 1757)
- George William of Great Britain (1717 – 1718)
- Mary of Great Britain (1723 – 1772)
- Louise of Great Britain (1724 – 1751)