Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester

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Lieutenant-General Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester (1612–1658) was an English Cavalier who fought for the Royalist cause during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

[edit] Life and times

Wilmot's family was descended from Edward Wilmot of Witney, Oxfordshire, whose son Charles Wilmot, first Viscount Wilmot of Athlone, (1570/71–1644) had served with distinction in Ireland during Tyrone's Rebellion at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and was president of Connaught from 1616 until his death. In 1621, Charles had been created an Irish peer as Viscount Wilmot of Athlone. Henry Wilmot was born in 1612 as the third son of Charles, but he was the only one still alive on his father's death so he succeeded to the title.

Henry 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 fighting in the Battle of Newburn.

In 1640, he was elected to the Long Parliament to represent Tamworth and took an active part in the army plot of 1641 against Parliament. He was committed to the Tower of London and expelled from the House of Commons.

He distinguished himself in the First English Civil War by defeating Sir William Waller at the Battle of Roundway Down in July 1643 and at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge in June 1644. He was appointed lieutenant-general of horse in the King’s army under Prince Rupert of the Rhine, and, in June 1643, was created Baron Wilmot of Adderbury. He drank hard and was amazingly popular but he was on bad terms with some of the King's friends and advisers, including Prince Rupert and Digby and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Culpeper.

In 1644, he was reported to have said that Charles was afraid of peace and to have advised his supercession by his son, the Prince of Wales. Consequently, he was deprived of his command, and after a short imprisonment was allowed to cross over to France. Wilmot left the country and joined Queen Henrietta Maria in France. When Digby arrived in Paris in 1647, they fought a duel. Wilmot was defeated with a stab through the hand.

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. During this King's exile, he was one of his principal advisers, being created by him Earl of Rochester in 1652. In the interests of Charles, he visited the emperor Ferdinand III, Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine, and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. In March 1655, he was in England, where he led a feeble attempt at a rising on Marston Moor, near York as part of the Sealed Knot Penruddock uprising. The York uprising was put down by Colonel Robert Lilburne Governor of York and on its failure Wilmot fled the country.

In 1656, Wilmot obtained command of a foot regiment of English in the royalist army in Bruges, thus becoming the first colonel of the Grenadier Guards. The unhealthy and overcrowded conditions of the regiment’s quarters in the winter of 1657-58 caused many in it to fall sick, including its commander. Wilmot died at Sluys on February 19 and was buried at Bruges.

After the Restoration, his body was transferred to the family vault at Spelsbury church, Oxfordshire. He was succeeded by son John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, a noted poet and libertine at the Restoration court.