Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey KG (16 December 1582 – 24 October 1642), previously (from 1601 to 1626) 14th Baron Willoughby de Eresby was an English peer, soldier and courtier. Early life Robert Bertie was the son of Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (b. 12 October 1555 – d. 25 June 1601) and Mary de Vere, daughter of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. Queen Elizabeth I was his godmother, and two of her favourite earls (Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex), whose Christian name he bore, were his godfathers. He had been part of Essex's expedition to Cádiz, and had afterwards served in the Netherlands, under Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange. He was even given temporary command of English forces during the Siege of Rheinberg in the summer of 1601. The long Continental wars throughout the peaceful reign of King James I had been treated by the English nobility as schools of arms, as a few campaigns were considered a graceful finish to a gentleman's education. He succeeded his father as Baron Willoughby de Eresby in 1601. He was later created Earl of Lindsey on 22 November 1626 and took his title from the northern of the three parts of Lincolnshire, the old Kingdom of Lindsey. The entrepreneur The Lindsey Level in The Fens, between the River Glen and The Haven, at Boston, Lincolnshire, was named after the first Earl Lindsey as he was the principal adventurer in its drainage. The drainage work was declared complete in 1638 but the project was neglected with the onset of the Civil War so that the land fell back into its old state. When it was drained again, more than a hundred years later, it was called the Black Sluice Level. There is more information under the article Twenty, Lincolnshire. The English Civil War As soon as Lord Lindsey had begun to fear that the disputes between the King, Charles I and Parliament must end in war, he had begun to exercise and train his tenantry in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, of whom he had formed a regiment of infantry. First Siege of Hull Lord Lindsey accompanied the King in April 1642 as part of a party who tried to negotiate a handover of the magazine at Hull for the King's military use. This handover was turned down