thumb|Sir Robert Harley
Sir Robert Harley (baptised 1 March 1579 – 6 November 1656) was an English statesman who served as Master of the Mint for Charles I. A devout Puritan, he supported Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Life
He was the son of Thomas Harley of Brampton Bryan Castle in Herefordshire and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Andrew Corbet. He entered Oriel College, Oxford in 1595, earning a BA in 1599. He entered Middle Temple in 1599. He was invested as a Knight of the Bath on 25 July 1603.
He was an active member of that party both in Parliament and in Herefordshire, Brampton Bryan Castle undergoing siege in 1643 and 1644. On 30 September 1642, Parliamentarians led by Harley and Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford occupied Hereford without opposition. In December, they withdrew to Gloucester because of the presence in the area of a Royalist army under Lord Herbert.
His support for reconciliation with the king led to his being excluded from the House of Commons in Pride's Purge. He and his son Edward, a colonel in the Parliamentarian army, were imprisoned until after the king's execution. He resigned as Master of the Mint in May 1649 and took no further part in politics.
He left several sons, his heir Edward being the father of Queen Anne's Lord Treasurer, Robert Harley, who was raised to the peerage as the Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.
References
Sources
- Jacqueline Eales, 'Harley, Sir Robert (1579–1656)' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (article 12343).
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