Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle

Who was Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle?

Lieutenant-General Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle KG, KB, PC, ADC was a British diplomat and courtier.

Willem was born on 5 June 1702 at Whitehall Palace, London, the son of the 1st Earl of Albemarle and was baptised on 16 June 1702 in St Martin-in-the-Fields with Queen Anne as one of his godparents.

On 21 February 1722, he married Lady Anne Lennox, a daughter of the 1st Duke of Richmond, at Caversham, Oxfordshire and they had six children:

George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle, who is the 5x-great grandfather of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, thus establishing Willem van Keppel as the nearest link between the two wives of Charles, Prince of Wales.

Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel

Lt.-Gen. Hon. William Keppel

Rt. Rev. Hon. Frederick Keppel

Lady Caroline Keppel, who married Robert Adair

Lady Elizabeth Keppel, who married Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock and is the 5x-great grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales through the maternal line.

Willem fought in the Battle of Dettingen in 1743, was Colonel of the 29th Regiment of Foot 1731–1733 and Coldstream Guards from 1744 and 1754, fighting in the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 and the Battle of Culloden in 1746.