As a Catholic of Irish and Scottish ancestry, his parents brought him to France in 1651 when Cromwell's army overran Ireland.

When Catholics were excluded from the army, Anthony followed his brother George into French service and fought in the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678).

After the accession of the Catholic James II in 1685, he joined the Irish Army and fought for the Jacobites in the Williamite War (1689–1691).

He chose French as his language and adopted a light and elegant style, seeking to amuse and entertain his reader.

[28] He supported the lord lieutenant of Ireland, James Butler, Marquess of Ormond,[29][30] during the Irish Confederate Wars and the Cromwellian conquest[31] and called himself a baronet.

[34] Thurles (courtesy title) predeceased his father, Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond, and never succeeded to the earldom.

[55] In 1649, during the Cromwellian conquest, Ormond made Anthony's father receiver-general of the revenues[56] as well as governor of Nenagh Castle,[57] which he in vain tried to defend against Henry Ireton in November 1650.

[65][66] Lady Ormond left for England in August 1652,[67] whereas Anthony's mother moved to Paris, where she lodged in the Convent of the Feuillantines [fr].

[68] The Hamilton brothers frequented Charles II's and his mother's, Henrietta Maria, exile court at the Louvre.

[74][75][76] Early in 1661 Hamilton's father also brought his wife and younger children to London,[77] where they lived all together in a house near Whitehall.

[111] Anthony probably fought together with George under Turenne against Imperial troops in the Battle of Sinsheim in June 1674, and did surely so at Entzheim in October,[114] where both were wounded.

[116] French ships picked up the recruits at Kinsale in April 1675,[117] after a missed appointment at Dingle in March.

[161] In August Hamilton was also made governor of Limerick, where his company of Newcomen's regiment was garrisoned, replacing Sir William King, a Protestant.

[164][165] In October 1685 the king appointed Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, a Protestant,[166] lord lieutenant of Ireland.

[171] Clarendon also stated that Hamilton objected to replacing good Protestant officers with mediocre Catholic ones.

[176] At the eve of the Glorious Revolution in September 1688, James asked Tyrconnell to send four Irish regiments to England.

[188] In 1689 during the Williamite War, Tyrconnell promoted Hamilton major-general[189] and gave him the command of the dragoons of an army under Justin McCarthy, Viscount Mountcashel, that he sent north to Belturbet,[190] County Cavan, to fight the rebels of Enniskillen.

[195] With Captain Peter Lavallin of Carroll's dragoons[196] he was court martialled by Rosen, the highest-ranking French general.

[204] When William abandoned his siege end of August,[205] Tyrconnell sent Hamilton to France to report the deliverance.

[241][242] Hamilton wrote a poem Sur l'agonie du feu roi d'Angleterre [On the Agony of the Late King of England].

[258][259] In 1712 James III left Saint-Germain[260] as France was about to drop the Jacobites, a concession they made in 1713 at the Peace of Utrecht.

[261] Richard followed James III to Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine,[262] whereas Anthony stayed behind at Saint-Germain and was allowed to keep his apartment.

Hamilton also wrote at least five tales and many poems, songs, epistles, and letters (ordered by year of publication): The Mémoires de la vie du comte de Grammont were originally planned to cover Gramont's entire life but were cut short so that they end with his marriage.

[332] Zénéyde (read online), written about 1696,[s] starts as a letter to "Madame de P.", in which Hamilton criticises James II's exile court and then escapes into fiction by meeting a nymph at the Seine.

[334][335][y] Le Bélier (read online), written in 1705,[336] gives an etymology for "Pontalie",[337] the name his sister Elizabeth invented for Les Moulineaux, her house at Versailles.

Fleur d'Épine (read online) shares the frame of Arabian Nights and starts with a dialogue between Scheherazade and her sister Dinarzade.

[343] The story starts with the eyes of Luisante, the daughter of the caliph of Kashmir, that kill men and blind women.

A prince calling himself "Tarare" contacts the sorceress Serena, who agrees to help but demands that he must free Fleur d'Epine, held by the witch Dentue.

[z] L'Enchanteur Faustus (read online) tells how Faust conjures up Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Fair Rosamond, and other beauties to appear before Queen Elizabeth of England.

[352] He helped his niece Claude Charlotte, Gramont's daughter, who had married Henry Stafford-Howard, 1st Earl of Stafford, in 1694,[353] to carry on a witty correspondence with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.