In complete armour. Wig, Holding a baton. Blue riband.
BORN 1674, DIED 1718.
By Sir Godfrey Kneller.
THE subject of this notice derived his origin from one ‘Walter,’ a knight who flourished in the year 1179. He was one of the seven imperial vassals of Guelderland, who exercised sovereign rights, each in his several domain.
Surnames were not known in the middle of the twelfth century. Walter Van Keppel was probably among the first who made the addition to his baptismal appellation. Towards the close of the century it became customary for each knight to call himself after the spot of ground on which his principal castle was situated. Accordingly, our Walter assumed the name of an islet on the river Issel, on which he created his Hoofdslot, which Hoofdslot is now occupied by the descendants of a female branch of the family. Passing over a long line of ancestors, we arrive at Oswald Van Keppel, Lord of the Voorst, who (the genealogists show) bore sixteen quarterings of nobility on his escutcheon. Oswald dying in 1685, his son, Arnold (whose portrait is under consideration) succeeded to the lordship of Voorst. He was now thirteen years of age, Page of Honour to William of Orange, Stadtholder, and the youngest, liveliest, and handsomest of the five Dutch noblemen who landed with their illustrious countryman at Torbay on the memorable 5th of November 1688. On his accession to the English throne, William III. raised his page to the confidential post of amanuensis, and from that time never slackened in his partiality and friendship. In 1695, on Keppel’s attaining his majority, he was created Earl of Albemarle, Viscount Bury, and Baron Ashford, and, shortly afterwards, Knight of the Garter. Mackay, in his Characters, describes the new Peer as ‘King William’s constant companion in all his diversions and pleasures,’ and as being after a time intrusted with affairs of the greatest importance. He was beautiful in person, open and free in conversation, and very expensive in his manner of living. ‘About this time,’ says Bishop Burnet, ‘the King set up a new favourite, Keppel, a gentleman of Guelder, who was raised from a page to the highest degree of favour that any person had ever obtained about the King. By a quick and unaccountable progress he engrossed the Royal favour so entirely that he disposed of everything in the King’s power. He was a cheerful young man, that had the art to please, but was so much given to his own pleasure, that he could scarce subject himself to the attendance and drudgery that were necessary to maintain his post; he had not, however, yet distinguished himself in anything. He was not cold or dry, as the Earl of Portland was thought to be, who seemed to have the art of creating enemies to himself, and not one friend; but the Earl of Albemarle had all the arts of Court, and was civil to all.’ If this spoiled child of nature and fortune counted his Court duties as drudgery, the same could not be said of his military avocations. He studied the art of war under his Royal patron, one of the most consummate captains of the day. So satisfied was the teacher with the capacity of his pupil, that he not only initiated him into the secrets of his strategy, but imparted to him no small share in the execution of his projects,—a confidence which, although placed in so young a man, the King never had reason to repent.
In the year of his elevation to the Peerage, Albemarle accompanied the King on the memorable campaign which ended in the surrender of Namur to William III., who left his friend behind for the transaction of some necessary business in that town, whilst he proceeded to his Palace of the Loo, before returning to England. Here the news of Albemarle’s sudden and alarming illness so distressed the King that he sent his own physician, the eminent Dr. John Radcliffe, to the sufferer’s assistance. Albemarle soon recovered under the good doctor’s skilful care; and so delighted was the King to have his favourite restored to health, that he acknowledged Radcliffe’s services in the most munificent manner. In addition to his travelling expenses, the Doctor received £400 and a magnificent diamond ring; Radcliffe was also offered a baronetcy, but he declined, on the plea of having no son to inherit the title. In 1698 Lord Albemarle received a grant of 100,000 confiscated acres in Ireland, which grant, however (as in the case of Lord Athlone and others), the Commons of England very properly refused to ratify. The following year the King sent some of the most skilful British artificers to Holland to decorate and beautify the house and grounds of the Voorst, at a cost of £50,000. What this large sum would represent in these days, the writer does not feel competent to hazard an opinion.
In 1701 Lord Albemarle married Gertrude, daughter of Adam van der Duen, Lord of Gravemoor, whose descent is traced by the genealogists of Guelderland to Alphert, ninth Lord of Bridesden, and through him to Siegfried, son of Arnulf, Count of Holland, who died in 999.
The Treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, had procured for Europe a few years’ suspension of hostilities; but in 1702 broke out the Spanish War of Succession, when Albemarle was sent on a mission to Holland by Royal command, but was soon recalled in hot haste to England to his dying master’s bedside.
‘The King,’ says Macaulay, ‘was sinking fast.’ Albemarle arrived at Kensington exhausted by hasty travel, and William bade him rest for some hours. He then summoned him to make his report. It was in all respects satisfactory: the States-General were in the best temper; the troops, the provisions, the magazines were all in good order; everything was in readiness for an early campaign. William received the intelligence with the calmness of a man whose work is done; he was in no illusion as to his danger. ‘I am fast advancing,’ he said, ‘to my end.’