Henry Hastings, 1st Baron Loughborough

Henry Hastings, 1st Baron Loughborough, was the younger son of Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon, one of the most powerful landowners in Leicestershire. He fought with the Royalist army in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and narrowly escaped execution after being captured at Colchester in 1648. He spent the next twelve years with the Stuart court in exile, and became a leading member of the Sealed Knot, a body set up to co-ordinate Royalist plots against The Protectorate. Hastings returned home after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire in 1661, a position he retained until his death in January 1667.