Lovelace was probably born in the Netherlands, where his father was in military service. He was educated at Charterhouse and Oxford, and at age 16 or possibly a little later he wrote The Scholars, a comedy acted at Whitefriars, of which the prologue and epilogue survive. He took part in the expeditions to Scotland (1639–40) at the time of the rebellions against Charles I. During this period he is said to have written a tragedy, The Soldier, but there is no certain evidence of this.

Returning to his estates in Kent, Lovelace was chosen to present (1642) a Royalist petition to a hostile House of Commons. For this he was imprisoned in the Gatehouse, London, where he wrote “To Althea, from Prison,” which contains the well-known lines: “Stone walls do not a prison make/Nor iron bars a cage.” He passed much of the next four years abroad and was wounded fighting for the French against the Spaniards at Dunkerque in 1646. In 1648 he was again imprisoned. During his imprisonment, Lovelace prepared Lucasta (1649) for the press.

The antiquarian and historian Anthony à Wood says he died in misery and poverty in 1658, but an elegy on him was printed in 1657. He had certainly sold much of his estates, but none of the elegies supports the story of his unhappy death.

The only other publication of his work was Lucasta; Posthume Poems of Richard Lovelace, Esq. (1659), edited by his brother Dudley, including Elegies, and dated 1660.