Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/164

 the rout of his forces by Poyntz (24 Sept. 1645). He wandered back to Oxford, bidding Byron keep Chester for eight days longer (, Hist. Discourses, p. 140). It was actually kept for some twenty weeks. The enemy was closing round. Byron's appeal to Rupert for help (6 Oct.) was published with virulent comments on the writer's supposed leanings to popery and the Irish rebels. Booth, fresh from the capture of Lathom, had joined the besiegers. Byron's brother was taken while marching to his rescue. A relief party from Oxford had been forced to return. The citizens urged surrender. Byron invited the chief malcontents to dine with him, and gave them his own fare of boiled wheat and spring water. Brereton repeatedly urged Byron to surrender, but the cavalier insisted on terms ‘granted by greater commanders than yourself—no disparagement to you.’

Chester at last surrendered (6 Feb. 1646). The citizens were not to be plundered, the sick and wounded were cared for, and Byron, with his whole army, were to march under safe-conduct to Conway (, Civil War in Wales, p. 354). He fared better in Cheshire than in London, where the commons resolved to exclude him from pardon—a vote in which the lords refused to concur.

He had meanwhile taken the command of Carnarvon Castle, which he held till May 1646, when the king ordered all his fortresses to be given up. It was surrendered upon articles dated 4 June (, p. 208).

Byron joined the queen's court at Paris, and was appointed superintendent-general of the house and family of the Duke of York (30 April 1651). In 1648 he lent his assistance to the royalist invasion of England by Hamilton and the Scotch (cf. two letters from Byron to the Earl of Lanerick in the Hamilton Papers, Camd. Soc.; Byron's own relation of his actions in the summer of 1648 appears in Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 418). His main task was to seize Anglesea and to raise North Wales for the king. [For his failure and its causes see .] In January 1648–9 Ormonde sent Byron to Charles II with a copy of the treaty he had made with the Irish confederates in behalf of the royalists, and a pressing invitation to the prince to come to Ireland (, Ormonde, bk. v. § 98;, Orig. Letters, i. passim). He was now included by the houses among the seven persons who were to expect no pardon.

Byron's after life was passed in exile. He returned to Paris to find himself supplanted in the confidence of his pupil, who arranged a visit to Brussels without his knowledge or the permission of the queen. At her request, nevertheless, Byron attended on the duke during that journey, and another to the Hague to see the Princess of Orange, as well as in James's first campaign under Turenne.

Byron differed from Hyde, the king's oldest adviser, on such critical matters as the acceptance by Charles of the invitation of the Scotch (1650). Byron wished the prince to accept it (, Orig. Letters, i. 338). Hyde wrote, ‘If Lord Byron has become a presbyterian, he will be sorry for it.’ But Hyde did full justice to his opponent's fidelity, writing to Nicholas of Byron's death as ‘an irreparable loss’ (23 Aug. 1652).

Byron died childless, though twice married: (1) to Cecilia, daughter of the Earl of Delaware, and widow of Sir Francis Bindloss, knt.; and (2) to Eleanor, daughter of Robert Needham, viscount Kilmurrey, Ireland, and widow of Peter Warburton of Arley, Cheshire. Byron's second wife was, according to Pepys (Diary, 26 April 1676), ‘the king's seventeenth mistress abroad.’ A portrait of Byron by Cornelius Jansen was in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866 (No. 688).

Byron's title was inherited by his brother Richard (1605–1679), whose exploits as governor of Newark are recorded in Hutchinson's ‘Memoirs.’ He held the office from the spring of 1643 till about January 1645. In September 1643 he surprised the town of Nottingham and held it for five days; and on 27 Nov. 1643 surprised the committee of Leicestershire at Melton Mowbray (Mercurius Aulicus, p. 690). He resided in England during the protectorate, and in 1659 rose to support Sir George Booth. He died on 4 Oct. 1679, aged 74, having married (1) Elizabeth, daughter of George Rossel; and (2) Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Booth. Four other brothers served in the civil wars on the royalist side. William was drowned at sea. Robert commanded a regiment at Naseby, served in Ireland, and was for a time imprisoned for sharing in a royalist plot in Dublin (, Contemporary History, ii. 158–60); he was alive in 1664 (, Memoirs, ii. 310). Gilbert was commander of Rhuddlan Castle, North Wales, in 1645 (, Diary, p. 247); he was taken prisoner at Willoughby Field on 5 July 1648, and died on 16 March 1656. Philip was killed in defending York on 16 June 1644; a curious character of him is in Lloyd's ‘Memoirs of Excellent Personages’ (p. 489).

Much of Byron's correspondence remains. It has no literary charm; but it exhibits persistent cheerfulness in the face of gathering disaster, unwearied effort to conquer un-