George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal

George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal, by Placido Costanzi, circa 1733

George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal (1692/3?, probably at Inverugie Castle – 1778, Potsdam) was a Scottish and Prussian army officer and diplomat. Jacobite by persuasion, he was the tenth and last Earl Marischal, having inherited the title from his father the 9th earl in 1712.

The Earl Marischal.

Life

He served in Flanders under the duke of Marlborough from 1708 to 1711, but for considering placing the Old Pretender on the British throne on Queen Anne's death he was deprived of his commission (or resigned). He fought on the Jacobite side during the 1715 Jacobite rising (including at the battle of Sheriffmuir) and was attainted for treason by the Hanoverian government, with his estates falling to the crown. He fled to the continent and went on to serve the Jacobite court at Avignon and to be its ambassador to Spain and then Prussia. He then served Frederick the Great as his ambassador to Spain from 1759 to 1761, informing the Hanoverian government of Spanish preparations to enter the war on France's side, which gained him his pardon by George II on 29 May 1759. Further actions by the Hanoverian government returned him his right to use his title and regain his estates in Great Britain but, despite brief return trips to Scotland in 1761 and 1763–64, he found the climate and his neighbors unfavorable. At Frederick's invitation, Keith returned to Prussia for good, dying in Potsdam. He was a friend and patron of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His brother James Francis Edward Keith also served Prussia as a field marshal.

References

• "Keith, George". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15265.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

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