HISTORY
Favour, loyalty and a fall: DaRTMOUTh’S FIRST BaROn
DArTmOUTh’s FIrsT BArOn DID WELL In hIs CAREER BUT ULTIMATELY BACKED THE WRONG KING AND WAS PACKED OFF TO THE TOWER.
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
George Legge G
eorge Legge found success at sea, working his way up following a break down to family connections.
George Legge, 1st
baron of Dartmouth
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
He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1683
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)
King charles II
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.
King James II
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