V. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF OFFICERS AND OTHERS MENTIONED IN CONNECTION WITH THE FIRST BATTLE OF NEWBURY. §1. ROYALIST OFFICERS. PATRICK RUTHVEN, EARL OF FORTH. Created an English peer with the title of the Earl of Brentford, 27 May, 1644; had been made Fieldmarshall by the King at Coventry, and succeeded Lord Lindsey as General-in-chief after the battle of Edgehill; engaged at both fights at Newbury; "an experienced commander and a man of naturall courage, and purely a soldier, and of a most loyall heart (which he had many occasions to shew, before the warr was ended, and which his Country-men remembred, for they used both him and his Widow with all extremity afterwards)." (Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs, p. 229.) He had seen service in Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus, in Denmark, Russia, Livonia, Lithuania, Poland, and Prussia. In England alone the number of his wounds had equalled that of the battles in which he had exposed himself. At Edgehill, says Lloyd, he modelled the fight. He was at Brentford and Gloucester, was shot in both the fights at Newbury, at Cheriton, and near Banbury. He had been shot in the head, in both arms, the mouth, leg, and shoulder; and, as if all this had not been enough for his scars and his story, the catalogue was finished by a fall from his horse that broke his shoulder. He survived to wait upon Charles II. in exile; and, returning to his native country, was buried in 1651 at Dundee. (Mil. Mem. of Col. Jno. Birch, Cam. Soc., p. 99.) PRINCE RUPERT. Prince Rupert came over from Holland to the assistance of the King his uncle about the time of the raising of the royal standard at Nottingham. He possessed in a high degree that kind of courage which is better to attack than defend, and is less adapted to the land-service than that of the sea, where precipitate valour is in its element. He seldom engaged but he gained the advantage, which he generally lost by pursuing it too far. He was better qualified to storm a citadel, or even mount a breach, than patiently sustain a siege; and would have furnished an excellent hand to a general of a cooler head. (Granger's Biog. Hist. v. i., p. 344.) Prince Rupert died, unmarried, at his house in Spring Gardens, 29 Nov., 1682, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. SIR JOHN BYRON. Sir John Byron, K.B., M.P. for the town of Nottingham in the reign of James I., and for the county of Nottingham in that of Charles I. A faithful adherent of, and gallant officer under the latter King. Sir John commanded the corps of reserve at the battle of Edgehill; and the victory of Roundway Down, 5 July, 1643, wherein Sir William Waller was routed, was chiefly owing to his skill and valour, having at the head of his regiment charged Sir Arthur Hasilrigg's cuirassiers, and after a sharp conflict, in which Sir Arthur received many wounds, compelled that impenetrable regiment (as Lord Clarendon writes) to fly. Sir John Byron having given such proofs of his courage, and his six brothers at that time following his loyal example, he was in consideration thereof advanced 24 October, 1643, shortly after the first engagement at Newbury, to the dignity of a Baron of the realm, by the title of Lord Byron, of Rochdale in the Co. Palatine of Lancaster, with limitation, in default of his own male issue, to each of his brothers. His Lordship married twice; but dying in 1652 issueless, the barony devolved upon his brother Richard. Lord Byron's letter to Clarendon, frequently quoted in the text, was written while in exile, and is dated "St. Germains, December 10, 1647." LORD WILMOT. Henry, 2nd Viscount Wilmot in Ireland, was created, 29 June 1643, Lord Wilmot of Adderbury, co. Oxon, in the English Peerage. He was further advanced to the Earldom of Rochester, 13 Dec. 1652, He died at Dunkirk in 1659, and was succeeded by his only surviving son, John, the better (but not so favourably) known Earl of Rochester. Lord Wilmot "ordered the horse at Newbery first Battel (being Lieutenant-General under Prince Rupert) in so convenient and spacious a place (Downs have been pitched upon as the most commodious Scene of a Horse Engagement), advising them by no means to be drawn into any uneven and streight places; with so strict an eye upon all advantages and opportunities, and in such Ranks, that one Troop might be in subsidiis assistant to another, and no part stand naked or fail in the singleness of its own strength, but that one may second another from first to last, being aware of Livius' Charge upon Cajus Sempronius (Pugnavit incaute inconsulteque non subsidiis firmata acie non equite apte locato)." (Lloyd's Memoirs, pp. 465-6.) EARL OF CAERNARVON. Robert Dormer, grandson to Robert Dormer created a baronet by K. James I., June 10, 1615, and Baron Dormer, of Wing, co. Bucks, the 30th of the same month in the same year, succceded to the Barony on the death of his grandfather in 1616, and was created Viscount and Earl of Caernarvon by Charles I. in 1628. This gallant nobleman it would appear, like his noble compatriots Sunderland and Falkland, fell in the early part of the fight. Clarendon states that the Earl, having charged and routed a body of the enemy's horse, and coming carelessly back by some scattered troopers, was by one of them, who knew him, run through the body with a sword, of which he died within an hour; and describes him as being an honour to the cause he embraced, and his death a sensible weakness to the army. In Sir Roger Manley's 'History of the Rebellion,' his death is thus described::-"There was a little hill five hundred paces from the town, which the Cavaliers had possessed and fortified with guns. Essex perceiving it, and having no other way to pass, he himself with his own regiment and that of the general's guards attacks it fiercely, being as bravely received by the royalists, Stapleton with his own regiment and that of the general's guards, charging the Earl of Caernarvon was repulsed, but the Earl, pursuing too far, was killed by a shot in [at] the head of his own men; a person no less remarkable for his fortitude and fidelity to the King, than for the nobleness of his extraction." The context shows that Sir Roger refers to the Wash as the hill fortified with the King's artillery.* Lloyd, in his 'Memoirs,' • The traditional spot where Lord Caernarvon fell is marked on the Plan. |