MONTAGU, or more properly MOUNTAGU, EDWARD, first Earl of Sandwich (1625–1672), admiral and general at sea, only surviving son of Sir Sidney Montagu or Mountagu (d. 1644) (younger brother of Edward, first lord Montagu of Boughton [q. v.], and of Sir Henry Montagu, first earl of Manchester [q. v.]), by Paulina, daughter of John Pepys of Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, was born on 27 July 1625. His father was member for Huntingdonshire in the Long parliament, and in 1642 was expelled as a royalist. Edward, on the other hand, while still a mere lad, threw in his lot with the parliament, probably influenced by his cousin, the Earl of Manchester, or by his father-in-law, John Crew, afterwards Lord Crew of Stene [q. v.], whose eldest daughter Jemimah he married in November 1642. In 1643 he raised a regiment of foot in Cambridgeshire, and joined Manchester's army in November; took part in the storming of Lincoln, 6 May, and in the battle of Marston Moor on 2 July 1644. He was on 10 Jan. 1645, although not yet twenty, appointed by Manchester governor of Henley. In the following April he was given a regiment in the New Model, fought at Naseby (14 June), and distinguished himself at the storming of Bristol on 10 Sept. About this time he was returned to parliament for Huntingdonshire, but it does not appear that he took any part in their proceedings. Neither was he serving with the army for the next three years; he had no share in the second civil war in 1648, or in the king's trial and execution. He had no scruples, however, about co-operating with the council of state, of which he was nominated a member in July 1653. Notwithstanding the difference in their age, he appears to have been bound to Cromwell by ties of personal friendship and the early connection between the families [cf. Cromwell, Oliver]. This friendship seems to have been the determining factor of his conduct during the next few years. He was appointed one of the commissioners of the treasury (3 Aug. 1654); and when Blake desired to have a colleague in the command of the fleet [cf. Blake, Robert], Mountagu was appointed as conjoint general at sea (2 Jan. 1656). He had no previous experience at sea, if indeed he had ever even seen the sea; and the statement that he was appointed at the particular request of Blake (Lediard, p.566) is quite unsupported. It is very probable that Cromwell desired to strengthen his own influence in the fleet, but if it was true, as Pepys heard (Diary, 23 June 1662), that Mountagu was deeply in debt, there was a very obvious reason for his wishing to take part in the war against Spain.
His command, however, proved uneventful. The Barbary pirates had been brought to terms by Blake the year before; active operations against Spanish territory were forbidden; and though the West India treasure fleet was engaged and captured outside Cadiz on 8 Sept. [see Stayner, Sir Richard], Mountagu, who at the time was with Blake at Alveiro, had no part in the achievement further than reporting the success to his government (Thurloe, State Papers, v. 509), and afterwards carrying the treasure to England. The bullion, to the amount, it was said, of 600,000l., was carried through London in a triumphal procession, and Mountagu received the formal thanks of the parliament for his good service (4 Nov. 1656) (Whitelocke, Memorials, p. 653). The victory was celebrated by Edmund Waller in his poem ' Of a War with Spain and Fight at Sea by General Montagu in the year 1656.'
In 1657-8 Mountagu had command of the fleet stationed in the Downs, and covering, though not directly participating in, the operations against Dunkirk [see Goodsonn, William]. During this time he was also in frequent attendance on Cromwell; is said to have been one of those who strongly urged him to take the title of 'king' (Clarendon, Hist. xvi. 153); and was present with a drawn sword at his second installation as Protector on 26 June 1657 (Whitelocke, Memorials, p. 662). In December 1657 he was nominated one of Cromwell's House of Lords, and was given the command of a regiment of horse. After Cromwell's death Mountagu loyally supported the new protector, and in March 1659 assumed command
