Battle flags are usually designed to inspire a sense of pride in service, duty or patriotism for one’s country, or loyalty to a celebrated hero. So you have to admire the pettiness of British Royalists, who raised a battle standard meant to insult and provoke one person in particular. That flag was Horatio Cary’s cuckold flag, and the “cuckold” in question was Robert Devereux, the third earl of Essex, during the English Civil War.
It’s not Devereux’s fault that his marriage and sex life became a public spectacle on par with a British Interregnum-era episode of “The Jerry Springer Show.” All he did was the work expected of him as a nobleman. But while he was gone, a royal Jody showed up to take care of his wife -- and the entire kingdom heard all about it, calling the earl a “cuckold” even 30 years later.
Devereux came from an aristocratic family, a noble stock that both served Queen Elizabeth I and then rebelled against her. His father, the second earl of Essex, was executed for treason, and Elizabeth abolished his family title. After Elizabeth died in 1603, King James I (of King James Bible fame) restored the title, and young Robert, then just 13 years old, suddenly became an earl. Not long after, he entered into a political marriage with Frances Howard, also a young teen.
This is where things start to get spicy.
Before the young earl could consummate his marriage, he was sent on a two-year grand tour of Europe. It was a common thing for aristocratic Englishmen to do, a trip meant to expand his horizons and understanding of the world and complete his education. While Devereux was off completing his education, his young wife was getting an education of her own -- with Robert Carr, the earl of Somerset.
When the earl of Essex finally came home after two years abroad, his young wife didn’t want anything to do with him, let alone consummate their marriage (it didn’t help that he was afflicted with smallpox at the time). She contacted her great-uncle, a noble close to the king to obtain an annulment. When the earl of Essex resisted, the case became a major public scandal.
Lady Essex claimed that the earl was incapable of consummating the marriage because he was impotent and submitted to a medical examination to prove she was still a virgin. No fewer than 12 experts examined the lady and determined she was, in fact, intact. The earl’s unhelpful argument was that he was only impotent with his wife and had performed quite well with other ladies in the past. The entire controversy became a public spectacle, and the earl of Essex became a laughingstock.
By 1613, King James gave the earl’s wife the divorce she sought, but the damage to the earl’s manlihood had already been done. Frances, the one-time Lady Essex, married her lover, the earl of Somerset, and became Lady Somerset. The earl went on to join the Protestant armies fighting in continental Europe for the next 20 years, but his military career was stymied by the political establishment in London and his resentment toward the crown only grew.
In 1625, King James died and his son took the throne as Charles I. Resentment toward Charles was not limited to Essex, either. For two decades, Protestant nobles of England grew increasingly hostile toward Charles, his spending, his Roman Catholic wife and his flaunting of parliamentary authority. Charles’ need for money and power eventually boiled over with the reform-minded Parliament and it wasn’t long before the people of England started choosing sides. In 1642, Parliament raised an army to fight the king’s Royalists, and Essex was voted to lead it.
Among the parliamentarian forces (also known as the Roundheads) was Col. Sir Horatio Cary's Regiment of Horse. Not much is known about Cary, except that he might be a god among men when it comes to trolling his enemies. In 1603, the Royalists captured Bristol, which not only allowed them to import conscripts from Ireland, it nearly toppled the Roundhead cause. The Siege of Bristol also led to Cary and his regiment switching to the Royalist side.
It had been 30 years since the very messy, very public divorce between the earl of Essex and his wife. But no one had really ever forgotten about it, especially Horatio Cary. By the time his new Royalist cavalry were ready for battle, they were flying a new standard -- one that was such a devastating and hilarious personal insult, its fame and reputation made more history than Cary himself. It was a squared, red standard that featured a fox (representing the Roundheads) poking its head out of a barrel. Emblazoned in gold lettering around it are the words, “COME OUT YOU CUCKOLD.”
For those not in the know, a “cuckold” can have a couple of meanings. The first is that of a man whose wife is sexually unfaithful. The second is a verb, which means to make a man a cuckold by having relations with his wife. A third, more modern definition is available, but was surely not meant for the earl of Essex in 1643.
The story doesn’t end well for the earl of Essex. He was forced to surrender at Lostwithiel in 1644 and had to escape by a fishing boat. He was soon outshined by another parliamentarian, Oliver Cromwell. He ran afoul of Cromwell, whose faction in Parliament would force Essex to resign his commission. Cromwell would reform the Roundheads to form the New Model Army, defeat the Royalists and take control of the country. Essex would die in 1646 without an heir.
As for Frances, the former Lady Essex and then Lady Somerset, she was later accused of poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury, an adviser to the earl of Somerset. Both she and the earl of Somerset were arrested for the plot in 1615, because Overbury had opposed their marriage. In the ensuing trial, one of the members of the jury who sentenced Lady Somerset to death was none other than Robert Devereux, the earl of Essex. The king commuted the sentences to life in the Tower of London, which were commuted in 1622. She died 10 years later.
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