Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough

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Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough

Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough , KG , PC , FRS (born November 15, 1621 in England , † June 19, 1697 ibid) was an English courtier , peer , politician and officer .

Career

Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, was the eldest son of John Mordaunt, 1st Earl of Peterborough († 1642) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham (1577-1615). He received private lessons in Eton from Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639) and was sent to France to be safe there shortly before the outbreak of the First English Civil War . After the outbreak of war he returned to England in 1642 and served a short while in the parliamentary army, where he commanded his father's ailing horse troop. After his death he deserted in April 1643 and ran over to the royalists under Charles I in Oxford . As the new Earl of Peterborough, he joined the cavalry and took part in the battles of Bristol , Gloucester and Newbury in 1643 . At the Battle of Newbury on September 20, 1643, he was wounded in the arm and thigh when his horse was shot under him. During the following summer and winter of 1644 he commanded a regiment in the west, which he had dug up at his own expense, and took part with it in the battles of Cropredy Bridge and Lostwithiel .

In December 1644 he married Lady Penelope O'Brien († April 1702), the only daughter of Barnabas O'Brien, 6th Earl of Thomond († 1657). Mordaunt spent the following time in France. In 1646 he returned to England to compromise on his lands.

When he traveled through Ampthill to Hampton Court Palace in the summer of 1647 , there was a private conversation with Charles I, which led him to fight for the king one last time when he met George Villiers, 2nd Duke , in July 1648 of Buckingham (1628–1687) and Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland (1590–1649) united under the royal standard in Dorking in the county of Surrey . The plan to attack the city of Reigate failed. The parliamentary forces drove them back to Kingston upon Thames , from where they dispersed to the neighborhood of Harrow on July 7th . Mordaunt was badly wounded but was able to flee to Antwerp . In May 1649 he returned to England to find another compromise over his lands.

When Charles II married Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705) in 1661 , he received the city of Tangier in what is now Morocco as part of their dowry . He made Mordaunt governor, who arrived there on January 30, 1662. After fortifying the city harbor, he returned shortly thereafter. He served during the Second Anglo-Dutch War first as a volunteer in the fleet under Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich (1625-1672) and then in 1665 as commander of the Unicorn in the naval battle of Lowestoft under James Stuart, Duke of York and still once in 1672 in the Third Anglo-Dutch War as commander of the Prince at the sea ​​battle of Solebay . In 1670 he was appointed Groom of the Stool of the Duke of York and on February 24, 1673 he was appointed special ambassador, who was to negotiate the terms of the proposed marriage with Archduchess Claudia Felizitas of Innsbruck . Shortly after crossing the English Channel , he received news that Emperor Leopold I himself intended to marry the Archduchess. Thereupon he returned to England without having achieved anything. Then he was commissioned to take a close look at the Princess Maria of Modena (1658-1718) and several other ladies among whom the Duke of York should make his choice for the purpose of marriage. In the end, the choice fell on Maria von Modena, who was still fifteen. Mordaunt then traveled to Modena in August 1673 . After some concerns about religious issues, Pope Clement X issued a dispensation , after which nothing stood in the way of a marriage between a Catholic princess and a prince who was not an avowed Catholic. The wedding took place by procurationem on September 20, 1673 in the ducal palace of Modena. On behalf of the absent groom, Mordaunt took his place and then accompanied the princess to England.

On July 10, 1674 he was appointed to the Privy Council and in 1676 appointed Deputy Earl Marshal . On suspicion of complicity in the papist conspiracy , however, he was relieved of this post in 1680, deprived of his pension and expelled from the Privy Council. Despite the fever he dragged himself to Westminster Hall on December 7th to vote against the conviction of William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford (1614-1680). In October 1681 he was ordered to Scotland by the Duke of York , whom he accompanied on his return journey to England the following March. On February 28, 1683 he again took his place in the Privy Council.

At the coronation of James II in 1685 he carried the St. Edwards scepter . At that time Mordaunt was his groom of the stool , knight of the Order of the Garter and Colonel in the 3rd  Cavalry Regiment since 1685 . In March 1687 he entered the Roman Catholic Church . When the king fled to France in 1688, Mordaunt was captured near the port town of Ramsgate on December 24th when he tried to escape with him and was then taken to the Tower of London .

He was removed from all his previous offices and charged with James Cecil, 4th Earl of Salisbury (1666-1694) on October 26, 1689 of high treason for "in departing from their allegiance, and being reconciled to the Church of Rome" . The proceedings came to a halt, however, so that he was released on bail on October 9, 1690. In February 1696 he again fell under suspicion of treasonous behavior and was then placed under house arrest, which this time only lasted until the following May. Mordaunt was Laird ( Lord of the manor ) of Turvey in the county of Bedfordshire and Drayton in the county of Northamptonshire , and for many years the Lord Lieutenant in the last county. He died on June 19, 1697 and was then buried in the parish church of Turvey.

family

Mordaunt had two siblings, a younger brother, John Mordaunt, 1st Viscount Mordaunt (1626–1675), and a sister, Elizabeth, who was married to Thomas Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Escrick (1625–1678). He and his wife, Lady Penelope O'Brien, had two daughters:

His widow was Queen Maria's valet until her death in 1702. On his death, his daughter inherited his subordinate title Baron Mordaunt as the 7th Baroness. His title Earl of Peterborough , however, was only inheritable in the male line and fell to his nephew Charles Mordaunt (1658-1735).

literature

predecessor Office successor
John Mordaunt Earl of Peterborough
1642-1697 		Charles Mordaunt
John Mordaunt Baron Mordaunt
1642–1697 		Mary Howard
personal data
SURNAME Mordaunt, Henry, 2nd Earl of Peterborough
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman, politician and officer
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1621
PLACE OF BIRTH England
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1697
Place of death England