They proved enormously popular and in 1616 Lawrence followed this with a "portraiture" of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, newly installed favourite of James VI and I and later his son Charles I.

[8] Although professional officers generally came from the gentry rather than urban middle class, his Villiers connections allowed Lisle to overcome this barrier and he served with the Dutch States Army when they recaptured Breda in 1637.

[11] Following the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, both George and his brother Francis received commissions in the army raised by Parliament to suppress it, but the First English Civil War began in August before their departure.

The loss of his tercio and relatively low social status reduced Lisle's importance, but in December he was knighted, appointed Master of the Household and made governor of Faringdon.

[19] Lisle received a pass into London in January 1647, where he remained as Parliament struggled with economic distress, unpaid soldiers and the terms of a political settlement with Charles.

He refused several offers to surrender, since he faced death in any case for breaking his oath not to fight against Parliament; after an eleven-week siege, the town was close to starvation and capitulated on 28 August.

[21] The latter stages of the first war were marked by atrocities on both sides, such as the Storming of Bolton and Liverpool by Prince Rupert's men in 1644, or the Parliamentarian "Ordinance of no quarter to the Irish" and killing of prisoners at Shelford Priory in November 1645.

Lisle himself was damaged by association with Prince Rupert, widely blamed for many atrocities, and his presence at Leicester, an event which shocked many in Parliament and formed one of the charges at the Trial of Charles I.

[24] Contrary to Royalist propaganda, Lisle and Lucas were not close friends but linked by their deaths and adoption as martyrs; after the Stuart Restoration in 1661, they were reburied in St Giles Church Colchester, where their memorial can still be seen.