for a special exemption to allow his father’s title to be
handed down to him, making him the third earl of Essex
in 1604. Following father’s example, Essex entered the
English military in 1620 when he was 29, and he saw
service in the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) in Europe,
commanding a regiment in Holland under Sir Horace
Vere and leading an ill-fated expedition to Cádiz in Spain
in 1625. For his service, he was promoted to the rank
of vice admiral, and in 1639, King Charles I appointed
him second in command of the army in Scotland during
the Second Bishops’ War (1639–40). In 1641, the king
made him a privy councillor. Nevertheless, Essex sup-
ported the parliamentary cause and asked the king to call
Parliament into session in 1640 to pay for army expendi-
tures. When Charles refused, Essex turned against him,
and when a Parliamentary army was drafted to fight the
king, he was named the lord general in July 1642.
When Essex concluded that Charles’s forces would
march on London to take control of the city, he ad-
vanced his own army to head off the king. After captur-
ing Worcester and Hereford (September 1642), he faced
Charles at Edgehill on 23 October 1642. According to
most historians, this battle was inconclusive, and both
armies retreated with no decision. However, a contem-
porary work from 1642, entitled A Relation of the Battel
[sic] fought between Keynton and Edgehill, by His Majesty’s
Army and that of the Rebels, states, with an obvious pro-
Royalty bias, that the Parliamentarian forces suffered a
terrible loss:
The King with the whole Body of the Horse, and
those of the Foot which were not broken, quar-
tered upon and on one side of the Hill, all that
Night; and in the Morning, as soon as it was Day,
drew half the Body of the Horse into Battalia, at
the Foot of the Hill, and the rest of the Horse
and the Foot on the Top of the Hill, where the
Standard was placed; and having notice that 3 of
the Rebels Cannon were left half way between
us and their Quarter, sent out a Body of Horse,
and drew them off, they not so much as offer-
ing to relieve them: So both Armies, facing one
another all day, retired at Night to their former
Quarters....
The Rebels in this Battel lost above 70 Co-
lours of Cornets and Ensigns; we 16 Ensigns, but
not one Cornet; but our Horse relieved not only
the Standard, but divers of our Ensigns....For the slain on both sides, the Number is
uncertain; yet it is most certain that we killed five
for one. It is true, that their Chief Officers hav-
ing fleeter Horses than ours, not so many of their
Foot, as ours, were slain and taken Prisoners, to
our knowledge as yet; but we lost no Officer of
Horse, excepting the Lord Aubigny.
The next Day after the Battel, the Earl of
Essex finding his Army extreamly weakened and
disheartned by the great Blow they had received
by his Majesties Forces, withdrew himself to
Warwick Castle; and the same Night the remain-
der of his Forces went also privately thither much
distracted, whereof Prince ruPert having No-
tice, the next Morning pursued them, but they
were all got into Warwick, or dispersed before he
could overtake them; but his Highness took 25
Wagons and Carriages of the Rebels, laden with
Ammunition, Medicaments, and other Bag-
gage, whereof he brought away part, and fired
the rest.Following the clash at Edgehill, Essex moved back
to Warwick, allowing Charles to move onto London.
Charles, however, rested his army, allowing Essex to out-
flank him and reach London first. At Turnham Green
(12 November 1642), Essex established a defensive for-
tification with some 24,000 men to meet Charles’s at-
tack. The Royalists had about half of Essex’s force, so
this battle was short and led to Charles’s withdrawal to
Kingston. Having anticipated this move, Essex had es-
tablished Sir James Ramsey and a force of some 3,000
men to await him, forcing Charles to withdraw to Read-
ing and then Oxford. His chances of taking London
were finished.
In 1643, Essex captured Reading and sent a force
to relieve Gloucester, two moves that separated the
Royalist forces. However, within a year, his fortunes
had changed: He relieved Lyme in June 1644, captured
Taunton (July 1644), and moved on to Exeter. Charles,
whose rest at Oxford had allowed his force to recover,
pursued Essex as he himself had been pursued. When Sir
William Waller was defeated at Copredy Bridge (29
June 1644), any chance of relieving Essex’s forces was
dashed. Essex attempted to march to Falmouth, but this
failed, and he fell back to Lostwithiel, where his forces
faced Charles on 1 September 1644. Hemmed in at the
port of Fowey near Lostwithiel, Essex and his army wereeSSex, RobeRt DeveReux, thiRD eARl oF 0