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Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Sandwich (3 January 1647/48 – 29 November 1688) was born in Hinchinbrooke, Huntingdonshire, England to Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich and Jemima Crew. He was styled Viscount Hinchingbrooke from 1660 until his accession in 1672. He was educated mainly in Paris, where he lived with his cousin Walter Montagu, although he is said "not to have been much of a scholar". He married Lady Anne Boyle, daughter of Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork and Elizabeth Clifford, 2nd Baroness Clifford. They had three children Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich, Richard Montagu and Elizabeth Montagu. Anne died in 1671. Their eldest son was insane: there is no evidence that the condition was hereditary, although the first Earl seems to have suffered from depression in his later years.
A previous betrothal to the great heiress Elizabeth Malet was broken off at her request: she later married John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. It was said that she found Edward "unexciting"; historians have remarked that she is likely to have found far more excitement than she could have wished for with Rochester, who was probably the most debauched rakehell of his era.
In 1681, Edward was to be appointed Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire upon his return from abroad, but he never took up the office, which was exercised successively by Robert Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury and Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury. The 1st Earl also exercised for him, in the same fashion, the office of Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire in 1685, but the appointment was rescinded after Ailesbury's death the same year.
His father's biographer described him as "a steady, not very robust young man, who would never set the Thames alight." Edward's brief marriage to Anne seems to have been happy enough: his mother had a warm regard for her daughter-in-law.