Robert Dormer, 1st Earl of Carnarvon
The Earl of Carnarvon | |
---|---|
Lady Anna Sophie Herbert | |
Issue | Charles Dormer, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon |
Father | Sir William Dormer |
Mother | Alice Molyneux |
Sir Robert Dormer of Wing, 2nd Baronet, 1st Earl of Carnarvon, 1st Viscount Ascott, 2nd Baron Dormer of Wing [or Wenge] (c. 1610 – 20 September 1643) was an English peer. He was the son of Sir William Dormer, and thus a grandson of
Early life
At age six, Dormer was left a ward to the
King James I was entertained at Ascott Park by his mother, Anne, Lady Dormer, in 1620. Anne of Denmark had visited in 1612.[3]
Marriage, career, and later years
On 27 February 1625, at the age of fifteen, he was married to his guardian's daughter,
On 2 June 1641, he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire. In 1642, he joined the king at York, and was one of the peers who signed the declaration of 13 June, agreeing to stand by the king, and the further declaration of 15 June, disavowing the king's alleged intention to make war against Parliament.
Lady Carnarvon died on 3 June 1643 of smallpox [citation needed]. Anecdotes of her are to be found in the Strafford Papers (ii, 47) and the Sydney Papers (ii, 621) and a poem addressed to her is printed in Choice Drollery, 1656. Her portrait and that of her eldest son, Charles, were part of the exhibition of Anthony van Dyck's works at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1887.[1]
Carnarvon was killed at the first Battle of Newbury on 20 September 1643 by a lone trooper who chanced upon him returning from a successful cavalry charge. As he lay dying he was asked if he had one final request of the King. "No", he replied, "in an hour like this, I have no prayer but to the King of Heaven."[5] The different accounts of the manner of his death are collected in Mr Money's account of the battle (2nd ed. pg. 90).
There is also an elegy on his death in Sir Francis Wortley's Characters and Elegies, 1646. Carnarvon was buried firstly at Jesus College Chapel at the University of Oxford, but his body was removed in 1650 to a family burial place in Wing, Buckinghamshire.[1]
Dormer was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles, who died in 1709 and with him the earldom of Carnarvon in the family of Dormer became extinct.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
- ^ Foster, Joseph. "Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: Dormer, Robert". Retrieved 13 October 2023.
- ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 4 (London, 1828), p. 617.
- ^ G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, p. 44.
- ^ Warburton, loc cit, pg 296.