Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich (27 July 1625 – 28 May 1672), was an English military officer, politician and diplomat from Barnwell, Northamptonshire. During the First English Civil War he served with the Parliamentarian army, and was a member of the Parliament of England at various times between 1645 and 1660. Under the Protectorate, he was also a member of the English Council of State and General at sea.
In the political infighting that followed the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, he played an important role in bringing about the Stuart Restoration in May 1660. Created Earl of Sandwich by Charles II, he served as Ambassador to Portugal from 1661 to 1662. He was appointed Ambassador to Spain in 1666 and helped to negotiate the 1667 Treaty of Madrid.
When the Second Anglo-Dutch War began in 1665, he commanded a naval squadron but was later suspended in a dispute over prize money. He was restored to command when the Third Anglo-Dutch War began in May 1672, but was killed at the Battle of Solebay in June. Montagu is one of the best-known characters of the 1660s, being a central figure in the diaries of his distant cousin the naval official Samuel Pepys.
Edward Montagu was born on 25 July 1625 as the only surviving son of Sir Sidney Montagu (c. 1572–1644) and his first wife, Paulina Pepys (died 1638), great-aunt of Samuel Pepys. On 7 November 1642 Edward married Jemimah Crew, daughter of John Crew, 1st Baron Crew, and Jemima Waldegrave, whom Pepys in his diary refers to with great affection as "My Lady". The couple had ten children:
Paulina's death in February 1669, aged only twenty, was a great source of grief to her father. Pepys, who called her "a peevish lady", called to pay his condolences, but found him "shut away for sorrow".
First English Civil War and Interregnum
Although his father was a Royalist, when the First English Civil War began in August 1642, Montagu served in the Eastern Association army led by his Parliamentarian cousin, the Earl of Manchester. He raised a regiment of infantry which during the 1644 campaign fought at Marston Moor, the Siege of York and Second Newbury. Despite his family relationship, Montagu supported those in Parliament who expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war by Manchester and Essex.
This resulted in the creation of the New Model Army in February 1645 and the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance, requiring those holding military commissions to resign from Parliament. As members of the House of Lords, Manchester and Essex were automatically removed, since unlike MPs they could not resign their titles. Montagu's regiment was incorporated into the New Model, taking part in the June 1645 Battle of Naseby, followed by the capture of Bristol. In October he resigned from the army as required by the Ordinance when was appointed MP for Huntingdonshire, a seat formerly held by his father who died in September 1644.
Montagu played no part in the Second English Civil War and retired from Parliament after Pride's Purge in December 1648 to live quietly at home. He returned to politics in 1653 when his neighbour Oliver Cromwell nominated him to the Barebones Parliament as MP for Huntingdonshire, a seat formerly held by his father who died in September 1644. He was also appointed to the English Council of State, an office he held until it was dissolved in 1659, and was re-elected to the First Protectorate Parliament in 1654, then the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656.
During the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660), he was appointed joint General at Sea with Robert Blake, taking part in an expedition into the Mediterranean. This experience made him a leading advocate of establishing a British naval base in the region, an ambition realised with the acquisition of English Tangier in 1661. In February 1657, he was one of the so-called "New Cromwellians" who supported the Humble Petition and Advice, inviting Cromwell to declare himself king and advocating the re-establishment of a national church. The measure was opposed by army radicals including Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert and ultimately rejected.
In June 1658 he commanded the naval squadron that blockaded Dunkirk and when Cromwell died in September, Montagu remained loyal to his son and appointed successor Richard Cromwell. During his brief and disastrous rule as Lord Protector, Montagu remained at sea and in early 1659 was sent to mediate between Sweden and Denmark; however, he was suspected of secret communication with the exiled Charles II and the republicans Algernon Sidney and Sir Robert Honywood were sent to monitor his activity. He was recalled and investigated by the newly installed Rump Parliament; although no evidence was found, he was dismissed from command.
By the end of 1659 England appeared to be drifting into anarchy, with widespread demands for new elections and an end to military rule. In February 1660, George Monck, military commander in Scotland, marched into London and declared his support for the Rump against the Republican faction led by John Lambert. Montagu resumed command of the navy and was returned as MP for the important port of Dover when elections were held for a Convention Parliament in April.
This placed him in a powerful position during negotiations for the Restoration; when Parliament resolved to proclaim Charles king and invited him to return to England, Montagu commanded the fleet that brought him from the Dutch Republic on 24 May. Two months later, on 12 July 1660, he was created Baron Montagu of St Neots, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, and Earl of Sandwich. King Charles also made him a Knight of the Garter and appointed him Master of the Great Wardrobe, Admiral of the narrow seas (the English Channel and southern North Sea), and Lieutenant Admiral to The Duke of York, Lord High Admiral of England. He carried St. Edward's staff at Charles' subsequent coronation. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, who liked and admired Sandwich, wrote that the conferring of these honours caused much resentment among those Royalists who had gone into exile with their King, and regarded Sandwich as a "diehard" Cromwellian; yet adds that his charm of manner made it almost impossible to dislike him.
He was appointed Ambassador to Portugal in 1661, and strongly favoured the Portuguese marriage, through which England obtained Mumbai and Tangier. Sandwich, like others, saw a great future for Tangier as an international trade centre, and he commanded the fleet which took possession of the city in January 1662, purchasing a house there. Returning to England, in his capacity as Ambassador, he escorted the new Queen, Catherine of Braganza, from Lisbon.
Montagu was a signatory to The Several Declarations of The Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa, a document published in 1667 which led to the expansion of the Royal Africa Company.
In the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665 to 1667 he fought at the Battle of Lowestoft, an English victory, but defeat at the Battle of Vågen led to him being removed from active service. His reputation suffered another serious blow when he failed to prevent his sailors from plundering a number of Dutch VOC prize ships, loaded with precious spices from the East Indies, which he had brought in. By long-standing custom the sailors could take any goods they found between the decks, but they were strictly forbidden to "break the bulk" i.e. ransack the ship's hold; yet this is just what Sandwich, an easy-going man with a notoriously poor understanding of money matters, permitted. When this became widely known, the rumour spread that Sandwich had unlawfully helped himself to a fortune (in fact he seems to have taken less than he was entitled to), and the public, who were still enduring the horrors of the Great Plague of London, reacted with such unexpected fury that a minor mishap became a national affair: "the Prize Goods Scandal". Although Clarendon wrote that Sandwich was too likeable to have any personal enemies, he did have political opponents, including his own superior at the Admiralty, James, Duke of York, and James' influential secretary Sir William Coventry, who were happy to exploit the scandal. He felt obliged to obtain a royal pardon: the King, mindful of his good services at the Restoration, willingly granted it.