CAPEL, LORD ARTHUR, was the son of Sir Henry Capel. In 1640 he was chosen to represent the county of Hertford, and sat as a member of the Long Parliament, which was convened that year. He was elevated to the peerage by Charles I.; and on the breaking out of the revolution he
raised and maintained a troop in the royal interest till the final triumph of the Parliamentarians compelled him to make peace with them. He then retired to his private residence at Hadham. On reassembling his troop, in order to effect the rescue of Charles, he was forced to surrender at Colchester to General Fairfax, and was condemned by the Commons to be banished; but on the authority of some of the parliamentary leaders he was immediately committed to the Tower. He contrived to effect his escape from prison, but was apprehended at Lambeth, and again committed to stand his trial at Westminster for treason. He was condemned to death, and executed on the 9th of March 1649, exhibiting on the scaffold the greatest calmness and dignity. While in the Tower he wrote several stanzas, which were afterwards published. He was the author of Daily Observations or Meditations, divine, moral, and political, written by a person of honour and piety; to which are added, Certain Letters written to several persons, a posthumous publication, which was afterwards reprinted under a different title, with an account of his life.