William Legge (Royalist)

William Legge (c. 1608 – 13 October 1670) was an English army officer and politician who was a close associate of Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

He was the eldest son of Edward Legge,[1] who was vice-president of Munster by the influence of his kinsman the Earl of Devonshire, by Mary, daughter of Percy Walsh of Moy valley, co. Kildare.

Edward Legge died in 1616, and William was brought to England by Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, his godfather.

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford vigorously remonstrated against the proposal to make him captain of Hull in place of Sir John Hotham.

[2] On the outbreak of the First English Civil War Legge joined the king's army, and was taken prisoner in a skirmish at Southam, Warwickshire, on 23 August 1642.

Henceforth he closely attached himself to Prince Rupert, and was wounded and again taken prisoner while under his command at the siege of Lichfield in April 1643.

He received a commission from Rupert authorising him to command in chief all the neighbouring garrisons except Banbury (7 May), and was appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber (12 April).

[5] After the fall of Oxford, Legge went abroad, returning to England about July 1647 to wait on the king, then in the custody of the army.

He concerted, with Sir John Berkeley and Ashburnham, the king's escape from Hampton Court, and never left him during his flight to the Isle of Wight.