Third earl of Essex. 12th Baron Ferrers of Chartley. English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the seventeenth century. With the start of the English 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.∼On 11th January 1591, a son was born to Robert, Earl of Essex and his wife, Frances Walsingham. The child was named after his father, from whom he inherited the earldom of Essex in 1601 when Essex senior was executed following a futile rebellion against Elizabeth I. His marital career was disastrous – his first marriage to Lady Frances Howard was annulled for lack of consummation. His wife was reputed to be the lover of the Earl of Somerset, a close friend of James VI & I. Lady Frances and her second husband were convicted for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Essex had a similarly unsuccessful second marriage, and died without heirs. Essex, like all his family was an evangelical Protestant, he joined the Parliamentarians in the Civil War and was a commander at Edgehill. His troops were defeated at Lostwithiel in Cornwall in 1644. He died in 1646, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Third earl of Essex. 12th Baron Ferrers of Chartley. English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the seventeenth century. With the start of the English 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.∼On 11th January 1591, a son was born to Robert, Earl of Essex and his wife, Frances Walsingham. The child was named after his father, from whom he inherited the earldom of Essex in 1601 when Essex senior was executed following a futile rebellion against Elizabeth I. His marital career was disastrous – his first marriage to Lady Frances Howard was annulled for lack of consummation. His wife was reputed to be the lover of the Earl of Somerset, a close friend of James VI & I. Lady Frances and her second husband were convicted for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Essex had a similarly unsuccessful second marriage, and died without heirs. Essex, like all his family was an evangelical Protestant, he joined the Parliamentarians in the Civil War and was a commander at Edgehill. His troops were defeated at Lostwithiel in Cornwall in 1644. He died in 1646, and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
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