Essex, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1566–1601)

English soldier and politician. Having taken part in the Dutch fight against Spain, he became a favourite with Queen Elizabeth I in 1587, but fell from grace because of his policies in Ireland, where he was Lieutenant from 1599, and was executed.

Son of Walter Devereaux, 1st Earl of Essex, and stepson to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, he succeeded to the earldom in 1576. Essex fought in the Netherlands (1585–86), supporting their war of liberation from Spain, and distinguished himself at the Battle of Zutphen. In 1596 he jointly commanded a force that seized and sacked Cádiz. In 1599 he became Lieutenant of Ireland and led an army against Irish rebels under the Earl of Tyrone in Ulster, but was unsuccessful, made an unauthorized truce with Tyrone, and returned without permission to England. He was forbidden to return to court, and when he marched into the City of London at the head of a body of supporters, he was promptly arrested, tried for treason, and beheaded on Tower Green.