Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, KB, PC 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.
Portrait of Robert Devereux 3rd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux as a child with his mother Frances Walsingham, countess of Essex by Robert Peake the elder, 1594
Robert Devereux depicted as Captain General on horseback, an engraving by Wenceslas Hollar
Robert Devereux depicted as Captain General on foot, an engraving by Wenceslas Hollar.
The English Civil War refers to a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the struggle consisted of the First English Civil War and the Second English Civil War. The Anglo-Scottish War of 1650 to 1652 is sometimes referred to as the Third English Civil War.
The Battle of Naseby, 14 June 1645; Parliamentarian victory marked the decisive turning point in the English Civil War.
Charles I believed in the ‘Divine right of kings’; painting by Van Dyck
Henrietta Maria, painted by Peter Lely, 1660
A sitting of the Long Parliament, 1640