Henry Vaughan (Royalist)

Sir Henry Vaughan the elder (1587? – 1659) was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1621 and 1644. He was a Royalist leader during the English Civil War. He was extremely tall, 6 ft 7 to be precise.

Vaughan was the son of Walter Vaughan of Golden Grove, and settled at Derwydd in Carmarthenshire. In 1620, he was High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire In 1621 he was elected Member of Parliament for Carmarthen. He was re-elected in every election until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament.

In April 1640, Vaughan was elected MP for Carmarthenshire in the Short Parliament and again in November 1640 for the Long Parliament. From November 1642, Vaughan began raising a regiment in Carmarthenshire to fight for the Royalist cause under his nephew, the Earl of Carbery. He was knighted by the King at Oxford on 14 January 1643, and was disabled from sitting in parliament on 5 February 1644. He was Major-General of the Royalist forces in Pembrokeshire from 1643 until he was defeated at Pill in February 1644 by the Parliamentary leader, Rowland Laugharne. He left Haverfordwest and went to Carmarthen. He was captured at the Battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645, and was sent to the Tower of London where he spent the rest of his life as a prisoner.

Vaughan's fellow prisoner, Sir Francis Wortley, in his "Loyall Song of the Royall Feast kept by the Prisoners in the Towre" (1647), described Vaughan:

Sir Harry Vaughan looks as grave
As any beard can make him,
Those came poore prisoners to see
Do for our Patriarke take him,
Old Harry is a right true blue,
As valiant as Pendraggon,
And would be loyal to his king
Had King Charles ne'er a rag on.

Vaughan's son, Sir Henry Vaughan the younger, was MP for Carmarthenshire for some years after the Restoration. Vaughan was a younger brother of John Vaughan, 1st Earl of Carbery.