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 partly in disputes with his subordinates and the prince's council. He demanded full power to command all forces in the west, and though the demand was not unreasonable, his conduct made it impossible to trust him so far. The remonstrances of the prince and his councillors were entirely unheeded, nor would he obey the king's orders to break through and join him at Oxford. At length, on 20 Nov., he wrote to the prince begging leave to go to France for two months for the recovery of his health. Without waiting for a reply he set sail for Dartmouth. He was really suffering in health, both from his old wound and from the effects of his debauches, but he also hoped to return in command of the foreign forces which the queen was endeavouring to raise (, Great Civil War, ii. 427). While he lingered in France the king's army in the west surrendered to Fairfax (March 1646). Goring now went to the Netherlands, and obtained the command of the English regiments in Spanish service, with the title of colonel-general, and a pension of six hundred crowns a month. This post was given to him on account of the services of Lord Norwich in promoting the treaty of 1648 between France and Spain (, Original Letters, i. 387; The Declaration of Col. Anthony Weldon, 1649, p. 28). He seems, however, to have found his command merely an empty title, and in March 1650 went to Spain in hope of obtaining some assistance for Charles II and his own arrears of pay (, Original Letters, i. 359). In 1652 he was at the siege of Barcelona (Sussex Arch. Coll. xix. 98). According to Dugdale, Goring while in Spain was ‘lieutenant-general under John de Silva, and finding him corrupted by Cardinal Mazarin he took him prisoner at the head of his army, whereupon that great don had judgment of death passed upon him’ (Baronage, p. 461). In 1655 he wrote to Charles II from Madrid apologising for four years' silence and offering his services (, i. 694). Sir Henry Bennet found him at Madrid in July 1657, very ill and very destitute, and the news of his death reached Hyde a month later (Cal. Clarendon Papers, iii. 317, 352). Dugdale, from whom many others have copied the story, represents him as assuming in his last days the habit of a Dominican friar (Baronage, p. 461).

Goring had undoubtedly considerable ability as a general; he possessed courage and fertility of resource, and he had a keen eye for the opportunities of a battle-field. ‘He was, without dispute,’ says Sir Richard Bulstrode, ‘as good an officer as any served the king, and the most dexterous in any sudden emergency that I have ever seen’ (Memoirs, p. 134). There was ‘a great difference,’ adds Clarendon, ‘between the presentness of his mind and vivacity in a sudden attempt, though never so full of danger, and an enterprise that required more deliberation and must be attended with patience and a steady circumspection, as if his mind could not be long bent’ (Rebellion, ix. 102).

[Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, ed. Macray; Clarendon State Papers; Warburton's Prince Rupert, 1849; State Papers, Dom.; Memoirs of Sir Richard Bulstrode, 1721; Sir Edward Walker's Historical Discourses, 1705.] 

GORING, GEORGE, (1583?–1663), was the son of George Goring of Hurstpierpoint and Ovingdean, Sussex, by Anne, daughter of Henry Denny of Waltham, sister of Edward Denny, earl of Norwich (, Baronage, i. 461). Goring is said to have begun his life at court as one of the gentlemen pensioners of Queen Elizabeth (ib.) According to Lloyd he was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and afterwards served some time in Flanders (Memoirs of Excellent Personages, 1668, p. 560). He was knighted on 7 May 1608, and became about 1610 one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber of Henry, prince of Wales (, Life of Henry, Prince of Wales, p. 450). Goring's gifts as a courtier and a wit attracted the favour of James I. Weldon describes him as one of the king's three ‘chief and master fools,’ and ‘master of the games for fooleries’ (Secret History of the Court of James I, 1811, i. 399). At a dinner to solemnise the birthday of Prince Charles in 1618, ‘Sir George Goring's invention bore away the bell, that was four huge brawny pigs piping hot, bitted and harnessed with ropes of sausages, all tied to a monstrous bag-pudding’ (, Illustrations of English History, iii. 293). Other specimens of his peculiar humour are recorded by Pepys (Diary, 3 Feb. 1661), and in ‘Fragmenta Aulica, or Court and State Jests in noble Drollery,’ by T. S., 1662 (pp. 45, 54). Goring followed Prince Charles to Spain in 1623 (Court and Times of James I, ii. 388). He was also engaged in negotiating the marriage of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, became successively vice-chamberlain and master of the horse to that queen, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Goring on 14 April 1628 (Court and Times of Charles I, i. 29, 140, 382;, Peerage, ed. Brydges, ix. 458). During the next ten years Goring's favour continued to increase; offices were heaped upon him, and he was engaged in many of the king's most oppressive schemes for raising money. He was appointed clerk of the council of Wales. The jurisdiction of the liberty of Peveril was re-