Sir Henry Mildmay was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1659. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War and was one of the Regicides of Charles I of England. Mildmay was knighted in 1617 and made Master of the Jewel Office in 1618. In 1621, Mildmay was elected Member of Parliament for Maldon. He was elected MP for Westbury in 1624 and Maldon again in 1625 and 1628. He sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years He attended Charles I on a visit to Scotland in 1639. In April 1640 Mildmay was elected MP for Maldon in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Maldon in the Long Parliament in November 1640 He supported parliament during the Civil War and was a revenue commissioner between 1645 and 1652. In 1646 he was left as hostage in Scotland. He remained in the Rump Parliament after Pride's Purge and was present at the trial of Charles I. Mildmay was a member of the Councils of State from 1649 until 1652. He was called on to account for the king's jewels in 1660 and attempted to escape. He was disgraced and sentenced to imprisonment for life. In 1664 a warrant was issued for his transportation to Tangier, where he died four years later.
Biography
Mildmay was second son of Humphrey Mildmay of Danbury Place, Essex, by Mary, daughter of Henry Capel of Little Hadham, Hertfordshire, He was brought up at court, and excelled in all manly exercises. Clarendon terms him a "great flatterer of all persons in authority, and a spy in all places for them", On 9 August 1617 Mildmay, being then one of the king's sewers, was knighted at Kendal. In 1619 he made a wealthy match, through the king's good offices, and bought Wanstead House, Essex, of the George Villiers, Marquis of Buckingham, where he entertained James I in June of that year. In April 1620 he was appointed Master of the King's Jewel House, on 8 August following entered Gray's Inn, and was elected M.P. for Maldon, Essex, of which he became chief steward on 20 December. He was chosen one of the tilters before the king on the anniversary of his accession, 24 March 1622. On 3 February 1624 he was returned to the Happy Parliament for Westbury, Wiltshire. In the first parliament of Charles I reign Sir Henry sat again for Maldon. He also represented Maldon the parliament of 1627–8, and in the Short and Long parliaments of 1640. In parliament he took part in the great debate on the foreign policy of the crown, 6 August 1625, when, as a friend of Buckingham, he proposed a vote of money for completing the equipment of the fleet against Spain. On 5 May 1627 Charles suspended a statute of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for the removal of fellows at the time of commencing doctors, or within one year thereafter. Sir Henry being anxious, as grandson of Sir Walter Mildmay, the founder, to maintain the statute, offered to annexe five or six new benefices to the college within six years, and thus obtained its revocation. On 4 August 1630 he was appointed a commissioner for compounding with persons selected for knighthood, and likewise a collector. In 1639 he accompanied Charles I on his expedition to Scotland, and maintained an interesting correspondence with Secretary Francis Windebank. As deputy-lieutenant of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, he endeavoured in May 1640 to collect the "conduct-money" in that county, but found the task little to his liking. On 21 April 1641 he voted against the bill for the attainder of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. Sir Henry eventually deserted the king, and was appointed one of the committee of the commons on 9 September 1641. The parliament, regarding him as an important acquisition, refused, despite its ordinance, to expel him for his notorious peculation upon a sledge through the streets to and under the gallows at Tyburn, with a rope about his neck, and so back to the Tower, there to remain a prisoner during his life. In a petition to the House of Lords, dated 25 July, he prayed for commiseration, alleging that he was present at the trial only to seek some opportunity of saving the king's life. On 31 March 1664 a warrant was issued for Mildmay's transportation to Tangier, but on account of his feeble health he was allowed a servant. He is often recorded to have died, shortly after setting out on the journey, between April 1664 and May 1665 at Antwerp. However, this is apparently based on a mistranscription from a contemporary source, and he in fact died at Tangiers circa 1668. Most of his vast accumulations were forfeited to the crown, his estate at Wanstead being granted to James, Duke of York.
Surviving papers
In the British Library are Mildmay's letters to Sir Thomas Barrington in 1643, letter to the parliamentary committee at Southampton in 1645, and a guarantee on a loan for pay of troops in Essex in 1643 ; there are also letters of his in the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library.
Family
Sir Henry married, in April 1619, Anne, daughter and coheiress of William Holliday, alderman of London. They had two sons: William, and Henry, who was admitted of Gray's Inn on 26 April 1656, and three daughters: Susan, Anne, and Mary.
