Lord George Hamilton, Earle of Orkney, Field Marshall of Great Britain, 1736 (c)

Oil on canvas by Martin Maingaud, 1736.

Wearing the insignia of the Scottish Order of the Thistle, George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney (1666-1737) holds a baton as a symbol of military authority. In 1736 he was the first to be appointed field marshal 'of all his majesty's forces', but it was not until 1810 that batons were used specifically to denote this, the most senior rank in the British Army. To the left is a view of the Battle of Blenheim (1704), the action for which Orkney was made a Knight of the Order of the Thistle.

Lord George Hamilton (later Earl of Orkney) was first commissioned in 1684. Shy in company, as a soldier he had a reputation for courage and tenacity, and was rapidly promoted. By the Irish War of 1689-1690 he was in command of an infantry regiment. He became one of the Duke of Marlborough's most able commanders, who did not miss a single major battle or siege in the Nine Years War (1689-1697) or the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713). In 1704, now Lord Orkney (created 1696) and a lieutenant-general, he commanded an infantry brigade at the Battle of Blenheim. In the closing stages of the action, he tricked a superior French force into surrendering, which hastened the Allied victory. Orkney retired from military service in 1715, to his homes at Cliveden, Buckinghamshire, and London.

In 1695 Hamilton married Elizabeth Villiers (1657 (c)-1733), supposedly to assist the king, William III (1650-1702), by removing his former mistress from court. Yet even after her marriage Lady Orkney retained a degree of political influence on the crown: the writer Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) said she was the wisest woman he ever knew. The couple had three daughters, the eldest of whom, Anne, married William O'Brien, 4th Earl of Inchiquin in 1720.