Nathaniel Fiennes
Encyclopedia
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
at various times between 1640 and 1659. He was an officer in Parliamentary
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
army during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and an active supporter of the republican cause during the Interregnum.
Life
He was the second son of William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and SeleWilliam Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele
William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele was born at the family home of Broughton Castle near Banbury, in Oxfordshire. He was the only son of Richard Fiennes, seventh Baron Saye and Sele...
, by Elizabeth, daughter of John Temple, of Stowe in Buckinghamshire
Stowe House
Stowe House is a Grade I listed country house located in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school. The gardens , a significant example of the English Landscape Garden style, along with part of the Park, passed into the ownership of The National Trust...
, was born in 1607 or 1608, and educated at Winchester
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
and at New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
, where, as founder's kin, he was admitted a perpetual fellow in 1624.
After about five years residence he left without taking a degree, travelled abroad, and in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
imbibed or strengthened those religious principles and that hostility to the Laudian church
William Laud
William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
which were to be the chief motive in his future political career. He returned to Scotland in 1639, and established communications with the Covenanter
Covenanter
The Covenanters were a Scottish Presbyterian movement that played an important part in the history of Scotland, and to a lesser extent in that of England and Ireland, during the 17th century...
s and the Opposition in England. As Member of Parliament for Banbury
Banbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Banbury is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a strongly Conservative seat.The constituency was created January 26, 1554 through the efforts of Henry Stafford and Thomas Denton...
in both the Short
Short Parliament
The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....
and Long
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
Parliaments he took a prominent part in the attacks upon the church.
He spoke against the illegal canons on 14 December 1640, and again on 9 February 1641 on the occasion of the reception of the London petition, when he argued against episcopacy as constituting a political as well as a religious danger and made a great impression on the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, his name being added immediately to the committee appointed to deal with church affairs.
He took a leading part in the examination into the army plot; was one of the commissioners appointed to attend the king to Scotland in August 1641; and was nominated one of the committee of safety in July 1642. On the outbreak of hostilities
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
he took arms immediately, commanded a troop of horse in the army of Lord Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex was an English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the seventeenth century. With the start of the English Civil War in 1642 he became the first Captain-General and Chief Commander of the Parliamentarian army, also known as the Roundheads...
, was present at the relief of Coventry in August, and at the fight at Powick Bridge
Battle of Powick Bridge
The Battle of Powick Bridge, fought on 23 September 1642, was the first major cavalry engagement of the English Civil War and it was a victory for the Royalists who overthrew the Parliamentary cavalry. According to Hugh Peters it was "where England's sorrows began".-Prelude:King Charles I of...
, Worcester in September, where he distinguished himself, and subsequently at Edgehill
Battle of Edgehill
The Battle of Edgehill was the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642....
. Of the last two engagements he wrote accounts, viz. True and Exact Relation of both the Battles fought by ... Earl of Essex against the Bloudy Cavaliers (1642). (See also A Narrative of the Late Battle before Worcester taken by a Gentleman of the Inns of Court from the mouth of Master Fiennes, 1642).
In February 1643 Fiennes was sent down to Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, arrested Colonel Thomas Essex the governor, executed the two leaders of a plot (Robert Yeamans
Robert Yeamans
Robert Yeamans or Yeomans , was a merchant of Bristol who in early 1643 plotted with other Royalist to aid in the capture of Bristol by the Royalists...
and George Boucher) to deliver up the city, and received a commission himself as governor on 1 May 1643. On the arrival, however, of Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, 1st Duke of Cumberland, 1st Earl of Holderness , commonly called Prince Rupert of the Rhine, KG, FRS was a noted soldier, admiral, scientist, sportsman, colonial governor and amateur artist during the 17th century...
on 22 July, although the place was in no condition to resist an attack, Fiennes held out until Rupert's troops had actually forced an entry into the City and further resistance was both hopeless and a waste of life. He addressed to Essex a letter in his defence (Thomason Tracts E. 65, 26), drew up for the parliament a Relation concerning the Surrender ... (1643), answered by William Prynne
William Prynne
William Prynne was an English lawyer, author, polemicist, and political figure. He was a prominent Puritan opponent of the church policy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. Although his views on church polity were presbyterian, he became known in the 1640s as an Erastian, arguing for...
and Clement Walker
Clement Walker
Clement Walker was an English lawyer, official and politician. As a member of the Long Parliament, he became an outspoken critic of the conduct of its affairs, and allied himself to William Prynne...
accusing him of treachery and cowardice, to which he opposed Col. Fiennes his Reply ....
He was tried at St Albans
St Albans
St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...
by the council of war in December, was pronounced guilty of having surrendered the place improperly, and sentenced to death. He was, however, pardoned, and the facility with which Bristol subsequently capitulated to the parliamentary army induced Cromwell and the generals to exonerate him completely. His military career nevertheless now came to an end. He went abroad, and it was some time before he reappeared on the political scene.
There was, in fact, some considerable debate over the legitimacy of the indictments brought against him by Walker and Prynne. Both had lost considerable amounts of money and property in the fall of Bristol and both were politically opposed to Fiennes and his family. Many of the witnesses at the trial could possibly have been politically motivated and there is even some evidence that Fiennes was actually the victim of a wider political campaign against his family's political faction.
In September 1647 he was included in the army committee, and on 3 January he became a member of the committee of safety. He was, however, in favour of accepting the kings terms at Newport in December, and in consequence was excluded from the House by Pride's Purge
Pride's Purge
Pride’s Purge is an event in December 1648, during the Second English Civil War, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents...
. An opponent of church government in any form, he was no friend to the rigid and tyrannical Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
of the day, and inclined to Independency and Cromwell's party. He was a member of the council of state in 1654, and in June 1655 he received the strange appointment of commissioner for the custody of the great seal, for which he was certainly in no way fitted.
In the First Protectorate Parliament
First Protectorate Parliament
The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the House....
of 1654 he was returned for Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Oxfordshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885. It was represented by two Members of Parliament. In 1832 this was increased to three...
and in the Second Protectorate Parliament
Second Protectorate Parliament
The Second Protectorate Parliament in England sat for two sessions from 17 September 1656 until 4 February 1658, with Thomas Widdrington as the Speaker of the House of Commons...
of 1656 for Oxford University
Oxford University (UK Parliament constituency)
Oxford University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons, from 1603 to 1950.-Boundaries, Electorate and Electoral System:...
. In January 1658 he was included in Cromwell's House of Lords. He was in favour of the Protector's assumption of the royal title and urged his acceptance of it on several occasions. He was re-elected MP for Banbury in 1659 for the Third Protectorate Parliament
Third Protectorate Parliament
The Third Protectorate Parliament sat for one session, from 27 January 1659 until 22 April 1659, with Chaloner Chute and Thomas Bampfylde as the Speakers of the House of Commons...
. His public career closes with addresses delivered in his capacity as chief commissioner of the great seal at the beginning of the sessions of 20 January 1658, and 2 January 1659, in which the religious basis of Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's government is especially insisted upon, the feature to which Fiennes throughout his career had attached most value.
On the reassembling of the Long Parliament he was superseded; he took no part in the Restoration, and died at Newton Tony in Wiltshire on 16 December 1669.
Family
Fiennes married:- on 11 August 1636 at Haynes, BedfordshireHaynes, BedfordshireHaynes is a small village and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England, about seven miles south of Bedford. It includes the small hamlet of Haynes Church End. It was previously known as Hawnes....
, to Elizabeth Eliot (1616-), daughter of the parliamentarian Sir John EliotJohn Eliot (statesman)Sir John Eliot was an English statesman who was serially imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he eventually died, by King Charles I for advocating the rights and privileges of Parliament.-Family and early life:...
, by whom he had four children, including two sons, William and Nathaniel, who reached maturity - about 1650 at Broughton CastleBroughton CastleBroughton Castle is a medieval manor house located in the village of Broughton which is about two miles south-west of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England on the B4035 road ....
, to Frances Whitehead, daughter of Richard Whitehead of Tuderley, Hants, by whom he had four daughters, Anne, Frances, Mary and Celia.
His son William succeeded to the title 3rd Viscount Saye and Sele
Baron Saye and Sele
Baron Saye and Sele is a title in the Peerage of England. It is thought to have been created by letters patent in 1447 for James Fiennes for his services in the Hundred Years' War. The patent creating the original barony was lost, so it was assumed that the barony was created by writ, meaning that...
on the death of Fiennes' brother James
James Fiennes, 2nd Viscount Saye and Sele
James Fiennes, 2nd Viscount Saye and Sele was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1625 and 1660....
.