Death of Henry Wilmot and John's Succession as 2nd Earl of Rochester
Poet involved
What happened
After the death of his father Henry Wilmot, the 1st Earl of Rochester, in exile at Sluys, Flanders, the eleven-year-old John Wilmot inherited the earldom and the family's debts. Henry, a Cavalier commander, had been a loyal servant of Charles II but was largely absent from his son's life, leaving John's mother, Anne St. John, to manage their Oxfordshire estate. The title and the shadow of his gallant yet dissipated father conferred an early sense of aristocratic license and a void of paternal restraint.
Literary impact
The early inheritance without a guiding father figure fed his unchecked libertinism, which he later explored in poems mocking social hierarchies and the arbitrary nature of rank. The ghost of his heroic but flawed father likely fueled his ambivalence toward heroism and kingship, evident in satires like 'A Satire on Charles II.'
Source: Wikipedia
