EDWARD MONTAGU, 2nd earl of Manchester (1602-71), eldest son of the 1st earl by his first wife, was educated at Sidney Sus sex college, Cambridge. He was member of parliament for Hunt ingdonshire 1623-26, and in the latter year was raised to the peerage as Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, but was known gen erally by his courtesy title of Viscount Mandeville. At the be ginning of the Long Parliament he was one of the recognized leaders of the popular party in the upper House, his name being joined with those of the five members of the House of Commons impeached by the king in 1642. At the outbreak of the Civil War, having succeeded his father in the earldom in November 1642, Manchester commanded a regiment in the army of the earl of Essex, and in August 1643 he was appointed major-general of the parliamentary forces in the eastern counties, with Cromwell as his second in command. Having become a member of the "committee of both kingdoms" in 1644, he was in supreme com mand at Marston Moor (July 1, 1644) ; but subsequently he dis agreed with Cromwell, and in November 1644 he strongly ex pressed his disapproval of continuing the war (see CROMWELL, OLIVER). Cromwell brought the shortcomings of Manchester be
fore parliament in 1644; and early in the following year Man chester resigned his command. He took a leading part in the frequent negotiations for an arrangement with Charles and was custodian with Lenthall of the great seal 1646-48. He opposed the trial of the king, and retired from public life during the Com monwealth ; but after the Restoration, which he actively assisted, he was honoured by Charles II. In 1667 he was made a general. He died on May 5, 1671. Manchester was made a K.G. in 1661, and became F.R.S. in 1667.
See Lord Clarendon, History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in Eng land (7 vols., 1839) and Life of Clarendon (1827) ; S. R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649 (4 vols., 1886-91) ; The Quarrel between Manchester and Cromwell, Camden Soc., N.S. 12 (1875) ; P. Warwick, Memoirs of the Reign of Charles I. (1701).