[10] In 1690 James II and Louis XIV agreed that an Irish Brigade of 5,400 men would be sent to France in exchange for six French regiments sent to Ireland with Lauzun.
His father fell at the Battle of Aughrim on 12 July 1691,[13] whereas his mother was killed during the second Siege of Limerick by a shell fired into the town on 7 September 1691.
Dillon and his regiment were sent to Roussillon and Catalonia, another theatre of this same war, where they fought the Spanish, among others at the siege of Roses under the Duc de Noailles, in 1693.
Vendôme besieged Barcelona, which was defended by its governor, the Conde de la Corzana, and by Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt.
His chosen wife was Christina Sheldon, a maid-of-honour to Mary of Modena, queen consort of James II of England.
Christina's parents were Ralph Sheldon of Ditchford, Worcestershire (1633–1723) and Elisabeth, heiress of Daniel Dunn of Garnish Hall in Essex.
French troops under the command of Marshal Nicolas Catinat fought the Austrians under Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Thereupon, Louis XIV ordered Vendôme with a big part of the Armée d'Italie to Flanders to redress the situation there.
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who would rule France as Regent from 1715 to 1723, replaced Vendôme in Italy, taking up his new position in July.
Together with Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey, comte de Médavy, Dillon defeated at the Battle of Castiglione on 9 September 1706 a Hessian unit under Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel[39] that had arrived too late from Germany to join the main body of Eugene's army.
Their victory had no effect, because the day before the French lost the decisive Battle of Turin (7 September 1706) and had to evacuate northern Italy.
In 1709 Berwick, and Dillon with him, were transferred to the Dauphiné to guard this French province against attacks from neighbouring Savoy.
Dillon defended Briançon and on 28 August 1709 defeated Bernhard Otto von Rehbinder [it], a Baltic German in Savoyard service, at the Pont de la Vachette.
[42][43] commander In 1712, when the French opened peace talks with the English, James Francis Edward was told to leave France.
Comte Dillon, as he was now, was transferred from the Dauphiné to the Rhine for the campaign of 1713, where he served under Villars capturing Kaiserslautern on 24 June 1713[46][47] and the Castle Wolfstein.
However, the war still raged on in Spain where Catalonia tried to preserve Catalan autonomy by supporting Charles III against Philip V as Spanish King.
Returning from Scotland following the failure of the rising, James Francis Edward found himself not welcome in Lorraine anymore and established himself at Avignon on 2 April 1716.
[54] In this role Dillon, together with Georg Heinrich von Görtz, and Carl Gyllenborg tried to convince Charles XII of Sweden to help the Jacobites to invade England.
In 1721 James III gave him Scottish titles by creating him Earl Dillon, also Viscount and Lord.