, whom Rich served with in the
Eastern Association and
New Model Army; the two were close associates until 1654 His father died when he was young. Further, in 1636, Rich inherited the manor of
Stondon Massey in Essex from his recently deceased uncle,
Sir Nathaniel Rich. He began his education at
Felsted School, whose pupils included four sons of
Oliver Cromwell, and was supervised by Samuel Wharton, a "godly"
minister appointed by the devoutly
Puritan Earl of Warwick. In 1637 he graduated from
St Catharine's College, Cambridge, then known for its Puritan teachings, and in August 1639 started training as a lawyer at
Gray's Inn in
London. With this background, it was natural for him to support
Parliament when the
First English Civil War began in August 1642. The
Earl of Essex was appointed commander of the
Parliamentarian army, and Rich enlisted in his personal troop of
Lifeguards, made up of colleagues from the
Inns of Court. This unit fought in two of the earliest battles of the war,
Powick Bridge in September and
Edgehill in October 1642. In summer 1643, he transferred to the army of the
Eastern Association as captain of a cavalry troop in the
Earl of Manchester's regiment. He had reached the rank of
lieutenant-colonel by the time it took part in the decisive
Battle of Marston Moor in July 1644. In the recriminations that followed the alleged failure to follow up victory at Marston Moor and the botched
Second Battle of Newbury in October 1644, Rich was one of the witnesses on whom Cromwell relied in his attack on Manchester and Essex that led to their removal under the
Self-denying Ordinance. Promoted
colonel and his regiment absorbed into the
New Model Army in February 1645, his appointment was initially rejected by the
House of Commons. Confirmed in time to fight at
Naseby in June, Rich then participated in various actions during the 1645 to 1646 campaign that won control of
South West England. The loss of this region destroyed the
Royalist army as a viable military force, and when the war ended with the Third
Siege of Oxford in June 1646, Sir
Thomas Fairfax appointed Rich one of the commissioners who negotiated its surrender. In the 1647
Recruiter election, he and Fairfax were returned as
MPs for
Cirencester, although they did not formally take their seats until February 1649. In the power struggle between the army and Parliament that followed victory, Rich was initially viewed as a moderate and discouraged petitioning by the
Agitators who represented the rank and file. However, when Parliament tried to disband the New Model without settling their pay arrears, he supported his regiment's refusal to comply and helped draft the
Heads of Proposals, which set out the army's conditions for a peace settlement with
Charles I. Largely prepared by the senior officers or "
Grandees", they were denounced by the Agitators as insufficient, leading to the October to November 1647
Putney Debates in which the two sides sought to reach internal agreement. Rich was a prominent participant in these talks and like most of the Grandees opposed Agitator demands for "
One man, one vote". After a series of disturbances in the
City of London, in January 1648, Rich's regiment was based in the
Royal Mews to guard Parliament and put down a pro-Royalist riot in April, just after the outbreak of the
Second English Civil War. On 1 June, he joined the army under Fairfax sent to suppress the rising in
Kent and took part in the storming of
Maidstone. He was then detached to relieve the port of
Dover, before going on to retake
Walmer Castle,
Deal, and
Sandown Castle from the Royalists, a process he completed with great efficiency by the end of August. Following its recapture, he was appointed Governor or
Captain of Deal Castle, a position he retained until 1653. ==The Interregnum==