Robert Wallop, 1601-67

MP for Andover with interests in Ireland, he was brought to trial as a regicide at the Restoration.

Robert Wallop was the only son of Sir Henry Wallop, a wealthy and powerful Hampshire gentleman who owned substantial estates in Ireland. Robert Wallop married Anne Wriothesley, daughter of the Earl of Southampton. He represented Andover in the Short and Long Parliaments (1640), and became prominent on committees dealing with Ireland — particularly after the Irish Uprising of 1641 threatened his family estates in Wexford.

Wallop supported Parliament in the civil wars. He became an influential member of the county committee for Hampshire and was appointed to the Committee for Both Kingdoms in 1644. Although he was appointed to the High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles, Wallop rarely attended the sessions of the court and did not sign the King's death warrant.

Wallop sat as a member of the Council of State during most of the 1650s and was elected to the three Protectorate Parliaments as MP for Hampshire. However, he grew increasingly uneasy over the political influence of the Army. He actively supported the republicans Scot and Hesilrige in the struggle between Parliament and Army that followed the fall of Richard Cromwell in 1659.

Brought to trial as a regicide at the Restoration, Wallop claimed that he had attended the King's trial at the request of several prominent Royalists in order to try and moderate the proceedings. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in the Tower of London in 1667.

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