CUMBERLAND, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF son of King George II. and Queen Caroline, was born on April 15, 1721, and when five years of age was created duke of Cumberland. After an unsuccessful attempt at a naval career, he joined the army in 1742, becoming a major-general in December. In 1743, he shared in the glory of Dettingen (June 27), and after the battle was made lieutenant-general. In having been made captain-general of the British land forces at home and in the field, the duke was again in Flanders as com mander-in-chief of the allied British, Hanoverian, Austrian and Dutch troops. Advancing to the relief of Tournai, which was besieged by Marshal Saxe, he unsuccessfully engaged that great general in the battle of Fontenoy (q.v.) on May 11.
He was recalled from Flanders to quell the Jacobite rising headed by Prince Charles Edward (1745-46). Carlisle having been retaken, Cumberland retired to London, till the news of the defeat of Hawley at Falkirk roused fresh fears. The duke was appointed commander of the forces in Scotland, and proceeded to Aberdeen to prepare his army. On April 15, 1746 he fought the decisive battle of Culloden. His stern measures for the suppression of Jacobitism which followed earned him his title of "Butcher" Cumberland.
He was rewarded by being voted an income of £40,000 per annum in addition to his revenue as a prince of the royal house. In 1747 he again opposed the still victorious Marshal Saxe in Flanders, and received a heavy defeat at the battle of Lauffeld, or Val, near Maestricht (July 1747). When war broke out afresh in 1757 Cumberland was placed at the head of a motley army of allies to defend Hanover. At Hastenbeck, near Hameln, on July 26, 1757, he was defeated by the superior forces of D'Estrees (see SEVEN YEARS WAR), and finally, in September, capitulated at Klosterzeven, agreeing to disband his army and to evacuate Hanover. His disgrace was completed on his return to England by the king's refusal to be bound by the terms of the duke's agree ment. Retiring into private life, the duke did much to displace the Bute ministry and that of Grenville, and endeavoured to restore Pitt to office. Public opinion, which had originally turned against him after his harsh treatment of the Scotch, now set in his favour, and he became almost as popular as he had been in his youth. He died on Oct. 31, 1765.
See A. N. Campbell Maclachlan: William Augustus, Duke of Cum berland (1876) ; E. Charteris: William Augustus . . . his early life and times (1913) ; William Augustus . . . and the Seven Years War (1925) ; and CUMBERLAND: DUKES AND EARLS OF.