John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: His Childhood and Experience at Oxford

Existing accounts of Rochester’s early years are thin or in error in terms of historical context. His father was a notable Royalist exile and favorite of Charles II—indeed, his companion on his flight from Worcester in 1651. His own childhood was spent under the aegis of his mother in the household of her first husband. Rochester’s enrollment at Wadham College, Oxford, was probably a precaution against the possibility that General Lambert’s radical army would return triumphant from its confrontation with Monck’s troops on the Scottish border and exact revenge on Royalist houses. He was given extraordinary prominence in the university’s collections of verses celebrating the restoration of the monarchy and again in the triumphalist degree ceremony of 1661. Indeed, Rochester’s treatment at Oxford bordered on what would have been appropriate for a royal prince. The Lee connection, and especially the background presence of his mother, also remained important, even during the years of Rochester’s “debauchery.”