Francis Leigh, 1st Earl of Chichester

Who was Francis Leigh, 1st Earl of Chichester?

Francis Leigh, 1st Earl of Chichester was a Royalist politician and courtier around the period of the English Civil War.

His father was Sir Francis Leigh; his mother was Mary, daughter of Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley. He was born, and eventually buried, on the family estate at Newnham Regis, Warwickshire. In 1613 Leigh attended Oxford University and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn two years later.

Coinciding with his fortuitous second marriage, he was knighted by 1618, and was created a baronet by the King on 24 December 1618. In 1625 he was elected MP for Warwick. He remained close to Lord Brooke and, under King Charles I, was himself raised to the peerage as Baron Dunsmore in July 1628.

He opposed the King during the 1640 Short Parliament and actively campaigned for the summoning of the second parliament later that year. Despite this he was appointed to meet the Scottish commissioners at Ripon in autumn 1640 and his opposition was further softened by both the militancy of the King's enemies and personal encouragement from Charles. His appointment as a privy councillor confirmed to all his defection to Charles' side. In March 1642 he was one of five lords to protest against the Militia Ordinance. At the commencement of the First English Civil War he financed a Royalist troop of forty horse.