Biography of Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). Born in Yorkshire and educated at Cambridge, Marvell received an inheritance upon his father’s death that allowed him to spend four years traveling the Continent. Though not a Puritan himself, Marvell supported the Puritans’ cause during the civil war and held a number of posts during the Puritan regime, including that of assistant to the blind John Milton, Cromwell’s Latin Secretary. In 1659, a year before the Restoration, Marvell was elected to Parliament, where he served until his death.

Soon after the Restoration, Marvell expressed strong disagreements with the government in a series of outspoken and anonymously printed satires. It was for these satires, rather than for his many love poems, that he was primarily known in his own day.