Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading (1579-February 1652) was an English Cavalier general during the English Civil War. He once served as tutor to Prince Rupert of the Rhine, and he later commanded the infantry of the Royalist army at the First Battle of Newbury and the Battle of Naseby.
Biography[]
Astley before the Battle of Naseby, 1645
Jacob Astley was born in Melton Constable Hall, Norfolk, England in 1579, and he served in the English expedition to the Azores in 1597 during the Anglo-Spanish War. In 1598, he joined Maurice of Nassau and Frederick Henry of Orange in Holland during the Dutch Revolt, later serving under Elector Frederick V of Palatinate and King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden during the Thirty Years' War. In 1622, he joined the household of Elizabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of King James I of England and the wife of Frederick V, serving as tutor to their son Prince Rupert of the Rhine. He loyally served King Charles I of England during the Bishops' Wars, and he was later involved in a plot to rescue Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford from imprisonment. At the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, he at once joined King Charles' army and fought at the Battle of Edgehill, before which he famously prayed, "O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me." Astley was a loyal supporter of the crown throughout the First English Civil War, and he went on to lead the infantry of the royal army at the First Battle of Newbury and the Battle of Naseby. In March 1646, after the final Royalist defeat at the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold, Astley reluctantly surrendered to the Parliamentarians. He honored his parole terms and did not participate in the Second English Civil War, and he was allowed to retire to Maidstone, where he died in 1652.