Henry fought in the Battle of Edgehill in 1642 and was rewarded for his services on 8 June 1643 by being created 1st Earl of Sunderland (although the title cost him £3,000). He then fought in the Siege of Gloucester in August 1643 and the First Battle of Newbury on 20 September 1643, where he was killed, aged 22, by a cannonball. Cokayne writes that "he was, according to Clarendon, "a lord of a great fortune, tender years ... and an early judgment; who, having no command in the army, attended upon the King's person under the obligation of honour; and putting himself that day into the King's troop a volunteer, before they came to charge was taken away by a cannon bullet.'"