Colonel Godfrey Bosvile II (1596–1658) (or Bosville) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1640 to 1653. He fought on the Parliamentarian side in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. Bosvile was the son of Captain Ralph Bosvile of a knightly family of

Gunthwaite Gunthwaite is a hamlet in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is in the civil parish of Gunthwaite and Ingbirchworth and on the boundary of Kirklees in West Yorkshire. At the 2001 census, the parish had a populatio ...

, Yorkshire and his wife Margaret Copley. He was baptised on 12 April 1596 at

Sprotbrough Sprotbrough is a village in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, west of the centre. With Cusworth to the north, it forms the civil parish of Sprotbrough and Cusworth. Sprotbrough village had a population of 3,321 at the 2011 ce ...

, Yorkshire. His father died in Ireland in 1601 and his mother remarried Fulke Greville (1575-1632); his younger half-brother

Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke (May 1607 – 4 March 1643) was a radical Puritan activist and leading member of the opposition to Charles I of England prior to the outbreak of the First English Civil War in August 1642. Appointed Roundhead, Pa ...

became a leading

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

activist. In April 1640, Bosvile was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

. He was re-elected MP for Warwick in December 1640 for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

and sat through to the

Rump Parliament The Rump Parliament was the English Parliament after Colonel Thomas Pride commanded soldiers to purge the Long Parliament, on 6 December 1648, of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason. "Rump" n ...

. Bosvile took the protestation, and was appointed commissioner for Yorkshire, Warwick and Coventry. He obtained a commission in the Parliamentary army and he rose to the rank of colonel. In 1643, he marched from Coventry with eight hundred horse, and took the garrisoned house of Sir Thomas Holt. In 1644 he assisted Colonel Purefoy of Warwickshire, at the siege of Banbury. His name was put down as one of the commissioners of the high court of justice to try the king, but he declined taking any part in the trial. Bosvile died at the age of 62 in

, Yorkshire. Bosvile married Margery Greville daughter of Sir Edward Greville in 1616.

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* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bosvile, Godfrey 1596 births 1658 deaths Roundheads English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1648–1653 Parliamentarian military personnel of the English Civil War

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