Robert Bertie | |
---|---|
Earl of Lindsey | |
![]() Portrait by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt | |
Born | 16 December 1582 |
Died | 24 October 1642 59) Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, England | (aged
Buried | Edenham, Lincolnshire [1] |
Noble family | Bertie |
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Montagu |
Issue …among others | Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey |
Father | Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby |
Mother | Mary de Vere |
Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey KG (16 December 1582 – 24 October 1642), previously (from 1601 to 1626) 14th Baron Willoughby de Eresby was an English peer, soldier and courtier. [2]
Robert Bertie was the son of Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (b. 12 October 1555 – d. 25 June 1601) and Mary de Vere, daughter of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. Queen Elizabeth I was his godmother, and two of her favourite earls (Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex), whose Christian name he bore, were his godfathers.
He had been part of Essex's expedition to Cádiz, [3] and had afterwards served in the Netherlands, under Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange. He was even given temporary command of English forces during the Siege of Rheinberg in the summer of 1601. [4] The long Continental wars throughout the peaceful reign of King James I had been treated by the English nobility as schools of arms, as a few campaigns were considered a graceful finish to a gentleman's education. [5]
He succeeded his father as Baron Willoughby de Eresby in 1601. He was later created Earl of Lindsey on 22 November 1626 and took his title from the northern of the three parts of Lincolnshire, the old Kingdom of Lindsey.
The Lindsey Level in The Fens, between the River Glen and The Haven, at Boston, Lincolnshire, was named after the first Earl Lindsey as he was the principal adventurer in its drainage. The drainage work was declared complete in 1638 but the project was neglected with the onset of the Civil War so that the land fell back into its old state. When it was drained again, more than a hundred years later, it was called the Black Sluice Level. There is more information under the article Twenty, Lincolnshire.
As soon as Lord Lindsey had begun to fear that the disputes between the King, Charles I and Parliament must end in war, he had begun to exercise and train his tenantry in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, of whom he had formed a regiment of infantry.
Lord Lindsey accompanied the King in April 1642 as part of a party who tried to negotiate a handover of the magazine at Hull for the King's military use. [6] This handover was turned down by the pro-Parliamentary governor, Sir John Hotham, who expelled the party, causing it to withdraw with the King to York. [7] Early in July, the King returned from York with a force of 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, [8] intent on besieging the city, now garrisoned by reinforcing Parliamentary troops commanded by Sir John Meldrum, returning to York while leaving Lord Lindsey in command through the siege. [9] Meldrum ordered some effective sorties out of the city, the last of which, on 27 July, blew up the arsenal Lindsey's troops had set up at Anlaby, west of Hull. Lindsey's force, whose cavalry were unsupported by the infantry who had withdrawn to Beverley, gave up the siege after this loss of their munitions and retreated back to York, lifting the siege. [10]
As Lord Lindsey was a most experienced soldier of 59 years of age at the start of the English Civil War, King Charles I had appointed him General-in-chief of the Royalists for the Battle of Edgehill. However, the King had imprudently exempted the cavalry from Lindsey's command, its general, the King's nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine, taking orders only from the King. Rupert was only 22 years old, and although an experienced soldier who had fought in the Thirty Years' War, he had not yet learnt that cavalry should also be used in support of infantry and not just against the enemy's cavalry.
With Lindsey was his son Montagu Bertie, Lord Willoughby who had seen some service against the Spaniards in the Netherlands, and after his return had been made a captain in the Lifeguards, and a Gentleman of the Bedchamber. Anthony van Dyck has left portraits of the father and the son; the one a bald-headed, alert, precise-looking old warrior, with the cuirass and gauntlets of earlier warfare; the other, the very model of a cavalier, tall, easy, and graceful, with a gentle reflective face, and wearing the long lovelocks and deep-point lace collar and cuffs characteristic of Queen Henrietta's Court.
At eight o'clock, on the morning of 23 October 1642 King Charles was riding along the ridge of Edge Hill, and looking down into the Vale of the Red Horse, a fair meadow land, here and there broken by hedges and copses. His troops were mustering around him, and in the valley he could see with his telescope the various Parliamentary regiments, as they poured out of the town of Kineton, and took up their positions in three lines. "I never saw the rebels in a body before," he said, as he gazed sadly at the subjects arrayed against him. "I shall give them battle. God, and the prayers of good men to Him, assist the justice of my cause." The whole of his forces were not assembled till two o'clock in the afternoon, for the gentlemen who had become officers found it no easy matter to call their farmers and retainers together, and marshal them into any sort of order.
Lord Lindsey, who was an old comrade of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, who was by then the commander of the Parliamentarian forces, knew that he would follow the tactics they had both together studied in Holland, little thinking that one day they should be arrayed one against the other in their own native England. He had a high opinion of Essex's generalship, and insisted that the situation of the Royal army required the utmost caution. Rupert, on the other hand, had seen the swift fiery charges of the fierce troopers of the Thirty Years' War, and was backed up by Patrick Ruthven, Lord Ruthven, one of the many Scots who had won honour under King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. A sudden charge of the Royal horse would, Rupert argued, sweep the Roundheads from the field, and the foot would have nothing to do but to follow up the victory. The King, sad enough at having to fight at all with his subjects, and never having seen a battle, seemed entirely bewildered between the ardent words of his spirited nephew and the grave replies of the well-seasoned old Earl. Eventually the King, willing at least not to irritate Rupert, desired that Ruthven should array the troops in the Swedish fashion.
It was a greater affront to the General-in-chief than the king was likely to understand, but it could not shake the old soldier's loyalty. He gravely resigned the empty title of General, which only made confusion worse confounded, and rode away to act as colonel of his own Lincolnshire regiment, pitying his master's perplexity, and resolved that no private pique should hinder him from doing his duty. His regiment was of foot soldiers, and was just opposite to the standard of the Earl of Essex.
In the afternoon the Royal forces marched down the hill. Prince Rupert's charge was fully successful. No one even waited to cross swords with his troopers, but all the Roundhead horse galloped headlong off the field, hotly pursued by the Royalists. However, the main body of the army stood firm, and for some time the battle was nearly equal, until a large troop of Parliamentary cavalry who had been kept in reserve, wheeled round and fell upon the Royal forces just when their scanty supply of ammunition was exhausted. Step by step, however, they retreated bravely, and Rupert, who had returned from his charge, sought in vain to collect his scattered troopers, so as to fall again on the Roundheads. Some were plundering, some chasing the Roundheads, and none could be got together.
Lord Lindsey was shot through the thigh bone, and fell. He was instantly surrounded by Roundhead cavalry; but his son, Lord Willoughby, seeing his danger, flung himself alone among them, forced his way forward, and raised his father in his arm, unheeding his own safety. The throng of Roundheads around called to him to surrender, and, hastily giving up his sword, he carried the Earl into the nearest shed, and laid him on a heap of straw, vainly striving to staunch the blood under watch of a Roundhead guard.
It was a bitterly cold night, and the frosty wind came howling through the darkness. Lord Lindsey himself murmured, "If it please God I should survive, I never will fight in the same field with boys again!"–no doubt deeming that young Rupert had wrought all the mischief. His thoughts were all on the cause, his son's all on him. It proved impossible to stop his wounds bleeding and gradually the old man's strength ebbed away.
Toward midnight the Earl's old comrade Essex had news of his condition, and sent some officers to enquire for him, and promise speedy surgical attendance. Lindsey was still full of spirit, and spoke to them so strongly of their broken faith, and of the sin of disloyalty and rebellion, that they slunk away one by one out of the hut, and dissuaded Essex from coming himself to see his old friend, as he had intended. The surgeon, however, arrived, but too late, Lindsey was already so much exhausted by cold and loss of blood, that he died early in the morning of 24 October 1642, as he was being carried through the gates of Warwick Castle where other Royalist prisoners were being kept. His son, despite King Charles' best efforts to obtain his exchange, remained a prisoner of the Parliamentary side for about a year. [11] Lindsey is buried in St Michael and All Angels Church, Edenham, Lincolnshire. [1]
Lord Lindsey should not be confused with Ludovic Lindsay, 16th Earl of Crawford, who also fought for the King at the Battle of Edgehill.
In 1605, Lindsey married Elizabeth Montagu (d. 30 November 1654, sister of Edward Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu of Boughton). They had thirteen children:
The office of Lord Great Chamberlain descended through to him following the death of his cousin Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford, as being the closest heir male.
Earl of Lindsey is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1626 for the 14th Baron Willoughby de Eresby. He was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1635 to 1636 and also established his claim in right of his mother to the hereditary office of Lord Great Chamberlain of England. Lord Lindsey fought on the Royalist side in the Civil War and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Edgehill on 23 October 1642. He was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. He also fought at Edgehill and surrendered to the Parliamentarians in order to attend his mortally wounded father. Lord Lindsey later fought at the First Battle of Newbury, Second Battle of Newbury, and at Naseby. His son from his second marriage, James, was created Earl of Abingdon in 1682. He was succeeded by his son from his first marriage to Martha Cockayne, the third Earl. He represented Boston in the House of Commons and served as Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire.
Earl of Abingdon is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 30 November 1682 for James Bertie, 5th Baron Norreys of Rycote. He was the eldest son of Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey by his second marriage to Bridget, 4th Baroness Norreys de Rycote, and the younger half-brother of Robert Bertie, 3rd Earl of Lindsey. His mother's family descended from Sir Henry Norris, who represented Berkshire and Oxfordshire in the House of Commons and served as Ambassador to France. In 1572 he was summoned by writ to Parliament as Lord Norreys de Rycote. He was succeeded by his grandson, the second Baron. In 1621, he created Viscount Thame and Earl of Berkshire in the Peerage of England. He had no sons and on his death in 1624 the viscountcy and earldom became extinct. He was succeeded in the barony by his daughter Elizabeth, the third holder of the title. On her death, the title passed to her daughter, the aforementioned Bridget, the fourth Baroness, and second wife of the second Earl of Lindsey.
Baron Willoughby de Eresby is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1313 for Robert de Willoughby. Since 1983, the title has been held by Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby.
Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven PC, styled17th Baron Willoughby de Eresby between 1666 and 1701, and known as 4th Earl of Lindsey between 1701 and 1706, and as 1st Marquess of Lindsey between 1706 and 1715, was a British statesman and nobleman.
Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, styled The Honourable Peregrine Bertie between 1686 and 1704, Lord Willoughby de Eresby between 1704 and 1715 and Marquess of Lindsey between 1715 and 1723, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 until 1715 when he was called to the House of Lords.
The title Baron Norreys of Rycote was created in the Peerage of England by writ for Sir Henry Norris in 1572. The 2nd Baron Norreys was created Viscount Thame and Earl of Berkshire, both titles became extinct on his death. After two female heirs in the 17th century, the barony of Norreys went to the family of Bertie, and its holder, the 5th Baron Norreys became Earl of Abingdon in 1682. Since that time, the barony Norreys of Rycote has been a subsidiary title of the Earls of Abingdon, who have become Earls of Lindsey in the 20th century.
Katherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, suo jure12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, was an English noblewoman living at the courts of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I. She was the fourth wife of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, who acted as her legal guardian during his third marriage to Henry VIII's sister Mary. Her second husband was Richard Bertie, a member of her household. Following Charles Brandon's death in 1545, it was rumoured that King Henry had considered marrying Katherine as his seventh wife, while he was still married to his sixth wife, Catherine Parr, who was Katherine's close friend.
Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby was the son of Catherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, and Richard Bertie. Bertie was Lady Willoughby de Eresby's second husband, the first being Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Peregrine Bertie's half-brothers, Henry and Charles Brandon, died as teenagers four years before his birth. His sister Susan married the Earl of Kent and then the nephew of Bess of Hardwick. Owing to religious politics, the parents had to move outside England and the boy was born at Wesel on the River Rhine.
Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey, KG, PC was an English soldier, courtier, and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1624 and 1626. He was created Baron Willoughby de Eresby by writ of acceleration in 1640 and inherited the peerage of Earl of Lindsey in 1642. He fought in the Royalist army in the English Civil War.
Peter Robert Drummond-Burrell, 2nd Baron Gwydyr, 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby PC, was a British politician and nobleman.
Robert Bertie, 4th Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, PC, styled Lord Robert Bertie until 1758 and Marquess of Lindsey between 1758 and 1778, was a British peer. He was born in Grimsthorpe, the second son of the General Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, and Mary Panton
Robert Bertie, 3rd Earl of Lindsey PC FRS, styled Lord Willoughby de Eresby from 1642 to 1666, was an English nobleman.
Robert Welles, 8th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and 8th Baron Welles, was the son of Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles, and Joan Willoughby, 7th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. He was the prime mover in an uprising against Edward IV in 1470, although his actions were possibly orchestrated by Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.
Peregrine Bertie DL was a British politician, the second son of Robert Bertie, 3rd Earl of Lindsey.
Mary de Vere was a 16th-century English noblewoman who lived a life of extraordinary wealth and privilege. The daughter of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife Margery Golding, she married Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby. The couple lived with their six children in Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire. Following Bertie's death, Lady Willoughby married Sir Eustace Hart. She died on about 24 June 1624.
Margery Golding, Countess of Oxford was the second wife of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, the mother of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, and the half-sister of Arthur Golding, the English translator.
Sir Richard Hastings, Baron Welles, was the son of Sir Leonard Hastings and a younger brother of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings. He was a favourite of Edward IV, who granted him the lands of the baronies of Willoughby and Welles after he had married the heiress, Joan Welles. He fought at Tewkesbury. He died in 1503, and was buried at the Greyfriars, London.
Albemarle Bertie, of Swinstead, Lincolnshire, was an English Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1705 and 1741.
Sir Peregrine Bertie was a Jacobean soldier and landowner from Lincolnshire. He represented that county in Parliament in 1614, attended to local land improvements, and took part in several wars on the continent. He and his elder brother Lord Willoughby were frequently at odds with Lord Norreys.
Richard Henry Rupert Bertie, 14th Earl of Lindsey and 9th Earl of Abingdon is an English peer.
Media related to Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey at Wikimedia Commons