Nathaniel Fiennes

For English peer and businessman, born in 1920, seeNathaniel Fiennes, 21st Baron Saye and Sele.

Nathaniel Fiennes
Nathaniel Fiennesc.1640
Member of Parliament forOxford University
In office September 1656 – February 1658
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
In office June 1655 – April 1659
Member of Parliament forOxfordshire
In office September 1654 – January 1655
ParliamentarianGovernor ofBristol
In office May 1643 – July 1643
Member of Parliament forBanbury
In office April 1640 – December 1648 (Fiennes excluded byPride's Purge)
Personal details
Born	c.1608 Broughton Castle,Oxfordshire
Died	16 December 1669(1669-12-16)(aged 61) Newton Tony,Wiltshire
Spouses	(1) Elizabeth Eliot ​ (m.1636)​ (2) Frances Whitehead ​ (m.1650)​
Children	(1) Nathaniel (1637–1672); William (1639–1698) (2) Anne; Frances;Celia(1662–1741); Mary (1663–1737)
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Occupation	Religious radical, peer and politician
Military service
Allegiance	Parliamentarian
Rank	Colonel
Battles/wars	First English Civil War Powick Bridge Edgehill Storming of Bristol

Nathaniel Fiennes,c.1608 to 16 December 1669, was a younger son of thePuritannobleman and politician,William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele.He sat in theHouse of Commonsat various times between 1640 and 1659, and served with theParliamentarianarmy in theFirst English Civil War.In 1643, he was dismissed from the army for alleged incompetence after surrenderingBristoland sentenced to death before being pardoned. Exonerated in 1645, he actively supportedOliver CromwellduringThe Protectorate,beingLord Keeper of the Great Sealfrom 1655 to 1659.

Elected to theLong Parliamentin November 1640, Fiennes played a leading role in the opposition toCharles Iprior to the outbreak of civil war in August 1642. In the early years of the war, his objections to any form ofestablished churchaligned him with Cromwell and theIndependents,rather than the moderatePresbyterianswho dominated Parliament. However, his belief in a balanced political solution meant that after Parliament's victory in 1646, he supported a compromisepeace settlementwithCharles I.As a result, he was one of theMPsexcluded byPride's Purgein December 1648 along with his younger brotherJohn Fiennes,and played no part in theExecution of Charles I.

Fiennes re-entered politics when Cromwell becameLord Protectorin 1653, sitting as an MP in theSecondandThird Protectorate Parliaments,as well as being made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in June 1655. After Cromwell died in September 1658, he backed the succession of his sonRichard Cromwellas Lord Protector, but lost office when the latter resigned in April 1659. Following the 1660Stuart Restoration,he was pardoned under theIndemnity and Oblivion Act,and lived quietly at home inNewton Tony,Wiltshire,until his death on 16 December 1669.

Personal details

Family home,Broughton Castle

Nathaniel Fiennes was bornc.1608 atBroughton Castle,Oxfordshire,second son ofWilliam Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele(1582–1662), and Elizabeth Temple (died 1648). Siblings included his elder brotherJames(1602–1674),Bridget,John(1612–1708), Constance and Elizabeth.

He was twice married, the first time in August 1636 to Elizabeth Eliot (1616–1648?), daughter of SirJohn Eliot,anMPwho played a leading role in passing the 1628Petition of Right;he was later imprisoned byCharles Iin theTower of London,where he died in 1632.They had two surviving sons, Nathaniel (1637–1672), who inherited his fathers' estates, and William (1639–1698), who succeeded his uncle James as ThirdViscount Saye and Selein 1674.

Elizabeth died sometime before 1650 when Fiennes married again, this time to Frances Whitehead (1621–1691). They had four daughters, Anne, Frances, Mary (1663–1737) andCelia(1662–1741), later well known for a series of books recording her travels around Britain.

Career

Fiennes attendedWinchester College,then enteredNew College, Oxfordin 1619. He graduated in 1624 without adegree,but was made a perpetualfellowof the college as "founder's kin".Like hisPuritanfather, he strongly opposedLaudianismandEpiscopacyin any form, opinions strengthened by his residence in theCalviniststronghold ofGeneva.

He returned to Scotland in 1639, and established communications with theCovenantersand the Opposition in England. As Member of Parliament forBanburyin both theShortandLongParliaments he took a prominent part in the attacks upon the church.

He spoke against the illegal canonson 14 December 1640, and again on 9 February 1641 on the occasion of the reception of theRoot and Branch petition,when he argued against episcopacy as constituting a political as well as a religious danger and made an impression on theHouse of Commons,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 safetyin July 1642. On theoutbreak of hostilitieshe took arms immediately, commanded a troop of horse in the army ofLord Essex,was present at the relief of Coventry in August, and at the fight atPowick Bridge,Worcester in September, where he distinguished himself, and subsequently atEdgehill.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 alsoA 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 toBristol,arrested ColonelThomas Essexthe governor, executed the two leaders of a plot (Robert YeamansandGeorge Bouchier) to deliver up the city, and received a commission himself as governor on 1 May 1643. On the arrival, however, ofPrince Ruperton 22 July, although the place was in no condition to resist an attack, Fiennes held out until Rupert's troops had 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 TractsE. 65, 26), drew up for the parliament aRelation concerning the Surrender...(1643), answered byWilliam PrynneandClement Walkeraccusing him of treachery and cowardice, to which he opposed Col. Fiennes hisReply....Dorothy Hazzarda local preacher gave evidence against him.

He was tried atSt Albansby 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 came to an end. He went abroad, and it was some time before he reappeared on the political scene.

There has been 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 some evidence Fiennes was the victim of a wider political campaign against his family's political faction.AfterBristolwas recaptured in 1645, it became clear the problems he faced in 1643 had not been exaggerated, and he was restored as an MP.

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 King's terms at Newport in December, and in consequence was excluded from the House byPride's Purge.An opponent of church government in any form, he was opposed to thePresbyterianismof 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 appointment of commissioner for the custody of the great seal, for which he was poorly suited.

In theFirst Protectorate Parliamentof 1654 he was returned forOxfordshireand in theSecond Protectorate Parliamentof 1656 forOxford University.In January 1658 he was included in Cromwell'sHouse of Lords.He was in favour of the Protector's assumption of the royal title and urged his acceptance of it on several occasions. 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 ofCromwell's government is especially insisted upon, the feature to which Fiennes throughout his career had attached most value.He lived atNo. 1 Great Piazza, Covent Gardenfrom 1657 to 1659.

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.

Works

Besides the pamphlets already cited, a number of his speeches and other political tracts were published (seeGen. Catalogue,British Museum).Woodalso attributed to himMonarchy Asserted(1660) (reprinted inSomersTracts,vi. 346 ), but there seems no reason to ascribe to him with Clement Walker the authorship ofJoshua Sprigge'sAnglia Rediviva.

Sources

• Firth, C.H.; Rait, R.S., eds. (1911). "February 1643: Ordinance for Mr. Fiennes to raise a Regiment of Horse in Gloucestershire, &c., to seize Delinquents' Horses there".Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660.pp. 84–5.Retrieved13 April2007.
• Gentles, Ian (1992).The New Model Army in England, Ireland and Scotland, 1645 to 1653(2009 ed.). Wiley Publishing.ISBN978-0631193470.
• Russell, Conrad (2004). "Eliot, Sir John (1592–1632)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8630.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
• Salmon, Thomas (1730). "Chapter XL. The Trial of Colonel Nathanael Fiennes before a Council of War at St. Albans, for cowardly surrendring the City and Castle of Bristol, the 14th of December 1643. 19 Car. I. Taken out of the Account given thereof by Mr, Prynn and Mr. Walker.". In Emlyn, Sollom (ed.).A complete collection of state-trials, and proceedings for high-treason, and other crimes and misdemeanours: from the reign of King Richard II. to the end of the reign of King George I. With two alphabetical tables to the whole.Vol. 1 (2 ed.). J. Walthoe senior. p.745–794.
• Schwarz, Marc (2004). "Fiennes, Nathaniel (1607/8–1669)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9413.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)

Attribution

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Fiennes, Nathaniel".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 328.