Sir Simon Harcourt (1601–1642) was an English soldier of fortune, and wartime governor of the city of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Life

Harcourt was the eldest son of Robert Harcourt and Frances, daughter of Geoffrey Vere, third son of

John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain Order of the Garter, KG Privy Council of England, PC (). was an English peerage, peer and courtier. Early life John de Vere, born around 1482, was the son of John de Vere and Alice Kilri ...

. Succeeding to a somewhat embarrassed estate, he sought a military career abroad. At the age of sixteen he served under his uncle, Sir Horace Vere, against the Spanish forces in the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

, and was knighted at

Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall – also spelled White Hall – at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, with the notable exception of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, ...

on 26 June 1627. The greater part of his life was spent in Holland in the service of the

Prince of Orange Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by the stadtholders of, and then the heirs apparent of ...

. He was also in favour with

Elizabeth of Bohemia Elizabeth Stuart (19 August 1596 – 13 February 1662) was Electress of the Palatinate and briefly Queen of Bohemia as the wife of Frederick V of the Palatinate. The couple's selection for the crown by the nobles of Bohemia was part of the po ...

, who commended him to

Archbishop Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms; he was arrested by Parliament in 164 ...

, when business of a domestic nature (connected probably with the recovery of

Stanton Harcourt Stanton Harcourt is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire about southeast of Witney and about west of Oxford. The parish includes the Hamlet (place), hamlet of Sutton, north of the village. The United Kingdom C ...

) obliged him to repair to England in 1636. Though holding a commission as sergeant-major from the Prince of Orange, he took an active part in the

Bishops' Wars The Bishops' Wars were two separate conflicts fought in 1639 and 1640 between Scotland and England, with Scottish Royalists allied to England. They were the first of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which also include the First and Second En ...

against Scotland in 1639–40, as commander of a regiment of foot. A diary kept by him during this campaign still exists. On the outbreak of the

Irish rebellion of 1641 The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising in Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and ...

, he was appointed, with the rank of colonel and with a commission as governor of the city of Dublin, to conduct a detachment of foot into that kingdom for the relief of the Protestants there. He arrived in Dublin on 31 December, but finding that in the meanwhile Sir Charles Coote had been appointed governor by the lords justices, some time elapsed before he was invested with the government of the city. During the winter he was mortally wounded during an attack on Kilgobbin Castle, County Dublin; he was moved to Merrion, where he died the next day, 27 March 1642.

Family

Harcourt married

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...

, daughter of

William Paget, 4th Baron Paget William Paget, 4th Baron Paget of Beaudesert (1572 – 29 August 1629) was an English peer and colonist born in Beaudesert House, Staffordshire, England to Thomas Paget, 3rd Baron Paget and Nazareth Newton. His grandfather was William Page ...

, in 1630, who afterwards married Sir William Waller as his third wife. In consideration of his services in Ireland his widow received a parliamentary grant on 3 August 1648 of the lands of Corbally in County Dublin,Julia Gasper, ‘Waller , Anne, Lady Waller ther married name Anne Harcourt, Lady Harcourt(d. 1661)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 201
accessed 29 April 2017
/ref> formerly in possession of Luke Netherville, an attainted rebel.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Harcourt, Simon 1601 births 1642 deaths English mercenaries English army officers Place of birth missing People of the Anglo-Spanish War (1625–1630) Mercenaries killed in action House of Harcourt