PETERBOROUGH AND MONMOUTH, CHARLES MORDAUNT, 3RD EARL OF (c. 1658-1735), English soldier and statesman, son of John Mordaunt, created Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon and Baron Mordaunt of Reigate, in 1659, and Elizabeth Carey. He served in the Navy and then became a Whig and keen opponent of James II. In Holland in 1686 he proposed to William of Orange the invasion of England ; and, later, when William was king, Mordaunt was made a privy councillor, first lord of the treasury, and earl of Monmouth. Against the king's wishes, he introduced a bill for triennial parliaments in 1693, and in 1697 he was sent to the Tower on the ground of complicity in Sir John Fenwick's conspiracy. Soon after, on the death of his uncle, Henry Mordaunt, he became earl of Peterborough.
In the reign of Anne he drew down on himself in 1702 the censure of the Commons for his action in trying to secure the return of his nominee at Malmesbury, and was sent off in 5705 to command an expedition in Spain. He besieged Barcelona and in 1706 entered Valencia in triumph. It is difficult to understand the action of Peterborough during this campaign, unless on the sup position that he was out of sympathy with the movement for placing the Austrian prince Archduke Charles on the throne of Spain. He was recalled to England to explain his conduct and joined the Tories in 1707. The differences between the three peers, Peterborough, Galway and Tyrawley, who had served in Spain, caused angry debates in the Lords, but the majority declared for Peterborough, and votes of thanks were passed to him in 1708. He
next went to Vienna, where he engaged the ministry in pledges of which they disapproved. Nevertheless, he was made a Knight of the Garter. With the accession of George I. Lord Peterborough's influence was gone, and he died at Lisbon on Oct. 25, 1735.
Short in stature and spare in habit, he was of fierce and turbu lent disposition. He is said to have seen more kings than any man in Europe, and the point of Swift's lines on "Mordanto" consists in a description of the speed with which he hastened from capital to capital. He was eloquent in debate and intrepid in war, but his influence was ruined by inconsistency and his want of union with his colleagues. His first wife, Carey, daughter of Sir Alexander Fraser of Dores, Kincardineshire, died in 1709. In 1722 he secretly married Anastasia Robinson, a famous singer of great beauty and sweetness; but she lived apart from him (regarded as his mistress), and it was only shortly before his death that she was acknowledged as the countess of Peterborough.