Rothe, and hence became known as the ‘regiment of Rothe,’ a name which it bore for forty-eight years; during the whole of this period it continued to wear the scarlet and blue uniform of the ‘King's Own Footguards’ (British). In 1719 Rothe joined the army of Spain under the Duke of Berwick, and commanded his regiment at the reduction of Fontarabia and San Sebastian, and the siege of Rosas (cf. Wilson, Duke of Berwick, Marshal of France, pp. 430 sq.). At the end of the campaign he was created, on 13 March 1720, lieutenant-general of the armies of the king. His military skill and dauntless courage had attracted attention in England as well as on the continent. The author of ‘A Letter to Sir Robert Sutton for disbanding the Irish Regiments’ (Amsterdam, August 1727) speaks of Rothe's ‘memorable actions’ and ‘immortal reputation’ for courage, and in a letter to Lord Bolingbroke, dated from Scotland in 1716, the Pretender wrote, ‘I should have mentioned before that Rothe or Dillon I must have; one I can spare you, but not both; and, maybe, Dillon would be useful in Ireland.’ Rothe could have gone only at the expense of the commission he held from the French king, and prudently refused to make the sacrifice. He continued colonel-proprietor of his regiment until May 1733, when he made over the command to his son. He died at Paris, in his eightieth year, on 2 May 1741. He married Lady Catherine (1685–1763), youngest daughter of Charles, second earl of Middleton [q. v.], by Lady Catherine, daughter of Robert Brudenel, first earl of Cardigan. By her he left an only son, Charles Edward Rothe, born 23 Dec. 1710, who was granted a commission in his father's regiment as captain en second on 28 May 1719, took over the colonelcy on 28 May 1733, was made brigadier on 20 Feb. 1743, served at Dettingen and, with much distinction, at Fontenoy, and was made lieutenant-general of the Irish and Scottish troops in the service of France on 31 March 1759. He met his death by an accident while residing at his château of Haute-Fontaine in Picardy on 16 Aug. 1766 (see PUE, Occurrences, 6 Sept. 1766). He married Lucie (1728–1804), only daughter of Lucius Henry Cary, fifth viscount Falkland, by his second wife, Laura, daughter of Lieutenant-general Arthur Dillon, and by her left a daughter Lucie (d. 1782), who married in 1769 (as his first wife) her cousin, General Arthur Dillon, colonel of Dillon's regiment, and one of the victims of ‘the Terror’ (14 April 1794).
[Journal of the Hist. and Archæolog. Assoc. of Ireland, 4th ser. vii. 501, 620 (a valuable paper on the Rothe family, by Mr. G. D. Burtchaell); O'Callaghan's Hist. of the Irish Brigades, pp. 94–6; O'Hart's Irish pedigrees, p. 655, and Landed Gentry, p. 561; O'Conor's Military Hist. of the Irish Nation; D'Alton's King James's Irish Army Lists; Mémoire Hist. concernant l'Ordre Royal et Militaire de St. Louis, Paris, 1785; Dictionnaire Historique, Paris, 1759; Journal de Marquis de Dangeau, 1859, xiii. 131, 208, xviii. 169, 260; Campagnes de divers Maréchals de France, Amsterdam, 1773, Table, s.v. Roôth; Mémoires du Maréchal de Villars, ed. Vogüé, 1887, ii. 80, 104, 119; Pelet's Mémoires Militaires, vols. iii. iv.; Hist. MSS. Comm, 2nd Rep. App. p. 257.]
ROTHE, ROBERT (1550–1622), antiquary, born on 28 April 1550, was eldest son of David Rothe, ‘sovereign’ of Kilkenny in 1541, and commissioner for the county in 1558, by his wife Anstace, daughter of Patrick Archer of Kilkenny. David Rothe [q. v.], bishop of Ossory, was his first cousin, and Michael Rothe [q. v.] the general was lineally descended from the bishop's father. Robert was a Dublin barrister, and at an early age became standing counsel and agent to his kinsman, Thomas Butler, tenth earl of Ormonde [q. v.] In 1574 he went to London on Ormonde's business, and obtained for himself a confirmation of arms from William Dethick, York herald. He was elected M.P. for the county of Kilkenny in 1585. He was exempted in 1587 from the composition levied on the county; and ‘in consideration of his services and great losses in the time of the late rebellion [of Tyrone in 1598], and to encourage him in his loyalty,’ he was granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1602 part of the possessions of the priory of Kells. The grant was confirmed in 1607.
In the charter creating Kilkenny a city (1609) he is named as first alderman and recorder. He was also the first mayor. Besides his residence in the city of Kilkenny, he had places at Kilcreene and Tullaghmaine. At the latter he built bridges, and left directions for keeping them in repair. He was elected a bencher of the King's Inns, Dublin, and served as treasurer in 1620. He died on 18 Dec. 1622, in his seventy-third year.
Rothe was author of two valuable historical works, still remaining in manuscript, viz.: 1. ‘A Register containing the Pedigree of the Honourable Thomas, late Earl of Ormond and Ossory, and of his ancestors and cousins, both lineal and collateral, as well since the Conquest as before. … Collected and gathered out of sundry Records and evidences. … in 1616.’ This manuscript, numbered F. 3. 16. No. 13 in Trinity College Library, Dublin, revised by the writer's
