Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich

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JP
Portrait by Peter Lely
Ambassador to Spain
In office
1666–1668
Ambassador to Portugal
In office
1661–1662
Joint Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire
In office
September 1660 – May 1672
Member of Parliament
for Dover
In office
May 1660 – August 1660
General at sea
In office
1656–1660
English Council of State
In office
1653–1659
Member of Parliament
for Huntingdonshire
In office
October 1645 – December 1657
Personal details
Born27 July 1625
Barnwell, Northamptonshire, England
Died28 May 1672(1672-05-28) (aged 46)
Sole Bay, Suffolk, England
Resting placeWestminster Abbey
Spouse
Jemimah Crew
​
(m. 1642)​
Children10, including Edward, Sidney, and John
Parent(s)Sir Sidney Montagu
Paulina Pepys
ResidenceHinchingbrooke House
OccupationArmy and naval officer, diplomat
Military service
Battles/wars

Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, 27 July 1625 to 28 May 1672, was an English military officer, politician and diplomat from

Member of Parliament at various times between 1645 and 1660. Under The Protectorate, he was also a member of the English Council of State and General at sea
.

In the political infighting that followed the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, he played an important role in bringing about the Stuart Restoration in May 1660. Crowned Earl of Sandwich by Charles II, he served as Ambassador to Portugal from 1661 to 1662. Appointed Ambassador to Spain in 1666, he helped negotiate the 1667 Treaty of Madrid.

When the Second Anglo-Dutch War began in 1665, he commanded a naval squadron but was later suspended in a dispute over prize money. Restored to command when the Third Anglo-Dutch War began in May 1672, he was killed at the Battle of Solebay in June. Montagu is one of the best-known characters of the 1660s, since he is a central figure in the diaries of Samuel Pepys, a distant cousin and naval official.

Personal details

Montagu was born on 25 July 1625, only surviving son of Sir Sidney Montagu (c. 1572-1644) and his first wife Paulina Pepys (died 1638), great-aunt of Samuel Pepys. On 7 November 1642, Montagu married Jemima Crew, daughter of John Crew, 1st Baron Crew and Jemima Waldegrave, whom Pepys in his Diary refers to with great affection as "My Lady". The couple had ten children:[1]

  • Jemima (1646–1671)
  • Edward (1648–1688)
  • Paulina (1649–1669)
  • Sidney (1650–1727)
  • Oliver (c. 1655–1689)
  • John (c. 1655–1729)
  • Charles (1658–1721)
  • Anne (1660–1729)
  • Catherine (1661–1757)
  • James (b. 1664)
Paulina Pepys, Mother of the First Earl of Sandwich

Paulina's death in February 1669, aged only twenty, was a great source of grief to her father. Pepys, who called her "a peevish lady", called to pay his condolences, but found him "shut away for sorrow".[2]

First English Civil War and Interregnum

Although his father was a Royalist, when the First English Civil War began in August 1642 Montagu served in the Eastern Association army led by his Parliamentarian cousin, the Earl of Manchester. He raised a regiment of infantry which during the 1644 campaign fought at Marston Moor, the Siege of York and Second Newbury. Despite his family relationship, Montagu supported those in Parliament who expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war by Manchester and Essex.[3]

This resulted in the creation of the

MPs they could not resign their titles.[4] Montagu's regiment was incorporated into the New Model, taking part in the June 1645 Battle of Naseby, followed by the capture of Bristol. In October, he resigned from the army as required by the Ordinance when was appointed MP for Huntingdonshire, a seat formerly held by his father who died in September 1644.[5]

Montagu played no part in the

Barebones Parliament as MP for Huntingdonshire, a seat formerly held by his father who died in September 1644.[5] He was also appointed to the English Council of State, an office he held until it was dissolved in 1659, and was re-elected to the First Protectorate Parliament in 1654, then the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656.[6]

Portrait of Sandwich by Sir Peter Lely, painted 1666, part of the Flagmen of Lowestoft series.

During the

Mediterranean. This experience made him a leading advocate of establishing a British naval base in the region, an ambition realised with the acquisition of English Tangier in 1661.[7] In February 1657, he was one of the so-called "New Cromwellians" who supported the Humble Petition and Advice, inviting Cromwell to declare himself king and advocating the re-establishment of a national church. The measure was opposed by army radicals including Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert and ultimately rejected.[8]

In June 1658 he commanded the naval squadron that blockaded

Robert Honywood were sent to monitor his activity.[9] He was recalled and investigated by the newly installed Rump Parliament; although no evidence was found, he was dismissed from command.[10]

Restoration

Charles leaves the Dutch Republic for England, 24 May 1660

By the end of 1659, England appeared to be drifting into anarchy, with widespread demands for new elections and an end to military rule. In February 1660, George Monck, military commander in Scotland, marched into London and declared his support for the Rump against the Republican faction led by John Lambert. Montagu resumed command of the navy and was returned as MP for the important port of Dover when elections were held for a Convention Parliament in April.[11]

This placed him in a powerful position during negotiations for the

St. Edward's staff at Charles' subsequent coronation. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
, who liked and admired Sandwich, wrote that the conferring of these honours caused much resentment among those Royalists who had gone into exile with their King, and regarded Sandwich as a "diehard" Cromwellian; yet adds that his charm of manner made it almost impossible to dislike him.

He was appointed

Mumbai and Tangier. Sandwich, like others, saw a great future for Tangier as an international trade centre, and he commanded the fleet which took possession of the city in January 1662, purchasing a house there. Returning to England, in his capacity as Ambassador, he escorted the new Queen, Catherine of Braganza, from Lisbon.[13]

Montagu was a signatory to The Several Declarations of The Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa, a document published in 1667 which led to the expansion of the Royal Africa Company.[14][15][16]

The Prize Goods Scandal

In the

royal pardon: the King, mindful of his good services at the Restoration, willingly granted it.[17][16]

Ambassador to Spain

During his absence from battle, Sandwich served as England's ambassador to Spain, replacing Sir Richard Fanshawe. This is further evidence that despite his unpopularity, he retained the King's confidence, although his political fortunes, like those of his friend and patron Clarendon, were in decline. Sandwich himself had told Pepys the previous year not to put too much reliance on the friendship of any "great man". After the Great Fire of London Sandwich downplayed the damage to the Spanish King, claiming that London's slums were the only thing in ashes. This slant on the events was also practised by England's ambassadors throughout Europe.[18]

As Ambassador his most notable achievement was the Anglo-Spanish Commercial Treaty of 1667, which laid the foundations for a prosperous trading relationship between the two countries which lasted for over a century.[19] He also acted as mediator in the peace negotiations between Spain and Portugal which resulted in the Treaty of Lisbon. Like all Ambassadors of the era, he found the cost of running an embassy ruinous (he had never had a good head for business) and on his return to England in the autumn of 1668 one of his first actions was to borrow money from his cousin Samuel Pepys.[20] On his way back from Spain, he again visited Tangier to report on the condition of the garrison there.

In 1670 he escorted the King's sister

Roman Catholic faith, Sandwich, like the general public, was quite unaware.[21]
In the same year he was appointed President of the Privy Council Committee on Foreign Plantations; he had always had a keen interest in international trade, despite his notorious inability to keep his own finances in order.

Last campaign and death

Montagu in the 1660s

He was subsequently reappointed to a naval command, and by 1672 at the start of the

fire ships and was destroyed with the loss of many lives, including Sandwich himself. His body was washed ashore a week later, recognisable only from his clothing; it was unmarked and he appeared to have drowned.[10] Sandwich opposed the war and is said to have predicted his own death. Certainly, he told his friend John Evelyn, just before he sailed, that "he would see him no more".[22]

On Wednesday 3 July 1672 he was buried in Westminster Abbey after a state funeral that started with a procession along the River Thames of five decorated barges from Deptford. The body was landed at Westminster at about 5 pm and carried to the Abbey in a grand procession.[23]

Sandwich and Samuel Pepys

Sandwich on his mother's side was the first cousin of John Pepys, the father of Samuel Pepys. Pepys started his career as a minor member of the Sandwich household and owed his appointments first to the Wardrobe and then as Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board to Sandwich's influence. Pepys' diary provides a detailed primary source of Sandwich's career in the 1660s.

They had a serious quarrel in 1663, when Pepys reprimanded Sandwich for living openly with his mistress, Elizabeth Becke, at her "mean house" in Chelsea.[24] Pepys was concerned at the damage to their family's reputation, Sandwich's neglect of his official duties (thus risking the loss of any remaining influence he had at Court) and also at the insult to Sandwich's wife, to whom Pepys was deeply attached. Following a brief estrangement, friendly relations were resumed, although the two men were probably never as close again as they had been (Pepys, for example, is not mentioned in Sandwich's last will). For Pepys to raise the issue at all took considerable courage, considering how much he owed to his patron, and his Diary shows that he was strongly tempted to let the matter lie. Even when he did raise it he chose to write rather than confront Sandwich face to face.

In 1668 Pepys was somewhat perturbed when his wife

Roman Catholic
services). Whatever their differences, Pepys in later life always remembered Sandwich, whom he called "that noble and unparalleled Lord", and his wife (who died in 1674) with affection and gratitude.

References

  1. ^ Latham 2000, p. 255.
  2. ^ Ollard 1994, p. 248.
  3. ^ Cotton 1975, p. 212.
  4. ^ Wedgwood 1958, pp. 398–399.
  5. ^ a b Healy 2010.
  6. ^ Henning 1983.
  7. ^ Corbett 1904, p. 11.
  8. ^ Catterall 1903, pp. 36–37.
  9. ^ Ollard 1994, p. 62.
  10. ^ a b Davies 2004.
  11. ^ Harris 1912, pp. 43–44.
  12. ^ Hutton 1989, p. 131.
  13. ^ Ollard 1994, p. 109.
  14. OCLC 42746420. Archived
    from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  15. OCLC 879306121. Archived
    from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  16. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19010. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  17. ^ Ollard 1994, pp. 140–142.
  18. ISBN 978-0-224-06226-8
    .
  19. Diary of Samuel Pepys
    1983 Vol. X Companion p.254
  20. ^ Bryant, Arthur Samuel Pepys- the man in the making Reprint Society edition 1949 p.267
  21. ^ Ollard 1994, pp. 253–4.
  22. ^ Ollard 1994, p. 256.
  23. ^ Ollard 1994, pp. 262–3.
  24. ^ Ollard 1994, pp. 116–7.
  25. Diary of Samuel Pepys
    10 November 1668
  26. ^ Diary 23 January 1669

Sources

External links

Court offices
English Interregnum
Master of the Great Wardrobe

1660–1671 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
English Interregnum
 		Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire
jointly with The 2nd Earl of Manchester 1660–1671
The 3rd Earl of Manchester 1671–1672 		Succeeded by
Custos Rotulorum of Huntingdonshire
1660–1672
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
English Ambassador to Spain

1666–1666 		Succeeded by
Peerage of England
New title Earl of Sandwich
1660–1672 		Succeeded by
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