Essex, Walter Devereux, 1st earl of, 1541?-1576, English soldier. He helped in the suppression of the Northern Rebellion of 1569 and was created earl of Essex in 1572. In 1573 he volunteered to colonize a part of Ulster, then controlled by the O'Neill clan, and bring it under English rule. Famine, desertion of his troops, and the vacillation of Queen Elizabeth I negated his ruthless efforts to subdue the Irish. He was recalled (1575) and died soon afterward. His son, Robert, became the 2d earl of Essex.

Essex, Robert Devereux, 3d earl of, 1591-1646, English parliamentary general; son of the 2d earl. James I restored him (1604) to the estates of his father and arranged his marriage (1606) with Frances Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, earl of Suffolk. The marriage ended in a famous trial when the countess, who had fallen in love with Robert Carr, earl of Somerset, sued for and obtained (1613) an annulment. After 1620, Essex followed a military and naval career, and from 1626 he was associated with the parliamentary opposition to Charles I. He was second in command of the royal army in the first of the Bishops' Wars in Scotland (1639) and was made privy councilor (1641), but Charles could not keep his allegiance thereafter. Essex commanded the parliamentary forces at the battle of Edgehill (1642). In 1643 he took Reading, relieved Gloucester, and took part in the first battle of Newbury. The next year, however, he quarreled bitterly with Sir William Waller and, disobeying orders, pursued the royalists into the southwest. He was cut off in Cornwall and forced to escape with as many of his men as he could by sea. He opposed the formation of the New Model Army and reluctantly relinquished his command in 1645.

Essex, Robert Devereux, 2d earl of, 1567-1601, English courtier and favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. Succeeding to the earldom on the death (1576) of his father, he came under the guardianship of Lord Burghley and soon won favor at court. He distinguished himself in action while serving (1585-86) as a cavalry officer in the Netherlands under his stepfather, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester. When he returned to England he soon became a marked favorite of the queen, a position that involved him in a quarrelsome rivalry with Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1590 he angered the queen by secretly marrying the widow of Sir Philip Sidney. The following year he commanded a flamboyant but unsuccessful expedition to Normandy to help Henry of Navarre (Henry IV of France). He returned home and, advised by Francis Bacon, entered politics in an effort to seize power from the aging Burghley. But Essex was too obvious and impetuous in his demands on the queen; Elizabeth was wary, and gradually she conferred the power he sought on Burghley's son, Robert Cecil (later earl of Salisbury). Essex became a national hero when he shared command of the expedition that captured Cádiz in 1596, but he failed the next year in an expedition to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet off the Azores. In 1599, at his own demand, he was made lord lieutenant of Ireland and sent there with a large force to quell the rebellion of the earl of Tyrone. Failing completely to accomplish his mission, he made an unauthorized truce with Tyrone and returned to England. He was confined by the council, and it was eight months before he was tried for disobedience by a special council and deprived of his offices (1600). He was soon released but was banned from the court. Still popular, Essex planned a coup that would oust the enemy party and establish his own about the queen. To this end he sought support from the army in Ireland and opened negotiations with James VI in Scotland, but these efforts failed. Desperately, he made his attempt with a small body of personal followers on Feb. 8, 1601. The Londoners failed to respond, the queen's government was thoroughly prepared, and he was arrested. At the trial Bacon contributed heavily to his former patron's conviction. Elizabeth, after some hesitation, signed the death warrant, and Essex was executed.

Essex Junto, group of New England merchants and lawyers, so called because many of them came from Essex co., Mass. They opposed the radicals in Massachusetts in the American Revolution and supported the Federalist faction of Alexander Hamilton. They later encouraged the disaffection of the Hartford Convention. Prominent among them were Timothy Pickering, George Cabot, and Theophilus Parsons.

Essex, one of the early kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England. It was settled probably in the early 6th cent. by Saxons who traced their royal line back to a continental Saxon god instead of to Woden, as did the rulers of other early kingdoms. Essex eventually included the modern counties of Essex and Middlesex, most of Hertfordshire, and London. Under the influence of his uncle, Æthelbert of Kent, King Sæbert of Essex accepted (c.604) Christianity, but the kingdom lapsed into heathenism when his successors expelled (617) Mellitus, bishop of London. In c.653, however, at the request of King Sigbert, Oswy of Northumbria sent Cedd to convert the East Saxons and to build churches. The submission of Essex to the overlordship of Wulfhere of Mercia marked the beginning of a long domination by the larger state. In 825, Essex joined other eastern kingdoms in submitting to Egbert of Wessex and became an earldom. Heavily settled by the Danes, it became part of the Danelaw by the treaty of 886, but was retaken by Edward the Elder of Wessex in 917. Its most famous later earl was Byrhtnoth, who was killed in the battle of Maldon in 991.

Essex, county (1991 pop. 1,495,600), 1,520 sq mi (3,938 sq km) SE England, on the Thames River and the North Sea, one of the "Home Counties" of London. Chelmsford is the county seat. The land rises from the low, irregular coastline to undulating pastoral country. Streams and salt marshes are plentiful. The chief crops of Essex are wheat, barley, sugar beets, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables. There is market gardening for London and some dairy and sheep farming. Oyster fisheries are also important. Industries include petroleum refining, chemicals, machinery, textiles, cement, processed foods, electrical goods, and nuclear power generation. Essex was once part of the kingdom of the East Saxons; Roman and Saxon remains are at Colchester and Maldon. Popular resorts line the coast.

Essex, uninc. city (1990 pop. 40,872), Baltimore co., NE Md., a suburb of Baltimore. Mostly residential, there is some light industry production.

Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex, 1485?-1540, English statesman. While a young man he lived abroad as a soldier, accountant, and merchant, and on his return (c.1512) to England he engaged in the wool trade and eventually became a lawyer. He entered Parliament in 1523 and soon became legal secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, for whom he managed the suppression of minor monasteries. He avoided being disgraced with Wolsey in 1529, and by 1531 was serving Henry VIII as a member of the privy council. By 1532 he had become the king's chief minister and was responsible for drafting most of the acts of Parliament by which the Reformation was effected. He probably originated the idea of making the king supreme head of the church in England. As Henry's vicar-general after 1535, he supervised (1536-9) the visitation and suppression of monasteries and the confiscation of monastic lands and wealth. Much of Cromwell's unpopularity with the people, demonstrated by the Pilgrimage of Grace, derived from the ruthlessness of his agents in carrying out that project. He issued injunctions to the clergy, regulating their conduct and duties, assailed the worship of images and relics, and initiated a much-needed system of parish registers. He was made a baron and lord privy seal in 1536, lord great chamberlain in 1539, and earl of Essex in 1540. He negotiated the king's marriage to Anne of Cleves as a means of securing the North German princes as allies against the Catholic Holy Roman emperor Charles V. When Anne proved unattractive and the alliance failed, Henry allowed charges of treason and heresy to be brought against Cromwell by his bitter enemy, the duke of Norfolk. Cromwell was condemned by act of attainder and beheaded.

Bohun, Humphrey VIII de, 4th earl of Hereford and 3d earl of Essex, 1276-1322, English nobleman; son of Humphrey VII de Bohun. One of the lords ordainers who attempted to curb the powers of Edward II in 1310, he took part in the execution (1312) of the hated Piers Gaveston. He fought for Edward at Bannockburn (1314), was captured by the Scots, and was exchanged. He was killed at Boroughbridge fighting on the baronial side against the king and the Despensers.

Bohun, Humphrey VII de, 3d earl of Hereford and 2d earl of Essex, d. 1298, English nobleman. He was constable of England and with Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, led the baronial opposition to Edward I that forced the king to sign the important confirmation of the charters (1297).

Bohun, Humphrey V de, 2d earl of Hereford and 1st earl of Essex, d. 1275, English nobleman; son of Henry de Bohun, 1st earl of Hereford. A member of the household of Henry III, he inherited the earldom of Essex from a maternal uncle and in 1242 went with the king on his French campaign. In 1258 he joined the baronial opposition to Henry and was one of 24 men who drew up the Provisions of Oxford. In the Barons' War, however, he returned (1263) to the side of the king and was captured (1264) by Simon de Montfort at Lewes.

(born Sept. 16, 1541, Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales—died Sept. 22, 1576, Dublin, Ire.) English soldier. Born to a h1d family, he helped suppress a rebellion in northern England in 1569 and was made earl of Essex in 1572. In 1573 he offered to subdue and colonize, at his own expense, a portion of Ulster that had not accepted English overlordship. There he treacherously captured and executed the Irish rebel leaders and massacred hundreds of the populace, contributing to Irish bitterness toward the English. Elizabeth I commanded him to break off the enterprise in 1575. He died of dysentery shortly after returning to Ireland from England.

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Informal group of Federalist Party political leaders in Massachusetts, mainly from Essex county. Its members supported Alexander Hamilton and friendship with Britain and opposed Thomas Jefferson, the Embargo Act, and the War of 1812. Its leaders, including Timothy Pickering, tried to form a separate confederation in New England and participated in the Hartford Convention. They declined in importance after 1814.

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Administrative (pop., 2001: 1,310,922), geographic, and historic county, eastern England. It extends along the North Sea coastline between the estuaries of the Rivers Thames and Stour. Chelmsford, centrally situated, has long been the county headquarters and is also the seat of a church diocese. The ancient county stretched west as far as Middlesex, but Greater London now incorporates its southwestern corner. It was a Roman centre until the 5th-century Saxon invasions; it became one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the Heptarchy and had its centre at London. It came under Danish control in the 9th century and was later reconquered by Wessex. Despite its proximity to London, much of Essex remains rural, and the county is highly farmed; it is also the site of petroleum installations on the River Thames and of a nuclear power plant. The University of Essex is at Colchester.

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