[1] i.e. in the Devereux line.
ESSEX, ROBERT DEVEREUX, 3RD[1] EARL OF (1591-1646), son of the
preceding, was born in 1591. He was educated at Eton and at Merton
College, Oxford. Shortly after the arrival of James I. in London, Essex
(whose title was restored, and the attainder on his father removed, in
1604) was placed about the prince of Wales, as a sharer both in his
studies and amusements. At the early age of fifteen he was married to
Frances Howard, daughter of the earl of Suffolk, but she was his wife
only in name; during his absence abroad (1607-1609) she fell in love
with Sir Robert Carr (afterwards earl of Somerset), and on her charging
her husband with physical incapacity, the marriage was annulled in 1613.
A second marriage which he contracted in 1631 with Elizabeth, daughter
of Sir William Paulet, also ended unhappily. From 1620 to 1623 he served
in the wars of the Palatinate, and in 1625 he was vice-admiral of a
fleet which made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Cadiz. In 1639 he
was lieutenant-general of the army sent by Charles against the Scottish
Covenanters; but on account of the irresolution of the king no battle
occurred, and the army was disbanded at the end of the year. Essex was
discharged "without ordinary ceremony," and refused an office which at
that time fell vacant, "all which," says Clarendon, "wrought very much
upon his rough, proud nature, and made him susceptible of some
impressions afterwards which otherwise would not have found such easy
admission." Having taken the side of the parliament against Charles, he
was, on the outbreak of the civil war in 1642, appointed to the command
of the parliamentary army. At the battle of Edgehill he remained master
of the field, and in 1643 he captured Reading, and relieved Gloucester;
but in the campaign of the following year, on account of his hesitation
to fight against the king in person, nearly his whole army fell into the
hands of Charles. In 1645, on the passing of the self-denying ordinance,
providing that no member of parliament should hold a public office, he
resigned his commission; but on account of his past services his annuity
of L10,000 was continued to him for life. He died on the 14th of
September 1646, of a fever brought on by over-exertion in a stag-hunt in
Windsor Forest; his line becoming extinct.
See the "Life of Robert Earl of Essex," by Robert Codrington, M.A.,
printed in _Hart. Misc._; Clarendon's _History of the Rebellion_, and
Hon. W.B. Devereux, _Lives of the Earls of Essex_ (1853).