Thomas Erle

Who was Thomas Erle?

Lieutenant-General Thomas Erle PC was an English army general and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England and of Great Britain from 1678 to 1718. He was Governor of Portsmouth and a Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance.

Erle was born in 1650, the second son of Thomas Erle and his wife Susanna of Charborough, Dorset. In 1678 he became Member of Parliament for Wareham, then on 27 May 1685 was made Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset.

In 1686 he hosted a group of conspirators who met at Charborough House to plan the overthrow of "the tyrant race of Stuarts". This meeting lead to the Invitation to William, signed by the Immortal seven, and resulting in the Glorious Revolution.

Erle was the colonel of a foot regiment and on 8 March 1689 was sent to Ireland to fight the combined French and Irish Army of the deposed King James II of England.

In 1690 he took part in the Battle of the Boyne, the Siege of Limerick, and, the following year, the Battle of Aughrim. In 1692 he took part in an expedition to Flanders and on 3 August 1692 was Colonel of the former Luttrell's Regiment at the Battle of Steenkerque.