Cumberland, William Augustus, duke of

Cumberland, William Augustus, duke of, 1721–65, British general; third son of George II. Entering the army shortly before the outbreak (1740) of the War of the Austrian Succession, he was defeated by the French at Fontenoy (1745). Returning to England to put down the 1745 rising of the Jacobites, he defeated Prince Charles Edward Stuart at Culloden Moor (1746) and earned the nickname “the Butcher” by his ruthless punishment of the rebels. Once more on the Continent, he averted the fall of Maastricht but was again defeated by the French in 1747. In the Seven Years War he signed (1757) a capitulation to the French (the Convention of Kloster-Zeven) for which he was dismissed.

See two biographical studies by E. Charteris (1913, 1925).

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