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Georgo Legge, 1st Baron of Dartmouth - by John Riley
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King Charles II - by John Michael Wright
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King James II - by Sir Godfrey Kneller
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King William III of England
George Legge found success at sea, working his way up following a break down to family connections. His father William had been fiercely loyal to Charles I in the Civil War, trying to help the monarch escape England once the war was lost and subsequently suffered many years of imprisonment.
After the restoration of the Monarchy with the crowning of Charles II, William Legge found himself in favour and was restored to many of his former positions (although he refused an Earldom).His son George soon went to sea, under the tutelage of his Irish cousin – the bombastic Admiral Sir Edward Spragg. Spragg had gone into exile after the Civil War but returned triumphantly to take command of some of the Royal Navy’s greatest vessels during the Anglo-Dutch wars.
After a period at Kings College, Cambridge, George Legge served under Spragg in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, which began in 1665. By the end of the conflict two years later, he was in command of HMS Pembroke.
In the following years, Legge became increasingly important both to the Navy and public life – becoming Lieutenant Governor of Portsmouth in 1670, Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance Governor of Portsmouth in 1673, Master-General of the Ordnance in 1682, the Master of the King’s Horse in 1685 and (ironically considering later events in his life) Constable of the Tower in the same year.
He was Captain of the HMS Fairfax in 1672 when it was part of an attack on a Dutch fleet that led indirectly to the Third Anglo Dutch war.Fairfax, with Legge at the helm, was then involved in the Battle of Sole Bay, the first true battle of that war which was so confused that both sides claimed victory – but Legge was thought to have done a good job. He had been promoted to the command of HMS Katherine by the time of the Battle of Schooneveld in 1673.
Legge’s political and maritime career was blossoming – he was even an MP for a while too – and this was recognised by his grateful monarch, Charles II. In 1682 he made Legge the first Baron of Dartmouth due to his family connections with the South West.
He was then promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1683 and finally to the command of the Channel Fleet under Charles’ brother, James II, in 1688.The date is important because this was just before events now known as ‘the Glorious Revolution’, when William III of Orange sailed from Holland and James II ‘abdicated’ – or to put it another way, ‘ran away’.
The Revolution had its basis in the reign of Charles II. Despite being known as the ‘Merry Monarch’ by his subjects, Charles left a number of problems for his successor who did not have the political skills to overcome them.
Charles did not have an heir with his wife – she miscarried three times. Secretly, he also had Catholic sensibilities. Following hundreds of years of religious in-fighting in England, the prospect of an openly Catholic monarch was anathema to many in the Kingdom.Charles died suddenly in 1685 – apparently converting fully to Catholicism on his deathbed. His successor, his brother James, was thought also to be sympathetic to the Catholic cause, following his marriage to a Catholic woman.
However, in 1677 his daughter Mary had, for political reasons, married the Dutch Protestant William III of Orange. This union was to hold James’ downfall within it.James started his reign as he meant to go on - by fighting with parliament to allow Catholics to hold positions of power. This was essentially to allow him to have a standing army (something not allowed at the time, for fear the monarch would challenge the rule of Parliament) with Catholic commanders.
There were also two rebellions in his early reign, one led by his nephew, which did nothing to help his image around the country.
Then he took a step too far – he declared his male son, the heir to the throne, would be raised as a Catholic.A plot was soon hatched to replace James with his daughter and her protestant husband. A group wrote to them ‘inviting’ them to take the throne. James thought he had a big enough army to stand against the Dutch fleet, and so refused an offer of help from the King of France, believing it would further alienate his subjects.
He asked Legge to ‘intercept’ the Dutch fleet when it was clear William (despite terrible seasickness) was on his way in October 1688. George tried to follow the command, but bad weather (and indications that other commanders in his small fleet hated the King and wanted William to be successful) meant he missed the chance, allowing William to land in Torbay on November 5th.
The majority of officers in James’ army defected following this development. It didn’t take long for James to flee the country and, by the end of the year, the `Glorious Revolution’ was complete.
This was, obviously, not good news for the 1st Baron of Dartmouth.Legge tried to make the best of it, taking an oath of allegiance to William and Mary and refusing a request to help James’ wife and the Prince of Wales flee the country but to no avail.
He was arrested in 1691 for treason and sent to the Tower of London. He died there a few months later, protesting his innocence.Dartmouth’s Baron found, to his cost, that backing the wrong monarch can be a costly business.
First published By the Dart October 2014