He served in the Royalist army during the First English Civil War and was killed in a skirmish near West Bridgford.

Stanhope was born at Shelford Manor, Nottinghamshire; his date of birth is uncertain but must have been around 1618 in order to meet the minimum age of 21 when elected to Parliament in 1640.

[2] When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, he joined the Royalist and fought in the Edgehill campaign.

[1] Promoted colonel of a cavalry regiment which fought at Lichfield and Hopton Heath in April 1643, he was killed in December in a skirmish near West Bridgford.

[citation needed] His cousin Sir Aston Cokain wrote him an epitaph: :Here underneath this monumental Stone