Peterborough, CHARLES MORDAUNT, EARL OF, was born in or about the year 1658. All particulars of his boyhood, even to the place of his education, seem to have been lost. The first definitely recorded event in his life is his voyage as a volunteer in Sir John Narborough's expedition against the Algerine corsairs in 1674. From this voyage, in which he saw actual service, he returned early in 1677, to find himself in his twentieth year Viscount Mordaunt, his father, John, first peer of that title, which he owed to his services in assisting to bring about the Restoration, having died in 1675. The new viscount shortly afterwards married Carey, daughter of Sir Alexander Fraser, and in 1678 started on another maritime expedition, this time apparently in the capacity of a passenger. Returning after a year's absence, he again volunteered for naval service, and sailed with the fleet sent under Lord Plymouth for the relief of Tangier. On his return to England he began to take an active part in politics, identifying himself with the extreme Whig party throughout the whole of the three or four eventful years which closed with the ruin and flight of Shaftesbury, and the final triumph of the indolent and dissolute but shrewd and able monarch, against whom that restless agitator had pitted himself. At the accession of James II. Mordaunt became a prominent parliamentary opponent of the first unpopular measures of the new king, and one of the earliest intriguers for his overthrow. Indeed he went at once so fast and so far as to press upon William of Orange a premature scheme for the invasion of England, which that prince with his usual cool judgment rejected. After the Revolution, in the military operations connected with which Mordaunt exerted himself vigorously and with success, he rose into high favour with the new king. Honour and emoluments of a varied description, from the post of a privy-councillor to that of a water-bailiff, were heaped upon him, and he was finally appointed First Commissioner of the Treasury, and created Earl of Monmouth. On William's departure for the campaign in Ireland the new earl was nominated of the committee of nine who formed the Queen's Council of Regency. In the House of Lords he was an extreme and active Whig, but it was probably as much his zealous anxiety to supplant William's ministers suspected of Jacobitism as to combat Jacobite designs themselves that led to his embroilment in those intrigues arising out of the Assassination Plot, and the Fenwick trial, which ultimately resulted (January 1697) in his committal to the Tower. He was liberated in less than three months, and for several years thereafter he seems to have played no prominent part in public affairs.
In 1702 the war of the Spanish succession broke out, and in 1705 Peterborough (for by his uncle's death he had succeeded to that title shortly after his release from imprisonment) was appointed to the command of an army of 4000 Dutch and English soldiers, with which he proceeded to Barcelona, there to begin the extraordinary campaign which has made his name famous in history. After successfully resisting the solicitations to attack the city which were addressed to him by the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, fresh from the capture of Gibraltar, and the Archduke Charles, the claimant to the Spanish throne, for whom the allies were fighting, Peterborough succeeded by a pretended retreat in surprising and capturing the strong fort of Monjuich on the south side of Barcelona, from which position of vantage he soon managed to reduce the city. The Catalan towns one after another now declared for Charles; Gerona, Tarragona, Tolosa, and Lerida opened their gates to Peterborough, who, marching southward in the depth of winter and driving his foes before him, reached Valencia early in February 1706. Meanwhile an army under the Duke of Anjou, the French claimant to the throne (afterwards Philip IV.), and Marshal Tessé had entered Catalonia, and was closely investing Barcelona, which was at the same time blockaded by a fleet under the Count of Toulouse. Hurrying back to the scene of his former exploit, and seeing that it was from the side of the sea that the town must be relieved, Peterborough threw himself on board one of the ships of the English squadron, took command in virtue of his commission, which gave him supreme control over the British forces at sea as well as on land, sent his orders to the admiral, and drove Toulouse and his fleet from before the port. This success was followed by the raising of the siege, and the retreat of Tessé's force. Encouraged by the splendid successes of Peterborough on the east coast, Galway, the British commander on the Portuguese frontier, advanced into the heart of Spain, and in June entered Madrid. Peterborough wished to march from Valencia, whither he had now returned, and to effect a junction with Galway, but the archduke dallied irresolutely at Barcelona. Precious time was lost, Berwick rallied his forces, and compelled Galway to evacuate the capital, and when at last Charles advanced and summoned Peterborough to join him, it was too late. A plan formed by him for the recovery of Madrid was rejected, and in disgust he obtained permission to depart for Genoa to raise a loan on the Spanish revenues. Returning with success from his mission, he acted for some time as a sort of adviser to his military successors in Spain, but his imperious temper seems to have unfitted him for anything but supreme command, and his differences with Lord Stanhope and others led to his recall in March 1707.
His career thenceforward till his death at Lisbon on 25th October 1735 is interesting only to the student of letters and not to the politician. He was, as is well known, an intimate friend of Pope, with whom he was in constant communication almost up to the last day of his life, and whose genuine esteem for him may satisfy us that under the somewhat theatrical exterior which he presented to the world there lay qualities which justly endeared him to his friends. In 1722 he was, it is said, privately married to the famous singer Anastasia Robinson, but the lady was not publicly acknowledged as his countess till shortly before his death. Recent military criticism has made an elaborate endeavour to show that Peterborough's fame as a conqueror rests wholly on a basis of imposture, and that the whole credit of his conquest of Valencia must be distributed among others. This extreme view, however, has been shown by Mr Stebbing in his judicious and impartial monograph to be untenable. His verdict is that 'the figure of the hero remains much where it was, though its pedestal may have been somewhat lowered.'
See the Memoir by Russell (2 vols. 1887), and Stebbing's Peterborough ('English Men of Action' series, 1890).