CAPEL (of HADHAM), ARTHUR CAPEL, BARON (fl. 1640--1649), English royalist, son of Sir Henry Capel of Rayne Hall, Essex, was elected a member of the Short and Long Parlia ments in 1640 for Hertfordshire. He at first supported the op position, but went over to the king's party and was raised to the peerage on Aug. 6, 1641. On the outbreak of the civil war, he was appointed lieutenant-general of Shropshire, Cheshire and North Wales, and was a commissioner at the negotiations at Ux bridge in 1645. He attended the queen in her flight to France in 1646, but disapproved of the prince's journey thither, and retired to Jersey, subsequently aiding in the king's escape to the Isle of Wight. He was one of the chief leaders in the second Civil War. On Aug. 27, together with Lord Norwich, he surrendered to Fairfax at Colchester on promise of quarter for life, an assurance which the civil authorities declared not to be binding on themselves. He succeeded in escaping from the Tower, but was again captured, was condemned to death by the new "high court of justice" on March 8, 1649, and was beheaded, together with the duke of Hamilton and Lord Holland, the next day.
Lord Lapel's Daily Observations or Meditations: Divine, Morall, published with some of his letters in 1654, was reprinted, with a short life of the author, under the title Excellent Contemplations, in 1683.