Whalley, Edward

views updated

Edward Whalley (hwā´lē, hwô´–), d. 1675?, English regicide. During the English civil war he served under his cousin Oliver Cromwell in the parliamentary army. He was given custody of Charles I for a time in 1647, served on the high court of justice that tried him, and signed the death warrant. After 1655, Whalley was one of the major generals who ruled the country until the restored Long Parliament withdrew his commission and those of other prominent Cromwellians. At the Restoration (1660), Whalley, with his son-in-law, William Goffe, fled to New England. He lived successively in Boston, New Haven, Milford (Conn.), and Hadley (Mass.), hunted by English agents but never betrayed.

More From encyclopedia.com