Rochester was described by his contemporary Andrew Marvell as "the best English satirist", and he is generally considered to be the most considerable poet and the most learned among the Restoration wits. During his lifetime Rochester was best known for A Satyr Against Reason and Mankind and it remains among his best-known works today.
Paul Davis describes Henry as "a Cavalier legend, a dashing bon vivant and war-hero who single-handedly engineered the future Charles II's escape to the Continent including the famous concealment in an oak tree after the disastrous battle of Worcester in ".
John , was a strong-willed Puritan from a noble Wiltshire family. From the age of seven, Rochester was privately tutored, two years later attending the grammar school in nearby Burford.
In September he was awarded an honorary M. It has been suggested by a number of scholars that the King took a paternal role in Rochester's life.
Her relatives opposed marriage to the impoverished Rochester, who conspired with his mother to abduct Elizabeth. Samuel Pepys described the attempted abduction in his diary on 28 May Thence to my Lady Sandwich's, where, to my shame, I had not been a great while before. Mallett, the great beauty and fortune of the North, who had supped at White Hall with Mrs.
