BERWICK, JAMES FITZJAMES, DUKE OF, marshal and peer of France, was a natural son of James, duke of York, afterwards James II. of England, by Arab:Ala Churchill, sister of the great duke of Marlborough. He was born at Moulins, August 21, 1670. He received his education in France, studying successively at Juilly, at the College of Plessis, and at the College of Fleche. At the age of fifteen, his father having succeeded to the throne, he was sent to learn the business of a soldier under the famous general of the empire, Charles of Lorraine. He served his first campaigns in Hungary, and was present at the siege of Buda and the battle of Mohaez. In 1687 he returned to England, was made a Knight of the Garter, and created duke of Berwick. After the Revolution lie served under James II. in the campaign in Ireland, was in one engagement severely wounded, and was present at the battle of the Boyne For a short time he was left in Ireland as commander-in-chief, bat his youth and inexperience unfitted him for the post, and he was a mere puppet in stronger hands. In 1692 he was recalled to France, and took service in the French army. He fought under Marshal Luxembourg in Flanders, took part in the battles of Steinkerk and Landen (Neerwinden), and was taken prisoner at the latter. Ho was, however, immediately exchanged for the duke of Ormond, and afterwards he served under Villeroi. In 1696 the duke of Berwick took a prominent part in a plot for a Jacobite insurrection, but the scheme came to nothing. In 1702 he served under the duke of Burgundy, and in the following became naturalized as a Frenchman. In 1701 he first took command of the French army in Spain. So highly was he now esteemed for his courage, abilities, and integrity„ that all parties were anxious to have him on their side (Eloge, by Montesquieu). From Spain he was recalled to take the command against the Camisards in Languedoc, and when on this expedition he is said to have carried out with remorseless rigour the orders which he received from Versailles. About this time he was created marshal of France. He was then sent again to Spain to retrieve the affairs of that kingdom, and to prop up the tottering throne. In April 1707 he won the great victory of Almanza, an Englishman at the head of a French army, over the earl of Galway (comte de Ruvigny), a Frenchman at the head of an English army. The victory established Philip V. on the throne of Spain, although neither he nor his rival, the archduke, was present at the battle. Berwick was made a peer of France and grandee of Spain. In 170S he became commander-in-chief of the armies of France in Spain, in Flanders, on the Rhine, and on the Moselle. Through the four following years he gained fresh laurels by his masterly defence of Dauphine, and in 1713 he returned to Spain and took Barcelona. Three years later he was appointed military governor of the province of Guienne. In 1718 he found himself under the necessity of once more entering Spain with an army; and this time he had to fight against Philip V., the king who owed chiefly to his courage and skill the safety of his throne. One of the marshal's sons, known as duke of Liria, was settled in Spain, and was counselled by his father not to shrink from doing his duty and fighting for his sovereign. Many years of peace followed this campaign, and Marshal Berwick was not again called to serve in the field till 1733. He advised and conducted in 1734 the siege of Philipsburg on the Rhine, and while the siege was going on was killed by a cannon-shot, June 12 of that year. Cool, self-possessed, and cautious as a general, Marshal Berwick was at the same time not wanting in audacity and swiftness of action in a real crisis. He was careful of the lives of his men, and was also a rigid disciplinarian. Lord Bolingbroke pronounced him the best great man that ever existed. Montesquieu said, " In the works of Plutarch I have seen at a distance what great men were ; in Marshal Berwick I have seen what they arc." He married in 1695 a daughter of the earl of Clanricarde, by whom he had the son already mentioned. He married a second wife in 1699, by whom he had another son, known as Marshal Fitz-James. The Afemoires of Marshal Berwick, revised, annotated, and continued by the Abb6, Hosk, were published by the marshal's grandson in 1778. An untrustworthy compilation bearing the same title had been published about forty years earlier.