Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough
Henry Mordaunt 2nd Earl of Peterborough | |
---|---|
Born | 15 November 1621 |
Died | 19 June 1697 | (aged 75)
Allegiance | England |
Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough soldier, peer and courtier.
Early life
Styled Lord Mordaunt from 1628, he was the eldest son of
He returned to England in 1642, and served for a little while in the parliamentary army, where he commanded his ailing father's troop of horse. In April 1643, after his father's death, he deserted to the king at
Under Charles II
When Charles married Catherine of Braganza in 1661, he acquired English Tangier as part of her dowry and Peterborough was sent there as its Governor, arriving 29 January 1662 in command of a regiment of foot which he raised in England (and which would become known as the Tangier Regiment), Harley's (ex-Parliamentary) regiment from Flanders, and remnants of Royalist regiments, also from Flanders. The force was ill-equipped, lacking basic supplies of fuel, beds, cooking pots and ordnance equipment. In April 1662, he concluded a treaty with the Moors under Ahmad al-Khadir ibn Ali Ghaïlan but, in a disastrous sally out (3 May 1662), his force was soundly defeated.[2] Confining the rest of the troops within the city walls, he himself returned to England unexpectedly, arriving in Plymouth on 8 June 1662. He was sent back, with some reinforcements, but was recalled in December of that year and replaced by Andrew Rutherford. He himself was awarded a generous pension.[3]
He served in the Dutch war, at first as a volunteer in the fleet of the
In 1670 he was appointed
On 10 July 1674 Peterborough was sworn of the privy council, and in 1676 was appointed deputy earl-marshal. In 1680 he was deprived of that office and his pension, and excluded from the council, on suspicion of complicity in the alleged Popish Plot. Nevertheless, though suffering from fever, he had himself carried down to Westminster Hall, to vote against the condemnation of Lord Stafford (7 December) In October 1681 he was summoned to Scotland by the Duke of York, whom he attended on his return to England in the following March. On 28 February 1683, he was restored to his place in the council.[1]
Under James II
He bore St. Edward's sceptre at the coronation of James II, by whom he was made
Later life
He was stripped of all his former offices and on 26 October 1689 he was impeached of
Family
Peterborough married, in 1644, Lady Penelope O'Brien, daughter of
On his death in 1697, his earldom passed to his nephew, the Earl of Monmouth, and his barony (which was able to pass through the female line) passed to his daughter, the Duchess of Norfolk. Since she died childless, the barony returned to the earls of Peterborough until that title died out in 1814.
References
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Mordaunt, Henry, second Earl of Peterborough". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.