George Goring, 1st Earl of Norwich (28 April 1585 – 6 January 1663) was an English soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1628 when he was raised to the peerage.
One year later the troubles between Charles and his Parliament became acute and Goring devoted his fortune freely to the royal cause; the king in November 1644 recreated for him the title which he created in 1628 for Lord Denny, Earl of Norwich, his uncle, which had just become extinct on his death. He went with Queen Henrietta Maria to the Netherlands in 1642 to raise money for the king, and in the autumn of the next year he was seeking arms and money from Cardinal Mazarin in Paris. His acts were revealed to the parliament in January 1644 by an intercepted letter to Henrietta Maria. He was consequently impeached of high treason but prudently remained abroad until 1647, albeit deprived of his lands and income, when he received a pass from parliament under a pretext of seeking reconciliation.[3]
Arms of Goring, Earl of Norwich: Argent, a chevron between three annulets gules[5]
Thus he was able to take a prominent part in the Second Civil War of 1648. He commanded the Kentish levies, which Fairfax dispersed at Maidstone and elsewhere and was forced to surrender unconditionally at Colchester.[3] Norwich's refusal to surrender, even after the cause was known to be hopeless and the people of the town begged him to surrender, was considered to be against the rules of war. Two of his commanders were executed after the siege for their part in it.[6] Norwich was condemned to exile in November 1648 by a vote of the House of Commons, but the next month the vote was annulled.[3]
Early in the next year a court formed under John Bradshaw and tried: Norwich, the Duke of Hamilton, Lord Capel, the Earl of Holland and Sir John Owen. Each received a death sentence on 6 March 1649, but petitions for mercy were presented to parliament, and Norwich's life was spared by the Speaker's casting vote. Shortly after his liberation from prison in May 1649, he joined the exiled court of Charles II who employed him in fruitless negotiations with the duke of Lorraine. He became captain of the king's guard at the Restoration, and in consideration of the fortune he had spent or income he had foregone in the king's service a pension of 2000 pounds per year was granted him.[3]
Lady Catherine Goring, who married Edward Scott of Scot's Hall and had several children whose paternity her husband refused to acknowledge, on the grounds of her notorious infidelity (Prince Rupert was said to be one of her lovers); her son Thomas succeeded to the estates after Edward belatedly acknowledged him as his lawful son. Thomas married in 1663 Caroline Carteret, daughter of Sir George Carteret, 1st Baronet.
Lady Lucy Goring, who married Sir Drue Deane
Lady Diana Goring, who married firstly Thomas Covert of Slaugham, Sussex, and secondly George Porter, eldest son of the noted courtier Endymion Porter
