Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester

First Civil War

As soon as the First English Civil War started Wilmot joined King Charles I at York. By 5 August 1642, he raised a regiment of horse for the King's army and regained the post of commissary-general of horse. He was wounded at Battle of Powick Bridge on 23 September, the first major skirmish of the Civil War, but was fit enough to lead the left wing of the royalist cavalry at the Battle of Edgehill a month later, routing most of the Parliamentarians opposite to him. He also commanded the expeditionary force that stormed and captured Marlborough on 5 December.

Reward for these exploits was lavishly given in April 1643 when he was appointed lieutenant-general of horse in the king's army directly under the command of Prince Rupert of the Rhine and on 29 June when he was created Baron Wilmot of Adderbury, Oxfordshire; these honours may well have been assisted by the restored influence of his old patroness, the queen. Later that year he commanded a large cavalry contingent that was sent to help the western royalist army, and on 13 July he defeated Sir William Waller at the Battle of Roundway Down opening the way for the royalists to solidify their position in the west.

In 1644 when Rupert took over a regional command in the North, Wilmot stepped into his shoes as commander of all the Royalist cavalry and as the dominant influence on military matters. On 29 June at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge he participated in defeating Waller for the second time, but not before he had had to lead a charge, in which he was wounded and briefly taken prisoner.

When his father died (shortly before April 1644), Wilmot inherited the title of Viscount Wilmot of Athlone and much of his father's political standing in Ireland. In April he was, jointly with Thomas Dillon, 4th Viscount Dillon, made Lord President of Connaught, a post that his late father had held jointly with the late Viscount Ranelagh since 1630 ; this appointment laid the foundations for his becoming a major political figure in both England and Ireland.

All recognised that Wilmot was popular with the soldiers he commanded, due to a "mixture of courage, enterprise, and boozy affability" Clarendon famously, if waspishly, noted "He was a man proud and ambitious, and incapable of being contented; an orderly officer in marches and governing his troops. He drank hard, and had a great power over all who did so, which was a great people". This popularity and his central position in the army command, allowed him to start to exert political influence. In June Wilmot felt in a strong enough position to canvas support in the army to ask the king to dismiss his two principal civilian advisers, Lord Digby and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Culpeper, and to adopt the strategy of a march on London. Charles, who had no personal affection for Wilmot (because Wilmot had voted for the death of the Earl of Strafford), dismissed the strategy and retained Digby and Culpeper as his advisers.

With the failure of his first scheme, Wilmot made an unauthorized contact with the Earl of Essex who was the Parliamentarian commander-in-chief, to see if a peace could be arranged. The king was easily persuaded by Digby and Culpeper that Wilmot's actions were treasonable. Wilmot was arrested on 8 August 1644, stripped of all his offices, and incarcerated in Exeter. His popularity within the army led many of its officers to petition on his behalf and eventually to placate them, all charges against Wilmot were dropped on the understanding that he would retire overseas. Wilmot went to France, to join the exiled court of his old patron Queen Henrietta Maria.

Three years later, when Digby arrived in Paris, the dispute between the men was neither forgotten nor forgiven and they fought a duel. Wilmot was defeated with a stab through the hand.

Third Civil War

After Charles I was executed in January 1649, Wilmot became a gentleman of the bedchamber of King Charles II. He was greatly trusted by Charles II, whose defeat at the Battle of Worcester and subsequent wanderings Wilmot shared. During these, whereas the king adopted a series of disguises (often as a servant), Wilmot disdained disguise and declined to travel on foot. He and the king ultimately escaped to France six weeks after the battle, having spent the intervening time in hiding in various places.

Interregnum

Wilmot was one of Charles II's principal advisers during the former's exile, being created by him Earl of Rochester in 1652. In the interests of Charles, he visited the emperor Ferdinand III, Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine, and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. In March 1655, he was in England, where he led an unsuccessful attempt at a rising on Marston Moor, near York as part of the Sealed Knot Penruddock uprising. The York uprising was put down by Colonel Robert Lilburne Governor of York and on its failure, Wilmot fled the country again.

In April 1656 along with the Duke of Ormonde he signed the Treaty of Brussels, which secured an alliance between the exiled Royalists and the Spanish King. In 1656, Wilmot obtained command of an English foot regiment in the royalist army in Bruges, thus becoming the first colonel of the Grenadier Guards. The unhealthy and overcrowded conditions of the regiment's quarters in the winter of 1657–58 caused many in it to fall sick, including its commander. Wilmot died at Sluys on 19 February and was buried at Bruges.

After the Restoration, his body was transferred to the family vault at Spelsbury church, Oxfordshire. He was succeeded by his son John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, a noted poet and libertine at the Restoration court.

Family

On 21 August 1633, Wilmot married Frances Morton, daughter of Sir George Morton of Winterborne Clenston, Dorset. In 1644, some time after Frances had died, Wilmot married Anne Lee, daughter of Sir John St John, 1st Baronet St John of Lydiard Tregoze, and widow of Sir Francis Henry Lee, 2nd Baronet Lee of Quarendon. They had a son John, who was born on 10 April 1647. John inherited his father's title and went on to become a well-known raconteur, wit and poet at the court of Charles II.