Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller | |
|---|---|
Portrait Waller, by John Riley, circa 1685 | |
| Member of Parliament for Saltash | |
| In office May 1685 – November 1685 (suspended) | |
| Member of Parliament for Hastings | |
| In office 1661–1679 | |
| Member of Parliament for St Ives | |
| In office December 1640 – July 1643 (expelled) | |
| Member of Parliament for Amersham 1628 | |
| In office April 1640 – May 1640 | |
| Member of Parliament for Wycombe | |
| In office December 1625 – June 1626 | |
| Member of Parliament for Ilchester | |
| In office February 1624 – March 1625 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 March 1606 Coleshill, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Died | 21 October 1687 (aged 81) St James's, London, England |
| Cause of death | Edema |
| Resting place | St Mary and All Saints Church, Beaconsfield |
| Education | RGS Wycombe, Eton College |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Poet and Politician |
Edmund Waller, 3 March 1606 to 21 October 1687, was a poet and politician from Buckinghamshire. He sat as MP for various constituencies between 1624 and 1687, and was one of the longest serving members of the English House of Commons. Although considered a major poet by contemporaries, his literary reputation declined rapidly after his death, and he is now rarely read.
Waller first entered Parliament in 1624, although he played little part in the political struggles prior to the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642. Unlike his relatives William and Hardress Waller, he was Royalist in sympathy. In 1643, he was accused of plotting to seize London for Charles I, and allegedly escaped execution by paying a large bribe.
After his sentence was commuted to banishment, he lived in France and Switzerland until allowed home in 1651 by Oliver Cromwell, a distant relative. He returned to Parliament after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, but retired from active politics in 1677, and died of edema in October 1687.