Charles Rich, 4th Earl of Warwick

Who was Charles Rich, 4th Earl of Warwick?

Charles Rich, 4th Earl of Warwick, styled The Honourable Charles Rich until 1658, was an English peer and politician.

Rich was the second son of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick and Frances Hatton. As a young man he was noted for being handsome, charming, cheerful and penniless. His wife was Lady Mary Boyle, daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. It was a love marriage, Mary to her father's intense displeasure having refused to enter the marriage arranged by him with James Hamilton, later Earl of Clanbrassil, but the couple do not seem to have been happy. Mary in her diaries refers to "violent and passionate disputes". There may have been faults on both sides, since Mary in later years became almost fanatically devout, but it was generally agreed that the greater blame lay with Rich whose chronic ill-health made him bad-tempered and tyrannical.

In public life Rich represented Essex in Parliament in 1629 and Sandwich from 1640 to 1641. He was also Custos Rotulorum of Essex. He succeeded his brother Robert in the earldom in 1658.

Lord Warwick died in 1673, after "twenty years of gout". His only son had predeceased him and the title passed to his cousin, Charles Rich, 2nd Earl of Holland. His only other child Elizabeth had died in infancy. Despite their quarrels, he left all his property to his widow, an unusual step at the time.