Extract from Macky — “Meinhardt Sconbergh, Duke of Sconbergh and Linster is of a good German family, son to that Sconbergh who was Mareschal of France, afterwards Stadtholder of Prussia, who came over at the Revolution with King William, and was killed at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. This gentleman was created Duke of Linster by King William, and, after his brother’s death, who was killed in Savoy, was a Peer in England by the title of Duke of Sconbergh. He never was in action all King William’s reign, but left by that Prince General of all the forces in England when his Majesty went abroad. [He fought with great valour at the Battle of the Boyne.] When the present Queen [Anne] concluded the Treaty with Portugal, this gentleman was chosen to command the forces there, and had the Garter; but not knowing how to keep measures with the Kings of Spain and Portugal, was recalled. He is one of the hottest fiery men in England, which was the reason King William would never give him any command where there was action. He is brave, but capricious; of a fair complexion, and fifty years old.”
From the Westminster Abbey Register. — “Maynhard, Duke of Schonburg and Leinster, Marquiss of Harvich and Coubert, Earl of Brentford and Bangor, Baron of Theys and Tara, Count of the Holy Empire and Mertola, Grandee of Portugal, one of His Majesties Most Honble Privy Council, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Born at Cologne the 30th of June 1641, dyed at Hillingdon in the County of Middlesex, on Sunday the 5th of July 1719, in the 79th year of his age, and was buryed in the east end of King Henry the 7th’s Chappell the 4th of August 1719.”
From Annals of King George, 1719. — “On Tuesday night (4th Aug.) his Grace the Duke of Schonberg lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber in the greatest magnificence, and from thence was carried, with all his trophies of honour, and interred in the Duke of Ormond’s vault in King Henry the Seventh’s chapel. The funeral service was performed by the Bishop of Rochester, his pall supported by his Grace the Duke of Kent, Duke of Roxburgh, Earl of Pembroke, Earl of Portmore, Lord Abergeveny, and Lord Howard of Effingham; the Earl of Holderness and Count Dagenfeldt were the chief mourners.”
Chapter II. (pp. 122 to 144) is entitled. The First Marquis de Ruvigny and his English Relations. The connection of the De Ruvigny family with the Wriothesleys, and through them with the Russells, was highly favourable to the interests of future Huguenot refugees in Britain. On the 3d of August 1634 Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, married Rachel, (born 1603, died 1637), daughter of Dauid de Massue, Seigneur de Ruvigny. Their children were Lady Elizabeth (wife of Edward Noel, afterwards Earl of Gainsborough) and Lady Rachel (wife, first of Francis, Lord Vaughan; 2d, of William, Lord Russell). The only brother of Rachel, Countess of Southampton, was Henri de Massue Marquis De Ruvigny (born about 1600, died 1689). The Marquis’s career fills my Chapter Second. He served in the French army, and retired in 1653 with the rank of Lieutenant-General. He then was settled at court as Deputy-General of the Reformed Churches of France; his commission was issued in 1653, and was approved by the National Synod of Loudun in Anjou in 1659.
Page 130. — In the autumn of 1660 Ruvigny was the ambassador from Louis XIV. to our Charles II. In 1656 he was at Lisbon on a special embassy (page 131). He was again in England in 1667 and 1668; and again on his most celebrated embassy in 1674-5-6 (p. 134). In 1681 he made his celebrated oration to Louis XIV. (p. 138) to which the monarch made his too famous reply, ending with the words:— “I consider myself so indispensably bound to attempt the conversion of all my subjects, and the extirpation of heresy, that if the doing of it require that with one of my hands I must cut off the other, I shall not draw back.” On the 14th July 1683, when Lord Russell was under sentence of death, Ruvigny wrote to his niece offering to come over and intercede with our king for the life of her husband. But a brutal remark of Charles II. prevented the visit. On the accession of James II. he arrived, and had an audience with King James as to removing the attainder of his niece’s children.
