Henry Hastings, 1st Baron Loughborough

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Henry Hastings, 1st Baron Loughborough (28 September 1610 – 10 January 1666/1667) was an English Royalist army commander in the Midlands during the English Civil War.

The fifth child and second son of Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon and Lady Elizabeth Stanley. His siblings included, Lady Alice Hastings, Ferdinando Hastings, 6th Earl of Huntingdon Hastings (b. 1608), Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Lady Mary Hastings (b. 1612). His mother, at one time, was fourth-in-line to inherit England's throne. She was a great great granddaughter of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk.

He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Hastings declared himself a supporter of King Charles I and the family home, Ashby Castle, became a vital link between the Royalist south-west and the north – particularly as much of the rest of Leicestershire supported the Parliamentary cause.

Hastings, therefore, became engaged in various skirmishes between the opposing forces, seeing action at the Battle of Hopton Heath, fighting a small battle at Cotes Bridge near Loughborough and later losing an eye to a pistol shot after an exchange near Bagworth, all in 1643. Later that year, his forces captured and lost the town of Burton upon Trent.

However, as the war progressed and Royalist fortunes waned, Ashby—already the target of action in 1644—was subject to a prolonged siege between September 1645 and its surrender in March 1646. Hastings, ennobled as the first Baron Loughborough on 23 October 1643, for his services to Charles I, marched out with the honours of war but into eventual exile (agreed by the House of Commons in November 1648). Meanwhile, the castle was later partly demolished, with the remaining Hastings family moving to Donington Park.

Upon the Restoration (for which he had worked secretly as a member of The Sealed Knot), Hastings was able to return to England and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire in 1661. He died in 1667 unmarried and without issue.

Honorary titles
English Interregnum	Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire 1661–1667	Succeeded by The Earl of Rutland
	Custos Rotulorum of Leicestershire 1661–1667	Succeeded by The Earl of Denbigh
Peerage of England
New creation	Baron Loughborough 1643–1667	Extinct