Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester
Early life
Wilmot's family was descended from Edward Wilmot of
1630s and early 1640s
Wilmot had five years experience in the Dutch army, and was badly wounded at the siege of Breda. He joined Charles I for the Bishops' Wars (1639–1640) and served as an officer in the cavalry, sitting in the Royal Council of War and led a charge at Battle of Newburn and was captured by the Scots when it broke.[3]
In 1640, Wilmot was elected to the
First Civil War
As soon as the First English Civil War started Wilmot joined King Charles I at York. By 5 August 1642, he raised a regiment of horse for the King's army and regained the post of commissary-general of horse. He was wounded at Battle of Powick Bridge on 23 September, the first major skirmish of the Civil War, but was fit enough to lead the left wing of the royalist cavalry at the Battle of Edgehill a month later, routing most of the parliamentarians opposite to him. He also commanded the expeditionary force that stormed and captured Marlborough on 5 December.[3]
Reward for these exploits was lavishly given in April 1643 when he was appointed lieutenant-general of horse in the king's army directly under the command of Prince Rupert of the Rhine and on 29 June when he was created Baron Wilmot of Adderbury, Oxfordshire; these honours may well have been assisted by the restored influence of his old patroness, the queen. Later that year he commanded a large cavalry contingent that was sent to help the western royalist army, and on 13 July he defeated Sir William Waller at the Battle of Roundway Down opening the way for the royalists to solidify their position in the west.[3]
In 1644 when Rupert took over a regional command in the North, Wilmot stepped into his shoes as commander of all the Royalist cavalry and as the dominant influence on military matters. On 29 June at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge he participated in defeating Waller for the second time, but not before he had had to lead a charge, in which he was wounded and briefly taken prisoner.[3]
When his father died (shortly before April 1644) Wilmot inherited the title of Viscount Wilmot of Athlone and much of his father's political standing in Ireland. In April he was, jointly with Thomas Dillon, 4th Viscount Dillon, made Lord President of Connaught,[3] a post that his late father had held jointly with the late Viscount Ranelagh since 1630 [citation needed]; this appointment laid the foundations for his becoming a major political figure in both England and Ireland.[3]
All recognised that Wilmot was popular with the soldiers he commanded, due to a "mixture of courage, enterprise, and boozy affability"[3] Clarendon famously, if waspishly, noted "He was a man proud and ambitious, and incapable of being contented; an orderly officer in marches and governing his troops. He drank hard, and had a great power over all who did so, which was a great people".[4] This popularity and his central position in the army command, allowed him to start to exert political influence. In June Wilmot felt in a strong enough position to canvas support in the army to ask the king to dismiss his two principal civilian advisers, Lord Digby and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Culpeper, and to adopt the strategy of a march on London. Charles, who had no personal affection for Wilmot (because Wilmot had voted for the death of the Earl of Strafford), dismissed the strategy and kept Digby and Culpeper on as his advisers.[3]
With the failure of his first scheme, Wilmot made an unauthorized contact with the Earl of Essex who was the parliamentarian commander-in-chief, to see if a peace could be arranged. The king was easily persuaded by Digby and Culpeper that Wilmot's actions were treasonable. Wilmot was arrested on 8 August 1644, stripped of all his offices, and incarcerated in Exeter. His popularity within the army led many of its officers to petition on his behalf and eventually to placate them, all charges against Wilmot were dropped on the understanding that he would retire overseas. Wilmot went to France, to join the exiled court of his old patron Queen Henrietta Maria.[3]
Three years later, when Digby arrived in Paris, the dispute between the men was neither forgotten nor forgiven and they fought a duel. Wilmot was defeated with a stab through the hand.[5]
Third Civil War
After Charles I was executed in January 1649, Wilmot became a gentleman of the bedchamber of King Charles II. He was greatly trusted by Charles II, whose defeat at the Battle of Worcester and subsequent wanderings Wilmot shared.[6] During these, whereas the king adopted a series of disguises (often as a servant), Wilmot disdained disguise and declined to travel on foot. He and the king ultimately escaped to France six weeks after the battle, having spent the intervening time in hiding in various places.[7]
Interregnum
During this King's exile, he was one of his principal advisers, being created by him
In April 1656 along with the
After the
Family
On 21 August 1633, Wilmot married Frances Morton, daughter of Sir George Morton of Winterborne Clenston, Dorset. In 1644, some time after Frances had died, Wilmot married
Notes
- ^ Lundy 2011, p. 17642 §176411 cites Cokayne 2000, p. 45
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 427.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Hutton 2004, ODNB.
- ^ Hutton 2004 citing Clarendon, Hist. rebellion 3.388.
- ^ Thomas 2001, p. 217.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 428.
- ^ Ollard 1966; "as Charles recalled when he had his story ghostwritten by Samuel Pepys, 'I could never get [Wilmot] to put on any disguise, he saying he should look frightfully in it, and therefore did never put on any'". Horspool 2002
- ^ Aubrey p. 108
References
- Aubrey, Philip. Mr Secretary Thurloe: Cromwell's Secretary of State, 1652–1660. Athlone Press, 1990.
- Hutton, Ronald (2004). "Wilmot, Henry, first earl of Rochester (bap. 1613, d. 1658)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29621. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rochester, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of s.v.". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 427–428. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Lundy, Darryl (16 August 2011). "Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester". The Peerage. p. 17642 § 176411. cites:
- Cokayne, G.E.; et al., eds. (2000). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. Vol. XI (new, reprint in 6 volumes ed.). Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing. p. 45.
- Ollard, Richard (1966). The escape of Charles II after the battle of Worcester. London: Hodder and Stoughton. online review:
- Horspool, David (7 September 2002). "A King amongst his people:The newly republished Escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester by Richard Ollard is a vivid description of a scarcely credible story". The Guardian.
- Thomas, Roy Digby (2001). Digby: The Gunpowder Plotter's Legacy. Janus Publishing Company Lim. ISBN 978-1857565201.
Further reading
- Biography of Wilmot British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website
- Oswald Barron, 'The Wild Wilmots', The Ancestor XI (1904), 3–8 22–23.