Percy Kirke

{{short description|English Army officer (c. 1646–1691)}} {{for|his son|Percy Kirke (British Army officer)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Use British English|date=November 2016}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = [[Lieutenant general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] | name = Percy Kirke | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Percy Kirke.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Painting of Percy Kirke, c. 1680 | birth_date = {{circa}} 1646 | death_date = 31 October 1691 (aged 45 yrs) | birth_place = | death_place = [[Brussels]], Belgium | burial_place = | burial_label = | burial_coordinates =  | nickname = | birth_name = | allegiance = England | branch = | service_years = | rank = [[Lieutenant-General]] | service_number =  | unit = | commands = | battles = [[Franco-Dutch War]]<br>[[Monmouth Rebellion]]<br>[[Glorious Revolution]] | battles_label = | awards = | spouse =  | relations = | other_work = | signature = | website =  }}

[[Lieutenant-General]] '''Percy Kirke''' ({{circa|1646}} – 31 October 1691) was an [[English Army]] officer who was the son of [[George Kirke]], a court official to [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] and [[Charles II of England|Charles II]].

==Career== In 1666 Kirke obtained his first Army commission in Lord Admiral's regiment, and subsequently served in the [[Royal Horse Guards|Blues]]. In 1673 he was with [[Duke of Monmouth|Monmouth]] at [[Siege of Maastricht (1673)|Maastricht]] during the [[Franco-Dutch War]] and was present during two campaigns with [[Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne|Turenne]] on the [[Rhine]].<ref name=odnb>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15664?docPos=1|title=Kirke, Percy (d. 1691)|publisher=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|accessdate=28 February 2016}}</ref> In 1680 he was promoted [[lieutenant-colonel]], and soon afterwards [[colonel]] of the [[2nd Tangier Regiment]] (afterwards the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment).<ref name=kings>{{cite web|url=http://www.kingsownmuseum.plus.com/cor-kirke.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304100351/http://www.kingsownmuseum.plus.com/cor-kirke.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 March 2016|title=Percy Kirke|publisher=King's Own Royal Regiment Museum Lancaster|accessdate=2 January 2015}}</ref> In 1682 he became [[List of governors of Tangier|Governor of Tangier]]<ref name=kings/> and colonel of the [[Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)|Tangier Regiment]] (afterwards the Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment).<ref name=odnb/> That same year, he visited [[Meknes]], where [[Moulay Ismail]], as a gesture of goodwill, freed one of his English slaves and delivered him to Kirke.<ref>{{Harv |Claudio |2012 |loc=The Last Account from Fez, in a Letter from One of the Embassy to a Person of Honor in London, containing a Relation of Colonel Kirk’s Reception at Mequinez, by the Emperor, with Several Passages in Relation to the Affairs at Tangiers (1682)|ps=: «perceiving an English slave at his labour, his Majesty, after a very gracious manner, gave him his liberty and gave him to Col. Kirk»}}</ref>

[[File:Hendrick Danckerts (c. 1625-c. 1685) - A View of Tangier - RCIN 402578 - Royal Collection.jpg|thumb|''[[A View of Tangier]]'' by [[Hendrick Danckerts]], 1669]] In the view of the historian [[Thomas Babington Macaulay]], he was "a military adventurer whose vices had been developed by the worst of all schools, Tangier.... Within the ramparts of his fortress he was a despotic prince. The only check on his tyranny was the fear of being called to account by a distant and a careless government. He might therefore safely proceed to the most audacious excesses of rapacity, licentiousness, and cruelty. He lived with boundless dissoluteness, and procured by extortion the means of indulgence."

Kirke commanded his regiment at the [[Battle of Sedgemoor]] in July 1685 during the [[Monmouth Rebellion]] and then ruthlessly hunted down the fugitives after the battle.<ref name=odnb/>

Brigadier Kirke took a notable part in the [[Glorious Revolution]] three years later, and [[William III of England|William III]] promoted him. He commanded at the relief of [[Derry]], breaking the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] [[Irish Army (Kingdom of Ireland)|Irish Army]]'s [[Siege of Derry|siege of the city]]. Following the [[Battle of the Boyne]] on 1 July 1690, he oversaw the [[Capture of Waterford]], Ireland's second largest settlement at the time, on 25 July 1690.<ref name=odnb/> He took part in his last campaign in [[Flanders]] in 1691.

He was appointed a [[Groom of the Bedchamber]] to King William from 1689 to his death. He also briefly served as MP for [[West Looe (UK Parliament constituency)|West Looe]] as a [[Tory Party (UK)|Tory]] in 1689–90.<ref name=hop>{{cite web |url=http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1660-1690/member/kirke-percy-1691 |title=Percy Kirke |publisher=History of Parliament |first=Paula |last=Watson |access-date=15 February 2014 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924031132/http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1660-1690/member/kirke-percy-1691 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He died, with the rank of [[lieutenant general]], at [[Brussels]] on 31 October 1691.<ref name=odnb/> His eldest son, Lieutenant General [[Percy Kirke (British Army officer)|Percy Kirke]] (1684–1741), was also colonel of the Lambs.<ref name=odnb/>

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== *{{cite book |editor-last1=Claudio|editor-first1=Vicki |title=A Pastoral Letter to the Captives |date=2012 |publisher=Exagorazo Press |isbn=978-1441417930}}

==References== *{{EB1911|wstitle=Kirke, Percy |volume=15|page=833}}

{{S-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef| before = [[Edward Sackville (died 1714)|Sir Edward Sackville]] }} {{s-ttl| title = [[List of colonial heads of Tangier|Governor of Tangier]] | years = 1681–1683 }} {{s-aft| after = [[George Legge, Baron Dartmouth|George Legge, Admiral Lord Dartmouth]] }} |- {{s-bef | before=[[Palmes Fairborne|Sir Palmes Fairborne]]}} {{s-ttl | title=Colonel of the [[Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)|Tangier Regiment]] | years=1682–1691}} {{s-aft | after=[[William Selwyn (British Army officer)|William Selwyn]]}} {{S-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirke, Percy}} [[Category:1640s births]] [[Category:1691 deaths]] [[Category:Royal Horse Guards officers]] [[Category:Williamite military personnel of the Williamite War in Ireland]] [[Category:English generals]] [[Category:Governors of the Dominion of New England]] [[Category:Governors of Tangier]] [[Category:Soldiers of the Tangier Garrison]] [[Category:Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for West Looe]] [[Category:English MPs 1689–1690]]