Holland, Henry Rich, first earl of (first baron
Kensington) (1590–1649) English military
commander
Born in 1590, Henry Holland was the second son of
Robert Rich, the first earl of Warwick, and his wife Pe-
nelope, the daughter of Walter Devereux, the first earl of
Essex. He received his education at Emmanuel College,
Cambridge University, and was knighted in 1610. That
same year, he was elected to a seat in Parliament from
Leicester, serving a second term in 1614.
Rich’s military career began about 1610, when he
saw action as a volunteer soldier at the siege of Juliers in
the war against the Spanish in the Netherlands. For his
services in this conflict, he was praised by King James I
and named as a gentleman of the bedchamber for James’s
son Charles, the Prince of Wales. He was promoted to
captain of the Yeomen of the Guard on 5 November
1617 and, on 8 March 1623, was raised to the peerage as
Baron Kensington after he married Isabel, the daughter
of Sir Walter Cope, earl of Kensington. He secured such
trust from the royal family that in 1624 James sent him
to France with Sir Dudley Carleton to arrange the mar-
riage between James’s son Charles and Henrietta Maria,
the daughter of the French king Henry IV. That year, he
was once raised to the peerage, as earl of Holland. Again,
he was trusted with sensitive diplomatic missions, in-
cluding one to France to end fighting between the gov-
ernment of King Louis XIII and the Huguenot religious
minority, and another to the Netherlands with George
Villiers, the duke of Buckingham. In 1625, with James
I’s death, his son succeeded to the throne as Charles I,
who named Holland as a Knight of the Garter (KG) on
13 December 1625. Two years later, he was placed in
command of the royal fleet to aid Buckingham in an
attack on the Isle of Ré, but he could not leave England
due to inclement weather and sailed late, only to meet
Buckingham returning from a defeat. Buckingham was
assassinated soon after, and Holland was selected to suc-
ceed him as the chancellor of his alma mater, Cambridge
University.
In 1642, following a long and testy relationship be-
tween Charles and Parliament, the members of the leg-
islative body refused to accept the king’s claims of regal
authority, and they challenged him for control of the
nation. Although he had served Charles and his father
for nearly 20 years, Holland abandoned the royal cause
and sided with the Parliamentarians at the outset of the
conflict. Historians believe that this move came about
because Charles had slighted him by offering the com-
mand of the English army to Lord Conway instead of
to Holland when the English fought the Scottish in the
Second Bishops’ War (1640). Whatever the reason, in
March 1642, Parliament chose Holland to transmit their
official terms to Charles, who dismissed his old friend.
In July 1642, Holland was named as a member of the
Committee of Safety. When war was declared and a par-
liamentary army formed, his father’s cousin, Robert De-
vereux, third earl of essex, was named as a commander.
Holland met with Essex at Twickenham and convinced
him not to fire the first shot against the Royalist forces,
even appearing at Turnham Green (13 November 1642)
to halt the fighting. When Essex ignored his advice,
Holland, returned to the king and asked to join his side
in the dispute, but Charles, still furious at his treachery,
refused his services. Nevertheless, Holland served as a
member of the Royalist army at the siege of Glouces-
ter (10 August–8 September 1643) and at Newbury (20
September 1643). He then again changed sides to sup-
port the Parliamentarians. However, instead of fighting,
Holland spent his time trying reconcile the two sides; at
one point he asked Parliament to recompense him for
property he had lost in the war.
In 1648, Holland once again entered the fighting
and approached Charles to ask him for a commission;
Charles’s son, Charles, the Prince of Wales, gave Hol-
land a commission as a general. Holland then took
command of a Royalist force at Kingston to march on
Colchester and raise the Parliamentary siege of that city.
Before he could march, he issued proclamations calling
for an end to the struggle against the king, an admis-
sion of Charles’s royal authority, and a peace treaty to be
signed between Charles and the Parliament. These had
little effect, and Holland, with 600 men, marched on
Kingston. He was defeated there on 7 July 1648 by Sir
Michael Livesey, and three days later he was captured at
St. Neots. Initially, the House of Commons agreed that
Holland and any other Royalist commanders would be
banished from their offices, but the army countered by
trying Holland; James Hamilton, first duke of Ham-
ilton; and Arthur, Lord Capel. All three were found
guilty and sentenced to death. The two houses of Parlia-
ment voted 31 to 30 to refuse them clemency, and, on
9 March 1649, all three men were beheaded. Before he
was put to death, Holland gave a speech in which he de-
fended his fight for the king. “God be praised, although
my blood comes to be shed here, there was scarcely a hollAnD, henRy Rich, FiRSt eARl oF