ESSEX, ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF (1566 1601), son of the 1st Devereux earl, was born at Netherwood, Herefordshire, on Nov. 19, 1566. He was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, and in 1585 accompanied his stepfather, the earl of Leicester, to Holland, where he distinguished himself at the battle of Zutphen. He now took his place at court, where he was in high favour with Elizabeth, and in consequence on bad terms with Raleigh. In 1587 he was appointed master of the horse, and in the following year was made general of the horse and installed knight of the Garter. On the death of Leicester he succeeded him as chief favourite of the queen. Elizabeth was approaching 6o; Essex was scarcely 21. Though well aware of the advantages of his position, and somewhat vain of the queen's favour, his constant attendance on her at court was intolerable, and in 1589, without her consent, he joined the expedition of Drake and Sir John Norris against Spain. In June, however, he was compelled to obey a letter enjoining him at his "uttermost peril" to return immediately. In 1590 Essex married the widow of Sir Philip Sidney, but in dread of the queen kept the marriage secret. When it was avowed, the queen was excessively angry, but, on the understanding that the lady should "live retired in her mother's house," was mollified.
In 1591 Essex was appointed to the command of a force auxiliary to one formerly sent to assist Henry IV. of France against the Spaniards ; after a fruitless campaign he was recalled from the command in Jan. 1592. For some years after this most of his time was spent at court, where he held a position of unex ampled influence, both on account of the favour of the queen and from his own personal popularity. In 1596 he was appointed with Lord Howard of Effingham, Raleigh and Lord Thomas Howard, to the command of the successful expedition against Cadiz. Shortly after this the queen's feelings towards him seem to have changed, and an open rupture was only prevented by the influence of Francis Bacon, at that time Essex's most intimate friend. In 1597 he was appointed master of the ordnance, and in 1598 commander of an expedition against Spain, known as the Islands or Azores Voyage. As the Plate fleet escaped him he failed of his main purpose; and when on his return the queen met him with the usual reproaches, he retired to his home at Wanstead. Elizabeth on Lord Howard of Effingham the earldom of Nottingham for services at Cadiz, the main merit of which was justly claimed by Essex, but she sought to console Essex by making him earl marshal of England. Nevertheless the quarrel remained unhealed. In a discussion on the appointment of a lord deputy to Ireland, Essex, on account of some taunting words of Elizabeth, turned his back upon her, and when she, unable to control her indignation, slapped him on the face, he left her swearing that such an insult he would not have endured even from Henry VIII.
In Aug. 1598, Essex succeeded Burghley as chancellor of Cam bridge, and in the following year, while Ulster was in rebellion under the earl of Tyrone, was made lieutenant and governor general of Ireland. His campaign was unsuccessful, and by oppos ing the commands of the queen and the council, agreeing with Tyrone on a truce in September, and suddenly leaving the post of duty with the object of privately vindicating himself before the queen, he laid himself open to serious charges. He was brought in June i600 before a specially constituted court, deprived of his offices, and ordered to live a prisoner in his own house during the queen's pleasure. Chiefly through the intercession of Bacon his liberty was soon restored to him, but he was ordered not to return to court. When he was refused the renewal of his patent for sweet wines, he paraded (Feb. 7, 16oi) the streets of London with 30o retainers, and shouted, "For the queen ! a plot is laid for my life!" These proceedings awakened no response from the citizens, and Essex returned to Essex House, where after defending himself for a short time he surrendered. After a trial— in which Bacon, who prosecuted, delivered a speech against his quondam friend and benefactor, he was condemned to death, and notwithstanding many alterations in Elizabeth's mood, the sen tence was carried out on Feb. 25, I 601.
Essex, who was lacking in the qualities necessary for a states man or general, owed his position to his personal charm. He was brave, chivalrous, impulsive, imperious sometimes with his equals, but generous to all his dependants and incapable of secret malice. He was also a patron of literature and the drama, and himself a poet.
See W. B. Devereux, Lives of the Earls of Essex (1853) ; E. A. Abbott, Bacon and Essex (i877) ; Laura H. Cadwallader, Career of the Earl of Essex (1923) ; also the article BACON, FRANCIS, and authorities there, and general bibliography in Camb. Mod. Hist. (vol. 3, 1904) ; Lytton Strachey, Elizabeth and Essex (1928). ESSEX, ROBERT DEVEREUX, 3RD' EARL OF (i 591 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 in the house hold of the prince of Wales to share his studies and amuse ments. At 15 he married Frances Howard, daughter of the earl of Suffolk; during his absence abroad (16o7–o9) she fell in love with Robert Carr (afterwards earl of Somerset); and on her charging her husband with physical incapacity, the marriage was annulled in 1613. A second marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Paulet, also ended unhappily. From 162o 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, in what is known as the first Bishops' War, but there was no fighting. The outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, found him in command of the parlia mentary army. At the battle of Edgehill he remained master of the field, and in 1643 he captured Reading, and relieved Glouces ter; but in the campaign of the following year, on account of disease, financial disorders and his own lack of initiative, 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 com mission; but his annuity of f Io,000 was continued to him for life. He died on Sept. 14, 5646, his line becoming extinct.
See Robert Codrington, M.A., "Life of Robert Earl of Essex," printed in Hart. Misc.; Clarendon's History of the Rebellion; and Hon. W. B. Devereux, Lives of the Earls of Essex (1853)