English general
Lieutenant General
Percy Kirke
(c. 1646 ? 31 October 1691),
English
soldier
, was the son of
George Kirke
, a court official to
Charles I
and
Charles II
.
Career
[
edit
]
In 1666 Kirke obtained his first Army commission in Lord Admiral's regiment, and subsequently served in the
Blues
. In 1673 he was with
Monmouth
at
Maastricht
during the
Franco-Dutch War
and was present during two campaigns with
Turenne
on the
Rhine
.
[1]
In 1680 he was promoted
lieutenant-colonel
, and soon afterwards
colonel
of the
2nd Tangier Regiment
(afterwards the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment).
[2]
In 1682 he became
Governor of Tangier
[2]
and colonel of the
Tangier Regiment
(afterwards the Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment).
[1]
That same year, he visited
Meknes
, where
Moulay Ismail
, as a gesture of goodwill, freed one of his English slaves and delivered him to Kirke.
[3]
In the view of the historian
Thomas Babington Macaulay
, he was "a military adventurer whose vices had been developed by the worst of all schools, Tangier.... Within the ramparts of his fortress he was a despotic prince. The only check on his tyranny was the fear of being called to account by a distant and a careless government. He might therefore safely proceed to the most audacious excesses of rapacity, licentiousness, and cruelty. He lived with boundless dissoluteness, and procured by extortion the means of indulgence."
Kirke commanded his regiment at the
Battle of Sedgemoor
in July 1685 during the
Monmouth Rebellion
and then ruthlessly hunted down the fugitives after the battle.
[1]
Brigadier Kirke took a notable part in the
Glorious Revolution
three years later, and
William III
promoted him. He commanded at the relief of
Derry
, breaking the
Jacobite
Irish Army
's
siege of the city
. Following the
Battle of the Boyne
on 1 July 1690, he oversaw the
Capture of Waterford
, Ireland's second largest settlement at the time, on 25 July 1690.
[1]
He took part in his last campaign in
Flanders
in 1691.
He was appointed a
Groom of the Bedchamber
to King William from 1689 to his death. He also briefly served as MP for
West Looe
as a
Tory
in 1689?90.
[4]
He died, with the rank of
lieutenant general
, at
Brussels
on 31 October 1691.
[1]
His eldest son, Lieutenant General
Percy Kirke
(1684?1741), was also colonel of the Lambs.
[1]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Kirke, Percy (d. 1691)"
. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
. Retrieved
28 February
2016
.
- ^
a
b
"Percy Kirke"
. King's Own Royal Regiment Museum Lancaster. Archived from
the original
on 4 March 2016
. Retrieved
2 January
2015
.
- ^
(
Claudio 2012
, The Last Account from Fez, in a Letter from One of the Embassy to a Person of Honor in London, containing a Relation of Colonel Kirk’s Reception at Mequinez, by the Emperor, with Several Passages in Relation to the Affairs at Tangiers (1682)): ≪perceiving an English slave at his labour, his Majesty, after a very gracious manner, gave him his liberty and gave him to Col. Kirk≫
- ^
Watson, Paula.
"Percy Kirke"
. History of Parliament.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Claudio, Vicki, ed. (2012).
A Pastoral Letter to the Captives
. Exagorazo Press.
ISBN
978-1441417930
.
References
[
edit
]
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