Arthur Dillon, Count Dillon

Arthur Dillon, Count Dillon (1670 in the county of Roscommon – 7 February 1733 at St Germain en Laye) was a Jacobite soldier from Ireland who served in the French army.

Career
He was a younger son of Theobald, 7th Viscount Dillon who fought for James II of England and was killed at the Battle of Aughrim. In 1691, after their defeat at Limerick by William of Orange, the Jacobites went into exile under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick, with Arthur Dillon (like many other Irish Jacobites) choosing France.

In France, he was made the colonel of the Dillon Regiment that his father had raised at his own expense in 1688. He became a maréchal de camp aged 34 and lieutenant général at only 36. He fought gloriously in the campaigns of Louis-Joseph de Vendôme in Spain and of François de Neufville de Villeroy in Italy, served under Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1708) and James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick (1709), and in 1713 he captured Kaiserslautern.

Titles
In 1711 Arthur was created "Comte Dillon" in France by Louis XIV; and was awarded the Irish title "Earl of Dillon" in 1721 by the monarch he recognised as James III (see Jacobite Peerage).

Family
He married Catherine Sheldon, the daughter of an English Jacobite family, and a maid-of-honour to Mary of Modena, queen consort of James II of England. Catherine's parents were Ralph Sheldon of Ditchford, Worcs (1633–1723) and Elisabeth, heiress of Daniel Dunn of Garnish Hall in Essex. Their children included:


 * Archbishop Arthur Richard Dillon
 * Charles, 10th viscount (d. 1741)
 * Henry Dillon, 11th Viscount Dillon
 * James, killed at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745
 * Edward, killed at the Battle of Lauffeld in 1747

He was also a grandfather of the French generals Arthur Dillon (1750-1794) and Théobald Dillon. He was a cousin of Gerard Lally.

He was a great-grandfather of the famous memoirist Henriette-Lucy, Marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet, née Henriette-Lucy Dillon.