Robert Dormer , 1st Earl of Carnarvon Robert Dormer , 1st Earl of Carnarvon ( 1610 – 20 September 1643 ) was an English peer . He was the son of Sir William Dormer , and thus a grandson of Robert Dormer , 1st Baron Dormer . His mother was Alice Molyneux , daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux , 1st Bt . and Frances Gerard . Dormer received the title Baron Dormer at the age of six and on 2 August 1628 , at age 18 , he was raised to Viscount Ascott and was created Earl of Carnarvon . At age six , Dormer was left a ward to the King . His father had left him a rich peer at an early age . The King then sold Dormer ' s wardship to Philip Herbert , then Earl of Montgomery , for £4000 . Dormer had been brought up as a Catholic and would become a high - living Catholic courtier , in danger , infuriating to hard - line Parliamentarians . He was educated at Eton College and Oxford University . He was , according to the seventeenth century biographer David Lloyd , “ extreamly wild in his youth ” , and addicted to gambling and hunting . He and his wife are recorded as regular performers in masques at court . He was an ardent Royalist and defying his father - in - law he fought for King Charles I in the English Civil War . On 27 February 1625 , at the age of fifteen , he was married to his guardian ' s daughter , Lady Anna Herbert ( d . 1643 ) , which secured her future as Dormer was one of the wealthiest men in England at the time . Anna was the daughter of Philip Herbert , 4th Earl of Pembroke and Lady Susan de Vere , the youngest daughter of the Elizabethan courtier , poet , and playwright , Edward de Vere , the 17th Earl of Oxford . Carnarvon was killed at the first Battle of Newbury on 20 September 1643 by a lone trooper who chanced upon him returning from a successful cavalry charge . As he lay dying he was asked if he had one final request of the King . " No " , he replied , " in an hour like this , I have no prayer but to the King of Heaven . " The different accounts of the manner of his death are collected in Mr Money ' s account of the battle ( 2nd ed . pg . 90 ) . Clarendon says before the war he had been given up to pleasure and field sports , but that he broke those habits and became a thorough soldier , conspicuous not only for courage , but presence of mind and skilful generalship ( ib vii 216 ) . David Lloyd in his " Memoirs of Excellent Personages " gives several anecdotes illustrating Carnarvon ' s character ( pp 369 – 72 ) . There is also an elegy on his death in Sir Francis Wortley ' s " Characters and Elegies " , 1646 . Carnarvon was buried firstly at Jesus College Chapel at Oxford University , but his body was removed in 1650 to a family burial place in Wing , Buckinghamshire . Dormer was succeeded by his eldest son , Charles , who died in 1709 and with him the earldom of Carnarvon in the family of Dormer became extinct . Lady Carnarvon died on 3 June 1643 of small - pox . Anecdotes of her are to be found in the " Strafford Papers " ( ii , 47 ) and the " Sydney Papers " ( ii , 621 ) and a poem addressed to her is printed in " Choice Drollery " , 1656 . Her portrait and that of her eldest son , Charles , was part of the exhibition of Anthony van Dyck ' s works at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1887 .