# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Schomberg, Friedrich Hermann

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​SCHOMBERG (originally Schonberg), FRIEDRICH HERMANN (or Frederic Armand), Duke of (c. 1615–1690), marshal of France and English general, was descended from an old family of the Palatinate, and was born in December 1615 or January 1616, at Heidelberg, the son of Hans Meinard von Schönberg (1582–1616) and Anne Sutton, daughter of the 9th Lord Dudley. An orphan within a few months of his birth, he was educated by various friends, among whom was the “Winter King,” Frederick V. of the Palatinate, in whose service his father had been. He began his military career under Frederick Henry, prince of Orange, and passed about 1634 into the Swedish service, whence he entered that of France in 1635. His family, and the allied house of the Saxon Schönbergs had already attained eminence in France. After a time he retired to his family estate at Geisenheim on the Rhine, but in 1639 he re-entered entered the Dutch army, in which, apparently, with a few intervals spent at Geisenheim, he remained until about 1650. He then rejoined the French army as a general officer (maréchal de camp), served under Turenne in the campaigns against Condé, and became a lieutenant-general in 1665, receiving this rapid promotion perhaps partly owing to his relationship with the duc d’Halluin, but mainly because he was looked upon as the eventual successor of the great generals then at the height of their fame.
After the peace of the Pyrenees (1659) the independence of Portugal being again menaced by Spain, Schomberg was sent as military adviser to Lisbon with the secret approval of Charles II. of England (who knew him personally and about this time created him baron of Tetford) and Louis XIV., who in order not to infringe the treaty just made with Spain, deprived Schomberg of his French offices. After meeting in the three first campaigns many difficulties from the insubordination of many of the Portuguese officers, Schomberg won the victory of Montes Claros on the 17th of June 1665 over the Spaniards under the prince of Parma. After participating with his army in the revolution which deposed the reigning king in favour of his brother dom Pedro, and ending the war with Spain, Schomberg returned to France, became a naturalized Frenchman and bought the lordship of Coubert near Paris. He had been rewarded by the king of Portugal, in 1663, with the rank of Grandee, the title of count of Mertola and a pension of, £5000 a year. In 1673 he was invited by Charles to England, with the view of taking command of the army, but sentiment was so strong against the appointment, as savouring of French influence, that it was not carried into effect. He therefore again entered the service of France. His first operations in Catalonia were unsuccessful owing to the disobedience of subordinates and the rawness of his troops, but he retrieved the failure of 1674 by retaking Bellegarde in 1675. For this he was made a marshal, being included in the promotion that followed the death of Turenne. The tide had now set against the Huguenots, and Schomberg’s merits had been long ignored on account of his adherence to the Protestant religion. The revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685) compelled him to quit his adopted country. Ultimately he became general-in-chief of the forces of the elector of Brandenburg, and at Berlin he was the acknowledged leader of the thousands of Huguenot refugees there. Soon afterwards, with the elector’s consent, he joined the prince of
​His eldest son Charles, the second duke in the English peerage, died in the year 1693 of wounds received at the battle of Marsaglia.
The most important work on Schomberg’s life and career is Kazner’s Leben Friedrichs von Schomberg oder Schönberg (Mannheim, 1789). The military histories and memoirs of the time should also be consulted.