Col. Robert Werden (Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of York)

4 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Col. Robert Werden (c. 1622-90)

Courtier in the service of the Duke of York -- Groom of the Bedchamber from ?1662, Commissioner for the regulation of the Household from 1667, and Comptroller 1675-85, Major-General 1685, Lieut-General 1688.
(L&M Companion)

Time-line http://www.oldcheshiretaleschurch…

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Col. Robert Werden, 1622-1690, during the Civil Wars is described as a Royalist bully, and after participating in Penruddock's Rising of 1655 he was turned as a spy for Parliament. By 1659 Werden had turned Royalist again and participated in Booth's Rising. Unsurprisingly, no one now trusted him, and he was grateful to the Duke of York for employing him after the Restoration.

James found him appointments in the Guards and in his household, and awarded him property to replace what the Werden's had lost during the past unpleasantness.

Col. Werden was elected to Parliament in 1673.

Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury marked Col. Robert Werden MP as ‘thrice vile’, and the author of A Seasonable Argument described him as ‘a betrayer of the old Cavaliers’ and ‘the Duke of York’s creature’.

Col. Werden was made Major-General for the campaign against James Scott, Duke of Monmouth in 1685, and given a regiment of horse on the resignation of Thomas Tufton, Earl of Thanet.

And at the landing of William of Orange in 1688, Major General Robert Werden MP was reported on his way to the capital ‘with five or six thousand men, to keep all quiet’. But on 11 Dec., 1688 Major General Werden wrote to the Prince of Orange from London, expressing his surprise at James II’s flight, promising to do what he could to preserve the peace, and placing himself at William’s orders.

Nevertheless on 23 Jan. 1689 Werden’s regiment, then at Nantwich, was given to Henry Booth, Lord Delamer, and there is no evidence that Werden accepted the new regime. By then he was 68 and probably thought he was too old to volunteer for a life in exile.

Major General Robert Werden MP died on 23 Jan. 1690, described by Roger North as ‘an incomparable courtier, Cavalier, and a most faithful servant in the royal family’.

He sounds like an opportunist to me ... but aren't we all to some extent.

https://www.historyofparliamenton…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Pepys worked with -- and possibly knew -- Col. Werden's second son:

With his first wife, Jane Backham, Col. Robert Werden had three surviving children:

1, John Werden (1640–1716) who became a politician and a baronet;

2. Robert Werden Jr., a captain in the Royal Navy, who was killed fighting against the Dutch at the Battle of Solebay on 28 May 1673, while in command of HMS Henrietta,[11]
11 Carlyle 1899, p. 269 cites Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. App. vi. 182.

3. Katherine, who married Richard Watts of Muchmunden in Hertfordshire.

Col. Robert Werdon Sr.'s Wikipedia bio is interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob…

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1667