g supplies to the Royalists and supported military operations on land, notably at the siege of Hull in 1643 and Lyme 1644. In April 1645, however, Parliament decided to extend the Self-Denying Ordinance to include naval officers, and Warwick stepped down from his command. However, he retained his influence over the navy when he was appointed chairman of the 18-man admiralty commission that replaced the office of lord high admiral.
Although he was generally associated with the Presbyterian faction in its attempts to reach a settlement with the King, Warwick championed religious freedom in the colonies of New England and the Caribbean, in which he continued to take an active interest. He is particularly associated with the foundation of the colony of Rhode Island in March 1644.
At the beginning of the Second Civil War in May 1648, a naval revolt broke out against the appointment of the Leveller Thomas Rainsborough as vice-admiral, and a number of warships defected to the Royalists. Warwick was re-appointed lord high admiral and sent to ensure the loyalty of the remaining ships.
In August 1648, he confronted a Royalist fleet commanded by the Prince of Wales in the shallow waters of the Thames estuary. The Prince sailed back to Holland, with Warwick in pursuit. He blockaded the Royalists in the neutral Dutch port of Helvoetsluys, where Prince Rupert took over command. Unable to attack in neutral waters, Warwick maintained the blockade for several months, during which four of the Royalist ships defected back to Parliament. Reluctant to spend the winter off Helvoetsluys, Warwick returned to England with his entire fleet in November 1648, allowing Rupert's fleet to escape to Kinsale in southern Ireland and begin raiding Commonwealth shipping.
The republican government in England viewed Warwick's caution against the Royalists with suspicion, particularly as his brother the Earl of Holland was on trial for his life after fighting against Parliament in the Second Civil War. In February 1649, Warwick's admiralty commission was revoked. He retired from public life until the establishment of Cromwell's Protectorate with its anti-Spanish foreign policy, of which he approved. In June 1657, Warwick carried the sword of state during Cromwell's second inauguration as Lord Protector. The following November, his grandson and heir Robert Rich married Cromwell's daughter Frances. Warwick died in April 1658, his death greatly lamented by Cromwell.
Bernard Capp, Cromwell's Navy, the Fleet and the English Revolution (Oxford 1989)
Sean Kelsey, Robert Rich, second earl of Warwick, Oxford DNB, 2004