Richard Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Trerice

Arundell entered Lincoln's Inn in 1633 and qualified as a lawyer in 1640, representing his elder brother in a legal case that same year.^[4] In April 1640, he was elected MP for Lostwithiel in the Short Parliament, then re-elected to the Long Parliament in November. He was suspended from Parliament in January 1642 for putting into execution the Commission of array.^[5]

When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, Arundell joined the Royalist army and is thought to have served at Edgehill, as well as Lansdowne. Historian and statesman Clarendon describes him as "a stout and diligent officer" although his primary role was raising taxes for the Royalist war effort. He served under his father in the garrison of Pendennis Castle, which sheltered both Charles II of England and Queen Henrietta Maria during the war and was one of the last strongholds to surrender in August 1646.^[6]

Since his elder brother John was killed outside Plymouth in 1644, Arundell inherited the family estates when his father died in 1654; he remained active in the Royalist underground during the Interregnum but managed to avoid arrest. Shortly after the Stuart Restoration in June 1660, he was elected for Bere Alston to the Convention Parliament. In 1662, Charles appointed him Governor of Pendennis Castle and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, positions he retained until his death in 1687.^[6]

In January 1662, Arundell was re-elected for Bere Alston to the Cavalier Parliament and sat until 23 March 1664 when he was created Baron Arundell of Trerice. He became extremely wealthy over the next 20 years, being awarded a free gift of £3,000 in 1674 and a pension of £1,000 per year, considerable sums at the time. He died in London on 7 September 1687.^[6]

• Burke, John (1831). A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland, extinct, dormant, and in abeyance. England. Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley.
• Cust, Richard; Hopper, Andrew (eds.). "Arundell v Cosworth in The Court of Chivalry 1634–1640". British History Online.
• Helms, M.W.; Crossette, J.S. (1983). "ARUNDELL, Richard (c.1616–87), of Trerice, Newlyn, Cornw.". In Henning, Basil Duke (ed.). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660–1690 (Online ed.). Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0436192746.
• Vivian, JL (1887). The Visitations of Cornwall comprising the Herald's visitations of 1530, 1573 & 1620 (with additions). William Pollard & Co.
• Wright, Stephen (2004). "Arundel [Arundell], Richard, first Baron Arundell of Trerice (1616–1687)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/724. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)