Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, KB, PC (; 11 January 1591 – 14 September 1646) was an English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the 17th century. With the start of the Civil War in 1642, he became the first Captain-General and Chief Commander of the Parliamentarian army, also known as the Roundheads. However, he was unable and unwilling to score a decisive blow against the Royalist army of King Charles I. He was eventually overshadowed by the ascendancy of Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax, and resigned his commission in 1646.
Robert Devereux was the son and heir of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, the courtier and soldier from the later reign of Queen Elizabeth I. His mother was Frances Walsingham (1567–1633), the only daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's spymaster. He was born at the home of his grandmother, Lady Walsingham, in Seething Lane, London.
His education continued at Eton College and Merton College, Oxford, being created MA by the university in 1605.
The 2nd Earl led an unsuccessful rebellion against Elizabeth in 1601. He was subsequently executed for treason and the family lost its title. However, King James I chose to restore it after he became King of England. In 1604, Robert Devereux became the 3rd Earl of Essex. The young earl became a close friend of Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales.
Essex was married at age 13 to the 14-year-old Frances Howard; he was then sent on a European tour from 1607 to 1609, apparently without having consummated the marriage. Meanwhile, his wife began an affair with Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester, a favourite of King James I. After Essex's return, Frances sought an annulment on the grounds of impotence. Essex claimed that he was only impotent with her and had been perfectly capable with other women, adding that she "reviled him, and miscalled him, terming him a cow and coward, and beast."
The divorce was a public spectacle and it made Essex a laughing stock at court. It was small comfort that the finding that Frances was still a virgin was greeted with equal derision: as a popular ballad put it The Dame was inspected, but fraud interjected a Maid of greater perfection. The annulment was granted on 25 September 1613, and Frances married her lover, who had been made 1st Earl of Somerset, on 26 December 1613. Three years later the Somersets were tried by a panel of Lords for their part in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury; Essex sat as a juror in the trial of his former wife and pressed the King to send her to the scaffold. Both were condemned to death, but the sentence was not carried out.
On 12 March 1640, Essex married Elizabeth Pawlett, daughter of Sir William Pawlett, of Edington, Wiltshire, past High Sheriff of Wiltshire and cousin of William Paulet, 4th Marquess of Winchester. Elizabeth was introduced at Court during the Great Parliament of 1628/29 just after her father died, as the eldest unmarried daughter needing to marry to improve her family prospects. Back from travels in military service on the Continent (see below) Robert was also pressured to marry again (and quickly) to show the Court the humiliation from his first marriage could be overcome. This marriage was also a disaster and failed, though not as publicly. They separated in 1631, the Countess remaining at Essex House in the Strand, London, Robert "playing soldiers" at his estates.
There was a son from the union, Robert, styled Viscount Hereford, who was born on 5 November 1636 and died of plague a month later. Essex, who had given the birth date as a deadline beyond which he would have disowned the child, grudgingly acknowledged him as his own; however, the father was widely suspected by the Court to be Elizabeth's alleged lover, Sir Thomas Uvedale (from the alleged prompting of William Seymour, 1st Marquess of Hertford, Robert's brother-in-law who leased part of Essex House in London, and expected to inherit if Robert had no issue). Elizabeth, through her funeral oration (in 1656) by her second husband Sir Thomas Higgons, vigorously denied this.
In 1620 Essex embarked on what was to be an undistinguished military career prior to the start of the First English Civil War. Between 1620 and 1624 he served in Protestant armies in Germany and the Low Countries. In 1620 he joined Sir Horace Vere's expedition to defend the Palatine. In 1621 he served with Prince Maurice of Nassau, and in 1622 with Count Ernst von Mansfeld (battle of Fleurus, 29 August 1622). In 1624 he commanded a regiment in the unsuccessful campaign to relieve the siege of Breda.
In 1625, under Sir Edward Cecil, he commanded a squadron as vice-admiral and as colonel of a foot regiment in the failed English expedition to Cadiz.
Despite the lack of distinction, this period of his life gave him a good working knowledge of continental war methods and strategies, even if most of his own experience was limited to defensive operations. Every drive he made to recruit volunteers for these expeditions was successful, such was the loyalty he could command.
Following a period of little distinguished activity in the 1630s, Essex, who had been made Knight of the Bath in 1638, served in the army of King Charles I during the first Scottish Bishops' War in 1639 as Lieutenant-General of the army in the North of England. However, he was denied a command in the second, which took place in 1640. This pushed him further into the arms of the growing number of the King's opponents in Parliament.
Role in starting the English Civil War: 1640–1642
Robert Devereux's opposition to the Stuart monarchy as a leader of the Country party in the House of Lords was established in the 1620s along with the Earls of Oxford, Southampton, Warwick, Lords Say and Spencer. During one exchange the animosity of King James was evident when he said, "I fear thee not, Essex, if thou wert as well beloved as thy father, and hadst 40,000 men at thy heels."
When King James' son, Charles convened the Short Parliament in 1640 he had ruled without Parliament for 11 years. He was forced to call another one to raise money to fight insurgencies in Scotland and Ireland. However, many Parliamentarians sought to use the new Parliament to bring the King to account. Relations between Charles and his Parliament quickly broke down.
Essex was a strong Protestant and he had a reputation for being one of the puritan nobles in the House of Lords. He was friends with John Pym, one of the strongest critics of Charles in the House of Commons during the Short Parliament and its successor the Long Parliament.
In 1641, Parliament passed a Bill of Attainder against the King's minister Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, who was fiercely loyal to Charles. This resulted in Strafford's execution: of all Strafford's enemies Essex was perhaps the most implacable, dismissing appeals for mercy with the proverb Stone dead hath no fellow. In an attempt at reconciliation with Parliament, Charles gave royal assent to the Bill of Attainder and invited leading Parliamentary critics to join his Privy Council.
Essex supported the action against Strafford and was appointed to the Privy Council. He was made Captain General of the royal armed forces south of the River Trent in February and was made Lord Chamberlain in July. However, the relationship between Charles and his Parliament deteriorated further.