Arthur Dillon, Count Dillon


Arthur Dillon, Count Dillon was a Jacobite soldier from Ireland who served as Colonel of Dillon's Regiment in the Irish Brigade in French service. He fought in the Nine Years' War and in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Birth and origins

Arthur was born in 1670 in County Roscommon in Ireland. He was the third of the six sons of Theobald Dillon and his wife Mary Talbot. His father was the 7th Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallen and supported James II in the Williamite war in Ireland. His father's family was Old English Irish and descended from Sir Henry Dillon who came to Ireland with Prince John in 1185. Henry's mother was a daughter of Sir Henry Talbot of Templeogue. The Talbots also were Old English. Both his parents were Catholic.
Only three of the six brothers are known by name. Arthur appears below at the bottom of the list as the youngest of those three:
  1. Robert, never married and predeceased his father;
  2. Henry, became the 8th Viscount Dillon; and
  3. Arthur.

Early life

His father raised Dillon's Regiment in 1688, fought for James II of England in the Williamite War in Ireland, and was killed at the Battle of Aughrim 1691. In 1690 James II and Louis XIV agreed that an Irish Brigade of 5,400 men, including Dillon's Regiment, would be sent to France in exchange for 6 French regiments sent to Ireland with Lauzun. Dillon's Regiment was part of this Irish Brigade, which was led by Lord Mountcashel. Arthur, at the age of 20, was placed in command of the regiment and landed with it at Brest on 1 May 1690.
His father fell at the Battle of Aughrim on 12 July 1691. His mother was killed by a shell fired into the town during the Siege of Limerick on 7 September 1691.
At that time France was in the middle of the Nine Years' War of which the Williamite War in Ireland had been a theatre. Dillon and his regiment were sent to Roussillon and Catalonia, another theatre of this war, where they fought the Spanish, among others at the siege of Roses under the Duc de Noailles, in 1693. In 1695 the duc de Vendôme succeeded to Noailles. Vendôme besieged Barcelona, which was defended by its governor, the conde de la Corzana, and by Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt. The town surrendered on terms after a siege of 52 days on 10 August 1697.

Marriage and children

The Nine Years' War ended in 1697 with the Treaty of Ryswick and three years of peace followed. Dillon found the time to marry. His chosen wife was Christina Sheldon, a maid-of-honour to Mary of Modena, queen consort of James II of England. Christina's parents were Ralph Sheldon of Ditchford, Worcestershire and Elisabeth, heiress of Daniel Dunn of Garnish Hall in Essex. Dominic Sheldon, the Jacobite general, was her uncle. Her family was English and Catholic. She continued to serve Mary of Modena as lady-in-waiting at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Their children included five sons:
  1. Charles, became the 10th Viscount Dillon;
  2. Henry, became the 11th Viscount Dillon;
  3. James, became Colonel of Dillon's Regiment and fell in the Battle of Fontenoy;
  4. Edward, succeeded his brother as Colonel of the Dillon Regiment and fell in the Battle of Lauffeld; and
  5. Arthur Richard, became a French archbishop.
They also had daughters including:
  1. Frances, became a Carmelite nun;
  2. Catharine, became a Carmelite nun and died at St. Denis;
  3. Mary, died at St Germain;
  4. Bridget, married the Baron Blaisel, a Lieutenant-General in the French Army; and
  5. Laura, married Lucius Cary, 6th Viscount Falkland, a Jacobite.

    War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession broke out after Charles II of Spain, the last Habsburg king of Spain, had died without heir. Dillon and his Regiment were sent to Northern Italy where France and its ally Savoy were trying to seize the duchy of Milan, which belonged to Spain. The French troops under the command of Marshal Nicolas Catinat fought the Austrians under Prince Eugene of Savoy. However, after losing the skirmish of Carpi on 9 July 1701, the command of the French troops in Italy was given to the duc de Villeroy under whom Catinat then served as second in command. Prince Eugene defeated Villeroy at Chiari on 1 September 1701.
Eugene's next move was to surprise Villeroy in his winter-quarters in Cremona in the night of 31 January to 1 February 1702. This action is also called the Battle of Cremona. Villeroy was taken prisoner, but the French were saved from defeat by Dillon's and Bourke's Irish regiments, who held the Po-gate and the bridge over the River Po against the Austrians, thus preventing Eugene from effecting his junction with the troops he had on the other side of the river. Eventually, Eugene could not hold the town against its garrison and had to retreat.
Villeroy was replaced with the duc de Vendôme, still opposing Eugene on the other side. Under Vendôme Dillon and his regiment fought in the battles of Santa-Vittoria on 26 July 1702, and Luzzara on 15 August 1702. In 1703 Vendôme tried to effect a junction with the Bavarians, allied with the French against Austria, through the Tyrol and penetrated as far as Trent. Dillon took the town of Riva at the northern tip of Lake Garda. However, on 13 August 1703 Marlborough and Eugene beat the French and Bavarians at Blenheim. Savoy switched side and Vendôme had to retreat. In 1704 Dillon, aged 34, was promoted to maréchal de camp. On 16 August 1705 Vendôme repulsed Eugene at Cassano. Three Irish regiments, including Dillon's, played a key-role in stopping Eugene's attack.
On 23 May 1706 Marlborough beat Villeroy at Ramillies in the Spanish Netherlands. Thereupon, Louis XIV ordered Vendôme with a big part of the Armée d'Italie to Flanders to redress the situation there. Dillon and his regiment stayed behind in Northern Italy. Philippe II, Duke of Orléans replaced Vendôme in Italy, taking up his new position in July.
Together with Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey, comte de Médavy, Dillon defeated at the Battle of Castiglione on 8 September 1706 a unit of Hessians who had arrived too late from Germany to join the main body of Eugene's army. Their victory had no effect, because the day before the French lost the decisive Battle of Turin and had to evacuate northern Italy.
On 24 September 1706 Dillon was promoted to lieutenant général. Under Marshal Tessé Dillon and his regiment participated in the successful defence of Toulon in the Siege of Toulon. In 1707 Austria signed the Convention of Milan ending the war in Northern Italy.
in 1708 Dillon's regiment was transferred to the Moselle where Dillon served under Claude Louis Hector de Villars and James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick.
In 1709 he was transferred to the Dauphiné where he defended Briançon in August 1709. While in Grenoble Dillon had an affair with Claudine Guérin de Tencin who was at that time a nun at the convent of Montfleury at Corenc near Grenoble. She managed to leave her nunnery in 1712. In 1711 Dillon was created comte Dillon in France by Louis XIV.
Transferred to the Rhine, comte Dillon captured Kaiserslautern in the campaign of 1713. The Peace of Utrecht ended the war. In the treaty France recognised the Hanoverian succession and ended its support for the Jacobites.

Later life

Count Dillon was later appointed commander in the Dauphiné and governor of Toulon.
He did not participate in the Jacobite rising of 1715.
The King he recognised as James III awarded him the Irish titles of Baron and Viscount on 1 February 1717 in Avignon. James III seems to have neglected to give territorial designations for theses titles, but he probably intended to appoint Arthur in place of his nephew Richard who was in place in Ireland as the 9th Viscount Dillon of Costello-Gallen. In 1721 James III gave him Scottish titles by creating him Earl Dillon, also Viscount and Lord.
He was also a grandfather of the French generals Arthur Dillon and Théobald Dillon. He was a cousin of Gerard Lally. He was a great-grandfather of the famous memoirist Henriette-Lucy, Marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet, née Henriette-Lucy Dillon.
In 1730 he retired from active service, handing over the command of the regiment to Charles, his eldest son.

Death, succession, and timeline

On 5 February 1733 N.S., Arthur Dillon, comte de Dillon, died at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. His eldest son Charles, already colonel, now also succeeded to his father's titles: comte de Dillon in France and Earl of Dillon in the Jacobite peerage.