John Hampden

Background

John was probably born in London in 1594. By his mother he was related to Oliver Cromwell.

Education

John was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and at the Inner Temple, where he enrolled as a law student in 1613.

Career

Hampden entered the House of Commons in 1621. There he quickly became a specialist in matters of taxation and a close friend of Sir John Eliot, a leading Puritan critic of the crown. In 1627 Hampden was imprisoned for nearly a year for refusing to contribute a forced loan demanded by the king. When Eliot died in 1632, after three years in prison, Hampden’s ill will for Charles was firmly established.

During the Long Parliament, which convened in November 1640, Hampden became the principal lieutenant of Parliamentary leader John Pym in a vigorous attack on royal policies, and he was one of the five members who successfully evaded arrest by the king in January 1642. After the outbreak of the Civil War between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists in August 1642, Hampden served as a colonel in the Battle of Edgehill, Warwickshire (October), but on June 18, 1643, he was mortally wounded in a skirmish with Royalists at Chalgrove Field, near Thame.

Achievements

• John Hampden was one of the largest landowners in Buckinghamshire.
  
  His principal interest was the reading of classical and modern history, from which he derived his political principles. Hampden's estate would have fitted him to take up a peerage during the reign of James I, but he had already become opposed to the court. He sat in the Parliament of 1621 and in all succeeding parliaments until his death.
  
  In 1625 he opposed a loan to Charles I not sanctioned by Parliament.

Membership

John Hampden was a member of the Five Members of the House of Commons.

Connections

Hampden was married twice. His first marriage was to Elizabeth Symeon. The second one, was to Lettice Knollys.

Father:

Griffith Hampden

Mother:

Anne Cavea

ex-wife:

Elizabeth Symeon

Wife:

Lettice Knollys

Friend:

Anthony Nichol

References

• John Hampden
• Essay on John Hampden. With Bulwer Lytton's Essay on Lord Falkland. Edited by R.T. Rees
• Photo: John Hampden,1595-1643,English politician,eldest son of William Hampden
• John Hampden Und Die Lehre Von Gesetzlichen Widerstande (German Edition)
• John Hampden excellent 1821 old engraved Portrait print