Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl of Leicester (10 January 1619 – 6 March 1698) 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 Bicameralism, 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 ...

at various times between 1640 and 1659 and became

Earl of Leicester Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837. History Earl ...

in 1677. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the

Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union un ...

, when he was known as Viscount Lisle, a subsidiary title of the Earls of Leicester.

Family background

Sidney was the son of Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, and his wife Dorothy Percy, daughter of

Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, Order of the Garter, KG (27 April 1564 – 5 November 1632) was an English people, English nobleman. He was a grandee and one of the wealthiest peers of the court of Elizabeth I. Under James VI and I, Ja ...

. His younger brother

Algernon Sydney Algernon Sidney or Sydney (15 January 1623 – 7 December 1683) was an English politician, republican political theorist and colonel. A member of the middle part of the Long Parliament and commissioner of the trial of King Charles I of Englan ...

fought for Parliament in the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. An estimated 15% to 20% of adult males in England and Wales served in the military at some point b ...

, denounced

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

as a tyrant, and was executed for treason in 1683 for alleged involvement in the

Rye House Plot The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother (and heir to the throne) James, Duke of York. The royal party went from Westminster to Newmarket to see horse races and were expected to make the r ...

. Another brother, Henry Sydney (1641-1704), was a signatory of the 1688

Invitation to William The ''Invitation to William'' was a letter sent by seven Englishmen (six nobles and a bishop), later referred to as "the Immortal Seven", to stadtholder William III, Prince of Orange, dated 30 June 1688 (Julian calendar, 10 July Gregorian cal ...

, inviting him to remove

James II of England James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II of England, Charles II, on 6 February 1 ...

from the throne.

Career

In April 1640, he was elected Member of Parliament for

Yarmouth, Isle of Wight Yarmouth is a town, port and civil parish in the west of the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. The town is named for its location at the mouth of the small Western Yar river. The town grew near the river crossing, originally a fer ...

in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

. He was elected MP for both Yarmouth and St Ives for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

in November 1640, and chose to sit for Yarmouth. He was Colonel of a Regiment of Horse in Ireland in 1641. Lord Lisle supported the parliamentarian cause in the civil war and was Lord Lieutenant and Commander-in-Chief of Ireland from 1646 to 1647. He survived

Pride's Purge Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England. Despite defeat in the ...

in 1648 to sit in the

Rump Parliament The Rump Parliament describes the members of the Long Parliament who remained in session after Colonel Thomas Pride, on 6 December 1648, commanded his soldiers to Pride's Purge, purge the House of Commons of those Members of Parliament, members ...

and was a councillor of state from 1648 to 1650. He was appointed a judge for the trial of King Charles I but declined to act. He was president of the council from 1651 to 1652. He was councillor of state and councillor to the lord protector in 1653. Also in 1653, he was elected MP for

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in the

Barebones Parliament Barebone's Parliament, also known as the Little Parliament, the Nominated Assembly and the Parliament of Saints, came into being on 4 July 1653, and was the last attempt of the English Commonwealth to find a stable political form before the inst ...

. In 1654 he was elected MP for

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, a constituency that only existed in the

First Protectorate Parliament The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the H ...

. He was appointed to Cromwell's "House of Lords" in 1658 under the designation "Lord Viscount Lisle". In 1659 he was returned to the House of Commons for the Restored Rump parliament. On the restoration of King Charles II in 1660 Lord Lisle received a pardon. In 1677 he inherited the

Earldom Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ''countess'' is used. The titl ...

on the death of his father.

Marriage and issue

Lord Lisle married Lady Catherine Cecil, daughter of

William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, (28 March 1591 – 3 December 1668), known as Viscount Cranborne from 1605 to 1612, was an English peer, nobleman, and politician. Early years, 1591–1612 Cecil was the son of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of ...

, and his wife Lady Catherine Howard, in 1645. Their children were Dorothy and

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

; the latter succeeded to his father's earldom. An illegitimate daughter, Philadelphia Saunders, married Colonel John Shrimpton, later MP for

Whitchurch, Hampshire Whitchurch is a town in the borough of Basingstoke and Deane in Hampshire, England. It is on the River Test, south of Newbury, Berkshire, north of Winchester, east of Andover, Hampshire, Andover and west of Basingstoke. Much of the town is ...

and Governor of

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

References

Sources

* * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Leicester, Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl Of 1619 births 1698 deaths 3rd Earl of Leicester Lords Lieutenant of Ireland Roundheads

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...

English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1648–1653 English MPs 1653 (Barebones) English MPs 1654–1655 Members of Parliament for the Isle of Wight