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Patrick Ruthven, 1st Earl of Forth

Patrick Ruthven, 1st Earl of Forth (1573-2 February 1651) was a Scottish Cavalier nobleman during the English Civil War.

Biography[]

Patrick Ruthven was born in Scotland in 1573, and he served the King of Sweden from 1609 to 1637 after his family name was outlawed in Scotland. He won fame as a diplomat and general, campaigning in Livonia in 1621, being knighted in 1627, becoming Governor of Ulm and Major-General in 1632, and campaigning along the Rhine from 1634 to 1635 during the Thirty Years' War. In 1639, during the First Bishops' War in Scotland, he offered his services to King Charles I of England, and his defense of Edinburgh Castle led to his ennoblement as Earl of Forth in 1640. When the English Civil War broke out, Forth sided with King Charles I against the Parliamentarians, and he was in command at the Battle of Edgehill before being wounded in the battles of Newbury. His rivalry with his superior, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, led to Ruthven giving up field service. He died in 1651.

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