Edmund Verney

Sir Edmund Verney (1 January 1590 or 7 April 1596 – 23 October 1642) was an English politician, soldier and favourite of King Charles I. At the outbreak of the English Civil War he supported the Royalist cause and was killed at the Battle of Edgehill.

Life The Eve of the Battle of Edgehill by Charles Landseer, 1845. Verney is the standard-bearer behind the table. Edmund Verney was the son of Sir Edmund Verney of Pendley Manor near Tring, Buckinghamshire, and his third wife Mary Blakeney. He was the grandson of Hon. Elizabeth Verney, second daughter of the 1st Baron Braye. He had two elder half-brothers, Sir Francis Verney who died in 1615, and Ambrose Turvile who died in 1628; and two elder half-sisters on his mother's side, Ann Turvill (who married Sir John Leeke of Edmonton), and Ursula St. Barbe, who married her stepbrother Sir Francis Verney. Knighted by King James I in 1611, Edmund was sent to Madrid, and returned to join the household of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, to which his uncle Francis Verney was one of the falconers. Upon Henry's death in 1612, Edmund became a gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles, Duke of York, later Charles I. ), where he was the near neighbour of Sir Thomas Chaloner of Steeple Claydon. His financial sense was poor, and he was severely indebted by the early 1620s. In 1623, he accompanied Charles and the Duke of Buckingham to Spain to court the Infanta Maria. While there, he protected a dying Englishman from a Catholic priest on 14 December 1612, with whom he had ten surviving children, including:

Sir Ralph Verney, 1st Baronet (1613–1696), married Mary Blacknall (1616–1650) Thomas Verney (1615–1707) Sir Edmund Verney (1616–1649) who commanded the Royalist infantry at the Siege of Drogheda and was slain during the final assault (mentioned in Cromwell's letter to John Bradshaw, Esquire, President of the Council of State, dated 16 September 1649). Sir Henry Verney (1618–1671) John Verney (1619) Susannah Verney (1621–1651), married Richard Alport Penelope Verney (1622–1695), married Sir John Osborne Margaret Verney (1623–1667), married Thomas Elmes Cary Verney (1626–1704), married firstly Sir Thomas Gardiner and secondly John Stewkeley Mary Verney (1628–1684), married Robert Lloyd Richard Verney (1629) Elizabeth Verney (1633–1721), married Reverend Charles Adams