Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth

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Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth, KB, PC (bapt. 2 February 1612–1 March 1665) was an English soldier and politician.

Wentworth was the eldest son of the 1st Earl of Cleveland and his first wife, Anne. From 1639-40, he fought against the Scots in the Bishops' Wars and was briefly MP for Bedfordshire in 1640 before he was called up to the House of Lords, in his father's barony of Wentworth in November of that year.

During the English Civil War, Wentworth was the Sergeant-Major-General of Horse and commanded the Prince of Wales's Regiment of Horse, seeing action at Tipton Green, Cropredy Bridge, Langport, Worcester and possibly at the Second Battle of Newbury. He fought most battles alongside his father and when the Royalists were defeated, Lord Wentworth raised a regiment (which later became the Grenadier Guards) at Bruges as a bodyguard to the exiled Charles II.

At the outset of the civil war Wentworth was with George Goring in Portsmouth, but after the fall of that garrison he joined the king's main field army, and as Lord Wentworth raised a company of dragoons. He fought at Marlborough, Wiltshire, in December, and at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, on 2 February 1643 he became major-general of dragoons, in succession to Sir Arthur Aston. In the early part of the civil war dragoons formed a substantial part of the mounted arm, although merely infantrymen set on ponies and other small horses initially regarded as unsuitable for cavalry troopers. As the war progressed, however, standards dropped and with all riding horses, irrespective of size or condition, going to the cavalry, dragoons dwindled in both numbers and importance. All too often they simply discarded their muskets and started calling themselves troopers. Consequently Wentworth followed suit and on 5 February 1644 succeeded Sir Thomas Byron as colonel of the Prince of Wales's regiment of horse. At Cropredy Bridge he commanded a cavalry brigade with such good effect that he was afterwards appointed major-general of horse in succession to Lord Wilmot, when the latter was dismissed before the battle of Lostwithiel. However, on 14 November 1644 he relinquished this post in order to join Lord Goring's army in the west country. After Goring's defeat at Langport and subsequent dismissal Wentworth was appointed major-general of horse under the western army's new commander, Lord Hopton. Unfortunately Hopton, whose reputation owes more to his very readable memoirs than to his overrated abilities, was soon on bad terms with Wentworth and contrived to get himself badly beaten at Torrington on 14 March 1646. As a result the already demoralized western army surrendered soon afterwards, but Wentworth escaped with Prince Charles first to the Isles of Scilly and then to Jersey.

In 1649 Wentworth accompanied Charles to Paris and in the following year both he and his father, the earl of Cleveland, sailed with him to Scotland. Charles was compelled to subscribe to the covenant as a condition of being recognized as king, but many of his followers neglected to do so. Despite the defeat of the Scots army at Dunbar on 3 September 1650 both Wentworth and his father were as non-subscribers accordingly ordered out of the country on 17 October, but like the earl of Forth and other prominent royalists they ignored this edict and subsequently fought at Worcester on 3 September 1651. Although his father was afterwards captured Wentworth got safely away and until the Restoration in 1660 attended Charles II's émigré court. In 1656 he was responsible for organizing and commanding a regiment of foot guards, which served with the Spanish army at the battle of the Dunes in June 1658. There is some doubt as to whether he fought there, but after the Restoration he brought the regiment home to England and it became the 1st foot guards (afterwards the Grenadier Guards). He had married by mid-March 1658 Philadelphia Carey (d. 1696), daughter of Sir Ferdinando Carey; their only child, Henrietta Maria Wentworth, was born on 11 August 1660. Wentworth died on 1 March 1665 and was buried six days later at Toddington. He predeceased his father by two years. His daughter succeeded to the barony upon the latter's death.

Lord Wentworth predeceased his father and so did not inherit the latter's earldom and his barony passed back to his father and then later to Lord Wentworth's only child, Henrietta, who later became a mistress to the king's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth.

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This article incorporates text from the Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900), a publication now in the public domain.

Military offices
Preceded by New regiment	Colonel of Lord Wentworth's Regiment 1656–1660	Succeeded by Hon. John Russell
Peerage of England
Preceded by Thomas Wentworth	Baron Wentworth (writ of acceleration) 1640–1665	Succeeded by Thomas Wentworth