Andrew Marvell was an English poet. He was born in 1621 at Winstead and died in 1678. In 1650 he was chosen to tutor Mary, daughter of LordFairfax. In 1653 he was introduced by Milton to Bradshaw, and became a member of the most enlightened and philosophic party in the politics of the commonwealth. After serving as tutor to a nephew of Oliver Cromwell he was chosen to assist Milton in the Latin secretaryship. In 1659 he was elected member for Hull, and succeeded in holding his seat until his death. He was thus able to protect Milton from royalist reprisals. In 1663 he accompanied LordCarlisle on an embassy to Russia, Sweden and Denmark. In 1667 he began to write his powerful satires against the king, the Duke of York, LordDanby, the Papists, and the high Churchmen. Research Andrew Marvell
Lord Arthur Capel was a British soldier. He was born about 1600 and died in 1649. The son of Sir Henry Capel, he was raised to peerage by Charles I. During the English Civil War he fought bravely as one of the royalist generals in the west in the engagements at Bristol, Exeter, and Taunton. Having been at length forced to surrender at Colchester to General Fairfax he was imprisoned, and, after some vicissitudes, executed on March the 9th, 1649. His Daily Observations or Meditations was published posthumously with a memoir. Research Arthur Capel
Edward Fairfax was an English translator. He was born in in the last quarter of the 16th century and died in 1635. He translated into English verse Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered He settled at Newhall in the parish of Fuyistone, Yorkshire, to a life of studious leisure. The first edition of his translation bears the date of 1600. One or two eclogues by him also remain. Research Edward Fairfax
Ferdinando Fairfax was an English soldier and politician. He was born in 1584 and died in 1648. As a member of Parliament he sided with Parliament against Charles I when the Civil War broke out and became Parliamentary commander in Yorkshire. He resigned on the adoption of the Self-denying Ordinance in 1645. Research Ferdinando Fairfax
George Monck (George Monk) was an English soldier, politician and the first Duke of Albermarle. He was born in 1608 at Great Potheridge, Devon and died in 1670. His early life was served in campaigns in France and Spain, before around 1630 he went to the Netherlands where he made his reputation as a soldier. During the English civil war he fought with the Royalists until captured by Fairfax and imprisoned for two years in the Tower of London. Released from prison in 1646 to become a soldier of Parliament, he was a governor of Ulster and served under Oliver Cromwell and was instrumental in bringing about the restoration of Charles II. Research George Monck
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was an English courtier. He was born in 1592 and died in 1628 being stabbed to death by John Felton. He was the son of George Villiers, a knight. At eighteen he was sent to France, where he resided three years, and on his return made so great an impression on James I that in two years he was made a knight, a gentleman of the bed-chamber, baron, viscount. Marquis of Buckingham, lord high-admiral, etc, and at last dispenser of all the honours and offices of the three kingdoms.
In 1623, when the Earl of Bristol was negotiating a marriage for Prince Charles with the Infanta of Spain, the Marquis of Buckingham went with the prince incognito to Madrid to carry on the suit in person in the hope of securing the Palatinate as dowry. The result, however, was the breaking off of the marriage, and the declaration of war with Spain. During his absence the Marquis of Buckingham was created duke.
After the death of James I in 1625 he was sent to France as proxy for Charles I to marry the PrincessHenrietta Maria. In 1626, after the failure of the Cadiz expedition, he was impeached, but saved by the favour of the king. Despite the difficulty in obtaining supplies the Duke of Buckingham took upon himself the conduct of a war with France, but his expedition in aid of the Rochellese proved an entire failure. In the meantime the spirit of revolt was becoming more formidable; the Petition of Right was carried despite the duke's exertions; and he was again protected from impeachment only by the king's prorogation of parliament. He then went to Portsmouth to lead another expedition to Rochelle, but was stabbed on August the 24th, 1628, by John Felton, an ex-lieutenant who had been disappointed of promotion.
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham was an English soldier. He was born in 1627 at Westminster, London and died in 1688. The son of George Villiers he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and served in the royal army under Rupert and then went abroad. In 1648 he returned to England, was with Charles II in Scotland and at the battle of Worcester, and afterwards served as a volunteer in the French army in Flanders.
He then returned to England, and in 1657 married the daughter of LordFairfax. At the Restoration he became master of the horse and one of the king's confidential cabal from 1667 until 1673. In 1666 he engaged in a conspiracy, and in 1676 was committed to the Tower for a contempt by order of the House of Lords; but on each occasion he recovered the king's favour. On the death of Charles II he retired to his seat in Yorkshire. Among his literary compositions the comedy of the Rehearsal (1671) takes the first place.
George William Frederick Villiers, Earl of Clarendon was an English diplomat. He was the eldest son of the Honourable George Villiers and was through his mother indirectly related to the Hydes, the family of the great Earl of Clarendon. He was educated at Cambridge, entered the civil service at an early age, and in 1820 was attached to the embassy at St Petersburg. In 1823 he was appointed to a commissionership of the excise in Dublin. In 1831 he was sent to France to negotiate a commercial treaty, and in 1833, as minister plenipotentiary at Madrid, was instrumental in negotiating the Quadruple Alliance, signed in 1834.
Having succeeded to his uncle's title in 1838 he returned home in the following year, and in January 1840 was appointed lord privy-seal, and in October chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. He supported the repeal of the corn-laws and the reduction of duties, and in 1846 was appointed president of the board of trade in Lord J. Russell's ministry, and in the following year Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He resigned with his party in 1852, when the Earl of Derby took office, but soon after the formation of the Aberdeen ministry he was appointed to the foreign secretaryship, which he held until January 1855. After a few weeks' interval he returned to the post under LordPalmerston, and retained it until 1858, being one of the signatories of the Treaty of Paris.
In 1861 he was sent as ambassador-extraordinary to the coronation of the King of Prussia, and in 1864 was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. In the following administration, under Russell, he resumed the direction of the foreign office. He was sent in 1868 on a special mission to the pope and the King of Italy, and again occupied the post of foreign secretary in the Gladstone ministry until his death, in June, 1870. Research George Villiers
John Rushworth was an English historian. He was born in 1612 and died in 1690. He was called to the bar in 1647. he frequented the Houses of Parliament, Star Chamber and council table to collect notes of important events, and became assistant clerk to the House of Commons in 1640. He was appointed secretary to the Council of War in 1650; accompanied Fairfax through his campaigns; was for a short time secretary to Oliver Cromwell in 1650; several times represented Berwick in Parliament; and died in a debtor's prison at Southwark. His 'Historical Collections' (1659 to 1701) afford valuable information concerning the English civil war. Research John Rushworth
Mary Somerville (born Mary Fairfax) was a Scottish technical writer. She was born in 1780 at Jedburgh and died in 1872. A daughter of Sir William Fairfax, she was a keen scientist who was inspired by the works of Euclid and studied algebra and the classics despite strong disapproval from her family, and mixed with the Edinburgh scientists, and after her second marriage in 1812 to William Somerville with the London scientific crowd. She wrote a number of scientific works including 'The Celestial Mechanism of the Heavens' published in 1831. Mary Somerville supported the emancipation and education of women and had Somerville College, Oxford named after her in 1879. Research Mary Somerville
Oliver Cromwell was Lord-protector of the commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was born at Huntingdon in 1599 and died in 1658. His father, Robert Cromwell, who represented the borough of Huntingdon in the parliament of 1593, was a younger son of Sir Henry Cromwell, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I; and Sir Henry again was a son of Sir Richard Williams, a nephew of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, whose name he took. Oliver Cromwell's mother was a daughter of William Steward, of Ely, and could trace her descent back to Alexander, lord-steward of Scotland, the founder of the house of Stuart. The first really authentic fact in his biography is his leaving school at Huntingdon and entering Sidney - Sussex College, Cambridge, on April the 23rd, 1616.
On the death of his father in 1617 he returned home, and in 1620 married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier. In 1628 he was member of parliament for the borough of Huntingdon, to which he returned on the dissolution in 1629. In 1631 he went with his family to a farm which he had taken at St Ives; and in 1636 to Ely, where he had inherited a property worth nearly 500 pounds a year.
During the Short and Long Parliaments he represented Cambridge, his influence gradually increasing. In the summer of 1642 he was actively engaged in raising and drilling volunteers for the parliamentary party, in view of the impending struggle with the king. He served as captain and colonel in the earlier part of the war, doing good service with his troop of horse at Edgehill;
and it was his energy and ability which made the Eastern Association the most efficient of those formed for mutual defence. At the battle of Winceby in 1643 he led the van, narrowly escaping death, and in the following year he led the victorious left at Marston Moor, deciding the result of the battle. A few months later he was present at the second battle of Newbury, and his action being fettered by the timidity of Manchester, he impeached the conduct of the earl. As the result of this disagreement Sir Thomas Fairfax was made lord general, while Oliver Cromwell, notwithstanding the Self-denying Ordinance, was placed under him, with the command of the cavalry and the rank of lieutenant-general.
As the result of the discipline introduced by Oliver Cromwell the decisive victory of Naseby was gained in 1645, and Leicester, Taunton, Bridgewater, Bristol, Devizes, Winchester, and Dartmouth fell into the hands of the parliament. On the occasion of the surrender of Charles by the Scottish army in 1646 Oliver Cromwell was one of the commissioners, and in the distribution of rewards for services received 2500 pounds a year from the estates of the Marquis of Worcester.
Though at first supporting parliament in its wish to disband the army, which refused to lay down its arms until the freedom of the nation was established, he afterwards saw reason to decide in favour of the latter course. Hastily suppressing the Welsh rising, he marched against the Scottish royalists, whom he defeated with a much inferior force at Preston on August the 17th,1648. Then followed the tragedy of the king's execution, Oliver Cromwell's name standing third in order in the death-warrant. Affairs in Ireland demanding his presence, he was appointed lord-lieutenant and commander-in-chief; and by making a terrible example of Drogheda in September, 1649, crushed the royalist party in that country within six months. Resigning the command to Ireton, he undertook, at the request of the parliament, a similar expedition against Scotland, where Charles II had been proclaimed king. With an army greatly reduced by sickness he saved himself from almost inevitable disaster by the splendid victory at Dunbar on September the 3rd, 1650, and a year later put an end to the struggle by his total defeat of the royalists at Worcester on September the 3rd, 1651. For these services he was rewarded with an estate of 4000 pounds a year, besides other honours.
He already exerted a weighty influence in the supreme direction of affairs, being instrumental in restoring the continental relations of England, which had been almost entirely dissolved, and regulating them so as to promote the interests of commerce. The Navigation Act, from which may be dated the rise of the naval power of England, was framed upon his suggestion, and passed in 1651. The Rump Parliament, as the remnant of the Long Parliament was called, had become worse than useless, and on April the 20th, 1653, Oliver Cromwell, with 300 soldiers, dispersed that body. He then summoned a council of state, consisting mainly of his principal officers, which finally chose a parliament of persons selected from the three kingdoms, nicknamed Barebone's Paliament, or the Little Parliament. Fifteen months after a new annual parliament was chosen; but Oliver Cromwell soon prevailed on this body, who were totally incapable of governing, to place the charge of the commonwealth in his hands.
The chief power now devolving again upon the council of officers on December the 12th 1653, they declared Oliver Cromwell sole governor of the commonwealth, under the name of Lord-protector, with an assistant council of twenty-one men. The new protector behaved with dignity and firmness. Despite the innumerable difficulties which beset him from adverse parliaments, insurgent royalists, and mutinous republicans, the early months of his rule established favourable treaties with Holland, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, and France. In September 1656 he called a new parliament, which undertook the revisal of the constitution and offered Oliver Cromwell the title of king. On his refusal he was again installed as Lord-protector, but with his powers now legally defined.
Early in the following year, however, he peremptorily dissolved the house, which had rejected the authority of the second chamber. Abroad his influence still increased, reaching its full height after the victory of Dunkirk in June, 1658. But his masterly administration was not effected without severe strain, and upon the death of his favourite daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, in the beginning of August, 1658, his health began to fail him. Towards the end of the month he was confined to his room from a tertian fever, and on September the 3rd 1658, he died at Whitehall, in the sixtieth year of his age. He was buried in King Henry VII's Chapel, in Westminster Abbey, but after the Restoration his body was taken up and hanged at Tyburn, the head being fixed on a pole at Westminster Abbey, and the rest of the remains buried under the gallows.
Great as a general, Oliver Cromwell was still greater as a civil ruler. He lived in a simple and retired way, like a private man, and was abstemious, temperate, indefatigably industrious, and exact in his official duties. He possessed extraordinary penetration and knowledge of human nature; and devised the boldest plans with a quickness equalled only by the decision with which he executed them. No obstacle deterred him; and he was never at a loss for expedients. Cool and reserved, he patiently waited for the favourable moment, and never failed to make use of it. In his religious views he was a tolerant Calvinist. He was about 5 feet 10 inches in height, his body 'well compact and strong'; and his head and face, though wanting in refinement, were impressive in their unmistakable strength.
He had appointed his eldest son, Richard Cromwell, his successor; but the republican and religious fanaticism of the army and officers, with Fleetwood at their head, compelled Richard Cromwell to dissolve parliament; and a few days after he voluntarily abdicated the protectorship, on April the 22nd, 1659. His brother Henry, who from 1654 had governed Ireland in tranquillity, followed the example of Richard, and died in privacy in England.
At the Restoration Richard Cromwell went to the Continent until 1680, when he assumed the name of Clark, and passed the remainder of his days in tranquil seclusion at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. He died in 1712, at the age of eighty-six.
The last of the family was Oliver Cromwell, great-grandson of Henry Cromwell, son of the protector. He was a London solicitor, and clerk to St Thomas' Hospital. He succeeded to the estate of Theobalds, which descended to him through the children of Richard Cromwell, and died at Cheshunt Park in 1821, aged seventy-nine. He wrote the Memoirs of the Protector and his Sons, illustrated by Family Papers, 1820. Research Oliver Cromwell
Lord Thomas Culpeper was a Governor of Virginia. In 1673 he received an exclusive grant from Charles II for thirty-one years of the territory of Virginia and in 1675 was proclaimed Governor for life, arriving in America in 1680. He forfeited his commission in 1683 by returning to England without royal permission and by political corruption. LordFairfax, patron of Washington, was his heir. Research Thomas Culpeper
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Andrew Marvell
