Henry Mordaunt (Royal Navy officer)

Henry Mordaunt (died 24 February 1710) was a British politician and Royal Navy officer, who commanded a 70-gun ship of the line during the War of the Spanish Succession.

Mordaunt was born in the 1680s, the youngest son of Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough. Through his father's influence he was elected as member for Brackley in October 1695. At about this time he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. In 1698 Mordaunt resigned from Parliament and devoted himself to his naval career. He was promoted to commander in April 1703, and then to captain in 1706 when he was given command of HMS Resolution (1705), a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line.

At the time Britain was at war with France. On 19 March 1707 Resolution was off the coast of Spain when she encountered six French vessels, each ranging between 58 and 80 guns. There followed an extended engagement, during which Resolution was badly damaged by French cannon fire. Mordaunt ordered the crew to run the ship aground rather than risk her capture by the French; this was achieved and she was subsequently set on fire to prevent her being refloated. The French maintained a continual gunfire on the burning wreck, and Mordaunt was struck in the thigh by a cannonball as he left the vessel. He survived the wound but was left unable to walk, and was forced to retire from the Navy.

Mordaunt returned to England in late 1707 and settled in the town of Bath. He died of smallpox in February 1710.