William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton
William Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Hamilton (
1616-
1651), succeeded to the dukedom on his
brother’s execution in
1649. He was created
Earl of Lanark in
1639, and in the next year became Secretary of State in Scotland. Arrested at
Oxford by the king’s orders in
1643 for "concurrence" with Hamilton, he effected his escape and was temporarily reconciled with the
Presbyterian party. He was sent by the Scottish committee of estates to treat with
Charles I at Newcastle in
1646, when he sought in vain to persuade the king to consent to the establishment of Presbyterianism in
England. On
26 September 1647 he signed on behalf of the Scots the treaty with Charles known as the "Engagement" at
Carisbrooke Castle, and helped to organize the second
Civil War. In
1648 he fled to
Holland, his succession in the next year to his brother’s dukedom making him an important personage among the Royalist exiles. He returned to
Scotland with
Prince Charles in
1650, but, finding a reconciliation with Argyll impossible, he refused to prejudice Charles’s cause by pushing his claims, and lived in retirement chiefly until the Scottish invasion of England, when he acted as colonel of a body of his dependants. He died on
12 September 1651 from the effects of wounds received at
Worcester. He left no male heirs, and the title devolved on the 1st duke’s eldest surviving daughter Anne, Duchess of Hamilton in her own right.
Text originally from 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica