Falkland, Lucius Cary, 2d Viscount

Falkland, Lucius Cary, 2d Viscount fôkˈlənd [key], 1610?–1643, English statesman and literary figure. He entered Parliament in 1640, where he opposed the exaction of ship money and spoke in favor of the attainder of the earl of Strafford. However, he objected to the abolition of the episcopacy and in 1642 became an adviser to Charles I. He represented the king in attempts to make peace with Parliament in Sept., 1642, and was with Charles at Edgehill and the siege of Gloucester. In despair at the prospect of the civil war continuing, he is supposed to have deliberately allowed himself to be killed at the battle of Newbury. A poet in his own right, Falkland was also a liberal patron of many of his literary contemporaries.

See biography by J. A. R. Marriott (1907); study by K. Weber (1940).

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