Granville Elliott - Continental European Military Career

Continental European Military Career

By 1732, Granville was in the service of the HM Karl Philipp von Pfalz-Neuburg, Elector Palatine of the Rhine. On 7 March 1735, ahead of Granville's marriage on 15 March 1735 at Mannheim to Jeanne Thérèse du Han, Comtesse de Martigny (30 October 1707 – 7 May 1748), he was created a Chambellan in the Elector's army and raised to the title of Comte de Morhange in the Moselle region. To facilitate the marriage, Granville converted to Catholicism, and took the forename Joseph, which caused him problems with his mother's Calvinist relatives. In August 1736, he and his mother swore oaths at the College of Arms in London that the Elliott family descended from a legal marriage of Richard Eliot (b. 1614 - unknown), the wayward second son of Sir John Eliot (1592–1632) to Catherine Killigrew (1617–1689), daughter of Sir Robert Killigrew (1580–1633) and Mary Woodhouse (CIR 1584 - 1655). However, the two oaths differed in some details, and no independent evidence for any marriage of Richard has ever come to light. Moreover, Catherine Killigrew was still described as spinster in 1655 when she executed her mother's will. As a result, Granville was not recognised by the College of Arms as a legitimate relative of the then Lord Eliot of Port Eliot in Cornwall, ancestors of the present Earls of St Germans. Nevertheless, Granville Elliott had a pedigree drawn up (which survives today) and formally presented to him in Paris by the British Ambassador / Plenipotentiary. As a result of this device, Granville became known at the Elector's Court as Comte Eliot de Port-Eliot, and Graf Eliot von Port-Eliot.

On 29 October 1736, Granville was promoted to the rank of Colonel, taking over the colonelcy of the Carabinier Regiment on 1 February 1737, and the Dragoons Regiment on 10 July 1738. In 1737, Granville was appointed Cavalry General of the States-General of the Netherlands, the legislature of the Dutch Republic. A few years later, he was working at Lunéville, at the court of the exiled King Stanislaus I of Poland who had become Duke of Lorraine and Bar. In 1745, he was appointed Major-General of Cavalry for the Elector Palatine. On 22 April 1745, he was promoted to Major-General; on 24 June 1746, to Lieutenant-General of Cavalry, and, on 2 November 1748, to Lieutenant-General of Cavalry for the States-General of the Netherlands.

Granville and his wife appeared regularly in the Madame de Graffigny correspondence, usually under his baptised name Joseph or his familiar name Cotoco. His wife died on 7 May 1748, and this caused a substantial change of direction for Granville. He left his first grown-up family with their French relatives, returned to the UK, forsook his Catholicism and repaired the bridges with his mother's relatives. It appears that Granville did not subsequently contact his French family, although there was no known ill-will between them.