Career
The wedding ceremony was repeated on 7 November 1679. Diana, Princess of Wales was one of his descendants. Charles II made him a Knight of the Garter in 1680.
He was made a colonel of the Grenadier Guards in 1681.
He was brought up as a sailor, and saw military service at the siege of Luxembourg in 1684. In that year, he received a warrant to supersede Sir Robert Holmes as Governor of the Isle of Wight, when the latter was charged with making false musters.
However, Holmes was acquitted by court-martial and retained the governorship. In 1686 he killed John Talbot, brother of the Earl of Shrewsbury, in a duel.
At King James II"s coronation Grafton was Lord High Constable.
During the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth he commanded the royal troops in Somerset. But later he acted with John Churchill, and joined William of Orange to overthrow the King in the Revolution of 1688. He died in 1690 of a wound received at the storming of Cork while leading William"s forces.
He was 27.
The Duke of Grafton owned land in what was then the countryside near Dublin, Ireland, which later became part of the city. A country lane on this land eventually developed into Grafton Street, one of Dublin"s main streets.