using the boldest language to Charles himself against the tax (ib. 1636–7, p. 197; Gardiner, viii. 203). After the dissolution of the Short parliament Warwick was arrested and his papers searched by the king's order (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 152). He was one of the seven peers who signed the letter to the Scottish leaders in June 1640, had his name attached to Savile's forged engagement, and was one of the signatories of the petition of the twelve peers in the following September (ib. p. 640; Oldmixon, History of England, p. 143).
Warwick was equally resolute in his opposition to the Laudian church policy. He promoted puritan clergymen to the livings in his gift, was the intimate friend of Dr. Sibbes [q. v.], and protected Jeremiah Burroughes when he was deprived by Bishop Wren. Calamy terms him ‘a great patron and Mæcenas to the pious and religious ministry,’ and praises his personal piety. Clarendon, on the other hand, describes Warwick's puritanism as mere hypocrisy. ‘He was a man of a pleasant and companionable wit and conversation, of a universal jollity, and such a license in his words and actions that a man of less virtue could not be found out. … But with all these faults he had great authority and credit with that people who, in the beginning of the trouble, did all the mischief; and by opening his doors and making his house the rendezvous of all the silenced ministers in the time when there was authority to silence them, and spending a good part of his estate, of which he was very prodigal, upon them, and by being present with them at their devotions, and making himself merry with them and at them, which they dispensed with, he became the head of that party, and got the style of a godly man’ (Rebellion, vi. 404; Laud, Works, v. 318; Calamy, Funeral Sermon on Warwick, 1658, 4to, p. 36). ‘The Earl of Warwick,’ wrote Lord Conway to Laud in June 1640, ‘is the temporal head of the puritans, and the Earl of Holland is their spiritual; or, rather, the one is their visible and the other their invisible head’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 278). At this time, however, Warwick was not reputed hostile to episcopacy itself, although opposed to the prevailing party in the church (Clarendon, Rebellion, iii. 146).
In the debates of the Long parliament Warwick, who was no orator, took little part. He signed various protests made by the popular peers, was one of the committee for religion appointed by the House of Lords, and concurred in the prosecution of Strafford and Laud (Rogers, Protests of the House of Lords, i. 6, 11, 13). On 27 April 1641 he was admitted to the privy council, and was one of the council of regency appointed during the king's visit to Scotland (9 Aug. 1641).
From the time when the king left Whitehall Warwick was one of the most active champions of the parliamentary cause. On 28 Feb. he was nominated lord-lieutenant of the two counties of Norfolk and Essex, and personally executed the militia ordinance in the latter county (Commons' Journals, ii. 489; Lords' Journals, v. 117). On 2 Oct. he was appointed captain-general of a second army which the parliament intended to raise in addition to that under Essex, but a month later (23 Nov.) they resolved to have only a single general, and he resigned his commission (ib. v. 415, 454). On 25 Aug. 1645, during the alarm caused by the king's capture of Huntingdon, he was appointed commander of the forces of the eastern association (ib. vii. 555). He was also a member of the committee of both kingdoms from its first foundation (16 Feb. 1643). It was, however, as commander of the navy that Warwick did most service to the parliamentary cause. On 10 March 1642 the House of Commons voted that Northumberland, the lord high admiral, should be asked to appoint Warwick admiral of the fleet which was then getting ready to put to sea. The king ordered Northumberland to appoint Sir John Pennington, but the commons insisted, and Northumberland accordingly granted Warwick's commission. Charles renewed the struggle three months later by dismissing Northumberland from his office (28 June), on which parliament passed an ordinance directing Warwick to continue in command (1 July). Armed with this authority, Warwick went on board the fleet the next day, overcame the resistance of those officers who adhered to the king, and was able to report to Pym on 4 July that the navy was at the parliament's disposal (Clarendon, Rebellion, v. 36, 376; Lords' Journals, v. 169, 178, 185, 213). Eighteen months later, 7 Dec. 1643, he was appointed lord high admiral in place of Northumberland (ib. vi. 330).
Warwick's ships were chiefly employed in guarding the seas, in intercepting vessels bringing supplies from the continent to the king or the Irish rebels, and in acting as auxiliaries to the land forces of the parliament. They helped in the defence of Hull against the king, and in the capture of Portsmouth (August 1642). In August 1643 Warwick's fleet attempted to relieve Exeter, and in May 1644 he successfully relieved Lyme (Rushworth, v. 680; Gardiner, Great Civil War, i. 207). He also secured Weymouth
