Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth, KB, PC ( bap. 2 February 16121 March 1665) was an English landowner and soldier who supported the Royalists during 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 ...

. At the end of 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 ...

in 1646, he accompanied the future

Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest su ...

into exile and fought with him at the

Battle of Worcester The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1642 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell def ...

in 1651.

Private life

Wentworth was born in 1612, the eldest son of the 1st Earl of Cleveland and his first wife, Anne Crofts (died 1638). His exact birthdate is unknown, but parish records show that he was

baptised Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

on 2 February 1612. In 1640, he was elected member of parliament (MP) for

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

to 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 ...

in April and again to 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. However, before he took his seat in November, he was called up to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

by writ of acceleration in his father's barony of Wentworth. He was married by mid-March 1658 to Philadelphia Carey (died 1696), daughter of Sir Ferdinando Carey (1590–1638), granddaughter of Sir Edmund Carey (1558–1637). Together they had one child: Henrietta Maria Wentworth, who was born on 11 August 1660. Honors awarded to Wentworth included being created a

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

and appointment to the

Privy Council of England The Privy Council of England, also known as His (or Her) Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (), was a body of advisers to the List of English monarchs, sovereign of the Kingdom of England. Its members were often senior members of the House ...

(PC). Wentworth died at age 53 on 1 March 1665, thereby predeceasing his father by two years. He was buried six days later at Toddington. His daughter, Henrietta, succeeded to the barony upon her father's death; she would have an affair with

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685) was an English nobleman and military officer. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest ill ...

, but no children. After her death at 25, the barony passed to her aunt, Anne Lovelace, 7th Baroness Wentworth, the wife of John Lovelace, 2nd Baron Lovelace.

The Civil War

During the

, Wentworth was the Sergeant-Major-General of Horse and commanded the Prince of Wales's Regiment of Horse. He saw action at Tipton Green, Cropredy Bridge, and possibly at Newbury, all in 1644; at Langport in 1645; and at Worcester, the final battle of the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

in 1651. He fought most battles alongside his father. When the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

s were defeated, Lord Wentworth accompanied the court into exile. He raised a regiment (which later became the

Grenadier Guards The Grenadier Guards (GREN GDS) is the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army, being at the top of the Infantry Order of Precedence. It can trace its lineage back to 1656 when Lord Wentworth's Regiment was raised in Bruges to protect ...

) at

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

as a bodyguard to the exiled Charles II.

Prelude: the Bishops' Wars

From 1639 to 1640, Wentworth fought against the Scots in the

Bishops' Wars The Bishops' Wars were two separate conflicts fought in 1639 and 1640 between Scotland and England, with Scottish Royalists allied to England. They were the first of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which also include the First and Second En ...

First English Civil War

At the outset of the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

in 1642, Wentworth was with George Goring in Portsmouth. After the fall of that garrison, he joined the King's Main Field Army, and as Lord Wentworth, raised a company of

dragoons Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat wi ...

. He fought at Marlborough, Wiltshire, in December 1642, and at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in February 1643. On 2 February 1643, he became major-general of dragoons, in succession to Sir Arthur Aston. In the early part of the civil war, dragoons formed a substantial part of the mounted arm, although they were merely infantrymen set on ponies and other small horses initially regarded as unsuitable for cavalry troopers. As the war progressed, however, standards dropped and all riding horses went to the cavalry, irrespective of size or condition. This caused the dragoons to dwindle in both numbers and importance. All too often they simply discarded their muskets and started calling themselves troopers. Consequently, Wentworth followed suit and on 5 February 1644, he succeeded Sir Thomas Byron as colonel of the Prince of Wales's Regiment of Horse. At the Battle of Cropredy Bridge (June 1644) he commanded a cavalry brigade. He was afterward appointed major-general of horse in succession to Lord Wilmot, when the latter was dismissed before the battle of

Lostwithiel Lostwithiel (; ) is a civil parish and small town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom at the head of the estuary of the River Fowey. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,739, increasing to 2,899 at the 2011 census. The Lostwi ...

. However, on 14 November 1644, he relinquished this post in order to join Lord Goring's army in the west country. After Goring's defeat at Langport and subsequent dismissal, Wentworth was appointed major-general of horse under the western army's new commander, Lord Hopton. Unfortunately Hopton was soon on bad terms with Wentworth and contrived to get himself badly beaten at Torrington on 14 March 1646. As a result, the already demoralized western army surrendered soon afterwards.

Exile with Prince Charles

Wentworth escaped with

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

in the spring of 1646. The prince's court went first to the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

and then to

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

. In 1649, Wentworth accompanied Charles to Paris.

Third English Civil War

The following year both Wentworth and his father, the earl of Cleveland, sailed with Charles to Scotland. Charles was compelled to subscribe to the

Solemn League and Covenant The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians in 1643 during the First English Civil War, a theatre of conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. On 17 August ...

as a condition of being recognized as

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

, but many of his followers neglected to do so including Wentworth and his father. Despite the defeat of the Scots army at

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...

on 3 September 1650, both Wentworth and his father were, as non-subscribers, ordered out of the country on 17 October. Just as with the Earl of Forth and other prominent royalists, they ignored this edict and subsequently fought at Worcester on 3 September 1651. Although his father was afterwards captured, Wentworth got away safely.

Exile with King Charles

Until the Restoration in 1660, Wentworth attended Charles II's émigré court. In 1656 in

, he was responsible for organizing and commanding a regiment of foot guards that served as a bodyguard unit to the exiled king. The regiment also served with the Spanish army at the Battle of the Dunes in June 1658, although there is some doubt as to whether Wentworth personally fought there.

Restoration

After the 1660

Stuart Restoration The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland. It replaced the Commonwealth of England, established in January 164 ...

Wentworth returned home to England. He brought the regiment of foot guards with him, where it became the 1st foot guards and afterwards the

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Wentworth, Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Knights of the Bath Members of the Privy Council of England *05 Heirs apparent who never acceded 1612 births 1665 deaths Grenadier Guards officers English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Military personnel from Bedfordshire Royalist military personnel of the English Civil War English generals