REESE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. F 
 %eceived UXjOrr.ll .189?,. I 
 
 ^Accessions No. SOLfX I . Class No. 
 
\ 
 
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ROBERT BROWNING'S 
 
 PROSE 
 
 LIFE OF STRAFFORD 
 
ROBERT BROWNING'S 
 
 PROSE 
 
 LIFE OF STRAFFORD, 
 
 WITH AN 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 By C. H. firth, M.A., OxON., 
 
 AND 
 
 FOREWORDS 
 By F. J. FURNIVALL, M.A., Hon. Dr, Phil. 
 
 -•-♦- 
 
 ESTES AND LAURIAT, BOSTON, MASS. U.S.A. 
 
 1892. 
 

 So If 7^1 
 
Of THf '/ 
 
 IVERSITX 
 
 FOREWORDS 
 By F. J. FURNIVALL. 
 
 Three times during his life did Browning speak to me 
 about his prose Life of Strafford. The first time he 
 said only — in the course of chat — that very few people 
 had any idea of how much he had helpt John Forster in 
 it. The second time he told me at length that one day 
 he went to see Forster and found him very ill, and 
 anxious about the Life of Strafford^ which he had pro- 
 mist to write at once, to complete a volume of Lives 
 of Eminent British Statesmen for Lardner's Cabinet 
 Cyclopcedia. Forster had finisht the Life of EHot — the 
 first in the volume — and had just begun that of Strafford, 
 for which he had made full collections and extracts ; 
 but illness had come on, he couldn't work, the book 
 ought to be completed forthwith, as it was due in the 
 serial issue of volumes ; what was he to do ? ' Oh,* 
 said Browning, 'don't trouble about it. Fll take your 
 papers and do it for you.' Forster thankt his young 
 friend heartily. Browning put the Strafford papers 
 under his arm, walkt off, workt hard, finisht the 
 Life, and it came out to time in 1836, to Forster's 
 
vi FOREWORDS. 
 
 great relief, and past under his name. A third time — in 
 the spring of 1889, I think, almost the last time I saw 
 Browning — he began to tell me how he had written 
 almost all Forster's Life of Strafford ; but I stopt him 
 by saying that he'd told me before, and we went on to 
 chat of something else. 
 
 At the first and second times, I had the Eminent 
 British Statesmen on my shelves, and once thought of 
 reading the Life of Strafford and asking the poet to 
 point out his large share of it to me. But life in London 
 is such a hurry that anything which gets into a busy man's 
 head is driven out by another thing within the next half- 
 hour. Later, my Statesmen volumes went to one of the 
 Free Libraries that appeald to me for books, and I never 
 lookt at the Life of Strafford till after Browning's death. 
 Then Prof. S. R. Gardiner one day in the British Museum 
 renewd our talk of some years before about this Life. 
 I took it off the shelves, read the last paragraph (p. 278 
 below) and felt — as every other Browning student will 
 feel — that I could swear it was Browning's. Let the 
 reader judge : — 
 
 A great lesson is written in the life of this truly extraordinary 
 person. In the career of Strafford is to be sought the justification 
 of the world's "appeal from tyranny to God." In him Despotism 
 had at length obtained an instrument with mind to comprehend, 
 and resolution to act upon, her principles in their length and 
 breadth, — and enough of her purposes were effected by him, to 
 enable mankind to see " as from a tower the end of all." I cannot 
 discern one false step in Strafford's public conduct, one glimpse of 
 a recognition of an alien principle, one instance of a dereliction of 
 the law of his being, which can come in to dispute the decisive 
 result of the experiment, or explain away its failure. The least 
 vivid fancy will have no difficulty in taking up the interrupted design^ 
 
FOREWORDS. vii 
 
 and by wholly enfeebling^ or materially emboldening, the insignificant 
 nature of Charles ; ajtd by according some half-dozen years of im- 
 munity to the ^'■fretted tenetnent''' of Strafford'' s '^ fiety soul,^^ — con- 
 template then, for itself the perfect realisation of the scheme of 
 ' * making the prince the most absolute lord in Christendom. " That 
 done, — let it pursue the same course with respect to Eliofs noble 
 imaginings, or to young Vane s dreamy aspirings, and apply in like 
 manner a fit machinery to the working out the projects which made 
 the dungeon of the one a holy place, and sustained the other in his 
 self-imposed exile. — The result is great and decisive ! It establishes, 
 in renewed force, those principles of political conduct which have 
 endured, and must continue to endure, "like truth from age to age." 
 
 Is it not clear that the passage in italics is a poet's 
 conception, and not a historian's ? Is it not clear that 
 Browning had thought of a character-study of Strafford, 
 Eliot and Vane, a monodrama of each, which — like 
 Andrea del Sarto, Fra Lippo Lippi and the like — would 
 have been to us worth half-a-dozen of his drama of 
 Strafford 7 Does not the fact of Browning's having 
 written, or being engaged on, the Life of Strafford in 
 1836, explain why — when Macready, on May 26, 1836, 
 askt Browning to write him a play, — the poet at once 
 suggested Strafford : Strafford, a man intensely interest- 
 ing to the analyser of character in verse, — a man knowing 
 the better and choosing the worse, — but impossible for 
 a dramatist who brings in the heroes of the Common- 
 wealth, unless he alters the facts of history ; just as im- 
 possible as Shakspere found King John, tho' he could 
 keep his Bastard Falconbridge clear of annals. 
 
 When I first spoke to Prof. S. R. Gardiner about the 
 Life of Strafford, I found that he knew Browning's 
 authorship of almost all of it, and was convinst of the 
 fact from his own knowledge of Forster's work and of 
 
viii FOREWORDS. 
 
 history. ' It is not a historian's conception of the cha- 
 racter, but a poet's. I am certain that it's not Forster's.' 
 ' Yes, it makes mistakes in facts and dates, but, 
 it has got the man — ^in the main.' Prof. Gardiner had 
 also seen a letter of Browning's — now no longer extant, 
 he believes — in which Browning claimd his part of the 
 Life of Strafford^ as he also did in talk with the Professor 
 in like words to those he used to me. The fact of 
 Browning's authorship is also known to his family and 
 close friends. No doubt can exist on the point, though 
 here and there in the Life an * I ' (as if John Forster's) 
 occurs as a deliberate bHnd. The only question is, 
 where Browning starts, and whether — as Mr. Firth sug- 
 gests — he incorporated any of Forster's work in his text. 
 Of the latter point I am not able to judge ; but on the 
 former, I recollect Browning's use of waddle in his goose- 
 critic letter, 
 
 " 19 Warwick Crescent, W., Februajy lotk, 1887. 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 " I am sure you mean very kindly, but I have 
 had too long an experience of the inability of the human 
 goose to do other than cackle when benevolent, and hiss 
 when malicious ; and no amount of goose criticism shall 
 make me lift a heel against what waddles behind it. 
 " Believe me, dear sir, yours very sincerely, 
 
 ''Robert Browning." 
 
 (Browning Society s Papers, Part IX, p. 187.) 
 
 and I claim as Browning's the passage on James I, p. 7 
 below : 
 
 " He wrote mystical definitions of the prerogative, and 
 polite * Counterblasts to Tobacco ' ; issued forth dam- 
 
FOREWORDS. ix 
 
 nation to the deniers of witchcraft, and poured out the 
 wrath of the Apocalypse upon popery ; but whenever an 
 obvious or judicious truth seemed likely to fall in his 
 way, his pen infallibly waddled off from it." 
 
 On p. 6, I think this opinion of James I is also 
 Browning's : "He was not an absolute fool, and little 
 more can be said of him." Also, above it, " He came 
 to this country in an ecstasy of infinite relief" strikes me 
 as Browning's and not Forster's ; and I suppose that 
 Browning started with the second paragraph on p. 6. 
 "James I had many reasons to be weary of his own 
 kingdom," &c. 
 
 Other pieces that I think like Browning are the 
 sentence (with quotations) 3 pages long on p. 69-71, 
 from In one and the same day., to laugh together ; that of 
 nearly a page, 241-2, from " It was well and beautifully 
 said " to " a different devotion ; " pages 60-4 with the 
 "divers ill-spelt^ and solemn sillinesses from the king," 
 the " prism of Circumstance " and the reference to 
 the Ezzelin of Sordello, which Browning had set aside 
 to write this Life and his play of Strafford — what had 
 Forster to do with Ezzelin ? — the discussion of Strafford's 
 character, and his " fatal liking for the weak and un- 
 worthy king " ; p. 124-6, with their " pick-thank chuckle 
 of old good-humour," their 
 
 " Pleasure was a Silenus in the court of James. In 
 that of Charles the Second, it was a vulgar satyr. Under 
 
 ^ Later printers' readers would have uniformd this into 
 'spelled,' as they've done 'burnt,' 'dipt,' into 'burned,' 'dipped,' 
 &c. When will one, more consistent than his fellows, turn ' Jesus 
 W(f^/,' into weeped? 'Leapt' has past into 'leaped,' &c. The 
 British public follow their blind guides into the ditch. 
 
X FOREWORDS. 
 
 Charles the First, it was still of the breed, but it was a 
 god Pan, and the muses piped among his nymphs. . . . 
 As nine-tenths of common gallantry is pure vanity, so a 
 like proportion of the graver offence of deliberate seduc- 
 tion is owing to pure will and the love of power, — the 
 love of obtaining a strong and sovereign sense of an 
 existence not very sensitive, at any price to the existence 
 of- another" (p. 125). 
 
 " It is a vulgar spirit only that can despise a woman 
 for making no remonstrances ; and a brutal one, that can 
 ill-treat her for it. A heart with any nobleness left in it, 
 keeps its sacredest and dearest corner for a kindness so 
 angelical " (p. 126). 
 
 But I should weary the reader if I extracted bits in 
 which I see Browning's touch, on pages 21, 30, 49, 59, 
 84-5, 116, 143, 144, 149, 158, 162, 207, 228-9, 230, 236 
 and the whole close of the volume. I however note that 
 Browning owed much to Donne, and that he mentions 
 Strafford's care for that poet too : 
 
 "The soul of the earl of Strafford was indeed lodged, 
 to use the expression of his favourite Donne, within a 
 Mow and fatal room' (p. 228). "But ever by the side 
 of the body's weakness we find a witness of the spirit's 
 triumph, — a vindication of the mightiness of will ! " (p. 
 229). "Then, when every energy was to be taxed to the 
 uttermost, the question of his fiery spirit's supremacy was 
 indeed put to the issue, by a compHcation of ghastly 
 diseases ! " (p. 230). 
 
 There are also bits of analysis and philosophizing on 
 character which are surely Browning's ; and above all 
 there are the conception and working out of the per- 
 sonality and character of Strafford, " that he was con- 
 sistent to himself throughout " (p. 60 at foot), that his one 
 object was to make Charles "the most absolute lord in 
 
FOREWORDS. xi 
 
 Christendom," and that this explains all apparent incon- 
 sistencies and vanities in his conduct. The Life also 
 seems to me written by a man who did not know the 
 period thoroughly, and did not work the details of con- 
 temporary history into it as a historian familiar with them 
 would have done. It is the work of a poet-analyser of 
 a statesman's character, rather than a historian's picturing 
 of him in his own time and surroundings. 
 
 The present reprint is due to Mr. Dana Estes, the Chair- 
 man of the Boston Browning Society. Both Messrs. Smith 
 & Elder, and Messrs. Longmans (whose firm publisht 
 the original edition of 1836 in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclo- 
 pcedia) declined to reprint the Life of Strafford. Mr. 
 Dana Estes is head of the firm of Estes and Lauriat in 
 Boston, U.S.A., and had seen a reproduction of my 
 letter in the Pall Mall Gazette of April 12, 1890, claim- 
 ing the work for Browning. He wrote to me that his 
 firm would share the cost of the reprint with any other 
 publisher if I could find one. I accepted his offer on 
 behalf of the Browning Society, and agreed that none of 
 its copies should be sent for sale to the United States. 
 It was of course necessary to have the book up to date, 
 and to get the views of a modern historian on it and 
 Strafford. Prof. S. R. Gardiner and Mr. C. H. Firth of 
 Oxford are the acknowledged authorities on the period ; 
 and as Prof. Gardiner was too busy and also felt 
 somewhat bound by Browning's desire that he should not 
 make B.'s authorship public, Mr. Firth most kindly under- 
 took to write the Introduction needed for the Life^ and 
 compile us a table of the chief dates and events in 
 
xii FOREWORDS. 
 
 Strafford's career. (The reader will notice how few dates 
 Browning, poet-like, has given.) Mr. Firth also suggested 
 the addition of an Appendix II of the chief fresh Letters 
 and documents of and about Strafford, which Prof. 
 Gardiner and others have printed of late years. Our 
 London and Boston Browning Societies are greatly in- 
 debted to Mr. Firth for his valuable help, and all 
 Browning students will thank him for his contribution 
 to this book. They will also feel grateful to our member 
 Mr. Benjamin Sagar, for his famously full Index. 
 
 3 St. George's Sqr. London, N. W. 
 26 Novembe)', 1890. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 By C. H. firth. 
 
 FoRSTER in the life of Eliot, which he published in 
 1836, quotes a few lines from a poet, "whose genius," 
 he says, *' has just risen amongst us." In a footnote 
 he explains that the writer of the verses is " the author 
 of Paracelsus, Mr. Robert Browning. There would be 
 little danger in predicting that this writer will soon be 
 acknowledged as a first-rate poet. He has already proved 
 himself one." ^ Under what circumstances it was that 
 Browning undertook to write the life of Strafford for his 
 friend Forster, Dr. Furnivall explains in his 'Forewords.' 
 A biography written under such conditions naturally 
 shows occasional traces of haste and incompleteness. 
 Moreover, the evidence at the disposal of a biographer 
 in 1836 was in many respects defective; and time has 
 brought to light so many new facts and new documents 
 that there is much to add to any life of Strafford written 
 so long ago, and something to correct in it. 
 
 On the other hand, even in 1836 a biographer of 
 Strafford had a larger amount of information at his dis- 
 posal than in the case of any other statesman of the 
 1 British Statesmen, vol. ii. p. 104, 
 
xW INTRODUCTION. 
 
 seventeenth century. The article in Biographia Britan- 
 nicay and the life in Macdiarmid's British Statesmen, 
 supplied Browning with two tolerably full and careful 
 accounts of Straiford's career. He had also Sir George 
 Radcliffe's invaluable memoir of his friend, and the 
 admirable selection from Strafford's letters published 
 by Dr. Knowler in 1739. Of this last Browning 
 observes : "The collection of documents known by the 
 title of the Strafford papers, seems to me to contain with- 
 in itself every material necessary to the illustration of 
 the public and private character of this statesman, on an 
 authority which very few will be disposed to contest, for 
 the record is his own. . . . Hereafter I mean to restrict 
 myself almost entirely to the authorities, illustrations, and 
 suggestions of character, that are so abundantly furnished 
 by that great work." 
 
 Evidently the subject which from the first attracted 
 Browning was Strafford's character rather than his career. 
 Unlike some biographers, he does not treat his hero 
 merely as one of a series of statesmen, and confine 
 himself to his public life, "as if the shop were all the 
 house." He is interested in every aspect of Strafford's 
 life, and every side of his character. He shows us what 
 sort of a husband and father he was, and how faithful 
 a friend. He describes his daily habits, his recreations, 
 and his tastes. He brings out his fondness for fishing, 
 hawking, and hunting, as well as his love of art and 
 poetry. 
 
 Browning's conception of biography is further illus- 
 trated by the passage in which he discusses Strafford's 
 
INTRODUCTION. xv 
 
 desertion of the popular party. The supposition of a 
 sudden and complete change in any man's character 
 is dismissed with a touch of scorn. He seeks to dis- 
 cover, what Pope would have called " the ruling prin- 
 ciple " of Strafford's character, or "the law of his being," 
 as Browning prefers to term it — and finds in it the key 
 to his political conduct. He demands from his hero 
 fidelity to his own nature, not constancy to one party 
 or one set of opinions. He requires, in a word, not 
 political but dramatic consistency. " What it is desired 
 to impress upon the reader before the delineation of 
 Wentworth in his after years, is this — that he was con- 
 sistent to himself throughout." ^ Unhappily, the execu- 
 tion of the design falls short of the conception. Phrases 
 such as "the development of the aristocratic principle," 
 and "the intensity of the aristocratic principle," hardly 
 furnish the required explanation of Strafford's conduct. ^ 
 His political career is not treated with the freedom from 
 prejudice which seemed to be promised. Strafford is 
 judged too much by the standards of 1832, and too little 
 by the standards of 1632. To this result, the want of 
 evidence about Strafford's earlier career, and an insufficient 
 acquaintance with the conditions and ideas of his time, 
 also contributed. Browning himself seems to have been 
 scarcely satisfied with his own portrait of Strafford. It 
 is curious to contrast the biography with the play written 
 a year later. One might almost say that in the first 
 Strafford was represented as he appeared to his oppo- 
 nents, and in the second as he appeared to himself; 
 1 Pp. 60, 278. 2 pp, 2^ 4^ 5^^ 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 or that, having painted Strafford as he was, Browning 
 painted him again as he wished to be. In the biography 
 Strafford is exhibited as a man of rare gifts and noble 
 quaUties ; yet in his political capacity, merely the con- 
 scious, the devoted tool of a tyrant. " In him Despotism 
 at length obtained an instrument with mind to com- 
 prehend and resolution to act upon her principles in their 
 length and breadth." ^ 
 
 In the tragedy, on the other hand, Strafford is the 
 champion of the King's will against the people's, but 
 yet looks forward to the ultimate reconciliation of 
 Charles and his subjects, and strives for it after his own 
 fashion. He loves the master he serves, and dies for 
 him, but when the end comes he can proudly answer his 
 accusers, " I have loved England too." 
 
 It seems as if the play were written to supplement and 
 correct the biography. Each contains a part of the truth. 
 
 To judge Strafford fairly and to represent him truly, 
 we have to take into account what he aimed at, as well 
 as what he achieved, and to consider his political creed 
 in close relation to the conditions of his time, and the 
 ideas of his contemporaries. 
 
 From the outset of his career, Wentworth sought em- 
 ployment in the service of the State, or as he would have 
 expressed it " the Commonwealth." It was not only the 
 desire for credit and influence in his native country, which 
 led him to seek office, nor was it simply his "abstract 
 veneration for power." ^ It was also, as he says in his 
 defence, the " chaste ambition ... to have as much 
 1 P. 278. 3 P. 64. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 power as may be, that there may be power to do the 
 more good in the place where a man lives." ^ Eager to 
 promote the public weal, he rejoiced in the labours it 
 demanded. He describes himself truly, as " ever desiring 
 the best things, never satisfied I had done enough, 
 but did always desire to do better." ^ In the service of 
 the State alone could such a man find full scope for 
 his energies, and from the King's commission alone 
 could he obtain the authority his aims required. He 
 had grown up under the influence of the Elizabethan 
 traditions, and looked to the monarchy, not to the people, 
 as the source of authority ; to the King, not to the Parlia- 
 ment, as the natural ally of a reformer. 
 
 Wentworth represented Yorkshire in the Parliament of 
 1 6 14. In December 161 5 he was made Gustos Rotulorum 
 for the West Riding of Yorkshire, and as such, first in 
 the Commission of Peace for that district. On July loth, 
 1 619, he was appointed a member of the Council of the 
 North. In 1620, at the desire of the Government he 
 again stood for Yorkshire, and used his local influence 
 to secure the return of Sir George Calvert, one of the 
 Secretaries of State, as his colleague. He seemed marked 
 out for the King's favour, and in 1621, the newsletters 
 predicted his approaching elevation to the peerage, and 
 even reported that he would take the title of Viscount 
 Raby.3 
 
 At this moment, however, Went worth's rise came 
 to a stop. During the Parliament of 162 1 he had 
 
 ^ Rushworth, Trial of Strafford, p. 146. ^ Trial, p. 16 1. 
 
 3 Court and Times of James /., i. 169, 285. 
 
 I? 
 
X viii INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 wavered in his support of the Government. His attitude 
 was conciliatory throughout. He supported the King's 
 demand for a subsidy for the defence of the Palatinate. 
 In language which recalls his later utterances, he urged 
 the Commons not to seek '' to capitulate with the 
 King," to "consider of the King and people together 
 and indivisibly," to avoid "leaving a kind of misunder- 
 standing between the King and his people." But 
 anxious as he was to press on with practical legis- 
 lation, and to prevent barren disputes about privileges, 
 he could not quietly submit to the King's denial of 
 freedom of speech to Parliament. ''Sir Thomas Went- 
 worth," says the reporter ..." would have us stand on 
 it that our privileges are our right and our inheritance." 
 Vexed also by the sudden dissolution which followed the 
 protest of the Commons, he was yet far from any thought 
 of active opposition, and still aimed at office. The path 
 was more difficult, but " with patience, circumspection, 
 and principally silence," it might still be passed. ^ 
 
 Silence was Wentworth's resource throughout the 
 debates of the Parliament of 1624. The nation was 
 eager for war, and Buckingham seized the opportunity 
 to put himself at the head of the movement. Unmoved 
 himself by the popular feeling, Wentworth knew that it 
 was useless to struggle against it. His own views on 
 European politics were uninfluenced by religious con- 
 siderations, and he cared little for the fate of the German 
 Protestants. He had no share in the Puritan antipathy 
 to Spain, and scoffed at the exultation with which "all 
 ^ Letters, i. 19. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 the cobblers and bigots and zealous brethren" of 
 London hailed the dismissal of the Spanish ambassa- 
 dor.i For dynastic reasons he desired the restoration 
 of the Prince Palatine, but he would have sought it by 
 diplomatic means only. The King of England, he held, 
 was bound neither in justice nor honour to venture his 
 people's prosperity for the recovery of the Palatinate. 
 In 1637, King Charles thought of going to war with 
 Spain for that purpose, and asked Wentworth's opinion 
 on the question. There can be little doubt that the 
 principles which dictated his answer then guided his 
 conduct now. *'The first consideration ariseth, whether 
 this war tends in any sort to the wealth or safety of the 
 crown of England, or not rather to the decay of trade, 
 and losing the greatest entrance to the enlargement 
 thereof that hath of many years been opened unto us, 
 whilst those two great monarchs of France and Spain 
 are now at odds, the commodities and commerce con- 
 sequently of both, of necessity to pass through our 
 merchants, to their mighty enriching, to the extreme 
 improvement of the customs, and the great increase of 
 shipping." Instead of rushing on " the bleeding evil 
 of an instant and active war," let the King turn 
 his attention homewards, and seek first the welfare 
 of England.^ The advice which Wentworth gave in 
 1637, he would have given in 1624 also. Consistently 
 insular in his view of foreign politics, he was anxious to 
 avoid interference in continental struggles, eager to 
 amend laws, to redress grievances, and to "do the 
 ^ Letters^ i. 21. ^ Letters, ii. 60, 62. 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 business of the Commonwealth." As a member of the 
 Parliament of 1625, he neither attacked Buckingham 
 personally, nor refused the subsidies the King de- 
 manded, but allowed his dissatisfaction with their policy 
 to be clearly seen. As yet he was scarcely numbered 
 with the opposition. The King still styled him " an 
 honest gentleman," and if Buckingham by a trick 
 excluded him from the Parliament of 1626, it was 
 sedulously excused as an accident. Wentworth submitted 
 quietly to his exclusion from Parliament. "It was 
 better," he declared, "to be a spectator than an actor," 
 and he announced his resolve not to contest with the 
 King unless he were constrained thereto. 
 
 It is significant that at this very time he applied 
 for the Presidency of the Council of the North.^ 
 Other motives no doubt besides ambition led him to 
 desire it. Serving the King in the parts where he 
 lived, he could keep out of the sterile constitutional 
 struggles in Parliament, and avoid all responsibility for 
 the foreign policy of which he disapproved. His appli- 
 cation was made almost directly to Buckingham, was 
 followed by explanations, and ended in a promise of 
 friendship. Buckingham, however, would tolerate no 
 neutrals amongst his friends, and required active support. 
 There is little doubt that Wentworth's refusal to take 
 part in the collection of the forced loan of 1626 was 
 the cause of his dismissal from the dignity of Custos 
 Rotulorum, and from his other official posts. His 
 further refusal to subscribe to that loan himself was 
 ^ Appendix, p. 290. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxi 
 
 followed by imprisonment in the Marshalsea and at 
 Dartford. How reluctantly Wentworth exchanged the 
 attitude of " cold, silent forbearance," for the " active 
 heat " of opposition his conduct shows. His refusal to 
 pay was courteous, his bearing at the Council-board 
 firm but conciliatory.! It is evident from his letters to 
 Weston that he regarded himself as personally attacked 
 by Buckingham, and as the victim of a breach of faith 
 on the part of the favourite. Immediately he was dis- 
 missed he sought to represent his fidehty to the King, 
 complained that he had been maliciously misrepresented 
 to his Majesty, and expressed the hope of presenting 
 hereafter " more ripe and pleasing fruits of my labours in 
 his service." 
 
 Thus personal and political motives alike combined to 
 make Wentworth one of the leaders of the Opposition 
 during the first session of the Parliament of 1628. Yet 
 fiercely as he attacked the King's ministers, he was 
 careful to exonerate the King. ''This hath not been 
 done by the King . . . but by projectors," is the con- 
 clusion of his catalogue of grievances. Vehement though 
 his language was, it was evident that he sought to heal, 
 not to widen, the breach between Charles and England. 
 ** Whether we shall look upon the King or his people, it 
 did never more behove this great physician the parlia- 
 ment, to effect a true consent amongst the parties than 
 now." Sovereign and subject alike had suffered by 
 Buckingham's policy. "Both are injured; both to be 
 cured. . . By one and the same thing hath the King 
 ^ Appendix, p. 291. 
 
xxii INTR on UC TION. 
 
 and people been hurt. . . I speak truly both for the 
 interest of the King and people." The remedy he 
 proposed was *'no new thing," no transfer of power 
 from King to Parliament, but simply the reinforcement 
 of the ancient laws by a new law to provide security from 
 arbitrary imprisonment, and freedom from arbitrary 
 taxation. Instead of the Petition of Right with its 
 recital of past illegalities he advocated a statute to 
 decide what should be legal in the future, to fix the 
 limits of the subject's liberty and the Crown's prerogative, 
 and to lay the foundation of future union between King 
 and people. That done he was willing to leave the 
 King a discretionary power to use in cases of emergency. 
 *' Let us make what laws we can, there must — nay, there 
 will be — a trust left in the Crown." 
 
 Between the refusal of the Commons to allow for 
 exceptions, and the reluctance of the King to submit 
 to rules, Wentworth's reconciling scheme fell to the 
 ground. Other leaders seized the direction of the 
 House, and sought to impose more rigid restrictions on 
 the Crown. It was not without expressing some misgiv- 
 ings that Wentworth supported the Petition of Right. 
 *'I have discharged my conscience and delivered it. 
 Do as you please. God, that knows my heart, knows 
 that I have studied to preserve this Parliament, as I 
 confess the resolutions of this House, in the opinion of 
 wise men, stretch very far on the King's power, and if 
 they be kept punctually will give a blow to Government." 
 The struggle for the Petition of Right was long and 
 bitter, and if its acceptance removed the grievances of 
 
INTROD UC TION. xxiii 
 
 which Wentvvorth had complained, it did not bring back 
 the good understanding which his plan had aimed at 
 restoring. He saw new subjects of dispute arise, and 
 religious grievances with which he had no sympathy 
 came to the front. With the failure of his leadership 
 his part in the struggle was over, and there was nothing 
 now to prevent him from seeking again, as he sought in 
 1626, to serve the King in the parts where he lived. 
 
 On July 22nd, 1628, he was raised to the peerage, and 
 on Dec. loth became President of the Council of the 
 North. Buckingham's death (Aug. 23rd, 1628) opened 
 the way to further promotion. On Nov. loth, 1629, he 
 entered the Privy Council, and became Lord Deputy of 
 Ireland in January 1632. 
 
 As Browning observes, " much good wrath " has been 
 thrown away on political apostacies.^ What really re- 
 quires explanation is not why Wentworth left the 
 ranks of the Opposition, but how he ever came to 
 act with it. He cannot be termed an apostate, for he 
 renounced no article of faith ; much less a convert, for 
 he accepted no new creed. His aim remained the same. 
 He still sought to spend his powers in the fruitful work 
 of practical reform. He still hoped to reconcile King 
 and people. If the Wentworth of 1640 differed from the 
 Wentworth of 1628 — and differed for the worse — it was 
 because new duties had brought new conditions ; but the 
 change which their influence effected was gradual and 
 unconscious. Neither can it fairly be said that Went- 
 worth left the side of the people and adopted the side 
 i P. 61. 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the King. Nothing misleads so much as the applica- 
 tion of the ideas of modem politics to the times before 
 party government was born or dreamt of. The first axiom 
 of Wentworth's political creed was that there were not and 
 could not be two sides ; and he never saw that what had 
 once been a truth was rapidly becoming a mere phrase. 
 *' Divide not," he warned the Irish Parliament, "between 
 the interests of the King and his people, as if there were 
 one being of the King, and another being of his people. 
 This is the most mischievous principle that can be laid 
 in reason of State. . . You might as well tell me an 
 head might live without a body, or a body without a 
 head, as that it is possible for a King to be rich and 
 happy without his people be so likewise, or that a people 
 can be rich and happy without their King be so also. 
 Most certain it is, that their well-being is individually 
 one and the same, their interests woven up together 
 with so tender and close threads, as cannot be pulled 
 asunder without a rent in the Commonwealth." ^ When 
 he entered on his government at York, he thus declared 
 his object as a ruler. " To the joint individual well- 
 being of sovereignty and subjection, I vow all my cares 
 and diligence through the whole course of my ministry." 
 " I thank God," he reiterated on his scaffold, " that in 
 all my employment since I had the honour to serve his 
 Majesty, I never had anything in my heart but what tended 
 to the joint individual prosperity of King and people." ^ 
 
 In his view the liberties of the people and the preroga- 
 tive of the Crown were perfectly compatible and harmo- 
 
 ^ Letters^ i. 298. ^ Appendix, p. 292 ; Trial^ pp. 640, 759. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxv 
 
 nious parts of the constitution. Each must be kept 
 " within the modest bounds set and appointed for them 
 by the sobriety and moderation of former times." Some- 
 limes he represented them as two streams, running side 
 by side, each to be restrained from growing at the cost of 
 the other, " not rising one above another in any kind, but 
 kept in their own wonted channels. For if they rise above 
 these heights, the one or the other, they tear the banks, 
 and overflow the fair meads equally on one side and the 
 other." At other times he pictured the constitution as a 
 musical instrument. " All the strings of this government 
 and monarchy have been so perfectly tuned through the 
 skill and attention of our forefathers, that if you wind 
 any of them anything higher, or let them lower, you 
 shall infallibly interrupt the sweet accord that ought to 
 be entertained of King and people." ^ 
 
 According to Wentworth, it was the duty of the King's 
 faithful servants to labour to defend this balance of the 
 constitution, to protect the rights alike of King and 
 people, and " to preserve each without diminishing or 
 enlarging either." 
 
 The sin of Buckingham and his underlings was that 
 they had " extended the prerogative of the Crown beyond 
 its first symmetry which makes the sweet harmony of 
 the whole." 2 The sin of Sir David Foulis and his 
 fellow aristocrats was " that they had sought to impair 
 the regal power ; had with rough hands laid hold upon 
 the flowers of it, and with unequal and swaggering 
 paces trampled upon the rights of the Crown." In the 
 1 Trial, pp. 182, 640. - _ , "^ Ibid. p. 795. 
 
xxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 one case he wished to set such a stamp upon the laws 
 "as no licentious spirit shall dare hereafter to enter upon 
 them." In the other he urged such an exemplary 
 punishment of the offender as should for the future 
 *' retain licentious spirits within the sober bounds of 
 humility and fear.''^ Throughout, as leader of the 
 Opposition, as President of the Council of the North, 
 and as Lord Deputy of Ireland, Wentworth regarded 
 himself as defending the constitution against those who 
 sought to assail it. " Stare super antiquas vias " is a 
 maxim always in his mouth. 
 
 So long as King and people could contrive to agree, 
 this theory of the constitution would work perfectly. 
 Wentworth bent all his efforts to promote that agree- 
 ment, and it was with the hope of promoting it that he 
 entered the King's service in 1628. The letters to 
 Weston in which he expressed his views have unhappily 
 not survived, but Weston's reply enables us to conjecture 
 their contents. "My heart," protested Weston, "hath 
 ever been full of those ends you wish. If honesty 
 did not lead me to it, yet wisdom would for my own 
 profit and safety. By the good agreement between 
 the King and his people, I may be happy; without 
 it, impossible for me to be so."^ It was Wentworth's 
 misfortune that he entered the King's service not 
 merely at a time when King and people differed, but 
 when the difference was too great to be healed ; which- 
 ever prevailed, the harmonious balance of the constitution 
 must be destroyed. One of the two, either the Hberty 
 1 Appendix, p. 292. Letters, p. 47. 
 
INTR OD UC TION. xxvi i 
 
 of the people or the authority of the King, must increase 
 at the expense of the other. So soon as Wentworth 
 came to perceive this necessity, he preferred the second 
 alternative. " He always thought," writes Radcliffe, " that 
 regal power and popular privileges might well stand 
 together. . . Yet it being most hard and difficult to keep 
 the interests of King and People from encroaching one 
 upon another, the longer he lived his experience taught 
 him that it was far safer that the King should increase 
 in power than that the people should gain advantages 
 on the King : that may turn to the prejudice of some 
 particular sufferers, this draws with it the ruin of the 
 whole." ^ " The authority of the King," said Wentworth 
 to the Council of the North, "is the keystone which 
 closeth up the arch of order and government, which 
 contains each part in due relation to the whole, and 
 which once shaken, infirmed, all the frame falls together 
 into a confused heap of foundation and battlement, of 
 strength and beauty." ^ For that reason the preservation 
 of the King's prerogative was more important than the 
 preservation of the people's liberties. In the funda- 
 mental laws of the land the property of the subject 
 was " the second table," but the prerogative of the King 
 the first, and " hath a something more imprinted upon it. 
 For if it hath a divinity imprinted upon it, it is God's 
 anointed ; it is he that gives the powers. And Kings 
 are as Gods on earth, higher prerogatives than can be 
 said, or found to be spoken of the property or liberty 
 of the subject." ^ 
 1 Letters^ ii. 434. ^ p_ 292. 3 Trial, pp. 182, 646. 
 
xxviii introduction: 
 
 Wentworth held that this view of the Royal power 
 was perfectly compatible with the existence, the useful- 
 ness, and the dignity of parliamentary institutions. In 
 his dying speech he repudiated as a calumny the charge 
 of hostility to parliaments. " I was so far from being 
 against parliaments that I did always think the parlia- 
 ments of England were the most happy constitutions 
 that any kingdom or nation lived under, and the best 
 means under God to make the King and people happy." ^ 
 There was much truth in this protest. Wentworth did 
 not share his master's dread and hatred of parliaments. 
 He thought that a temporary intermission of such 
 assemblies was necessary until the "peccant humour" 
 was purged forth, " that once rightly corrected we may 
 hope for a parliament of a sound constitution indeed." 
 The success with which he had managed the Irish 
 Parliament encouraged him (and encouraged others 
 also) to think of the calling of a parliament again in 
 England.^ He it was who persuaded the King, in Dec. 
 1639, after so many years' intermission, again to make 
 trial of a parliament. 
 
 P^^'-'Yet it was impossible to exalt the rights of kingship 
 without at the same time diminishing the rights of par- 
 
 1 liaments. Strafford regarded them as useful machines 
 for making good laws or amending bad ones, but he 
 never considered them fit to guide the policy of a 
 government or control its administration. They were 
 useful also, according to his view, as the recognised 
 constitutional form through which the king was to 
 1 Trial, p. 759. 2 Letters, i. 41, 420. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxix 
 
 seek and obtain the co-operation of his subjects. He 
 represented Charles to the Irish Parliament, as "ever 
 best pleased to tread the ancient paths in public services, 
 to take his people along with him, to have you yourselves 
 co-operate with him for the individual good of you both." 
 It was their business to supply the king with money to 
 carry out the policy on which his wisdom had deter- 
 mined, " a supply which in all wisdom, good nature, and 
 conscience they are not to deny." ^ 
 
 " My master expects the honour of your trust," he told 
 the Irish Parliament, explaining at the same time that it 
 was the refusal to trust the king which had caused " the 
 misfortunes these meetings have run of late years in 
 England." ^ This trust, moreover, must be complete, 
 there must be no attempt at *' laying clogs or conditions 
 on the king ; " " conditions are not to be admitted with 
 any subjects."^ Should the Irish parliament refuse to 
 trust the king their opposition would be futile, as well 
 as undutiful. " The king desires this great work may be 
 settled by Parliament, as the more beaten path he covets 
 to walk in, yet not more legal than if done by his pre- 
 rogative royal, where the ordinary way fails him. If the 
 people then be so unwise as to cast off his gracious 
 proposals, and their own safety, it must be done without 
 them. . . . Could they fight against their own well-being ; 
 yet let them rest assured, his majesty, as Pater Patriae, 
 would not suffer it, but save them even whether they 
 would or no, do that by his own power, which he first 
 
 1 Trial, pp. 614, 657 ; Letters, i, 183, 287. 
 
 ^ Letters, i. 289. ^ Letters, i. 184, 237, 290. 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 expected to have accomplished with their concurring 
 assents." ^ So too when the English Parliament in 1640 
 had refused to provide the king with money for the war 
 against the Scots, Wentworth asserted that the king 
 might raise supplies without the grant of Parliament. It 
 was, he said, a " case of extreme and unavoidable neces- 
 sity. And the king may in that case use, as the common 
 parent of the country, what power God Almighty hath 
 given him, for preserving himself and his people, for 
 whom he is accomptable to Almighty God. In these 
 cases he hath a power given him by God Almighty which 
 cannot be taken from him by others; neither, under 
 favour, is he able to take it from himself." ^ He 
 might exercise that power even when the necessity was 
 less visible and the danger more remote. " I conceive," 
 writes Wentworth in his criticism on Hampden's trial, 
 " that the power of levies of forces at sea and land for 
 the very, not feigned, relief and safety of the public, is 
 such a property of sovereignty as were the crown willing, 
 yet can it not divest itself thereof : Salus Populi suprema 
 Lex ; nay, in cases of extremity even above Acts of Par- 
 liament." The king therefore was justified in levying 
 ship-money without a parliamentary grant. " I conceive 
 it was out of humour opposed by Hampden beyond the 
 modesty of a subject and that reverence wherein we 
 ought to have so gracious a sovereign, it being ever to be 
 understood, the prospects of kings into mysteries of state 
 are so far exceeding those of ordinary common persons, 
 as they be able to discern and prevent dangers to the 
 1 Letters, i. 238. ^ Trial, p. 550. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxi 
 
 public afar off, which others shall not so much as dream 
 of till they feel the unavoidable stripes and smart of them 
 upon their naked shoulders. . . . Therefore it is a safe 
 rule for us all in the fear of God to remit these supreme 
 watches to that regal power, whose peculiar indeed it is ; 
 submit ourselves in these high considerations to his 
 ordinance, as being no other than the ordinance of God 
 itself; and rather attend upon his will, with confidence 
 in his justice, belief in his wisdom, assurance in his 
 parental affections to his subjects and kingdom, than feed 
 ourselves with the curious questions, with the vain 
 flatteries of imaginary liberty, which, had we even our 
 silly wishes and conceits, were we to frame a new common- 
 wealth even to our own fancy, might yet in conclusion, 
 leave ourselves less free, less happy, than now we are." ^ 
 To reconcile the nation to the loss of the control over 
 the Government which it -was unfit to exercise, Went- 
 worth meant to give it the soHd realities of even-handed 
 justice and material prosperity. He too cherished the 
 vision of an ideal commonwealth framed after his own 
 fancy. " Once freed from the conditions and restraints 
 of subjects," the king would be able to effect unhin- 
 dered whatever the welfare of his subjects required. 
 His "excellent wisdom," ever studying "the just and 
 moderate government of his people," and ministering 
 back to them in return for their subsidies " the plenties 
 and comforts of life," would guide all classes to work 
 together for the common weal. His justice, " search- 
 ing and severe in punishing the oppressions and wrongs 
 1 letters, ii, 388. 
 
xxxii INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 of his subjects," would protect the poor against the 
 rich, and the friendless against the powerful. The 
 "love and protection " of the king would be repaid by 
 the loyalty of the people. In the end the nation would 
 be reconciled to the king's absolutism by the beneficence 
 of his rule, parliaments would submit to become the 
 king's helpers instead of striving to be his masters, and 
 the people would cease to desire " imaginary liberty." 
 
 In England, at all events, such a scheme as Strafford's 
 was foredoomed to failure. It had its source rather in the 
 traditions of the past than the necessities of the present, 
 and the conditions required for its success were lacking. 
 To establish an intelligent despotism two things were 
 needful : an intelligent despot, and a people willing to 
 forego the right of thinking for itself. Charles I. neither 
 sympathised with the desires of his people nor under- 
 stood their needs, whilst his infirmity of purpose pre- 
 vented him from following any systematic policy. Evils 
 and abuses there might be in the social fabric ; but no 
 evil and no danger great enough to induce the English 
 nation to surrender, even for a time, the claim to govern 
 itself. 
 
 In Ireland, however, the conditions were very different. 
 There parliamentary institutions were mere forms, and 
 had never been anything more. Enough oppression and 
 enough disorder existed to make the people desire " to 
 fly from petty tyrants to the throne." Hence Went- 
 worth's policy met with a marvellous temporary success. 
 How swiftly he restored order, how greatly he increased 
 the material prosperity of Ireland, Browning's pages well 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxiii 
 
 show.^ What he fails to show is Wentworth's attempt 
 to establish that reign of impartial justice which was 
 equally important to Wentworth's mind, and an equally 
 necessary part of his policy. The Lord Deputy's re- 
 port to the king in 1636 shows the object which he 
 had set before himself. "Justice," he told Charles, 
 *'was dispensed without acceptation of persons; the 
 poor knew where to seek and to have his relief, with- 
 out being afraid to appeal to his Majesty's catholic 
 justice against the greatest subject ; the great men con- 
 tented with reason, because they knew not how to help 
 themselves, or fill their greedy appetites, where otherwise 
 they are as sharp set upon their own wills as any people 
 in the world : that was a blessing the poorer sort, this a 
 restraint the richer, had not formerly been acquainted 
 with in that kingdom." ^ 
 
 Independent evidence shows how successful Strafford 
 was in attaining this aim. My Lord Deputy, writes a 
 correspondent to Lord Fairfax, *' hath achieved high 
 honours in respect of justice." "Dives hath no advan- 
 tage of Lazarus," was the news which reached Sir John 
 Bingley from his friends in Ireland. " Whilst I was in 
 Ireland," says a third witness, "the poor cried, never so 
 good a Lord Deputy." 
 
 One of the first things which struck him when he 
 arrived in Ireland was the way in which the tax for the 
 maintenance of the army had been levied. " Most un- 
 conscionably the landlords and moneyed men, to ease 
 themselves, had laid it upon the poor and bare tenants." 
 ^ Pages 179, 184. ^ Letters, ii. 18. 
 
xxxi^r INTRODUCTION. 
 
 He arranged that henceforwards the burden of subsidies 
 " should lie upon the wealthier sort, which, God knows, 
 hath not been the fashion of Ireland." The relief of 
 the tenants was also one of the objects of certain 
 alterations made by Strafford in the system of land tenure 
 — alterations which were likewise intended to break the 
 influence of the great noblemen, and attach the smaller 
 landholders more closely to the crown. Strafford's 
 "masterpiece," according to Secretary Coke, was this 
 "changing of the tenures of the lower sort of Irish 
 from their oppressing lords to their gracious king."^ 
 
 " The people in general," wrote Strafford in 1637, 
 *'are in great quietness, and if I be not much mistaken, 
 well satisfied, if not delighted with his Majesty's gracious 
 government and protection. It being most sure that the 
 lower part of the Irish subject hath not in any age lived 
 so preserved from the pressures and oppressions of the 
 great ones, as now they do, for which I assure you they 
 bless God and the king ; and begin to discern and taste 
 the great and manifold benefits they gather under the 
 shadow and from their immediate dependence upon the 
 crown, in comparison of the scant and narrow coverings 
 they formerly borrowed from their petty yet imperious 
 lords." 2 In the spring of 1640, when Strafford left 
 Ireland, it seemed as if his purpose had been attained. 
 " This people," he writes, " is abundantly comforted 
 and satisfied in your justice, set with exceeding alacrity 
 to serve the crown the right way in these doubtful times, 
 and much trusting and believing us your Majesty's 
 ^ Letters^ i. 238, 334, 401. ^ Letters^ ii. 93. 
 
INTRODUCTION, xxxv 
 
 poor ministers : all this in as high a measure as your 
 own princely heart can wish." " God be praised," were 
 his words a few months eariier, " no king can be more 
 absolute than your Majesty is amongst us."^ 
 
 Yet all this appearance of success was delusive. 
 Strafford's work failed to endure, and its failure was in 
 part due to his own errors. In his desire to realise his 
 conception of good government as rapidly as possible he 
 had regarded all means as legitimate. His severity had 
 alienated the nobles and officials who had hitherto 
 formed the governing class in Ireland. Presbyterian and 
 Puritan colonists had been driven into opposition by his 
 determination to enforce conformity to the Anglican 
 Church. His plantations of Clare and Ormond, and his 
 intended plantation of Connaught, had roused the fears 
 of the native Irish for their lands. The meeting of the 
 Long Parliament set free all these different resentments, 
 and destroyed the strong government he had set up. A 
 year later the outbreak of the Irish rebelHon, caused 
 largely by Strafford's agrarian policy, swept away the 
 material prosperity he had created. But even with twenty 
 years of absolute power, he could hardly have effected 
 what he sought to do in six or seven, for he relied upon 
 force to effect social changes which force alone was 
 insufficient to accomplish, and left out of count the 
 necessity of obtaining the co-operation of the people 
 he governed. 
 
 Whilst in Ireland Strafford gained only apparent and 
 partial success, in England he had to struggle from the 
 ' Letters , ii. 387, 402. 
 
xxxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 first with failure and defeat. In July 1639 the king 
 summoned him to his side to advise on the measures to 
 be taken to suppress the rebellion in Scotland. 
 
 He had not been consulted when the disturbances in 
 Scotland first began. On July 3rd, 1638, the king had 
 written to ask him what forces could be drawn from 
 Ireland, but even then he was not consulted on the con- 
 duct of the war in general. He had given some assist- 
 ance during the first Scotch war, but not as much as he 
 could have done had he been more fully trusted. 
 "Where trusts and instructions come too late," he com- 
 plained, "then the business is sure to be lost." Now 
 that the game was lost, when the first war had ended in 
 an ignominious peace, he was at last called to restore the 
 fortune of a sinking cause. He arrived in London on 
 Sept. 22nd, 1639. " From that time he became, what he 
 had never been before, the trusted counsellor of Charles, 
 so far at least as it was possible for Charles to trust any 
 one. During the fourteen months which followed he 
 was the great minister, striving with all the force of his 
 iron will to rescue his master from the net in which his 
 feet were inextricably entangled." ^ 
 
 Browning treats this part of Wentworth's life very 
 inadequately, no doubt because there are very few letters 
 amongst the Strafford correspondence relating to it, 
 though there was ample material in other collections of 
 papers then published.^ 
 
 ^ Gardiner, Histoyy of England, ix. 73. 
 
 ^ E. g. The Hardwicke State Papers, The Clarendon State Papers, 
 and Rushworth. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii 
 
 The year 1640 was the culminating point in Went- 
 worth's career. On Jan. 12th, 1640, he was created Earl 
 of Strafford, and a week later he was raised from the 
 rank of Lord Deputy of Ireland to the higher dignity of 
 Lord Lieutenant. In the summer he was entrusted with 
 the chief command of the King's English army (Aug. 18), 
 and honoured with the Order of the Garter (Sept. 24). 
 Charles said openly that he trusted him more than all his 
 Council, and the Queen, so long hostile, told him that she 
 'esteemed him the most capable and faithful servant 
 her husband had.^ As the catastrophe drew nearer, the 
 manifestations of their confidence redoubled. " The 
 King," wrote Strafford on Nov. 5th, 1640, " hath given 
 me great demonstrations of his affection, and strong 
 assurances as can be expressed in words. The Queen is 
 infinitely gracious to me, above all that you can imagine, 
 and doth declare it in a very public and strange manner, 
 so as nothing can hurt me, by God's help, but the 
 iniquity and necessity of these times." 
 
 But trust had come too late, and power crumbled in 
 Strafford's hands as he grasped it. The aim of his policy 
 was to subdue the Scots and to rule Scotland directly 
 from England. He would carry on the war, he had 
 written in 1638, till the Scots had received the common 
 Prayer-book used in our churches in England without 
 any alteration, till the bishops were settled peaceably in 
 their jurisdiction. " Nay, perchance till I had conformed 
 that kingdom in all, as well for the temporal as eccle- 
 
 1 Gardiner, History of Englajid, ix. 1 10 ; Whitaker, Life of 
 Raddiffe, p. 2 1 8. 
 
xxxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 siastical affairs, wholly to the government and laws of 
 England ; and Scotland governed by the King and 
 Council of England, in a great part at least as we are 
 here " [in Ireland]. All opposition was to be suppressed 
 and chastised. The Scots were to be " cudgelled back 
 into their right wits again "; the EngUsh Puritans to be 
 *' whipped home into their right wits " ; EngUsh country 
 gentlemen who murmured to be taught that " their part 
 was obedience and not dispute." " He could not com- 
 prehend how honest men could look on the Scots' 
 resistance from a point of view different to his own." 
 He believed it possible to carry out this policy with 
 the support of the English nation and by the aid of the 
 English parliament. His first step was to counsel a new 
 levy of ship-money ; his next to persuade the King to 
 call a parliament (Dec. 5, 1639). Caring little for the 
 forms of the constitution himself, he never understood 
 'their importance to others, and was unprepared for the 
 depth and strength of the feeling which the King's 
 arbitrary rule had roused. He thought that the plea 
 of necessity would be accepted, and these violations 
 of the constitution condoned. He fancied that all 
 would end in a reconciliation between the King and 
 his subjects. To the assertion that the King might use 
 extra-legal means to preserve the state, he added the 
 promise " that when the present danger of the common- 
 wealth was by the wisdom, courage, and power of the 
 King prevented, and the public weal secured ; in a time 
 proper and fit, the King was obliged to vindicate the pro- 
 perty and liberty of the subject from any ill prejudice 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxix 
 
 that might fall from such a precedent." ^ A new statute, 
 such as he had proposed in 1628, defining the bounds 
 of the King's prerogative and the subject's liberty, passed 
 by parliament and assented to by the King, and the King 
 and his people would again be happy and united. 
 
 In the spring of 1640 Wentworth hurried back from 
 Ireland — though racked by gout and dysentery — to take 
 his stand by the King's side in the coming struggle. As 
 he had prophetically written eight years earlier — " I have 
 not so learned my master, nor am I so indulgent to my 
 own ease, as to let his affairs suffer shipwreck whilst I 
 myself rest secure in harbour. No, let the tempest be 
 never so great, I will much rather put forth to sea, work 
 forth the storm, or at least be found dead with the 
 rudder in my hands." ^ The first blow to Strafford's 
 policy was the rupture between the King and the parlia- 
 ment in May 1 640. Then came the failure of successive 
 attempts to raise money, by a forced loan from the 
 London merchants, assistance from the King of Spain, or 
 the coinage of base money. All hung now on the issue 
 of the campaign. Scarcely recovered from an illness 
 which had brought him to death's door, Strafford was 
 despatched to the north to take command of the army 
 on the border. On the 24th of August he left London, 
 and the first day's travel brought back his sufferings. " I 
 am not very weary," he wrote to Radcliffe, " but much 
 worse than I was this morning. My pains are the same 
 I had in my sickness, and the new grief which I have got 
 again on my liver side gives me my former difficulty of 
 1 Trial, pp. 566, 646, 669. 2 p 299. 
 
xl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 breathing, and will no doubt force me to let blood. 
 Yet hitherto I am able to endure travelling, I praise 
 God, and so long as that holds I shall go on." He 
 reached York on August 27th ; on the 28th Conway was 
 routed at Newburn ; and on the 29th the Scots entered 
 Newcastle. The sick General's first duty was to reorganise 
 his beaten army. " Pity me," he wrote, " for never came 
 any man to so lost a business. The army altogether 
 unexercised and unprovided of all necessaries. That part 
 which I bring now with me from Durham the worst I ever 
 saw. Our horse all cowardly, the country from Berwick to 
 York in the power of the Scot, an universal affright in all, 
 a general disaffection to the King's service, none sensible 
 of his dishonour. In one word, here alone to fight with 
 all these evils without any one to help. God of His good- 
 ness deliver me out of this the greatest evil of my life." ^ 
 Still with desperate energy Strafford struggled to main- 
 tain the lost cause. To deprive the Scots of provisions 
 he ordered the mills to be dismantled. Obliged to own 
 the impossibiUty of expelling the Scots from Durham and 
 Northumberland, he clung to the hope of holding York- 
 shire against them. Remain on the defensive, and wear 
 them out by time was his counsel to the King. In a 
 piched battle the English army would infallibly be beaten, 
 but in skirmishes they might hold their own against the 
 Scots. The capture of a troop of Scotch plunderers who 
 had penetrated into Yorkshire, and some trifling successes 
 of the garrison of Berwick seemed to justify this view, 
 Strafford bent all his efforts to restore discipline in his 
 ■^ Whitaker, Life of Ra.icUffe^ p. 203. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xli 
 
 army, — "that mass of disorder and unsoldierliness " as 
 Clarendon terms it. Want of money obliged him some- 
 times to persuade where he would have commanded ; 
 but when he had money he meant to take a shorter 
 way, and in the camp at York he set up a gallows at 
 the head of each regiment to show them the penalty 
 of misconduct. At one moment he projected the 
 expulsion of all the Scots from Ulster in order to render 
 Ireland at least safe from Scottish invaders. At another 
 time he proposed to bring over the Irish army — 8000 
 foot and 2000 horse — to England, as all men whis- 
 pered, not merely to fight the Scots, but to reduce the 
 English to the King's will. Against those who refused 
 to assist the King in his extremity he broke out with all 
 his old vehemence. " You are bound," he told the York- 
 shire gentlemen, " to attend his Majesty at your own costs 
 and charges in case of invasion ; you are bound by the 
 common law of England, by the law of reason, by the 
 law of nature, and you are no better than beasts if you 
 refuse in this case to attend the King, his Majesty offering 
 in person to lead you on." Partly by threats, partly by 
 concessions, he won them to pay their trained bands for two 
 months, and to withdraw their petition for a parliament. 
 But the impossibility of raising money to maintain the 
 army baffled all his efforts. Even on the personal 
 guarantee of the peers London refused a loan. Even the 
 King's Council in London dared not recommend taxation 
 by prerogative. Everywhere the counties refused to pay 
 their quota of coat-and-conduct money.^ 
 ^ Rushworthy iii. 1235. 
 
xlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Unable longer to resist the universal cry for a parlia- 
 ment, Charles was obliged, on Sept. 24, to announce the 
 issue of writs summoning one to meet for Nov. 3. To 
 Strafford this meant ruin, but he hardly realized the 
 greatness of the danger in which he stood. On Oct. 8, 
 the Scotch Commissioners in a public paper denounced 
 him as an incendiary, and declared that they meant to 
 insist on his punishment.^ " Whatsoever they have to say 
 let them say it in a parliament, and all they can against 
 me," answered Strafford.^ Still in the great Council of 
 the Peers he stubbornly resisted the demands of the 
 Scots, and opposed every concession made to them. 
 Almost alone in his opposition, he was obliged to submit 
 to a truce on terms which he held dishonourable and 
 unnecessary. On its conclusion the King left him in 
 Yorkshire to command the army and keep the unpaid 
 soldiers in order. With indomitable pride he refused 
 to take any part in raising the contribution agreed on 
 for the support of the Scots. He would not, he said, be 
 an instrument for drawing new provinces under their 
 yoke. He would rather bestow his whole estate on the 
 King than one penny on them. 
 
 ' As soon as the parliament opened Charles discovered 
 that it was necessary for his service to have Strafford 
 again by his side, and summoned him to London. 
 Browning represents him as begging the King to allow 
 him to retire to his government of Ireland, or to some 
 other place, where he might promote his Majesty's service, 
 and not deliver himself into the hands of his enraged 
 
 ^ Rush-worthy iii. 1293. ^ Hardwicke Papers, ii. 265. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xliii 
 
 enemies.^ There is evidence that his friends urged him 
 " to pass over to Ireland where the army rested at his 
 devotion, or to transport himself to foreign kingdoms till 
 fairer weather here should invite him home." The 
 Marquis of Hamilton advised him to fly, but as 
 Hamilton told the King, the Earl was too great-hearted 
 to fear. Though conscious of the peril of obedience, he 
 set out to London to stand by his master. 
 
 " I am to-morrow to London," wrote Strafford to Rad- 
 cliffe, "with more dangers beset, I believe, than ever 
 man went out of Yorkshire ; yet my heart is good, and I 
 find nothing cold within me. It is not to be believed 
 how great the malice is, and how intent they are about it ; 
 little less care there is taken to ruin me than to save their 
 own souls. Nay, for themselves I wish their attention to 
 the latter were equal to that they lend me in the former ; 
 and certainly they will rack heaven and hell, as they say, 
 to do me mischief. They expect great matters out of 
 Ireland, therefore pray you lend an ear to what may stir 
 there ; howbeit I know not anything yet." ^ 
 
 One desperate resource remained. The intrigues of 
 the parliamentary leaders with the Scots had come to 
 Strafford's knowledge, and he had determined to impeach 
 them of high treason. He would prove that Pym 
 
 1 Browning's statement (p. 239) of Strafford's intentions is 
 founded on Whitelock, Mejnorials, p. loS, vol. i. ed. 1853. 
 L'Estrange's Reign of King Charles, ed. 1656, p. 201 ; Sanderson, 
 Reign of King Charles, 1658, p. 337; and Heylyn, Life of Laud, 
 p. 461, agree in stating that Strafford refused to fly. See also 
 
 (Z\zx&i\^ox\, Rebellion, \\. 104. ^^x- *-: . . ^i^.^^^ 
 
 Whitaker's Raddiffe, p. 218. J^0}^^ '"'^^l^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 a 
 
xliv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and his friends had secretly communicated with the 
 rebels, and invited them to bring a Scottish army into 
 England. "At one blow he hoped to strike down the 
 traitors, and regain for the crown the popularity it had 
 lost."^ Strafford arrived in London on Monday, Nov. 9, 
 1640, and spent the Tuesday in resting after his journey. 
 On the morning of Wednesday the nth he took his seat 
 in the House of Lords, but did not strike the blow. 
 
 " The moment when his accusation should have been 
 brought, if it was to be brought at all, was allowed to slip. 
 by. It is no explanation to say that the Lords were 
 engaged in other business. In such a case as this business 
 could be interrupted, and at all events there would be 
 time to speak when it was concluded. The only reason- 
 able supposition is that, when the moment for execution 
 came, Charles drew back as he had so often drawn back 
 before. After a short visit Strafford left the House 
 without uttering a word." 
 
 Meanwhile some traitor about the court had revealed 
 the secret of Strafford's intentions to his opponents. 
 Already on Nov. 7 committees had been appointed to 
 investigate the complaints of Ireland against Strafford, 
 
 ^ See Gardiner, History of England^ ix. p. 232. The statement 
 that Strafford intended to accuse his opponents is made in Laud's 
 History of the Troubles (Works, iii. 295) ; by Rush worth {Trial of 
 Strafford, p. 2) ; by Sanderson, The Reign of King Charles, p. 337 ; 
 and in the Memoirs of the Earl of Manchester. Clarendon mentions 
 it as a rumour {Rebellion, iii. 10). It is curious that Browning, 
 who sees the importance of this fact, and makes good use of it in 
 his play (Act III. scene ii.), says so little of it in this biography. 
 Probably he only knew of it from Clarendon, who gives it with a 
 doubt. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 and the general grievances of England also. No man 
 doubted that the result would be the accusation of 
 Strafford, and this new discovery merely precipitated the 
 attack. Seven articles of impeachment were hastily drawn 
 up on the morning of Nov. nth, and the same afternoon 
 Pym presented them to the House of Lords. Strafford, 
 committed at first to the custody of the Black Rod, was 
 sent to the Tower on Nov. 25. 
 
 The ''fiery trial" he had often anticipated had come 
 at last. " I have much reason," he had written eight years 
 earHer, " to carry my eyes along with me wherever I go, 
 and to expect my actions, from the highest to the lowest, 
 shall all be cast into the balance and tried whether 
 heavy or light. Content in the name of God ! let them 
 take me up and cast me down. If I do not fall square, 
 and — to use a word of art — paragon, in every point of 
 duty to my master ; nay, if I do not fully comply with 
 that public and common protection which good kings 
 afford their good people, let me perish, and let no man 
 pity me." ^ 
 
 As Browning observes, Strafford was not unprepared to 
 meet his changed fortunes. He faced them with mag- 
 nanimous cheerfulness and courage. He relied on his 
 own innocence of the charge brought against him, and 
 was convinced that he could prove it. " As to myself," 
 he wrote on Dec. 13, '' albeit all will be done against me 
 that art and malice can devise, with all the rigour 
 possible, yet I am in great inward quietness and a 
 strong belief God will deliver me out of all these troubles." 
 1 P. 298. 
 
xlvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ^' Some meaner minds," he wrote two days later, " may 
 perchance think this my night, but indeed I am and 
 have myself in a better opinion, never having done any- 
 thing I need to be ashamed of; and am able in much 
 tranquillity of mind to look through this foul weather. 
 To suffer, so it be not for our ill doing, is the condition 
 of our frail humanity, and to a constant mind it must 
 not sure be very hard to undergo." " Here," he told 
 Ormonde, " is my only danger, that I may not have time 
 given sufficient for my clearing." ^ 
 
 In Browning's account of Strafford's trial the import- 
 ance of the change of procedure from impeachment to 
 attainder is inadequately appreciated,^ nor are the facts 
 correctly told. Strafford's confidence arose largely from 
 the fact that he had not technically been guilty of high 
 treason. After he had heard the detailed articles of 
 impeachment (Jan. 30, 1641), he wrote to his wife, to 
 Ormonde, and to Sir Adam Loftus, telling each of them 
 that there was nothing capital in the charge against 
 him.^ During the first part of the trial his confidence 
 increased. "To the best of my judgment," he wrote 
 to Radcliffe, "we gain much rather than lose. I trust 
 God will preserve us ; and, as [of] all other passions, I 
 
 1 Letter to his Wife, p. 243 ; Letter to Loftus, 15 Dec. ; Sb-aJ^ord 
 Letters, ii. 414 ; Letter to Ormonde, 3 Feb. 1641 ; Carte's Ormonde, 
 ed. 185 1, V. 246. 
 
 2 In the play the significance of the change is very well brought 
 out in the speeches attributed to Vane and Pym, Act IV, scene ii. 
 lines 125 — 137, 170 — 183. 
 
 ^ Letter to his Wife, Feb. 4, p. 245 ; to Loftus, Feb. 4 ; 
 Stafford Letters, ii. 415 ; to Ormonde, Feb. 3 ; Carte, v. 246. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlvii 
 
 am free of fear, the articles that are coming I apprehend 
 not. The Irish business is passed, and better than I 
 expected, their proofs being very scant. God's hand is 
 with us, for what is not we might expect to have been 
 sworn from thence? All will be well, and every hour 
 gives more hope than other." ^ 
 
 On April lo, a serious quarrel broke out between the 
 two Houses on the question of the admissibility of some 
 fresh evidence. A riotous scene took place in West- 
 minster Hall, and there seemed likely to be a permanent 
 breach. " The Commons on both sides of the House," 
 says Baillie, " raise in a fury, with a shout of Withdraw ! 
 Withdraw ! Withdraw ! get all their feet, on with their 
 hats, cocked their beavers in the King's sight. We all 
 did fear it should go to a present tumult." " The King 
 laughed," says another eye-witness, " and the Earl of 
 Strafford was so well pleased therewith that he would 
 not hide his joy." 
 
 The same afternoon the Commons decided to bring 
 in a Bill of Attainder. " The secret of their taking this 
 way is conceived to be to prevent the hearing of the 
 Earl's lawyers, who give out that there is no law yet in 
 force whereby he can be condemned to die for aught yet 
 objected against him, and therefore their intent is by this 
 Bill to supply the defect of the laws therein." ^ A member 
 
 1 This letter is printed by Dr. Whitaker, p, 222, as a postscript to 
 Strafford's letter of Nov. 5, 1640, but is really a separate letter of 
 fourteen lines, and should be dated April 4, 1641. The internal 
 evidence is conclusive. 
 
 2 Baillie, i. 346 ; Cal. State Papers Doviestic^ 1640-1, p. 540. 
 See Gardiner, ix. pp. 327, 330. 
 
xl vlii INTR OD UC TION. 
 
 of the Commons adds, " If the House of Commons pro- 
 ceed to demand judgment of the Lords, without doubt 
 they will acquit him, there being no law extant where- 
 upon to condemn him of treason. Wherefore the 
 Commons are determined to desert the Lords' judicature, 
 and to proceed against him by Bill of Attainder, whereby 
 he shall be adjudged to death upon a treason now to be 
 declared."^ 
 
 Under these circumstances "the rigid, strong, and 
 inflexible party " in the Commons broke away from the 
 control of their ordinary leaders, and adopted the Bill of 
 Attainder brought in by Sir Arthur Hesilrige. It appears 
 from the diary of Sir Symond D 'Ewes t hat Pym w as 
 opposed to proceeding by Bill of Attainder, and wished 
 to carry the impeachment to its close, in which desire 
 he seems to have been also backed by Hampden. The 
 Bill passed its first reading on April lo, the second on 
 April 14, and the third on April 21. 
 
 One result of this change of procedure was that it 
 entirely altered the King's attitude towards Strafford's 
 trial. If the Lords passed the Bill the King's confirma- 
 tion would be required. " Unhappy men," says Baillie, 
 " putts the King daily in harder straits. Had the Com- 
 mons gone on in the former way of pursuit, the King 
 might have been a patient, and only beheld the striking 
 off of Strafford's head ; but now they have put them on 
 a Bill which will force the King either to be our agent 
 and formal voicer to his death, or else do the world 
 
 ^ Twelfth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Coke 
 MSS. ii. 278. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlix 
 
 knows not what."^ Strafford's chief hope was in the Lords. 
 They might decline to pass the Bill, or they might suggest 
 some compromise which the Commons would be obliged 
 to accept. Strafford himself, now less confident, suggested 
 such a middle course. " It is told me," he wrote to 
 Hamilton on April 24, " that the Lords are inclinable to 
 preserve my life and family, for which their generous 
 compassions the great God of mercy will reward them ; 
 and surely should I die upon this evidence, I had much 
 rather be the sufferer than the judge. 
 
 " All that I shall desire from your lordship is, that 
 divested of all public employment, I may be permitted 
 to go home to my own private fortune, there to attend 
 my own domestic affairs, and education of my children, 
 with as little asperity of words or marks of infamy as 
 possibly the nobleness and justice of my friends can pro- 
 cure for me, with a liberty to follow my own occasions as 
 I shall find best for myself. This is no unreasonable 
 thing I trust to desire, all considered that may be said in 
 my case (for I vow my fault that should justly draw any 
 heavy sentence on me, I yet do not see :) yet this much 
 obtained will abundantly satisfy a mind hasting first to 
 quiet, and a body broken with afflictions and infirmities." ^ 
 
 A party in the House of Lords, headed by Lords 
 Bristol, Clare, and Savile, endeavoured to forward an 
 arrangement of the kind here suggested. The day be- 
 fore this letter to Hamilton was written, the King himself 
 had promised Strafford in words quoted by Browning on 
 
 1 BaiIHe, Letters^ ed. Laing, p. 350, 
 
 ^ Burnet, Lives of the Hajnilions, pp. 232, 507, ed. 1852. 
 
 d 
 
1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 p. 252 — that he should not suffer in ''life, honour, or 
 fortune." Charles now came forward himself and appealed 
 to the Lords to consent to this compromise. His speech ^ 
 was made on May ist, and the Attainder Bill had passed 
 its second reading in the Lords on April 27th. A week 
 before the speech might have had some effect : it could 
 have no effect now.^ 
 
 More fatal even than the King's hesitation was his in- 
 capacity to confine himself to constitutional action, or to 
 adhere persistently to the policy of relying on the Lords. 
 
 Schemes to bribe the Governor of the Tower to let 
 Strafford escape, or to introduce into that fortress a body 
 of troops devoted to the King, were connected with a 
 wider plot to bring up the army from the north to over- 
 awe the Parliament. The King was directly involved in 
 these designs, and their disclosure by Pym on May 5 
 ruined Strafford's last hope. The suspicions and the fears 
 which their discovery excited put an end to the possi- 
 bility of a compromise which should save Strafford's life. 
 It was the revelation of the Army Plot rather than the 
 dread of mob violence which induced the Lords to pass 
 the Attainder Bill. On the morning of May 8,^ the 
 Bill passed the House of Lords by 26 to 19 votes, and 
 it was presented to the King for his assent on the same 
 afternoon. Four days earlier Strafford had written to 
 the King to release him from his promise.^ 
 
 ^ P. 264. 2 Gardiner, History of England, ix. 347. 
 
 ^ Gardiner, ix. 355. 
 
 * May 4. See the letter itself on p. 266. Browning mistakenly 
 places it after the passing of the Bill by the Lords. See Gardiner, 
 ix. 362. 
 
INTRODUCTION. H 
 
 Of the struggle which the King made before he yielded, 
 Browning gives no account. His Privy Council with 
 one accord advised him to yield. The judges when con- 
 sulted replied that they held Strafford to have been 
 guilty of treason. Out of five bishops summoned to dis- 
 cuss the moral question, only Juxon and Usher advised 
 him to satisfy his conscience by refusing his assent. A 
 shouting mob crowded the street and threatened an 
 attack on Whitehall. Late on the evening of May 9 
 Charles gave way. At last the King protested at the 
 council table that if his person only were in danger, he 
 would gladly venture it to save Lord Strafford's hfe, but 
 seeing his wife, children, and all his kingdom were con- 
 cerned in it, he was forced to give way unto it ; " which 
 he did not express without tears." ^ 
 
 Of that consent Charles repented all his life. In 
 one of his letters to the Queen he speaks of " that base, 
 sinful concession concerning the Earl of Strafford." In 
 another he writes, " Nothing can be more evident than 
 that Strafford's innocent blood hath been one of the 
 great causes of God's just judgments upon this nation 
 by a furious civil war ; both sides hitherto being almost 
 equally punished as being in a manner equally guilty." 
 When he was negotiating with the army in 1647, Berkeley 
 describes him as specially opposing the suggested pro- 
 visions against his adherents, " saying that he would have 
 no man to suffer for his sake, and that he repented of 
 nothing so much as the Bill against my Lord Strafford." 
 
 ^ Forster, British Statesmen^ vi. 71. Letter of the Elector 
 Palatine. 
 
Hi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A well-known story quoted by Browning represents 
 Strafford as receiving the news that the King had signed 
 the Bill with the words — " Put not your trust in princes, 
 nor in the sons of men, for in them there is no salva- 
 tion." ^ The anecdote is generally quoted from White- 
 lock e's Memorials, published in 1682 ; but it first appeared 
 in 1658 in Sanderson's Life and Reign of Charles I. A 
 more authentic record of his feelings is contained in a 
 letter written probably as soon as the Attainder Bill had 
 passed the Lords. " God have mercy on our souls, for 
 our bodies are theirs," cried Simon de Montfort, at 
 Evesham, when he saw the; advancing standards of Prince 
 Edward's host on every side of his little army. Strafford 
 uses almost the same words. " I am lost," he wrote to 
 Guilford Slingsb)^ " My body is theirs, but my soul is 
 God's. There is little trust in man ; God may yet, if 
 it please Him, deliver me'." Over the letter by which 
 Strafford released the King from his promises there hangs 
 a certain amount of obscurity. Its genuineness has 
 been impugned, but without reason.^ One authority 
 dates it May 4, another May 7, a third May 9.^ Mr. 
 Gardiner thinks May 4 the most probable date ; Browning 
 seems to adopt May 9.^ The letter illustrates not only 
 Strafford's generosity, but the unity of aim which inspired 
 his political life. He begins by saying that his greatest 
 grief is to be thought to be taken as a person that 
 should endeavour to set things amiss between the King 
 
 1 P. 272. 2 Rushwortb, Trial of Strafford, p. 774. 
 
 3 Rushworth, Trial, p. 744; Strafford Letters, ii. 432 ; Brief and 
 Perfect Relation, p. 103. * P. 266. 
 
INTRODUCTION. liii 
 
 and his people, and protests that his aim always had 
 been to create a right understanding between them. 
 " Yet the truth finds little credit, and I am myself reputed 
 the cause of this great separation betwixt you and your 
 people. . . . Here are before me the ruin of my 
 children and family. ... Here are before me the many 
 evils which may befall your sacred person and the whole 
 kingdom, should yourself and the parliament be less 
 satisfied the one with the other than is necessary for the 
 King and people. Here are before me the things most 
 valued, most feared, by mortal men — life and death." 
 His choice is made, though not without a conflict. " Out 
 of much sadness I am come to a resolution of that which 
 I take to be best becoming me, that is, to look upon 
 that which is principally to be considered in. itself, and 
 that is doubtless the prosperity of your sacred person 
 and the commonwealth. 
 
 " So now, to set your Majesty's conscience at liberty, I 
 do most humbly beseech you, for the preventing of such 
 mischiefs as may happen by your refusal, to pass the 
 Bill ; by this means to remove . . . this unfortunate 
 thing forth of the way towards that blessed agreement, 
 which God, I trust, shall for ever establish betwixt you 
 and your subjects." 
 
 It is this self-sacrifice which proves the sincerity of 
 Strafford's political faith, and the unselfishness of the 
 purpose with which he entered the King's service. He 
 had professed then his desire to bring about a good agree- 
 ment between the King and his people ; and now when 
 he was put to the touch — when he found himself the , 
 
llv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great obstruction to that agreement — he offered his own 
 hfe to restore it, and offered it not merely for the King's 
 sake, but for the sake of the commonwealth also. In 
 Browning's play, when Pym speaks of his labours and his 
 sacrifices for England, Strafford answers, " I have loved 
 England too." The poet was nearer to the truth than 
 the biographer, but to Englishmen in general Strafford 
 was simply the perfect instrument of tyranny drawn in 
 Browning's biography. No contemporary narrative shows 
 the hatred which the people felt for Strafford so well as 
 Hollar's picture of his execution. In the background 
 is the Tower, and further in the distance are the masts 
 of the ships in the river. In the foreground stands the 
 scaffold, Strafford kneels before the block, Usher and a 
 little group of friends are beside him, the executioner 
 raises his axe to strike. On the roofs and turrets of the 
 Tower and in all the open space before it presses an 
 innumerable throng of spectators. Right up to the 
 edge of the scaffold are wooden stands crowded with 
 gazers. The Puritanical citizens in their long cloaks and 
 steeple hats have brought their wives and sweethearts 
 to see the spectacle. One stand has broken down be- 
 neath the weight of the mass upon it. The keepers of a 
 second are fighting with a gang of young men who are 
 trying to climb on to it without paying. But the eyes of 
 all the rest of that great multitude are turned towards the 
 kneeling figure, waiting for the axe to fall. 
 
 " And to show how mad this whole people were, 
 especially in and about London, in the evening of the day 
 wherein he was executed, the greatest demonstrations of 
 
INTRODUCTION. Iv 
 
 joy that possibly could be expressed ran through the 
 whole town and country hereabout ; and many that came 
 up to town on purpose to see the execution, rode in 
 triumph back, waving their hats, and with all expressions 
 of joy, through every town they went, crying, ' His head is 
 off ! his head is off ! ' and breaking the windows of those 
 persons who would not solemnize this festival with a 
 bonfire. So ignorant and brutish is a multitude." ^ 
 
 If Browning, like Strafford's contemporaries, judges 
 the statesman with too great harshness, he treats the 
 personal characteristics and the private life of Wentworth 
 with great fairness. There are however occasional errors 
 and omissions in his sketch, and on more than one 
 point new evidence corrects and completes it. There 
 is amongst the Domestic State Papers a letter from 
 Sir Thomas Roe to the Queen of Bohemia, written in 
 1634, which helps us to realize the impression made 
 by Wentworth on an unbiassed observer.^ 
 
 "The Lord Deputy of Ireland doth great wonders, 
 and governs like a king, and hath taught that kingdom 
 to show us an example of envy, by having parliaments, 
 and knowing wisely how to use them; for they have 
 given the king six subsidies, which will arise to ;£"24o,ooo, 
 and they are like to have the liberty we contended for, 
 and grace from his Majesty worth their gift double ; and 
 which is worth much more, the honour of good intelli- 
 gence and love between the king and his people, which 
 I would to God our great wits had had eyes to see. 
 
 ^ Memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick^ p. 163. 
 
 2 Calendar of Do77ieslic State Papers, 1834-5, pref. xxxviii. 
 
Ivi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This is a great service, and to give your Majesty a 
 character of the man, — he is severe abroad and in 
 business, and sweet in private conversation ; retired in 
 his friendships, but very firm; a terrible judge and a 
 strong enemy ; a servant violently zealous in his master's 
 ends, and not negligent of his own ; one that will have 
 what he will, and though of great reason, he can make 
 his will greater when it may serve him ; affecting glory 
 by a seeming contempt ; one that cannot stay long in 
 the middle region of fortune, being entreprenant ; but 
 will either be the greatest man in England, or much less 
 than he is ; lastly, one that may (and his nature lies fit 
 for it, for he is ambitious to do what others will not) do 
 your Majesty very great service, if you can make him." 
 
 Another contemporary, Sir Philip Warwick, whose 
 position as Secretary to the Lord Treasurer must have 
 brought him into contact with Went worth, gives this 
 brief description of his appearance. " In his person he 
 was of a tall stature, but stooped much in the neck. 
 His countenance was cloudy whilst he moved or sat 
 thinking, but when he spake, either seriously or face- 
 tiously, he had a lightsome and a very pleasant air ; and 
 indeed whatever he then did he performed very grace- 
 fully." One part of this description recalls " the proud, 
 glooming countenance " Baillie speaks of, and " the 
 bent, ill-favoured brow " Wentworth himself refers to.^ 
 It suggests also Macaulay's description of Wentworth's 
 " harsh dark features, and that fixed look, full of severity, 
 of mournful anxiety, of deep thought, of dauntless reso- 
 1 pp. 128, 189, 240. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ivii 
 
 lution, which seems at once to forebode and to defy a 
 terrible fate, as it lowers on us from the living canvas 
 of Vandyke." ^ 
 
 Warwick goes on to tell a strange tale of a vision 
 which half revealed to Wentworth's father the fortmies 
 of his son. *' The greatness of the envy that attended 
 him, made many in their prognostics to bode him an ill 
 end; and there went current a story of the dream of 
 his father, who being both by his wife, nighest friends, 
 and physicians, thought to be at the point of his death, 
 fell suddenly into so profound a sleep, and lay quietly 
 so long, that his wife, uncertain of his condition, drew 
 nigh his bed, to observe whether she could hear him 
 breathe, and gently touching him he awaked with great 
 disturbance, and told her the reason was, she had inter- 
 rupted him in a dream, which most passionately he 
 desired to have known the end of. For, said he, I 
 dreamed one appeared to me, assuring me that I should 
 have a son (for until then he had none) who should be 
 a very great and eminent man : but — and in this instant 
 thou didst awake me, whereby I am bereaved of the 
 knowledge of the farther fortune of the child. This I 
 heard when this Lord was but in the ascent of his 
 greatness, and long before his fall : and afterwards con- 
 ferring with some of his nighest relations I found the 
 tradition was not disowned. Sure I am, that his station 
 was like those turfs of earth or sea-banks which, by the 
 storm swept away, left all the inland to be drowned by 
 popular tumult." ^ 
 
 1 Essay on Hampden. ^ Memoirs of Sir P. Warwick, p. 112. 
 
Iviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 According to Warwick, Wentworth's greatest fault was 
 " a sour and haughty temper .... a roughness in his 
 nature, which a man no more obhged by him than I was 
 would have called an injustice; though many of his 
 confidants who were my good friends (when I, like a 
 worm, being trod on, would turn and laugh, and under 
 that disguise say as piquant words as my little wit would 
 help me with) were wont to swear to me, that he 
 endeavoured to be just to all, but was resolved to be 
 gracious to none, but to those whom he thought in- 
 wardly affected him. ... It was a great infirmity in 
 him that he seemed to overlook so many as he did; 
 since everywhere, much more in Court, the numerous or 
 lesser sort of attendants can obstruct, create jealousies, 
 spread ill reports, and do harm ; for as 'tis impossible 
 that any power or deportment should satisfy all persons, 
 so there a little friendliness and openness of carriage 
 begets hope and lessens envy." 
 
 Whilst Wentworth took no trouble to conciliate his 
 inferiors, he was careless how many of his equals he 
 offended in the pursuit of his master's service. Browning 
 relates at some length his quarrels with Lord Faucon- 
 berg and Lord Mountnorris, and quotes Wentworth's 
 defence of his own severity. It was *' the necessity of 
 his Majesty's service," says Wentworth, which obliged 
 him to use " seeming strictness," instead of " gracious 
 smiles and gentle looks." One of the most serious of 
 the feuds in which this conception of his duty engaged 
 him was that with the Earl of Cork.^ 
 
 ^ pp. ii6, 192, 195, 201, 208. 
 
INTRODUCTION. lix 
 
 Hitherto we have only had Strafford's account of the 
 dispute, but lately the Earl of Cork's story has been 
 published.^ In his diary Cork describes the landing of 
 the new Lord Deputy at Dublin (July 23rd, 1633), and 
 the civilities which passed at their first meeting. " A 
 most cursed man to all Ireland, and to me in particular," 
 is the note on the Lord Deputy's character which he 
 added later. The first quarrel arose over a tomb which 
 Cork had erected in the chancel of St. Patrick's Cathedral, 
 and which Strafford at Laud's instigation obliged him to 
 remove. 2 A much more serious struggle took place 
 concerning certain church lands which Cork had suc- 
 ceeded in securing. He was charged with having 
 fraudulently obtained possession of the revenues of the 
 College of Youghal, prosecuted in the Castle Chamber, 
 sentenced to lose the greater part of the property in 
 question, and to pay the King a fine of ^15,000. Cork 
 describes in detail his interviews with Strafford con- 
 cerning this suit.^ The Lord Deputy had urged him 
 many times not to stand to his justification, but to 
 compromise the matter and submit to a fine. The Lord 
 Chancellor and the Primate gave similar advice. At 
 last after many struggles he yielded to the Lord Deputy's 
 
 ^ The Lismore Papers, Diaries and Letters of Richard Boyle, first 
 Earl of Cork, from MSS. belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, 
 preserved at Lismore Castle, 10 volumes, edited by Rev. A. B. 
 Grosart, D.D. (for private circulation), 1886— 1888. 
 
 2 pp. 165, 171. 
 
 ^ See Lismore Papers, Series I. vol. iv. p. 184 ; Series XL vol. iii. 
 pp. 247 — 259. On the question of the tomb erected by the Earl of 
 Cork, see Lismore Papers, I. iii. pp. 171, 175 ; iv. pp. 12, 39, 133. 
 
Ix INTRODUCTION. 
 
 menaces. On May 2, 1636, when the final hearing of 
 the case was to have taken place, Cork was called into 
 the Lord Deputy's Chamber. " As soon as I came in," 
 writes Cork, " the Lord Deputy asked me whether I 
 would have war or peace. I told him I did pursue 
 peace, but it flew from me." Then he replied, '' I have 
 offered you peace, and sent many messengers in to you, 
 but you will not embrace it ; and therefore I now must 
 needs enter into the lists against you, and I do vow that 
 I will censure you to pay the King thirty thousand 
 pounds, take away the office of Treasurer from you, and 
 send you prisoner to the Castle of Dublin before I come 
 back hither again. And therefore it will behove you 
 now to make such an offer as is fitt for me in his 
 Majesty's name to accept of." I told him the offer I 
 had made by my son was rejected, and therefore I had 
 made a vow never to make an offer again, " Then let 
 the Master of the Wards make an offer for you, for he 
 knows my mind." Seeing no other remedy Cork allowed 
 the Master of the Court of Wards to offer in his name a 
 composition of ;£ 15,000 and the surrender of a portion 
 of the property in question. " I am to pay his Majesty 
 for my redemption out of the Court of Castle Chamber, 
 though my innocency and integrity be clear as the sun 
 at high noon, and that my own conscience neither doth 
 nor can accuse me of any wilful crime or abuse worth 
 any censure, yet to prevent censure I have yielded to 
 pay the King ;^5,ooo in hand, ;£"5,ooo more on 
 Midsummer Day 1637, and another ;£"5,ooo, to make 
 my last payment, on Midsummer Day 1638, in all fifteen 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixi 
 
 thousand pounds sterling, for which fine, or rather high 
 ransom thus undeservedly imposed upon me, God forgive 
 the Lord Deputy and his great Councillor, Sir George 
 RadcHffe; yet as God shall enable me, I will by his 
 grace pay it freely and willingly, for that it is to come to 
 my good and gracious king and master, for whose service 
 I would most willingly sacrifice life and estate. And 
 my soul assures me so fully of his Majesty's religiousness 
 and justice, that if he were rightly informed how un- 
 deservedly this mighty fine is thus drawn from me, he 
 would not take one penny thereof." 
 
 Three days later Cork had another altercation with 
 Wentworth. " I prayed him to consider well, whether 
 in justice he could impose so great a fine upon me." 
 Whereunto he replied, "God's wounds. Sir, when the 
 -last Parliament in England brake up, you lent the King 
 fifteen thousand pounds. And afterwards in a very 
 uncivil, unmannerly manner you pressed his Majesty to 
 repay it you. Whereupon I resolved before I came out 
 of England to fetch it back again from you by one means 
 or other. And now I have gotten what I desired, you 
 and I will be friends hereafter." 
 
 It was too late, however, to be friends with the man 
 whom he had so humbled. The Lord Deputy gave 
 stately entertainments to the Earl of Cork, dropped in 
 to dinner with him in a gracious and friendly way; 
 played cards with him and lost a few pounds over the 
 game of maw, stood god-father to his grandchildren, and 
 was solemnly reconciled with him by Laud. All this 
 was useless. The injury he had done to Cork was too 
 
Ixii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great to be forgotten. Cork's treatment was one of the 
 charges against Strafford at his trial. "Old Richard," 
 writes Strafford, " has sworn against me gallantly." With 
 vengeful joy Cork jots down in his diary the circumstances 
 of Strafford's impeachment before the Lords. " His 
 Lordship was called into the House as a delinquent, and 
 brought to the bar upon his knees (I sitting in my place 
 covered), where the charge of high treason being objected 
 against him, he being not permitted then to speak in his 
 defence, was presently committed to Mr. James Maxwell. 
 And this his dejection shows the uncertainty whereunto 
 the greatest men are subject unto." With equal satis- 
 faction he notes the termination of the trial. "This 
 day after many long debates, and several hearings, the 
 oppressing Earl of Strafford, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 
 was by parliament attainted of high treason, where I sat 
 present, but eleven voices of all the Lords declaring not 
 content; and the 12th of this month he was beheaded 
 on the Tower Hill of London, as he well deserved." ^ 
 
 In discussing Strafford's friendships and enmities, the 
 question of his personal relations with Pym naturally 
 demands consideration. The tradition of their early 
 friendship supplies one of the leading motives of Brown- 
 ing's play, and is also referred to in this biography. 2 
 In the year 1700, Dr. James Welwood, one of the 
 physicians of William III., published a volume entitled 
 Memoirs of the most material transactions in England 
 
 ^ LisjHore Papers^ Series I. iv. pp. 142, 147, 150, 166 ; v. pp. 
 164, 176. 
 - pp. i43» 240. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixiii 
 
 for the last hundred years preceding the Revolution of 
 1688. It consists of historical anecdotes and traditions, 
 but does contain a certain amount of fact and a few 
 documents. Speaking of Strafford, Welwood tells the 
 following story.i " There had been a long and intimate 
 friendship betwixt Mr. Pym and him, and they had gone 
 hand in hand in everything in the House of Commons. 
 But when Sir Thomas Wentworth was upon making his 
 peace with the Court, he sent to Pym to meet him alone 
 at Greenwich ; where he began in a set speech to sound 
 Mr. Pym about the dangers they were like to run by the 
 courses they were in ; and what advantages they might 
 have if they would but listen to some offers which would 
 probably be made them from the Court. Pym under- 
 standing his speech stopped him short with this ex- 
 pression : " You need not use all this art to tell me you 
 have a mind to leave us ; but remember what I tell you, 
 you are going to be undone. But remember, that though 
 you leave us now I will never leave you while your head 
 is upon your shoulders." The incident is not very 
 probable, and though Welwood might have heard the 
 story from some good source he does not mention his 
 authority. He certainly exaggerates their political agree- 
 ment and perhaps their personal intimacy also. The 
 papers of Pym and Wentworth, so far as they have 
 survived, give no support to the story of their friendship. 
 On the other hand there can be Httle doubt that the two 
 men were well acquainted with each other, though one 
 was a Devonshire man and the other a Yorkshire man. 
 
Ixiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Pym entered the Middle Temple in 1607, and seems to 
 have lived generally in London. Wentworth entered 
 the Inner Temple in 1607, and studied law much more 
 seriously than most gentlemen of his wealth and rank. 
 More than one of his despatches and the whole of his 
 defence bear witness to the extent and thoroughness of 
 his legal knowledge. According to Radclifife "he was 
 excellently well studied in that part of the English law 
 that concerns the office of a justice of peace; insomuch 
 that one of the judges of assize, a great lawyer, was well 
 pleased to learn his opinion in a matter about the poor 
 and the statutes made concerning them. By constant 
 attention at the Star Chamber for seven years together, 
 he learned the course of that Court. . . . He spent 
 eight years' time, besides his pains and money, in solicit- 
 ing the businesses and suits of his nephews, going every 
 term to London about that only, without missing one 
 term in thirty, as I verily believe."^ It was probably 
 while Wentworth attended the Law Courts and pursued 
 his legal studies, between 16 14 and 1624, that his 
 intimacy with Pym began, and it was doubtless cemented 
 by their association in the parliaments of 1621 and 
 1624. There can be little doubt that Welwood is right 
 in representing it as coming to a sudden end in 1628, 
 when Wentworth became one of the King's ministers. 
 In his letters, when Strafford had occasion to mention 
 Pym, he speaks of him with a certain scorn ; " your 
 Prynnes and Pyms, a generation of odd names and odd 
 natures." 2 He says nothing of any past intimacy. Pym 
 1 Strafford, Letters^ ii. pp. 434, 436. ^ Strafford, Letters. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixv 
 
 on the other hand, on Nov. 24th, 1640, when he reported 
 to the House of Commons the charges against Strafford, 
 began his speech by saying that he had " long known 
 the person charged by acts of friendship." ^ 
 
 When the trial opened, Pym attacked Strafford with 
 extraordinary bitterness, to which Strafford replied that 
 "he hoped shortly to clear himself of all those foul 
 aspersions which his malicious enemies had cast upon 
 him." Pym accused him at once of insulting the House 
 of Commons by calling them his malicious enemies. 
 ''Whereupon the Lieutenant falling down upon his 
 knees humbly besought them that they would not 
 mistake him, and withall gave a large panaegyrique of 
 their most just and moderate proceedings, protesting 
 that if he himself had been one of the House of 
 Commons, (as he had the honour once to be), he 
 would not have advised them to have done otherwise 
 against his dearest friend ; but withall told them that he 
 might justly say he had his owne un-friends, which hee 
 hoped in time to make known ; nor did he all this time 
 speake one bitter word against Master Pym, thougli 
 justly incensed, which hath infinitely advanced his 
 reputation." 
 
 The next day, in answer to a speech from Glyn, 
 Strafford said " That it did strike him to the heart to be 
 attacked of such a wicked crime by such honourable 
 persons, yea that it wounded him deeper in regard that 
 such persons who were the companions of his youth, and 
 
 ^ Note-Book of Sir John Northcote, ed. by A. H. A. Hamilton, 
 1877, p. I. 
 
 e 
 
Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with whom he had spent the best of his days, should 
 now rise up in judgment against him." ^ 
 
 The last of these passages may no doubt refer to the 
 managers of the impeachment in general, and not to 
 Pym in particular. The earlier one seems to me directly 
 aimed at Pym. It contains just the brief sarcastic refer- 
 ence to their old friendship which a proud man might 
 make to an old friend who had unjustly accused him. 
 
 Browning draws a dramatic picture of Pym suddenly 
 meeting Strafford's gaze, and losing his self-possession 
 " when he met the fixed and wasted features of his early ' 
 associate." But there is no evidence for this striking 
 incident. All that the authorities say is, that during 
 Pym's answer to Strafford's defence his memory for a 
 moment failed him.^ 
 
 Strafford's friendship with Laud, which Browning also 
 discusses,^ has been further illustrated since he wrote, 
 by the publication of fifty letters from the Archbishop to 
 the Lord-Deputy.* The intimacy and the confidence 
 between the two men rose naturally from their characters 
 and position. Each had an unselfish devotion to the 
 Monarch he served, and to the ideas which he hoped to 
 realize through the Monarchy. Each needed a friend 
 and ally. " I am alone," wrote Laud to Wentworth, " in 
 those things which draw not private profit after them." 
 
 ^ A B^'iefe and Perfect Relation of the Answers and Replies of 
 Thomas, Earle of Strafford, ap.y 1647, pp. 7, 8. 
 
 2 P. 263. Bailliis Letters, i. 348 ; Brief e and Perfect Relation, 
 p. 67. 3 p. 163, 
 
 ^ Laud's Works, vol. vii. Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology, 
 i860. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixvii 
 
 Wentvvorth describes the Irish officials as " a company 
 of men the most intent upon their own ends which ever 
 I met with," and himself as " charged with many cares, 
 and like to bear out the heat of the day alone. Without 
 Radcliffe and Wandesford sure I were the most solitary 
 man that ever served a king in such a place." To 
 succeed in Ireland he needed assistance against court 
 intrigues in England, and therefore besought Laud for 
 his " continued hand of support and help." What was 
 at first a political alliance became in the end a close and 
 uninterrupted friendship.^ 
 
 In the same way Strafford's famous friendship with 
 Lady Carlisle grew out of his need of an ally near the 
 Queen. "I judge her ladyship very considerable," he 
 wrote to Laud in 1637; "she is often in place, and 
 extremely well skilled how to speak with advantage and 
 spirit for those friends she professeth unto, which will 
 not be many. There is this further in her disposition, 
 she will not seem to be the person she is not, an in- 
 genuity I have always observed and honoured her for."^ 
 
 The story which represents Lady Carlisle as Strafford's 
 mistress seems based on a misunderstanding both of her 
 character and of Straiford's. Her beauty brought her 
 adorers of all ranks, courtiers, and poets, and statesmen ; 
 but she remained untouched by their worship. " Yet 
 will she freely discourse of love," writes Toby Mathews,^ 
 
 1 Strafford s Letters, i. 96, 194, 300. 
 
 2 Ibid. ii. 120. 
 
 ^ A collection of letters made by Sir Tobie Mathews, Kt,, with a 
 character of the most excellent Lady, Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, 
 1660. 
 
Ixviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 '^ and hear both the fancies and powers of it \ but if you 
 will needs bring it within knowledge, and boldly direct 
 it to herself, she is likely to divert the discourse, or, at 
 least, seem not to understand it. By which you may 
 know her humour, and her justice ; for since she cannot 
 love in earnest, she would have nothing from Love. So 
 contenting herself to play with love, as with a child." 
 She filled her mind, he continues, " with gallant fancies, 
 and high and elevated thoughts," and " her wit being 
 most eminent among the rest of her great abilities," 
 affected the conversation of those who were most famed 
 for it. Later still she chose her friends amongst those 
 "of the most eminent condition, both for power and 
 employments," sought to influence the men who guided 
 events, and found her pleasure in political intrigues. 
 
 A contemporary compares her to Sempronia, " the 
 great stateswoman," of Jonson's Catiline. This love of 
 power was what attracted her to Strafford, and their 
 intimacy needs no other explanation. " A nobler nor a 
 more intelligent friendship," writes Strafford, *' did I 
 never meet with in my life." ^ 
 
 Browning describes Strafford as " a man of intrigue," 
 and mentions, besides Lady Carlisle, Lady Carnarvon 
 and Lady Loftus as his mistresses.^ But these state- 
 ments are based on very insufficient evidence. In the 
 case of Lady Carnarvon the suggestion is entirely based 
 on a confusion of names. Lord Conway in a letter to 
 the Lord-Deputy tells a certain story of Lord Wentworth 
 and Lady Carnarvon, which is quoted in full by Browning 
 
 1 Whitaker, Life of Sir G. Radcliffe, p. 221. 2 p^ 129. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixix 
 
 on p. 130. But the Lord Wentworth there referred to 
 is not the Lord-Deputy himself, but his young kinsman 
 Thomas Wentworth, son of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of 
 Cleveland and Baron Wentworth of Nettlested. Up to 
 1640 the younger Thomas Wentworth was styled by 
 courtesy Lord Wentworth, and in that year he was 
 summoned to the House of Lords as Lord Wentworth 
 of Nettlested. He is mentioned in a song on the 
 gallants of the time, and in the answer to it, amongst 
 " the wags wantonly-minded and merry conceited," 
 "jovial boys as ever tavern bred," whose special quahfi- 
 cations were drinking and courting ladies. ^ In the Civil 
 Wars he served under Prince Rupert, was a well-known 
 cavalry leader, and died in 1664.2 
 
 The Lady Loftus mentioned by Browning was Eleanor, 
 daughter of Sir Francis Ruish, who married in 1621 Sir 
 Robert Loftus, son of that Irish Lord Chancellor with 
 whom Strafford had such a violent quarrel. The state- 
 ment that she was Strafford's mistress is based on a 
 passage in Clarendon, who speaks of letters from Strafford 
 to that lady, " found in her cabinet after her death," and 
 made public during Strafford's impeachment.^ There is 
 no trace of any such letters, or of any imputation based 
 on them, in the voluminous records of Strafford's trial. 
 Such a charge, however, was made by some of the 
 libellous pamphlets of the period, and was probably 
 carelessly taken from them by Clarendon. ^ The rumour 
 
 ^ Wit Restored, ed. Hotten, pp. 134, 136. 
 
 ^ Collins' Peerage, ed. Brydges, vi. 208. 
 
 ^ Pp. 132, 214. ■* Somers Tracts, ed, Scott, iv. 286. 
 
Ixx INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is mentioned by Sir Philip Warwick, but evidence of any 
 other kind is entirely lacking. The intimacy between 
 Strafford and Lady Loftus is sufficiently accounted for 
 by the fact that his brother Sir George Wentworth had 
 married her younger sister, Frances Ruish.^ "Strafford's 
 own language in speaking of the lady is inconsistent 
 with the charge, whilst the respectful admiration which 
 it reveals would account for the rise of scandalous 
 rumours." 2 He writes to Conway on Aug. 13, 1639, 
 saying, '' we have sadly buried my Lady Loftus, one of 
 the noblest persons I ever had the happiness to be 
 acquainted with ; and as I had received greater obliga- 
 tions from her ladyship than from all Ireland beside, so 
 with her are gone the greatest part of my affections to 
 the country ; and all that is left of them shall be thank- 
 fully and religiously paid to her excellent memory and 
 lasting goodness." ^ 
 
 The chief subject of disagreement between the Lord 
 Deputy and Chancellor Loftus was the refusal of the 
 latter to make the settlement on his daughter-in-law 
 which had been promised when the marriage took place. 
 Wentworth and the Irish Council made a decree en- 
 forcing this settlement (Feb. i, 1638), which was reversed 
 by the Long Parliament (May 3, 1642), and the whole 
 question was again tried by the House of Lords during 
 
 ^ The Fairfax Correspondence^ vol. i. pp. Ixi — Ixvii, contains half 
 a dozen letters from Wentworth, relative to the marriage of his 
 brother ; two are addressed to Lady Jephson, mother of Lady 
 Loftus, and two to Frances Ruish herself. 
 
 2 Gardiner, History of England^ ix. 71. 
 
 ^ Strafford Letters, ii. 381. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxi 
 
 the reign of Charles II. Had there been any truth in 
 this particular charge, it would assuredly have been 
 brought forward in the course of these proceedings ; but 
 the very numerous petitions and papers relating to the 
 case contain no trace of any such accusation.^ 
 
 Browning justly refuses to credit Baillie's scandalous 
 story of the death of Strafford's second wife, Arabella 
 Holies, and it has since been effectually refuted by a 
 letter published amongst the Fairfax papers. ^ On the 
 other hand he is hardly fair in his criticisms of Strafford's 
 behaviour to his third wife, seeing how little is really 
 known about the circumstances of the marriage. Brown- 
 ing prints at length five letters from Strafford to this 
 lady.^ These five letters were given in 1686 to Ralph 
 Thoresby, preserved in his Museum at Leeds, and first 
 printed in the article on Strafford in Biographia Britan- 
 nica (1766). The author of the article also gave extracts 
 from eight other letters which, since the dispersion of 
 Thoresby's Museum, have entirely disappeared. Fortu- 
 nately part of the correspondence had remained in the 
 possession of the Rhodes family, descended to Lord 
 Houghton, and was printed by him in the miscellany of 
 the Philobiblion Society. These letters, eleven in all, 
 are reprinted by Miss Elizabeth Cooper in her Life of 
 Strafford, 
 
 A few words in conclusion, on the sources of informa- 
 
 ^ See Mr. Gilbert's report on the papers of the Marquis of 
 Drogheda, Ninth Report Historical MSS. Commission, Pt. ii. pp. 
 293—328. ^ Pp. 94, 260 ; Fairfax Correspondence, i. 237. 
 
 2 Pp. 120, 242, 245. 
 
Ixxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tion for Strafford's life. Some authorities accessible in 
 1836 were neglected by the author of this life, no doubt 
 owing to the circumstances under which it was written. 
 The two volumes of the Proceedings of the Parliamejit 
 of 1620 — 162 1, published at Oxford in 1766, would 
 have explained Wentworth's political position at the 
 outset of his parliamentary career. More important is 
 Dr. Whitaker's Life and Correspondence of Sir George 
 Radcliffe, published in 18 10, containing a number of 
 letters from Wentworth to his friend, some of which are 
 of the highest interest. Additional letters of less value 
 were also in print in Carte's Life of Ormond, 1735, 
 and Berwick's Rawdon Papers^ ^819. 
 
 The amount of new material published since 1836 is 
 of course much more considerable. The publication of 
 the Calendars of the English Domestic State Papers 
 has elucidated many points in Wentwortli's career in 
 England, and made plain the problems with which he 
 had to deal. By the aid of these papers Mr. J. J. 
 Cartwright has narrated in detail Wentworth's early 
 contests for power in his native county, and his govern- 
 ment of it as President of the Council of the North 
 (Chapters from Yorkshire History^ 1872). Wentworth's 
 part in the early parliaments of Charles I. and his share 
 in the struggle for the ''Petition of Right" has been 
 for the first time made clear in Mr. Gardiner's History 
 of Englaiid from the Accession of James I. to the Out- 
 break of the Civil War. Even for the history of Went- 
 worth's government of Ireland much new evidence has 
 been added to the papers printed in Dr. Knowler's 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii 
 
 folios. Unfortunately the originals of those papers, and 
 the great collection from which they are extracted, are 
 still inaccessible to historians. According to Hunter, 
 who seems to have been specially privileged — " A vast 
 mass of Strafford's correspondence remains behind, in 
 what is called the Earl of Strafford's chest, in the 
 archives at Wentworth House, well arranged and bound 
 in volumes." ^ From this source nevertheless came the 
 additional letters from Laud to Wentworth before 
 mentioned. The private archives of Ireland have also 
 yielded something. From the Duke of Devonshire's 
 papers at Lismore Castle, we have obtained the diary 
 of the Earl of Cork, and from the Marquis of Drogheda's 
 come a mass of papers relating to the quarrel with Lord 
 Chancellor Loftus. 
 
 Other smaller fragments of Strafford's correspondence 
 are scattered up and down the various collections of 
 State Papers published of late years. Four letters from 
 him to the Earl of CarHsle were printed in 1883 in vol. 
 viii. of the Camden Miscellanyy and ten more are 
 contained in the recently printed report on the Coke 
 Papers at Melbourne. The arrangement of the papers 
 of the House of Lords has led to the discovery of the 
 originals of two very important papers. One is the 
 copy of Sir Henry Vane's notes of the debate in the 
 Privy Council which had so great a share in bringing 
 Strafford to the block. The other is the King's famous 
 letter to the House of Lords after he had passed the bill 
 of attainder against the Earl. " If he must Dey, it wer a 
 
 ^ Hunter, South Yorkshire^ ii. 84. 
 
Ixxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Charitie to repryve untill Saterday." The errors and 
 corrections of the letter testify to the perturbation of the 
 unhappy King.i 
 
 A TABLE 
 
 OF THE PRINCIPAL DATES AND EVENTS IN THE 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Born, April 13, 1593; 
 
 knighted by James I., December 6, 161 1 ; 
 
 travelled in France and Italy, December 161 2 — February 
 
 1614; 
 succeeded his father as second baronet, September 16 14; 
 appointed Gustos Rotulorum for the West Riding of 
 
 Yorkshire, Dec. 161 5; 
 appointed a member of the Council of the North, July 
 
 10, 1619 ; 
 High Sheriff of Yorkshire, November 13, 1626; 
 committed to the Marshalsea for refusing the loan, May 
 
 1627; 
 created Baron Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse, July 
 
 22, 1628 ; 
 created Viscount Wentworth, December 13, 1628, and 
 appointed president of the Council of the North ; 
 made a privy-councillor, November 10, 1629 ; 
 appointed Lord-Deputy of Ireland, January 6, 1632; 
 landed in Ireland, July 23, 1633; 
 created Earl of Strafford, January 12, 1640; 
 
 ^ Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts^ 
 I. 10; ibid. III. 3. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxv 
 
 appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, January 13, 1640; 
 leaves Ireland for the last time, April 13, 1640; 
 captain-general of the Irish army, August 3, 1640 ; 
 lieutenant-general of the army in England, August 18, 1640; 
 Knight of the Garter, September 12, 1640; 
 sent to the Tower, November it, 1640 ; 
 beheaded. May 12, 1641. 
 
 Thomas Wentworth married — 
 
 (i) Oct. 22, 161 1, Lady Margaret Clifford, eldest daughter 
 
 of Francis fourth Earl of Cumberland; she died 
 
 Aug. 1622. 
 
 (2) Feb. 24, 1625, Lady Arabella Holies, second daughter 
 of John first Earl of Clare ; she died Oct. 1631. 
 
 (3) Oct. 1632, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Godfrey Rhodes. 
 
 Strafford left three daughters and one son. The 
 youngest daughter, Margaret, died unmarried; the 
 second, Arabella, left no issue ; the eldest, Anne, 
 married in 1654 Edward Watson, second Lord Rock- 
 ingham. Their son, William, second Earl of Strafford, 
 died in 1695, leaving no children. "With him ended," 
 says Hunter, " the regular male succession of the 
 Wentworths of Wentworth Woodhouse, which had con- 
 tinued from the timo of Henry III." ^ The honours of 
 the family became extinct, except the "barony of Raby, 
 which descended to Thomas Wentworth, grandson of 
 Sir William Wentworth the great earl's younger brother. 
 This Thomas Wentworth distinguished himself as a 
 soldier and diplomatist, was one of the negotiators of 
 ^ South Yorkshire, ii. 89. 
 
Ixxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Treaty of Utrecht, and was created Earl of Strafford 
 by Queen Anne in 171 1. - The second line of Earls of 
 Strafford which he founded became extinct in 1799. 
 But the title of Earl of Strafford was revived in 1847 
 in favour of John Byng, great grandson of the negotiator 
 of the Treaty of Utrecht, whose grandson is the present 
 Earl of Strafford. 
 
 Woodhouse and the other estates of the great Earl 
 of Strafford passed to Thomas Watson, the third son of 
 his daughter Anne and Lord Rockingham, who assumed 
 the name of Wentworth. His son, successively created 
 Lord Malton (1728), Earl of Malton (1734), and Marquis 
 of Rockingham (1746), published the collection of 
 Strafford's letters, and was the father of Charles Watson 
 Wentworth, Marquis of Rockingham, twice Prime Minister 
 of George III. On Rockingham's death in 1782 the 
 Wentworth estates passed to the Fitzwilliam family, his 
 sister Anne having married William, Earl FitzwiUiam. 
 Her son, the popular Earl Fitzwilliam who was Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland in 1795, took the arms of 
 Wentworth, and prefixed in 1807 the name of Wentworth 
 to that of Fitzwilliam; so that the present Wentworth- 
 Fitzvvilliam family are the direct descendants of Strafford 
 through his daughter Anne. 
 
f THE " 
 
 EBSITl 
 
 BROWNING'S 
 LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 1593—1641- 
 
 Thomas Wentworth was born on the 13th of April, 
 1593, in Chancery-lane, at the house of his mother's 
 father, Mr. Robert Atkinson, a bencher of Lincoln's Inn.^ 
 He was the eldest of twelve children, and the heir of 
 " an estate, which descended to him through a long train 
 of ancestors, who had matched with many heiresses of 
 the best families in the North, worth at that time 6000/. 
 a year. "2 His father, sir William Wentworth, continued 
 to hold a manor which his ancestors had held from the 
 time of the Conquest downwards.^ 
 
 The youth of Wentworth was passed, and his mind 
 received its earliest and strongest impressions, in the 
 midst of the aristocratic influences. And he was by no 
 means taught to disregard them. He must have con- 
 sidered the various ramifications of the family pedigree 
 
 1 Radcliffe's "Essay towards the Life of my Lord Strafforde," 
 published as an appendix to "The Earl of Strafforde's Letters 
 AND Dispatches," 2 vols, folio. Dublin edit. 1740. vol. ii. p. 
 429. Biographia Britannica, vol. vii. p. 41 72. 
 
 2 Knowler's Dedication to the Letters. 
 
 ^ An account of the Wentworths will be found in Collins ; and 
 see Thoresby's Ducatus Leodiensis. 
 
 B 
 
2 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 with a very early pride and zeal, to have been so well 
 prepared, on his sudden elevation to the peerage, with 
 the formidable list of progenitors that were cited in his 
 patent. It was there set forth, among other grand and 
 notable things, that he was lineally descended from John 
 of Gaunt, and from the ancient barons of Newmark, 
 Oversley, and so forth ; and that his ancestors, either by 
 father or mother, had matched with divers houses of 
 honour ; as with Maud countess of Cambridge, daughter 
 to the lord Clifford of Westmoreland; with Margaret, 
 daughter and heir to the lord Philip de Spencer ; the 
 lords D'Arcy of the North ; Latimer, Talboys, Ogle ; 
 Ferrers earl of Digby; Quincy earl of Winchester; 
 Beaumont earl of Leicester ; Grantmesnil baron of 
 Hincley and lord high steward of England ; Peveril earl 
 of Nottingham ; Leofric earl of Mercia ; and Margaret 
 duchess of Somerset, grandmother of Henry VIL^ It 
 was from the high conventional ground of such proud 
 recollections, that Thomas Wentworth looked forward to 
 the future. 
 
 Little account of his early education has been pre- 
 served, but he afterwards proved that no accomplishment 
 suited to rank and lofty expectations had been omitted, 
 and it is characteristic of the encouragement given by his 
 father to his aristocratic tendencies, that the college 
 selected for the completion of his studies should have 
 been that which was founded by the illustrious grand- 
 mother of Henry VII., whom he claimed as one of his 
 ancestors. He was sent to St. John's college, Cambridge. ^ 
 Here he soon gave evidence of the powers of a fine 
 intellect, and of that not ungenerous warmth of disposi- 
 
 ^ Collins' Peerage of England, vol. ii. pp. 20, 21. 
 2 RadclifFe's Essay. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 3 
 
 tion which is lavish of gratitude and favour in return for 
 personal service. He met with a tutor, Mr. Greenwood, 
 whose useful attentions to him at this time were secured 
 for the future by a prompt appreciation of their value ; he 
 availed himself of them through his after life, and never 
 at any time failed, faithfully, and even affectionately, to 
 remember and reward them.^ I may add, in further 
 proof of this characteristic quality, that we find him 
 shortly after profiting by the active service of a person 
 named Radcliffe,^ connected with his family by some 
 claims of clanship, and that, from this time, Radcliffe 
 never left his side. He had been found useful. 
 
 Wentworth left his college while yet very young ; he 
 cannot have been more than eighteen. But he had 
 received benefits from his residence there, and he did 
 not fail to exhibit his recollection of these also, when the 
 power and opportunity arose. ^ Not that it required, in 
 this particular case, the circumstance of service rendered, 
 to elicit Went worth's return. The memory of his proudly 
 recollected ancestress was abundantly sufficient to have 
 
 ^ I shall have other occasions to allude to this. It may be worth 
 while to add, that Greenwood was himself a man of ancient family, 
 and not likely, on that account, to prove less suitable to Wentworth. 
 See Biog. Brit. vol. vii. p. 4173. note C. 
 
 2 Strafford Papers, vol, i. p. 9. 
 
 3 Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 125. 189. ; ii. p. 390. I may 
 allude to this again. On his promotion to the earldom, two years 
 before his death, he acknowledged, in warm phrase, the congratula- 
 tions of the provost and fellows of his old college : — " After my very 
 hearty commendations, so mindful I am of the ancient favours I 
 received in that society of St. John's, whilst I was a student there, 
 and so sensible of your present civility towards me, as I may not 
 upon this invitation pass by either of them unacknowledged. And 
 therefore do hereby very heartily thank you for renewing to me the 
 sense of the one, and affording me the favour of the other. And in 
 both these regards shall be very apprehensive of any occasions, 
 wherein I may do any good offices either towards that house or 
 yourselves, the provost and fellows thereof." 
 
4 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 called it forth ; " being," as he himself, shortly after this, 
 writes to one of his country neighbours, " I must confess, 
 in my own nature, a great lover and conserver of here- 
 ditary good wills, such as have been amongst our nearest 
 friends."^ When a hereditary good will happened to be 
 associated with one of his greatest ancestral glories, it 
 ran little chance of being lessened or lost. 
 
 The next circumstance I trace in the scanty memorials 
 of this portion of his history, is his acquisition of the 
 honour of knighthood.^ This title was then to be pur- 
 chased at a reasonable rate of money ; doubtless Went- 
 worth so purchased it ; and the fact may be taken, along 
 with the evidences I have already named, in further 
 corroboration of the development of the aristocratic 
 principle. Though still extremely young, this remarkable 
 person had been left to all his independence of mature 
 manhood ; was treated with deference by his father ; and 
 even now, having not yet passed his eighteenth year, 
 aspired to the hand of Margaret, eldest daughter of the 
 earl of Cumberland, whom he married before the close 
 of i6ii.^ If it has seemed strange to the reader, that the 
 immediate successor to an ancient baronetcy should have 
 sought to feed his love of rank by the purchase of a 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 25. 
 
 2 The writer in the Biog. Brit., and Mr. Mac-Diarmid, assign a 
 later period to this, but without authority. Radcliffe distinctly, in 
 his Essay, names the year 161 1 ; and there is extant a letter of sir 
 Peter Frecheville's to Wentworth's father, sir William Wentworth, 
 dated in this year, which commences thus : — *' I do unfeignedly 
 congratulate the honourable fortunes of my cousin, your eldest 
 son ; " — in reference, as must be supposed, to the youth's new title. 
 While on this subject I may add, that Mr. Mac-Diarmid has also 
 fallen into error in attributing certain praises (vol. i. p. i. of the 
 Strafford Papers) to Thomas Wentworth : — they distinctly relate to 
 his brother William, then educating for the bar. 
 
 3 Radcliffe's Essay. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 5 
 
 paltry knighthood, here is the probable reason that in- 
 fluenced him. A title of any sort matched him more 
 fittingly with a lady of title. Immediately after his 
 marriage, in November, 161 1, he went into France. Mr. 
 Greenwood, his former tutor, joined him there, and 
 remained with him.^ 
 
 Strange events at that moment shook the kingdom of 
 France. Henry IV. assassinated, the parliament invaded 
 and beset, Marie de' Medicis regent, Sully disgraced, 
 Concini in favour ! These things sunk deep into the 
 mind of Wentworth. " II put faire des lors," exclaims 
 the comte de Lally-Tolendal, "de profondes reflexions 
 sur les horreurs du fanatisme, sur les abus du pouvoir, 
 sur le malheur d'un pays depourvii de ces loix fix6s, qui, 
 dans I'impossibilite d'anneantir les passions humaines, 
 les balancent du moins I'une par I'autre, et les forcent 
 par leur propre interet a servir, meme en depit d'elles, 
 rinteret general." ^ Without adopting M. de Lally- 
 Tolendal's exact construction, it is certain that the events 
 I have named, occurring as it were in the immediate pre- 
 sence of Wentworth,^ were not calculated to weaken his 
 
 ' Radcliffe's Essay. 
 
 ^ This is the only remark with any pretension to originality I have 
 been able to find through the course of a long ^' Essai sur la Vie de 
 T. Wentworth, Comte de Strafford," which the comte de Lally- 
 Tolendal (penetrated with profound disgust at the patriotic party in 
 England, and with the striking resemblance between Strafford's fate 
 and that of his own unfortunate father) undertook to write for the 
 instruction of his countrymen. He perpetrated a very ridiculous 
 tragedy on the same subject 
 
 3 He does not appear to have visited France only, at this period, 
 as has been supposed. He went on to Venice, where he formed a 
 friendship with sir Henry Wotton. We find him afterwards, in his 
 correspondence, contrasting to his friend the ambassador, "these 
 cold and sluggish climates," with "the more sublimated air of 
 Italy-." — Papers, vol. i. p. 5. Wotton continued his ardent friend 
 and admirer. 
 
6 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 impressions in favour of strict establishment, and in scorn 
 of popular regards. The image of a Ravillac, indeed, 
 haunted his after Hfe ! ^ 
 
 Meanwhile events, in themselves not so startling and 
 painful as these, but not the less ominous of a stormy 
 future, were occurring in England. In the biography of 
 Eliot I confined myself strictly to an explanation of the 
 circumstances of general history under which he entered 
 his first parliament : I must now retrace my steps. 
 
 James I. had many reasons to be weary of his own 
 kingdom, when the death of Elizabeth seated him on the 
 English throne. He came to this country in an ecstasy 
 of infinite relief. Visions of levelling clergy and factious 
 nobles had vanished from his aching sight. In hopeful 
 conceit he turned to his Scotch followers, and remarked, 
 they had at last arrived in the land of promise. 
 
 His first interviews with his English counsellors were 
 no less satisfactory. " Do I mak the judges ? do I mak 
 the bishops ? " he exclaimed, as they pointed out to his 
 delighted attention the powers of his new dominion — 
 *'then, Godis wauns ! I mak what Hkes me law and 
 Gospel." There is enough of shrewdness in this remark 
 to express James's character in that respect. He was 
 not an absolute fool, and little more can be said of him. 
 It is a pity he was not, since he was deficient in much 
 wisdom. It is the little redeeming leaven which proves 
 troublesome and mischievous ; the very wise or the very 
 foohsh do little harm. His " learning," such as it was — 
 though not open to the serious censure which is provoked 
 by his preposterous vanity in the matter of " kingcraft," 
 his disgraceful love of personal ease, and his indecent 
 and shameless fondness for personal favourites — never 
 ^ His letters afford very frequent evidence of this. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 7 
 
 furnished him with one useful thought, or a suggestion of 
 practical benefit.^ He wrote mystical definitions of the 
 prerogative, and poHte ''Counterblasts to Tobacco;" 
 issued forth damnation to the deniers of witchcraft 2, and 
 poured out the wraths of the Apocalypse upon popery ; 
 but whenever an obvious or judicious truth seemed likely 
 to fall in his way, his pen infallibly waddled off from it. 
 He expounded the Latin of the fathers at Hampton 
 Court ^, but avoided the very plain and intelligible Latin 
 of Fortescue. 
 
 ^ Bacon's opinion has been urged against this, as evidence of 
 genuine praise or of the basest sycophancy. He dedicated his 
 greatest work, the "Advancement of Learning," to James. It is 
 worth while, however, to quote the exact words of this dedication. 
 They are very curious. If they were meant seriously, never was so 
 much flattery ingeniously mixed up with so much truth. They 
 savour much more of irony. " I am well assured," writes Bacon, 
 ** that this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a positive 
 and measured truth ; which is, that there hath not been, since 
 Christ's time, any king or temporal monarch, which hath been so 
 learned in all hterature and erudition, divine and human. For let 
 a man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the succession of 
 the emperors of Rome, of which Caesar the dictator, who lived some 
 years before Christ, and Marcus Antoninus, were the best learned ; 
 and so descend to the emperors of Grsecia, or of the West, and then 
 to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest ; and 
 he shall find his judgment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a 
 king, ij by the compendious extractions of oth:r meti's wits and labour, 
 he can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of learning, 
 or if he countejiance and pi efer learning and learned ?nen : but to 
 drink indeed of the true fountain of learning, nay, to have such a 
 fountain of learning in himself, in a king, and in a king borji, is 
 almost a miracle." This makes out too formidable an exception to 
 be quite complimentary, and perhaps James's irreverent joke about 
 the book itself was not unconnected with its dedication. "It is like 
 the peace of God," he said, 'Mt passeth all understanding!" It 
 was a fair retort upon the sycophancy of James's more profligate 
 flatterers, when Henry IV. of France admitted that he might be 
 ** Solomon — the son of David" 
 
 "^ See the preface of his " Daemonologie." 
 
 ^ An extraordinary account of the indecent conduct of James at 
 this conference is given by Harrington, an eye-witness (Nugse 
 Antiquse, vol. i. p. 181.) and is worth referring to. Barlow, a pariial 
 
8 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Not SO the great men, his opponents, who were now 
 preparing for a constitutional struggle, of which Europe 
 had as yet given no example. At the close of Elizabeth's 
 reign they had risen to a formidable party, they had 
 wrung concessions even from her splendid despotism, and 
 won for themselves the courteous title of "mutineers."^ 
 They soon found that they had little to fear from her 
 successor. He had no personal claims on their respect^, 
 
 observer of the king and bishops, gives a long account of the discus- 
 sion in his Phcenix Britannicus, p. 140. et seq. edit. 1707. See also 
 Winw^ood's Memorials, p. 13. James and his eighteen abject bishops 
 boasted that they had thoroughly beaten their four puritan adver- 
 saries ; and beat them, it must be confessed, they did, with the 
 rudest and most atrocious insults ; certainly not with learning. In 
 the latter respect, Dr. Reynolds, the puritan leader, had the advan- 
 tage of perhaps any other man in England. See Hallam's Const. 
 Hist. vol. i. p. 405. 
 
 1 Sloane MSS. 4166. Letter of Sir E. Hoby to Sir T. Edmonds, 
 dated Feb. 12, 1605. See also Hallam's Constitutional Hist. vol. 
 i. p. 401. A curious tract in the Sloane MSS. 827. confirms the 
 loss of Elizabeth's popularity, and states its cause, in a short history 
 of the queen's death, and the new king's accession. See, too, the 
 proceedings in the case of Peter Wentworth (a Cornish Wentworth), 
 Pari. Hist. vol. iv. p. i86. et seq. The name of Wentworth fills up 
 more than one illustrious era of the English history. 
 
 2 The news of the progress of his journey from Scotland had 
 travelled before him! " By the time he reached London," says 
 Carte, a friend of the Stuarts, " the admiration of the intelligent 
 world was turned into contempt." The reader will find good reason 
 for this in Harrington's Nugse Antiquse, vol. i. p. 180. ; Wilson, in 
 Kennet, vol. ii, p. 667. ; Neal, p. 408, quarto edit. ; Fuller, part 
 ii. p. 22. ; Hallam, vol. i. pp. 402, 403. Nor is it likely that this 
 contempt should have been diminished by his personal aspect, which 
 Weldon (quoting Balfour) has described, and Saunderson (in his 
 Aulicus Coquinariae — an answer to Weldon's book) has not dared to 
 contradict. "He was of a middle stature," says Balfour, "more 
 corpulent throghe his clothes then in his body, zet fatt enouch ; his 
 clothes euer being made large and easie, the doubletts quilted for 
 steletto proofe ; his breeches in grate pleits and full stuffed : he was 
 naturally of a timorous dispositione, which was the gratest reasone 
 of his quilted doubletts : his eye large, euer roulling after aney 
 stranger cam in his presence ; insomuch as maney for shame have 
 left the roome, as being out of countenance ; his beard was werey 
 thin ; his toung too large for his mouthe, vich euer made him speake 
 
BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 9 
 
 no dignity to fence in royalty. They buckled on the 
 armour of their privileges, and awaited his ludicrous 
 attacks without respect and without fear.^ 
 
 James soon commenced them, and with a hand doubly 
 defenceless. He had impoverished his crown, by con- 
 ferring its estates on his needy followers; he had de- 
 prived it of the sympathy and support of the wealthier 
 barons, in disgusting them with his indiscriminate peerage 
 creations. 2 From this feeble hand, and a head stuffed 
 with notions of his royal " divinity," he issued the first 
 of his proclamations for the assembling of parliament. 
 It contained a deadly attack on the privileges of the 
 house of commons, in an attempt to regulate the parlia- 
 mentary elections. This was resented, and defeated, and 
 so the fight began. 3 
 
 full in the mouthe, and made him drinke werey uncomelie, as if 
 eatting his drinke, wich cam out into tlie cupe in cache syde of his 
 mouthe ; his skin vas as softe as tafta sarsnet : wich felt so becausse 
 he neuer washt his hands, onUe rubbed his fingers' ends sliglitly vith 
 the vett end of a napkin. His legs wer verey weake ; having had, 
 as was thought, some foule play in his youthe ; or rather, befor he 
 was borne ; that he was not able to stand at seuin zeires of age ; 
 that weaknes made him euer leaning on other men's shoulders." — 
 " His walk," subjoins Wilson, "was ever circular." The satirical 
 Francis Osborne has certainly completed this picture : — " I shall 
 leave him dressed for posterity," says that writer, " in the color I 
 saw him in, the next progress after his inauguration ; which was as 
 green as the grass he trod on ; with a feather in his cap, and a horn, 
 instead of a sword, by his side. How suitable to his age, calling, 
 or person, I leave others to judge from his pictures." — Trad. Mevi. 
 c. xvii. 
 
 ^ An ominous hint of relative advantage may be quoted from the 
 Journals, vol. i. p, 156. *' That a people may be without a king, a 
 king cannot be without a people." 
 
 ^ See Bolingbroke on the History of England, pp. 237, 238. 
 Harris's Life of James, pp. 69. 71. "A pasquil," says Wilson, 
 ** was pasted up at St. Paul's, wherein was pretended an art to help 
 weak memories to a competent knowledge of the names of the 
 nobility." — p. 7. 
 
 3 See Commons' Journals, p. 147. et scq. 166. ; Carte, vol. iii. 
 P- 730- ; Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 18. ; Bolingbroke's 
 
TO BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 The popular party proclaimed their intentions at once, 
 with boldness, and in explicit language. They warned 
 the king of his imprudence ; they spoke of the dissolute 
 and abandoned character of his court expenses. They 
 did not refuse to assist his wants, but they maintained 
 that every offer of money on their part should be met 
 with corresponding offers of concession on the part of 
 the crown. They brought forward a catalogue of griev- 
 ances in the practice of the ecclesiastical courts, in the 
 administration of civil justice, and in the conduct of the 
 various departments of the government. For these they 
 demanded redress.^ Artifice and intrigue were the first 
 answers they received, and a prorogation the last. 
 
 James had now sufficient warning, but, nevertheless, 
 plunged blusteringly forward. With no clear hereditary 
 right to the crown 2, he flouted his only safe pretension — 
 the consent and authority of the people. With no per- 
 sonal qualities to command respect, he proclaimed him- 
 self a *' lieutenant and vicegerent of God," and, as such. 
 
 Remarks, p. 250. Hume observes that " the facility with which he 
 departed from this pretension is a proof that his meaning was inno- 
 cent." (vol. V, p. 12.) Fear, his saving characteristic, is tlie more 
 obvious solution. 
 
 ^ They tried to get the upper house to join them in these com- 
 plaints, but vainly. Their lordships refused. See Somers Tracts, 
 vol, ii. p. 14. ; Commons' Journals, pp. 199. 235. 238. For the 
 principal grievances, see Journals, pp. 190. 215. 251. &c. ; Hallam's 
 Court Hist. vol. i. pp. 412. 415. ; and Lingard's History, vol. vi. 
 pp. 23. 27. 88—93. quarto edit. 
 
 2 Mr. Hallam has admirably and fully discussed this point, Const. 
 Hist. pp. 392 — 400. I have no doubt the king was able to feel his 
 want of clear pretensions acutely ; but his blundering shrewdness 
 taught him no better mode of concealing it, than by magnifying the 
 inherent rights of primogenitary succession, as something indefeasible 
 by the legislature. We find him frequently, with much testiness, 
 reminding the commons — "you all know, I came from the loins of 
 your ancient kings " — a sure proof that he feared they did not know 
 it. See Pari. Hist. vol. v. p. 192. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. n 
 
 adorned and furnished with " sparkles of divinity." In 
 total ignorance of the nature and powers of government, 
 nothing could shake his vain conceit of the awe to be 
 inspired by his regal wisdom. The commons, however, 
 left no point of their claims unasserted or uncertain ; they 
 reserved no " arcana imperii," after the king's fashion. 
 They drew up in committee a " Satisfaction " of their 
 proceedings, for the perusal of James, who makes an 
 evident allusion to it in a letter of the time.^ It is vain 
 to say, after reading such documents as this, that liberty, 
 a discrimination of the powers and objects of govern- 
 ment, was then only struggling to the light, or had 
 achieved no distinct form and pretension. It was already 
 deep in the hearts and in the understandings of men. 
 ** What cause," they eloquently said, " we your poor 
 commons have, to watch over their privileges, is evident 
 in itself to all men. The prerogatives of princes may 
 easily, and do daily, grow. The privileges of the subject 
 are, for the most part, at an everlasting stand. They may 
 be, by good providence and care, preserved ; but being 
 once lost, are not recovered but with much disquiet." 
 
 ^ This remarkable paper will be found at length in Petyt's Jus 
 Parliament, ch. x. p. 227. ; and is extracted into Mr. Hatsell's first 
 vol. of Precedents, Appendix. No. i. Hatsell states, that it was 
 not entered on the Journals. This is partly a mistake, for at p. 
 243. the first paragraph wiil be found. Rapin alludes to it ; and 
 Mr. Hallam has made very spirited use of it (vol. i. p. 418.), though 
 he seems to labour under misapprehension in stating that Hume was 
 ignorant of its existence. Hume, on the contrary, makes special 
 allusion to it (vol. v. p. 15.) ; quotes a passage from it ; speaks of it 
 as drawn up " with great force of reasoning, and spirit of liberty ; " 
 attributes it to Bacon and Sandys ; and inclines to think that it had 
 not been presented to the monarch by the house. Tlie last supposi- 
 tion is certainly incorrect ; and Mr. Hallam produces a letter which 
 appears to indicate the feelings with which the king regarded it (vol. 
 i. p. 419.)- Aliout this time, it may be added, mention is made in 
 the Journals, that fresh seats were required for the extraordinary 
 attendance of members. — p. 141. 
 
12 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD, 
 
 Another session succeeded, and the same scenes were 
 again enacted, with the same results. In vain were 
 monopolies cried down, and the merchants lifted their 
 voices unavailingly against the inglorious peace with Spain. 
 After this prorogation, James's obstinacy held out for 
 upwards of two years, when want of money overcame it. 
 
 The session of 1610 was a most distinguished one, and 
 called the unjust prerogative to a rigorous reckoning. 
 James had most illegally, in the face of two great charters, 
 and twelve other parliamentary enactments, imposed 
 certain duties on imports and exports. Bates, a Turkey 
 merchant, refused payment of one on currants, and 
 carried his case into the exchequer.^ The judges there 
 refused him justice, in terms more disgraceful and sub- 
 versive of liberty, than even the iniquitous decision. 
 Against this, and in no measured terms, the commons 
 now protested. Lawyers, more learned than the judges, 
 exposed, in masterly reasoning, the ignorance and cor- 
 ruption of barons Fleming and Clark. Sir Francis 
 Bacon appealed with all his eloquence to the reverence 
 of past ages, and the possession of the present; but 
 Hakewill proved'^, in an argument of memorable clear- 
 
 ^ A very learned preface to the report of the case of Bates in the 
 State Trials, comprising the entire argument on the question, has 
 been written by Mr. Hargrave. Coke, in his 2d Inst. p. 57., proves 
 the illegality of the decision; though, in his Reports (p. 12.), he 
 had inclined to its favour, on other grounds than those stated by the 
 judges. See also Birch's Negotiations, and an eloquent and very 
 learned note on the subject of impositions, in Mr. Amos's Fortescue, 
 pp. 28 — 31. 142, 143. I cannot leave the latter work without 
 adding, that various and extensive as is the learning displayed in it, 
 it is for those only to appreciate Mr. Amos's profound acquaintance 
 with constitutional law and history, who, like myself, have to 
 acknowledge, with the deepest gratitude, information personally 
 communicated. 
 
 ^ See his speech, State Trials, vol. ii. p. 407. Mr. Hallam's 
 statement of the discussion is interesting, vol. i. p. 433 — 438. 
 
BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 13 
 
 ness and vast knowledge, that the only instances adduced 
 were on forbidden articles, and therefore false as prece- 
 dents ; and Bacon appealed in vain. Still more vain was 
 the rage of the monarch, who hastened to the house to 
 lay his arrogant commands upon them. He told them, 
 after a comparison savouring of blasphemy, that it "was 
 seditious in subjects to dispute what a king may do in 
 the height of his power." ^ They answered in a remon- 
 strance of great strength and spirit, and of much learning.^ 
 After producing a host of precedents, they passed a bill 
 against impositions; but, to use Hume's phrase, "the 
 house of lords, as is usual, defended the barriers of the 
 throne," and threw out the bill.^ 
 
 I may allude a little further to the proceedings of this 
 distinguished session, since they illustrate forcibly the 
 exact relative positions of the crown and parliament at 
 the period of Wentworth's return. 
 
 Unwearied in exertion, the house of commons now 
 fastened on a work that had been published by Dr. 
 Cowell, one of the party of civilians encouraged against 
 the common lawyers, and which contained most mon- 
 strous doctrines on the subject of kingly power.* They 
 
 1 It is worth referring to this speech, as given in King James's 
 Works, pp. 529. 531. The discontent it provoked will be found by 
 referring to Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. p. 175. ; Commons' 
 Journals, p. 430. ; and Miss Aikin's James, vol. i. p. 350. 
 
 2 It will be found at length at Somers' Tracts, vol. ii. p. 159. 
 
 ^ Hume, referring to this measure, observes : — " A spirit of liberty 
 had now taken possession of the house. The leading members, 
 being men of independent genius and large views, began to regulate 
 their opinions more by the future consequences which they foresaw, 
 than by former precedents which were laid before them ; and they 
 less aspired at maintaining the ancient constitution, than at establish- 
 ing a new one, and a freer, and a better." (vol. v. p. 34.) However 
 true this may be in reference to future proceedings, it is certainly 
 incorrect as applied to the present. 
 
 * See Roger Coke's Detection, vol. i. p. 50. edit. 1694. These 
 
14 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 compelled James to suppress the book. The wily Cecil 
 had striven to effect a compromise with them, by the pro- 
 position of a large yearly revenue to the crown, in return 
 for which he promised that the liberality of the sovereign 
 in the matter of grievances should be commensurate. 
 He had entreated, however, without success, that the 
 subsidies should have priority : the commons were 
 resolute in enforcing the condition before yielding the 
 grant. The fate of their impositions' bill had instructed 
 them. Cecil now pressed again for the subsidies ; they 
 persisted in the further entertainment of grievances. 
 They complained of the ecclesiastical high commission 
 court, and its disregard of the common law; they pro- 
 tested against the recent system of substituting proclam- 
 ations for laws; they sought redress for the delays of 
 the courts in granting writs of prohibition and habeas 
 corpus; they questioned the right of the counc.l of 
 Wales to exclude from the privileges of the common law 
 four ancient English counties ; they remonstrated against 
 patents of monopolies, and a late most unjust tax upon 
 victuallers ; but, above all, they strove to exonerate the 
 country from the feudal burthens.^ They did not dispute 
 that these in right belonged to the crown ; but they 
 negotiated for their abolition ; for they never then insisted 
 on a right, except with proofs and precedents in their 
 hands for claiming it as such. In that particular stage of 
 the contest, the necessity and justice of such caution 
 is apparent, and forms an important feature of their 
 struggles. 
 
 passages have since been suppressed, and it is now considered a 
 useful book. See Hume's admirable note, vol. v. p. 37. 
 
 ^ See the Pari. Hist. vol. v. pp. 225 — 245. Also, the Commons* 
 Journals for 1610. Winwood, vol. iii. p. 119. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 15 
 
 The negotiation now commenced. James did not care 
 to abolish purveyance 1, which was sought for; but with 
 that was coupled a demand for the exchange of every 
 other kind of tenure into that of free and common 
 socage.2 " What ! " said James, " reduce all my sub- 
 jects, noble and base, rich and poor, to hold their lands 
 in the same ignoble manner ? " The indignant " father 
 of his people " would not listen to it ; and, after some 
 delay, a compromise was struck. The tenure by knight 
 service was retained; but its most lucrative and oppressive 
 incidents, such as relief, premier seisin, and wardship, 
 were surrendered, along with purveyance. Still the 
 commons delayed ; for Cecil's demands were exorbitant. 
 They resolved to pause some short time longer, that they 
 might ascertain the best mode of levymg so large a sum 
 with the least distress to the nation. The session had 
 already been protracted far into summer ; a subsidy was 
 granted for immediate wants; and a prorogation took 
 place. 
 
 The loss of the Journals of the ensuing session renders 
 it difficult to follow their proceedings. It is certain, 
 however, from other sources, that the events of the 
 interim had resolved the leaders of the house on aban- 
 doning the terms proposed. They saw no signs of 
 greater justice at the outports, or in the proclamations, 
 or in the ecclesiastical courts. The most important of 
 their petitions on particular grievances had been refused, 
 and now, when they sent one up to the throne for the 
 allowing prisoners on a capital charge to bring witnesses 
 in their own defence, the king protested to them, that in 
 
 ^ An admirable note on purveyance will be found in Amos's 
 Fortescue, pp. 134, 135. 
 
 2 Pari. Hist. vol. v. p. 229, et seq. 
 
1 6 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 his conscience he could not grant such an indulgence. 
 ''It would encourage and multiply forgery," he said: 
 " men were already accustomed to forswear themselves, 
 even in civil actions ; what less could be expected when 
 the life of a friend was at stake ? " ^ Such was the ex- 
 quisite philosophy of James. A coolness ensued; threats 
 followed ; a prorogation was again the intermediate 
 argument, with a dissolution within nine weeks as the 
 final one. Those nine weeks were employed in vain in 
 the purpose of weakening the popular party ; and, on the 
 day threatened, seven years from their first assembling, 
 the dissolution took place.^ 
 
 The interval which ensued was one of profusion, 
 debauchery, and riot in the court ^, and of attempted 
 oppression and wrong against the people. Fortunately, 
 the spirit of liberty had strengthened to resistance. " The 
 privy seals are going forth," says a contemporary writer*, 
 "but from a trembling hand, lest that sacred seal should 
 be refused by the desperate hardness of the prejudiced 
 people." It was refused; and the shameful expedient 
 was abundantly resorted to by the court, of selling the 
 honours of the peerage, and of creating a number of 
 hereditary knights, who should pay tribute for their 
 
 ^ Commons' Journals, p. 451. Lords' Journals, p. 658. Win- 
 wood, vol. iii. p. 193, 
 
 ^ A curious letter of the king, illustrative of the angry feelings that 
 prevailed at the dissolution, exists in Marden's State Papers, p. 813. 
 See Hallam, vol. i. p. 451. 
 
 ^ Observe the account in Fulke lord Brooke's Five Years of King 
 James ; Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs ; Weldon, p. 166. ; Coke's 
 Detection, vol. i. pp. 42 — 49. The court presented, at this moment, 
 a disgusting scene of profligacy. It requires a strong stomach even 
 to get through a perusal of the details. Ladies ren:!ered themselves 
 especially notable, not merely for laxity of virtue, but for the 
 grossest drunkenness. See Nugae Antiquse, vol. i. p. 348. 
 
 * In Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 17 
 
 dignity.^ All would not serve, however; and Bacon, 
 reckoning somewhat unduly on his own skilP, prevailed 
 upon the king to summon another parliament. 
 
 At this eventful moment Wentworth came back to 
 England, and was immediately returned knight of the 
 shire for Yorkshire.^ It is now my duty to follow him 
 through the commencing passages of his public life, and 
 I hope to do this faithfully. I have felt very strongly 
 that the truth lies (as it generally does in such cases) 
 somewhere between the extreme statements that have 
 been urged on either side, by the friends and the foes of 
 Wentworth. 
 
 One of his latest biographers^ who brought to his task 
 a very amiable feeling and desire — which wasted itself at 
 last, however, in an excess of sweetness and candour — 
 sets out with a just remark. ^' The factions which 
 agitated his contemporaries," Mr. Mac-Diarmid observes, 
 " far from ceasing with the existing generation, divided 
 
 ^ An account of this proceeding will be found in Lingard's History, 
 vol. vi. quarto edit, from Somers' Tracts. See also Hallam, vol. i. 
 p. 461. ; Aikin, vol. i. p. 389. The project appears to have been 
 the suggestion of Salisbury. See Baker's Chronicle, p. 416. edit. 
 1679. ; Guthrie, vol. iii. p. 704. ; and Macaulay's History, vol. i. 
 
 p. 75- 
 
 2 MS. in the possession of Mr. Hallam, Const. Hist. vol. i. pp. 
 461, 462. 
 
 ' The writer in the Biographia Britannica, and Mr. Mac-Diarmid, 
 reject sir George RadclifFe's dates without the slightest scruple, but 
 without the smallest excuse. They are all of them extremely ac- 
 curate, and it is quite certain that Wentworth sat in the parliament 
 of 16 14. The writers in the Biog. Brit, plead in apology that 
 Radcliffe's own statement — "my memory is (of late especially) very 
 bad and decayed " — quite warrants their freedom with his dates ; 
 but they seem to have overlooked the fact, that Radcliffe distinctly 
 restricts the decay of his memory to facts he has altogether forgotten. 
 '* Seeing my unfaithful memory," he subsequently says, "hath lost 
 part of the occurrences which concerned my lord, I am loth to let 
 slip that, 7vhich yet remains.'''' 
 
 * Mr. Mac-Diarmid, Lives of British Statesmen, 2 vols. 
 
 C 
 
1 8 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 posterity into his immoderate censurers, or unqualified 
 admirers ; and writers, whether hostile or friendly, have 
 confounded his merits and defects with those of the 
 transactions in which he was engaged. Even in the 
 present day, an undisguised exposure of his virtues and 
 vices might be misconstrued by many into a prejudiced 
 panegyric, or an invidious censure of man, as well as of 
 the cause." Now, from this I shall certainly, in some 
 measure, secure myself by the course I propose to adopt. 
 The collection of documents known by the title of the 
 " Strafford Papers," seems to me to contain within itself 
 every material necessary to the illustration of the public 
 and private character of this statesman, on an authority 
 which few will be disposed to contest, for the record is 
 his own. The general historical statement I have already 
 given, was necessary to bring Wentworth more intelli- 
 gibly upon the political scene ; but hereafter I mean to 
 restrict myself, almost entirely, to the authorities, illus- 
 trations, and suggestions of character, that are so abun- 
 dantly furnished by that great work. The letters it 
 contains, extending over a period of more than twenty 
 years, comprise the notices of the country gentleman, the 
 anxieties of the parliament-man, the growing ambition of 
 the president of the North, the unflagging energy of the 
 lord deputy, the intense purpose and reckless daring of 
 the lieutenant-general, and the cares, magnanimously 
 borne, of the ruined and forsaken aspirant, about to 
 render the forfeit of that life, which three kingdoms had 
 pronounced incompatible with their well-being. Their 
 evidence is the more unexceptionable, that they are no 
 hasty ebullitions, the offspring of the moment, a sudden 
 expression of sentiments to be disavowed in succeeding 
 intervals of calm. With a view, as it would seem, to 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 19 
 
 guard against the inconveniences of a naturally fiery and 
 uncontrollable temperament, Strafford wrote with singular 
 deliberation; and his perspicuous and straightforward 
 despatches^ deliver the results of a thorough conviction. 
 " He never did any thing of any moment," remarks sir 
 George Radcliffe, ''concerning either political or domes- 
 tical business, without taking advice ; not so much as a 
 letter written by him to any great man, of any business, 
 but he showed it to his confidents if they were near him. 
 The former part of his life, Charles Greenwood and 
 myself were consulted with \ and the latter part, Chr. 
 Wandesford came in Charles Greenwood's room, Charles 
 Greenwood desiring not to be taken away from his cure ; 
 they met almost daily, and debated all businesses and 
 designs, pro et contra: by this means his own judgment 
 was very much improved, and all the circumstances and 
 probable consequences of the things consulted were dis- 
 covered and considered."^ From the high praise which 
 is given by sir George to this practice, it is to be inferred, 
 moreover, that it was no cheap expedient to obtain an 
 obsequious and all-approving set of counsellors ; for he 
 complacently subjoins, that such a course " is very 
 efficacious to make a wise man, even though he advise 
 with much weaker men than himself: for there is no man 
 of ordinary capacity, that will not often suggest some 
 things which might else have been let slip without being 
 observed ; and in the debatings of things, a man may 
 give another hints and occasions to observe and find out 
 
 1 It is much to be regretted that Mr. Brodie, whose work con- 
 tains several valuable suggestions towards the life of Strafford, 
 should sufifer himself to depreciate so strongly the merit of his letters 
 and despatches, and his intellectual attainments generally. I shall 
 have ample occasion to refute this. 
 
 ^ Essay. 
 
20 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 that, which he that speaks to it, perhaps, never thinks 
 on ; as a whetstone," &c. ; concluding with that very- 
 original simile. It may also be remarked here, that, of 
 his more important despatches to the king, Wentworth 
 was accustomed to transmit duplicates to the leading 
 members of the council. Thus, in a letter to secretary 
 Cooke, he writes : " Having such confidence in your 
 judgment and good affection both towards his majesty's 
 service and myself, I hold it fit to give you a clear and 
 particular understanding of all my proceedings in these 
 affairs ; to which end I have sent you the duplicates of 
 all my despatches to his majesty and others, as you will 
 find in the pacquet this bearer shall bring unto you ; only 
 I desire you will be pleased not to take notice thereof, 
 unless it be brought unto you by some other hand. 
 These businesses have cost me a mighty labour, having 
 been at first written over by my own hand. And I have 
 been as circumspect and considerate therein as possibly 
 I could. And now, I beseech you, help me with your 
 judgment, in any thing you shall find amiss ; and let me 
 clearly and speedily be led into the right path, in case I 
 have erroneously, in any thing, swerved from that which 
 is best and honourablest for our master; for it would 
 grieve me more than any other thing, if my weakness 
 should lead him into the least inconvenience : and this 
 you ever find in me, — that no man living shall more 
 promptly depart from an error than myself, that have, in 
 good faith, no confidence in my own judgment, how 
 direct and intent soever my affections may be." What 
 these letters want, therefore, in those sudden and familiar 
 outbreaks which are to be looked for in a less guarded 
 correspondence, is amply made up in the increased 
 authority of the matter thus carefully elaborated, and 
 
'BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 21 
 
 cautiously put forth. Nor are instances altogether want- 
 ing, in which the curb is set aside, and the whole nature 
 of the writer has its resistless way. 
 
 I have remarked on the aristocratic influences which 
 surrounded Wentworth's youth. Everything had tended 
 to foster that principle within him. His ancient lineage, 
 extending, at no very distant period, to the blood royal 
 — the degree of attention which must have early attached 
 itself to the eldest of twelve children — his inheritance of 
 an estate of 6000/. a year, an enormous fortune in those 
 days — his education — all the various circumstances which 
 have been touched upon — contributed to produce a 
 character ill fitted to comprehend or sympathise with 
 "your Prynnes, Pyms, Bens, and the rest of that gener- 
 ation of odd names and natures,^" who recognised, in 
 the struggling and oppressed Many, those splendid 
 dawnings of authority, which others were disposed to 
 seek only in the One. From the first we observe in 
 Wentworth a deep sense of his exact social position and 
 its advantages. This is explained in a passage of a 
 remarkable letter, written at a later period to his early 
 tutor, Mr. Greenwood, but which I shall extract here, since 
 it has reference to the present time. " My sister EUza- 
 beth writes me a letter concerning my brother Mathew's 
 estate, which I know not how to answer till I see the 
 will; nor do I know what it is she claims — whether 
 money alone, or his rent-charge forth of my lands, or 
 both. Therefore I desire the copy of the will may be 
 sent me, and her demand, and then she shall have my 
 answer. This brother, that she saith was so dear unto 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 344. Such was Wentworth's ill- 
 judged classification. "Ben" may be presumed to have meant sir 
 Benjamin Rudyard. 
 
2 2 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 her, had well tutored her, or she him, being the couple 
 of all the children of my father that I conceived loved 
 me least ; it may be they loved one another the better 
 for that too. However it prove, I know not ; but this I 
 am most assured, — that in case any of the three brothers 
 died without issue, my father ever intended their rent- 
 charge should revert to me, and not lie still as a clog upon 
 my estate ; or that any daughter of his, tvhom he had 
 otherwise provided for forth of the estate, should this inter- 
 cept his intentions towards his heir. But how often hath 
 he been pleased to excuse unto me the liberal provisions taken 
 forth of my estate for my brothers and sisters ? And as 
 often hath been assured by me, I thought nothing too much 
 that he had done for them ; and yet I can make it con- 
 fidently appear, that he left not my estate better to me than 
 my grandfather left it to him, by 200/. a year ; nay, some 
 that understand it very well have, upon speech had with 
 me about it, been very confident he left it me rather worse 
 than better than he received it. But I shall and can, I 
 praise God, and have heretofore, patiently looked upon 
 their peevishness and frowardness towards me, and all 
 their wise and prudent councils and synods they have 
 held against me, as if they had been to have dealt 
 with some cheater or cozener, not with a brother, who 
 had ever carried himself justly and lovingly towards 
 them ; nor do I, or will I, deny them the duties I owe 
 unto them, as recommended unto my care by my father. 
 Nay, as wise as they did, or do, take themselves to have 
 been, I will say, it had not been the worse for them, as I 
 think, if they had taken less of their own foolish empty 
 fancies, and followed more of my advice, who, I must needs 
 say, take myself to have been full as able to have directed 
 their course, as they themselves could be at that 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 23 
 
 age."^ Here the remark cannot but occur, of the very early 
 age at which these extraordinary ' * excuses " from a father 
 to a son must have been proffered and accepted ! Sir 
 William Wentvvorth died in 1614^, shortly after his son, 
 who had scarcely accomplished his twenty-first year, was 
 returned to parliament from Yorkshire. This patriarchal 
 authority, then, this strong sense of his hereditary rights 
 of property, was of no late assumption ; and in after life 
 it was Wentworth's proud satisfaction that he came not 
 to Ireland "to piece up a broken fortune."^ — ''For," 
 says he elsewhere, " as I am a Christian, I spend much 
 more than all my entertainments come unto; yet I do 
 not complain ; my estate in England may well spare me 
 something to spend." At his so early maturity, being 
 called to the family inheritance by the death of his father, 
 a new charge devolved to him in the guardianship of his 
 elder sister's children, the issue of sir George Savile, 
 which trust he faithfully discharged. His own account 
 of his family regards, generally, given in the passage 
 quoted, appears to me to be perfectly just. His disposi- 
 tion was kind, but exacting. Those of his relations who 
 paid him proper deference, received from him attentions 
 and care. And it is remarkable to observe, in those 
 brothers, for instance, who continued attached to him 
 through all his fortunes — one an intimate counsellor, 
 another a " humble poster in his affairs "• — the complete 
 deference they at all times cheerfully paid to him. 
 
 Such was the new member for Yorkshire, who took 
 his seat in the parliament of 1 614. I have described the 
 condition of affairs. They had arrived at such a point, 
 that not to declare in favour of the popular party, was to 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol, i. p. 484. ^ Radcliffe's Essay. 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 138, and see vol. i. p. 79. 
 
24 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 exert an influence against them. The liberal strength 
 had not declined in the present assembly. The con- 
 federacy of " undertakers 1," banded for the purpose of 
 influencing the elections, had pursued their vile avoca- 
 tions without effect. The new members were staunch ; 
 resumed complaints against monopolies and other unjust 
 grants; called the bishop of Lincoln to account for 
 disrespectful words ; and received the tribute to their 
 honesty of a dissolution after two months' sitting ^^ and 
 of imprisonment, in many cases, afterwards.^ During 
 these two months, Wentworth had continued silent ; — 
 not unobserved, but silent. I have examined the 
 Journals, and find no trace of his advocacy of either 
 side in the great struggle.* 
 
 ^ For the origin of these "strange ugly kind of beasts," as the king, 
 in his subsequent confession of their existence, oddly called them, 
 see Wilson, in Kennet, vol. ii. p. 696. For James's present false 
 denial of their having been employed, see Carte, vol. iv. pp. 19, 
 20. ; Bacon's Works, vol. i. p. 695. ; Commons' Journals, p. 462. 
 
 ^ "This house of commons," says Hume, "showed rather a 
 stronger spirit of liberty than the foregoing, so little skill had the 
 courtiers for managing elections." (vol. v. p. 49.) It subsequently 
 received from the politer courtiers the title of the "addle" parlia- 
 ment, from the circumstance of its not having been allowed to pass 
 a single bill. Aikin, vol. i. p, 439. See a curious fact mentioned 
 in D'Israeli's Character of James, p. 158., and the king's assertion, 
 in his remarkable commission for the dissolution. 
 
 ^ The compilers of the Parliamentary History have denied this ; 
 but see debate on it in Journals of Feb. 5. 12. and 15. 1621 ; and 
 Hatsell's proof, vol. i. p. 133, 134. edit. 1796. Hume admits the 
 statement, vol. v. p. 50. 
 
 ^ In some of the less precisely accurate histories, — in Echard's, 
 Oldmixon's, and Mrs. Macaulay's — Wentworth had been errone- 
 ously ranked as one of the "factious" members of this session, who 
 had earned imprisonment after the dissolution by a violent personal 
 attack on the king. Mr. Brodie set the mistake completely at rest, 
 by showing its origin. A Mr. Thomas Wentworth, a very popular 
 member, represented Oxford in all the parliaments of James, and in 
 the two first parliaments of Charles. It was he who spoke violently, 
 and was imprisoned. It was he also who took the active part 
 against Buckingham in the second parliament, which had been 
 
BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 25 
 
 At the close of the session he returned to Yorkshire, 
 and a year passed over him at his country residence, 
 engaged, to all appearance, in no pursuits less innocent 
 than his favourite sport of hawking. Let the reader 
 judge, however, if his personal ambitions had been for- 
 gotten. Sir John Savile, the father of the afterwards lord 
 Savile — and not, as has been invariably stated by modern 
 writers, the lord Savile himself ^ — at this time held an 
 office of great esteem in the county, — that of custos 
 rotulorum, or keeper of the archives, for the West Riding. 
 So strong an influence, however, had for some time been 
 moving against Savile in the county, that the lord 
 chancellor EUesmere was induced to interfere. It is 
 
 ascribed to sir Thomas Wentworth (who did not sit in that parlia- 
 ment at all), even by Rushworth. In expressing great surprise at 
 this mistake on the collector's part, however, Mr. Brodie overlooks 
 the circumstance of its having arisen from a mere error of the press. 
 Had it been otherwise, it would have been difficult (considering that 
 Rushworth attended the house himself, and was necessarily ac- 
 quainted with the persons of the different members) to have received 
 even Mr. Brodie's authority and that of Wentworth's own letters, 
 against the indefatigable collector. But the context of Rushworth 
 shows the error to have been merely one of the press. He is stating 
 the argument of the lawyers of the house on the difference between 
 •'common fame" and " rumour ;" and observes, "It was declared 
 by sir Tho. Wentworth, Mr. Noy, and othei- lawyers in the debate," 
 &c. — Now Mr. Wentworth was a lawyer, and an eminent one, the 
 author of a legal treatise of great merit on Executors, and recorder 
 of Oxford ; but sir Thomas Wentworth was none of these things. 
 The mistake does not occur again. See Rushworth, vol. i, p, 217. 
 The author of the History continued from Mackintosh has fallen into 
 Rushworth's error, vol. v. p. 33. 
 
 ^ It is singular that this mistake should have occurred ; for 
 occasionally, in the Papers, he is called " the old knight," " old sir 
 John," &c. (vol. i. p. 38, &c. ) ; and in his own letter to the lord 
 chancellor EUesmere, on which the whole of the present business 
 turns, he expressly alludes to " service of forty years under the late 
 queen of gracious memory." — S.'rafford Paper s^ vol. i, p. 2. But so 
 incorrectly are circumstances looked at, which do not seem to bear 
 immediately on the matter in hand, yet are to illustrate it afterwards 
 not unimportantly. 
 
26 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 instructive to observe that sir Thomas Fairfax, a near 
 kinsman of Wentworth's, was the most active against 
 Savile. I quote a passage of a letter from Sheffield, the 
 lord president of the north, to Ellesmere : — " I desired 
 much to have waited upon you myself, to present an 
 information lately made unto me, of the evil carriage of 
 one sir John Savile, a gentleman of Yorkshire, one of the 
 principal in commission, that maketh use of his authority 
 to satisfy his own ends, if sundry complaints be true, 
 which of late have been made unto me, touching one 
 particular, which in my opinion is a matter of foul con- 
 dition, and which I am bold to intreat your lordship to 
 give me leave to make known unto you by the relation 
 of sir Thomas Fairfax, a gentleman of good worth, to 
 whom the particulars of that matter is well known." The 
 result was, that in 1615 Savile was removed, and sir 
 Thomas Wentworth appointed to the office. The court 
 had not forgotten the good services of his silence, and 
 Wentworth was not ungrateful. "Calling to mind," he 
 afterwards writes to Weston, " the faithful service I had 
 the honour to do his majesty, now with God, how 
 graciously he vouchsafed to accept and express it openly 
 and sundry times, I enjoy within myself much comfort 
 and contentment. . . . You can best witness the opinion, 
 nay, I might say the esteem, his late majesty held of me."^ 
 But a new actor now appears upon the scene, in whose 
 hands James had become a puppet, and to whose shame- 
 less influence he had surrendered all his esteems and 
 regards. Having discharged the duties of his new office 
 for nearly two years, Wentworth received (near the close 
 of 16 1 7) a startling notice from no less a person than his 
 grace the duke of Buckingham. Old Savile had been 
 1 Letter, dated 1626, Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 35, 36. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 27 
 
 busy with him. " These are to let you understand, that, 
 whereas his majesty is informed that sir John Savile 
 yielded up his place of custos rotulorum voluntarily unto 
 you, whom now his majesty hath received into favour 
 again, and purposeth to employ in his service, his majesty 
 will take it well at your hands, that you resign it up again 
 unto him with the same willingness, and will be mindful 
 of you to give you as good preferment upon any other 
 occasion." 1 Buckingham, however, had committed a 
 mistake here. Wentworth replied to this notice in a 
 letter which has unfortunately been lost,^ but whose 
 import may be gathered from some passages in Buck- 
 ingham's reply : — " The reasons set down in your letter 
 are so substantial to prove that sir John Savile made no 
 voluntary resignation of the place to you, but yielded it 
 up rather out of a necessity to avoid that which otherwise 
 would have fallen upon him, that I see it was a misinfor- 
 mation given to his majesty and to me, which occasioned 
 the writing of my letter unto you." Other grounds of 
 apology are added, and Buckingham proceeds : — " Upon 
 these grounds I thought it could neither be any wrong 
 nor disgrace to move you in that business ; but I pray 
 you believe, that I am so far from doing the least in- 
 dignity to any gentleman of your worth, that I would be 
 ready upon any occasion to do you the best service I 
 could. Therefore I desire you not to trouble yourself 
 either with any doubt of further proceeding in this matter, 
 which went so far only upon misunderstanding, or with 
 so long a journey to give me satisfaction, seeing I have 
 fully received it by your letter, and have acquainted his 
 majesty with the true state of the business, as you have 
 set it down." Buckingham subscribes himself his " very 
 ^ Strafford Papers, i. p. 4. ^ ^^ 3^^ jj. -^^ ^^^^ jj below. 
 
 Of rwf '^ 
 
 VERSITl 
 
28 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 assured friend," and then, in a very curious and significant 
 postscript, betrays good reason for his sudden change of 
 style, and sufficiently explains the shrewd and deter- 
 mined course that had been adopted by Wentworth : " I 
 beseech you to excuse me to my lord of Cumberland and 
 my lord Clifford, that I write not to them now, as I 
 purpose to do at more leisure ; for now I made haste to 
 signify that which I have to you, that I might spare you 
 so troublesome a journey." So Wentworth continued in 
 his place, and old Savile, eaten up with mortified spleen, 
 waited his first opportunity of retaliation. 
 
 Wentworth foiled him at that game too, by striking the 
 first blow ! A new parliament was spoken of, and a 
 strong opposition from the Savile party against Wentworth 
 significantly indicated. He went instantly up to London; 
 spoke carelessly, it may be suppos'.ed, to his friends at 
 court, of his indifference about standing any contest ; and 
 so won from the ministerial party an intreaty that he 
 would stand, and endeavour to bring in one of the secre- 
 taries of state along with him."^ Wentworth then con- 
 sented, returned to Wentworth Woodhouse, and com- 
 menced his election exertions. In these his character 
 had full play; and here, in the first great effort of his 
 public life, were amply vindicated his achievements of 
 a later period. The energy and activity he exhibited, 
 amounted almost to a marvel ! Every difficulty sank 
 before him. Doubts were satisfied, jealousies put to 
 shame, indifference moved to action, enmity even to 
 friendship, dishonesty foiled in its own way, friends 
 stimulated, the opposition of those who still continued 
 enemies diverted. I mean to quote these letters at some 
 
 ^ **I was at London much intreated, and indeed at last enjoined^ 
 to stand with Mr. Secretary Calvert." — Strafford Papers^ vol. i. p. lo. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 29 
 
 length hereafter, in immediate illustration of the character 
 of the lord president and lord deputy, to the right under- 
 standing of which they appear to me to offer a remarkable 
 assistance. Wentworth of course triumphed, for nothing 
 could withstand his vigour and resources. He went to 
 the poll, after all, on the day of his election, with Calvert, 
 in no vain reliance on friendly professions, but with 
 positive lists, furnished him by the petty officers of the 
 several hundreds, of the names of those voters who had 
 distinctly engaged to support his interests.^ 
 
 It may be supposed into what a deadly feud the hatred 
 of the Saviles had now been provoked. From this time 
 we hear little more of the father : the son, sir John Savile 
 the younger, supplies his place. He was a person of 
 mean intellect ; but he had a restless ambition, and was 
 active in ir.trigue. He had " suck'd in with his milk," 
 as Clarendon says, a particular malice to Wentworth ; 
 and through his life he had many opportunities of showing 
 how steadily he remembered that "Strafford had shrewdly 
 overborne his father." ^ 
 
 Disgraceful occurrences had filled up the interval 
 between the last parliament and this parliament of 162 1. 
 The exaction of benevolences ^ ; the usurpations of the 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 13. 
 
 2 Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. ii. p. 155, folio edit. 
 
 2 *'The benevolence goes on. A merchant of London, who had 
 been a cheesemonger, but now rich, was sent for by the council, and 
 required to give the king 200/., or to go into the Palatinate and 
 serve the army with cheese, being a man of eighty years of age. He 
 yielded rather than pay, though he might better have given nine 
 subsidies according as he stands valued. This was told to me by one 
 that heard it from his owne mouth. They talk also of privy seals. 
 His majestic at Theobald's, discoursing publicly how he meant to 
 governe, was heard to say he would governe according to the good 
 of the conimon-weale, but not according to the common will." Such 
 is an extract from a MS. letter of that day. Harl. MSS. 389. It is 
 partly quoted in Ellis's Original Letters, 2d series, vol. iii. p. 241. 
 It is veiy characteristic. 
 
30 
 
 BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD, 
 
 Star-chamber; the deaths of the unfortunate Arabella 
 Stuart, of the promising youth prince Henry \ and of 
 the accomplished Overbury ; the rapid rise of Villiers ; 
 the pardon, and dark allusions of Somerset ^ ; the disgrace 
 of Coke ; — these are some of the events which had 
 blotted the history of the nation. And these were of 
 home growth. Abroad, mischief had been equally busy ; 
 for the small remnant of foreign policy in the government 
 disappeared with Cecil. The weak and unassisted 
 Frederick, son-in-law of the English king, had been 
 ignominiously driven from his new dominions by Spinola ; 
 Prague had furnished its disasters ; and the protestant 
 interest — the faith, of which, as he had abundantly assured 
 Vorstius, James conceited himself the defender — was 
 trampled down every where. 
 
 Proportioned to the disgust and indignation with which 
 these things had been contemplated by the popular 
 party, were the feelings with which they now assembled 
 
 ^ For some account of the strange circumstances attending the 
 death of this prince, see Osborne, p. 531. ; Burnet, vol. i. p. 10. ; 
 Winwood, vol. iii. p. 410, ; Harris's Life of James, p. 301, 302. 
 Fox, in his letter to lord Lauderdale, stated his conviction that 
 Henry had been poisoned. The report of the physicians, however, 
 is unanimous on this point, and unfavourable to the supposition. 
 See Cornwall's Memoir, in the 2d vol. of Somers' Tracts ; and the 
 admirable remark of Hume, vol. v. p. 48. 
 
 2 See Osborne, p. 534. ; Weldon, pp. 95. 168. 125. ; and Harris, 
 pp. 82 — 86. ; for certain remarkable points in the character of James. 
 With respect to the allusions of Somerset, see Weldon, p. 1 18. ; the 
 king's letters to Bacon, in the Cabala ; Birch's edition of Bacon, 
 vol. iii. ; and Von Raumer's 63d letter, in his Illustrations of 
 History. Sir Walter Scott has a curious note, in his edition of 
 Somers' Tracts (vol. ii, p. 488.), on this mysterious affair. See 
 also Somers' Tracts, vol. ii. pp. 335, 336. ; and Brodie's History, 
 pp. 15 — 19. I have no inclination to venture an opinion on so 
 extremely unpleasant a subject ; but if suspicions reasonably pre- 
 vailed before, the publication of Von Raumer's work on the history 
 of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is not likely to lessen them. 
 Dr. Lingard has put forward objections, which see in his History, 
 vol. vi. p. 116. quarto edit. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 31 
 
 in this parliament of 1621. The early sittings were 
 distinguished by active and resolute steps in behalf of 
 privilege. It is not necessary to allude to them at any 
 length here. Some great state criminals were subse- 
 quently struck down ; and after a few months, the 
 parliament was dissolved by proclamation, and the king 
 committed himself in many acts of foolish violence.^ 
 
 Wentworth had taken litde or no part in these pro- 
 ceedings. He avoided the risk of endangering a certain 
 show of country independence, by active opposition to 
 what was called the country party, and held the most 
 moderate of courses between the court and the people. 
 The service he had already rendered to the former in the 
 matter of Calvert's return, he had been enabled to render 
 palatable to his county by the circumstances of the Savile 
 feud; and it now left him to a convenient kind of 
 neutrality in other respects, which might be felt, in secret 
 quarters, as no less serviceably intended to the court. I 
 find him acting on committees in this parliament, but 
 never putting himself forward as a speaker. Shortly 
 after, he explained his policy in this respect, in a letter to 
 his brother-in-law lord Clifford. Alluding to parliaments, 
 he says, — " For my opinion of these meetings your lord- 
 ship knows sufficiently, and the services done there 
 coldly requited on all sides, and, which is worse, many 
 times misconstrued. I judge further, the path we are 
 like to walk in is now more narrow and slippery than 
 formerly, yet not so difficult but may be passed with circum- 
 spection, patience, and principally silence." 2 The 
 present dissoludon Wentworth regretted ; but he made 
 silence chiefly serve to assist him in this also. " As for 
 
 ^ See Rushworth, vol. i. pp. 52 — 55. 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 19. 
 
32 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 the disaster," he writes to lord D'Arcy, " fallen upon this 
 so hopeful a parliament, albeit I should take pleasure to 
 relate it, yet the enclosed proclamation for dissolution 
 might well save me the labour; much more then, when 
 I cannot think a thought of it but with grief, will it well 
 become me to be silent." ^ 
 
 He had moved his family up from Wentworth Wood- 
 house before the session; and they resided, during its 
 continuance, in Austin Friars. Here his body first began 
 to show its extreme frailty. He had "a great fever," 
 says sir George Radclifife; one of those pestilential fevers, 
 it is to be presumed, which so often ravaged the close 
 and crowded streets of London ; and which at the same 
 time (1622) struck his wife more fatally. He removed 
 from London, but too late to save the lady Margaret. 
 She died shortly after, leaving no issue, but a memory 
 which he held in respectful regard. 
 
 In his intercourse with his court friends at London 
 Wentworth had zealously interested himself in behalf of 
 two or three of his brothers. ^ The anxiety with which 
 he sought to get them fairly "settled" somehow, was 
 extremely characteristic. The first thing we now find 
 him engaged in at Wentworth Woodhouse after his 
 domestic loss, is the following-out of these exertions for 
 the youths of his family. He writes to sir Edward 
 Conway, one of the king's principal secretaries of state, 
 to remind him of his promises in behalf of " the bearer, 
 my fifth brother, who, intending to try his fortune in the 
 wars, desires more than in any place to serve as a gentle- 
 man of the company under my cousin your son." He 
 apologises for not having seen the secretary before leaving 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 15. 
 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol, i. pp. 14. 16. 18. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 33 
 
 London, on the score of the sudden necessity of his 
 illness. " If you would vouchsafe him," he continues, 
 " so much of your favour, as to recommend him by your 
 letters in such sort, that my cousin may be pleased to 
 afford him his good direction and counsel, and cast his 
 eye upon him as a kinsman (if his carriage may be such 
 as may deserve it), I should judge myself much bound 
 unto you for this, as for other your many noble curtesies 
 bestowed upon me. And this I will be answerable for, 
 — that he shall approve himself, by God's grace, religious, . 
 honest, well governed, and daring enough. I conceive, 
 likewise, (if it might stand with your good pleasure) that 
 a letter of recommendation to sir Horace Vere might 
 stand him in good stead, which I humbly submit to your 
 wisdom, and myself to your honourable censure for this 
 my boldness." This is the same thought, the reader will 
 perceive, as that which suggested itself to Eliot when 
 writing to Hampden of his younger son. Sir Edward 
 Conway at once granted the request, and Michael Went- 
 worth was sent off to the wars. Not without a letter 
 from his brother, however, of excellent purpose and / 
 
 advice. Among many sound suggestions for his pro- 
 fessional advancement, he observes, — " Methinks it were 
 good to keep a journal-book of all that passeth during 
 your being in the army; as of your removes, your 
 skirmishes, your incampings, the order of your marches, 
 of your approaches, of your retreats, of your fortifications, 
 of your batteries, and such like ; in the well and sound 
 disposal whereof, as I conceive, consists the chief skill 
 and judgment of a soldier." The letter concludes admir- 
 ably : — " Only let me add this one counsel, — that if you 
 come in person to be brought on in any service, I con- 
 ceive you shall do well to go on with the sober and 
 
 D 
 
34 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Stayed courage of an understanding man, rather than 
 with the rash and ill-tempered heat of an unadvised youth. 
 In which course too, I conceive, you may sufficiently 
 vindicate yourself from the opinion of fear and baseness, 
 and gain a good esteem among the wiser sort. And, 
 indeed, a man that ventures himself desperately beyond 
 reason (besides that thereby he too much undervalues 
 himself) shall by men of sure and sad brains be deemed, 
 without doubt, unfit for government and command, that 
 exerciseth none of it first over his own unruly and mis- 
 leading passions." This conduct, so deprecated here by 
 Wentworth, is a description of that very conduct which 
 it is the general custom to ascribe to the earl of Strafford ; 
 but incorrectly, as I trust I shall be able to show. 
 
 His health had now strengthened, and with it a flow 
 of good spirits came. Sir George Calvert, the king's 
 secretary of state, was selected for the first advantage of 
 these. "Mr. Tailor telling me," Wentworth writes, "he 
 would see you before the end of this week, I might not 
 omit to present my service unto you in these few lines. 
 Matter worthy your trouble these parts afford none, where 
 our objects and thoughts are limited in looking upon a 
 tulip, hearing a bird sing, a rivulet murmuring, or some 
 such petty, yet innocent pastime, which for my part I 
 begin to feed myself in, having, I praise God, recovered 
 more in a day by an open country air, than in a fort- 
 night's time in that smothering one of London. By my 
 troth I wish you, divested of the importunity of business, 
 here for half a dozen hours, you should taste how free 
 and fresh we breathe, and how procul metu fruimur 
 modestis opibus, — awanting sometimes to persons of 
 greater eminency in the administration of commonwealths. 
 But seeing this is denied to you in your course, and to 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 35 
 
 me as part of my misfortune, I shall pray you may ever 
 receive as full contentment in those more weighty as we 
 do in these lighter, entertainments," ^ 
 
 This "innocent pastime," nevertheless, did not with- 
 hold him from the parliament, which was now summoned. 
 Its proceedings have been described in the life of Eliot. 
 Wentworth played his usual cautious part, and returned 
 to Wentworth Woodhouse, at its adjournment, a better 
 friend than ever, more playful and more confidential, to 
 ;^is majesty's " principal secretary of state." Calvert 
 himself had gone to his country seat at Thistleworth, 
 and is congratulated by his correspondent with many 
 classical similitudes and quotations, on having "retired 
 to the delights of his Tusculanie, ereptus specioso ejus 
 damno!^ An amusing anecdote of James, then hunting 
 with his court at Rufford, concludes the letter. " The 
 loss of a stag, and the hounds hunting foxes instead of a 
 deer, put the king, your master, into a marvellous chaff, 
 accompanied with those ordinary symptoms better known 
 to you courtiers, I conceive, that to us rural swains ; in 
 the height whereof, comes a clown galloping in, and 
 staring full in his face: His blood! (quoth he) am I 
 co7ne forty miles to see a fellow ? and presently in a great 
 rage turns about his horse, and away he goes faster than 
 he came ; the oddness whereof caused his majesty and 
 all the company to burst out into a vehement laughter ; 
 and so the fume for that time was happily dispersed." 
 
 Seven days after this, the "rural swain" of Woodhouse 
 writes again to his selected confidant. He begins by a 
 laughing mention of having written some politics recently 
 to his " cousin Wandesford, as being a statist " a politician, 
 a meddler in state aifairs ; "but herewith you," he adds, 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 16. 
 
^6 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 " I have matters of other guess stuff to relate, — that our 
 harvest is all in, a most fine season to make fish-ponds, 
 our plums all gone and past, peaches, quinces, and 
 grapes almost fiilly ripe, which will, I trow, hold better 
 relish with a Thistleworth palate, and approve me how 
 to have the skill to serve every man in his right cue. 
 These only we countrymen muse of, hoping in such 
 harmless retirements for a just defence from the higher 
 powers, and, possessing ourselves in contentment, pray 
 with Dryope in the poet, — 
 
 * Et siqua est pietas, ab acutse vulnere falcis 
 Et pecoris morsu, fi-ondes defendite nostras.' 
 
 — Thus, you see, Ovid serves us at every turn. How 
 bold we are with you since you entred our list; and 
 how we take time, while time serves ! For, Michaelmas 
 once come, and your secretary's cloak on your shoulders, 
 I trust, you shall find us better manner'd than to interrupt 
 your serious hours with our toys." On the arrival of 
 Michaelmas, however, the parliament was again ad- 
 journed, for the purpose, as it afterwards appeared, of 
 a final dissolution. Our rural swain, in consequence, 
 desptches with an airy sauciness to his state friend, in 
 a tone between jest and earnest, some slight shades of 
 significant advice, dashed with a sort of reminder that 
 the writer — though given to looking at tulips, and 
 hearing birds sing, and rivulets murmuring, and keeping 
 sheep from biting his hedges, and such like innocent 
 pastime — might yet be called upon, as an effect of want 
 of employment, to play the part of an " unruly fellow in 
 parliament." The words of this letter are eminently 
 happy and well chosen. "Now," says Wentworth, "that 
 you have given us a put-off till February, we are at good 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 37 
 
 ease and leisure to pry (the true effects of want of 
 employment) saucily out of our own calling into the 
 mysteries of state ; to cast about for a reason of this 
 sudden change. In a word, we conclude, that the 
 French treaty must first be consummate before such 
 unruly fellows meet in parliament, lest they might appear 
 as agile against this, as that other Spanish match. For 
 my part I like it well, and conceive the bargain wholsom 
 on our side, that we save three other subsidies and 
 fifteenths. Less could not have been demanded for the 
 dissolving of this treaty, and still the king your master 
 have pretended to suffer loss (no doubt for our satisfac- 
 tion only), which certainly we should have believed, and 
 reputed ourselves great gainers, and that rightly too. 
 For is it a small matter^ trow you, for poor swaitis to 
 unwind so dextrotisly your courtly true-love knots ? You 
 think we see nothing; but believe it, you shall find us legis- 
 lators, no fools ; albeit, you of the court {for by this time 
 I am sure you have, by a fair retreat from Thistleworth, 
 quit your part of a country life for this year) think to blear 
 our eyes with your sweet balls, and leave us in the suds, 
 when you have done. Thus much for the common-weal. 
 For your own self, I am right glad for your ague re- 
 covered ; hoping it will cleanse away all bad-disposed 
 humours, and give entrance consequently unto a settled 
 continuing health, wherein no man alive shall be more 
 pleased. In the alacrity of which faith, and out of an 
 earnest desire to be made an eye-witness thereof, you 
 shall have (God willing) within these few weeks to attend 
 you, your honour's ever most humbly, most readily to be 
 command, Thomas Wentworth." 
 
 It is just possible that these hints might have been 
 taken at last by the court party, but that Wentworth's 
 
38 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 proposed journey was retarded by a sudden return of 
 illness. In -the spring, Radcliffe observes, " as I take it, 
 he had a double tertian ; and after his recovery, a relapse 
 into a single tertian; and, a while after, a burning 
 fever." On his recovery from these afflicting disorders, 
 he came instantly up to London. Charles now sat upon 
 the English throne, and Buckingham's influence reigned 
 over the royal councils more absolutely than even in 
 James's time. This, it is probable (for he had had good 
 reason to suspect a personal dislike on Buckingham's 
 part), induced Wentworth to venture more openly among 
 the popular party, and by that means convey to the king, 
 inaccessible through his minister, the importance of his 
 talents and services. I shall show very soon how 
 extremely anxious he was to exhibit himself, as it were, 
 personally to the king. We find him now, accordingly, 
 in frequent communication with Denzil Hollis, and others 
 of the popular men. He had, from the first, provided a, 
 convenient organ of communication with them, in the 
 person of his kinsman Wandesford, who subsequently 
 proved so accommodating a patriot. Soon after this 
 (one of the results of his visits to the house of Hollis's 
 father, the earl of Clare), he married the lady Arabella 
 Holhs, " younger daughter of the earl, a lady exceeding 
 comely and beautiful, and yet much more lovely in the 
 endowments of her mind." ^ 
 
 Wentworth now began to be talked of as an accession 
 to the liberal party, and the court grew somewhat alarmed. 
 On the meeting of parliament, his election for Yorkshire 
 came into dispute, and, as I have shown in the memoir 
 of Eliot, the ministerial men supported his claims. No 
 doubt this arose from a desire, by some little sacrifice in 
 ^ Radcliffe's Essay. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 39 
 
 a matter of no essential concern, to nip slightly the bud- 
 ding patriot. Eliot's opposition threw him out. What 
 has been already suggested on this subject 1, is corrobor- 
 ated by some occasional allusions in the Strafford papers. 
 Wentworth's friend; sir Richard Beaumont, for instance, 
 writes in answer to his earnest request : — " My occasions 
 are, and have been such, as with no convenience I can 
 come up to London ; for which I am very sorry, that I 
 shall not enjoy your good company this summer, and 
 give what assistance I could to make good our York 
 election, which I hold as clear as the noon sun, for if it 
 be tolerated that men shall come six, seven, nay, ten 
 apprentices out of a house, this is more like a rebellion 
 than an election. The gentry are wronged, the free- 
 holders are wronged." ^ Sir Richard Beaumont goes on 
 to allude to the borough of Pontefract, observes that he 
 is much beholden for the honour of having been elected 
 there, but hints a private reason which will prevent his 
 accepting, and suggests the name of another friend to be 
 returned on a new writ. " I should have been willing to 
 have kept your place for you, or for any friend of yours, 
 and served in it, and yielded it up of an hour's warning 
 to have done you service ; but as it is," &c. It would 
 appear from this, that Wentworth had already, against 
 the chance of defeat, secured a seat to fall back upon, in 
 the borough of Pontefract.^ 
 
 When the parliament commenced proceedings, Went- 
 worth partly showed gratitude to the court, and partly 
 redeemed his new alliance. He spoke with extreme 
 moderation, and advised a grant of subsidies, while at the 
 
 1 Memoir of Eliot, pp. 31, 32. 
 
 2 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 27. 
 
 ^ See Letter to the Mayor of Pontefract, vol. i. p. 26. 
 
40 
 
 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 same time he intimated opposition to Buckingham. The 
 adjournment to Oxford then took place; but, on their 
 re-assembling, while Eliot and others were dooming 
 the minister to impeachment, Wentworth continued silent 
 The cause of this will very soon appear. 
 
 He returned to Yorkshire. Necessity, in a few months, 
 called together another parliament. He set to work 
 instantly to prepare for his election ; but, in the m.idst 
 of his arrangements, to the infinite surprise of himself 
 no less than of his friends, an announcement reached 
 him that his name was among those of the men disabled 
 from serving, by Buckingham's notable scheme of prick- 
 ing them sheriffs of their respective counties. Wentworth 
 was now sheriff of Yorkshire. Sir Arthur Ingram, a 
 cautious friend, writing to him at this moment, gave him 
 one consolation : — " // was told me by two counsellors^ 
 that in the naming of you, the king said, you were an 
 ho7iest gentleman, but not a tittle to any of the rest. This 
 much advantage have you that way.^^ He had previously 
 said that every exertion to prevent the step had been 
 used, but added, " I think, if all the council that was at 
 court had joined together in request for you, it would 
 not have prevailed : for it was set and resolved what 
 should be done before the great duke's going over, and 
 from that the king would not change a tittle." ^ Buck- 
 ingham had gone by this time into Holland ; and it 
 would thus appear that Charles, though inclined favour- 
 ably to Wentworth, did not dare to contravene the order 
 of his minion. 
 
 Be that as it might, here was a great occasion. It was 
 soon announced to Wentworth that the pricked men 
 were resolved to make a struggle, to defeat the unusual 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 29. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 41 
 
 tyranny that had sought to disable them from parliament. 
 " I met with sir Francis Seymour here, at Reading," writes 
 the cautious Ingram ; " I find by him that he is very 
 desirous to be of the house, notwithstanding he is chosen 
 sheriff; he hath taken, as he telleth me, very good advice 
 in it; and he hath been resolved, that he may be 
 returned, and serve for any town or city that is out of 
 his own county. He would gladly that you would favour 
 him so much as to get him chosen for some place in the 
 north, and he will, if it stand with your good liking, have 
 you chosen in the west. This he did desire me to write 
 to you of, and that you would send him or me an answer 
 so soon, as you can. This, his desire, I have by these 
 few lines made known unto you, leaving it to your own 
 wisdom to do therein what you shall think good. For 
 my own poor opinion, it is a thing that no doubt will dis- 
 please the king exceeding much, and, therefore, to be well 
 considered of. On the other side, I think the house woicld be 
 exceeding glad of it, and would hold you in, in spite of any. 
 That which induceth sir Francis the rather in this is, 
 that he knoweth that sir Edward Coke, and sir Robert 
 Philips will be both returned. But, good sir, out of 
 the love I bear to you, I dare not give you any 
 encouragement in it." ^ Wentworth's conduct upon this 
 was decisive of the character I am endeavouring to 
 represent. With the ready and resolved purpose of a 
 man who is already decided on the main course to be 
 pursued, yet is not unwilling that it should receive cor- 
 roboration or modification from his friends, he instantly 
 consulted several of them. Observe how characteristi- 
 cally this is conveyed, in a letter from his father-in-law, 
 lord Clare : " You resolve, in my opinion of this particular, 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 30. 
 
42 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 rightly; for we live under a prerogative government, 
 where book-law submits unto lex loquens ; then be these 
 extra ordinaries, that rely rather upon inference or inter- 
 pretation than the letter, too weak staves for such 
 subjects to lean upon. This is a novelty and a stranger, 
 that a sheriff, who, according to the received rule of our 
 forefathers, is tied to his county as a snail to his shell, 
 may cause himself to be chosen a burgess, or servant for 
 a borough, and so in a sort quit the greater and the 
 king's service for a subject's and a less : therefore^ as a 
 novelty, it is rather to be followed than to begin it, and as 
 a stranger to be admitted as a probationer, and to be 
 embraced upon further acquaintance. For my part, I 
 shall be glad if sir Edward Coke and sir Robert Philips 
 can make their undertaking good : and I could wish sir 
 Francis Seymour were a burgess, so you were not seen 
 in it : and if any of them, without your knowledge and 
 consent, shall confer any such place upon you, you are no 
 way in fault thereby ; and yet Caesar's wife must be free 
 from suspicion ; so as I may conclude, it is not good to 
 stand within the distance of absolute power. But I see 
 the issue : the question will fall between the king and 
 the parliament ; the house will demand her member, and 
 the king denies his officer, and the king's election was 
 prior, so as in conclusion some drops of displeasure may 
 fall upon the borough, whose charter is always in the 
 king's reach. But this is my chimera, and the lion may 
 be less terrible than the picture. Howsoever this well 
 succeeding would put the courtier out of his trick, secure 
 the parliament better, and the subject in general, and 
 make great ones more cautious in wrestling with that 
 high court. Yet as you write, son, this business is of such 
 a nature, as it is much^ better to be a spectator than an 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 43 
 
 actor ^ and in this I give you no opinion; I only confirm 
 yoursT ^ His resolution now perfectly assured, Wentworth 
 writes in playful confidence to his kinsman, Wandesford, 
 whose services he relied on to keep him as well as 
 possil)le with the popular members. He begins by a 
 pleasant piece of humour : " Returna brevium is the 
 office of a sheriff indeed, — but in this, that in this high 
 calling (and now sworn too,) I answer your long letter, is 
 more than in justice, scarcely in favour, you could expect 
 from me; and little less than incivility in you thus to 
 abuse a simple gentleman in his place, and put me 
 beyond the length of my tether, it being my part this 
 year, laconicum agere, as becomes best, to say truth, a 
 man of affairs, — attendant upon justices, escheators, 
 juries, bankrupts, thieves, and such kind of cattle. Well 
 then, still to pursue, as a good officer should do, the 
 duties of my vocation, I will tell you, my purpose is to 
 carry myself in such a temper, that for my expense it 
 shall participate of moderation and sobriety, without the 
 least tincture of wantonness or petulancy, which will both 
 better express the sense wherewith I take it from above, 
 and be more suiting with that just regard 1 owe the 
 gentry of this country, to whom I have been so much 
 beholden ; of whom I should be too much forgetful, and 
 of my own modesty too, if I did any ways intend (at 
 least as far as my indiscretion could go,) to bring the 
 former hcentious custom in again so much to their 
 prejudice. Tiierefore, in a word, come king, come judge, 
 I will keep myself within the articles made when sir Guy 
 Palmes was sheriff; and run dog, run cat, drink a red 
 ryal by the place at least, by God's leave." He goes 
 through many topics very amusingly, and then observes, 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 31. 
 
44 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 ** You will partly see by the enclosed^ how the pulse beats 
 above,'' — which I take to be an allusion to the letter (he 
 afterwards desires it to be enclosed back to him,) of 
 his friend Ingram, in which the king's feeling had been 
 so favourably expressed. " For my own part'' he con- 
 tinues, '"' I will commit others to their active heat, myself, 
 according to the season of the year, fold myself up in a cold 
 silent forbearance, apply myself cheerfully to the duties of 
 my place, and heartily pray to God to bless sir Francis 
 Seymour. For, my rule, which I will not transgress, is, 
 * Never to contend with the prerogative out of a parlia- 
 ment ; nor yet to contest with a king but when I am 
 constrained thereunto.' " ^ 
 
 Wentworth faithfully adhered to these intentions ; and 
 while " the great, warm, and ruffling parliament " in 
 London was infusing, by the boldness of its acts and 
 words, new spirit and strength into the country, he 
 remained quiet in Yorkshire, discharging his duty, as 
 his humourous classification had described it, among 
 "justices, escheators, juries, bankrupts, thieves, and such 
 like cattle." It is true he had found time to attend in 
 London for certain purposes that are speedily to be ex- 
 plained, but he did not meddle with parliament matters 
 there, returning to Yorkshire again as quiet as before, 
 and, indeed, a little more contented.^ 
 
 Soon afterwards, before the proceedings of the parlia- 
 ment had closed, and while attending a county meeting 
 in his office of high sheriff, a paper was handed to 
 Wentworth. It was the king's warrant dismissing him 
 from the office he had so ardently desired to hold of 
 custos rotulorum ! Giving way to momentary astonish- 
 ment and indignation, he publicly told the meeting in 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 32 — 34. ^ Ibid. p. 35. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 45 
 
 what manner he had just been discharged, and that his 
 successor was to be old sir John Savile. " Yet I could 
 wish," he added, "they who succeed me, had forborne 
 this time this service, a place in sooth ill chosen, a stage 
 ill prepared, for venting such poor, vain, insulting humour. 
 I leave it," he concluded, " not conscious of any fault in 
 myself, nor yet guilty of the virtue in my successor, that 
 should occasion this removal." ^ 
 
 This was admirable for a public display. As soon as 
 he had arrived at Wentworth Wood House, however, he 
 dispatched the following letters, one almost immediately 
 after the other, to "the light honourable sir Richard 
 Weston, knt., chancellor of his majesty's exchequer ! " 
 They fully explain, it will be seen, the whole course of 
 Wentworth's recent conduct. **I have been beholden 
 unto you," he begins, ** for many courtesies, which in 
 your own particular I will undoubtedly ever thankfully 
 acknowledge. Give me leave then to put you in remem- 
 brance of some things wherewith you formerly have been 
 acquainted ; as also to give you an account of some 
 things which have happened since. At the dissolved 
 parliament in Oxford^ you are privy how I was moved 
 frofn and in behalf of the duke of Buckingham, with 
 promise of his good estee^n and favour ; you are privy that 
 my answer was, I did honour the duke's person, that I 
 would be ready to serve him in the quality of an honest 
 man and a gentleman; you are privy, that the duke took 
 this in good part, sent me thanks ; as for respects done 
 him, you are privy, how during that sitting I performed 
 what I had professed. The consequence of all this was 
 the making me sheriff the winter after. It is true, the 
 duke, a little before Whitsuntide last, at Whitehall, in 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 36. 
 
46 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 your presence, said, it was done without his grace's know- 
 ledge, that he was then in Holland. At Whitehall, Easter 
 term last, you brought me to the duke, his grace did, before 
 you, contract (as he pleased to term it) a friendship with 
 me, all former mistakes laid asleep, forgotten. After, I 
 weitt, at my coming out of tow?i, to receive his commands, 
 to kiss his grace's hands, where I had all the good words 
 and good usage which could be expected, which bred in 
 me a great deal of content, a full security. Now the co7i- 
 sequence here again is, that even yesterday I received his 
 majesty's writ for the discharging me of the poor place of 
 custos rotulorum which I held here, whose good pleasure 
 shall be cheerfully obeyed ; yet I cannot but observe as 
 ill luck of it, that the reward of my long, painful, and 
 loyal service to his majesty in that place, is to be thus 
 cast off without any fault laid to my charge that I hear 
 of, and that his grace too was now in England. I have 
 therefore troubled you with this unartificial relation to 
 show you the singleness of my heart, resting in all 
 assurance justly confident, you shall never find that I 
 have for my own part in a tittle transgressed from what 
 had passed betwixt us. All which I confess, indeed, to 
 this bare intent and purpose and no other, that I might 
 preserve myself in your opinion a man of plainness and 
 truth. Which obtained I have fully my end, and so I 
 rest in the constant condition of your truly affectionate 
 friend to dispose of, Thomas Wentworth." The cour- 
 teous conclusions of Wentworth's letters have a signi- 
 ficancy at times. The next letter to Weston, following 
 up the purpose of the last, runs thus : " Calling to mind 
 the faithful service I had the honour to do his majesty 
 now with God, how graciously he vouchsafed to accept and 
 express it openly and sundry times, I enjoy within myself 
 
BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 47 
 
 much comfort and contentment. On the other side, albeit 
 therein still strongly dwell entire intentions (and by 
 God's goodness shall, with me to my grave) towards 1 is 
 sacred majesty that now is, yet I may well apprehend 
 the weight of his indignation, being put out of all com- 
 missions, wherein formerly I had served and been trusted. 
 This makes me sensible of my misfortune, though not 
 conscious of any inward guilt, which might occasion it ; 
 resting infinitely ambitious, not of new employment, diit 
 much rather to live tender the smile than the frown of my 
 sovereign. In this strait, therefore, give me leave to 
 recommend to you the protection of my innocence ; and 
 to beseech you^ at some good opportunity, to represent unto 
 his majesty my tender and unfeigned grief for his dis- 
 favour, my fears also that I stand before his justice and 
 goodness clad in the malevolent interpretations, and pre- 
 judiced by the subtle insinuations, of my adversaries ; and 
 lastly, my only and humble suit, that his majesty will 
 princely deign, that either my insufficiency or fault may be 
 shown me ; to this only end, that if insufficiency, I may 
 know where and how to improve myself, and be better 
 enabled to present hereafter more ripe and pleasing fruits 
 of my labours in his service ; if a fault, that I may either 
 confess my error and beg his pardon, or else, which I 
 am most confident I shall do, approve myself throughout 
 an honest well-affected loyal subject, with full plain and 
 upright satisfaction to all that can, by the greatest malice 
 or disguised untruth, be objected against me. The con- 
 tentment of others in my actions is but subordinate, and 
 consequently neither my principal study nor care. Thus 
 have I presumed upon you, further than any particular 
 interest of mine can warrant, out of a general belief in 
 your wisdom and nobleness, the rather too because I 
 
48 BROIVNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 conceive you can best witness the opinion^ nay I might say 
 the esteem, his late majesty held of me. All which, never- 
 theless, as in good manners and discretion I ought, 
 I submit wholly to your best pleasure, without impor- 
 tunately pressing further herein than may stand with your 
 conve?iiency , your other respects, and, however, retain 
 with me the lasting truth of your honour's most humbly, 
 most readily to be commanded, Thomas Wentworth." ^ 
 It did not suit with Weston's convenience to answer 
 these letters at the time, but it is probable that no word 
 of them was withheld from the king. Buckingham was 
 sUll too powerful to be in any thing gainsayed, and it was 
 clear that he had formed a violent dislike to Wentworth. 
 He sought now to mortify him as much as possible 
 through the means of Savile. The son of the " old 
 knight," or the "old cavaHer," as one of Wentworth's 
 correspondents 2 calls him, was promoted to a barony 
 and an office in the household. It is not difficult, on 
 mature consideration, to assign an intelligible reason for 
 these proceedings by Buckingham, though at first they 
 appear startlingly gratuitous. He had, in truth, an equal 
 motive to be jealous of Wentworth, in the way of favour, 
 as in that of opposition. While it is possible that he did 
 not very clearly understand the policy that had been 
 shown by Wentworth in either case, it is more than pro- 
 bable that he feared to be undone by him in both. In 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 34, 35. 
 
 2 Lord Mansfield, who appears to have remonstrated with the 
 duke of Buckingham himself, while Wentworth thus remonstrated, 
 as it were, with the king, respecting the late proceedings, *' I writ 
 my mind," says Mansfield to Wentworth, "at full to my lord duke ; 
 and, I protest to God, no more sparing the old cavalier or his nature 
 than I would speak of him to you, nor mincing my desires or my 
 nature, which is not to do curtesies for injuries," It is most probable 
 that this was done at Wentworth's desire. See Papers, vol. i. p. 43. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD, 
 
 49 
 
 favour, he might already have received occasion to 
 suppose Wentworth Hkely to prove a formidable rival, 
 (not dreaming that a large capacity could never so impose 
 upon Charles as a mean one) ; and in opposition, he may 
 still have thought him too likely to be dangerous, for a 
 perfect trust. Nor was he without reason for suspicion, 
 at least, on the latter score. Wandesford, the most 
 intimate friend and kinsman of the quiet sheriff, had 
 been one of the most active managers of the impeach- 
 ment in the last session. And there were other causes 
 of dread. Wentworth had had some communication 
 with the intriguing archbishop Williams, and worse than 
 all, was known to have frequently visited the person 
 whom the duke more deeply feared, the archbishop 
 Abbot. I quote from Abbot's narrative "concerning his 
 disgrace at court," a passage elucidatory on this point. 
 In describing the three of his acquaintances to whom 
 exception had been taken by Buckingham, ("I know 
 from the court, by a friend," he interposes, "that my 
 house for a good space of time hath been watched, and I 
 marvel that they have not rather named sixty than three,") 
 the archbishop observes, *'the third was sir Thomas 
 Wentworth, who had good occasion to send unto me, 
 and sometimes to see me, because we were joint executors 
 to sir George Saviie i, who married his sister, and was 
 my pupil at Oxford ; to whose son also sir Thomas 
 Wentworth and I were guardians, as may appear in the 
 court of wards, and many things passed between us in 
 that behalf; yet, to my rememberance, I saw not this 
 gentleman but once in these three quarters of a year last 
 past ; at which time he came to seek his brother-in-law, 
 
 1 Sir George, it may be remarked, was not a "Yorkshire 
 Saviie." 
 
 £ 
 
50 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 the lord Clifford, who was then with me at dinner at 
 I^mbeth.i 
 
 The second parliament dissolved, privy seals were now 
 issuing. Savile, still hot against his old opponent, pre- 
 vailed with the court to send Wentworth a privy seal. 
 The latter received it while his recent overtures to Weston 
 remained yet unaccepted. It had the appearance of a 
 cold rejection of them.^ Still he hesitated as to ^his 
 course. "I have been here now some two or three 
 months," writes lord Baltimore to him, "a spectator upon 
 this great scene of state, where I have no part to play ; 
 but you have; for which your friends are sorry. It is 
 your enemies that bring you on the stage, where they 
 have a hope ti> see you act your own notable harm ; and 
 therefore keep yourself oif, I beseech you, et redimas te 
 quam queas minimoy ^ A letter from lord Haughton 
 followed. '* It was supposed," he informs Wentworth, 
 " this humour of committing had been spent, till that your 
 antagonist did revive it ; who, I hear, brags he hath you 
 in a toil or dilemma; if you refuse^ you shall run the 
 fortune of the other delinquents ; if you come in at the last 
 hour into the vineyard, he hopes it will lessen you in the 
 country." * Such was indeed the dilemma, the toil, in 
 which Wentworth found himself; — but he hesitated 
 still ! His friends now became extremely anxious, and 
 letter upon letter was dispatched to him. Their general 
 cry was one of dissuasion, but in all events of immediate 
 decision.^ Lord Clifford wrote several times in anxious 
 
 ^ Rushworth, vol. i. p. 451. Written about the year 1628-9. 
 
 ^ In the Life of Eliot, I have sufficiently explained the court 
 practices at this time. Privy seals were generally addressed to the 
 " disaffected " only. 
 
 3 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 37. * Ibid. 
 
 ^ See the Papers, vol. i. pp. 37 — 40. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 51 
 
 solicitude. " Your friends here do think, you take the 
 best course in writing to the commissioners and coming 
 up instantly, if you are not yet resolved to lend: but that 
 being the point we all wish you would grant us; for, 
 without that, we can have no hope of your safety for 
 your health or person. Then^ the deferring of the answer 
 will so lessen the gift, as the acceptance of it would be but 
 faint and cold. Whereas, if you would now assent to slip 
 the money into some commissioner's hand, you might 
 wave the trouble to appear, either in the country or here. 
 I must tell you, that I have met here with many that are 
 persuaded that you struck a tally here yourself when you 
 were at London, and my answer to such was ignorance. 
 Another sort there are, who inquire much after your 
 coming up, and these I conceive not out of any good 
 affection, because some of them have relation to old sir 
 John." Lord Baltimore wrote more earnestly still. " If 
 you resolve betimes to take this course, which I would 
 to God you would, it may be yet interpreted obedience 
 to your sovereign, and zeal to his service ; and whatso- 
 ever slackness hath been in it hitherto may be excused by 
 your friends here^ either by indisposition of healthy or some 
 other reason, which your own judgment can better dictate 
 unto you than my advice. I should say much more to 
 you were you here, which is not fit for paper ; but never 
 put off the matter to your appearance here, for God's 
 sake ; but send your money in to the collectors in the 
 country without more ado. Your friends are much per- 
 plexed and in fear of you, and none more than /." 
 Wentworth, thus driven, made up his mind, at last, to 
 refuse to lend. He could no longer conceal from himself 
 that a crisis had arrived, and he was not ignorant of a 
 means (though he might have hitherto wished to avoid 
 
52 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 some incidents attached to it,) that would possibly force 
 from it a perfect triumph. He refused the loan, and was 
 summoned to the council table at London. He did not 
 omit an opportunity to his main purpose that seemed 
 to offer itself here. Wandesford describes it in a letter 
 written to him after his committal to the Marshalsea. 
 *' Now that you are reckoned with the afflicted, a man 
 may pray safely for your deliverance ; and, seeing it 
 would be no better, I am glad you come in so fair, and 
 so handsomely upon the point itself. Sir Arthur tells 
 pie, the president reports well of your carriage at the table. 
 I shall be glad to hear of you in your present confine- 
 ment, lest that prison and this season give you a 
 nightcap in earnest."^ 
 
 He only remained six weeks in the Marshalsea. He 
 was then removed to Dartford in Kent, where, RadcHffe 
 observes, he " was not to go above two miles from that 
 town." This was an easy imprisonment, and, easy as 
 it was, was still more alleviated by the presence of the 
 lady Arabella. She had already presented him with a 
 boy, and, during his present restriction, gave birth to 
 a girl. The letters of her brother, Denzil Hollis, written 
 at this period to Wentworth, are very delightful in many 
 respects 2, and, in the disastrous news of the court schemes 
 which they supplied, may have served to strengthen his 
 present patriotic purposes. " I am most glad," he writes, 
 "to hear my sister is in so fair a way of recovering 
 strength, since she last made you the second time a 
 father : I wish she may many times do it to both your 
 comforts, and every time still with more comfort than the 
 former ; that yet in our private respects we may have 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 39. 
 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 40 — 42. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 53 
 
 some cause of joy, since the public affords us so little ; 
 for you see how that goes on de mal en pis, as the French 
 say." He then gives a vivid account of the melancholy 
 Isle of Rhee expedition, and describing the numbers that 
 had been lost, pleasantly concludes thus : — " In the 
 mean time we have lost many good men, yet let us make 
 the best of it, and, I hope, it will make our wives, instead 
 of bearing wenches, which of late you say they have been 
 much given to, fall to bringing of boys, young soldiers 
 for the reincrew of our army : and I know no reason but 
 mine should begin ; and she had as good do it at first, 
 for if she do not, at her peril, I hope to make her go 
 again for it ; and when my sister Arabella shall see how 
 mine is served, I hope she will take fair warning, and do 
 as she should do ; but I fear not her so much, for she 
 has begun pretty well already. And now I will close my 
 letter as you do yours (with thanks by the way for it, as 
 also for the whole letter), heartily praying she may so 
 continue, to make you a glad father of many goodly and 
 godly boys, — and some wenches among, lest the seventh 
 work miracles, as old wives will tell us, — and herself to 
 be a joyful and good mother, as I know she is a good 
 and loving wife, and long may she so be to your comfort 
 and her own." 
 
 Wentworth and the other recusants released, they met, 
 under the circumstances of extreme excitement which 
 have been already described, in the famous third parlia- 
 ment. It is scarcely necessary to remark here, that the 
 under current of intrigue which had been set in motion 
 by Wentworth, was only known to his convenient friend 
 Wandesford. It is not likely, from the tone of Hollis's 
 letters, that he had ever been made acquainted with it. 
 For the rest of the patriots, with the exception of the 
 
54 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 keen-sighted Eliot, they all held well with Wentworth, as 
 a great and valuable supporter of the popular cause. He 
 had long been known for his talents ; their outburst in 
 behalf of liberal principles had long, by a certain section 
 of the leaders, been anxiously watched for ; and now, 
 disappointing none, even of those who had known them 
 longest, and looked for them most impatiently, they burst 
 forth amidst the delighted cheers of the house, and with 
 a startling effect upon the court. 
 
 On the discussion of the general question of griev- 
 ances, Wentworth rose. " May this day's resolution," he 
 solemnly began, "be as happy, as I conceive the pro- 
 position which now moves me to rise, to be seasonable 
 and necessary ! For whether we shall look upon the 
 king or his people, it did never more behove this great 
 physician, the parliament, to effect a true consent amongst 
 the parties than now. This debate carries with it a 
 double aspect; towards the sovereign, and towards the 
 subject; though both be innocent, yet both are injured; 
 both to be cured. In the representation of injuries I 
 shall crave your attention ; in the cure, I shall beseech 
 your equal cares, and better judgments. In the greatest 
 humility I speak it, these illegal ways are punishments 
 and marks of indignation. The raising of money by 
 loans ; strengthened by commission, with unheard-of 
 instructions ; the billeting of soldiers by the lieutenants ; 
 — have been as if they could have persuaded Christian 
 princes, nay worlds, that the right of empire was to take 
 away goods by strong hand ; and they have endeavoured, 
 as far as was possible for them, to do it. This hath not 
 been done by the king (under the pleasing shade of whose 
 crown, I hope we shall ever gather the fruits of justice), 
 but by projectors; these have extended the prerogative 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 55 
 
 of the king beyond its just limits, so as to niar the sweet 
 harmony of the whole." 
 
 Wentworth then burst suddenly, and with great drama- 
 tic effect, (he studied this at all times) into the following 
 rapid and passionate invective. " They have rent from 
 us the light of our eyes ! enforced companies of guests 
 worse than the ordinances of France ! vitiated our wives 
 and daughters before our faces ! brought the crown to 
 greater want than ever it was, by anticipating the revenue ; 
 — and can the shepherd be thus smitten, and the flock 
 not be scattered ? They have introduced a privy council, 
 ravishing, at once, the spheres of all ancient government ! 
 imprisoning us without bail or bond ! They have taken 
 from us — what shall I say ? Indeed what have they 
 left us ? They have taken from us all means of supplying 
 the king, and ingratiating ourselves with him, by tearing 
 up the roots of all property; which, if they be not 
 seasonably set again into the ground by his majesty's 
 hand, we shall have, instead of beauty, baldness ! " 
 
 For this, in the noblest language, the orator proposed 
 his remedy. " By one and the same thing hath the king 
 and people been hurt, and by the same must they be 
 cured : — to vindicate — what ? New things ? No ! our 
 ancient, lawful, and vital liberties ! by reinforcing of the 
 ancient laws made by our ancestors ; by setting such a 
 stamp upon them, as no licentious spirit shall dare here- 
 after to enter upon them. And shall we think this a way 
 to break a parliament ? No ; our desires are modest and 
 just. I speak truly, both for the interest of the king 
 and people. If we enjoy not these, it will be impossible 
 to relieve him : therefore let us never fear but they will 
 be accepted by his goodness. Wherefore I shall descend 
 to my motion, which consists of four parts : two of which 
 
56 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 have relation to the persons, and two to the property 
 of our goods. I St. For our persons, the freedom of 
 them from imprisonment, and from employments abroad, 
 against our own consents, contrary to the ancient customs 
 of this kingdom. 2d. For our goods, that no levies may 
 be made, but by parliament \ and no billeting of soldiers. 
 It is most necessary that these be resolved, and that the 
 subjects may be secured in both. Then, for the manner, 
 it will be fit to determine it by a grand committee." ^ 
 
 Wentworth sustained, through the short but important 
 proceedings of the session, the reputation he had achieved 
 by this speech in the house and the country. He spoke 
 on all the great questions and emergencies that occurred. 
 Only two of his speeches, however, remain in any com- 
 pleteness. The second was delivered on one of secretary 
 Cooke's pressing applications for the subsidies. " I can- 
 not help lamenting," he said, " the unlawful courses and 
 slights, for which the only excuse is necessity. We are 
 required to give ; but before we can resolve to give, it 
 must be determined what we have to give. What heavy 
 fogs have of late darkened our hemisphere, and yet hang 
 over us, portending our ruin, none is so weak as to be 
 ignorant of! What unsteady courses to dispel these 
 mists, have been pursued, and thereby raised near us 
 great storms, I take no pleasure to remember, — yet, in 
 all bodies diseased, the knowledge precedes the cure. I 
 will shortly tell the principals; next their remedies. I 
 must reduce them into two heads : i. whereby our 
 persons have been injured ; 2. whereby our estates have 
 suffered." 
 
 " Our persons have been injured," continued Wentworth 
 
 1 From a MS. in the Harleian Library. See Pari. Hist. vol. vii. 
 pp. 369—371. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 57 
 
 more earnestly, "both by imprisonment without law — 
 nay, against law, boundless and without bank ! — and by 
 being designed to some office, charge, and employment, 
 foreign or domestic, as a brand of infamy and mark of 
 disgrace. Oh ! Mr. Speaker, when it may not be safe to 
 deny payments upon unjust exactions, but we must go to 
 prison for it, — nor in this place, to speak our consciences, 
 but we must be stamped to unwilling and unfitting 
 employments ! Our estates have been racked two ways ; 
 one in the loan, wherein five subsidies were exacted ; and 
 that by commission of men of quahty, and instructions to 
 prosecute the same, with an asperity which no times can 
 parallel ! And hence the other consideration, of the 
 projectors and executioners of it. Nay, this was not all, 
 but ministers, in their pulpits, have preached it as gospel, 
 and damned the refusers of it — so then we are already 
 doomed to damnation ! 
 
 " Let no man," he said, in conclusion, after proposing 
 a committee for grievances, "judge this way a break-neck 
 of parliaments : but a way of honour to the king, nay of 
 profit ; for besides the supply which we shall readily give 
 him, suitable to his occasions, we give him our hearts. 
 Our hearts^ Mr. Speaker, a gift that God calls for^ and 
 fit for a king r'^ 
 
 There may have been more passion than logic in these 
 speeches, but they had their effect. The court now saw 
 more thoroughly the man they had discarded, and Weston 
 hastened to answer his last letter ! He reasoned here not 
 unjustly — that it could scarcely be too late at any time 
 to answer a letter, which in its terms so clearly proved 
 the non-existence of any lasting obstacle, such as a firm 
 point of principle. The present conduct of Wentworth, 
 1 Pari. Hist., vol. vii. p. 440. 
 
58 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 to Weston at least, could appear no other than a tempo- 
 rary resource. Even Buckingham's continued objections 
 were therefore set aside, and, before the conclusion of 
 the session, a negotiation with Wentworth had opened; 
 — nay, almost before the burning words which have just 
 been transcribed, had cooled from off the lips of the 
 speaker, a transfer of his services to the court was decided 
 on ! We have indisputable evidence, that, on the 28th of 
 May, Finch was acting as a go-between.^ On the 26th 
 of June the parliament was prorogued. On the 14th of 
 July sir Thomas Wentworth was created Baron Went- 
 worth, and called to the privy council. It is clear, 
 however, that at the same time he had stipulated to be 
 made a viscount, and lord president of the North 2, but 
 this apparently could not be done, till the death of 
 Buckingham had removed a still lingering obstacle.^ 
 
 1 have thus endeavoured to trace at greater length, 
 and with greater exactness than has been attempted 
 hitherto, the opening passages in the political history 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 46. 
 - See Papers, vol. ii. p. 390. 
 
 2 A passage in Rush worth (vol. viii. p. 768.) is corroborative of 
 the view which I have presented of Wentworth's public conduct. 
 The collector professes to give all those parliamentary speeches "in 
 which my lord of Strafford so discovered his wit and temper, that 
 the court took particular notice of him," and gives only the speeches 
 that were delivered in this third parliament. It is clear that he had 
 not rendered himself at all formidable before. Rushworth, indeed, 
 subsequently sets this at rest, by adding, — " Now he began to be 
 more generally taken notice of by all men, and his fame to spread 
 abroad, where public affairs, and the criticisms of the times, were 
 discoursed by the most refined judgments ; those who were infected 
 with popularity flattering themselves that he was inclined to support 
 their inclination, and would prove a champion on that account ; but 
 such discourse, as it endeared him to his country, so it begot to him 
 an interest in the bosom of his prince, who (having a discerning 
 judgment of men) quickly made his observation of Wentworth's, that 
 he was a person framed for great affairs, and fit to be near his royal 
 person and councils." 
 
BROWNIACS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 59 
 
 of this extraordinary man. The common and vulgar 
 account given by Heylin ^ has been, it is believed, ex- 
 ploded, along with that of the no less vulgar Hacket.^ 
 All Wentworth's movements in the path which has been 
 followed, appear to me to be perfectly natural and intel- 
 ligible, if his true character is kept in view. From the 
 very intensity of the aristocratic principle within him, 
 arose his hesitation in espousing at once the interests of 
 the court. This, justly and carefully considered, will be 
 found the solution of his reluctant advances, and still more 
 reluctant retreats. The intervention of a favourite was 
 hardly supportable by one whose ambition, as he felt 
 obliged to confess to himself even then, would be satisfied 
 with nothing short of the dignity of becoming " the king's 
 mistress, to be cherished and courted by none but 
 himself." He was to be understood, and then invited, — 
 rather than forced to an expHcit declaration, and then 
 only accepted. The purpose of the alternating attraction 
 and repulsion of his proceedings, such as I have de- 
 scribed them, submissive and refractory, might have been 
 obvious, indeed, to an obtuser perception than Buck- 
 ingham's, but that mediocrity will always find its little 
 account in crushing rather than winning over genius, and 
 is rendered almost as uncomfortable by an uncongenial 
 coadjutor as by a strenuous opponent. Wentworth's 
 conduct, at the last, was forced upon him by circum- 
 stances : — but his energetic support of the Petition of 
 Rights was only the completion of a series of hints, all of 
 which had been more or less intelligible ; and, even now, 
 unwillingly understood as this was by the minister, it was 
 yet more reluctantly acted upon, for by Buckingham's 
 death alone, as we are informed, the *' great bar" to 
 ^ Life of Laud, p. 194. 2 Scrinia Reserata. 
 
6o BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Wentworth's advancement was removed. ^ It may be 
 added, that, even in all these circumstances, when many- 
 steps were forced upon him, which his proud spirit but 
 poorly submitted to, and wronged itself in submitting to, 
 it is yet possible to perceive a quality in his nature which 
 was afterwards more fully developed. He was possessed 
 with a rooted aversion, from the first, to the court flies 
 that buzzed around the monarch, and as little inclined to 
 suffer their good offices as to deprecate their hostility. 
 The receipt, shortly after this, of divers ill-spelt and 
 solemn sillinesses from the king, seems to have occasioned 
 a deep and enduring gratitude in him, for the dispensing 
 with a medium that had annoyed him. "I do with 
 infinite sense," writes he, "consider your majesty's great 
 goodness, not only most graciously approvmg of that 
 address of mine immediately to yourself, but allowing 
 it unto me hereafter, which I shall rest myself upon as 
 my greatest support on earth, and make bold to practise, 
 yet I trust without importunity or sauciness." The few 
 attempts to ingratiate himself with the queen, which were 
 ultimately forced on Wentworth by his declining fortunes, 
 were attended with but faint success, and he appears to 
 have impressed her, on the whole, with little beyond the 
 prettiness of his hands, which she allowed to be " the 
 finest in the world " ^ — to the prejudice of his head, which 
 she was not so inclined to preserve. 
 
 In one word, what it is desired to impress upon the 
 reader, before the delineation of Wentworth in his after 
 years, is this — that he was consistent to himself through- 
 
 ^ Biog. Britt., vol. vii. p. 4179. 
 
 ^ This is told us by madame de Motteville, who repeats what 
 Henrietta had said to her : — " II etait laid, mais assez agreable de 
 sa personne ; et la reine, me contant toutes ces choses, s'arreta pour 
 me dire qu'il avait les plus belles mains du monde." 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 6l 
 
 out I have always considered that much good wrath 
 is thrown away upon what is usually called '* apos- 
 tacy." In the majority of cases, if the circumstances are 
 thoroughly examined, it will be found that there has 
 been "no such thing." The position on which the 
 acute Roman thought fit to base his whole theory of 
 Esthetics — 
 
 ** Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam 
 Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas, 
 Undique collatis membris, ut turpiter atram 
 Desinat in pi seem mulier formosa superne, 
 Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici ? " &c. 
 
 — is of far wider application than to the exigencies of 
 an art of poetry ; and those who carry their researches 
 into the moral nature of mankind, cannot do better than 
 impress upon their minds, at the outset, that in the 
 regions they explore, they are to expect no monsters — • 
 no essentially discordant termination to any " mulier 
 formosa superne. " Infinitely and distinctly various as 
 appear the shifting hues of our common nature when 
 subjected to the prism of circumstance, each ray into 
 which it is broken is no less in itself a primitive colour, 
 susceptible, indeed, of vast modification, but incapable 
 of further division. Indolence, however, in its delight 
 for broad classifications, finds its account in overlooking 
 this; and among the results, none is more conspicuous 
 than the long list of apostates with which history fur- 
 nishes us. It is very true, it may be admitted, that when 
 we are informed by an old chronicler that, " at this time, 
 Ezzelin changed totally his disposition," — or by a modern 
 biographer that, " at such a period, Tiberius first became 
 a wicked prince," — we examine too curiously if we con- 
 sider such information as in reality regarding other than 
 
62 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 the act done, and the popular inference recorded ; beyond 
 which it was no part of the writer to inquire. But such 
 historians as these value themselves materially on their 
 dispensation of good or evil fame ; and as the " complete 
 change," so dramatically recounted, has commonly no 
 mean influence on the nature of their award, the observ- 
 ations I have made may be of service to the just estimate 
 of their more sweeping conclusions. 
 
 Against all such conclusions I earnestly protest in the 
 case of the remarkable personage whose ill-fated career 
 we are now retracing. Let him be judged sternly, but 
 in no unphilosophic spirit. In turning from the bright 
 band of patriot brothers to the solitary Strafford — " a star 
 which dwelt apart " — we have to contemplate no ex- 
 tinguished splendour, razed and blotted from the book 
 of life. Lustrous, indeed, as was the gathering of the 
 lights in the political heaven of this great time, even that 
 radiant cluster might have exulted in the accession of the 
 "comet beautiful and fierce," which tarried a while 
 within its limits ere it "dashed athwart with train of 
 flame." But it was governed by other laws than were 
 owned by its golden associates, and — impelled by a 
 contrary, yet no less irresistible force, than that which 
 restrained them within their eternal orbits — it left them, 
 never to "float into that azure heaven again." 
 
 Before attending Wentworth to his presidency in the 
 North, we may stop to consider one of those grand 
 features in his character, on which many subordinate 
 considerations depend, and a proper understanding of 
 which ought to be brought, as a first requisite, to the just 
 observation of his measures. 
 
 I cannot believe Wentworth to have been the vain 
 man popular opinion has pronounced him, nor discover 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 63 
 
 in him any of that overweening and unwarranted self- 
 confidence, which friends no less than foes have laid to 
 his charge. An arrogance, based on the supposed pos- 
 session of pre-eminent qualities which have no existence, 
 is one thing ; and the calm perception of an undoubted 
 superiority, is another. Wentworth, indeed, "stood hke 
 a tower" — but that unshaken confidence did not "sud- 
 denly scale the light." Its stately proportions were 
 slowly evolved ; its eventual elevation unavoidable, and 
 amply vindicated. We have met with no evidences of a 
 refractory or self-sufficient disposition in the youth of 
 Wentworth ? His studies at Cambridge had a prosperous 
 issue, and he ever remembered his college life with 
 affection. " I am sorry to speak it, but truth will out," 
 writes he to Laud concerning an episcopal delinquent, 
 " this Bishop is a St. John's man — of Oxford, I mean, not 
 Cambridge ; our Cambridge panniers never brought such 
 a fairing to the market." ^ His deep esteem for his tutor, 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 189. Laud makes merry upon this 
 happy phrase of the lord deputy's. The passages are characteristic 
 of the correspondence, and therefore worth quoting. " And so your 
 Lordship," he writes, " is very sorry to tell the truth, but only that 
 it will out. A St. John's man you say he is, and of Oxford— your 
 Cambridge panniers never brought such a fairing to the market. 
 Yes, my good lord, but it hath ; for what say you of dean Palmer ? 
 Who, besides his other virtues, sold all the lead off from the church 
 at Peterburgh ; yet he was brought in your Cambridge panniers ; 
 and so was bishop Rowland too, who used that bishoprick, as well 
 as he did the deanary. I must confess this man's baseness hath not 
 many fellows, but his bribery may have store. And I pray, is that 
 ever a whit the less fault, because it is gentleman-like for hundreds 
 and thousands ? Whereas this man deals for twenty shillings and 
 less. I hope you will not say so, and if you do not, then 1 pray 
 examine your Cambridge panniers again, for some say such may be 
 found there, but I for my part will not believe it, unless your lord- 
 ship make me," Wentworth appears to have contested this point 
 in Laud's own humour. The bishop retorts by asking him what his 
 *'Jonnism," means. "Now you are merry again. God hold it. 
 And what ? Dr. Palmer acted like a king ? Be it so. But he was 
 another card in the pack. As for bishop Howland, you never 
 
64 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Greenwood, reflects honour on both parties. I have said 
 that it was originated by good services performed, and 
 so, perhaps, it is necessary to limit all Strafford's likings 
 — all, except the fatal one which cost him life, his liking 
 for the weak and unworthy king, which had its origin in 
 that abstract veneration for power, which (or rather, as 
 he afterwards too late discovered, the semblance of which) 
 we have just seen him by some practices beneath his 
 nature, climbing up to, and in the exercise of which, we 
 are to view him hereafter. But his esteem for Green- 
 wood, whatever its origin, was not to have been provoked 
 by truckling sycophancy. Nothing of that sort would 
 have succeeded in impressing its object with so profound 
 a respect as dictates the following paragraph in an 
 interesting letter to his nephew and ward, sir W. Savile. 
 *' In these, and all things else, you shall do passing well 
 to consult Mr. Greenwood, who hath seen much, is very 
 well able to judge, and certainly most faithful to you. If 
 you use him not most respectively, you deal extreme 
 ungrateful with him, and ill for yourself. He was the 
 man your father loved and trusted above all men, and 
 did as faithfully discharge the trust reposed in him, as 
 ever in my time I knew any man do for his dead friend, 
 taking excessive pains in settling your estate with all 
 possible cheerfulness, without charge to you at all. His 
 
 heard of him. What? Nor of Jeames his wife neither? Good 
 Lord, how ignorant you can be when you list. Yea but you have 
 taken St. John's Ox. Flagrante crimine, and I put you to your 
 memory. Is it so ? Come on then : you know there is a cause in 
 the Star-Chamber ; some were to answer, and they brought their 
 answers ready written. If the bishop of Lincoln sent them ready 
 for his turn, hath he not an excellent forge? What if this appear ? 
 I hope you will not then say I put you to your memory. 'Tis now 
 under examination, and is not this if, &c. flagrante crimine ? Go 
 brag now." 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 65 
 
 advice will be always upright, and you may safely pour 
 your secrets into him, which, by that time you have 
 conversed a little more abroad in the world, you will find 
 to be the greatest and noblest treasure this world can 
 make any man owner of; and I protest to God, were I 
 in your place, I would think him the greatest and best 
 riches I did or could possess." ^ In the same letter, 
 Wentworth assures this youth — " you cannot consider 
 yourself, and advise and debate your actions with your 
 friends too much ; and, till such time as experience hath 
 ripened your judgment, it shall be great wisdom and 
 advantage to distrust yourself, and to fortify your youth 
 by the counsel of your more aged friends, before you 
 undertake anything of consequence. It was the course 
 that I governed myself by after my father's death, with 
 great advantage to myself and affairs ; and yet my breed- 
 ing abroad had shown me more of the world than yours 
 hath done, and I had natural reason like other men ; 
 only I confess I did in all things distrust myself, wherein 
 you shall do, as I said, extremely well, if you do so 
 too." 2 There is no self-sufficiency here ! 
 
 Wentworth's method of study has been transmitted to 
 us by sir George Radcliffe, and I quote it in strong 
 corroboration of the view which has been urged. " He 
 writ," Radcliffe assures us, "as well as he spoke: this 
 perfection he attained, first, by reading well penned 
 authors in French, English, and Latin, and observing 
 their expressions ; secondly, by hearing of eloquent men, 
 which he did diligently in their sermons and publick 
 speeches ; thirdly, by a very great care and industry, 
 which he used when he was young, in penning his epistles 
 
 ^ Papers, vol. i. p. 170. 
 2 Ibid. p. 169. 
 
66 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 and missives of what subject soever; but above all, he 
 had a natural quickness of wit and fancy, with great 
 clearness of judgement, and much practice, without which 
 his other helps, of reading and hearing, would not have 
 brought him to that great perfection to which he attained. 
 I learned one rule of him, which I think worthy to be 
 remembered : when he met with a well penned oration or 
 tract upon any subject or question, he framed a speech upon 
 the same argument, inventing and disposing what seemed 
 jit to be said upon that subject, before he read the book ; 
 then reading the book, compare his own with the author, 
 and note his own defects, and the author's art and fulness ; 
 whereby he observed all that was in the author more 
 strictly, and might better judge of his own wants to 
 supply them." ^ Now this early habit of confronting, so 
 to speak, the full grown wits of other men — of satisfy- 
 ing himself of his own precise intellectual height by 
 thoroughly scanning the acknowledged stature of the 
 world's giants — is as much removed from a rash assump- 
 tion as from the nervous apprehension of mediocrity. 
 
 Wentworth's temper was passionate ; and it is curious 
 and instructive, in the present view of his character, to 
 mark the steps he took in relation to this. I have 
 already spoken of his extreme cautiousness; of the 
 select council that canvassed his business, suggested his 
 measures, and revised his correspondence ; of his defer- 
 ence to advice, and indeed, submission to reproof, from 
 his assured friends. " He was naturally exceeding 
 choleric," says sir George Radcliffe, '* an infirmity with 
 which he had great wrestlings; and though he kept a 
 watchfulness over himself concerning it, yet it could not 
 be so prevented, but sometimes upon sudden occasions 
 ■^ Papers, vol. ii. p. 435. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 67 
 
 it would break. He had sundry friends that often ad- 
 monished him of it ; and he had the great prudence to 
 take in good part such admonitions : nay, I can say that 
 I, one of his most intimate friends, never gained more 
 upon his trust and affection, than by this freedom with 
 him, in telHng him of his weaknesses. For he was a man 
 and not an angel, yet such a man as made a conscience 
 of his ways, and did endeavour to grow in virtue and 
 victory over himself, and made good progress accord- 
 ingly." This "good progress" brought him eventually 
 to a very efficient self control. In cases where he would 
 seem to have exceeded it, and to have been transported 
 beyond decency and prudence, it would be hasty to 
 assume, as Clarendon and other writers have done, that 
 it was in mere satisfaction of his will. These writers, it 
 will not be difficult to show, have not that excuse for the 
 failure of their principles in Wentworth's person. The 
 truth was that, as in the case of Napoleon and other great 
 masters of the despotic art, anger was one of the instru- 
 ments of his policy. He came to know when to be in a 
 passion, and flew into a passion accordingly. "You gave 
 me a good lesson to be patient," he writes to old secretary 
 Cooke, "and indeed my years and natural inclinations 
 give me heat more than enough, which however, I trust, 
 more experience shall cool, and a watch over myself in 
 time altogether overcome ; in the mean space, in this at 
 least it will set forth itself more pardonable, because my 
 earnestness shall ever be for the honour, justice, and 
 profit of my master ; and // is not always anger, but the 
 misapplying of it, that is the vice so blameable, and of 
 disadvantage to those that let themselves loose thereunto.^'' ^ 
 In the same despatch to the secretary from which I 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 87. 
 
68 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 have taken the above, he had observed, immediately 
 before, — " Nor is it one of my least comforts that I shall 
 have the means to resort to so wise and well affected a 
 friend to nle as I esteem yourself, and to a servant that 
 goes the same way to my master's ends that I do ; and 
 therefore let me adjure you, by all the interests that I 
 may or would have in you, that as you will (I am sure) 
 assist me when I am right, so by your sensible and grave 
 counsel, reduce me when I may happen to tread awry.''^ 
 And thus, from the first, is Wentworth found soliciting 
 the direction of others in all important conjunctures ; not, 
 indeed, with the vague distress of one unprovided with 
 expedients of his own, and disposed to adopt the first 
 course that shall be proposed, but with the calm purpose 
 of one decided on the main course to be pursued, yet 
 not unwilling that it receive the corroboration, or undergo 
 the modification, of an experienced adviser. This has 
 been occasionally illustrated in the business of his nomi- 
 nation by the king for the office of sheriff, where, having 
 already chosen his party, he submits his determination 
 to his father-in-law, the earl of Clare, whose answer has 
 been quoted. I have mentioned also his practice of 
 transmitting duplicates of his despatches on all urgent 
 occasions to Laud, Cooke, and Cottington. 
 
 No passage, indeed, in the career of Wentworth proves 
 him to have been a vain man. His singular skill is never 
 satisfied, without an unremitting application of means to 
 any desired end, and the neglect of no circumstance, the 
 most minute and apparently trivial, that may conduce to 
 its success. Would he ensure his own return for a county, 
 and smuggle in a ministerial candidate under the wing of 
 his own popularity ? — He proceeds as though his personal 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 87. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 69 
 
 merits could in no way influence the event, and all his 
 hopes are founded on the activity of his friends, which 
 he leaves no stone unturned to increase. In one and 
 the same day^ sir Thomas Gower, high sheriff of York, is 
 informed that — "Being, at tlie entreaty of some of my 
 best friends, resolved to try the affections of my country- 
 men in the next election of knights for the shire, I could 
 do no less than take hold of this fit occasion to write 
 unto you these few lines. Wherein I must first give you 
 thanks for the good respect you have been pleased to 
 show towards me, to some of my good friends who moved 
 you for your just and equal favour at the time of the 
 election ; which, as I will be found ready to deserve and 
 affectionately to requite, so must I here solicit you for 
 the continuance of your good purposes towards me ; and 
 lastly desire to understand from you, what day the county 
 falls out upon (which is to be the next after the receipt 
 of the writ), that so I may provide myself and friends to 
 give our first voices for Mr. Secretary, and the second 
 for myself." — Sir Henry Bellasis assured that — " Presently 
 upon my return from London, I find by Mr. Carre, how 
 much I am beholden unto you for your good affection. 
 In truth I do not desire it out of any ambition, but rather 
 to satisfy some of my best friends, and such as have most 
 power over me. Yet, if the country make choice of me, 
 surely I will zealously perform the best service for them 
 that my means or understanding shall enable me unto. 
 And having thus far upon this occasion declared myself, 
 must take it as a great testimony of affection in them that . 
 shall afford me their voices, and those of their friends for 
 Mr. secretary Calvert in the prime, and myself in the 
 second place. Particularly am I hereby to give you 
 therefore thanks, and will so settledly lodge this favour in 
 
70 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 my heart, that I will not fail to remember and deserve it. 
 In my next letters I will likewise let Mr. Secretary know 
 your good respect and kindness towards him, whereof I 
 dare assure you he will not be uninindfiil. The election 
 day will fall out very unhappily upon Christmas-day ; but 
 it is irremediless, and therefore must be yielden unto. 
 If you will please to honour me with the company of 
 yourself and friends upon that day at dinner, I shall take 
 it as a second and especial favour : in retribution whereof 
 you shall find me still conversant, as occasion shall be 
 ministered, in the unfeigned and constant offices of your 
 very assured and affectionate friend." — Sir Henry Savile 
 instructed that — " I have received your two letters, and 
 in them both find matter to thank you for your respect 
 and kindness towards me. The later of them I received 
 just the afternoon I came out of town, but I write effectu- 
 ally to Mr. Secretary for a burgess- ship for you at 
 Richmond, in regard I knew my lord of Cumberland was 
 partly engaged : but I will amongst them work out one, or 
 I will miss far of my aim. So soon as I hear from Mr. 
 Secretary, I will give you further certainty herein ; in the 
 mean time, methinks it were not amiss if you tried your 
 ancient power with them of Aldborow, which I leave to 
 your better consideration, and in the mean time not 
 labour the less to make it sure for you elsewhere, if these 
 clowns chance to fail you. The writ, as I hear, is this 
 week gone to the sheriff; so the next county day, which 
 must without hope of alteration be that of the election, 
 falls to be Christmas-day, which were to be wished 
 otherwise; but the discommodity of our friends more 
 upon that day than another makes the favour the greater, 
 our obligation the more, and therefore I hope they will 
 •the rather dispense with it. If the old knight should but 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFIORD. 71 
 
 endanger it, 'faith, we miglit be reputed men of small 
 power and esteem in the country I but the truth is, I fear 
 him not. If your health serve you, I shall wish your 
 company at York, and that yourself and friends would 
 eat a Christmas pie with me there : I tell you there 
 would be a hearty welcome, and I would take it as an 
 especial favour, so value it, and as such an one remember 
 it." — Sir Matthew Boynton reminded that — " The ancient 
 and near acquaintance that hath been betwixt us causeth 
 me to rank you in the number of my friends ; and being 
 moved by my friends to stand second with Mr. secretary 
 Calvert for knight of the shire at this next parliament, I 
 assure myself I might confidently address myself unto 
 you for the voices of yourself and fi lends in the election, 
 which falls out unfortunately to be upon Christmas-day. 
 But as the trouble of my friends thereby will be the 
 greater, so doth it add to my obligation. I hope like- 
 wise to enjoy your company and friends that day at 
 dinner. You shall be in no place better welcome." — 
 And Christopher Wandesford given notice that — "the 
 writ will be delivered by Mr. Radcliffe within these two 
 days to the sheriff, to whom I have written, giving him 
 thanks for his kindness, desiring the continuance thereof. 
 And now, lest you should think me forgetful of that 
 which concerns yourself, I hasten to let you know that I 
 have got an absolute promise of my lord Clifford, that 
 if I be chosen knight^ you shall have a burgess-ship 
 {reserved for me) at Appleby, wherewith I must confess I 
 am not a little pleased, in regard we shall sit there, judge, 
 and laugh together'^ 
 
 The reader will remember that all these, with many 
 other letters, are written and despatched on the same 
 day. No apology is necessary for the length at which 
 
72 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 I quote them; since, in rescuing them from false and 
 distorted arrangement, much misconception is prevented, 
 and a very valuable means of judgment furnished on 
 Wentworth's general conduct. 
 
 He goes on to let sir Thomas Fairfax know, that — 
 " I was at London much intreated, and, indeed, at last 
 enjoined, to stand with Mr. secretary Calvert for to be 
 knight of this shire the next parliament, both by my lord 
 Clifford and himself; which, after I had assented unto, 
 and despatched my letters, I perceived that some of 
 your friends had motioned the like to Mr. Secretary 
 on your behalf, and were therein engaged, which was 
 the cause I writ no sooner unto you. Yet, hearing by 
 my cousin Middleton that, he moving you in my be- 
 half for your voices, you were not only pleased to give 
 over that intendment, but freely to promise us your best 
 assistance, — I must confess I cannot forbear any longer 
 to write unto you how much this courtesy deserves of 
 me; and that I cannot choose but take it most kindly 
 from you, as suitable with the ancient affection which 
 you have always borne me and my house. And presum- 
 ing of the continuance of your good respect towards me, 
 I must entreat the company of yourself and friends with 
 me at dinner on Christmas-day, being the day of the 
 election, where I shall be most glad of you, and there 
 give you further thanks for your kind respects." — And 
 thus reports progress to Mr. Secretary himself: — "May 
 it please you, sir, the parliament writ is delivered to the 
 sheriff, and he by his faithful promise deeply engaged for 
 you. 1 find the gentlemen of these parts generally ready 
 to do you service. Sir Thomas Fairfax stirs not; but 
 sir John Savile, by his instruments exceeding busy, in- 
 timating to the common sort under hand, that yourself, 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 73 
 
 being not resiant in the county, cannot by law be chosen, 
 and, being his majesty's secretary and a stranger, one 
 not safe to be trusted by the country; — but all this 
 according to his manner so closely and cunningly as if 
 he had no part therein ; neither doth he as yet further 
 declare himself than only that he will be at York the day 
 of the election ; — and thus finding he cannot work them 
 from me, labours only to supplant you. I endeavour to 
 meet with him as well as I may, and omit nothing that 
 my poor understanding tells me may do you service. 
 My lord president hath writ to his freeholders on your 
 behalf, and seeing he will be in town on the election day, 
 it were I think very good he would be pleased to show 
 himself for you in the Castle-yard, and that you writ unto 
 him a few lines, taking notice you hear of some opposi- 
 tion, and therefore desire his presence might secure you 
 of fair carriage in the choice. / have heard^ that when sir 
 Francis Darcy opposed sir Thomas Lake in a matter of 
 like nature, the lords of the council writ to sir Francis to 
 desist. L know my lord chancellor is very sensible of you 
 in this business ; a word to him, and such a letter, would 
 make an end of all. Sir, pardon me, I beseech you, for 
 I protest I am in travail till all be sure for you, which 
 imboldens me to propound these things, which notwith- 
 standing I most humbly submit to your judgment. 
 When you have resolved, be pleased to dispatch the 
 bearer back again with your answer, which I shall take 
 care of. There is not any that labours more heartily for 
 you than my lord Darcy. Sir, I wish a better occasion 
 wherein to testify the dutiful and affectionate respects 
 your favours and nobleness may justly require from me." 
 — Sir Arthur Ingram is then apprised, in a letter which is 
 full of character, that, " as touching the election, we now 
 
74 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 grow to some heat; sir John Savile's instruments closely 
 and cunningly suggesting under hand Mr. Secretary's 
 non-residence, his being the king's servant, and out of 
 these reasons by law cannot, and in good discretion 
 ought not, be chosen of the country ; whereas himself is 
 their martyr, having suffered for them ; the patron of the 
 clothiers ; of all others the fittest to be relied on ; and 
 that he intends to be at York the day of the election, — 
 craftily avoiding to declare himself absolutely. And thus 
 he works, having spread this jealousy, that albeit I 
 persuade myself generally they would give me their prime 
 voice, yet in good faith I think it very improbable we 
 shall ever get the first place for Mr. Secretary; nay, I 
 protest we shall have need of our strength to obtain him 
 a second election : so as the likeliest way, so far as I am 
 able to judge, to secure both, will be for me to stand for 
 the prime, and so cast all my second voices upon him, 
 which, notwithstanding, we may help by putting him first 
 in the indenture. I am exceeding sorry, that the foulness 
 and length of the way put me out of hope of your 
 company; and therefore I pray you, let us have your 
 advice herein by the bearer. Your letter to your friends 
 in Halifax admits some question, because you desire 
 their voices for Mr. Secretary and myself the rather for 
 that sir John Savile stands not ; so, say they, if he stand, 
 we are left to our liberty. You will therefore please to 
 clear that doubt by another letter, which, delivered to 
 this messenger, I will get sent unto them. I fear greatly 
 they will give their second voice with sir John. Mr. 
 I.eech promised me he would procure his lord's letter to 
 the freeholders within Hallomshire and the honor of 
 Pontefract ; that my cousin Lascells, my lord's principal 
 agent in these parts, should himself labour Hallomshire ; 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 75 
 
 Mr. Banister, the learned steward of Pontefract, do the 
 like there ; and both of them be present at the election, 
 the better to secure those parts. I hear not any thing of 
 them. I pray you, press Mr. Leech to the performance 
 of his promise ; letting him know sir John Savile's friends 
 labour for him, and he declares in a manner he will 
 stand ; and get him to send the letters by this my 
 servant. I desire likewise he would intreat my cousin 
 Lascells, that he would take the pains to come over, and 
 speak with me the Monday before Christmas-day here at 
 my house. Sir, you see how bold I am to trouble you, 
 and yet I must desire you would be pleased to afford me 
 the commodity of your house for two nights, to entertain 
 my friends. I shall, God willing, be most careful that 
 nothing be impaired, and shall number this amongst 
 many other your noble courtesies, which have inviolably 
 knit me unto you." — Sir Thomas Dawney is solicited to 
 the same effect, and sir Henry Slingsby informed that — • 
 " the certainty I have of sir John Savile's standing, and 
 the various reports I hear of the country people's affection 
 towards Mr. Secretary, makes me desirous to know how 
 you find them inclined in your parts. For this wapen- 
 take, as also that of Osgodcross and Staincross, I certainly 
 persuade myself, will go wholly for us. In Skyrack I 
 assure myself of a better part, and I will perform promise 
 with Mr Secretary, bringing a thousand voices of my own 
 besides my friends. Some persuade me, that the better 
 way to secure both, were for me to stand prime, cast all 
 my second voices on Mr. Secretary, and put him first 
 into the indenture. I pray you consider of it, and write 
 me your opinion ; / would not lose substance for such a 
 toyish ceremony. There is danger both ways : for if Mr. 
 Secretary stand first, it is much to be feared, the country 
 
76 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 will not stand for him firm and intire against sir John. 
 If I be first chosen^ ivhich I make no question but I could., 
 then is it to be doubted., the people might fly over to the 
 other side., which., notwithstanding., in iny conceit., of the 
 two is the inore unlikely : for, after they be once settled and 
 engaged for me., they will not be so apt to stir. And 
 again, it may be so suddenly carried, as they shall have 
 no time to move. At a word, we shall need all our 
 endeavours to make Mr. Secretary, and therefore, sir, 
 I pray you gather up all you possibly can. I would 
 gladly know how many you think we may expect from 
 you. My lord Clifford will be at Tadcaster upon 
 Christmas-eve, about one of the clock : if that be your 
 way, I am sure he would be glad yourself and friends 
 would meet him there ; that so we might go into York the 
 next day, vote, and dine together, where you shall be most 
 heartily welcome." — Sir Thomas Fairfax is again moved 
 very earnestly to make — " all the strength of friends and 
 number you can to give their voices for us at the next 
 election, falling to be upon Christmas-day; the rather, 
 because the old gallant of Hooley intends certainly to 
 stand, whom indeed, albeit I should lightly weigh, were 
 the matter betwixt him and me, yet I doubt Mr. 
 Secretary (if his friends stand not closely to him) being 
 not well known in the country. Sir, you have therefore 
 hereby an opportunity offered to do us all an especial 
 favour, which shall bind us to a ready and chearful 
 requital, when you shall have occasion to use any of us. 
 My lord Clifford will be, God willing, at Tadcaster upon 
 Christmas-eve about one of the clock, where I assure 
 myself he will much desire that yourself and friends will 
 be phased to meet him, that so we may go into York 
 together ; and myself earnestly intreat the company of 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 77 
 
 yourself and them the next day at dinner, which I shall 
 esteem as a double favour." — And his cousin Thomas 
 Wentworth advertised that, "being, as you know, en- 
 gaged to stand with Mr. Secretary Calvert to be knights 
 for this parliamer.t, and sir John Savile our only op- 
 ponent, I must make use of my friends and intreat them 
 to deal thoroughly for us, in regard the loss of it would 
 much prejudice our estimations above. In which number 
 I esteem yourself, one of my best and fastest friends. 
 The course my lord Darcy and I hold is, to intreat the 
 high constables to desire the petty constables to set down the 
 na?nes of all freeholders within their townships, and which 
 of them have promised to be at York aftd bestow their 
 voices with tcs, so as we may keep the note as a testifnony 
 of their good affections, and know whom we are beholden 
 unto, desiring them further to go along with us to York 
 on Sunday, being Christmas-eve, or else meet us about 
 two of the clock at Tadcaster. I desire you would 
 please to deal effectually with your high constables, 
 and hold the same course, that so we may be able 
 to judge what number we may expect out of your 
 wapentake. As I no ways doubt of your uttermost 
 endeavours and pains in a matter of this nature, deeply 
 touching my credit, so will I value it as a special 
 testimony of your love towards me. I hope you will 
 take the pains to go along with us, together with 
 your friends, to York, that so we may come all in 
 together, and take part of an ill dinner with me the 
 next day ; where yourself and friends shall be right 
 heartily welcome." ^ 
 
 It is not necessary to recall attention to the political 
 principle, or the party views, which are evidenced in 
 
 ^ These various letters will be found in the Strafford Papers. 
 
78 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 these letters ^ ; but bow singular and complete is the 
 illustration they afford, of Wentworth's practice of letting 
 slip no method, however ordinary, of compassing his 
 designs ! Is he interested, either, in the success of a 
 lawsuit? — we find that — "he spent eight years' time, 
 besides his pains and money, in soliciting the business 
 and suits of his nephews sir George and sir William 
 Savile, going every term to London about that only, 
 without missing one term in thirty, as I verily believe. 
 And all this merely in memory of the kindness which 
 had passed betwixt him and his brother-in-law sir George 
 Savile, then deceased." ^ And so with all things that 
 interested him. 
 
 To this head, then, the reader is asked to refer many 
 proceedings, which, hitherto, have been cited in proof of 
 an excessive vanity. They were rather the suggestions of 
 a mind well aware of the influence of seeming trifles on 
 the accomplishment of important purposes. The pomp- 
 ous enumeration of his heraldic honours in the preamble 
 to his patent of nobility, and the " extraordinary pomp " 
 with which he was created Viscount and president of the 
 North, were no unnecessary precaution against the 
 surprise and disdain of an insolent herd of courtiers, and 
 were yet ineffectual wholly to restrain their sarcasms.^ 
 The unexampled splendour of his after progress to the 
 opening of the Irish parliament was, no doubt, well 
 
 ^ The beginning of electioneering tactics is also curiously discern- 
 ible in them. 
 
 2 Radclifife's Essay. 
 
 3 "The duke of Buckingham himself flew not so high in so 
 short a revolution of time. He was made a viscount with a great 
 deal of high ceremony upon a Sunday, in the afternoon, at White- 
 hall. My lord Powis, who affects him not much, being told that 
 the heralds had fetched his pedigree from the blood royal, viz, from 
 John of Gaunt, said, ' Dammy, if ever he comes lo be king of England, 
 I will turn rebel.'"— EpistolcB IJowelliana, No. 34. edit. 1650. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 79 
 
 calculated to " beget an awful admiration " in the minds 
 of a body of men whose services he was then preparing 
 to obtain by far more questionable means ; — and his 
 fierce resentment of the slightest infringement of the 
 etiquette he had succeeded in establishing, his minute 
 arrangements with respect to the ceremony he conceived 
 necessary to the powers he was entrusted with, have their 
 censure on other grounds than any intrinsic absurdity 
 they evince. It seems to me to be high time, in cases 
 of this sort, to shift our censure to the grosser absurdity 
 of the principles which require such means for their 
 support. Ceremony in the abstract — the mere forms of 
 etiquette, sinking through their own emptiness, sustaining 
 no purpose, and unsustained by none — Wentworth re- 
 garded with a more supreme scorn than they were held 
 in by any of his prudish opponents among his own party. 
 " I confess," writes he on one occasion, " this matter of 
 PLACE I have ever judged a ^vomanly things and so love 
 not to trouble myself therewith, more than needs must." 
 He cares not, moreover, submitting cheerfully throughout 
 to the king's unworthy arrangement, — that himself should 
 gather "golden opinions" by a liberal bestowment of 
 honours in Ireland on the more troublesome of his 
 suitors, while to his deputy was confided the ungracious 
 task of interposing a veto on the royal benefaction, and 
 receiving, in his own person, the curses of the disap- 
 pointed.^ Against the bitterness of their discontent, 
 Wentworth had his unfailing resource. " I shall not 
 neglect," he writes, " to preserve myself in good opinion 
 with this people, in regard I become thereby better able 
 to do my master's service \ longer than it works to that 
 purpose, I am very indifferent what they shall think, or 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 140. 
 
So BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 can say, concerning me." Not the less scruple had he 
 in complaining of the king's arrangement, when it was 
 tortured to purposes he had never contemplated, and he 
 discovered that the character of his government was 
 become that of an iron rule, wherein reward had no 
 place, even for its zealous supporters.^ For the foolish 
 gravity of the luckless king had continued to pen epistle 
 upon epistle, disposing of the most subordinate posts in 
 the army, as well as the higher dignities of the church. 
 The system, in the first instance, however, was one which 
 a proud man, certainly, might submit to, but a vain man 
 would hardly acquiesce in. 
 
 I resume the progress of Wentworth's fortunes. His 
 elevation became an instant subject of general remark ; 
 and it is not difficult to discover, that, in his native 
 county, where he was best known, the surprise excited 
 by so sudden a change, after such violent opposition, was 
 balanced by a greater surprise, on the other hand, that 
 
 ^ One instance, out of the many which strikingly illustrate Went- 
 worth's character in this respect, may be subjoined. Lord Newburgh 
 had procured from the king a promise of promotion for a young man 
 in the Irish army — which the lord deputy felt would be disad- 
 vantageous to the public service. Here are some passages of his 
 remonstrance : — *' For if I be not favoured so far, as that I may be 
 able to make myself friends, and draw unto myself some dependence, 
 by the expectance men may have from me in these places, that so I 
 may have assistance and cheerful countenance from some, as I have 
 already purchased the sour and bent brow of some of them ; I fore- 
 see, 1 shall have little honour, comfort, or safety amongst them. 
 For a man to enforce obedience by punishment only, and be deprived 
 all means to reward some — to be always in vinegar, never to com- 
 municate of the sweet — is, in my estimation of it, the meanest, most 
 
 ignoble condition any free spirit can be reduced unto The 
 
 conclusion therefore is, I am confident his majesty will not debar 
 me of what (be it spoken under favour) belongs to my place, for all 
 the solicitation of the pretty busy lord Newburgh, who, if a man 
 should move his majesty for anything in the gift of the chancellor of 
 the duchy, would as pertly cackle, and put himself in the way of 
 complaint, as if he had all the merit and ability in the world to serve 
 his master." — Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 136 — 142. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 8 1 
 
 the honour should have been delayed so long. " Give me 
 leave to inform you," writes sir Richard Hutton\ in a 
 passage which is expressive of both these feelings, " that 
 your late conferred honour is the subject of much dis- 
 course here in Yorkshire, which, I conceive, proceeds 
 from the most, not out of any other cause than their 
 known worth in you, which is thought merited it much 
 sooner and greater ; but this is only to entertain you a 
 little longer; for I know that your actions are not justly 
 liable to any censure, I am sure not to mine ; for, being 
 yours, it speaks them good to me, if not the best." The 
 character of the important office entrusted to Wentworth 
 included much that was especially grateful to him : — 
 enlarged by his desire, it presented power almost un- 
 limited ; freedom at the same time from the little annoy- 
 ances of the court ; and the opportunity of exhibiting his 
 genius for despotic rule in his own county, where personal 
 friends might witness its successes, and old adversaries, 
 should the occasion offer, be made the objects of its 
 triumph. To crown his cause of satisfaction, the duke 
 of Buckingham, who had still hung darkly over his 
 approach to a perfect confidence and favour, was re- 
 moved by the knife of Felton. Secret congratulations 
 passed, within a few days after this event, between Went- 
 worth and Weston. Every thing seemed to favour his 
 entrance into power, and a light rose upon the future. 
 " You tell me," writes his friend Wandesford to him, 
 " God hath blessed you much in these late proceedings. 
 Truly, I believe it, for by these circumstances we know, 
 we may guess at them we know not."^ This friend was 
 not forgotten. Though so recently one of the active 
 
 ' ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 47. 
 3 Ibid. p. 49. 
 
82 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 managers of the impeachment against Buckingham, he 
 was at once received into favour, and Wentworth waited 
 his opportunity to employ the services of others, equally 
 dear and valuable, while he did not fail to improve his 
 opportunities of intercourse among his new associates. 
 Laud was the chief object of his concern in this respect, 
 for he had observed Laud's rising influence with the king. 
 Wentworth wis^ely deferred his departure to the North 
 until after the dissolution of parliament. The powers 
 that awaited him there, increased by his stipulations, I 
 have described as nearly unlimited. The council of 
 York, or of the North, whose jurisdiction extended over 
 the counties of York, Northumberland, Cumberland, and 
 Westmoreland, over the cities of York and Hull, the 
 bishopric of Durham, and the town of Newcastle-upon- 
 Tyne \ included within itself the powers of the courts of 
 common law, of the chancery, even of the star chamber. 
 It had originated in the frequent northern rebellions 
 which followed Henry VHI.'s suppression of the lesser 
 monasteries. Before the scheme for the suppression of 
 the greater monasteries was carried into effect, it was 
 judged expedient, in consequence of such disturbances, 
 to grant a commission to the bishop of Llandafif and 
 others, for the purpose of preserving the peace of these 
 northern counties. This commission was, to all appear- 
 ances, simply one of oyer and terminer ; but a clause had 
 been inserted in it, towards the conclusion, authorising 
 the commissioners to hear all causes, real and personal, 
 when either or both of the parties laboured under 
 poverty 2, and to decide according to sound discretion. 
 
 ^ Rushworth, vol. i. p. 162. 
 
 "^ ** Quando ambse partes, vel altera pars, gravata paupertate 
 fuerit." — Rtishivorth^ vol. ii. p. 162. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 83 
 
 This latter licence, however, was soon afterwards declared 
 by all the judges to be illegal ; and the power of hearing 
 real and personal causes at all was rarely acted upon up 
 to the second year of Elizabeth's reign, when it also was 
 declared to be illegal, since causes regarding property, 
 whether real or personal, could only be decided by the 
 laws of the land. It was reserved for James to issue, 
 over these decisions, a new commission, " very differing," 
 says Clarendon, "from all that went before." The 
 commissioners were no longer ordered to inquire " per 
 sacramentum bonorum et legalium hominum," or to be 
 controlled by any forms of law, but were referred merely 
 to secret instructions, which, for the first time, were sent 
 down to the council. This at once reduced the whole of 
 the North to an absolute subjection, and that so flagrant, 
 that the judges of the court of common pleas had the 
 decent courage to protest actively against it, by issuing 
 prohibitions on demand to the president and council; 
 and James himself was obliged to have the instructions in- 
 rolled, that the people might, in some measure, be able to 
 ascertain by what rules their conduct was to be regulated.^ 
 One of Wentworth's first announcements, in succeeding 
 to this enormous power, the very acceptance of which 
 was a violation of the vital principles and enactments of 
 the petition of right, was to declare that he would lay 
 any man by the heels who ventured to sue out a prohibi- 
 tion in the courts at Westminster.^ His excuse for such 
 a course of proceeding was afterwards boldly avowed.^ 
 
 ^ An interesting account of the origin and practices of this council 
 of York was given by Hyde (lord Clarendon) in the long parliament. 
 The speech is reported by Rushworth, vol. ii. pp. 162 — 165. 
 
 ^ Rushworth, vol. ii. p. 159. 
 
 3 In his answers to the charges of his impeachment. See Rush- 
 worth, vol. ii. p. i6i 
 
84 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 " It was a chaste ambition, if rightly placed, to have as 
 much power as may be, that there may be power to do 
 the more good for the place where a man serves." Now 
 Wentworth's notion of good went straight to the estab- 
 lishment of absolute government; and to this, his one 
 grand object, from the very first moment of his public 
 authority, he bent every energy of his soul. He devoted 
 himself, night and day, to the public business. Lord 
 Scroop's 1 arrears were speedily disposed of, an effective 
 militia was embodied and disciplined, and all possible 
 means were resorted to for an increase of revenue. The 
 fines on recusants, the compositions for knighthood, and 
 the various exactions imposed by government, were 
 rigorously enforced by him. At the same time his hand, 
 though heavy, was equal, and the reports of his govern- 
 ment were, in consequence, found to be very various. 
 The complainants contradicted each other. " Your pro- 
 ceeding with the recusants," writes Weston, "is here, 
 where it is well understood, well taken, tho' there be 
 different rumours. For, it is said, that you proceed with 
 extreme rigour, valuing the goods and lands of the poorest 
 at the highest rates, or rather above the value, without 
 which you are not content to make any composition. 
 This is not believed, especially by me, who know your 
 wisdom and moderation : and your last too gave much 
 satisfaction even to those who informed me, when they 
 saw thereby, that you had compounded with none but 
 
 ^ His predecessor in the government of York, afterwards earl of 
 Sunderland. Wandesford speaks of him with great contempt, in a 
 letter to Wentworth : "Your predecessor, like that candle hid under 
 a bushel, while he lived in this place, darkened himself and all that 
 were about him, and dieth towards us (excuse me for the phrase) 
 like a snuff unmannerly left in a corner." — Strafford Papers, vol. i. 
 p. 49. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 85 
 
 to their own contentment." ^ Cottington, the chancellor 
 of the exchequer, had expressed more characteristically, 
 some days before, the approbation of the court. " For 
 the business of the recusants, my lord treasurer sent 
 immediately your letter to the king (who is in his pro- 
 gress), from whom he received a notable approbation 
 both of your intentions and proceedings, as he himself 
 will tell your lordship in his own letters ; for you are his 
 mistress, and must be cherished and courted by none but 
 himself" So early did the king deem it expedient to 
 exhibit, that peculiar sense of his minister's service. 
 When the minister had bound himself up inextricably 
 with the royal cause, it was thought to be less expedient ! 
 In such a course as this which Wentworth had now 
 entered on, it is quite clear, that to have permitted the 
 slightest disregard of the authority assumed, must have 
 proved fatal. I cannot see any thing unnatural, there- 
 fore, in his conduct to Henry Bellasis, and in several 
 other personal questions which at present come under 
 notice. Nothing is apparent in it at variance with the 
 system to be worked out, nothing outrageous or impru- 
 dent, as his party have been at some pains to allege. 
 These matters are not to be discussed in the abstract. 
 Despotism is the gist of the question ; and if the phrase 
 ''unnatural" is to be used, let it fall upon that. The 
 means employed to enforce it, are obliged, as a matter of 
 necessity, to partake of its own nature, or it would not 
 for an instant be borne. One of Wentworth's first 
 measures had been to claim for himself, as the repre- 
 sentative of absolute royalty, the most absolute reverence 
 and respect. On the occasion of a "solemn meeting," 
 however, this young man Bellasis, the son of the lord 
 ^ ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 52. 
 
86 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD, 
 
 Faulconberg, manifested a somewhat impertinent dis- 
 regard of these orders, entered the room without " show- 
 ing any particular reverence" to the lord president, 
 remained there with his hat on, and as Wentworth 
 himself passed out of the meeting " with his hat off, the 
 king's mace-bearer before him, and all the rest of the 
 company uncovered, Mr. Bellasis stood with his hat on 
 his head, looking full upon his lordship without stirring 
 his hat, or using any other reverence or civility." In 
 a man of rank, this was the less to be overlooked. 
 Bellasis was ordered before the council board, where he 
 pleaded that his negligence had arisen from accident, 
 that his look was turned the other way, that he was not 
 aware of the lord president's approach, till he had passed, 
 and, finally, that he meant no disrespect to the lord 
 president's dignity. He was required to express, in 
 addition, his sorrow for having given offence to " lord 
 Wentworth." He refused to do this ; but at last, after a 
 month's imprisonment in the Gate-house, was obliged to 
 submit.^ Other cases of the same description occurred. 
 A barrister at law, something disaffected to the lord 
 president's jurisdiction, expiated his offence in a lowly 
 submission on his knees ^ ; and a punishment fell on sir 
 David Foulis, heavier and more terrible, in proportion to 
 Wentworth's sense of the conduct that had provoked it. 
 
 Sir David Foulis was a deputy lieutenant, a justice 
 of the peace, and a member of the council of York. 
 Holding this position in the county, he had, on various 
 occasions, made very disrespectful mention of the council 
 of York ; had thrown out several invidious insinuations 
 
 ^ See the proceedings before the council board, Rushworth, vol. 
 ii. p. 88. 
 
 ^ See Rushworth, vol. ii. p. i6o. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 87 
 
 against its president ; and had shown much activity and 
 zeal in instigating persons not to pay the composition 
 for knighthood, which he considered an illegal and 
 oppressive exaction.^ Wentworth immediately resolved 
 to make him a signal example; and the extraordinary 
 perseverance, and unscrupulous measures, by dint of 
 which he at last secured this, are too singularly illustrative 
 of his character, to be passed over in silence. An inform- 
 ation was immediately ordered to be exhibited in the 
 star chamber against sir David Foulis ; against his son, 
 who had shared in his offence : and against sir Thomas 
 Layton, the high sheriff of the county, who had sanctioned 
 and assisted the disaffection. Some necessary delays 
 put off the hearing of the cause till after Wentworth's 
 departure to Dublin. But one of the last things with 
 which he busied himself previous to his departure, was 
 the making sure of the issue. He wrote from West- 
 minster to the lord treasurer, (one of the judges that 
 were to try it !) who was then in Scotland — " I have 
 perused all the examinations betwixt me and Foulis, and 
 find all the material parts of the bill fully proved, so as I 
 have him soundly upon the hip ; but I desire it may not 
 be spoken of, for albeit I may by order of the court see 
 
 ^ Foulis had, in less important matters, equally sought to baffle 
 the authority of the lord president. I find the following passage in 
 a letter to Wentworth, from sir William Pennyman, one of his 
 watchful retainers : — "There was a constable under sir David Foulis 
 (who, by reason of some just excuse as was pretended, appeared not) 
 that refused to pay twelve pence to captain Philips, and it was thus 
 discovered. I bid one of the townsmen lay down twelve pence, and 
 the constable should pay him again. He answered, That the con- 
 stable told him, that sir David Foulis had commanded him, that if 
 any were demanded he should pay none ; and of this I thought it 
 but my part to acquaint your lordship ; not that I would aggravate 
 any thing against sir David Foulis, for it might only be some mis- 
 prision in tlie constable, but that your lordship might know of the 
 least passage which may have relation or reflection upon yoursel.." 
 
88 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 them, yet he may not, till the end of the next term."^ 
 Weston did not receive this hint at first very cordially ; 
 but Cottington, another of the judges, wrote to him a 
 week or two after he had quitted London, — " We say 
 here that your lordship's cause against Foulis shall come 
 to hearing this term, and I inquire much after it." 
 Wentworth, though then much distracted by sickness 
 and affairs, acted eagerly on this intimation, and sent 
 over a special messenger to Cottington, with a short brief 
 of the strong points of the case, written out by himself, 
 and an extremely characteristic letter. He says boldly, 
 — " I must wholly recommend myself to your care of me 
 in this, which I take to concern me as much, and to have 
 therein as much the better, as I ever had in any other 
 cause all the days of my life ; so I trust a little help will 
 serve the turn." It is clear, in point of fact, that Went- 
 worth felt that much of his authority, in so far as personal 
 claims sustained it — or, in other words, that much of his 
 probable success or non-success in the new and desperate 
 assumptions, by which alone his schemes of government 
 could be carried on — was concerned in the extent of 
 punishment awarded in the present case, and the corre- 
 sponding impression likely to be created. He omits no 
 consideration in his letter, therefore, that is in any way 
 likely to influence Cottington. He points out particularly 
 how much the ''king's service" is concerned, and that 
 the arrow was "shot at him" in reality. "The sen- 
 tencing of this man," he continues, " settles the right of 
 knighting business bravely for the crown, for in your 
 sentence you will certainly declare the undoubted right 
 and prerogative the king hath therein by common law, 
 statute law, and the undeniable practice of all times ; 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 91. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 89 
 
 and therefore I am a suitor by you to his majesty, that 
 he would be graciously pleased to recommend the cause 
 to the lords, as well in his own right, as in the right of 
 his absent poor servant, and to wish them all to be there. 
 You are like to begin the sentence, and I will be bold to 
 tell you my opinion thereon. You have been pleased 
 sometimes, as I sat by you, to ask me my conceit upon 
 the cause then before us ; — admit me now to do it upon 
 my own cause, for, by my troth, I will do it as clearly as 
 if it concerned me not." An aggravation of every point 
 in tlie case against Foul is and his son follows, with a 
 curious citation of a number of precedents for a heavy 
 punishment, and a strong personal appeal in behalf of 
 his own character. " Much more I could say, if I were 
 in the star chamber to speak in such a cause for my lord 
 Cottington : but I will conclude with this, — that I protest 
 to God, if it were in the person of another, I should in a 
 cause so foul, the proof so clear, fine the father and the 
 son, sir David and Henry Foulis, in 2000/. apiece to his 
 majesty, and in 2000/. apiece damages to myself for their 
 scandal ; and they both to be sent down to York, and 
 there publicly at York assizes next, to acknowledge in 
 the face of the ivhole cou7ttry^ the right his majesty hath to 
 that duty of knightings ; as also the wrong he hath done 
 me ; humbly craving pardon of his majesty, and express- 
 ing his sorrow so to have misrepresented his majesty's 
 most gracious proceedings, even in that course of com- 
 pounding, where the law would have given him much 
 more, as also for so falsely slandering and belying me 
 without a cause. For sir Thomas Layton, he is a fool, 
 led on by the nose by the two former, nor was I willing 
 to do him any hurt ; and so let him go for a coxcomb as 
 he is; and when he comes home, tell his neighbours, it 
 
90 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Was well for him he had less wit than his fellows." ^ As 
 the hearing approached more nearly, Wentworth, regard- 
 less of the equivocal reception Weston had formerly given 
 him, wrote again to the lord treasurer. " My lord, I have 
 to be heard this term a cause between sir David Foulis 
 and me in the star chamber ; and a very good one, if I 
 flatter not myself exceedingly : I do most earnestly 
 beseech your lordship's presence, and that I may taste of 
 the ordinary effects of your justice and favour towards 
 me your faithful servant, albeit here removed in another 
 kingdom." 2 Scarcely a member of that considerate 
 court did he fail to solicit as earnestly. 
 
 How could the honest judges fail to perform, all that 
 had been so asked of them ? Foulis was degraded from 
 his various offices; fined 5000/. to the king, 3000/. to 
 Wentworth ; condemned to make a public acknowledg- 
 ment of the most abject submissiveness "to his majesty 
 and the lord viscount Wentworth, not only in this court, 
 but in the court of York, and likewise at the open assizes 
 in the same county ; " and, finally, committed to the 
 Fleet during his majesty's pleasure ! His son was also 
 imprisoned and heavily fined. Layton, the " fool," was 
 presented with his acquittal. Wentworth's gratitude at 
 this result overflowed in the most fervent expressions to 
 his serviceable friends. Cottington was warmly thanked. 
 " Such are your continued favours towards me," he wrote 
 to Laud, " which you were pleased to manifest so far in 
 the star chamber, in that cause betwixt sir David Foulis 
 and me, not only by your justice, but by your affection 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 145, 146. A more remarkable 
 opportunity was reserved for him, on the occasion of his own im- 
 peachment, to express his contempt of this sir Thomas Layton. See 
 Rush worth, vol. viii. p. 151. 
 
 2 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 143. 
 
BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 91 
 
 too, as indeed, my lord, the best and greatest return I 
 can make, is to pray, I may be able to deserve," &c. A 
 long despatch to Cooke included an expression of the 
 *' obligation put upon me by the care you expressed for 
 me in a suit this last term, which came to a hearing in 
 the star chamber, betwixt sir D. Foulis and me, and of 
 the testimony your affection there gave me, much above 
 my merit. Sir, I humbly thank you," &c. &c. A still 
 more important and weighty despatch to Weston closed 
 with — " I do most humbly thank your lordship for your 
 noble presence and justice in the star chamber ; being 
 the business indeed, in my own estimation, which more 
 concerned me than any that ever befel me, hitherto, in 
 my whole Hfe." And to his cousin the earl of Cleveland 
 he thus expressed himself; — " I understand my cause in 
 the star chamber hath had a fair evening : for which I 
 am ever to acknowledge and reverence the justice of that 
 great court to an absent man. Your lordship hath still 
 been pleased to honour me with your presence, when 
 any thing concerned me there : and believe me, if ever I 
 be absent from the place where I may serve you, it shall 
 be most extremely against my will. I see it must still 
 be my fortune to work it out in a storm, and I find not 
 myself yet so faint, as to give over for that, or to abandon 
 a good cause, be the wind never so loud or sour." One 
 characteristic circumstance remains to be added. All 
 the various letters and despatches in which the passages 
 I have quoted are to be found, together with others to 
 various noble lords, bear the same date} No one of 
 those who had served Wentworth, was left to speak of 
 thanks that he only had received.^ 
 
 ^ See the Strafford Papers, vol, i, pp. 189. 194. 202. 204, &c. &c. 
 
 2 I may conclude the mention of this Foulis affair by quoting a 
 
 characteristic note from one of Wentworth's voluminous private 
 
92 
 
 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 In relief from this painful exhibition, of a false public 
 principle tyrannizing over private morals and affections, 
 I turn to present the somewhat redeeming aspect of 
 those uncontrolled regards which Wentworth could yet 
 suffer himself to indulge. In consequence of incessant 
 application^ to the duties of his office, he was now able 
 to pass little of his time at the family seat; but he seems 
 to have been anxious that his children, William, and the 
 little lady Anne, should, for health's sake, continue to 
 reside there. He had entrusted them accordingly to the 
 charge of sir William Pennyman, a person bound to his 
 service by various strong obligations.^ The lady Arabella, 
 
 despatches to the Rev. Mr. Greenwoode. After instructions of 
 various sorts respecting his personal affairs in Yorkshire, which 
 occupy eight closely printed folio pages, the lord deputy subjoins : — 
 " One word more I must of necessity mention, that is, the business 
 betwixt me and sir David Foulis. How this stands I know not : 
 but I pray you inform yourself what lands I have received the rents 
 of by virtue of the extent, and what money Richard Marris has 
 received towards my 3000/. damages and costs of suit ; and that you 
 will cause a perfect and half year's account to be kept of all the dis- 
 bursements and receipts concerning this matter in a book precisely 
 by itself. I beseech you set this business in a clear and certain 
 course, for you may be sure, if any advantage or doubt can be raised, 
 I shall be sure to hear of it." — Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 488. 
 Letter from Dublin, dated Nov. 1635. 
 
 ^ His friends were constantly, but vainly, warning him of the 
 dangers he incurred by this. "I long," writes his friend Main- 
 waring to him, "to hear of my lady's safe delivery, and of your 
 lordship's coming up. . . Your lordship must give me leave to put 
 you in mind of your health, for I hear you take no recreation at all." 
 — Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 54. 
 
 ^ This person afterwards played his part at the impeachment. It 
 may be worth while to quote a passage from one of his letters, written 
 at the period referred to in the text, in illustration of the means 
 which Wentworth employed to engage, as deeply as possible, the 
 devotion of men who promised to be useful to him. " For my own 
 pai-t," writes Pennyman to the lord president, " I hope shortly to 
 pay my composition, and I wish I could as easily satisfy your debt, 
 and compound with your lordship, as I can with the king. But it 
 is a thing impossible. My best way, I think, is to do like the 
 painter, who, when after a great deal of pains he could not describe 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 93 
 
 then on the eve of confinement, remained with Went- 
 worth. Pennyman appears to have had careful instruc- 
 tions to write constant accounts of the children, and it is 
 interesting to observe the sort of details that were thought 
 likely to prove most welcome to their father. " Now," 
 he says, " to write that news that I have, which I presume 
 will be most acceptable, your lordship's children are all 
 very well, and your lordship need not fear the going 
 forward of your building, when you have so careful a 
 steward as Mrs. Anne. She complained to me very 
 much of two rainy days, which, as she said, hinder'd her 
 from coming down, and the building from going up, 
 because she was inforced to keep her chamber, and could 
 not overlook the workmen." ^ This important little 
 maiden, then between three and four years old, had 
 certainly inherited the spirit of the Wentworths ! " Mr. 
 William and Mrs. Anne," Pennyman writes on another 
 occasion, "are very well. They were not a little glad to 
 receive their tokens, and yet they said, they would be 
 more glad to receive your lordship and their worthy 
 mother. We all, with one vote, agreed in their opinion, 
 and wished, that your lordship's occasions might be as 
 swift and speedy in their despatch as our thoughts and 
 desires are in wishing them." ^ At the commencement 
 of 163 1, Wentworth's second son was born. This child, 
 Thomas Wentworth, after eight months of uncertain 
 
 the infinite sorrow of a weeping father, presented him on a table 
 with his face covered, that the spectators might imagine that sorrow 
 which he was not able to express. My debt, like his sorrow, is not 
 to be described, much less my thanks and acknowledgments. Yet 
 give me leave to tell your lordship, that there is not one alive that 
 more honours you than your lordship's most faithful and indebted 
 servant." — Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 56. 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 55. 2 \\;^^^ p, ^7^ 
 
^4 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 health, died. At about this time the services of the lord 
 president seem to have been urgently required in London, 
 and Weston wrote to him entreating his immediate pre- 
 sence.^ The health of the lady Arabella, however, who 
 was again near the period of confinement, was now an 
 object of deep anxiety to Wentworth, and he remained 
 with her in Yorkshire. In October, a second daughter, 
 the young Arabella, was born to him, and within the 
 same month, on a Tuesday morning, says Radcliffe, "his 
 dear wife, the lady Arabella died.^ I took this earl out 
 of bed, and carried him to receive his last blessing from 
 her."^ Wentworth deeply felt her loss, and never, at 
 any time, through his after life, recalled her beauty, her 
 accomplishments, or her virtue, without the most tender 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Some days after this sad event, Wentworth received 
 intelligence from his friend and relation, sir Edward 
 Stanhope, of certain intrigues which, during his absence, 
 had been moving against him in the court at London. 
 *' I received your letter," he writes back, " by which I 
 perceive you have me in memory, albeit God hath taken 
 
 1 "I hope," writes the lord treasurer, "this bearer will find you 
 well, well disposed, and the better, enduring so prudently as I hear 
 you do, the loss of your younger son. We are glad here to hear you 
 are in so good a temper, and that you receive it as a seasoning of 
 human felicity, which God often sends where he loves best ; but you 
 need none of my philosophy ; and therefore this is only to remember 
 you of being here in the beginning of the term, according to your 
 promise, and I intreat you to think it necessary to make haste. We 
 want you now for your counsel and help in many things." — Strafford 
 Papers, vol. i. p. 58. 
 
 2 Essay. Mr. Mac-Diarmid and other writers have fallen into the 
 error of supposing that she died after the birth of the last boy. 
 
 2 Radcliffe here alludes, "by this earl," to the boy William, who 
 was earl of Strafford when his essay was written. Mr. Brodie 
 whimsically turns it into sir George Radcliffe carrying Wentworth 
 himself out of bed to receive his wife's last blessing. Brit. Emp. 
 vol. iii. p. 129. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 95 
 
 from me your noblest cousin, the incomparable woman 
 and wife my eyes shall ever behold. I must confess this 
 kindness works with me much. After some allusions to 
 Stanhope's intelligence, he proceeds : " Yet truly, I can- 
 not believe so ill of the propounders, both because in 
 my own nature I am the man least suspicious alive, and 
 that my heart tells me, I never deserved but well of them, 
 indeed passing well. It is impossible it should be plotted 
 for my ruin ; sure at least impossible I can think so ; and 
 if there can be such mischief in the world, then is this 
 confidence given me as a snare by God to punish me for 
 my sins yet further, and to draw me yet more immediately 
 and singly to look up to him, without leaving me any 
 thing below to trust or look to. The worst sure that can 
 be is, with honour, profit, and contentment, to set me a 
 little further off from treading upon any thing themselves 
 desire, — which granted, I am at the height of my am- 
 bitions, brought home to enjoy myself and friends, to 
 leave my estate free and plentiful to your little cousin, 
 and which is more than all this, quietly and in secret to 
 serve my Maker, to commune with him more frequently, 
 more profitably, I trust, for my soul than formerly." i 
 
 Of short duration was this composed attitude of mind ! 
 The ink was scarcely dry upon his letter when he re- 
 appeared in his court at York, pursued with startling 
 energy some of his most resolute measures, and re-assured 
 his master in London of the invaluable nature of his 
 services, by sundry swellings of the royal revenue. 
 Money, the main nerve that was to uphold the projected 
 system, was still the grand object of Wentwoith's care, 
 and money he sent to Charles. The revenue, which, on 
 his succeeding to the presidency of York, he had found 
 1 Strafiford Papers, vol. i. p. 6i. 
 
96 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 no more in amount than 2000/. a year, he had already 
 raised to an annual return of 9500/.^ 
 
 Still, however, intriguers were busy against him, and 
 a rumour was conveyed by them to Weston's ear, that he 
 had resolved to use his notoriously growing influence 
 with the king, to endeavour to win for himself the staff 
 of the lord treasurer. The trusty Wandesford discovered 
 this, and despatched the intelligence to Went worth. The 
 next courier from Yorkshire brought a packet to Weston. 
 " Let shame and confusion then cover me," ran the 
 characteristic letter it enclosed, *' if I do not abhor the 
 intolerable anxiety I well understand to wait inseparably 
 upon that staff, if I should not take a serpent as soon into 
 my bosom, and, — if I once find so mean a thought of me 
 can enter into your heart, as that to compass whatever I 
 could take most delight in, I should go about beguilefully 
 to supplant any ordinary man (how much more then 
 impotently to catch at such a staff, and from my lord 
 treasurer) — if I leave not the court instantly, betake 
 myself to my private fortune^ reposedly seek my con- 
 tentment and quiet within my own doors, and follow the 
 dictamen of my own reason and conscience, more accord- 
 ing to nature and liberty, than in those gyves, which now 
 pinch and hang upon me. Thus you see how easily you 
 may be rid of me when you list, and in good faith with a 
 thousand thanks : yet be pleased not to judge this pro- 
 ceeds out of any wayward weary humour in me neither; 
 for, my endeavours are as vigorous and as cheerful to 
 serve the crown and you as ever they were, nor shall you 
 ever find them to faint or flasquer. I am none of those 
 soft tempered spirits : but I cannot endure to be mistaken, 
 or suffer my purer and more intire affections to be soiled, 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 89, 90. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 97 
 
 or in the least degree prejudiced, with the loathsome and 
 odious attributes of covetousness and ambitious falsehood. 
 Do me but right in this. Judge my watches to issue (as 
 in faith they do) from clearer cisterns. I lay my hand 
 under your foot, I despise danger, I laugh at labour. 
 Command me in all difficulties, in all confidence, in all 
 readiness. No, no, my lord," continued Wentworth, 
 lapsing into the philosophic tone he could assume so 
 well, "No, no, my lord ! they are those sovereign and 
 great duties I owe his majesty and your lordship, which 
 thus provoke me beyond my own nature rather to leave 
 those cooler shades, wherein I took choicest pleasure, 
 and thus put myself with you into the heat of the day, 
 than poorly and meanly to start aside from my obliga- 
 tions, convinced in myself of the most wretched ingrati. 
 tude in the whole world. God knows how little delight 
 I take in the outwards of this life, how infinitely ill satisfied 
 I am with myself, to find daily those calm and quiet 
 retirements, wherein to contemplate some things more 
 divine and sacred than this world can afford us, at every 
 moment interrupted thorough the importunity of the 
 affairs I have already. To heaven and earth I protest 
 it, it grieves my very soul ! " ^ Weston's suspicions, 
 which, had he known Wentworth better, would never for 
 a moment have been entertained, could not but sink 
 before such language as this; and the lord president's 
 speedy arrival in London, exploded every hostile attempt 
 that still lingered about the court against him. 
 
 Charles was now remodelling his counsels. The ex- 
 traordinary success of Wentworth's northern presidency 
 had inspired him with new hopes ; his coffers had been 
 filled without the hated help of the house of commons ; 
 ^ Straflford Papers, vol. i. pp. 79, 80. 
 
 II 
 
^8 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 and that prospect of independent authority which he ear- 
 nestly entertained, no longer seemed distant or hopeless. 
 A conclusion of peace with France and Spain favoured 
 the attempt. He offered lord Wentworth the government 
 of Ireland. His favourite scheme was to deliver up the 
 three divisions of the kingdom to the superintendence of 
 three favourite ministers, reserving to himself a general 
 and not inactive control over all. Laud was the minister 
 for England, and the affairs of Scotland were in the hands 
 of the marquess of Hamilton. Ireland, accepted by 
 Wentworth, completed the proposed plan. 
 
 The condition of Ireland, at this moment, was in the 
 highest degree difficult and dangerous. From the con- 
 quest of Henry the second up to the government of 
 Essex and Mountjoy, her history had been a series o 
 barbarous disasters. The English settlers, in a succession 
 of ferocious conflicts, had depraved themselves below the 
 level of the uncivilized Irish; for, instead of diffusing 
 improvement and civilization, they had obstructed both. 
 The system of government was in consequence become 
 the mere occasional and discretionary calling of a parlia- 
 ment by the lord deputy for the time, composed entirely 
 of delegates from within the English pale, whose duty 
 began and closed in the sanctioning some new act of 
 oppression, or the screening some new offender from 
 punishment. One glimpse of a more beneficial purpose 
 broke upon Ireland in the reign of Henry the seventh, 
 during the government of sir Edward Poynings, who 
 procured a decree from the parliament, that all the laws 
 theretofore enacted in England should have equal force 
 in Ireland. With the determination of destroying, at the 
 same time, the discretionary power that had been used, 
 of summoning and dismissing parliaments at pleasure, 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 99 
 
 and of passing sudden laws for the purpose of occasional 
 oppressions, sir Edward Poynings procured the enactment 
 of his famous bill, that a parliament should not be 
 summoned above once a year in Ireland, nor even then, 
 till the propositions on which it was to decide had been 
 seen and approved by the privy council of England. 
 But the native Irish chiefs had been too fiercely hardened 
 in their savage distrust of the English to reap any advan- 
 tage from these measures. They retreated to their 
 fastnesses, and only left them to cover the frontier with 
 outrage and bloodshed. 
 
 Lord Mountjoy at last subdued them, released the 
 peasantry from their control, and framed a plan of 
 impartial government. In the course of the ensuing 
 reign new settlements of English were accordingly formed, 
 the rude Irish customs were discountenanced, the laws 
 of England every where enforced, courts of judicature 
 established after the English model, and representatives 
 from every part of the kingdom summoned to the parlia- 
 ment. When England herself, however, began to groan 
 under oppressions, Ireland felt them still more heavily, 
 and was flung back with a greater shock. The arbitrary 
 decrees of Charles's privy council, military exactions, and 
 martial law, were strangling the liberties of Ireland in 
 their very birth. Bitter, too, in its aggravation of other 
 grievances, was Irish theological discord. The large 
 majority of papists, the sturdy old protestants of the 
 pale, the new settlers of James, presbyterians, and 
 puritans, — all were in nearly open warfare, and the 
 penalties enforced against recusants were equally hateful 
 to all. The rigour of the church courts, and the 
 exaction of tithes, kept up these discontents by constant 
 exasperation. 
 
TOO BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs when Charles sent lord 
 Falkland to Dublin. His lordship soon found that his 
 government was Httle more than the name of one. The 
 army had gradually sunk to 1350 foot and 200 horse; 
 which mean force, divided into companies, was com- 
 manded by privy counsellors, who, managing to secure 
 their own pay out of the receipts of the exchequer, 
 compounded with the privates for a third or fourth part 
 of the government allowance ! Insignificant in numbers, 
 such management had rendered the soldiers ten times 
 more inefficient, and, utterly wanting in spirit or conduct, 
 often, indeed, the mere menial servants of the officers, 
 they excited only contempt. Over and over again lord 
 Falkland detailed this state of things to Charles, and 
 prayed for assistance; but the difficulties in England, 
 and the deficiencies in the Irish revenue, united to with- 
 hold it. At last, however, warned by imminent dangers 
 that threatened, the king announced his resolution to 
 augment the Irish forces to 5000 foot and 500 horse, 
 and, unable to supply the necessary charge from an 
 empty treasury, he commanded the new levies to be 
 quartered on the different towns and counties, each of 
 which was to receive a certain portion of the troops, for 
 three months in turn, and to supply them with the 
 required necessaries. Alarmed by this project, — and 
 justly considering a great present sacrifice, with some 
 chance of profit, better than to be burthened with a tax 
 of horrible uncertainty, which yet gave them no reason- 
 able reliance for the future, — the Irish people instantly 
 offered the king a liberal voluntary contribution, on 
 condition of the redress of certain grievances. Catholics 
 and protestants concurred in this, and delegates from 
 both parties laid the proposal before the king himself, in 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. loi 
 
 London. The money they offered first ; in the shape of 
 a voluntary contribution of 100,000/., the largest sum 
 ever yet returned by Ireland, and to be paid by instal- 
 ments of 10,000/. a quarter. Their list of grievances 
 they produced next ; desiring relief from the exactions of 
 courts of justice, from military depredations, from trade 
 monopolies, from the religious penal statutes, from retro- 
 spective inquiries into defective titles beyond a period of 
 sixty years ^, and, finally, praying that the concessions 
 should be confirmed by an Irish parliament. Some of 
 these conditions were intolerable to Charles. A parlia- 
 ment was at all times hateful to him, and scarcely less 
 convenient than the absence of parliaments, to a prince 
 who desired to be absolute, was the privilege of increasing 
 the royal revenue, and obliging the minions of royalty, 
 by discovering old flaws in titles. Glorious had been 
 the opportunity of escheating large possessions to the 
 crown, or of passing them over to new proprietors ! 
 Yet here was a present offer of money, an advantage 
 not to be foreborne — whereas, so convenient was 
 Charles's moral code, an assent to obnoxious matters 
 was a thing to be withdrawn at the first convenient 
 opportunity, and evaded at any time. The ''graces," 
 as the concessions were called, were accordingly pro- 
 mised to be acceded to ; instalments of the money 
 were paid ; and writs were issued by lord Falkland 
 for a parliament. 
 
 The joyful anticipations raised in consequence soon 
 received a check. The writs were declared void by the 
 English council, in consequence of the provisions of 
 
 1 It had been usual to dispossess proprietors of estates, for defects 
 in their tenures as old as the original conquest of Ireland ! No man 
 was secure at his own hearth-stone. See Leiand, vol. ii. pp. 466 
 — 468. 
 
102 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Poynings's law^ not having been attended to by lord 
 Falkland, who was proved to have issued the writs on 
 his own authority, without having previously transmitted 
 to England a certificate of the laws to be brought forward 
 in the proposed parliament, with reasons for enacting 
 them, and then, as he ought to have done, waited for 
 his majesty's licence of permission under the great seal. 
 Still the people thought this a casual error, and they 
 waited in confidence of its remedy. The Roman catholic 
 party, meanwhile, encouraged by the favourable reception 
 of their delegates at court, and elated by a confidence of 
 protection from the queen, proceeded to act at once in 
 open defiance of the penal statutes. They seized churches 
 for their own worship, thronged the streets of Dublin 
 with their processions, erected an academy for the 
 religious instruction of their youth, and reinforced their 
 clergy by supplies of young priests from the colleges of 
 France and Spain. The extreme alarm of the protestants 
 at these manifestations, induced lord Falkland at last to 
 issue a proclamation, prohibiting the Roman catholic 
 clergy from exercising any control over the people, and 
 from celebrating their worship in public. The Roman 
 catholics, incensed at this step, now clamoured for the 
 promised graces and parliament ; the protestants had too 
 many reasons to join them in the demand ; and both 
 parties united in declaring that payment of the contribu- 
 tion, under present circumstances, was an intolerable 
 burthen. In vain lord Falkland offered to accept the 
 payment in instalments of 5000/., instead of 10,000/., a 
 year; the discontents daily increased, and, in the end, 
 drove the lord deputy from power. Lord Falkland, the 
 
 ^ These provisions had received additional ratification by subse- 
 quent statutes, the 3d and 4th of Philip and Mary. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 103 
 
 object of censure that should have fallen elsewhere, 
 returned to England. 
 
 A temporary administration, consisting of two lords 
 justices ; the one, lord chancellor, viscount Ely, and the 
 other, lord high treasurer, the earl of Cork ; was formed. 
 Both these noblemen were zealously opposed to the 
 Roman catholics, and instantly, without waiting the 
 king's orders, commenced a rigorous execution of the 
 penal statutes against recusants. An intimation from 
 England of the royal displeasure, threw some shadow 
 over these proceedings, but not till the opposition they 
 had strengthened had succeeded in suppressing the 
 academy and religious houses which had been erected 
 by the Roman catholics in Dublin. To complete the 
 difficulties of the present state of affairs, the termination 
 of the voluntary contribution now fast approached, and 
 the temper of all parties left any hope of its renewal more 
 than desperate. 
 
 Imminent, then, was the danger which now beset the 
 government of Ireland. Without the advantage of in- 
 ternal strength, it had no prospect of external aid. The 
 treasury in England could not afford a farthing to increase 
 the army, the money designed for that purpose had been 
 swallowed up in more immediate necessities, and the 
 army sank daily into the most miserable inefficiency. 
 Voluntary supply was out of the question, and compulsory 
 exactions, without the help of soldiers, still more ridicu- 
 lously vain. In the genius of the lord president of the 
 north, Charles had one hope remaining.^ 
 
 1 Ample authorities for this rapid summary of Irish affairs will be 
 found in Leland's History, vol, ii. p. 107. to the end, and vol. iii. 
 pp. I — 10. ; edition of 1733. I have also availed myself of Mr. 
 Mac-Diarmid's account, Lives of British Statesmen, vol. ii. pp. 
 125—135. 
 
104 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Wentworth received his commission in the early months 
 of 1632. He resolved to defer his departure, however, 
 till he had informed himself fully of the state of his 
 government, and fortified himself with all the authorities 
 that should be needful. The energy, the prudence, the 
 various powers of resource, with which he laboured to 
 this end, are only to be appreciated by an examination 
 of the original documents, which still remain in evidence 
 of all.^ They were most extraordinary. The first thing 
 he did was to procure an order from the king, in restric- 
 tion of the authority of the government of lords justices, 
 during his own absence from Dublin.^ In answer, then, 
 to various elaborate congratulations from the officers of 
 the Irish government, he sent back cold, but peremptory, 
 requests for information of their various departments. 
 The treasury necessities, and means of supply, were his 
 primary care. The lords justices declared that the only 
 possible resource, in that respect, was to levy rigorously 
 the penalties imposed by statute on the Roman catholics, 
 for absence from public worship. The cabinet in London, 
 powerless of expedient, saw no chance of avoiding 
 this, when lord Cottington received from York one of 
 Wentworth's vigorous dispatches. 
 
 *' Now, my lord," reasoned the new lord deputy, *' I am 
 not ignorant that what hath been may happen out again, 
 and how much every good Englishman ought, as well in 
 
 ^ See the Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 61 — 97. 
 
 ^ Id. ibid. p. (yTf. After intimating to the lords justices Went- 
 worth's appointment, the royal order proceeds ; — *' We have, there- 
 fore, in the mean time thought fit hereby to require you not to pass 
 any pardons, offices, lands, or church livings by grant under our 
 great seal of that our kingdom ; nor to confer the honour of knight- 
 hood upon any, or to dispose of any company of horse or foot there : 
 only you are required in this interim to look to the ordinary admin- 
 istration of civil justice, and to the good government of our subjects 
 and army there," 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 105 
 
 reason of state as conscience, to desire that kingdom 
 were well reduced to conformity of religion with us here 
 — as, indeed, shutting up the postern gate, hitherto open 
 to many a dangerous inconvenience and mischief, which 
 have over-lately laid too near us, exhausted our treasures, 
 consumed our men, busied the perplexed minds of her late 
 majesty and all her ministers. Yet, my lord, it is a great 
 businessj hath many a root lying deep, and far within 
 ground ; which would be first thoroughly opened before 
 we judge what height it may shoot up unto, when it shall 
 feel itself once struck at, to be loosened and pulled up ; 
 nor, at this distance, can I advise it should be at all 
 attempted, until the payment for the king's army be else- 
 where and surelier settled, than either upon the voluntary 
 gift of the subjects, or upon the casual income of the twelve- 
 pence a Sunday. Before this fruit grows ripe for gather- 
 ing, the army must not live prcecario, fetching in every 
 morsel of bread upon their swords' points. Nor will I 
 so far ground myself with an implicit faith upon the all- 
 foreseeing providence of the earl of Cork, as to receive 
 the contrary opinion from him in verbo magistri ; when I 
 am sure that if such a rush as this should set that king- 
 dom in pieces again, I must be the man that am like to 
 bear the heat of the day, and to be also accountable for 
 the success, not he. Blame me not, then, where it 
 concerns me so nearly, both in honour and safety, if I 
 much rather desire to hold it in suspence, and to be at 
 liberty upon the place to make my own election, than 
 thus be closed up by the choice and admission of 
 strangers, whom I know not, how they stand affected, 
 either to me or the king's service. Therefore let me 
 beseech you to consult this business seriously with his 
 majesty and with my lord treasurer. Admit me here, 
 
lo6 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 with all submission, to express myself upon this point ; 
 and finally, be pleased to draw it to some present resolu- 
 tion, which, the shortness of time considered, must 
 instantly be put in action. I do conceive, then, what 
 difficulties, nay, what impossibility soever, the council of 
 Ireland hath pretended, that it is a very easy work to con- 
 tinue the contribution upon the country for a year longer^ 
 which ivill be of infinite advantage to his majesty's affairs ; 
 for we look very ill about us, if in that time we find not 
 the means either to establish that revenue in the crown, or 
 raise some other equivalent thereunto. And this we gain, 
 too, without hazarding the public peace of the subject by 
 any new apprehensions, which commonly accompany 
 such fresh undertakings, especially being so general as is 
 the twelvepence upon the absentees." The despatch 
 then went on to suggest, that the very representations of 
 the lords justices might be used for the purpose of dis- 
 pensing with their propositions, — and to draw out, for 
 the instruction of the council, a succinct plan of effecting 
 this.i 
 
 Distrustful, notwithstanding, of the energy of Cotting- 
 ton and his associates, Wentworth followed his despatch 
 in person, arrived in London 2, prevailed with the council 
 to enter into his design, and had a letter immediately 
 sent off to the lords justices, bitterly complaining of all 
 the evils they had set forth, of the impossibiHty of raising 
 voluntary supplies, and the consequent necessity of 
 exacting the penalties. " Seeing," added the king, by 
 Wentworth's dictation, " Seeing you conceive there is so 
 
 1 See Strafiford Papers, vol. i. pp. 75 — 77. 
 
 2 This is evident from a subsequent despatch to Cottington, in 
 which he reminds him that the resolution I am about to describe 
 was taken finally "in presence of the treasurer, your lordship, the 
 secretary Cooke, and myself." Vol. i. p. 74. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 107 
 
 much difficulty in the settlement of the payments, and 
 considering the small hopes you mention in your letters 
 of further improvement there, we must be constrained^ if 
 they be not freely and thankfully contittued, to streigthen 
 our former graces vouchsafed during those contributions, 
 and 7nake use more strictly of our legal rights and profits 
 to be employed for so good and necessary a work." 
 Leaving this letter, with other secret instructions, to work 
 their effects, Wentworth next despatched a private and 
 confidential agent to Ireland, himself a Roman catholic, 
 to represent to his brethren personally, and in secret, the 
 lord deputy's regard for them, his willingness to act as a 
 mediator and his hope that a moderate voluntary con- 
 tribution might be accepted in release of their heavy 
 fines ; — in one word, he sent this person '' a little to feel 
 their pulse underhand." ^ " The instrument I employed," 
 Wentworth afterwards wrote to Cottington, " was himself 
 a papist, and knows no other than that the resolution of 
 the state here is set upon that course [of exacting the 
 recusant fines], and that I do this privately, in favour 
 and well-wishing, to divert the present storm ; which else 
 would fall heavy upon them all ; being a thing framed 
 and prosecuted by the earl of Cork; which makes the 
 man labour it in good earnest, taking it to be a cause 
 pro aris et focis." The first thing this agent discovered 
 and communicated to his employer, was that his 
 temporary representatives, the lords justices, were seek- 
 ing to counteract his purpose, and had utterly neglected 
 the instructions of the last letter that had been despatched 
 to them from the king. With characteristic energy, 
 Wentworth seized this incident for a double purpose of 
 advantage. 
 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 73, 74. 
 
lo8 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 There would be little hazard in supposing that their 
 lordships of Ely and Cork were indebted to the extra- 
 ordinary letter from which I shall quote the opening 
 passages, for the strongest sensation their official lives had 
 known. '' Your lordships," wrote Wentworth, " hereto- 
 fore received a letter from his majesty, directed to your- 
 selves alone, of the 14th April last; a letter of exceeding 
 much weight and consequence ; a letter most weightily 
 and maturely consulted, and ordered by his majesty 
 himself; a letter that your lordships were expressly ap- 
 pointed you should presently cause to be entered in the 
 council book, and also in the signet office; to the end 
 there might be public and uniform notice taken of his 
 majesty's pleasure so signified by all his ministers, and 
 others there, whom it might concern. How is it, then, 
 that I understand this letter hath, by your lordships' 
 order, lain ever since (and still doth, for anything I 
 know) sealed up in silence at the council table? Not 
 once published or entered, as was precisely directed, and 
 expected from your lordships ! copies denied to all men ! 
 and yet not so much as the least reason or colour certified 
 over hither for your neglect, or (to term it more mildly) 
 forbearance, to comply with his majesty's directions in 
 that behalf ! BeHeve me, my lords, I fear this will not 
 be well taken, if it come to be known on this side, and 
 in itself lies open enough to very hard and ill construction, 
 reflecting and trenching deeper than at first may be 
 apprehended. And pardon me^ my lords, if in the dis- 
 charge of my own duty I be transported beyond my natural 
 modesty and 77ioderation, and the respects I personally bear 
 your lordships, plainly to let you know I shall not connive 
 at such a presumption in you, thus to evacuate my master s 
 directions ; nor contain myself in silence, seeing them before 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 109 
 
 my face so slighted^ or at least laid aside, it seems, very 
 little regarded. Therefore I must, in a just contempla- 
 tion of his majesty's honour and wisdom, crave leave to 
 advise you forthwith to mend your error by entering and 
 publishing that letter as is commanded you, or I must, 
 for my own safety, acquaint his majesty with all ; and I 
 pray God the keeping it close all this while, be not, in 
 the sequel, imputed unto you as a mighty disservice to 
 his majesty, and which you may be highly answerable 
 for."i The next communication from his popish agent, 
 informed Wentworth that the omissions complained of 
 had been repaired, and, further, that all parties had 
 agreed to " continue on the contribution as now it is," 
 till his coming. The deputy was thus left to complete, 
 without embarrassment, his already meditated financial 
 projects ; and the lords justices, with their friends, had 
 leisure to consider, and amene themselves to, the new 
 and most peremptory lord, who was shortly to appear 
 amongst them ! 
 
 Ireland was hereafter to be the scene of an absolute 
 government, — the government of a comprehensive mind, 
 but directed to a narrow and mistaken purpose. The 
 first grand object of Wentworth's exertions, was to be 
 accomplished in rendering the king's power uncontrollable. 
 Beyond this other schemes arose. The natural advan- 
 tages of Ireland, worked to the purpose of her own 
 revenue, might be further pressed to the aid of the 
 English treasury, — and a scheme of absolute power 
 successfully established in Ireland, promised still greater 
 service to the royalist side in the English struggle. 
 
 The union of singular capacity with the most deter- 
 mined vigour which characterized every present move- 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 77. 
 
 VERSIT1 
 
 ILIFORH^ 
 
no BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 ment of Wentworth, while it already, in itself, seemed a 
 forecast of vast though indefinable success, left the king 
 no objection to urge against any of the powers he 
 demanded. The following stipulations were at once 
 assented to. They are all characteristic of Wentworth, 
 of his sagacity no less than his ambition. They open 
 with the evident assumption that the debts of the Irish 
 establishment will soon be settled, and with consequent 
 cautious exceptions against the rapacity of those numerous 
 courtiers, who waited, as Wentworth well knew, to pounce 
 upon the first vacant office, or even the first vacant 
 shilling. The lord deputy demanded — 
 
 " That his majesty may declare his express pleasure, 
 that no Irish suit, by way of reward, be moved for by 
 any of his servants, or others, before the ordinary revenue 
 there become able to sustain the necessary charge of 
 that crown, and the debts thereof be fully cleared. — 
 That there be an express caveat entered with the 
 secretaries, signet, privy-seal, and great seal here, that no 
 grant of what nature soever, concerning Ireland, be 
 suffered to pass till the deputy be made acquainted, and 
 it hath first passed the great seal of that kingdom, accord- 
 ing to the usual manner. — That his majesty signify 
 his pleasure, that especial care be taken hereafter, that 
 sufficient and credible persons be chosen to supply such 
 bishopricks as shall fall void, to be admitted of his privy 
 council, to sit as judges, and serve of his learned council 
 there ; that he will vouchsafe to hear the advice of his 
 deputy before he resolve of any in these cases ; and that 
 the deputy be commanded to inform his majesty truly 
 and impartially, of every man's particular diligence and 
 care in his service there, to the end his majesty may 
 timely and graciously reward the well deserving, by 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. m 
 
 calling them home to better preferments here. — That 
 no particular complaint of injustice or oppression be 
 admitted here against any unless it appear the party 
 made his first address to the deputy. — That no confirm- 
 ation of any reversion of ofiices within that kingdom be 
 had, or any new grant of a reversion hereafter to pass. 
 — That no new office be erected within that kingdom 
 before such time as the deputy be therewith acquainted, 
 his opinion first required, and certified back accord- 
 ingly. — That the places in the deputy's gift, as well 
 of the civil as the martial list, be left freely to his 
 dispose ; and that his majesty will be graciously pleased 
 not to pass them to any upon suit made unto him 
 here."i 
 
 Lord Wentworth further required and obtained, in 
 the shape of supplementary private propositions, the 
 following : — 
 
 "That all propositions moving from the deputy touch- 
 ing matters of revenue may be directed to the lord 
 treasurer of England, without acquainting the rest of 
 the committee for Irish affairs.^ — That the address of 
 all other dispatches for that kingdom be, by special 
 direction of his majesty, appUed to one of the secretaries 
 
 ^ I have already alhided to the limitation under which this pro- 
 position was acceded to by the king. Charles was to make the 
 grants conditionally to the applicants, and Wentworth was to con- 
 cede or refuse them as the good of the service required. " Yet so 
 too," stipulated the king, "as I may have thanks howsoever; that 
 if there be any thing to be denied, you may do it, not I." — Strafford 
 Papers, vol. i. p. 140. 
 
 ^ Reasons are subjoined to each proposition. As a specimen I 
 quote from the few lines appended to the above : — "Thus shall his 
 majesty's profits go more stilly and speedily to their ends without 
 being unseasonably vented as they pass along ; and the deputy not 
 only preserved but encouraged to deliver his opinion freely and 
 plainly upon all occasions, when he is assured to have it kept secret 
 and in few and safe hands." 
 
112 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 singly.^ — That the lord viscount Falkland be required to 
 deliver in writing in what condition he conceives his 
 majesty's revenue and the government of that kingdom 
 now stand, together with a particular of such designs 
 for advancing his majesty's service, as were either un- 
 begun or unperfected by him when he left the place, 
 as also his advice how they may be best pursued and 
 effected." 
 
 Not even content with these vast and extraordinary 
 powers and precautions, lord Wentworth engaged for 
 another condition — the most potent and remarkable of 
 all — that he was to consider them changeable on the 
 spot whenever the advancement of his majesty's affairs 
 required. "Your lordship may rest assured," writes 
 secretary Cooke, " that no mediation shall prevail with 
 his majesty to exempt the lord Balfour from the rest of 
 the opposers of the contributions, but that he will be 
 left with the rest to the censure of your justice. And I 
 am persuaded^ that in this and all the rest of your pro- 
 ceedings for his service^ his princely resolution will support 
 you, if the rest of your friends here do their duties in their 
 true representation thereof unto him. As your speedy 
 passage for Ireland is most necessary for that govern- 
 ment, so your safety concerneth his majesty's honour no 
 less than your own. It is therefore found reasonable, 
 that you expect captain Plumleigh, who, with this fair 
 weather, will come about in a short time, (so as it may 
 be hoped) he will prevent your coming to that port, 
 where you appoint to come aboard. Your instructions 
 {as you know) as well as the establishment are changeable 
 upon occasions for advancement of the affairs. And as 
 
 ^ " This I will have done by secretary Cooke," so written by the 
 king himself upon the original paper. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. X13 
 
 you will be careful not to change without cause, so when 
 you find it necessary, his majesty will cor^form them by 
 his wisdom to that he findeth fit upon your advice. 
 For my service in any thing that may tend to further 
 your noble ends, besides the duty of my place and trust, 
 the confidence you repose in me, and the testimony you 
 give thereof, are so obligatory, that I must forget myself 
 much, if you find not my professions made good. For 
 the Yorkshire business, in the castigation of those mad men 
 and fools ^ which are so apt to fall upon you, that course 
 which yourself, the lord Cottington, and Mr. attorney 
 resolve upon, is here also taken, that prosecution may be 
 made in both courts. I find your vice-president a young 
 man of good understanding and counsellable, and very 
 forward to promote his majesty's service. ^ The secretary 
 is also a discreet well-tempered man." ^ 
 
 1 These "mad men and fools " were "sir John Bouchier and his 
 complices," who soon received their most unjust judgment. This 
 passage will serve to prove the value of Wentworth's answer to this 
 matter, also urged against him afterwards on his impeachment. 
 "For the sentence against sir John Bouchier, the defendant was not 
 at all acquainted with it, being then in Ireland ! " — See Rushworth^ 
 vol. ii. p. 161. It is to be observed at the same time that the 
 commons had not the advantage of the present evidence. 
 
 ^ Edward Osborne had been finally chosen by Wentworth. A 
 passage in the following extract from a letter of sir William Penny- 
 man's shows that the latter had been previously thought of for the 
 office: — "My servant can best satisfy your lordship of the good 
 health of Mr. William and Mrs. Anne, for he saw them both before 
 his journey ; they have been very well, and I trust will continue so. 
 I am most willing, I wish I could say able too, to be your lordship's 
 vice-president, but the defect of this must ho. supplied with the 
 surplusage of the other." 
 
 3 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 93. The allusion to lord Balfour, 
 with which the above despatch opens, requires explanation. Went- 
 worth, who had already possessed himself of the most intimate 
 knowledge of the state of parties and disputes in his new govern- 
 ment, had written thus some days before to Cooke : — "I have sent 
 here likewise unto you a letter from the lords justices, together with 
 all the examinations taken of the lord Balfour, and the rest which 
 
 I 
 
114 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Wentworth, notwithstanding his new dignities, had re- 
 solved not to resign the presidency of Yorkshire. And 
 here we see, in the midst of his extraordinary preparations 
 for his Irish government, he had yet found time to prose- 
 cute every necessary measure that had a view to the 
 security of his old powers in the north. We gather 
 from this letter of the secretary their general character. 
 He celebrated his departure by some acts of vigorous 
 power, and he wrung from the council of London such 
 amplifications even of his large and unusual presi- 
 dential commission, as might compensate for the failure 
 of personal influence and energy consequent on his own 
 departure.^ He pressed more especially for the settle- 
 
 refused the contribution in the county of Fermanagh, by all which 
 you will find plainly how busy the sherifif and sir William Cole have 
 been in mutinying the country against the king's service ; and I 
 beseech you acquaint his majesty therewithal, and for the rest leave 
 it to me when I come on the other side, and believe me, I will teach 
 both them and others better grounds of duty and obedience to his 
 majesty than they have shown in this wanton and saucy boldness of 
 theirs. And so much the more careful must we be to correct this 
 peccant humour in the first beginnings, in regard this is a great 
 revenue, which his majesty's affairs cannot subsist without ; so that 
 we must either continue that to the crown, or get something from 
 that people, of as much value another way ; wherein I conceive it 
 most necessary to proceed most severely in the punishment of this 
 offence, which will still all men else for a many years after ; and, 
 therefore, if the king or yourself conceive otherwise, help me in 
 time, or else I shall be sure to lay it on them soundly. My lord 
 Balfour excuseth his fault, and will certainly make means to his 
 majesty for favour, wherein under correction, if his juajesty intend to 
 prosecute the rest, I conceive it is clearly best for the service to leave 
 him entirely to riin a cojnfnon forttme, as he is in a common case with 
 the rest of those delinquents." — Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 87. 
 
 ^ The obtaining of such a commission formed one of the articles 
 of his after impeachment, and his answer was, that he had never sat 
 as president after the articles were framed. But he did not deny 
 that the power they vested was exercised by his vice-president, on 
 the lord-president's behalf, and consequently with the full re- 
 sponsibility of the latter. His instrumentality in obtaining these 
 instructions, indeed, was not directly proved ; but it was proved 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 115 
 
 ment of a dispute with lord Faulconberg by a peremptory 
 punishment of the latter : " for this you know," he wrote 
 to the secretary, " is a public business, and myself being 
 to leave this government for a while, desirous to settle 
 and establish this council in their just powers and credits, 
 
 that on one occasion "the president fell upon his knees and desired 
 his majesty to enlarge his powers, or that he might have leave to go 
 home and lay his bones in his own cottage." — Rushworthy vol. ii. p. 
 161. The commission was granted immediately after. Its most 
 terrible article was that which in every case, in distinct terms, 
 wrested from the subject the privilege of protection in Westminster 
 Hall, and cut him off from any share in the rights, poor and con- 
 fined as they were, of the rest of his fellow subjects. During 
 Went worth's absence in Ireland, one judge of the exchequer, Vernon, 
 dared to move in defiance of these monstrous restrictions. The lord 
 deputy instantly wrote to Cottington, described Vernon's conduct, 
 and thus proceeded : — "If this were not a goodly example in the 
 face of a country living under the government of the president and 
 council, for the respect and obedience due to the authority set over 
 them by his majesty, of that awful reverence and duty which we all 
 owe to his majesty's declared good will and pleasure under the great 
 seal, I am much mistaken. I do, therefore, most humbly beseech 
 'this judge may be con vented at the council board, and charged with 
 these two great misdemeanors ; which if he deny, I pray you say 
 openly in council I am the person will undertake to prove them 
 against him, and withal affirm that by these strange extravagant 
 courses he distracts his majesty's government and affairs more than 
 ever he will be of use unto them, and that, therefore, I am a most 
 earnest suitor to his majesty and their lordships, that he be not 
 admitted to go that circuit hereafter ; and, indeed, I do most earnestly 
 beseech his majesty by you, that we may be troubled no more wiih such 
 a peevish indiscreet piece of flesh. I confess I disdain to see the gown- 
 men in this sort hang their noses over the flowers of the crown, blow 
 and snuffle upon them, till they take both scent and beauty off them ; 
 or to have them put such a prejudice upon all other sorts of men, as if 
 none were able or worthy to be intrusted zvith honour and administra- 
 tion of justice but themselves. " This is surely a characteristic betrayal 
 of Wentworth's interest in the powers of the new commission ! 
 Some difficulties appear to have been encountered in the way of the 
 course he proposed against this judge, for we find him at a subse- 
 quent date writing thus to the lord treasurer: — "If Mr. justice 
 Vernon be either removed or amended in his circuit, I am very 
 well content, being by me only considered as he is in relation 
 to his majesty's service in those parts, — the gentleman otherwise 
 unknown to me by injury or benefit." — See Strafford Papers, vol. i. 
 pp. 129. 295. 
 
Il6 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 which is fit for the king's service, would fain see ourselves 
 righted upon this arrogant lord, and so discipline all the 
 rest upon his shoulders, as I might well hope they should 
 exercise their jurisdiction in peace during the time of my 
 absence.^'' ^ Lord Wentworth's fiercest prosecution of 
 apparent personal resentments was, in all cases, the 
 simple carrying out of that despotic principle in its 
 length and breadth, and with reference to its ulterior 
 aims, which had become the very law of his being. 
 In this point of view only can they be justly or 
 intelligibly considered. The cruelties associated with 
 the name now about to be introduced, have their ex- 
 aggeration, or their excuse, according as the feelings of 
 the reader may determine — but, at all events, have their 
 rational and philosophical solution — in this point of 
 view alone. 
 
 The lord Mountnorris held at this time the office of 
 vice-treasurer, which in effect was that of treasurer of 
 Ireland. Clarendon observes of him, "He was a man 
 of great industry, activity, and experience in the affairs 
 of Ireland, having raised himself from a very private 
 mean condition (having been an inferior servant to lord 
 Chichester) to the degree of a viscount, and a privy 
 counsellor, and to a very ample revenue in lands and 
 offices ; and had always, by servile flattery and sordid 
 application, wrought himself into trust and nearness with 
 all deputies at their first entrance upon their charge, 
 informing them of the defects and oversights of their 
 predecessors ; and after the determination of their com- 
 
 ^ A note subjoined to this is too characteristic to be omitted : — 
 " There is like to be a good fine gotten of him [lord Faulconberg] 
 for the king, which, considering the manner of his life, were 
 wonderous ill lost ; and lost it will be, if I be not here: therefore I 
 pray you let me have my directions with all possible speed." 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 117 
 
 mands and return into England, informing the state here, 
 and those enemies they usually contracted in that time, 
 of whatsoever they had done or suffered to be done 
 amiss ; whereby they either suffered disgrace or damage, 
 as soon as they were recalled from those honours. In 
 this manner he began with his own master, the lord 
 Chichester ; and continued the same arts upon the lord 
 Grandison, and the lord Falkland, who succeeded ; and, 
 upon that score, procured admission and trust with 
 the earl of Strafford, upon his first admission to that 
 government."^ This is quoted here, for the purpose of 
 introducing a letter of Wentworth's, which was written 
 at about this time, and which appears to me not only 
 to corroborate Clarendon's account, but (in opposition 
 to those who have urged, as Mr. Brodie 2, that Went- 
 worth began his official connection with Mountnorris, by 
 " courting " the latter) to give at the same time the noble 
 vice-treasurer and informer-general fair warning, of the 
 character and intentions of the lord deputy he had there- 
 after to deal with. Mountnorris had previously allied 
 himself with Wentworth by marriage with a near relative 
 of his deceased wife, the lady Arabella. '' I was not 
 a little troubled," runs Wentworth's letter, "when my 
 servant, returning from Dublin, brought back with him 
 the inclosed, together with the certainty of your lordship's 
 yet abode at West-Chester. I have hereupon instantly 
 despatched this footman, expressly to find you out ; and 
 to solicit you, most earnestly, to pass yourself over on 
 the other side : for besides that the monies which I 
 expect from you (which I confess you might some other 
 ways provide for), the customs there, you know how 
 
 ^ Hist, of Rebellion, vol. i. p. 175. 
 2 Hist, of Brit. Empire, vol. iii. p, 70. 
 
Ii8 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 loose they lie ; our only confidence here being in you.'* 
 Several other details are pressed with great earnestness. 
 "Therefore," he continues, "for the love of God, linger 
 no longer, but leaving your lady with my lady Cholmon- 
 deley, in case her present estate will not admit her to 
 pass along with you, — I will, God willing, not fail to 
 wait on her ladyship over myself, and deliver her safe to 
 you at Dublin : — the rather for that to tell your lordship 
 plainly, which I beseech you keep very private to your- 
 self, it will be impossible for me to despatch the king's 
 business, and my own, and get hence before the end of 
 November at the soonest. My lord Ranelagh will be 
 here, I believe, within this day or two ; and, in regard of 
 his and my lord Dungarvan's being here before, I hold 
 it fit to communicate with your lordship the occasion, 
 which is this, — that there being a proposition made to 
 me for a marriage with my lord of Cork's daughter i, I, 
 
 ^ This lady, whom Wentworth for excellent reasons declined 
 marrying, afterwards married George Goring, son of the earl of 
 Norwich. This was the lord deputy's management. Some eight 
 or nine months after he writes to the earl of Carlisle : — " Young Mr, 
 Goring is gone to travel, having run himself out 8000/., which he 
 purposeth to redeem by his frugality abroad, unless my lord of Cork 
 can be induced to put to his helping hand, which I have undertaken 
 to solicit for him the best I can, and shall do it with all the power 
 and care my credit and wit shall anywise suggest unto me. In the 
 meantime his lady is gone to the bath to put herself in state to be 
 got with child, and when all things are prepared, she is like to want 
 the principal guest. Was ever willing creature so disappointed ? 
 In truth it is something ominous, if you mark it, yet all may do well 
 enough, if her father will be persuaded, and then if she be not as 
 well done to as any of her kin, Mr. Goring looseth a friend of me 
 for ever. You may say now, if you will, I put a shrewd task upon 
 a young man, there being no better stuff to work upon ; but it is 
 the more charity in us that wish it, and the most of all in him that 
 shall perform it en bon et gentil cavalier.'''' Such, I may remark, is 
 the (to him unusual) tone of levity, which he seldom failed to employ 
 in writing to this earl of Carlisle, whose wife, the famous countess, 
 had secretly become his mistress. This earl died in 1636. The 
 countess will be spoken of shortly. See also Strafford Papers, vol. 
 ii. p. 119. 
 
BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 119 
 
 that had no thought such a way, did nevertheless move 
 a match, betwixt the young lord and my lord Clifford's 
 daughter, which was by them accepted ; and so he comes 
 now, I believe, to treat further of this matter with my 
 lord Clifford. But this I must entreat you to keep 
 private ; with this, that albeit the house of Cumberland 
 is to me, as all the world knows that knows me, in next 
 esteem to my own family, yet be you well assured, this 
 alliance shall not decline me from those more sovereign 
 duties I owe my master, or those other faiths I owe my 
 other friends." Some expressions of courtesy are then 
 followed by this remarkable passage. " // is enough said 
 amongst honest men ; and you may easily believe me ; but 
 look you, be secret and true to me, and that no suspicion 
 possess you ; ivhich else in time may turn to both our 
 disadvantages. For God's sake my lord, let me again press 
 your departure for Ireland. And let me have 2000/. of 
 my entertainment, sent me over with all possible speed ; 
 for I have entered fondly enough on a purchase here of 
 14,000/., and the want of that would very foully disappoint 
 me." It is clear to me in this, that Wentworth had re- 
 solved, from the first, to watch Mountnorris narrowly, 
 and, on the earliest intimation of any possible renewal 
 of his old treacheries, to crush him and them for 
 ever. 
 
 Lady Mountnorris would possibly be startled in hearing 
 from her lord, that the sorrowing widower of the lady 
 Arabella was already speaking of the negotiation of 
 another marriage. The entire truth would have startled 
 her still more. Lord Wentworth had at this very time, 
 though a year had not passed since the death of his last 
 wife, whom he appears to have loved with fervent and 
 continuing affection, "married Elizabeth, the daughter 
 
120 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 of sir Godfrey '^^o^o.^, privately .'' Such is the statement 
 of sir George Radcliffe. 
 
 Since RadcHffe wrote, however, some curious letters 
 relatmg to this marriage have been discovered in the 
 Thoresby museum. Sir George says that the marriage 
 took place in October. I am now about to quote a letter 
 which bears the date of October in the same year (the 
 30th), and which goes to prove that, supposing the state- 
 ment in question correct, Wentworth must have sent the 
 lady off to a distance from himself immediately after the 
 ceremony. Nor is this the only singular circumstance 
 suggested by this letter. Even sir George Radcliffe, 
 probably, did not know all. 
 
 " Madam," Wentworth writes, *' I have, in little, much 
 to say to you, and in short terms to profess that which I 
 must appear all my life long, or else one of us must be 
 much to blame. But, in truth, I have that confidence in 
 you, and that assurance in myself, as to rest secure the 
 fault will never be made on either side. Well^ then ; this 
 little and this much, this short a?td this long, which I aim 
 at, is no more than to give you this first written testimony, 
 that I am your husband ; and that husband of yours, that 
 will ever discharge those duties of love and respect towards 
 you which good women may expect, and are justly due from 
 good men to discharge them, with a hallowed care and con- 
 tinued perseverance in them : and this is not only much, but 
 all which belongs me ; and wherein I shall tread out the 
 remainder of life which is left me. More I cannot say, nor 
 perform much more for the present ; the rest must dwell in 
 hope until I have made it up in the balance, but I am and 
 must be no other than your loving husband.''^ A postscript ^ 
 
 ^ " If you will speak to my cousin Radcliffe for the paste I told 
 you on for your teeth, and desire him to speak to Dr. Moore, in my 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 121 
 
 closes the letter, referring to some paste for the 
 teeth, which proves that the lady was in London. 
 Wentworth himself was at York, and, it is evident from 
 his letters, had not quitted the county during the whole 
 of that month. The lady's answer to this letter would 
 seem to have been humbly affectionate, and to have 
 conveyed to Wentworth a lowly but fervent expression of 
 tliankfulness — for that her new husband had promised not 
 to cast her off as a deserted mistress ! His reply (dated 
 about a fortnight after his first letter) is in excellent 
 spirit, and highly characteristic : — " Dear Besse," he 
 begins, with the encouragement of tender words, " your 
 first lines were wellcum unto me, and I will keep them, 
 in regard I take them to be full, as of kindness, so of 
 truth. // is no presu7iiption for you to write unto me; 
 the fellowship of marriage ought to carry with it more of 
 love and equality than any other apprehension. Soe I 
 desire it may ever be betwixt us, nor shall it break of 
 my parte. Virtue is the highest value we can set upon 
 ourselves in this world, and the chiefe which others are 
 to esteem us by. That preserved, we become capable 
 of the noblest impressions which can be imparted unto 
 us. You succeed in this family two of the rarest ladies 
 of their time. Equal them in those excellent dispositions 
 of your mind, and you become every ways equally worthy 
 
 name, for two pots of it, and that the doctor will see it be good, for 
 this last indeed was not so, you may bring me one down, and keep 
 the other yourself" On the back of this letter, the following words 
 are written, in a delicate female hand : — "Tom was borne the 17th 
 of September, being Wednesday, in the morning, betwixt two and 
 three o'clock, and was christened of the 7th of October, 1634." 
 There is another letter of Wentworth's to lady Wentworth, dated 
 from Sligo, in 1635, in the same museum, wherein he sends his 
 blessing to ** little Tom." This child died, but Elizabeth Rhodes 
 afterwards bore lord Strafford a girl, who was yet an infant at her 
 father's death. 
 
122 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 of any thing that they had, or that the rest of tlie world 
 can give. And be you ever assured to be by me cherished 
 and assisted the best I can, thorow the whole course of 
 my life, wherein I shall be no other to you than I was to 
 them, to wit, your loving husband, Wentworth." Still, 
 however, Wentworth did not acknowledge her publicly ; 
 still he kept her, for some time, at a distance ; and finally 
 sent her over to Ireland, in the charge of sir George 
 Radcliffe, some time before he himself quitted England. 
 She arrived in Dublin with Radchffe in January 1633 i, 
 and was not joined by Wentworth till the July of that 
 year, when his lordship at last ventured to acknowledge 
 her.^ Laud, upon this, seems to have put some questions 
 to the lord deputy, whose answer may be supposed, from 
 the following passage in the archbishop's rejoinder, to 
 have been made up of explanations and apologies, and 
 a concluding hint of advice. "And now, my lord, I 
 heartily wish you and your lady all mutual content that 
 may be ; and I did never doubt that you undertook that 
 course but upon mature consideration, and you have 
 been pleased to express to me a very good one, in which 
 God bless you and your posterity, though I did not write 
 any thing to you as an examiner. For myself, I must 
 needs confess to your lordship my weakness, that having 
 
 1 Radcliffe's Essay. 
 
 2 His friends were instant in their congratulation, and, in a pro- 
 fusion of compliments, sought to intimate to his lordship, — that in 
 this marriage of one so far beneath him in rank and consideration, 
 he had only furnished another proof of his own real and independent 
 greatness. There is something pleasanter in the earl of Leicester's 
 note, who simply regrets that he "had not the good fortune to be 
 one of the throng that crowded to tell you how glad they were 
 that you had passed your journey and landed safely in your govern- 
 ment, or (which I conceive a greater occasion of rejoycing with you) 
 that you were happily and healthfully arrived in the arms of a fair 
 and beloved Wxio..'" ^Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 157. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 123 
 
 been married to a very troublesome and unquiet wife before, 
 I should be so ill advised as now, being about sixty, to go 
 marry another of a more wayward and troubleso?ne 
 generation.^^ ^ There will not be any further occasion to 
 remark upon the early circumstances of this marriage, 
 which in its subsequent results presented nothing of a 
 striking or unusual description, but I shall here add, for 
 the g lidance of the reader in his judgment of these 
 particulars of Wentworth's conduct, some few consider- 
 ations which in justice ought not to be omitted. 
 
 Lord Wentworth was a man of intrigue, and the 
 mention of this is not to be avoided in such a view of 
 the bearings of his conduct and character as it has been 
 here attempted, for the first time, to convey. It is at all 
 times a delicate matter to touch upon this portion of 
 men's histories, partly from the nature of the subject, and 
 partly from a kind of soreness which the community feel 
 upon it, owing to the inconsistencies between their 
 opinions and practices, and to certain strange perplexities 
 at the heart of those inconsistencies, which it remains for 
 some bolder and more philosophical generanon even to 
 discuss. Meantime it is pretty generally understood, 
 that fidelity to the marriage bed is not apt to be most 
 prevalent where leisure and luxury most abound ; and, 
 for the same reason, there is a tendency in the richer 
 classes to look upon the licences they take, and to talk 
 of them with one another, and so by a thousand means 
 to increase and perpetuate the tendency, — of which the 
 rest of society have little conception, unless it be, indeed, 
 among the extremely poor. For similar effects result 
 from being either above or below a dependence upon 
 other people's opinions. When it was publicly brought 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 125. 
 
124 
 
 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 out, therefore, that Wentworth, as well as gayer men of 
 the court, had had his " levities," as the grave lord 
 chancellor Clarendon calls them, — it naturally told 
 against him with the more serious part of the nation ; 
 not, however, without some recoil, in the opinions of 
 candid observers, against the ingenuousness of those who 
 told it, — because the latter, as men moving in the same 
 ranks themselves, or on the borders of them, must have 
 known the licence secretly prevailing, and probably 
 partook of it far more than was supposed. Lady Carlisle, 
 one of the favourites of Wentworth, subsequently became 
 the mistress of Pym himself. Lord Clarendon, backed 
 with the more avowed toleration, or, rather, impudent 
 unfeelingness, which took place in the subsequent reign, 
 not only makes use of the term just quoted in speaking 
 of intrigue, but ventures, with a sort of pick-thank chuckle 
 of old good-humour, to confess that, in his youth, he 
 conducted himself in these matters much as others did, 
 though with a wariness proportionate to his under- 
 standing. " Caute^'^ says he, in the quotation popular 
 at the time, and used by Wentworth himself, "^/ non 
 caste. '^ 
 
 We are also to take into consideration, that if the 
 court of Charles the First had more sentiment and 
 reserve than that of his heartless son, it was far from 
 being so superior to courts in general in this respect, as 
 the solemn shadow which attends his image with posterity 
 naturally enough leads people to conclude. The better 
 taste of the poetry-and-picture-loving monarch did but 
 refine, and throw a veil over, the grosser habits of the 
 court of his father James. Pleasure was a Silenus in the 
 court of James. In that of Charles the Second, it was a 
 vulgar satyr. Under Charles the First, it was still of the 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 125 
 
 breed, but it was a god Pan, and the muses piped 
 among his nymphs. 
 
 Far from wondering, therefore, that Wentworth, not- 
 withstanding the gravity of his bearing and the solemn 
 violence of his ambition, allowed himself to indulge in 
 the fashionable licence of the times, it was to be expected 
 that he would do so, not only from the self-indulgence 
 natural to his will in all things, but from the love of 
 power itself, and that he might be in no respect behind- 
 hand with any grounds which he could furnish himself 
 with, for having the highest possible opinion of his 
 faculties for ascendancy. As nine-tenths of common 
 gallantry is pure vanity, so a like proportion of the graver 
 offence of deliberate seduction is owing to pure will and 
 the love of power, — the love of obtaining a strong and 
 sovereign sense of an existence not very sensitive, at any 
 price to the existence of another. And thus, without 
 supposing him guilty to that extent, might the common 
 gallantries of the recherche and dominant Strafford, be 
 owing greatly to the pure pride of his will, and to that 
 same love of conquest and superiority, which actuated 
 him in his public life. 
 
 A greater cause for wonder might be found in the 
 tenderness with which he treated the wives to whom he 
 was unfaithful, and especially the one, this Elizabeth 
 Rhodes, who was comparatively lowly in birth. But so 
 mixed a thing is human nature, as at present constituted, 
 that the vices as well as virtues of the man might come 
 into play in this very tenderness, and help to corroborate 
 it; — for, in addition to the noble and kindly thoughts 
 which never ceased to be mixed up with his more violent 
 ones, he would think that the wife of a Wentworth was 
 of necessity a personage to be greatly and tenderly 
 
126 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 considered on all occasions, — and even his marriage into 
 an obscure family would be reconciled to his pride, by 
 the instinct which leads men of that complexion to think 
 it equally difficult for themselves to be lowered by any- 
 thing they choose to do, and for the object of their 
 attention not to be elevated by the same process of 
 self-reference. 
 
 Nor, — to quit this delicate subject, which I could not 
 but touch on, to assist the reader, with what has gone 
 before, to a proper judgment of facts that are yet to be 
 mentioned, — and which, in truth, contains matter for the 
 profoundest reflection of those who might choose to con- 
 sider it by itself, — will it be thought extraordinary by 
 such as have at all looked into the nature of their fellow 
 creatures, that a man like Wentworth should have treated 
 his wives tenderly, at the very times at which he was 
 most unfaithful to them. For, whether influenced by 
 love or by awe, they do not appear to have offended him 
 at any time by their complaints, or even to have taken 
 notice of his conduct ; and they were in truth excellent 
 women, worthy of his best and most real love ; so as to 
 render it probable that his infidelities were but heats of 
 will and appetite, never, perhaps, occasioning even a 
 diminution of the better affections, or, if they did, ending 
 in the additional tenderness occasioned by remorse. It 
 is a vulgar spirit only that can despise a woman for 
 making no remonstrances \ and a brutal one, that can 
 ill treat her for it. A heart with any nobleness left 
 in it, keeps its sacredest and dearest corner for a 
 kindness so angelical; and Wentworth's pride had 
 enough sentiment to help his virtues to a due appreci- 
 ation of the generosity, if it existed; or to give it the 
 benefit of supposing that it would have done so, in 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 127 
 
 favour of such a man as he, beloved by wives of so 
 sweet a nature. 
 
 The lord Wentworth was of a tall and graceful person, 
 though much sickness had early bent an originally 
 sensitive frame, which continued to sink more rapidly in 
 after-life under the weight of greater cares. Habitual 
 pain had increased the dark hue and deep contractions 
 of a brow, formed and used to " threaten and command," 
 and no less effective in enforcing obedience, than the 
 loud and impressive voice that required it. He alludes 
 to this sportively in a letter to the earl of Exeter, wherein 
 he writes, " This bent and ill favoured brow of mine was 
 never prosperous in the favour of ladies ; yet did they know, 
 hew perfectly I do honour, and how much I value, that 
 excellent and gracious sex, I am persuaded I should become 
 a favou-ite amongst them; tush, my lord, tush, there are 
 few of them know how a gentle a garcon I am.^^ ^ Happy, 
 as it is evident, is the opposite consciousness, out of 
 which such pleasant complaining flows ! Whereupon 
 lord Exeter rejoins with justice, in a passage which may 
 serve to redeem his lordship amply from the stupidity 
 that is wont to be charged to him, — " My lord, I could 
 be angry with you, were you not so far off, for wronging 
 of your bent brow, as you term it in your letter ; for, you 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 178. 180. His letters to lord Exeter 
 and his wife are all very pleasant, and, in their deep sense of 
 personal attentions during illness, touching. " Be not so venture- 
 some on my occasion," he writes, dissuading Exeter from a winter 
 journey to discharge such offices of friendship, "be not so venture- 
 some on my occasion, till this churlish season of the year be past, 
 and the spring well come on. There is old age in years as well as 
 in bodies, January and February are the hoar hairs of the year, and 
 the more quietly, the more within doors we keep them, we with the 
 year grow the sooner young again in the spring." — "To neither of 
 you," he concludes, "with this new year I can wish any thing of 
 new, but that you may tread still round the ancient and beaten paths 
 of that happiness you mutually communicate the one with the other." 
 
128 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 had been cursed with a meek brow and an arch of white 
 hair upon it, never to have governed Ireland 7ior Yorkshire 
 so well as you do, where your lawful commands have 
 gotten you an exact obedience. Content yourself with 
 that brave commanding part of your face, which showeth 
 gravity without dullness, severity without cruelty, clemency 
 without easiness, and love without extravagancy ^ An un- 
 gallant consolation under female displeasure follows : — 
 " And if it should be any impeachment unto your favour 
 with that sex you so much honour, you should be no 
 loser j for they that have known them so long as I have 
 done, have found them nothing less than diabolos blancos " 
 — which lady Exeter judges fit to dispense with in a 
 postscript : — " I cannot consent to the opinion of the 
 lord that spake last, neither do I believe that it was his 
 own, but rather vented as a chastisement to my particular. 
 To your lordship all our sex in general are obliged, 
 myself infinitely, who can return you nothing but my 
 perpetual well wishes, with admiration of your vertues, 
 and my heartiest desire that all your imployments and 
 fortunes may be answerable." ^ Wentworth, indeed, had 
 not needed this assurance, under a remark which May's 
 happy quotation, 
 
 " Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulysses, 
 Et tamen eequoreas torsit amore Deas," 
 
 has long since shown to be uncalled for. The intense 
 l^assion of a Mirabeau or a Strafford will hardly make 
 shipwreck for the want of a " smooth dispose." 
 
 Wentworth had much wronged his " bent brow," and 
 he knew that he had wronged it. It was sufficiently 
 notorious about the court, that whenever it relaxed in 
 
 , ... ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 241. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 129 
 
 favour of any of the court dames, its owner was seldom 
 left to hope in vain. The lady CarUle^, the lady 
 Carnarvon, the young lady Loftus, were not, if written 
 letters and general rumours deserve trust, the only 
 evidences of this. 
 
 Sad indeed were the !"consequences of Wentworth's 
 casual appearances in the queen's withdrawing room ! 
 " Now if I were a good poet," writes the lord Conway to 
 the lord deputy himself, ''I should with Chaucer call 
 upon Melpomene — 
 
 ^ This extraordinary woman, whom Dryden called the ** Helen of 
 her country," and from whom Waller borrowed a compliment for 
 Venus, (" the bright Carlile of the court of heaven,") played a con- 
 spicuous part in the public affairs of the time. " She was thought 
 to be as deeply concerned in the counsels of the court, and afterwards 
 of the parliament, as any in England." After the death of Strafford 
 she had become the mistress of Pym. Yet her passions were not 
 extreme ! Sir Toby Mathews lets us into her character : — *' She is 
 of too high a mind and dignity, not only to seek, but almost to wish, 
 the friendship of any creature : they whom she is pleased to chuse, are 
 such as are of the fuost eminent condition, both for power and employ- 
 ments ; not with any design towards her own particular, either of 
 advantage or curiosity ; but her nature values fortunate persons as 
 virtuous.''^ The writer of Waller's life (the countess was aunt to the 
 poet's Sacharissa), in the Biographia Britannica, says that several 
 letters of hers are printed in the " Strafford Papers." This is a mis- 
 take, but we find frequent allusions to her throughout the correspond- 
 ence. If any one wished to know of Wentworth's health, they 
 applied to lady Carlile. "I hope you are now recovered of your 
 gout, which my lady of Carlile told me you had." (ii. 124.) If any 
 one wanted favour at court they wrote to Went worth to bespeak the 
 interest of lady Carlile. We find even Laud, for a particular purpose, 
 condescending to this : — " I will write to my lady of Carlile," 
 Wentworth writes back, "as your grace appoints me. In good 
 sadness I judge her ladyship very considerable ; for she is often in 
 place, and is extreamly well skilled how to speak with advantage 
 and spirit for those friends she professeth unto, which will not be 
 many. There is this further in her disposition, she will not seem to 
 be the person she is not, an ingenuity I have always observed and 
 honoured her for." (Papers, vol. ii. p. 120.) And again, out of 
 many I could put before the reader : — '* I have writ fully to my lady 
 of Carlile, and am very confident, if it be in her ladyship's power, 
 she will express the esteem she hath your lordship in, to a very great 
 height." (Vol. ii. p. 138.) . 
 
 K 
 
I30 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 To help me to indite 
 
 Verses that weepen as I write. 
 
 My lady of Carnarvon, behig well in the favour and 
 belief of her father and husband^ came with her husband 
 to the court, and it was determined she should have been 
 all this year at London, her lodgings in the Cock-pit; 
 but my lord Wentworth hath been at court, and in the 
 queen's withdrawing-room was a constant looker upo?t my 
 lady, as if that only were his business, for which cause, as 
 it is thought, my lord of Carnarvon went home, and my 
 lord chamberlain preached often of honour and truth. 
 One of the sermons, I and my lady Killegrew, or my lady 
 Stafford, which you please, were at ; it lasted from the 
 beginning to the end of supper, the text was, that .... 
 When supper was ended, and we were where we durst 
 speak, my lady Killegrew swore by G — d, that my lord 
 chamberlain meaned not any body but her and my lord 
 of Dorset. But my lady Carnarvon is sent down to her 
 husband, and the night before she went was with her father 
 in his chamber till past twelve, he chiding and she weeping, 
 and when she will return no man knows ; if it be not till 
 her face do secure their jealousy, she had as good stay 
 for ever. Some think that my lord Wentworth did this 
 rather to do a despight to her father and husband, than for 
 any great love to her^ ^ 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 47. Lord Conway's letters to Went- 
 worth are extremely amusing. They record with particular care the 
 unlucky courtships of Vandyke: — "It was thought," he writes on 
 one occasion to the lord-deputy, "that the lord Cottington should 
 have married my lady Stanhope ; I believe there were intentions in 
 him, but the lady is, as they say, in love with Carey Raleigh. You 
 were so often zuith sir Anthony Vatidike, that you co7ild not but knotu 
 his i^allan tries for the love of that lady ; but he is come off with a 
 coglioneria, for he disputed with her about the price of her picture, 
 and sent her word, that if she would not give the price he demanded, 
 he would sell it to another that would give more. This week every 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD, 131 
 
 Sir George Radcliffe, indeed, in his Essay, observes 
 on this head : — " He was defamed for incontinence, 
 wherein I have reason to believe that he was exceedingly 
 much wronged. I had occasion of some speech with 
 him about the state of his soul several times, but twice 
 especially, when I verily believe he did lay open unto 
 me the very bottom of his heart. Once was, when he 
 was in a very great affliction upon the death of his second 
 wife ; and then for some days and nights I was very few 
 minutes out of his company : — the other time was at 
 Dublin, on a Good Friday (his birth-day), when he was 
 preparing himself to receive the blessed sacrament on 
 Easter day following. At both these times, I received 
 such satisfaction, as left no scruple with me at all, but 
 much assurance of his chastity. I knew his ways long 
 and intimately, and though I cannot clear him of all 
 frailties, (for who can justify the most innocent man?) 
 yet I must give him the testimony of conscientiousness in 
 his ways, that he kept himself from gross sins, and 
 endeavoured to approve himself rather unto God than 
 unto man, to be religious inwardly and in truth, rather 
 than outwardly and in shew." What has been quoted 
 from lord Conway's letter, however, — and, were it 
 necessary to my purpose, many letters more, and of 
 stronger meaning, are to be produced, — does not come 
 within Radcliffe's rebuke of the " defamation " employed 
 against Strafford. The only tendency of what sir George 
 says, therefore, is to confirm the charge in its warrantable 
 view, (with which alone I have dwelt upon it,) of illus- 
 
 one will be at London ; the queen is very weary of Hampton Court, 
 and will be brought to bed at St. James's ; then my lady of Carlile 
 will be a constant courtier ; her dog hath lately written a sonnet in 
 her praise, which Harry Percy burnt, or you had now had it." 
 
132 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 trating duly private conduct and character. Far different 
 was Pym's great object when, instancing in the house of 
 commons, as Clarendon informs us, " some high and 
 imperious actions done by Strafford in England and 
 Ireland, some proud and over-confident expressions in 
 discourse, and some passionate advices he had given in 
 the most secret councils and debates of the affairs of 
 state, he added some lighter passages of his vanity and 
 amours, that they who were not inflamed with anger and 
 detestation against him for the former, might have less 
 esteem and reverence for his prudence and discretion." ^ 
 These words may recall me to the actual progress of 
 Strafford's life and thoughts. Prudence and discretion 
 — whatever his great associate of the third parliament 
 might afterwards think right, or just, or necessary to his 
 fatal purposes, to urge — still, so far as they may be 
 associated in a grand project of despotism, eminently 
 characterised every movement of lord Wentworth. The 
 king had now become extremely anxious for his departure, 
 which the winding up of certain private affairs alone 
 delayed." ^ On the completion of these he arrived in 
 
 ^ Clarendon, Hist, of Rebellion, vol. i. p. 137. 
 
 "^ A note from Radclifife's Essay will show that the energetic 
 method and despatch which made the difficulties of the public 
 business sink before him, were no less serviceable in the conduct of 
 his private affairs. " In the managing of his estate and domestical 
 affairs, he used the advice of two friends, Ch. Gr. and G. R., and 
 two servants, Richard Marris his steward, and Peter Man his 
 solicitor. Before every term they met, and Peter Man brought a 
 note of all things to be considered of ; which being taken into con- 
 sideration one by one, and every one's opinion heard, resolution was 
 had and set down in writing, whereof his lordship kept one copy 
 and Peter Man another : at the next meeting, an account was taken 
 of all that was done in pursuance of the former orders, and a new 
 note made of all that rested to be done, with an addition of such 
 things as did arise since the last meeting, and were requisite to be 
 consulted of. His whole accounts were ordered to be made up 
 twice every year, one half ending the 20th of September, the other 
 
BROWN INC S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 133 
 
 London, for the purpose of setting sail immediately. 
 Here, however, he was unexpectedly delayed by the neces- 
 sity of waiting the arrival of a man of war; for so 
 dangerously was the Irish Channel at that time infested 
 with pirates, that the lord deputy could not venture to 
 pass over without convoy. " The winds fall out so 
 contrary," he writes in answer to the secretaries, who, 
 with the king and court, were engaged in a progress, 
 "that the king's ship cannot be gotten as yet forth of 
 Rochester river; but so soon as we can speed it away, 
 and I have notice from captain Plumleigh that he is ready 
 for my transportation, I will not stay an hour ; desiring 
 extremely now to be upon the place where I owe his 
 majesty so great an account, as one that am against all 
 non-residents, as well lay as ecclesiastical." Wentworth 
 took care, at the same time, to avail himself of some 
 opportunities offered him by this delay. He completed 
 some pending arrangements ; secured finally the close 
 counsel and assistance of Laud ^ ; established a private 
 
 the 20th of March ',for by that time the former half year'' s rents were 
 commonly received, or else the arrears were fit to be sought after ; it 
 being no advantage either to the tenant or landlord to suffer arrears to 
 run longer.'^ 
 
 ^ A few months after his departure, Laud was created archbishop 
 of Canterbury. Wentworth had foreseen this. " One advantage 
 your lordship will have," writes lord Falkland in a somewhat pettish 
 letter, " that I wanted in the time of my government, an archbishop 
 of Canterbury to friend ; who is withal a person of especial power to 
 assist you in that part which shall concern the church government ; 
 the third and principal member of the kingdom ; — for the translation 
 of the late archbishop into heaven, and of the late bishop of London 
 unto the see of Canterbury, makts that no riddle, being so plain." 
 The sort of stipulations for mutual service which passed between the 
 lord deputy and Laud, may be gathered from two out of twenty 
 requests of the latter which reached Dublin castle before Wentworth 
 himself had arrived there. They are equally characteristic of the 
 sincerity and atrocity of the bigotry of Laud. " I humbly pray your 
 lordship, to remember what you have promised me concerning the 
 church at Dublin, which hath for divers years been used for a stable 
 
134 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 and direct correspondence with the king himself for the 
 sanction of his more delicate measures ; instructed a 
 gossiping person, a hired retainer of his own, the rev. Mr. 
 Garrard, to furnish him, in monthly packets of news, with 
 all the private scandal and rumours and secret affairs of 
 the court, and of London generally ; and obtained the 
 appointment of his friends Wandesford and Radcliffe to 
 official situations, and to seats in the privy council, re- 
 serving them as a sort of select cabinet of his own, with 
 whom every thing might be secretly discussed.^ These 
 things settled, he now himself became anxious for his de- 
 parture, which, with some further delay, and not without 
 some personal loss ^^ he at last accomplished. 
 
 by your predecessors, and to vindicate it to God's service, as you 
 shall there examine and find the merits of the cause." And again : 
 — "There is one Christopher Sands, who, as I am informed, dwells 
 now in Londonderry, and teaches an English school there, and I do 
 much fear he doth many things there to the dishonour of God, and 
 the endangering of many poor souls. For the party is a Jew, and 
 denies both Christ and his Gospel, as I shall be able to prove, if I 
 had him here. I humbly pray your lordship that he may be seized 
 on by authority, and sent over in safe custody, and delivered either 
 to myself or Mr. Mottershed, the register of the high commission, 
 that he may not live there to infect his majesty's subjects." Vol. i. 
 pp. 8i, 82. 
 
 ^ He found great advantage in this ; and a few months after his 
 arrival in Dublin wrote to the lord treasurer some strenuous advice, 
 suggested by his experience, — "that too many be not taken into 
 counsel on that side, and that your resolutions, whatever they be, be 
 kept secret ; for, believe me, there can be nothing more prejudicial 
 to the good success of those affairs than their being understood 
 aforehand by them here. So prejudicial I hold it, indeed, that on 
 my faith there is not a minister on this side that knows any thing 
 I either write or intend, excepting the Master of the Rolls and sir 
 George Radcliffe, for whose assistance in this government, and 
 comfort to myself amidst this generation, I am not able sufficiently 
 to pour forth my humble acknowledgments to his majesty. Sure I 
 were the most solitary man without them, that ever served a king 
 in such a place." Vol. i. pp. 193, 194., &c. Wandesford's office 
 was that of Master of the Rolls. 
 
 ^ "They write me lamentable news forth of Ireland," he informs 
 the secretary in one of his last letters before his departure, " what 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 135 
 
 Lord Wentworth arrived in Dublin in July, 1633. 
 His very arrival, it is justly said, formed a new era in 
 the government of Ireland. He ordered the ceremonial 
 of the British court to be observed within the castle ; 
 a guard, an institution theretofore unknown, was estab- 
 lished ; and the proudest of the Irish lords were at once 
 taught to feel the "immense distance" which separated 
 them from the representative of their sovereign. ^ 
 
 spoil is done there by the pirates. There is one lyes upon the 
 Welch coast, which it seems is the greatest vessel, commanded by 
 Norman : another is a vessel of some sixty tuns, called the Pick- 
 pocket of Dover, lyes in sight of Dublin : and another lyes near 
 Yougliall : — who do so infest every quarter, as the farmers have 
 already lost in their customs a thousand pounds at least, all trade 
 being at this means at a stand. The pirate that lyes before Dublin 
 took, on the 20th of the last month, a bark of Liverpool, with goods 
 worth 4000/., and amongst them as much linen as cost me 500/. ; and 
 in good faith I fear I have lost my apparel too ; which if it be so, 
 will be as much loss more unto me, besides the inconvenience which 
 lights upon me, by being disappointed of my provisions upon the 
 place. By my faith, this is but a cold welcome they bring me withal 
 to that coast, and yet I am glad at least that they escaped my plate ; 
 but the fear I had to be thought to linger here unprofitably, forced 
 me to make this venture, where now I wish I had had a little more 
 care of my goods, as well as of my person." Vol. i. p. 90, 
 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 200, 201. In the various orders 
 he procured, he invariably distinguished between the demands of his 
 place, and the courtesies due to his person. In this despatch to 
 Cooke, a number of minute instructions are prayed for, which were 
 instantly granted. Among others, he demanded "instructions to 
 call upon the nobility and others to attend the deputy upon all 
 solemn processions to church, and such like. This is not so well 
 observed as it ought, and they grow generally more negligent than 
 is fit they were, not truly I trust in any distaste to me, for to my 
 ■person they give as much respect as I desire from them ; but I know 
 not how, in point of greatness, some of them think it too much per- 
 chance to be tied to any thing of duty, rather desirous it might be taken 
 as a courtesy. It would do therefore very well, his majesty were 
 graciously pleased by letter to signify what the attendance is he 
 i-equires at their hands." These he specifies accordingly, with a 
 vast quantity of laborious and ceremonious regulations, adding, "I 
 confess I might, without more, do these things ; but where I may 
 seem to take any thing to myself, I am naturally modest, and should 
 be extreme unwilling to be held supercilious or imperious amongst 
 
136 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 An extract from the lord deputy's first despatch, 
 written about a week after his arrival, and duplicates of 
 which he forwarded at the same time, with his customary 
 zeal, to Cooke and Cottington, is too characteristic to be 
 omitted. "I find them in this place," he writes, "a 
 company of men the most intent upon their own ends 
 that I ever met with, and so as those speed, they consider 
 other things at a very great distance. I take the crown 
 to have been very ill served, and altogether impossible 
 for me to remedy, unless I be intirely trusted^ and lively 
 assisted and countenanced by his majesty, which I am 
 bold to write unto your lordship once for all, not for 
 any end of my own, but singly for his majesty's service. 
 Besides, what is to be done must be speedily executed, 
 it being the genius of this country to obey a deputy better 
 upon his entrance than upon his departure from them ; 
 and therefore I promise your lordship I will take my 
 time : for whilst they take me to be a person of much 
 more power with the king, and of stronger abilities in 
 myself, than indeed I have reason either in fact or right 
 to judge myself to be, I shall, it may be, do the king 
 some service ; but if my weakness therein once happen to 
 be discovered amongst them in this kingdom^ for the love of 
 God, my lord, let me be taken home ; for I shall but lose 
 the king's affairs, and my own time afterwards ; and my 
 unprofitableness in the former, I confess, will grieve me 
 much more than any prejudice which may happen to my 
 
 them ; so as I cannot do therein as I both could and would, where 
 I were commanded. Therefore, if these be held duties fit to be 
 paid to his majesty's greatness, which is alike operative, and to be 
 reverenced thorough every part of his dominions, I crave such a 
 direction in these as in the other, that so they may know it to be his 
 pleasure ; other wise I shall be tvell content they may be spared, having 
 in truth, no such vanity in myself as to be delighted with any of these 
 obsei-vances.^^ 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 137 
 
 own particular by the expense of the latter. The army I 
 conceive to be extremely out of frame ; an army rather 
 in name than in deed, whether you consider their num- 
 bers, their weapons, or their discipline. And so in truth, 
 not to flatter myself, must I look to find all things else, 
 so as it doth almost affright me at first sight, yet you 
 shall see I will not meanly desert the duties I owe my 
 master and myself: howbeit, without the arm of his 
 majesty's counsel and support, it is impossible for me to 
 go through with this work ; and therein I must crave 
 leave to use your lordship only as my mediator, so often 
 as I shall have occasion. I send your lordship the 
 original herein inclosed, of the offer for this next year's 
 contribution, and to the secretary but the copy; judging 
 it might be thought fitter for your lordship to present it 
 to his majesty than the other. You will be pleased to 
 send it me safely back, there being many particulars con- 
 tained therein ; of which I shall be able to make very 
 good use hereafter, if I do not much mistake myself." ^ 
 
 Wentworth, in fact, extraordinary as were the powers 
 with which he had been invested, had still reason for 
 distrust in the weakness and insincerity of the king ; and 
 thus sought to impress upon his council, as the first and 
 grand consideration of all, that unless unlimited authority 
 was secured to him, he could, and would, do nothing. 
 One thing, he saw at once, stood in the way of his 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 96, 97. In the lord treasurer's copy 
 of this despatch is the following characteristic note on a money 
 transaction in which Weston thought he had been somewhat sharply 
 dealt with : — "Your lordship is pleased to term my last letter you 
 received in Scotland an angry one ; but by my troth your lordship, 
 under favour, was mistaken ; for I neither was, nor conceived I had 
 cause to be, angry ; only I was desirous you might truly understand 
 the state of my accounts, without any other thought at all." Secure 
 of Laud's influence, Wentworth had become careless of Weston. 
 
138 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 scheme of government. In the old time, whilst Ireland 
 continued to be governed only as a conquered country, 
 the lord deputy and council had used their discretion in 
 superseding the common law courts, and assuming the 
 decision of private civil causes. During the weaker 
 governments which succeeded, however, this privilege 
 was surrendered ; and lord Falkland himself had con- 
 firmed the surrender, by an express prohibition. The 
 common law, and its authority, had in consequence 
 gained some little strength at the period of Wentworth's 
 arrival. He had not rested many days in his state chair, 
 before this prohibition was suspended, and the old 
 privilege restored.^ At all risks, even the most fatal, 
 Wentworth silenced the objectors in both countries. He 
 had visions before him which they dared not to con- 
 template ! Their notion of government was one of 
 sordid scheming : not the less was the subject to be 
 wronged, but the more should the instruments of wrong 
 avoid the responsibility of it ; they saw nothing but their 
 own good, and sought to prevent nothing save their own 
 harm. Wentworth was a despot, but of a different metal. 
 He shrunk from no avowal, in shrinking from no wrong ; 
 
 ■^ "I find that my lord Falkland was restrained by proclamation, 
 not to meddle in any cause betwixt party and party, which certainly 
 did lessen his power extremely ; I know very well the common 
 lawyers will be passionately against it, who are wont to put such a 
 prejudice upon all other professions, as if none were to be trusted, 
 or capable to administer justice, but themselves ; yet how well this 
 suits wilh monarchy, when they monopolise all to be governed by their 
 .year-books, you in England have a costly experience ; and I am sure 
 his majesty's absolute power is not weaker in this kingdom, where 
 hitherto the deputy and council-board have had a stroke with them." 
 Such is an extract from a remarkable despatch to Cooke, which fills 
 nearly ten closely printed folio pages, written soon after the lord 
 deputy's arrival, and filled with reasoning of the most profound and 
 subtle character, in reference to his contemplated schemes and 
 purposes. See Vol. i. p. 194. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 139 
 
 and, confident of the plans he proposed to execute, felt 
 that the individual injury he inflicted at present would be 
 redeemed and forgotten in the general prosperity of the 
 future. " These lawyers," he writes to the lord marshal, 
 "would monopolise to themselves all judicature, as if 
 no honour or justice could be rightly administered but 
 under one of their bencher's gowns. I am sure they little 
 understand the iitisettled state of this kingdom., that could 
 advise the king to lesse?t the power of his deputy , indeed his 
 own., until it were brought into that stayed temper of 
 obedience and co7iformity with that of England., or at least 
 till the benches here were better provided with judges., than 
 God knows as yet they are. Therefore, if your lordship's 
 judgment approve of my reasons, I beseech you, assist 
 me therein, or rather the king's service, afid I shall be 
 answerable with my head.^^ ^ Equal in all his exactions, 
 he had suspected also from the first, that the great com- 
 plainants against his government would be men of rank ; 
 and now, in further organisation of his powers, procured 
 an order from the king, that none of the nobility, none 
 of the principal officers, " none of those that hath either 
 office or estate here," should presume to quit the king- 
 dom without the licence of the lord deputy.^ When his 
 use of this power was afterwards spoken against, he 
 silenced the objectors by a stern and sarcastical reference 
 to one of the graces they had themselves solicited, which 
 seemed indeed to warrant the authority, but had been 
 proposed with a far different purpose, that of preventing 
 men of large fortunes from deserting their estates, and 
 wasting their revenues abroad ! 
 
 Wentworth called his first privy council. The mem- 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p, 223. 
 ^ Ibid. p. 362., and see p. 348, 
 
140 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 bers of this body had hitherto borne great sway in the 
 government of the island i, greater, indeed, than the 
 lords deputies themselves, — and they were now, for the 
 first time, to see their authority broken, and their rank 
 and influence set at scorn. Only a select number of 
 them were summoned, a practice usual in England 2, 
 but in Ireland quite unheard of. But the mortifications 
 reserved for those that had been honoured by a sum- 
 mons, were almost greater than were felt by the absent 
 counsellors ! Having assembled at the minute appointed, 
 they were obliged to wait several hours upon the leisure 
 of the deputy, and when he arrived at last, were treated 
 with no particle of the consideration which deliberative 
 duties claim. 
 
 Wentworth laid before them a provision for the im- 
 mediate necessities of government, and more especially 
 for the maintenance of the army. The views of the lord 
 deputy, somewhat more reaching than their own, startled 
 them not a little. Sir Adam Loftus, the son of the lord 
 chancellor, broke a sullen silence by proposing that the 
 voluntary contribution should be continued for another 
 year, and that a parliament should, meantime, be prayed 
 
 ^ The lords justices were the chief leaders of this body, Went- 
 worth, in one of his despatches, had written thus : — "On Thursday 
 seven-night last in the morning, I visited both the justices at their 
 own houses, which albeit not formerly done by other deputies, yet I 
 conceived it was a duty I owed them, being as then but a private 
 person, as also to show an example to others %vhat would always become 
 them to the supreme governor, tahom it should please his majesty to set 
 over them.'" This was a subtle distinction, which their lordships did 
 not afterwards find they had much profited by. 
 
 2 "I desire," Wentworth had demanded of Cooke, "that the 
 orders set down for the privy council of England might be sent unto 
 us, with this addition, that no man speak covered save the deputy, 
 and that their speech may not be directed one to another, but only 
 to the deputy ; as also, taking notice of their negligent meetings 
 upon committees, whicli, indeed, is passing ill, to command me 
 straitly to cause them to attend those services as in duty they ought." 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 141 
 
 for. "After this followed again a long silence," when 
 the lord deputy called on sir William Parsons, the master 
 of the wards, to deliver his opinion. It was unfavourable. 
 " I was then put to my last refuge," says Wentworth, 
 " which was plainly to declare that there was no necessity 
 which induced me to take them to counsel in this busi- 
 ness, for rather than fail in so necessary a duty to my 
 master, I would undertake, upon the pe7'il of my head, to 
 make the king's army able to subsist, and to provide for 
 itself amongst them without their help. Howbeit, forth of 
 my respect to themselves I had been persuaded to put 
 this fair occasion into their hands, not only to express 
 their ready affections and duties to his majesty, and so 
 to have in their own particular a share in the honour and 
 thanks of so noble a work; but also that the proposition 
 of this next contribution might move from the protestants, 
 as it did this year from the papists, and so these no more 
 in show than substance to go before those in their cheer- 
 fulness and readiness to serve his majesty ; ... so as 
 my advice should be unto them, to make an offer under 
 their hands to his majesty of this next year's contribution, 
 with the desire of a parliament, in such sort as is con- 
 tained in their offer, which herewith I send you enclosed. 
 They are so horribly afraid that the contribution money 
 should be set as an annual charge upon their inheritances, 
 as they would redeem it at any rate, so as upon the name 
 of a parliament thus proposed, it was something strange to 
 see how instantly they gave co7isent to this proposition, with 
 all the cheerfulness possible, and agreed to have the 
 letter drawn, which you have here signed with all their 
 hands."! 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 98, 99. With characteristic purpose 
 Wentworth subjoins to this despatch a private note to Cooke : — 
 
142 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 A " parliament ! " This word, Wentworth knew, would 
 sound harshly in the ear of Charles, who had, by this 
 time, prohibited its very mention in England. But he 
 saw, from what had occurred in the council, in what 
 consideration the mere name was held there ; and he 
 saw, moreover, abroad among the nation, a feeling in 
 favour of it, which might, by a bold movement, be even 
 wrested to the purpose of tyranny, but could never, with 
 any safety to that cause, be altogether avoided. 
 
 Nor was this aspect of affairs forced upon Wentworth 
 by necessity alone. He had certainly entered Ireland 
 with one paramount object, — that of making his master 
 *' the most absolute prince in Christendom," in so far as 
 regarded that " conquered country." Wealthier he meant 
 her to become, even in the midst of his exactions ; but 
 a slave he had resolved to make her, in so far as the 
 popular control was to be admitted over her government. 
 Yet it has been shown that Wentworth was not a vain 
 man, that he was ever ready to receive the suggestions of 
 the occasion and the time, and it is clear that he entered 
 Ireland by no means assured of being able to carry his 
 purposes into effect by the simple and straightforward 
 
 " I should humbly advise that in some part of your next letter you 
 would be pleased to give a touch with your pen concerning sir Adam 
 Loftus, such as I might show him, for he deserves it ; and it will 
 encourage the well affected, and affright the other, when they shall 
 see their actions are rightly understood by his majesty ; and also 
 some good words for the lord chancellor, the loid Cork, the lord of 
 Ormond, and the lord Mountnorris ; and chiefly to express in your 
 despatch that his majesty will think of their desire for a parliament, 
 and betwixt this and Christmas give them a fair and gracious answer, 
 for the very hope of it will give them great contentment, and make 
 them go on very willingly with their payments." Had none of these 
 men afterwards thwarted him in his great despotic projects, Went- 
 worth would have sought every means of covering them with rewards 
 — to which he recognised no stint or measure, when called for by his 
 notion of public service. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 143 
 
 machinery of an absolute despotism. The king might 
 see in parliaments nothing but an unnecessary obstruction 
 to the free exercise of his royal will, and might have 
 directed Wentworth to "put them off handsomely," or 
 otherwise. But Wentworth had impressions of his own, 
 which were not to be so got rid of. These parliaments 
 — which had been only hurriedly glanced at by the 
 averted eye of Charles, on some occasion when he had 
 been forced to " come at the year's end with his hat in 
 his hand," and to whom the notion they had conveyed 
 was simply the strengthening his conviction that " such 
 assemblies were of the nature of cats, they ever grew 
 cursed with age " — these parliaments were known 
 thoroughly, and were remembered profoundly, by Went- 
 worth. He had been conversant with the measures, and 
 connected with the men. He had been the associate of 
 Pym, and had spoken and voted in the same ranks with 
 Eliot. Such an experience might be abhorred, but could 
 not be made light of; and that mighty power, of which 
 he had been the sometime portion, never deserted the 
 mind of Wentworth. He boldly suffered its image to 
 confront him, that he might the better resist its spirit and 
 divert its tendency. 
 
 When he arrived in Ireland, therefore, he was quite 
 prepared for the mention of parliament — even for the 
 obligation of granting it. He had not watched human 
 nature superficially, though, unfortunately, he missed 
 of the final knowledge. He would have retained that 
 engine whose wondrous effects he had witnessed, and 
 had even assisted in producing. He would have com- 
 pelled it to be as efificient in the service of its new master, 
 as of late in withstanding his pleasure. And Went- 
 worth could not but feel, probably, that the foundation 
 
144 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 for so vast a scheme as his, which was to embody so 
 many far-stretching assumptions, might be not unsafely 
 propped at the first with a little reverence of authority.^ 
 He would set up a parliament, for instance, which should 
 make itself " eminent to posterity as the very basis and 
 foundation of the greatest happiness and prosperity that 
 ever befell this nation," — by the extraordinary and notable 
 process of being forced to confirm the king's claim to 
 unlimited prerogative ! That "way of parliaments," it is 
 evident from many passages in his despatches, he could 
 not but covet, — even while he spoke of leaving "such 
 forms," and betaking himself to " his majesty's undoubted 
 privilege." Power, indeed, was the great law of Went- 
 worth's being; but from all this it maybe fairly supposed, 
 that even over the days of his highest and most palmy 
 state lingered the uneasy fear that he might, after all, 
 have mistaken the nature of power, and be doomed as a 
 sacrifice at last to its truer, and grander, and more lasting 
 issues. The fatal danger he frequently challenged — the 
 " at peril of my head," which so often occurs in his 
 despatches — must have unpleasantly betrayed this to his 
 confederates in London. 
 
 A parliament then, he acknowledged to himself, must 
 
 ^ On one occasion, it may be remarked, when the attorney-general 
 in England much wished, as he fancied, to strengthen the famous 
 Poynings' act by an abolition of certain incidents attached to it, 
 Wentworth opposed him in an elaborate argument, I quote a 
 remarkable passage from the despatch : — "Truly I am of opinion, 
 that in these matters of form it is the best not to be wiser than those 
 that went before us, but ' stare super vias antiquas. ' For better it is 
 to follozv the old tj'ack in this particular, than question the validity of 
 all the statutes enacted since Poynings' act ; for if this which is done 
 in conformity thereunto be not sufficient to zvarrant the summons of 
 this present parliament, they zvere all those parliaments upon the same 
 grounds unlawfully assembled, and consequently all their acts void ; 
 which is a point far better to sleep in peace, than unnecessarily or 
 farther to be axvakened.'''' Vol. i. p. 269. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 145 
 
 ultimately be summoned in Ireland. But he was cautious 
 in communicating this to the English council. "My 
 opinion as touching a parliament," he writes to Cooke, 
 " I am still gathering for, but shall be very cautious and 
 cunctative in a business of so great weight, naturally dis- 
 trusting my judgment, and more here, where I am in a 
 sort yet a stranger, than in places where I had been bred, 
 versed, and acquainted in the affairs and with the con- 
 ditions of men ; so as I shall hardly be ready so soon to 
 deliver myself therein as formerly I writ; but, God 
 willing, I shall transmit that and my judgment upon 
 many other the chief services of his majesty betwixt this 
 and Christmas. I protest unto you it is never a day I 
 do not beat my brains about them some hours, well fore- 
 seeing that the chief success of all my labours will consist 
 much in providently and discreetly choosing and sadden- 
 ing my first ground : for if that chance to be mislayed or 
 left loose, the higher I go the greater and more sudden 
 will be the downcome."^ Some short time, however, 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 134. More genuine and character- 
 istic still was a letter he enclosed by the same messenger to lord 
 Carlisle : — " I am yet ingathering with all possible circumspection 
 my observations, where, upon what, and when, to advise a reforma- 
 tion, and to set myself into the way of it, under God's good blessing, 
 and the conduct of his majesty's wisdom. I shall, before it be long, 
 be ripe to return the fruit of my labours to be examined and con- 
 sidered on that side, and then rightly disposed to set them on work 
 and pursue them here with effect, taking along with me those two 
 great household gods, which ought always to be reverenced in the 
 courts, and sway in the actions, of princes, — honour and justice. 
 These counsels, I confess, are secret ones, it being one of my chiefesi 
 cares to conceal my intentions froj?i them all here, as they with the 
 same industry pry into me, and sift every corner for them ; and this 
 I do, to the end I might, if it be possible, win from them ingenuous 
 and clear advice, which I am sure tiever to have, if they once discover 
 how I stand affected ; for thin it is the genius of this place to soothe the 
 deputy, be he in the right or wrong, till they have insinuated themselves 
 into the fricition of their ozvn ends, and then at after to accuse him, 
 even of those things wherein themselves had a principal share, as well 
 
 L 
 
146 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 after the date of this letter, he forwarded an elaborate 
 despatch to the secretary for the consideration of the 
 king. In this despatch he insisted very strongly on the 
 wide distinction between English and Irish parliaments 
 which had been planted by the act of Poynings^, he 
 
 in the counsel as in the execution. God deliver me from this ill sort 
 of men, and give me grace so far to see into them beforehand, as 
 that neither my master's service or myself suffer by them. My lord, 
 I ever weary you when I begin, and judge how I should have troubled 
 you, if the wind had stood oftener for England." The earl of 
 Strafford had melancholy and disastrous proof of the truth of that 
 account by Wentworth, "of the genius of that place." Some of 
 the men who hunted him most fiercely to the scaffold were men that 
 had been willing instruments of his worst power in Ireland. 
 
 ^ The origin of this act has been already adverted to. The 
 popular leaders in England declaimed strongly against Wentworth's 
 interpretation of it. If measures were produced, they maintained, 
 of sufficient weight to satisfy the king and council, the intention of 
 the law was fulfilled ; for, they argued, it was never designed to 
 preclude the members of parliament, when once assembled, from 
 introducing such other topics as they might deem expedient for the 
 general welfare. Wentworth, on the other hand, strenuously con- 
 tended that the express letter of the law was not to be thus evaded ; 
 that the previous approbation of the king and council was distinctly 
 required to each proposition ; and that no other measures could ever 
 be made the subject of discussion. Surely, however, looking at the 
 origin of the measure, the popular is the just construction. The act 
 was designed, with a beneficial purpose, to lodge the initiative poxver 
 of parliament in the English council, as a protection against the 
 tyranny of lords and deputies. But once establish this power, and 
 the restraint was designed to terminate. Great was the opportunity, 
 however, for Wentworth, and he made the most of it. Poynings' 
 act was his shield. ** I am of opinion," he writes to Cooke, " there 
 cannot be any thing invaded, which in reason of state ought to be 
 by his majesty's deputy preserved with a more hallowed care, than 
 Poynings' act, and which I shall never willingly suffer to be touched 
 or blemished, more than my right eye." Vol. i. p. 279. Again, 
 when the English attorney proposed something which the lord 
 deputy feared might work against the stability of the Poynings' bill, 
 Wentworth described it, "A mighty power gotten by the wisdom 
 of former times ; and it would be imputed to this age, I fear, as a 
 mighty lachete hy those that shall still succeed, should we now be so 
 improvident as to lose it ; and, for my own part, so zealous am I for 
 the prerogatives of my master, so infinitely in love with this in 
 especial, that my hand shall never be had as an instrument of so 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 147 
 
 dwelt on the exigencies of the state, and alleged various 
 powerful reasons in that regard. He claimed also the 
 permission to issue the writs instantly ; for if they were 
 deferred till the voluntary contribution should again be 
 about to terminate, they would appear, he argued, to issue 
 from necessity, the parliament would be emboldened to 
 clog their grants with conditions, "and conditions are 
 not to be admitted with any subjects, much less with this 
 people, where your majesty's absolute sovereignty goes 
 much higher than it is taken (perhaps) to be in England." 
 A detailed plan succeeded his many and most emphatic 
 reasons, which unquestionably "clenched" them. The 
 parliament that was to be summoned, Wentworth pledged 
 himself should be divided into two sessions, — the first of 
 which should be exclusively devoted to the subject of 
 supplies ; while the second, which might be held six 
 months afterwards, should be occupied with the con- 
 firmation of the " graces," and other national measures, 
 which his majesty so fearfully apprehended. Now the 
 parliament, Wentworth reasoned, would, in its first 
 session, in all probability, grant a sufficient supply for 
 the expenditure of three years, and this once secured, the 
 " graces " might be flung over if necessary. Further, 
 the lord deputy pledged himself that he would procure 
 the return of a nearly equal number of protestants and 
 cathohcs to the house of commons, in order that both 
 parties, being nearly balanced against each other, might 
 be more easily managed. He proposed, moreover, to 
 obtain qualifications for a sufficient number of military 
 officers, whose situations would render them dependent 
 on propitiating the pleasure of the lord deputy. Then, 
 
 fatal a disservice to the crown, as I judge the remittal or weakening 
 this power would be." 
 
148 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 he urged, with the parties nearly equal, they might easily 
 be kept in an equal condition of restraint and harmless- 
 ness, — since the catholics might be privately warned, 
 that if no other provision was made for the maintenance 
 of tlie army, it would be necessary to levy on them the 
 legal fines ; while all that was necessary to keep the 
 protestants in check, would be to hint to them that, until 
 a regular revenue was established, the king could not let 
 go the voluntary contributions, or irritate the recusants 
 by the enforcement of the penal statutes. " In the 
 higher house," Wentworth concluded, ''your majesty will 
 have, I trust, the bishops wholly for you ; the titular 
 lords, rather than come over themselves, will put their 
 proxies into such safe hands as may be thought of on 
 this side; and in the rest, your majesty hath such 
 interest, what out of duty to the crown, and obnoxious- 
 ness in themselves, as I do not apprehend much, indeed 
 any, difficulty amongst them." 
 
 The whole of this extraordinary document is given in 
 an appendix to this volume ^, and the reader is requested 
 to turn to it there. 
 
 Let him turn afterwards to the dying words of its 
 author, and sympathise, if he can, with the declaration 
 they conveyed, that " he was so far from being against 
 parliaments, that he did always think parliaments in 
 England to be the happy constitution of the kingdom 
 and nation, and the best means, under God, to make 
 the king and his people happy." In what sense these 
 words were intended, under what dark veil their real 
 object was concealed, the reader may now judge. It is 
 uphfted before him. Those five sections by which 
 Charles is " fully persuaded to condescend to the present 
 ■^ See Appendix I. p. 279. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 149 
 
 calling of a parliament," — the notice of the villanous 
 juggle of the "two sessions," with which the wretched 
 people are to be gulled, — the chuckling mention of the 
 advantage to be taken of "the frightful apprehension 
 which at this time makes their hearts beat," — the com- 
 placent provision made for the alternative of their " start- 
 ing aside," — the king who is to be able, and the minister 
 who is to be ready, " to chastise such forgetfulness," 
 and "justly to punish so great a forfeit as this must 
 needs be judged to be in them," — all these things have 
 long ago been expiated by Wentworth and his master ; 
 but their damning record remains against those, who 
 would proclaim that expiation to have been unjustly 
 demanded. 
 
 Overwhelmed by his minister's project, Charles at last 
 yielded.^ Still, even while, reluctantly, he consented, he 
 could not see altogether clearly the necessity for " these 
 things being done these ways," and all the assurances of 
 the lord deputy could not prevent Charles bidding him, 
 " as for that hydra, take good heed ; for you know, that 
 here I have found it as well cunning as malicious. It is 
 true, that your grounds are well laid, and, I assure you, 
 that I have a great trust in your care and judgment ; yet 
 my opinion is, that it will not be the worse for my service^ 
 though their obstinacy make you to break them, for I fear 
 that they have some ground to demand more than it is fit 
 for me to give. This I would not say, if I had not con- 
 fidence in your courage and dexterity ; that, in that case, 
 ' you would set me down there an example what to do 
 here:' 
 
 Wentworth now issued his writs for a parliament to be 
 instantly held in Dublin, and great joy prevailed among 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 231. 
 
150 BROWNINGS LIFE OF'STRAFFORD. 
 
 the people. The privy council were summoned, in con- 
 formity with the provisions of the law of Poynings, to 
 deliberate on the propositions to be transmitted to 
 England as subjects for discussion in the session. " To 
 gain this first entrance into the work," Wentworth 
 observes, " I thought it fit to intrust it in this manner 
 with a committee, not only to expedite the thing itself 
 the more, but also better to discover how their pulses 
 beat, wherein I conceived they would deliver themselves 
 more freely, than if I had been present amongst them 
 myself." Soon, however, while the lord deputy waited 
 without, he was rejoined by his trusty counsellors 
 Wandesford and Radcliffe, with the news that their 
 associates were restive; that they were proposing all 
 sorts of popular laws as necessary to conciliate the 
 houses; and that, as to subsidies, they quite objected to 
 transmitting a bill with blanks to be filled up at discretion, 
 and were of opinion that the amount should be specified, 
 and confined within the strictest limits of necessity. " I 
 not knowing what this might grow to," writes Wentworth, 
 " went instantly unto them, where they were in council, 
 and told them plainly I feared they began at the wrong 
 end, thus consulting what might please the people in a 
 parliament, when it would better become a privy council 
 to consider what might please the king, and induce him 
 to call one." The imperious deputy next addressed 
 them in a very long and able speech, pressed upon them 
 the necessities of the nation, and the only modes of 
 arresting them. " The king therefore desires," he con- 
 tinued, "this great work may be set on his right foot, 
 settled by parliament as the more beaten path he covets 
 to walk in, yet not more legal than if done by Ms preroga- 
 tive royal, where the ordinary way fails him. If this 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 151 
 
 people then can be so unwise as to cast off his gracious 
 proposals, and their own safety, it must be done without 
 them \ and for myself, as their true friend, I must let 
 them know, that I cannot doubt, but they will altogether 
 save me the trouble, hasten in their advice, and afford 
 their best means for the fulfilling these his so good inten- 
 tions. That as a faithful servant to my master I shall 
 counsel his majesty to attempt it first by the ordinary 
 means ; disappointed there, where he may with so much 
 right expect it, I could not in a cause so just and necessary 
 deny to appear for him in the head of that army, and there 
 either persuade theni fully his majesty had reason on his 
 side, or else think it a great honour to die in the pursuit of 
 that, wherein both justice and piety had so far convinced 
 my judgment, as not left me wherewithal to make one 
 argument for denying myself unto commands so justly 
 called for and laid upon me." In conclusion, Went- 
 worth gave them a still more characteristic warning : — 
 *' Again I did beseech them to look well about, and be 
 wise by others' harms. They were not ignorant of the 
 misfortunes these meetings had run in England of late 
 years. That therefore they were not to strike their foot 
 upon the same stone of distrust, which had so often 
 broken them. For I could tell them, as one that had, it 
 may be, held my eyes as open upon those proceedings 
 as another man, that what other accident this mischief 
 might be ascribed unto, there was nothing else that 
 brought it upon us, but the king's standing justly to have 
 the honour of trust from his people, and an ill-grounded 
 narrow suspicion of theirs, which would not be ever 
 entreated, albeit it stood with all the reason and wisdom 
 in the world. This was that spirit of the air that walked 
 in darkness betwixt them, abusing both, whereon if once 
 
152 
 
 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 one beam of light and truth had happily reflected, it had 
 vanished like smoke before it ! " ^ 
 
 The council could not hold to one of their purposes in 
 the presence of such overawing energy — " whereupon 
 they did, with all cheerfulness, assent unto the council ; 
 professed they would entirely conform themselves unto 
 it ; acknowledged it was most reasonable this kingdom 
 should defray itself; that they would not offer the pardon, 
 or any other act that might bear the interpretation of a 
 condition ; that they would send over no other laws but 
 such as I should like ; nay, if I pleased, they would send 
 over the bill of subsidy alone." ^ 
 
 Another obstruction remained, which was as fiercely 
 and immediately disposed of The council had ventured 
 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 236 — 241., for the despatch, in 
 which these things are all most happily described. Laud, in a 
 subsequent letter, gives Wentworth some account of the way in 
 which the despatch had been received. I extract one amusing 
 passage : — " The next day, at Greenwich, your despatch to secretary 
 Coke was read to the committee, the king present, order given for 
 us to meet, and for speed of our answer to you. If speed be not 
 made to your mind, I am not in fault, and I hope you will have all 
 things in time. Every body liked your carriage and discourse to the 
 council, but thought it too long, and that too mitch strcjzgth was put 
 upon it ; but you may see what it is to be an able speaker. Your old 
 friend says, he had rather see you talk something into the exchequer, 
 but he pleases himself extremely to see how able Brutus is in the 
 senate-house ! And wot you what ? When we came to this passage 
 in your despatch, 'Again, I did beseech them to look well about, 
 and to be wise by others' harms, they were not ignorant of the mis- 
 fortunes these meetings had run in England of late years,' &c. Here 
 a good friend of yours interposed, ^ quorutn pars magna ftd.^ I hope 
 you will charge this home upon my lord Cottington ; he hath so 
 many Spanish tricks, that I cannot tell how to trust him for any 
 thing but making of legs to fair ladies." — Strafford Papers, vol. i. 
 pp. 255, 256. 
 
 2 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 255. To this Wentworth shrewdly 
 subjoins, — " But I, not thinking it fit it should come so singly from 
 the king without some expression of care for the good government of 
 his people, have caused it to be accompanied, as you will receive it, 
 by this express." 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD, 153 
 
 to suggest to the lord deputy the existence of an ancient 
 custom, whereby the lords of the pale claimed the right 
 of being consulted respecting the projected measures, 
 but which Wentworth had at once silenced by " a direct 
 and round answer," Four days after this, however, the 
 earl of Fingal, on behalf of his brother peers, obtained 
 an interview, and, as the deputy described, " very gravely, 
 and in a kind of elaborate way, told me," &c. &c. It 
 is simply necessary to add, that so peremptory and 
 supremely contemptuous was Wentworth's reception of 
 these traditionary claims, that the lord Fingal was fain to 
 escape from his presence with a submissive apology.^ 
 
 Nothing remained now but the elections. Some 
 difficulty attended them at the first, but one or two 
 resolute measures quelled it,^ In July, 1634, an 
 
 ■^ See the deputy's own account, Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 
 246, 247. 
 
 ^ "The priests and Jesuits here," writes Wentworth, in a very 
 able despatch to Cooke, "are very busy in tlie election of knights 
 and burgesses for this parliament, call the people to their masses, 
 and there charge them, on pain of excommunication, to give their 
 voice with no protestant. 1 purpose hereafter to question some of 
 them : — being, indeed, a very insufferable thing for them thus to 
 interpose in causes which are purely civil ; and of passing ill con- 
 sequence, to warm and inflame the subjects one against another ; 
 and, in the last resort, to bring it to a direct pirty of protestant and 
 papist, 2vhich surely is to be avoided as much as may be, unless our 
 numbers zvere the greater. A sheriff that, being set on by these 
 fellows, carried himself mutinously in the election of burgesses for 
 this town, we brought into the Castle Chamber upon an ore tenus, 
 where, upon what he had set under his hand, we fined him 200/., 
 and 500/. more for his contempt in refusing to set his hand to 
 another part of his examination, both at the council board and in 
 open court, disabling him for ever bearing that office hereafter in 
 this city. Which wrought so good an effect, as giving order pre- 
 sently for chusing of a new sheriff, and going on the next day with 
 the election again, the voices were all orderly taken ; and the con- 
 formable proving the greater number, Catelin, the king's serjeant 
 and recorder of this town, and alderman Barry, a protestant, were 
 chosen ; the former whereof I intend to make the speaker, being a 
 very able man for that purpose, and one I assure myself will in all 
 
154 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 admirably balanced party of catholics and protestants 
 assembled in the Irish house of commons. 
 
 With extraordinary pomp and ceremony ^ the lord 
 deputy proceeded to meet them. His speech, however, 
 was more startling than his splendour. He began by 
 telling them that two sessions should be held ; and that 
 tlie first, "according to the natural order," should be 
 devoted to the sovereign, and the second to the subject. 
 " In demanding supplies," he continued, *' I only require 
 you to provide for your own safety ; I expect, therefore, 
 your contributions will be both liberal and permanent. 
 That is, there must be a standing revenue (mark it well) 
 provided by you to supply and settle the constant pay- 
 ments of the army. For it is far below my great master 
 to come at every year's end, with his hat in his hand, to 
 entreat that you would be pleased to preserve yourselves." 
 Moreover, he told them that, if they expected constant 
 protection without contributing towards it, they looked 
 for more than had ever been the portion of a " conquered 
 kingdom." A bitter warning succeeded this of the fate 
 of English parliaments. "Take heed," he said, in a 
 lesson from his own patriotic experiences, "take heed of 
 private meetings and consults in your chambers, by 
 design and privity aforehand to contrive how to discourse 
 and carry the public affairs when you come into the 
 houses. For, besides that they are in themselves un- 
 lawful, and punishable in a grievous measure, I never 
 knew them in all my experience to do any good to the 
 
 things apply himself to his majesty's service." — Strafford Papers^ 
 vol. i. p. 260. 
 
 ^ "It was the greatest civility and splendour," writes Went worth, 
 ** Ireland ever saw. A very gallant nobility and gentry appeared, 
 far above that I expected." Vol. i. p. 276. See a programme in 
 the Biog. Brit. vol. vii. pp. 4184, 4185. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 155 
 
 public or to any particular man. I have often known 
 them do much harm to both." With these were mingled 
 some just entreatments. " Divide not nationally betwixt 
 English and Irish. The king makes no distinction 
 betwixt you, but reputes you all without prejudice, and 
 that upon safe and true grounds, I assure myself, his 
 good and faithful subjects. And madness it were in you, 
 then, to raise that wall of separation amongst yourselves. 
 If you should, you know who the old proverb deems 
 likest to go to the wall ; and, believe me, England will 
 not prove the weakest. But, above all, divide not 
 between the interests of the king and his people, as if 
 there were one being of the king, and another being of 
 his people." He concluded with a distinct statement, 
 that their conduct during the session should be attended, 
 according to its results, with punishment or reward." ^ 
 
 Not in words only, but equally in the manner of its 
 delivery, did this speech proclaim the despotic genius of 
 lord Wentworth. Here he resorted to all those arts 
 which, as I have before remarked, are essentially neces- 
 sary to the success of the despot; and illustrated, by 
 conduct which to such superficial statesmen as my lord 
 Cottington seemed vain and unnecessary, his profound 
 knowledge of character. " Well," he writes to his more 
 relying friend the archbishop of Canterbury, — "well, 
 spoken it is since, good or bad I cannot tell whether ; 
 but sure, I am not able yet to help myself to a copy of 
 it. But as it was, / spake it not betwixt my teeth, but so 
 loud and heartily, that I protest unto you I was faint 
 withal at the present, and the worse for it two or three 
 days after. It makes no matter, for this way I tvas 
 assured they should have sound at least, with how little 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 287 — 290. 
 
156 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 weight soever it should be attended. And the success ivas 
 answerable. For had it been low and mildly delivered, I 
 might perchance have gotten from them, it was pretty well, 
 — whereas this way, filling one of their senses with noise, 
 and amusing the rest with earnestness and vehemence, they 
 swear {yet forgive them, they know not what they say I) it 
 was the best spoken they ever heard in their lives. Let 
 Cottington crack 7ne that nut now.'''' ^ 
 
 Secure of his measures, Wentworth demanded at once 
 the enormous grant of six subsidies.^ With the view, at 
 the same time, of preventing the possibility of the parties 
 communicating in any way with each other, and so 
 cutting from beneath them every ground of mutual 
 reliance, he introduced the proposition to the house on 
 the second day of their meeting. Ignorant of each 
 other's sentiments — incapable of any thing like a plan of 
 opposition — nothing was left for protestants and catholics 
 but to seek to rival each other, as it were, in the devotion 
 of loyalty. The subsidies were voted unconditionally^, 
 and one voice of profound respect for the lord deputy 
 rose from all.* Not less successful was his management 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 273. 
 
 ''^ He had great difficulty in inducing the privy council to accede to 
 this. At last he prevailed — " Sir Adam Loftus," as he writes to 
 Cooke, " first beginning the dance, which is now the second time 
 he hath done the king passing good service in this kind." Vol. i. p. 
 259. Not a single service did lord Wentworth ever receive, without 
 acknowledging it strongly to the king, accompanied by the special 
 naming of those who had so served him. 
 
 "^ These were the first "settled subsidies" that had ever been 
 paid in Ireland. See Papers, vol. i. p. 307. 
 
 * See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 277 — 279. One restive member 
 there was, and one only. This was sir Robert Talbot ; who, having 
 mentioned Wentworth without a sufficiently awful respect, was 
 instantly expelled, and committed to custody till, on his knees, he 
 begged pardon of the deputy. Commons' Journ. vol. i. p. 116. 
 Leland, vol. iii. p. 18. One case may be added to this of a very 
 different character, in proof that, when Wentworth saw the means 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 157 
 
 of the convocation of Irish clergy, which had been 
 summoned with parliament, and from whom eight sub- 
 sidies were ultimately procured. Fortified with his 
 money bills, and just as the session was on the eve of 
 closing, Wentworth turned with contempt to the pro- 
 ceedings of the house of lords.^ Here had been oppo- 
 
 of advancing the public service, even at the cost of some personal 
 consideration, he did nor care to waive the latter. Among the pro- 
 clamations he had issued to regulate the parliamentary sitting, he 
 expressly forbade the entrance of any member of either house with 
 his sword, and all obeyed this except the young earl of Ormond, 
 who told the usher of the black rod that he should have no sword 
 of his except through his body. Equally resolute was his answer to 
 the fiery questioning of the lord deputy himself, — quietly producing 
 his majesty's writ, which had called him to parliament " cinctum 
 cum gladio," or " per cincturam gladii." The doubt then occurred 
 to the deputy, of the superior value of young Ormond's service 
 to his enmity; and, after consultation with "his two friends, sir 
 George Radcliffe and Mr. Wandesford," the youth was taken into 
 favour. I am obliged to Mr. Crofton Croker for the favour of this 
 note, which I find in a manuscript translation he has been good 
 enough to lend me, of the Irish portion of the travels of a gascon- 
 ading coxcomb of a Frenchman, Sieur de la Boullaye-le-Gouz, who 
 honoured the island with his company in 1644, and obliged the 
 world with a most amusing account of his visit. This very Ormond 
 was then viceroy, and the part he had himself played to lord Went- 
 worth was curiously enough rivalled on this occasion by the illustrious 
 Le Gouz. " I followed the train," observes our traveller, in Mr. 
 Croker's happy translation, " in order to enter more freely into the 
 castle, but at the door they ordered me to lay down my sword, 
 which I would not do, saying that, being born of a condition to 
 carry it before the king, I would rather not see the castle than part 
 with my arms. A gentleman in the suite of the viceroy, seeing from 
 my gallant bearing that I was a Frenchman, took me by the hand, 
 saying, ' Strangers shall on this occasion be more favoured than 
 residents,' and he brought me in. I replied to him, that his civility 
 equalled — that of the French towards his na. ion, when thty met them 
 in France!'''' 
 
 ^ It was one of the strokes of the lord deputy's policy to aggravate 
 every difference between the two houses. He describes, with 
 singular sarcasm, in one of his despatches, a difference of this sort. 
 " The commons would not confer with the lords, unless they might 
 sit and be covered, as well as their lordships, which the other would 
 by no means admit. For my part I did not lay it very near my 
 heart to agree them, as having heretofore seen the effects which 
 
158 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 sition — the positive enactment of various salutary regu- 
 lations — the consideration of grievances ! '' I let them 
 alone," says one of his despatches, " till the last day that 
 I came into the house to conclude the session ; but then, 
 being very jealous lest in my time any thing might creep 
 in, and grow upon the king's prerogative in this 
 tender and important particular 1, I clearly declared 
 they had therein proceeded further than they had 
 
 warrant for and did beseech their lordships 
 
 to be better advised for the future, and not to ex- 
 ceed that power which was left them by that law, to 
 wit, — a liberty only to offer by petition to the deputy 
 and council such considerations as they might con- 
 ceive to be good for the commonwealth, by them to 
 be transmitted for laws, or staid, as to them should 
 seem best; whereunto they condescended without any 
 opposition." 
 
 The English ministers were rapt in delight and aston- 
 ishment ! As the time approached, however, for the 
 second session — the session of " graces " — a shadow fell 
 over their congratulations. Bucklered with his law of 
 Poynings, the lord deputy bravely reassured them. 
 " For my own part," he wrote to Cooke — in the apt 
 simile of an amusement which he was then, in the in- 
 tervals of his bodily infirmities, ardently given to — "for 
 my own part, I see not any hazard in it, considering that 
 we have this lyme hound in our power, still to take off 
 when we please ; which is not so easy with your parlia- 
 
 follow when they are in strict understanding, or at difference amongst 
 themselves. I saw plainly that keeping them at distance I did 
 avoid their joining in a petition for the graces." — Strafford Papers, 
 vol. i. p. 279. 
 
 ^ The law of Poynings. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 159 
 
 ments of England, where sometimes they hunt loose, 
 forth of command, choose and give over their own game 
 as they list themselves." ^ Further, however, to quiet 
 the apprehensions of Charles, and induce him to suffer 
 the continuance of parliament, Wentworth wrote to the 
 king, telling him that the lord deputy and his council 
 meant to take on themselves the whole responsibility 
 and blame of refusing the obnoxious graces, while the 
 whole merit of granting such as might be granted safely 
 should be given to his majesty.^ 
 
 Wentwoith redeemed his pledge. It is unnecessary to 
 describe the proceedings of that session at any length. 
 Suffice it to say, that the arts and energy of the first 
 session were redoubled to a greater success in the second. 
 None of the obnoxious graces were accorded. He 
 openly told the parliament that he had refused even to 
 transmit them to England, and asserted his right to 
 do this under the law of Poynings.^ For a time, the 
 overbearing energy of his measures forced the members 
 
 1 Straflford Papers, vol. i. p. 305. Wentworth preserved through 
 life, notwithstanding his frightful illnesses, the most passionate fond- 
 ness for hunting and hawking. It is curious to observe, in his 
 accounts of these amusements, an occasional letting out of another 
 object he may have had in them, besides that of personal enjoyment. 
 They gave him an opportunity of display. "Your defeat of your 
 hawking sport in Wiltshire," he writes at about this time to Cotting- 
 ton, " is nothing like to mine ; for (as the man you wot of said by 
 the pigeons) here hath not been a partridge in the memory of man, 
 so as having a passing high flying tarsell I am even setting him 
 down, and to-morrow purpose, with a cast or two of sparhawks, to 
 betake myself to fly at blackbirds, ever and anon taking them on 
 the pate with a trunk. It is excellent sport, there being sometimes 
 200 horse on the field looking tipon us, where the lord of Fonsail 
 drops out of doors with a poor falconer or two ; and if sir Robert 
 Wind and Gabriel Epsley be gotten along, it is a regale. " — Strafford 
 Papers, vol. i. p. 163, 
 
 2 See Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 328. And see the despatch to 
 Cooke, vol. i. p. 338. 
 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 345. et seq. 
 
i6o BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 to the silence of fear, — but this was broken by the 
 catholic party, who, having suffered the most grievous 
 wrong in the deception, at last made a feeble show of 
 resistance. Wentworth instantly flung all his influence 
 for the first time among the protestants, and precipitated 
 the catholics into a trial of their strength, unadvised with 
 each other, and utterly unprepared. They were at once 
 defeated. The protestants then claimed their reward, 
 and with an earnestness which was only finally subdued 
 by the lord deputy's threats of worse terrors than those 
 which their wrongs included.^ He had nothing left now 
 but to write one of his most pleasing despatches to his 
 royal master, containing " at once a clear and full relation 
 of the issue of this second session, which was, through 
 the wayward frowardness of the popish party, so trouble- 
 some upon the first access, but is now recovered and 
 determined by the good assistance of the protestants, 
 with great advantage to your majesty, by those excellent 
 and beneficial laws which, with much tugging, are gotten 
 from them ; and all the graces prejudicial to the crown 
 laid also so sound asleep as I am confident they are never 
 
 1**1 roundly and earnestly told them I was very indifferent what 
 resolution the house should fall upon, serving too just and gracious 
 a master ever to fear to be answerable for the success of affairs in 
 contingence, so long as I did sincerely and faithfully endeavour that 
 which I conceived to be for the best. That there were two ends 1 
 had my eye on, and the one I wojcld infallibly attain imto, — either a 
 submission of the people to his majesty'' s just demands, or a just occa- 
 sion of breach, and either would content the king. The first was 
 undeniably and evidently best for them ; but could my master in his 
 goodness consider himself apart from his subjects, or these become 
 so inn:rate, / spake it conftdetitly iipon the peril of my head, a breach 
 should be better for hijn than any supply they cotdd give him in 
 farli.ment. And therefore I did desire that no man should deceive 
 himself: my master was not to seek in his counsels, nor was he a 
 prince that either could or would be denied just things." For the 
 various incidents of this session, see Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 
 320, 321. 328. 339. 341. 343, 344, 345, 349. 353. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. i6l 
 
 10 be awakened mover ^ In the next despatch he had 
 the satisfaction of assuring his majesty, that the privilege 
 of impeachment had been wrested both from lords and 
 commons ^ ; in the next, that certain troubles of the con- 
 vocation had been most emphatically silenced ^ ; and in 
 the next, that his majesty was now, in the person of his 
 humble deputy, the uncontrolled disposer of the destinies 
 of Ireland ! " So now I can say," wrote Wentworth at 
 the close of a long despatch, which by the same 
 messenger he had forwarded to Laud, and which con- 
 tains a remarkable summary of the many important 
 services he had rendered to the crown, — ^^ so now I can 
 say the king is as absolute here as any prince in the whole 
 world can be, and may be still, if it be not spoiled on that 
 side. For, so long as his majesty shall have here a 
 deputy of faith and understanding, and that he be pre- 
 served in credit, and independent upon any but the kin^ 
 himself, let it be laid, as a ground, it is the deputy's 
 fault if the king be denied any reasonable desire." 
 
 This was grateful news to Laud. Of all the suggesters 
 
 ^ In the same despatch (which see in Strafford Papers, vol. i, p. 
 341.) Wentworth urges upon the king the necessity of his sur- 
 rendering matters of patronage and so forth more immediately into 
 his lord deputy's hands: — "The fewer sharers in the service, the 
 fewer there will be to press for rewards, to the lessening of your 
 majesty's profit, and the more entire will the benefit be preserved 
 for your crown ; which must, in all these affairs, and shall, be my 
 
 principal, NAY, INDEED, MY SOLE END." 
 
 2 See the case of sir Vincent Gookin, Papers, vol. i, pp. 349. and 
 393. Wentworth established by this case, that, under Poyning's 
 law, acts of judicature no less than of legislation, were prohibited, 
 save by consent of the deputy and his council. 
 
 3 See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 342—345. "I am not 
 ignorant," subjoined Wentworth to this despatch, with a sort of 
 involuntary forecast of an after reckoning, which he threw off in a 
 self-deceiving jest, — " I am not ignorant that my stirring herein will 
 be strangely reported, and censured on that side ; and how I shall 
 be able to sustain myself against your Prynnes, Pirns, and Bens, zvith 
 the rest of that generation of odd names and natures, the Lord knows. " 
 
 M 
 
1 62 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 of the infamous counsels of Charles, Laud and Wentworth 
 were the most sincere : — Laud, from the intense faith 
 with which he looked forward to the possible supremacy 
 of the ecclesiastical power, and to which he was bent 
 upon going, " thorough," through every obstacle ; — 
 Wentworth, from that strong sense, with which birth and 
 education had perverted his genius, of the superior ex- 
 cellence of despotic rule. Their friendship, in conse- 
 quence, notwithstanding Wentworth's immense superiority 
 in point of intellect ^, continued tolerably firm and steady, 
 — most firm, indeed, considering the nature of their 
 public connection.2 The letters which passed between 
 them partook of a more intimate character, in respect of 
 the avowal of ulterior designs, than either of them, pro- 
 bably, chose to avow elsewhere; and though many of 
 their secrets have been effectually concealed from us by 
 their frequent use of cypliers, sufficient remain to shadow 
 forth the extremest purposes of both. 
 
 ^ It is amusing at times to observe the commissions to which 
 Wentworth descended for the gratification of Laud, laughing at 
 them secretly while he gravely discharged them. The archbishop 
 himself, however, had an occasional suspicion of this ; and is to be 
 seen at times insinuating, from beneath velvet words, a cat-like 
 claw: — "I perceive you mean to build," he writes to the lord 
 deputy on one occasion, "but as yet your materials are not come 
 in ; but if that work do come to me before Christmas, as you promise 
 it shall, I will rifle every corner in it : and you know, my good lord, 
 after all your bragging, how I served you at York, and your church 
 work there : especially I pray provide a good riding house, if there be 
 ever a decayed body of a church to make it in, and then you shall be 
 •well fitted, for yoit hiow one is made your stable already, if you have 
 not reformed it, of which I did look for an account according to my 
 remembrances before this time." Vol. i. p. 156. Wentworth had 
 forgotten one of his friend's first commissions, which the reader will 
 recollect to have been quoted. 
 
 ^ A curious and instructive essay might be gleaned from the 
 Strafford Papers, on the subject of the friendships of statesmen, or, 
 rather say, of a king's advisers ; for the majority of these men did 
 not deserve the name of statesmen. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 163 
 
 Laud had to regret his position in England, contrasted 
 with that of the Irish deputy. *' My lord," he writes to 
 Wentvvorth, speaking of the general affairs of church and 
 state, " to speak freely, you may easily promise more in 
 either kind than I can perform : for, as for the church, it 
 is so bound up in the forms of the common law, that it 
 is not possible for me, or for any man, to do that good 
 which he would, or is bound to do. For your lordship 
 sees, no man clearer, that they which have gotten so 
 much power in and over the church will not let go their 
 hold ; they have, indeed, fangs with a witness, whatsoever 
 I was once said in a passion to have. And for the state, 
 indeed, my lord, I am for Thorough ; but I see that both 
 thick and thin stays somebody, where I conceive it should 
 not ; and it is impossible for me to go thorough alone. 
 Besides, private ends are such blocks in the public way, 
 and lie so thick, that you may promise what you will, 
 and I must perform what I can, and no more." ^ To 
 this Wentworth answers in a letter which is not preserved. 
 Its import, however, may be gathered from this remark- 
 able passage in Laud's rejoinder : — " I am very glad to 
 read your lordship so resolute, and more to hear you 
 affirm, that the footing of them which go thorough for 
 our master's service is not now upon fee, as it hath been. 
 But you are withal upon so many ifs, that by their help 
 you may preserve any man upon ice, be it never so 
 slippery. As, first, if the common lawyers may be con- 
 tained within their ancient and sober bounds ; if the 
 word Thorough be not left out (as I am certain it is) ; if 
 we grow not faint ; if we ourselves be not in fault ; if it 
 come not to peccatum ex te Israel ; {/"others will do their 
 parts as thoroughly as you promise for yourself, and 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. iii. 
 
1 64 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 justly conceive of me. Now, I pray, with so many and 
 such ifs as these, what may not be done, and in a brave 
 and noble way? But can you tell when these ifs will 
 meet, or be brought together?" i Satisfactory is the 
 lord deputy's returning assurance : — " For the ifs your 
 lordship is pleased to impute ui-to me, you shall hereafter 
 have more positive doctrine. I know no reason^ then^ 
 but you may as well rule the common lawyers in England^ 
 as /, poor beagle^ do here ; and yet that I do, and will do^ 
 in all that concerns my masters service, upon the peril of 
 my head. I am confident that the king, being pleased 
 to set himself in the business, is able, by his wisdom and 
 ministers, to carry any just and honourable action 
 thorough all imaginary opposition, for real there can be 
 none ; that to start aside for such panic fears, fantastic 
 apparitions, as a Prynne or an Eliot shall set up, were 
 the meanest folly in the whole world ; that the debts of the 
 crown taken off, you may govern as you please ; and 
 most resolute I am that work may be done, without borrow- 
 ing any help forth of the king's lodgings, and that is as 
 downright a peccatum ex te Israel as ever was, if all this 
 be not effected with speed and ease.''^ ^ 
 
 Resolutely did the lord deputy, as I have shown, 
 realise these principles, — and every new act of despotism 
 which struck terror into Ireland shot comfort to the heart 
 of Laud. " As for my marginal note," exclaims the 
 archbishop, " I see you deciphered it well, and I see you 
 make use of it too, — do so still; thorow and thorow. 
 Oh that I were where I might go so too ! but I am 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 155. 
 
 2 Ibid. vol. i. p. 173. Following this passage, in the same 
 letter, is language which it would be a gross outrage of decency to 
 quote. The archbishop appears to have relished it exceedingly. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 165 
 
 shackled between delays and uncertainties. You have a 
 great deal of honour here for your proceedings. Go on 
 a God's name ! " ^ And on Wentworth went, stopping at 
 no gratuitous quarrel that had the slightest chance of 
 pleasing the archbishop, even to the demolishing the 
 family tomb of the earl of Cork, — since his grace, among 
 his select ecclesiastical researches, had discovered that 
 the spot occupied by ray lord of Cork's family monu- 
 ments, was precisely that spot upon which the com- 
 munion-table, to answer the purposes of heaven, ought 
 to stand ! ^ To minister to their mutual purposes, 
 Wentworth also introduced into Ireland the court of high 
 commission, and wrested it to various notable purposes, 
 political as well as religious. 
 
 The distinction between him and his confederate 
 during all these proceedings is, nevertheless, to be dis- 
 cerned as widely as the difference of their respective 
 intellects. Wentworth was a despot, but his despotism 
 included many noble, though misguided, purposes. Even 
 with this high commission court, unjustifiable as were 
 the means, he unquestionably effected an increase to the 
 respectability and usefulness of the clergy, and reformed 
 the ecclesiastical courts, — while, at the same time, he 
 never lost sight of the great present object of his govern- 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 329. 
 
 ^ It would be impossible to notice in detail the various personal 
 contests in which Wentworth engaged, though none of them passed, 
 not even the most trifling, without illustrating, in a remarkable 
 degree, the general features of his character, I may refer the reader 
 respecting this affair of the earl of Cork to the Strafford Papers, vol. 
 i. pp. 156. 200. 216. 222. 257. 298, 379. 459,, and to vol. ii. p. 270. 
 and p. 338. Lord Cork hit upon an ingenious plan of thwarting 
 the lord deputy, though it failed in consequence of the superior 
 influence of the latter. He wrote to the lord treasurer Weston, then 
 notoriously jealous of Wentworth, and opposed to him and Laud, 
 *' entreating his favour, for that under this monument the bones of 
 a Weston was entombed." 
 
1 66 _ BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 ment, that it should, "in the way to all these, raise, 
 perhaps, a good revenue to the crown." i So, while 
 Laud, in England, was, by a series of horrible persecutions, 
 torturing and mutilating the puritans 2, the deputy of 
 Ireland could boast with perfect truth that, " since I had 
 the honour to be employed in this place, no hair of any 
 man's head hath been touched for the free exercise of 
 his conscience." ^ 
 
 It is also due to Wentworth to observe that, while, at 
 this time, with a view to the furtherance of his general 
 scheme of government, he conceived the vast and un- 
 attainable project of reducing all the people of Ireland 
 to a conformity in religion, the measures by which he 
 sought to accomplish that project were, many of them, 
 conceived in the profoundest spirit of a large and wide- 
 reaching policy. Theological strife he knew the useless 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 187. 
 
 2 "Mr. Prynne, prisoner in the Tower, who hath got his ears 
 sewed on that they grew again as before to his head, is relapsed 
 into new errors." — Letter of his newsmonger, Gerrard, to Wentivorth, 
 Strafford Papers^ vol. i. p. 266. Again Prynne's ears expiated those 
 " new errors." Laud's own notice in his diary (Nov. 1630.), of the 
 punishment of Leighton, a Scotch divine, the father of bishop 
 Leighton, is more horrible; — "Friday, Nov. 16., part of his sen- 
 tence was executed upon him in this manner, in the new palace at 
 Westminster, in term time. i. He was severely whipped before he 
 was put in the pillory. 2. Being set in the pillory, he had one of 
 his ears cut off. 3. One side of his nose slit. 4, Branded on one 
 cheek with a red-hot iron, with the letters S S. And, on that day 
 sevennight, his sores upon his back, ear, nose, and face being not 
 cured, he was whipped again at the pillory in Cheapside, and there 
 had the remainder of his sentence executed upon him, by cutting off 
 the other ear, slitting the other side of the nose, and branding the 
 other cheek." Leighton was released, after ten years' captivity, by 
 the Long Parliament, having by that time lost his sight, his hearing, 
 and the use of his limbs. 
 
 ^ See his letter to Con, the popish resident, Strafford Papers, vol. 
 ii. p. 112. His correspondences with this person are in all respects 
 curious, and, to me, significant of a purpose which his death pre- 
 vented the open disclosure of. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 167 
 
 horrors of, — and he soon discovered, by his " experience 
 of both houses," that " the root of all disorders in this 
 kingdom is the universal dependence of the popish faction 
 upon Jesuits and friars." ^ He speedily declared his 
 determination to the king himself. " I judge it, without 
 all question, far the greatest service that can be done unto 
 your crowns, on this side, to draw Ireland into a con- 
 formity of religion with England; which, indeed, would 
 undoubtedly set your majesty in greater strength and 
 safety, within your own dominions, than any thing now 
 left by the great and happy wisdom of yourself and 
 blessed father unaccomplished, to make us an happy 
 and secure people within ourselves. And yet, this being 
 a work rather to be effected by judgment and degrees 
 than by a giddy zeal and haste, whenever it shall seem 
 good in your wisdom to attempt it (for I am confident it 
 is left as a means whereby to glorify your majesty's piety 
 to posterity), there will, in the way towards it, many 
 things fall continually in debate and consideration at the 
 board, with which it will be very unfit any of the contrary 
 religion be acquainted." ^ 
 
 Urged by the English council, he set about the great 
 work. Undisguised was the astonishment of the arch- 
 bishop, however, at the slow and gradual means proposed 
 by the lord deputy. His grace had fancied that the 
 trouts who had been so completely tickled out of their 
 money ^ might be as easily tickled out of their religion, 
 or any thing else. The lord Wentworth thought differ- 
 ently. " It will be ever far forth of my heart," he wrote, 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 431, 432. 2 \\\^^ p_ 307. 
 
 3 " Now fie upon it, if the salmon of that river be bad, yet your 
 loss is the less, since you have so many trouts that may be tickled 
 into anything, or anything out of them." — Laud to Wentworth^ 
 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 329. 
 
1 68 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 in answer to urgent pressings of the question, accom- 
 panied with especial requests for the enforcing of fines 
 for nonconformity, ''to conceive that a conformity in 
 rehgion is not above all other things principally to be 
 intended. For, undoubtedly, till we be brought all under 
 one form of divine service, the crown is never safe on 
 this side ; but yet the time and circumstances may very 
 well be discoursed, and sure I do not hold this a fit 
 season to disquiet or sting them in this kind ; and my 
 reasons are divers. This course alone will never bring 
 them to church, being rather an engine to drain money 
 out of their pockets, than to raise a right belief and faith 
 in their hearts, and so doth not indeed tend to that end 
 it sets forth. The subsidies are now in paying, which 
 were given with an universal alacrity ; and very graceful 
 it will be in the king to indulge them otherwise as much 
 as may be till they be paid. It were too much at once 
 to distemper them, by bringing plantations upon them, 
 and disturbing them in the exercise of their religion, so 
 long as it be without scandal. And so, indeed, very 
 inconsiderate, as I conceive, to move in this latter, till 
 that former be fully settled, and by that means the 
 protestant party become by much the stronger, which, in 
 truth, as yet I do not conceive it to be. Lastly, the 
 great work of reformation ought not, in my opinion, to 
 be fallen upon, till all incidents be fully provided for, the 
 army rightly furnished, the forts repaired, money in the 
 coffers, and such a preparation in view as might deter 
 any malevolent licentious spirit to stir up ill humour in 
 opposition to his majesty's pious intendments therein ; 
 nor ought the execution of this to proceed by step or 
 degrees, but all rightly dispersed, to be undertaken and 
 gone through withal at once. And certainly in the mean 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 169 
 
 time, the less you call the conceit of it into their memory, 
 the better it will be for us, and themselves the quieter ; 
 — so, as if there were no wiser than I, the bishops should 
 be privately required to forbear these ecclesiastical censures 
 till they understood further of his majesty's pleasure 
 therein.^'' ^ 
 
 Steadily he proceeded, as if already in the far, but not 
 uncertain, distance, he saw the accomplishment of this 
 extraordinary design. He began at what he conceived 
 to be the root of the evil. The churches had fallen to 
 ruin; the church revenues had been cut to pieces by 
 long leases and fraudulent appropriations ; and the offices 
 of the church had been given into the hands of the 
 ignorant, — since to such only the abject poverty of her 
 means offered any of the inducements of service.^ 
 "Now," wrote Wentworth to the still precipitate arch- 
 bishop, " to attempt the reducing of this kingdom to a 
 conformity in religion with the church of England, before 
 the decays of the material churches here be repaired, an 
 able clergy be provided, that so there might be both 
 wherewith to receive, instruct, and keep the people, were 
 as a man going to warfare without munition or arms. It 
 being, therefore, most certain that this to be wished 
 rejormation must first woik from ourselves^ I am bold to 
 transmit over to your grace these i^^^ propositions, for 
 the better ordering this poor church, which hath thus 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 49. 
 
 2 The reader will be startled, probably, to hear the value of some 
 of the Irish bishopricks in that day. "The old bishop of Kilfanora," 
 writes Wentworth to Laud, " is dead, and his bishoprick one of 
 those which, when it falls, goes a begging for a new husband, being 
 not worth above fourscore pounds to the last man : yet in the hand- 
 ling of an understanding prelate it might perchatice grow to be war. h 
 two hundred pounds, but then it will cost money in suit." — Strafford 
 Papers, vol. ii. p. 172. 
 
lyo BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 long laid in the silent dark. The best entrance to the 
 cure will be, clearly to discover the state of the patient, 
 which I find many ways distempered ; — an unlearned 
 clergy, which have not so much as the outward form of 
 churchmen to cover themselves with, nor their persons 
 any ways reverenced or protected; the churches unbuilt; 
 the parsonage and vicarage houses utterly ruined; the 
 people untaught thorough the non-residency of the 
 clergy, occasioned by the unlimited shameful numbers 
 of spiritual promotions with cure of souls, which they 
 hold by commendams ; the rites and ceremonies of the 
 church run over without all decency of habit, order, or 
 gravity, in the course of their service ; the possessions of 
 the church, to a great proportion, in lay-hands ; the 
 bishops farming out their jurisdictions to mean and 
 unworthy persons: — "and so, through all the sources 
 of the evil, in a despatch of elaborate learning and 
 profound suggestion, the lord deputy proceeds, enforcing 
 upon the archbishop, finally, that he must surrender his 
 present hopes of any immediate result. " It would be 
 a brainsick zeal and a goodly reformation truly," he 
 exclaims, in a supplementary despatch of yet greater 
 energy and earnestness, "to force a conformity to a 
 religion, whereas yet there is hardly to be found a church 
 to receive, or an able minister to teach, the people. No, 
 no ; let us fit ourselves in these two, and settle his 
 majesty's payments for the army, discharge his debts, 
 and then have with them and spare not ! I believe the 
 hottest will not set his foot faster or further on than I 
 shall do. In the mean time, I appeal to any equal- 
 minded man, whether they or I be more in the right." 
 
 Unparalleled were the confidence and self-possessed 
 resource with which Wentworth's great schemes now ran 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 171 
 
 side by side. At one and the same moment he forced 
 the revenue by which his projected buildings in the 
 church were to be raised, and cleared away the obstruc- 
 tions which still covered the sites he had selected. The 
 decision of ecclesiastical rights was removed by him from 
 the courts of common law to the Castle-chamber; the 
 earl of Cork was forced to restore an annual revenue of 
 2000/., which had been originally wrested from the 
 church ; and, understanding that the bishop of Killala 
 had been meddling with underhand bargains to defraud 
 his see, he sent for him to the presence chamber, and 
 told him, with open and bitter severity, that he deserved 
 to have his surplice pulled over his ears, and to be turned 
 out of the church on a stipend of four nobles a year ! ^ 
 His usual success followed these measures ; lands and 
 tithes came pouring into his hands; and he issued a 
 commission for the repair of churches, and won for it a 
 ready obedience.^ 
 
 In the midst of his labours, Wentvvorth turned aside, 
 for a moment, to prefer a personal suit to the king. 
 Consideration in the eyes of those over whom he held so 
 strict and stern a hand, was beyond all things valuable 
 to him. It was, indeed, the very materiel of his scheme 
 of government. He appears therefore to have felt at 
 this time, that some sudden and great promotion from the 
 king to himself would give his government an exaltation 
 
 ^ See the Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 151 — 156. 171. 380. &c. 
 
 2 One or two of the most remarkable of the measures he projected 
 incidental to this purpose of conformity, may be mentioned hei-e. 
 The reader must examine Wentworth's various despatches, if he 
 desires to master the knowledge of them all. He took resolute 
 steps to prevent the children of catholics from being sent to foreign 
 convents for their education. He proposed the erection of a vast 
 number of protestant schools throughout Ireland with large endow- 
 ments and able teachers. I^e enforced the most rigorous penalties 
 upon non-residence. See Papers, vol. i. p. 393, j vol. ii. p. 7. 
 
172 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 in the eyes of that " wild and rude people," of infinite 
 iKiportance to its security. His claims upon the king 
 were immeasurable, as his services had been admitted to 
 be. He wrote to him, to solicit an earldom. " The 
 ambition," he said, "which moves me powerfully to serve 
 your majesty, as my obligations are above those that 
 preceded in this imployment, suggests unto me an hope 
 I may be more enabled in these restless desires of mine, 
 if I might, before our meeting again in parliament, receive 
 so great a mark of your favour as to have this family 
 honoured with an earldom. I have chosen therefore 
 with all humbleness to address these lines immediately 
 to yourself, as one utterly purposed to acknowledge all 
 to your princely grace, and without deriving the least of 
 the privity of thanks elsewhere." A characteristic desire 
 closed the letter, that " no other person know hereafter 
 your majesty found it in your wisdom not fit to be 
 done." 1 And such was Charles's short-sighted and 
 selfish wisdom ! He refused the request. It was suffi- 
 cient for his purpose that Wentworth was now indis- 
 solubly bound to him, since the personal hatred his 
 measures had already excited in the English popular 
 party precluded the possibility of his return to them. 
 Nor had Wentworth provoked the hatred of the popular 
 party alone. Under his superior tyranny, the lords of 
 petty despotism had been crushed 2, and incapable 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 301, 302. 
 
 2 His inquiries into questionable titles and church grants had 
 exploded many a little tyrant, though in this way much private wrong 
 was done. The servants of the English court, however, could never 
 exactly understand his policy in respect of opposition to the aris- 
 tocracy, and especially his habit of sternly refusing any presents or 
 conciliatory favours from them. I quote a characteristic passage 
 from a despatch of the secretary Windebank. — " Though, while we 
 had the happiness and honour to have your assistance here at the 
 council board, you made many ill faces with your pen {pardon^ I 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 173 
 
 oppressors had become the lord deputy's fiercest accusers 
 of oppression. To please the king, moreover, he had 
 taken upon himself the refusal of various offices to his 
 more importunate courtiers, careless of the odium he 
 provoked and scorned. To heap upon him any marks 
 of personal favour, under such circumstances, was an act 
 of courage and honesty which the weak monarch did not 
 dare attempt. Such wretched tools as Buckingham were 
 more to his personal liking, though less in the balance of 
 his treasury! "I desire you not to think," he wrote, 
 after refusing the lord deputy's suit, " that I am displeased 
 with the asking, though for the present I grant it not. 
 For, I acknowledge that noble minds are always accom- 
 panied with lawful ambitions. And be confident that 
 your services have moved me more than it is possible for 
 any eloquence or importunity to do. So that your letter 
 was not the first proposer of putting marks of favour on 
 you; and I am certain that you will willingly stay my 
 time, now ye know my mind so freely ; that I may do all 
 things a mi modo.^' ^ 
 
 This refusal was sorely felt by Wentworth. Covering 
 
 beseech your lordship, the over free censure of your Vandyking), and 
 worse oftentimes with your speeches, especially in the business of 
 the lord Falconberg, sir Thomas Gore, Vermuyden, and others, yet 
 I understand you make worse there in Ireland, and there never 
 appeared a worse face under a cork upon a bottle, than your lordship 
 hath caused some to make in disgorging such church livings as their 
 zeal had eaten up. Another remarkable error of your lordship, 
 which makes much noise here, is that you refuse all presents, for 
 which in one particular you had your reward. Fo7% it is said, that 
 a servant bringing you a present from his master, and your lordship 
 refusing it, the sei-vant liketvise would have none of your reward. 
 By this your lordship may perceive how circumspect you have reason 
 to be oj your ways, considering how many maliciotis eyes are upon you, 
 and what interpretations thiy make of your actions.''^ — Strajord 
 Papers, vol. i. p. 161. 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 332. 
 
174 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 their allusion to the king, he threw into his next despatch 
 to Cottington some expressions of uneasy regret. '• I 
 spend more here tnan I have of entertainments from his 
 majesty, I suffer extreamly in my own private at home, I 
 spend my body and spirits with extream toil, I sometimes 
 undergo the misconstructions of those I conceived, should 
 not, would not, have used me so. . . . But I am resolved 
 to complain of nothing. I have been something unpros- 
 perous, slowly heard, and as coldly answered that way. 
 I will either subsist by the integrity of my own actions, 
 or I will perish." 1 ■ 
 
 The lord deputy's relief was in the measures with 
 which his enterprising genius had surrounded him. I 
 have alluded to his repression of certain turbulences that 
 had arisen in the convocation : — he now, by his personal 
 influence, prevailed with the learned Usher to surrender 
 the ecclesiastical articles he had forwarded to Ireland, 
 and which were any thing but acceptable to Laud ; he 
 forced upon the clergy a series of hateful metropolitan 
 canons ; and, by a series of measures similar in spirit to 
 those which had subdued the parliament, he confounded 
 and subdued the restless parsons.^ In an early despatch, 
 he had to boast of only one dissentient voice from a new 
 and most astounding " protestant uniformity" ! 
 
 The Irish common lawyers now received some further 
 proofs of his care, with intelligible hints of his prospective 
 schemes. He presented them with the majority of the 
 English statutes that had been passed since the time of 
 Poynings, but exacted from them certain conditions, at 
 the same time, which soon enabled him to describe to 
 the king in the following terms his Irish ministers 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 354. 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 342 — 344. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 175 
 
 of justice : — '* Not declined to serve other men's un- 
 warrantable purposes by any importunity or application ; 
 never in so much power and estimation in the state and 
 with the subject, as now, and yet contained in that due 
 subordination to the crown as is fit ; ministring wholly to 
 uphold the sovereignty; carrying a direct aspect upon 
 the prerogatives of his majesty, without squinting aside 
 upon the vulgar and vain opinions of the populace." ^ 
 
 The army next engaged his attention. He supplied 
 them with clothes, with arms, with ammunition ; he 
 redeemed them from licentiousness 2, and strengthened 
 them in numbers and in discipline. He completed 
 several regiments of foot, collected together some most 
 efficient cavalry, and, in a very short time, astonished 
 the court in England by returns of a richly appointed 
 and well marshalled force. They heard with still greater 
 astonishment that the lord deputy himself could find 
 time to visit the whole army, and to inspect every 
 individual in it ! And he further declared to them, that 
 he held himself ever ready to mount horse at a moment's 
 warning, and lead a troop of his own, raised and ac- 
 coutred at his own charge, to repress, by a sudden 
 movement, any popular commotion.^ Vainly, however, 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 18. 
 
 ^ "Whence it is that the soldier is now welcome in every place, 
 where before they were an abomination to the inhabitants ; that by 
 this means the army in true account may be said to be of double the 
 strength it had been apprehended," — Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 17. 
 
 ^ "For myself, I had a dead stock in horses, furniture, and arms 
 for my troop, that stood me in 6cxx)/., and all in readiness upon an. 
 hour's warning to march. Nor did I this out of vanity, but really 
 in regard I did conceive it became me not to represent so great a 
 majesty meanly in the sight of the people ; that it was of mighty 
 reputation to the service of the crown, when they saw me in such a 
 posture, as that I was upon an hour's warning able to put myself on 
 horseback, and to deliver, in spight of all opposition, a letter in any 
 part of the kingdom ; and lastly, in regard men should see I zuould 
 
176 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 he strove to communicate energy enough to Charles tQ 
 procure his seconding some wider schemes projected by 
 him in reference to the army. The army was the key- 
 stone of that vast building which the imagination of 
 Wentworth had already raised in the distance. The 
 army was to hang in potent control over every thing, to 
 be " the great peace-maker betwixt the British and the 
 natives, betwixt the protestant and the papist, and the 
 chief securer, under God and his majesty, of the future 
 and past plantations." But Wentworth was foiled, by 
 the indolent envy of his English coadjutors, from realising 
 the great desire he held, " that his majesty breed up and 
 have a seminary of soldiers in some part or other of his 
 dominions." ^ 
 
 Indolent envy and active opposition notwithstanding, 
 — the general reputation of the lord deputy of Ireland 
 increased daily. " Mr. secretary Cooke," wrote lord 
 Cottington to him, '' is so diligent and careful to give 
 your lordship an account of all your dispatches and 
 answers to them, as there is nothing for me to say, but 
 that for ought I can discern every body else is so too. 
 My lord marshal is your own, my lord of Canterbury 
 your chaplain, secretary Windebank your man, the king 
 your favourite, and I your good lord. In earnest you 
 have a mighty stock of opinion amongst us, which must 
 of necessity make you damnable proud, if you take not 
 heed." ^ The lord treasurer Weston alone, the old pro- 
 pitiator of the king's regards to the quondam supporter 
 of the petition of rights, but now bitterly jealous of 
 Wentworth's friendship with Laud, scarcely cared to 
 
 not exact so much duty from any private captain, as I did myself 
 upon myself, being their general.'''' — S.'rafford Papers, vol. ii. p. i8. 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 198. ^ i\y\^^ yoi. i. p, 430. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 177 
 
 conceal his animosity.^ A fatal attack of illness, how- 
 ever, at this time removed Weston ; and the only alloy 
 which served to dash the secret satisfaction with which 
 the news of this event was received by Wentworth, was 
 the existence of very decided rumours that the vacant 
 staff would be offered to himself.^ 
 
 I have already touched on the many objections which 
 Wentworth entertained to an office of this sort ; and he 
 now sought by every means, and with characteristic 
 energy, to prevent its being offered to him at all. To 
 his friends who wrote to him urging its acceptance, he 
 peremptorily answered ; and, at the same time, by the 
 same messenger, forwarded various requests to several 
 of them, that they would take on themselves to intimate 
 in every quarter, as plainly as possible, their knowledge 
 of his objection to it. In further promotion of this 
 object, he practised a very singular piece of deception. 
 His retained gossip, Mr. Garrard — who continued faith- 
 fully and regularly, in the absence of a newspaper, to 
 julfil all the duties of one, and to retail to the deputy all 
 
 1 "The truth is, I conceive my lord treasurer sometime before 
 his death wished me no good, being grown extreme jealous of my 
 often writing to my lord of Canterbury ; and myself out of a sturdi- 
 ness of nature not so gently passing by his unkind usage, as a man 
 of a softer and wiser temper might have done ; — for, I confess, I did 
 stomach it very much to be so meanly suspected (being as innocent 
 and clear of crime towards him as the day), considering that I had 
 upon my coming from court given him as strong a testimony of my 
 faith and boldness in his affairs, nay, indeed, a stronger, than any 
 other friend he had, durst, or at least would, do for him. So as 
 finding myself thus disappointed of the confidence I had in his pro- 
 fessions at our parting, 1 grew so impatient, as to profess even to 
 himself, 1 would borrow a being from no man living but my master, 
 and there I would fasten myself as surely as I could. So as by his 
 death it is not altogether improbable, that I am delivered of the 
 heaviest adversary 1 ever had." — Wentworth to the Earl of New- 
 castle, Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 41 1. See also a letter of Laud's, 
 voK i. p. 329. 
 
 - See Garrard's letter, in Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 388, 389. 
 
 N 
 
178 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 the occurrences and scandal of the court and the city — 
 had given him from time to time most minute accounts 
 of the illness of Weston through its progressive stages, 
 and finally had reported his death. ^ It was Wentworth's 
 policy, however, to convey to the court, that, so indif- 
 ferent was he in respect of Weston's office, he had never 
 troubled himself to inquire the probable issue of his 
 illness, and, indeed, had never heard of it. As soon, 
 therefore, as an official intimation of the occurrence was 
 sent to him from Cottington, we find him answering 
 thus ! — " My very good lord, I was never more surprised 
 in my life than upon the reading of your last letter; not 
 having had any notice of my lord treasurer's least indis- 
 position before. And how it happens I know not, but I 
 am sure, I was never well since almost, and that Monday 
 night last I swooned twice before they could get off my 
 cloathes."^ — And again, assuring lord Newcastle : — "Yet 
 I protest, I ever wished well to his person, and am 
 heartily sorry for his death, which was signified unto me 
 by my lord Cottington, before I heard any thing of his 
 sickness^ and took me in a manner by surprise." ^ 
 
 These precautions were successful. Left settled in his 
 government of Ireland, he next sought, by every pos- 
 .sible resource, to establish a permanent revenue. In 
 
 1 See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 243. 374. 387. &c. 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 393. 
 
 ^ Ibid. p. 411. Cottington himself was a candidate for the office, 
 and never forgave Laud his disappointment, which the profits of the 
 mastership of the records were by no means sufficient to heal over. 
 The treasury was administered by commission for twelve months, 
 when it was placed by Laud, to the astonishment of all who were 
 still unacquainted with the archbishop's designs for the state 
 advancement of the church, in the hands of Juxon, bishop of 
 London. Laud, recording the appointment in his Diary (March, 
 1636), observes that "No churchman had it since Henry VIL's 
 time ; " and adds, " Now if the church will not hold themselves up 
 under God, I can do no more." 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 179 
 
 this pursuit he exhausted his industry, his energy, his 
 genius. Under his superintendence, the produce of the 
 customs rose, within four years, from 12,000/. a year to 
 40,000/., and continued to advance rapidly. Nor were 
 the means by which it was accomphshed other than just 
 and honourable. He improved the method of collection, 
 protected the coasts, swept the channel and the harbours 
 of pirates, and, in fine, — lifted the commerce and the 
 shipping of Ireland into a rich prosperity, by freeing it 
 from danger. *' My humble advice," observes Went- 
 worth, "for the increase of trade was, that his majesty 
 should not suffer any act of hostility to be offered to any 
 merchants or their goods within the channel, which was 
 to be preserved and privileged, as the greatest of his 
 majesty's ports, in the same nature and property as the 
 Venetian state do their Gulf, and the king of Denmark 
 his Sound : — and therefore I humbly besought his 
 majesty and their lordships, that it might accordingly be 
 remembred and provided for, in all future treaties with 
 foreign princes." In completion of this scheme, the lord 
 deputy struggled hard to rescue the trade of Ireland from 
 several absurd restrictions and monopoHes ; and in this, 
 having partially succeeded, his government left a claim 
 for gratitude which is remaining still. ^ 
 
 In resorting to just measures occasionally, however, 
 when they were not found to interfere with his ulterior 
 schemes, Wentworth bad taught himself no lesson of 
 refraining from what was unjust. Money was to be had 
 somehow — if justly, well — if not, it was to be had no 
 
 1 For the various measures, and the elaborate reasoning with 
 which the lord deputy supported them, see Strafford Papers, vol. i. 
 pp. 67. 90. 106. 202. 308. 393. 307, 400. 521. 192. 351. 366. 386. 
 405. 174. 340. 299. &c. &c. ; and vol. ii. pp. 18. 198. 137. 20. 89. 
 135. 42. 151. &c. &c. 
 
l8o BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 less. He now, for instance, imposed a licence upon the 
 retail of tobacco, and himself farmed the privilege for 
 an annual rent of 7000/., and, finally, of 12,000/. A 
 tax was laid also on brewing, by way of feeler for the 
 introduction of the excise, — an object of mortal hatred 
 with the Irish. 
 
 The statutes of wills and uses were introduced, no 
 less beneficial to the crown, and happily more just to 
 the subject. They strengthened the tenure of property, 
 fixed a remedy against fraudulent conveyances, restored 
 widows to their jointures, and heirs to their inheritances. 
 What was vastly more important to Wentworth, they 
 increased the king's fines in the court of wards, by 
 10,000/. a year! A mint, also, was erected in Ireland, 
 in spite of desperate opposition from the officers of the 
 English mint, with the view of remedying the excessive 
 scarcity of coin ; workmen were introduced from Eng- 
 land, to sink in various parts of the island for saltpetre, 
 which Wentworth fancied might be obtained to commer- 
 cial purposes ; and he made several successful efforts to 
 work the silver mines and marble quarries.^ 
 
 Greater projects, too, than these, occupied the mind 
 
 ^ I have already supplied various authorities for these measures, 
 to which I must refer the reader. With one of his packets to the 
 king, Wentworth forwarded " an ingot of silver, of 300 ounces, 
 being the first that ever was got in Ireland ;" accompanying it with 
 a proud expression of his hope, that "this kingdom now at length, 
 in these latter ages, may not only fill up the greatness and dominion, 
 but even the coffers and exchequer, of the crown of England. Sure 
 I am, it becomes not this little one that her breasts should ever be 
 dry, nor ought she with a sparing hand to communicate of her 
 strength and wealth there, considering with what mass of treasure 
 and streams of blood she hath been redeemed and preserved by that 
 her elder and more excellent sister. May your majesty's days be as 
 lasting and glorious as the best and purest of metals, and God 
 Almighty prosper and accomplish all your princely thoughts and 
 counsels, be they old or new." — Strafford Papers^ vol. i. p. 174. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. i8i 
 
 of the lord deputy. Before he set foot in Ireland ^, he 
 had conceived the noble scheme of opening a victualling 
 trade between Ireland and Spain. The distrust with 
 which the patriotic party regarded Spain may have in- 
 fluenced him first, as if in defiance, to rise superior to 
 such "vain apprehensions;" — but be that as it might, 
 his despatches vindicate his plan. They show how 
 admirably the commodities and the wants of the respec- 
 tive kingdoms correspond, and how closely reciprocal 
 are their interests. They even supply a statement, drawn 
 up with enormous pains from the information of various 
 commercial agents, of the commodities which each port 
 in Spain could either receive from Ireland, or give back 
 in return. In one matter especially Wentworth saw the 
 source of enormous advantage, — since the great annual 
 fleets to the colonies, which were so often detained in 
 the Spanish harbours for want of provisions, could clearly 
 be supplied far more conveniently and cheaply from 
 Ireland than from any other country in Europe. Con- 
 temporaneously with this measure, the lord deputy had 
 resolved to attempt two other projects. "And surely, 
 sir," he wrote to the king, "if we be able to furnish, and 
 go through with this undertaking, — increase the growth 
 and set up the manufactory of hemp and flax in that 
 your kingdom, — I will hope to leave your subjects there 
 in much happier condition than I found them, without 
 the least prejudice to your subjects here. For this is a 
 ground I take with me, that to serve your majesty com- 
 pleatly well in Ireland^ we must not only endeavour to 
 enrich them, but make sure still to hold them dependant 
 
 1 See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 93, 94. That remarkable 
 despatch was written while waiting at Westminster for the ship that 
 was to Qonvoy him to Dublin. 
 
1 82 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 upon the crown, and not able to subsist without us. Which 
 will be effected, by wholly laying aside the manufacture 
 of wools into cloth or stuff there, and by furnishing them 
 from this kingdom ; and then making your majesty sole 
 merchant of all salts on that side : — for thus shall they 
 not only have their cloathing, the improvement of all 
 their native commodities, (which are principally preserved 
 by salt), and their victual itself from hence (strong ties 
 and enforcements upon their allegiance and obedience to 
 your majesty), — but a means found, I trust, much to 
 advance your majesty's revenue upon salt, and to 
 improve your customs. The wools there grown, and the 
 cloths there worn, thus paying double duties to your 
 crown in both kingdoms; and the salt outward here, 
 both inward and outward there." ^ In such principles as 
 these, as through the majority of Wentworth's despotic 
 schemes, some good wrestled with the evil. The linen 
 manufacture, for instance, springing out of this monstrous 
 intention, turned out to be a blessing to the island. 
 Having learnt, on his arrival in the country, that no 
 article for export was manufactured there, except a small 
 quantity of coarse woollen yarn, and unwiUing, by 
 encouraging this branch, to interfere with the staple of 
 England, he instantly resolved, by introducing the general 
 cultivation of flax, to induce the manufacture of linen. 
 At his own charge and adventure he imported and sowed 
 a quantity of superior flax seed : — the next year, his first 
 crop having outgone his expectation, he expended looo/. 
 on the same venture, erected a vast number of looms, 
 procured workmen from France and Flanders, and at 
 last sent forth a ship to Spain, at his own risk 2, with the 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 93, 94. 
 
 2 See his characteristic letter to the duke of Medina, Strafford 
 Papers, vol. ii. pp. 109, no. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 183 
 
 first investment of linen that had ever been exported 
 from Ireland. Sanguine of hopes so well laid, Went- 
 wordi then hazarded a prediction which has since been 
 amply realised ! " Very ambitious am I," writes he to 
 sir William Boswell, " to set up a trade of linen-clothing 
 in these parts, which, if God bless, so as it be effected, 
 will, I dare say, be the greatest enriching to this kingdom 
 that ever befel it." ^ The other project he had set up 
 along with this, happily fell to the ground for want of 
 encouragement. In proposing to monopolise the sale of 
 salt, without which the Irish could neither carry on their 
 victualling trade, nor cure their ordinary provisions, and 
 which was at that time either manufactured by patentees 
 or imported from abroad, lord Wentworth reckoned on a 
 considerable increase of revenue, and the reduction of 
 the Irish to a state of complete dependence. The in- 
 ternal manufacture abolished, — it would be next to 
 impossible to smuggle a commodity so bulky and so 
 perishable by sea, and yet, he urged, ** again of so 
 absolute necessity, as it cannot possibly stay upon his 
 majesty's hand, but must be had whether they will or no, 
 and may at all times be raised in price so far forth as his 
 majesty shall judge to stand with reason and honour. 
 Witness the Gabelles of salt in France." ^ This once 
 accomplished, Wentworth felt he would have in his own 
 hands the disposal of the food and the clothing of the 
 Irish, and he pressed it with all his vehemence. " Hold- 
 ing them," exclaimed he, " from the manufacture of wool 
 (which, unless otherwise directed, I shall by all means 
 discourage), and then inforcing them to fetch their 
 cloathing from thence, and to take their salt from the 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 473. 
 2 Ibid. vol. i. pp. 192, 193. ; and see pp. 182. 333. 346. 
 
1 84 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 king (being that which preserves and gives value to all 
 their native staple commodities), how can they depart 
 from us, without nakedness and beggary? Which in 
 itself is so weighty a consideration as a small profit 
 should not bear it down !" The small profit, however, 
 in consequence of the jealousies of Weston, did bear 
 it down, and the lord deputy was obliged at last to 
 surrender it. 
 
 The embarrassments of the Irish treasury had now 
 vanished, no anticipations any longer weakened it, every 
 charge of government was paid to a day, — and, in the 
 fifth year of his power, lord Wentworth announced to 
 the king that the annual revenue would exceed the 
 expenditure by 60,000/. 
 
 This, then, was being " crowned with the completest 
 success ! " For, according to such political reasoners as 
 M. de Lally Tolendal, the prosperity of the exchequer is 
 the true test of the well-being of the state, and as long 
 as a wretched people can be flattered or terrified into 
 " coining their hearts " in sums, the king is ably served, 
 and the minister is borne out in his exactions. Yet 
 Wentworth deserves better advocates ! and it is perhaps 
 due to his fame as a statesman, to keep in mind that we 
 do not view his system in a perfect state, since the 
 ground, as it were, had only been cleared for the building, 
 when death struck down the builder. 
 
 Yorkshire, meanwhile, and Wentworth Woodhouse, 
 had not been forgotten by the lord deputy ! If he had 
 been living simply as a private gentleman in Ireland, 
 instead of being the immediate manager and director of 
 schemes which would have overwhelmed the strength of 
 a dozen ordinary men, — he could not have attended with 
 greater minuteness and apparent ease to his private 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 185 
 
 affairs in England. I cannot resist extracting here some 
 passages from an extraordinary letter to his early tutor, 
 Mr. Greenwood, which occasion has already been taken 
 to refer to. It is one of the most singular proofs that 
 could be found anywhere, of the compatibility of a com- 
 prehensive genius with a vigilant attention to the most 
 minute details. From his viceroyalty the lord Went- 
 worth can signify his desire " that my tenants use their 
 grounds and houses, as honest men and good husbands 
 ought to do, according to their several leases ; that my 
 woods be preserved, and at due seasons felled and sold 
 to the best profit, spring-woods I mean ; that the hedges 
 and fences be preserved; that the ponds, pheasants, 
 partridges, and parks be preserved, and as much profit 
 made of the herbage of Tankersly park as may be with- 
 out hurt to the deer; that fires be kept in the houses 
 at Woodhouse and Tankersly, and that the housekeepers 
 preserve the rooms sweet, and the stuff without spoil, 
 and principally that the houses be kept dry from taking 
 of rain ; " — that " the keeper of Tankersly must have 
 the more immediate care of the woods belonging to 
 Tankersly, especially those within the park, and to see 
 that the pond-heads there be kept up, and the water to 
 have a large and open passage to run away in the time 
 of flood, and the grates so cleansed and firm as they break 
 not, nor yet choak up, in which cases all the fish will be 
 sure to go away with the flood." — And again, that "none 
 of my demains be plowed in any case. I understand in 
 this Richard Marris hath not followed my direction, 
 which indeed, now and then, if a man would never so 
 fain, he would have done. But if upon advice taken 
 with you and Robin Rockley, you find at any time good 
 for the grounds they were broken up, then would I have 
 
1 86 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 them plowed for my own use {for I know right well the 
 profit of those new rift grounds), taking still care that they 
 be well limed and manured, and so left as fat and full in 
 heart as might be, to which purpose I would have no 
 cost spared, /<7r I would have the grounds about my houses 
 kept aloft, so as there may be beauty and pleasure communi- 
 cated evenfro?n them to the houses themselves.^'' With these 
 desires are conveyed a vast host of minor directions 
 respecting the servants he would have Greenwood reward, 
 promote, confide in, or distrust. Nor does he forget to 
 — " beseech you to cause my new study there which 
 looks into the hall, to be glazed, strong doors and locks 
 to be set upon it ; and such boxes being made as are at 
 Woodhouse, which Richard Forster will, upon your 
 direction, give notice for, the evidence may be put into 
 those boxes, and set in that study, where they will be 
 more safe and handsomely kept than where they are now. 
 If you could cause like locks to be made for that study, 
 as are at Woodhouse, so that one key might open the 
 locks in both places, it were much the better, and 
 advising a Httle with Richard Forster, he might so order 
 the matter as to have them so ;" — and to beg that "the 
 red damask bed with stools, canopies, chairs, &c. belong- 
 ing thereunto, be carefully looked unto." We learn also, 
 from this omniscient despatch, that the death of his 
 steward, Richard Harris, — "troubles me not so much, 
 albeit in truth I loved him very well, as the sadness and 
 indeed fearfulness of the misfortune, thorough which he 
 was lost, most grievous, God knows, for him, and scan- 
 dalous to all that have relation to him, amongst the rest, 
 I am sure to have my share. Nor do I think that he was 
 drowned as you write, for then how should one pocket be 
 dry ? But rather that, heavy with drink, he dropped fro77i 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 187 
 
 his horse near the place where his cloak lay, and, so it may 
 be, amazed with the fall, was dragged by the horse, and 
 the girths loosing, left in that wet place, where he was 
 fou7id dead, and where, doubtless for want of company, 
 and in a cold night and lodging, stormed to death. But 
 enough of so woful a subject, which 1 wish might never 
 be mentioned or remembred again, further than to 
 consider in it the just judgments of God, and to deter us 
 from this swinish vice, and all other which may draw 
 down upon ourselves like punishments." Subjoining 
 this, the course to be pursued with respect to the brother 
 and heir of the deceased is laid down at great length, 
 and in all its possible bearings, coupled with the follow- 
 ing characteristic notice : — " I pray you in any case, if it 
 may be, let him be drawn to this by fair and still means ; 
 but if that work not with him, then would I have you let 
 him know, that, until the account be declared betwixt 
 me and his brother, which I am most wiUing and desirous 
 may be before the next spring fairly examined by auditors 
 indifferently chosen betwixt us, / will hold the possession 
 both of la7ids and goods ; that I will assign my debt to the 
 king, and so extend and keep in extent the whole estate, till 
 I be honestly and truly satisfied ; as also that I will per- 
 form that last office in accomplishment of that which I 
 know was his brother's intention, to see all his other 
 creditors justly paid before he meddle with the estate, — 
 but that then at after, I will not be his loss, by the help 
 of God, one farthing. And I pray you, if the first milder 
 way take not (which if there be either honesty or con- 
 science in the man methinks it should), then to proceed 
 roundly the other way, holding all you have, putting the 
 bonds of Darcy Wentworth and Pieter Man in suit upon 
 the land, and keeping all in the state you have already 
 
1 88 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 SO well settled them, till my coming over." The reverend 
 gentleman had previously been given to understand that, 
 — "as for all my rents, the course I desire to be held, is 
 thus. A month after every rent day, I would have a 
 time appointed when yourself and Robert Rockley may 
 meet, and all the bailiffs to be appointed to attend you, 
 — there receive their accounts, giving them strict charge 
 to gather what shall be behind, and to bring the re- 
 mainder and finish their account at Thornhill within a 
 month after. And I beseech you give them no sparing, 
 for I have suffered very much by it ; however, I never 
 could perceive my tenants were a groat the better : — ■ 
 besides, when they find they shall be distrained upon, 
 they will observe their day carefully, so as within a rent 
 day or two, this course strictly observed, the rents will 
 come in without any stop." The whole production is, 
 indeed, impressed with the peculiarities of Wentworth's 
 subde and energetic genius ; nor was there reason for 
 Mr. Greenwood to doubt, as he at the close assured, that 
 the writer "upon a good occasion would not deny his 
 life to him." 
 
 So also, burthened with his mighty schemes, the lord 
 deputy found time for every office of private service, of 
 friendship, and of scholarlike amusement. He made his 
 newsman, Mr. Garrard, forward him copies of Dr. Donne's 
 poetry \ which he was amazingly fond of; gathered 
 antiquities for the king 2; vanquished Inigo Jones in a 
 discussion on architecture^; reared a young greyhound 
 among his own children for the little prince of York * ; 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 338. &c. "^ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 82. 
 
 » Ibid. p. 83. 
 
 * The countess of Dorset had preferred the request, to which 
 Wentworth instantly answered — ** I did, with all gladness, receive 
 from your ladyship, by this bearer, the first commands it ever 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 189 
 
 corresponded with old friends in Yorkshire^; dis- 
 cussed with Vandyke on various marbles ; hunted, 
 hawked 2, and played at the games of primero and mayo. 
 "He played excellently well," says Radcliffe; ''and for 
 company sake, in Christmas, and after supper, he would 
 ])lay sometimes ; yet he never was much taken with it, 
 nor used it excessively, but as a recreation should be 
 used. His chief recreation was after supper, when, if he 
 had company, which were suitable unto him, that is, 
 honest chearful men, he would retire into an inner room, 
 and set two or three hours, taking tobacco and telling stories 
 with great pleasantness and freedom : and this he used 
 constantly, with all familiarity in private, laying then aside 
 all state and that due respect which in publick he would 
 expect." 
 
 Never for a single instant, however, were the public 
 affairs suffered to wait his leisure. They threatened now 
 to demand more than ordinary care, for the king had 
 resolutely thwarted the deputy in his desire to continue 
 the parliament. "My reasons," he wrote, "are grounded 
 upon my experience of them here. They are of the 
 nature of cats, they ever grow curst with age, so that if 
 ye will have good of them, put them off handsomely 
 
 pleased our young master to honour me withal ; and before Christ- 
 mas I will not fail to furnish his highness with the finest greyhound 
 this kingdom affords ; till then I shall humbly crave his highness's 
 pardon ; for, to send any before I may have convenient time, under 
 my own eye, to be stire he is of a safe and gentle disposition, and that 
 I may try him here first, ho%v he shall behave himself a?}io7tgst my own 
 children, were the greatest indiscretion and boldness in me possible. 
 And albeit, I assure myself your ladyship's care, and other his 
 highness's attendants, would be such, as the dog should do no 
 harm, yet that were no thanks to me." — Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 
 
 303- 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 1 16. 
 
 ^ " In his later days," Radcliffe observes, "he got little time to 
 see his hawks fly, though he always kept good ones." 
 
190 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 when they come to any age, for young ones are ever 
 most tractable. . . . Now that we are well, let us con- 
 tent ourselves therewith." ^ Charles, at the same time, 
 had urged upon his minister the preferable course of 
 following out their plans (which were far more favoured 
 with himself than even a submissive Irish parliament), of 
 increasing the estates of the crown by a search after 
 defective titles. Wentworth, upon this, set resolutely to 
 work. He examined various old records, and discovered 
 that the whole province of Connaught, on the forfeiture 
 of its Irish chieftain, had lapsed, many years ago, to the 
 crown. It had, indeed, even since that time, again been 
 granted away, but the court lawyers now either found 
 flaws in the conveyances or made them. It will be 
 recollected that a recognition of the validity of such titles 
 formed one of the obnoxious "graces" which Wentworth 
 had laid to sleep so soundly. 
 
 Pledging himself at once to the king, therefore, that 
 he would reduce Connaught to the absolute possession of 
 the crown, — the lord deputy proceeded into the county 
 of Roscommon, summoned a jury composed of " persons 
 of such means as might answer the king a round fine in 
 the Castle-chamber, in case they should prevaricate, and 
 who, in all seeming, even out of that reason, would be 
 more fearful to tread shamefully and impudently aside 
 from the truth, than such as had less, or nothing, to 
 lose," 2 — told them that his present appeal to them was 
 a mere act of courtesy, and, in return for a series of 
 deep and significant threats, received a ready obedience. 
 The same scenes, with the same results, were acted in 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i, p. 365. Wentworth's previous entreaties 
 for a prorogation will be found at p. 353. 
 
 2 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 442. ; a despatch in which the entire 
 proceedings are characteristically given. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 191 
 
 Mayo and Sligo, and lord Wentworth went on to 
 Gal way. 
 
 Here he was prepared for opposition. The people, 
 chiefly Roman catholics, were supported by a formidable 
 body of priests, and had the strenuous countenance and 
 assistance of their hereditary lord, the earl of St. Albans 
 and Clanricarde, a nobleman of esteem at the English 
 court. The spirit of Wentworth rose at the prospect, 
 and he prepared the court, in a memorable despatch, for 
 the measures they were to expect from him : — " If it be 
 followed with just severity," he wrote, "this opposition 
 will prove of great use to the crown, as any one thing 
 that hath happened, since this plantation fell in pro- 
 position. It shall not only, with a considerable addition 
 of revenue, bring security to this county, which of the 
 whole kingdom most requires it, but make all the 
 succeeding plantations pass with the greatest quietness 
 that can be desired. Whereas if this froward humour be 
 negligently or loosely handled, it will not only blemish 
 the honour and comeliness of that which is effected 
 already, but cut off all hope for the future." He sum- 
 moned a jury on the same principle as in the preceding 
 counties. They were obstinate in their refusal to obey 
 him. The sheriff who had selected them was instantly 
 fined 1000/. ; the jurors themselves were cited into the 
 Castle-chamber, and fined 4000/. each ; and the earl of 
 Clanricarde ^ received a heavy reprimand from the court, 
 and was made to suffer severely. Bitter murmurs were 
 heard in Ireland, and men spoke out more strongly in 
 England. But the deputy knew no fear. "This comfort 
 
 ^ For the representations made by Wentworth against this noble- 
 man, see Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 451. 479. 492. ; and vol. ii. 
 pp. 31. 35.365- 381. 
 
192 BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 I have to support me against the malice of this race of 
 sturdy beggars, that howbeit they threaten me with a 
 Felton or a Ravillac, yet my master is pleased graciously 
 to accept of my endeavours, and to say publicly at council- 
 board, the crown of England was never so well served 
 on this side, as since my coming to the government." ^ 
 
 Exasperated, nevertheless, with these signs of opposi- 
 tion, he now thought to silence them effectually by one 
 terrible warning. His knowledge of the character of the 
 vice-treasurer, the lord Mountnorris, has been already 
 shown, and I have quoted the deeply significant in- 
 timation which opened their official connection. Mount- 
 norris had long disregarded this, and had, indeed, omitted 
 no opportunity which his place afibrded him, of thwarting 
 in every possible way the schemes of Wentworth. A 
 trifling circumstance now gave the latter an occasion of 
 punishment. Severely afflicted with the gout, — for so 
 frightful were his bodily infirmities, that freedom from 
 one complaint seldom failed to be followed by thraldom 
 to another, — the lord deputy sat one day in the presence- 
 chamber, when one of his attendants — a Mr. Annesley, 
 a distant relation of the lord Mountnorris — accidentally 
 dropped a stool upon his foot. " Enraged with the pain 
 whereof," says Clarendon, " his lordship with a small cane 
 struck Annesley. This being merrily spoken of at dinner 
 at the lord chancellor's table, where the lord Mountnorris 
 was, he said, 'the gentleman had a brother that would 
 not have taken such a blow.' " ^ These words were 
 spoken in the month of April. Eaves-droppers reported 
 
 ^ Strafiford Papers, vol. i. p. 412. ; and see p. 371. 
 
 2 Clarendon, vol. i. p. 174. This statement is borne out by 
 Baillie's letters. Rushworth, on the other hand, gives it as Went- 
 worth's witnesses afterwards swore to it. Collections, vol. iii. p. 
 187, ; and see Nalson's Collections, vol. i. p. 59. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 193 
 
 them to Wentworth, who instantly forwarded a messenger 
 to London to bring back a king's commission for the 
 tfial of Mountnorris. It was sent at his request. Not 
 till December, however, was any further step taken, 
 though the interim had been employed in giving security 
 to the lord deputy's purpose. 
 
 In December, Mountnorris received a summons to 
 attend a council of war the next morning. Ignorant of 
 the cause of so sudden a movement, he was vainly ask- 
 ing his brother councillors to explain it, — when Went- 
 worth entered, produced the king's commission, charged 
 lord Mountnorris with an attempt to stir up mutiny 
 against himself as general of the army, and ordered the 
 charge to be read. It ran to this effect : — That it having 
 been mentioned at the lord chancellor's table, that 
 Annesley had let a stool fall on the lord deputy's foot, 
 Mountnorris had scornfully and contemptuously said, 
 *' Perhaps it was done in revenge of that public affront 
 that my lord deputy did me formerly; but I have a 
 brother who would not have taken such a revenge." In 
 vain the accused fell on his knees, and requested time 
 for consultation ; in vain he demanded even a copy of 
 the charge, or permission to retain counsel : — every thing 
 was denied to him ; the lord deputy cited two articles 
 of war which rendered him amenable to imprisonment 
 and to death; demanded from the councillors the im- 
 mediate and summary judgment of a court martial on 
 both the articles ; and sternly silenced a proposal which 
 they ventured to submit, of separating the charges. 
 Guilty the accused was to be voted, "of both or of 
 none ! " Even lord Moore, one of the councillors — 
 who, with sir R. Loftus, the brother of another councillor, 
 had proved Wentworth's case — was ordered to resume 
 
 o 
 
194 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 his seat, and judge the man whom he had accused ! 
 Under the eye of the lord deputy the council then de- 
 liberated and voted ; and their sentence condemned 
 MountnOlris to imprisonment, deprived him of all his 
 offices, ignominiously dismissed him from the army, 
 incapacitated him from ever serving again, and, finally, 
 left him to be shot, or beheaded, at the pleasure of the 
 general. Before the whole court lord Wentworth then 
 expressed exultation, — '* the sentence was just and noble, 
 and for his part he would not lose his share of the honour 
 of it ! " He turned afterwards to the unfortunate Mount- 
 norris; told him that now, if he chose, he had only to 
 order execution ; but that he would petition for his life, 
 and "would sooner lose his hand than Mountnorris 
 should lose his head." 
 
 His purpose was to be more effectually answered, in 
 truth, by a contemptuous pardon, and this, from the first, 
 he appears to have designed, trusting to the general 
 ignominy that would be thrown over Mountnorris, to 
 crush any after-attempt he might make against his own 
 power. The remarks which have been already made on 
 other personal oppressions, apply here with still greater 
 force, and to the system which Wentworth had to uphold 
 should the horror and reproach be carried. It is certain 
 that, at the period of this proceeding, lord Clarendon 
 has justly described the issue to which the positions of 
 the parties had brought them : — " That either the deputy 
 of Ireland must destroy my lord Mountnorris while he 
 continued in his office, or my lord Mountnorris must 
 destroy the deputy as soon as his commission was de- 
 termined." 1 Wentworth was not the man to leave this 
 
 ^ The reader may be referred, in case he desires to pursue this 
 subject further, to the most ample materials of judgment and dis- 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 195 
 
 issue in the hands of chance, — nor, at the same time, to 
 bUnd himself to the results of such conduct as the 
 necessity had forced upon him. " But if, because I am 
 necessitated to preserve myself from contempt and scorn, 
 and to keep and retain with me a capacity to serve his 
 majesty with that honour becoming the dignity of that 
 place I here by his majesty's favour exercise, therefore I 
 must be taken to be such a rigid Cato Censorius, as 
 should render me almost inhospitable to humane kind ; 
 — yet shall not that persuade me to suffer myself to be 
 trodden upon, by men indeed of that savage and insolent 
 nature they would have me believed to be, or to deny 
 unto myself and my own subsistence so natural a motion 
 as is the defence of a man's self." 
 
 The wife of Mountnorris was a kinswoman of the lady 
 Arabella Hollis, whose memory Wentworth cherished 
 with such enthusiasm, and "in the name and by the 
 memory of her " hoping that God would so reward him 
 for it upon " the sweet children of her kinswoman," lady 
 Mountnorris, immediately after the sentence, in a deeply 
 pathetic letter, besought Wentworth to take " his heavy 
 hand from off her dear lord." ^ Every writer concurs in 
 stating that this letter was coldly and contemptuously 
 disregarded by the lord deputy, but an extract from one 
 of his despatches may at least serve to throw some doubt 
 over such a statement. " I send you," he writes to 
 secretary Cooke, "here inclosed the sentence of the 
 council of war in the case of the lord Mountnorris. . . . 
 
 crimination as to the character and bearing of the parties. Strafford 
 Papers, vol. i. pp. 73. 76. 119. 250. 349. 388. 392. 402. et sec/. 448. 
 497. et seq. 502. 504. 508, et seq. 511. et seq. 514. 519. ; and to vol. 
 ii. pp. 5. 14, et seq. and 145. The unfortunate want of an index to 
 the Strafford Papers makes these references necessary. 
 ^ Clarendon's State Papers, vol. i. p. 449. 
 
ig6 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 I foresee full well, how I shall be skirmished upon for it 
 on that side : causeless traducing and calumniating of 
 me is a spirit that hath haunted me through the whole 
 course of my life, and now become so ordinary a food, as 
 the sharpness and bitterness of it in good faith distempers 
 not my taste one jot. Finally, as I formerly signed the 
 sentence together with them, so do I most heartily now 
 join in their letters to you, where we all become humble 
 petitioners to his majesty for his life, which was, God 
 knows, so little looked after by me, that howbeit I hold 
 under favour the sentence most just, yet were it left me 
 in choice, whether he must lose his head, or I my hand, 
 this should redeem that. His lordship was prisoner in 
 this castle some two days, but upon his physiciari s certifi- 
 cate, that the badness of his lodgi?ig might prejudice his 
 healthy I sent him upon good bond restrained only to his 
 own house, where he is like to remain till I receive his 
 majesty s further pleasure concerning him^ It is most 
 unlikely that such an extraordinary favour as this had 
 been granted on the application of a physician merely, 
 while the lord deputy had an obvious reason for keeping 
 out of sight the influence of the lady. 
 
 Some short time after, Mountnorris, on condition of 
 submitting to Wentworth, and acknowledging the justice 
 of his sentence, received his liberty. Prosecutions, how- 
 ever, had been lodged against him meanwhile in the 
 star-chamber, and he felt himself a lowered and well- 
 nigh beggared man. "At my lord Mountnorris his 
 departure hence," writes the deputy, "he seemed won- 
 drously humbled, as much as Chaucer's friar \ that 
 
 ^ Chaucer and Dr. Donne appear to have been Wentworth's 
 favourite poets. Chaucer indeed, to the court readers of that day, 
 was as Shakespeare in our own . It is clear too, from the frequent 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. igy 
 
 would not for him any thing should be dead ; so I told 
 him I never wished ill to his estate, nor iperson, /urfAer 
 than to remove him thence^ where he was as well a trouble 
 as an offence unto me ; that being done (hovvbeit thorough 
 his own fault with more prejudice to him than I intended) 
 I could wish there were no more debate betwixt us ; and 
 I told him that, if he desired it, I would spare my 
 prosecution against him in the star chamber there." 
 Immediately before this passage occurs, in the same 
 letter, Wentworth had remarked : — " I assure you I have 
 had a churlish winter of this, nor hath the gout been 
 without other attendants that do prognostick no long life 
 for me here below ! Which skills not much. He lives 
 more that virtuously and generously spruds one month, 
 
 use of peculiar expressions in his despatches, that the lord deputy 
 was not unacquainted, and that intimately, with the great dramatist, 
 though he never, as with Chaucer and Donne, quotes connected 
 passages. It is worth subjoining, as an instance out of many, one 
 of Wentworth's sneers at sir Piers Crosby — that '* trifle Crosby," as 
 he elsewhere calls him. ** Since his departure I have neither heard 
 from him, nor of him, more than that he vouchsafed with his pretty 
 composed looks to give the Gallway agents countenance and court- 
 ship before the eyes of all the good people that looked upon them, 
 gracing and ushering them to and from all their appearings before 
 the lords ; there is no more to be added in his case but these two 
 verses of old Jeffrey Chaucer — 
 
 * No where so busy a man as he ther n'as, 
 And yet he seemed busier than he was.' " 
 
 When the newsmonger Garrard heard of the affair of Mountnorris, 
 he quotes Dr. Donne, as if to communicate some tender sympathy 
 to his lordship in that way : — ''When first I heard the news, which 
 was on St. Stephen's day, and how all men talked of it, it disorder'd 
 me, it brake my sleep, I waked at four in the morning, it made me 
 herd the next day less in company ; — not that I believed what was 
 said, but that I had no oracle, no such friend on the sudden to go 
 to, who could give such satisfaction as I desired. Noblest lord, 
 your letter hath done it ; what Dr. Donne writ once is most true, 
 Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls, for thus friends absent 
 speak, &c." 
 
198 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 than some other that may chance to dream out some 
 years, and bury himself alive all the while." The life of 
 the lord deputy had, indeed, in the intensity of sensation 
 it had required for its sustainment, covered a larger span 
 of existence than years can measure, and now the term 
 that remained to it was fated to be dashed with almost 
 unceasing anxieties and troubles, more bitter in proportion 
 to the temperament they wrought on. 
 
 His anticipations of the enmity that would be provoked 
 against him by the case of Mountnorris, were more than 
 realised. Laud ventured to intimate to him — " I find 
 that, notwithstanding all your great services in Ireland, 
 which are most graciously accepted by the king, you want 
 not them, which whisper, and perhaps speak louder where 
 they think they may, against your proceedings in Ireland, 
 as being over-full of personal prosecutions against men of 
 
 quality And this is somewhat loudly spoken by 
 
 some on the queen's side I know you have a 
 
 great deal more resolution in you, than to decline any 
 service due to the king, state, or church, for the barking 
 of discontented persons ; and God forbid but you should : 
 and yet, my lord, if you could find a way to do all these 
 great services and decline these storms, I think it would 
 be excellent well thought on." ^ To this advice succeeded 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i, p. 479. Lord Cottington's account 
 was something different: — "You said right, that Mountnorris his 
 business wou'd make a great noise : for so it hath, amongst ignorant, 
 but especially ill-affected people ; but it hath stuck little among 
 the wiser sort, and begins to be blown away amongst the rest." 
 His lordship, in the same letter, communicates to Wentworth a 
 remarkable sequel to the affair. The lord deputy, in order to pro- 
 cure Mountnorris's offices for his favourites (chiefly young Loftus, the 
 husband of a lady who has been before adverted to), had proposed 
 to distribute 6000/. as a sort of purchase of them, to the principal 
 English ministers. (Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 508.) The sly 
 old courtier Cottington, however, into whose hands the business 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 199 
 
 Other galling announcements. Lord Clanricarde died 
 suddenly, from a broken heart it was said, in consequence 
 of the Galway proceedings ; and the death of the sheriff 
 of that county, who had been imprisoned by Wentworth, 
 immediately followed. Both of these deaths were laid at 
 his door. " They might as well," exclaimed the lord 
 deputy, adverting to the first — " they might as well have 
 imputed unto me for a crime, his being threescore and 
 ten years old ! " With cooler satire he put off the fate of 
 the sheriff. "They will lay the charge of Darcy the 
 sheriff's death unto me. My arrows are cruel that wound 
 so mortally ! — but I should be more sorry, by much, the 
 king should lose his fine'' Still this did not subdue 
 the daily increasing murmurs; one exaggeration begot 
 another ; and he resolved at last, by a sudden public 
 appearance in England, to confound his accusers, and, 
 even in their very teeth, to throw for new marks of 
 favour. 
 
 Permission having been obtained from the king, Went- 
 worth appeared at the English court in May, 1636. He 
 was received with the highest favour, and so delighted 
 the king with his account of the various measures by 
 which he had consolidated the government of Ireland, 
 that he was entreated by his majesty to repeat the details 
 "at a very full council." — "Howbeit I told him, I feared 
 
 fell, hit on a more notable expedient. "When William Raylton 
 first told me," he writes, "of your lordship's intention touching 
 Mountnorris's place for sir Adam Loftus, and the distribution of 
 monies for the effecting thereof, I fell upon the right way, zvhich 
 was, to give the tnoney to him that really could do the business, zvhich 
 was the king hi??iself ; and this hath so far prevailed, as by this post 
 your lordship will receive his majesty's letter to that effect ; so as 
 there you have your business done without noise." The money 
 happened to be particularly welcome to Charles, who had just been 
 purchasing an estate ! See Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 511. 
 
200 BROWNING'S LIFE OP STRAFFORD, 
 
 his majesty might be wearied with the repetition of so 
 long a narrative, being no other than he had formerly- 
 heard, and that I desired therefore I might give my 
 account to the lords without his majesty's further expence 
 of time, yet he told me it was worthy to be heard twice, 
 and that he was willing to have it so." ^ No wonder ! 
 A more striking description was never spoken. He 
 detailed all the measures he had accomplished for the 
 church, the army, and the revenue, for manufactures and 
 commerce, for the laws and their administration, — and 
 through every vigorous and well-aimed word shone the 
 author of all those measures ! Wentworth adverted, 
 towards the close of his relation, to "some particulars 
 wherein I have been very undeservedly and bloodily 
 traduced." He mentioned the slanders that had been 
 circulated, proclaiming him " a severe and austere hard- 
 conditioned man, rather indeed a basha of Buda, than 
 the minister of a pious Christian king." His report of 
 what followed is a direct illustration of much that has 
 been advanced in this memoir. " Howbeit, if I were not 
 much mistaken in myself, it was quite the contrary ; no 
 man could shew wherein I had expressed it in my nature, 
 no friend I had would charge me with it i?t my private con- 
 versation, no creature had found it in the managing of my 
 own private affairs, so as if I stood clear in all these re- 
 spects, it was to be confessed by any equal mi?id that it was not 
 a?ty thing within, but the necessity of his majesty s service, 
 which inforced me into a seeming strictness outwardly. 
 And that was the reason indeed. For where I found a 
 crown, a church, and a people spoiled, I could not 
 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. i. pp. 13 — 22. The despatch in 
 which Wentworth again, for the third time, details his remarkable 
 narrative, is addressed to Wandesford, who, in the meanwhile, was 
 administering the Irish government. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 201 
 
 imagine to redeem them from under the pressure with 
 gracious smiles and gentle looks. It would cost warmer 
 water than so ! True it was, that where a dominion 
 was once gotten and settled, it might be stayed and 
 kept where it was by soft and moderate counsels, but 
 where a sovereignty (be it spoken with reverence) was 
 going down the hill, the nature of a man did so easily 
 slide into the paths of an uncontrouled Hberty, as it 
 would not be brought back without strength, nor be 
 forced up the hill again but by vigour and force. And 
 true it was indeed, I knew no other rule to govern by, 
 but by reward and punishment : — and I must profess 
 that where I found a person well and intirely set for the 
 service of my master, I should lay my hand under his 
 foot, and add to his respect and power all I might, and 
 that where I found the contrary, I should not handle 
 him in my arms, or soothe him in his untoward humour, 
 but if he came in my reach, so far as honour and justice 
 would warrant me, I must knock him soundly over the 
 knuckles, but no sooner he become a new man, apply 
 himself as he ought to the government, but I also change 
 my temper, and express my self to him, as unto that 
 other, by all the good offices I could do him. If this 
 be sharpness, if this be severity, I desired to be in- 
 structed better by his majesty and their lordships, for 
 in truth it did not seem so to me ; however, if I were 
 once told, that his majesty liked not to be thus served, 
 I would readily conform myself, follow the bent and 
 current of my own disposition, which is to be quiet, 
 not to have debates and disputes with any. Here his 
 majesty interrupted me and said, that was no severity, 
 wished me to go on in that way, for, if I served him 
 otherwise, I should not serve him as he expected from me." 
 
202 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Wentworth left the court for Wentworth Woodhouse, 
 loaded with the applause of the king and his lords of the 
 council, and followed by the aweful gaze of doubting 
 multitudes. 
 
 As he passed through York, he was arrested by en- 
 thusiastic friends, and with some difficulty escaped them. 
 " I am gotten hither," he writes to Laud, ''at last, to a 
 poor house I have, having been this last week almost 
 feasted to death at York. In truth, for any thing I can 
 find, they were not ill-pleased to see me. Sure I am it 
 much contented me to be amongst my old acquaintance, 
 which I would not leave for any other affection I have, 
 but to that which I both profess and owe to the person 
 of his sacred majesty. Lord ! with what quietness in 
 myself could I live here in comparison of that noise and 
 labour I meet with elsewhere; and, I protest, put up 
 more crowns in my purse at the year's end too ! But 
 we'll let that pass. For I am not like to enjoy that 
 blessed condition upon earth. And therefore my resolu- 
 tion is set to endure and struggle with it so long as this 
 crazy body will bear it, and finally drop into the silent 
 grave, where both all these (which I now could, as I 
 think, innocently delight myself in) and myself are 
 to be forgotten. And fare them well ! I persuade 
 myself exuto Lepido I am able to lay them down very 
 quietly.'' ^ 
 
 His rest was extremely short, for he soon re-appeared 
 in York, discharged several of the duties of his presi- 
 dency, and fell with all his accustomed vigour on the 
 collection of ship-money. That famous tax had recently 
 been levied. The same success waited upon Wentworth's 
 present measures in respect to it, as the capacity and 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 26. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 203 
 
 energy which animated all he did almost invariably com- 
 manded. In every other county, murmurs, threats, and 
 curses, accompanied the payment, — in Yorkshire, during 
 Wentworth's presence, silence. His letter to the king 
 reads like one of his Irish despatches. " In pursuit of 
 your commands, I have effectually, both in public and 
 private, recommended the justice and necessity of the 
 shipping business, and so clearly shown it to be, not only 
 for the honour of the kingdom in general, but for every 
 man's particular safety, that I am most confident the 
 assessment this next year will be universally and cheer- 
 fully answered within this jurisdiction." ^ 
 
 The lord deputy, as the time approached for his return 
 to his government, unburthened himself of a suit to the 
 king which he now felt concerned him daily more and 
 more. For the second time he entreated from Charles 
 the honour of an earldom. He begged it in refutation 
 of the malicious insinuations of his enemies, to prove 
 that their calumnies were disbelieved, and to strengthen 
 him in the eyes of the Irish. At the same 'time he wrote 
 to Laud, teUing him plainly the use the enemies of the 
 state were making of the king's withholding from his 
 deputy some public mark of his favour, and urging the 
 danger it threatened to his authority and to the public 
 service. Again Wentworth's suit was rejected. Since 
 Charles's last answer, his reasons for refusal had increased 
 every way. His reply was peremptory. " Believe it, the 
 marks of my favours that stop malicious tongues are 
 
 ^ In a subsequent letter Wentworth wrote : — " I forgot in my last 
 humbly to offer my opinion, that in case your majesty find or appre- 
 hend any backwardness in the south, it were good the next year's 
 writs for the shipping assessment were hastened first down into these 
 parts, where they are sure to find no opposition, or unwillingness, 
 which example may rather further than hinder in the right way, 
 which others ought to follow elsewhere. 
 
204 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 neither places nor titles, but the little welcome I give to 
 accusers, and the willing ear I give to my servants." 
 The jest with which his majesty's letter closed did not 
 mend the matter. " I will end with a rule that may serve 
 for a statesman, a courtier, or a lover, — never make a 
 defence or apology before you be accused." The lord 
 deputy felt this deeply. " I wish," he wrote to Laud, 
 "thorough the opinion that I stand not full to his 
 majesty's liking in my service in this place, his majesty's 
 affairs may not suffer as well as myself. But fall that as 
 it may, I am resolved never to stir that stone more, dead 
 to me it is to be for ever. Indeed I neither think of it, 
 nor look for it." His friend George Butler he recom- 
 mended to look for rewards and punishments in the next 
 world ; " for in good faith, George, all below are grown 
 wonderous indifferent." Nor did Wentworth scruple to 
 exhibit very broadly to the king the still rankUng dis- 
 appointment. " Out of the truth of my heart," he wrote, 
 " and with that liberty your majesty is pleased to afford 
 me (which shall nevertheless ever retain all the humility, 
 modesty, and secrecy possible), admit me to say, reward 
 well applied advantages the services of kings extreamly 
 much. It being most certain, that not one man of very 
 many serve their masters for love, but for their own ends 
 and preferments, and that he is in the rank of the best 
 servants, that can be content to serve his master together 
 with himself. Finally, I am most confident, were your 
 majesty purposed but for a while to use the excellent 
 wisdom God hath given you in the constant, right, and 
 quick applying of rewards and punishments, it were a 
 thing most easy for your servants in a very few years, 
 under your conduct and protection, so to settle all your 
 affairs and dominions, as should render you, not only at 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 205 
 
 home but abroad also, the most powerful and considerable 
 king in Christendom." ^ 
 
 With Laud, Wentworth communicated more freely on 
 this subject, and in one of his more desponding letters 
 suddenly consoles himself with Dr. Donne and 'Vandyke. 
 *' I most humbly thank your lordship for your noble care 
 and counsel tending to the preservation of my health, a 
 free bounty it is of your love towards me, where other- 
 wise of myself I am so wondrous little considerable to 
 any body else. The lady Astrea, the poet tells us, is long 
 since gone to heaven, but under favour I can yet find 
 reward and punishment on earth. Indeed sometimes 
 they are like Doctor Donn's ' anagram of a good face,' ^ 
 the ornaments missed, a yellow tooth, a red eye, a white 
 lip or so 1 and seeing that all beauties take not all affec- 
 tions, one man judging that a deformity, which another 
 considers as a perfection or a grace, this methinks 
 convinceth the certain incertainty of rewards and punish- 
 ments. Howsoever he is the wisest commonly, the 
 greatest, and happiest man, and shall surely draw the 
 fairest table of his life, that understands with Vandike, 
 how to dispose of these shadows, best, to make up his 
 own comeliness and advantage." ^ Whereupon his grace 
 of Canterbury warns the lord deputy from Vandyke and 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 41. 
 
 2 " Marry and love thy Flavia, for she 
 
 Hath all things whereby others beauteous be ; 
 For though her eyes be small, her mouth is great ; 
 Though theirs be ivory, yet her teeth be jet ; 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 What though her cheeks be yellow, her hair's red ; 
 
 * * * ♦ 
 
 Though all her parts be not in th' usual place, 
 She hath yet the anagrams of a good face ! " Second Elegy. 
 
 3 Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 158. 
 
2o6 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 Dr. Donne, into the book of Ecclesiastes. — " Once for 
 all, if you will but read over the short book of Ecclesi- 
 astes, while these thoughts are in you, you will see a 
 better disposition of these things, and the vanity of all 
 their shadows, than is to be found in any anagrams of 
 Dr. Donne's, or any designs of Vandyke. So to the lines 
 there drawn I leave you." ^ 
 
 Disappointed of that public mark of favour he had 
 claimed so justly, but strengthened by private instruc- 
 tions 2 from the king which left no bound or limit to his 
 power, lord Wentworth returned to Ireland. He resumed 
 his measures precisely at the point in which he had left 
 them, overawed every effort to disturb the breathless 
 tranquilHty which his energy had inspired, and, under his 
 vigilant eye, the infant cultivation, manufactures, and 
 commerce of the country, began to increase and prosper. 
 "While the subject enjoyed security, from the entire 
 suppression of internal insurrections and depredations, 
 the royal revenues, arising from produce and consumption, 
 experienced a rapid increase." ^ This " security," how- 
 ever, was never felt to be other than that of absolutism, 
 for Wentworth, hand in hand with his most striking 
 financial improvements, carried on his inquiries into 
 defective titles with a terrible rigour. He placed at the 
 king's disposal the entire district of Ormond, and in his 
 Irish exchequer the sum of 15,000/., wrung from the 
 family of the O'Byrnes in Wicklow, to redeem their 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 169* 
 
 2 See his letter to Wandesford, Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 13. 
 et seq. 
 
 3 Mr. MacDiarmid, whose summary of Wentworth's financial 
 measures is very able. I have occasionally availed myself of it. 
 See Lives of British Statesmen, vol. ii, pp. 170— 181. The des- 
 patches of the lord deputy, in the early portion of the second volume 
 of the Strafford Papers, are singularly powerful. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. ' 207 
 
 possessions from a similar award. Successful in every 
 effort he made, he did not care to call into request the 
 new powers he had been entrusted with. 
 
 Not a messenger or a letter arrived from England, 
 however, without news that dashed his prosperity and his 
 pride. He saw as much beyond the narrow vision of the 
 English courtiers as his sagacity outreached theirs, and, 
 in the hollow madness of their measures, had already 
 discerned disastrous issues. The ruin they were pre- 
 cipitating, he bitterly knew would involve himself; yet 
 he had not even the poor consolation of feeling, that the 
 only portion of the king's service that had in it any of 
 the elements of stability, his own government, had a 
 single hearty defender in that English court. Their 
 praises obsequiously waited on his presence alone. Laud, 
 indeed, was still his friend ; but Laud's ecclesiastical 
 administration had by this time well nigh incapacitated 
 its master for any purpose of good. The popular party 
 in England, meanwhile, taking advantage of the occasion, 
 raised a loud and violent voice of clamour against the 
 lord deputy of Ireland. He flung it back, in the hasty 
 self bullying of his will, with a contemptuous scorn \ — 
 
 1 "In truth," he wrote to Laud, *' I still wish (and take it also to 
 be a very charitable one) Mr. Hambden and others to his likeness 
 were well whipt into their right senses ; if that the rod be so used as 
 that it smarts not, I am the more sorry. One good remedy were to 
 send for your chimney-sweeper of Oxford, who will sing you a song 
 made of one Bond, it seems a schoolmaster of the free-school of St. 
 Paul's, London, and withal show how to jerk, to temper the voice, 
 to guide the hand, to lay on the rod excellently ; sure I am he made 
 me laugh heartily when I was there last ; and the chancellor of the 
 university might with a word fetch up to your lordship at Lambeth, 
 both the person and the poems (for I must tell you there is the 
 second, if not the third part of the song), and then bring but Mr. 
 Hambden and Bond in place, and it may every way prove a three 
 man's song. But fetch in the nobleman you mention, and then it 
 may chance to prove a very full concert ! As ivell as I think of Mr. 
 Hambden^s abiliiies^ I take his will and peevishness to be full as 
 
2o8 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 but he knew secretly its power, and in his graver des- 
 patches warned the court from leaving him unprotected 
 to its effects : — " With the disesteem of the governor," he 
 wrote, " the government shall impair, if not in the ex- 
 istence, sure in the beauty of it, which is as considerable, 
 as that most men are guided and guide themselves by 
 opinion. So as, if you will have my philosophy in the 
 point, let no prince employ a servant longer than he is 
 resolved to have him valued and esteemed by others, 
 thorough those powers he shall manifest to be entrusted 
 with him." Still he saw no symptoms of what he desired, 
 and at last he wrote personally to the king. " Sir," he 
 said, '' I take my natural inclinations to be extreamly 
 much more tender and gentle, than the smooth looks and 
 cheeks of your ministers on that side find in their own 
 bosoms, and yet heighten the cry upon me ! " But 
 Charles had now the queen's influence in many respects 
 upon him, and the queen was not displeased to hear of 
 the sinking fortunes of Wentworth. Lord 'Holland, her 
 favourite counsellor, was even heard to insinuate that the 
 lord deputy was subject to occasional touches of madness. 
 This, among the other reports, came to Wentworth's ear. 
 He charged it upon Holland, who denied it, confessing 
 he might have attributed " hypochondriack humours," 
 certainly not madness. Wentworth wrote back to the 
 king : — " As for the ' hypochondriack humour ' his lord- 
 ship mentions, it is a great word and a courtly phrase ; 
 but if I mistake not the English of it, it is to be civilly 
 and silently maddish : and if so, I can assure his lordship, 
 
 great, and without diminution to him, judge the other, howbeit not 
 the father of the country (a title some will not stick to give unto them 
 both, to put them if it be possible, the faster and farther out of their 
 wits), the vQry sinciput, the vertical point of the whole faction." — 
 Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 158. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 209 
 
 he shall find as little of that in me, as of any other more 
 active heat. But I shall not stir that matter further, 
 only, if it be denied his lordship said I was mad, it were 
 very easy to shew his memory might fail him some- 
 times. . . . Your majesty may be pleased to excuse this 
 foul writing, being in truth so tormented in the present 
 with the toothach, as troubles my sense more than the 
 mistaken reports of any others shall do." Sad indeed 
 were the bodily infirmities which exasperated these com- 
 plainings of the lord deputy. The gout, the toothach, 
 the ague, an intermittent pulse, faint sweats and heavi- 
 ness, and, to crown all, the frightful disorder of the stone, 
 alternately broke his spirits, and warned him " that no 
 long life awaited him here below ! " 
 
 What still remained to him, he yet resolved to live out 
 bravely. '' A frame of wood," he writes to Laud, " I have 
 given order to set up in a park I have in the county of 
 Wickloe. And, gnash the tooth of these gallants never 
 so hard, I will by God's leave go on with it, that so I 
 may have a place to take my recreation for a month or 
 two in a year, were it for no other reason than to dis- 
 please them, by keeping myself, if so please God, a little 
 longer in health." 1 Among other reports to his prejudice 
 had been that of "building up to the sky."^ We find 
 him afterwards adverting to this : — '' I acknowledge, that 
 were myself only considered in what I build, it were not 
 only to excess, but even to folly, having already houses 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 106. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 107. His expensive repairs of the castle of Dublin had 
 also been reproached to him. But on his first arrival he had certainly 
 alleged a good case of necessity to Cooke : — ** This castle is in very 
 great decay. I have been inforced to take down one of the great 
 towers, which was ready to fall, and the rest are so crasy, as we 
 are still in fear part of it might drop down upon our heads." vol. i. 
 p. 131. 
 
 P 
 
:2io BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 moderate for my condition in Yorkshire : — but his majesty- 
 will justify me, that at my last being in England, I 
 acquainted him with a purpose I had to build him a 
 house at the Naas, it being uncomely his majesty should 
 not have one here of his own, capable to lodge him with 
 moderate conveniency (which in truth as yet he hath not), 
 in case he might be pleased sometimes hereafter to look 
 upon this kingdom ; and that it was necessary in a 
 manner, for the dignity of this place, and the health of 
 his deputy and family, that there should be one removing 
 house of fresh air, for want whereof, I assure your lord- 
 ship, I have felt no small inconvenience since my coming 
 hither ; that when it was built, if liked by his majesty, it 
 should be his, paying me as it cost, if disliked, a suo 
 damno, I was content to keep it and smart for my folly. 
 His majesty seemed to be pleased with all, whereupon I 
 proceeded, and have in a manner finished it, and so con- 
 trived it for the rooms of state, and other accommodations 
 which I have observed in his majesty's houses, as I had 
 been, indeed, stark mad ever to have cast it so for a private 
 family y ^ 
 
 Between these two royal residences Wentworth now 
 divided a great portion of his time. His mode of living 
 equalled in magnificence the houses themselves. At his 
 own charge he maintained a retinue of 50 attendants, 
 
 ^ The remains of this building, which was called Juggarstowne 
 Castle, are visible still, and, I am informed by gentlemen who have 
 seen them, sufificiently indicate its extraordinary grandeur and extent. 
 They cover several acres. They are close to the road side, about 
 sixteen Irish miles from Dublin, and provoke, even now, from many 
 an unreflecting passer by, a curse upon the memory of " Black Tom." 
 Such is the name by which the Irish peasantry still remember 
 Strafford. When M. Boullaye-le-Gouz visited Ireland, he found 
 this castle in the property and possession of sir George Wentworth, 
 Strafford's brother, and guarded by forty English soldiers. — Mr. 
 Croker^s MS. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD 21 1 
 
 besides his troop of 100 horse, which he had originally 
 raised and equipped at an expense of 6000/., and kept 
 up at an enormous yearly cost. This style of living, 
 which he took care to bear out in every other respect, 
 he characteristically vindicated to Cottington as " an ex- 
 pence not of vanity, but of necessity, judging it not to 
 become me, having the great honour to represent his 
 majesty's sacred person, to set it forth, no not in any ofie- 
 circumstance, in a penurious mean manner, before the eyes 
 of a wild and rude people.'' ^ Nor did he scruple to 
 conceal the fact, that his own private fortune had been 
 assisted, in these vast charges, by certain public profits. 
 " It is very true," he writes to Laud, " I have, under the 
 blessing of Almighty God, and the * protection of his 
 majesty, 6000/. a year good land, which I brought with 
 me into his service ; and I have a share for a short term 
 in these customs, which, whilst his majesty's revenue is 
 there increased more than 20,000/. by year, proves never- 
 theless a greater profit to me than ever I dreamt of." 
 When Laud read this passage to Charles, the king 
 observed, impatiently, " but he doth not tell you how 
 much," and plainly intimated that he grudged the 
 minister his share of profit. ^ Wentworth had few occa- 
 sions of gratitude to Charles during a life worn out in 
 his service ! In respect of these customs, it is not to be 
 doubted that Charles's suspicions were grossly unjust. 
 He would have had more of abstract justice with him in 
 objecting to a different source of his lord deputy's 
 revenue, that of the tobacco monopoly, for, on the latter 
 
 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 128. 
 
 2 Laud writes : — " I have of late heard some muttering about it 
 in court, but can meet with nothing to fasten on : only it makes me 
 doubt some body hath been nibbling about it." — See Strafford 
 Papers, vol. ii. p. 127. 
 
212 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 ground, undoubtedly, Wentworth was open to grave 
 charges, though, even here, the king was the last person 
 from whom with any propriety they could issue. 
 
 The lord deputy's private habits have been described. 
 He hawked, he hunted^, and fished 2, whenever his 
 infirmities gave him respite. He passed some of his 
 time also among books, and, in one portion at least of 
 these studies, had his thoughts upon a stormy political 
 
 ^ Wittily he writes to Laud : — " We are in expectance every hour 
 to hear what becomes of us and the lord chancellor — io say the plain 
 truth, whether we shall have a government or no ; and to the intent 
 that I might be the better in titrumque paratus, at this present I atn 
 playing the Robin Hood, and here in the country of mountains and 
 woods hunting and chacing all the out-lying deer I can light of. 
 But to confess truly, I met with a very shrewd rebuke the other 
 day: for, standing to 'get a shoot at a buck, I was so damnably 
 bitten with midges, as my face is all mezled over ever since, itches 
 still as if it were mad. The marks they set will not go off again, I 
 will awarrant you, this week. I never felt or saw such in England. 
 Surely they are younger brothers to the muskitoes the Indies brag 
 on so much. I protest, I could even now well find in my heart to 
 play the shrew soundly, and scratch my face in six or seven places." 
 — Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 173. This allusion to the lord chan- 
 cellor had reference to a judgment recently given against that 
 dignitary by Wentworth himself, in a suit brought against him by 
 sir John Gifford, on behalf of sir Francis Ruishe, for an increase of 
 portion to the lady who had married young Loftus : — "According 
 to the lord chancellor's own clear agreement with sir Fi-ancis Ruishe, 
 father to the lady." These are Wentworth's words. The chan- 
 cellor refused to submit to the judgment on the ground that the 
 action ought to have been brought in the ordinary courts of law, 
 and that the tribunal before which it was tried was both illegal and 
 partial. Wentworth upon this had resorted to his usual severity, 
 and was now waiting its issue with the king. It may be worth 
 stating, that mistakes have been made with respect to the name of 
 the lady chiefly affected in this case, by Mr. MacDiarmid and other 
 writers, in consequence of sir John Gifford having brought the 
 original action. She was lady Loftus, not lady Gifford. 
 
 ^ For some accounts of his fishing exploits, see Papers, vol. ii. p. 
 213. &c. Laud appears to have relished the lord deputy's presents 
 of "dryed fish " amazingly, and to have been anything but fond of 
 his " hung beef out of Yorkshire." His grace had a shrewd eye to 
 appetite: — "Since you are for both occupations, flesh and fish, I 
 wonder you do not think of powdering or drying some of your Irish 
 venison, and send that over to brag too." 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 21 
 
 future. " I wish," writes his friend lord Conway to him, 
 "you had had your fit of the gout in England, lest you 
 should attribute something of the disease to the air of 
 that country. I send you the duke of Rohan's book, 
 'Le parfait Capitaine.' Do not think the gout is an 
 excuse from fightings for the count Mansfelt had the gout 
 that day he fought the battle of Fleury.'''^ In the pleasures 
 of the table he indulged little. " He was exceeding 
 temperate," observes Radcliffe, " in meat, drink, and 
 recreations. He was no whit given to his appetite ; 
 though he loved to see good meat at his table, yet he eat 
 very little of it himself : beef or rabbits was his ordinary 
 food, or cold powdered meats, or cheese and apples, and 
 in moderate quantity. He was never drunk in his life, 
 as I have often heard him say ; and for so much as I 
 had seen, I had reason to believe him : yet he was not 
 so scrupulous but he would drink healths where he liked 
 his company, and be sociable as any of his society, and 
 yet still within the bounds of temperance. In Ireland, 
 where drinking was grown a disease epidemical, he was 
 more strict publickly, never suffering any health to be 
 drunk at his publick table but the king's, queen's, and 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 45. Some of lord Conway's letters 
 referred to matters not quite so decent, and the lord deputy's replies 
 gave him no advantage on that score. See Papers, vol. ii. pp. 144 
 — 146. Conway's acquaintance with his intrigues has already re- 
 ceived notice, and the following passage from one of Wentworth's 
 letters to this confidant is not a little significant : — *' I desire your 
 judgment of the inclosed, which was written to this your servant the 
 other day, and chancing to open and read it in the presence, I burst 
 out before I got it read, that the standers-by wondered what merry 
 tale it might be that letter told me. But I must conjure you to send 
 it me back, not to trust it forth of your hands, only if you will, I am 
 content you shew it my lord of Northumberland, and my lady of 
 Carlile, lest if it were shewn to others they might judge me Vane, 
 or something else, of so princely a favour ! For less, the least of 
 her commands are not to be taken, — what then may we term these 
 her earnest desires ? " 
 
2 14 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 prince's, on solemn days. Drunkenness in his servants 
 was, in his esteem, one of the greatest faults." Through- 
 out his various admirable letters to his young wards, the 
 Saviles, in whose education he took extreme interest 
 always, the hatred of this vice is still more character- 
 istically shown. He returns to the warning again and 
 again, coupling with drunkenness the equal vice of 
 gaming, — the one a " pursuit not becoming a generous 
 noble heart, which will not brook such starved consider- 
 ations as the greed of winning," — the other, one " that 
 shall send you, by unequal staggering paces, to your 
 grave, with confusion of face." ^ 
 
 No public duty was neglected meanwhile, for, from 
 his country parks and castles, Wentworth in an hour or 
 two could appear in the Dublin presence-chamber. The 
 king sent him every license he required against the lord 
 chancellor Loftus, and that nobleman, for having dis- 
 puted the judicial functions of the deputy, " that trans- 
 cendent power of a chancellor," as Wentworth scornfully 
 called him, was deprived of the seals, and committed to 
 prison till he consented to submit to the award and to 
 acknowledge his error.^ 
 
 But while the king thus secretly authorised these acts 
 of despotism, the English court, no less than the English 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 169, &c. And see an admirable 
 letter at p. 311. of vol. ii. 
 
 ^ This case was brought forward at the impeachment, and was 
 much aggravated by a discovery, which has been before named, in 
 reference to the young lady Loftus. " In the prefering this charge," 
 says Clarendon, " many things of levity, as certain letters of great 
 affection and familiarity from the earl to that lady, which were found 
 in her cabinet after her death, others of passion, were exposed to 
 the public view." (vol, i. p. 175.) Ample details of the entire 
 course of the transaction will be found in referring to the Strafford 
 Papers, vol. ii. p. 67. et seq, 82. 160. et seq. 172. et seq. 179. 196. 
 205. 227. et seq. 259. etseq. 298. 341. 369. 375. 389. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 215 
 
 nation, were known to be objecting to their author. 
 Impatiently he wrote to Laud, demanding at least the 
 charge, something on which to ground an issue — " The 
 humour which offends me," he exclaims, ** is not so much 
 anger as scorn, and desire to wrest out from amongst 
 them my charge ; for, as they say, if I might come to fight 
 for my life, it would never trouble me, indeed I should then 
 weigh them all very light, and be safe under the goodness, 
 wisdom, and justice of my master. Again, howbeit I am 
 resolved of the truth of all this, yet to accuse myself is 
 very uncomely. I love not to put on my armour before 
 there be cause, in regard I never do so, but I find myself 
 the wearier and sorer for it the next morning." 
 
 He could get no satisfactory answer to this, for in 
 truth the English court by this time had enough upon 
 its hands. The king meditated a war with Spain, for the 
 recovery of the palatinate, to which he was the rather 
 urged by the queen, since France had already engaged. 
 Fortunately, before taking this step, he was induced to 
 advise with the lord deputy of Ireland. This was the 
 first time Wentworth had ever been consulted on the 
 general affairs of the kingdom, and he instantly forwarded 
 a paper of opposing reasons to the king, so strongly and 
 so ably stated, that the war project was given up.^ The 
 queen's indifferent feeling to him, it may well be supposed, 
 was not removed by such policy. 2 
 
 ^ The document will be found in the Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 60 
 — 64. It is one of the ablest of Wentworth's arguments for his scheme 
 of absolute power. He takes occasion to say in it : — " The opinion 
 delivered by the judges, declaring the lawfulness of the assignment 
 for the shipping, is the greatest service that profession hath done the 
 crown in my time," 
 
 2 It ought to be stated, to Wentworth's honour, that, though he 
 much desired to have stood well with her majesty, he declined to 
 purchase her favour by acts inconsistent with his own public schemes. 
 
2i6 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 The peace, however, which lord Went worth so earnestly 
 recommended, was now more fatally broken. The whole 
 Scottish nation rose against Charles, in consequence of 
 Laud's rehgious innovations. Wentworth was not at 
 first consulted respecting these commotions, but he had 
 thrown out occasional advice in his despatches which 
 was found singularly serviceable.^ He strove as far as 
 possible, by urging strong defensive measures, to prevent 
 an open rupture. " If," he wrote to Charles, " the war 
 were with a foreign enemy, I should like well to have the 
 first blow ; but being with your majesty s own natu7'al, 
 howbeit rebellious subjects^ it seems to me a tender point to 
 draw blood first ; for till it come to that, all hope is not 
 lost of reconciliation ; and I would not have them with 
 the least colour impute it to your majesty to have put all 
 to extremity, till their own more than words inforce you 
 to it." 2 
 
 . Nor did Wentworth serve Charles at this conjuncture 
 with advice alone, for, by his amazing personal energy, 
 he forced down some opening commotions among the 
 60,000 Scottish settlers in Ulster, and not only disabled 
 them from joining or assisting their countrymen, but 
 
 See curious evidences of this in Strafford Papers, vol. ii. pp. 221, 
 222. 257. 329. 425, 426. &c. When she had solicited an army 
 appointment for some young courtier, he wrote an earnest entreaty 
 to her chamberlain, accompanying his reasons for declining the ap- 
 pointment : — "If I may by you understand her majesty's good 
 pleasure, it will be a mighty quietness unto me, for if once these 
 places of command in the army become suits at court, looked upon 
 as preferments and portions for younger children, the honour of this 
 government, and consequently the prosperity of these affairs, are 
 lost." The king himself appears to have made it a personal request 
 of Wentworth, that he should carry himself **with all duty and 
 respect to her majesty." (vol. ii, p. 256.) 
 
 1 See vol. ii. pp. 191, 192. 235. 280. 324. &c. 
 . 2 Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 314. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 217 
 
 compelled them to abjure the covenant.^ Nor this 
 alone. He forwarded from Ireland a detachment of 
 troops to garrison Carlisle ; he announced that the army 
 of Ireland was in a state of active recruitin'^ and dis- 
 cipline ; he offered large contributions from himself and 
 his friends towards the necessary expenses of resistance ; 
 and by every faith of loyalty, and bond of friendship and 
 of service, he called on every man in Yorkshire to stir 
 themselves in the royal cause. " To be lazy lookers on," 
 he wrote to the lord Lome, "to lean to the king behind 
 the curtain, or to whisper forth only our allegiance, will 
 not serve our turn ! much rather ought we to break our 
 shins in emulation who should go soonest and furthest, 
 in assurance and in courage, to uphold the prerogatives 
 and full dominion of the crown, — ever remembering our- 
 selves that nobility is such a grudged and envied piece 
 of monarchy, that all tumultuary force offered to kings 
 doth ever in the second place fall upon the peers, being 
 such motes in the eyes of a giddy multitude, as they 
 never believe themselves clear sighted into their liberty 
 indeed, till these be at least levelled to a parity as the 
 other altogether removed, to give better prospect to their 
 anarchy." ^ 
 
 The sluggish and irresolute councils of England looked 
 ill beside the movements of the deputy. The king asked 
 a service from him, but the instructions came too late. 
 " If his majesty's mind had been known to me in time," 
 he wrote to Vane, the treasurer of the household, " I 
 could have as easily secured it against all the covenanters 
 and devils in Scotland, as now walk up and down this 
 chamber. But where trusts and instructions come too 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. pp. 270. 338. 345. 
 2 Ibid. p. 210. 
 
2i8 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 late, there the business is sure to be lost." Openly he 
 now expressed his censure of the royal scheme that had 
 prevailed since the death of Buckingham. "I never was 
 in love with that way of keeping all the affairs of that 
 kingdom of Scotland among those of that nation, but 
 carried indeed as a mystery to all the council of England ; 
 a rule but over much kept by our master ; which I have 
 told my lord of Portland many and often a time, plainly 
 professing unto him, that I was much afraid that course 
 would at one time or other bring forth ill effects ; what 
 those are, we now see and feel at one and the same 
 instant." Finally, when Vane had written in an ex- 
 tremely desponding tone, he rallied him with a noble 
 energy. " It is very true you have reason to think this 
 storm looks very foul and dark towards us, so do also 
 myself, for if the fire should kindle at Raby, I am sure 
 the smoke would give offence to our eye-sight at Wood- 
 house ! but I trust the evening will prove more calm than 
 the morning of this day promises. Dulcius lumen soils 
 esse solet Jam jam cadentls. All here is quiet, nothing 
 colours yet to the contrary. And if I may have the 
 countenance and trust of my master, I hope, in the 
 execution of such commands as his majesty's wisdom 
 and judgment ordain for me, to contain the Scottish here 
 in their due obedience, or if they should stir (our 8000 
 arms and twenty pieces of cannon arrived, which I trust 
 now will be very shortly) to give them such a heat in 
 their cloaths, as they never had since their coming forth 
 of Scotland ! And yet our standing army here is but 
 1000 horse and 2000 foot, and not fewer of them I will 
 warrant you than 150,000, so you see our work is not 
 very easy. The best of it is, the brawn of a lark is better 
 than the carcass of a kite, and the virtue of one loyal 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 219 
 
 subject more than of 1000 traitors. And is not this 
 pretty well, trow you, to begin with?"^ 
 
 No extremity was urged that found Wentworth un- 
 prepared. Windebanke hinted the danger he incurred. 
 " I humbly thank you," he answered, " for your friendly 
 and kind wishes to my safety, but if it be the will of God 
 to bring upon us for our sins that fiery trial, — all the 
 respects of this life laid aside, it shall appear more by 
 my actions than words, that I can never think myself too 
 good to die for my gracious master, or favour my skin 
 in the zealous and just prosecution of his commands. 
 Statutum est semel." Another — whom he fancied not 
 unwilling to thwart him, reckoning upon safety from the 
 consequences in the lord deputy's certain destruction — 
 he thus warned : — " Perchance even to those that shall 
 tell you, before their breath I am but as a feather, I shall 
 be found sadder than lead ! For let me tell you, I am 
 so confidently set upon the justice of my master, and 
 upon my own truth, as under them and God I shall pass 
 thorough all the factions of court, and heat of my ill- 
 willers, without so much as sindging the least thread of 
 my coat, nor so alone, but to carry my friends along with 
 me." And, in the midst of the storms his measures 
 were raising on all sides round him, he found time and 
 ease enough to amuse himself in tormenting with grave 
 jests a foolish earl of Antrim, whom the king had sent to 
 " assist " him. The despatches he wrote on the subject 
 of the " Antrim negociations " are positive masterpieces 
 of wit and humour.^ At the same time he did not 
 
 1 This letter is dated — ** Fairwood Park [the name of his seat in 
 Wicklow], this i6th of April, 1639. I will change it with you, if 
 you will, for Fair Lane." — Strafford Papers, vol. ii. pp. 325 — 328. 
 
 2 See the Strafford Papers, vol. ii. pp. 187. 204. 211. 289. et seq. 
 300. et seq. 321. etseq. 325. 331. 334. 339. 353. 356. It is not loo 
 
2 20 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 hesitate to assure the king, that, but for the safety of 
 Ireland, he would " be most mightily out of countenance, 
 to be found in any other place than at his majesty's 
 side ! " 
 
 Charles acknowledged these vast services with frequent 
 letters. Wentworth was now his great hope, and he 
 found, at last, that at all risks he must have him in 
 England. He had formerly declined his offered attend- 
 ance, he now prayed for it. He wished, he said, to 
 consult him respecting the army, " but I have nmch 
 more," he sorrowfully added, " and indeed too much to 
 desire your counsel and attendance for some time, which 
 I think not fit to express by letter, more than this, — the 
 Scots' covenant begins to spread too far. Yet, for all 
 this, I will not have you take notice that I have sent for 
 you, but pretend some other occasion of business." 
 
 Wentworth instantly prepared himself to obey. A 
 short time only he took, to place his government in 
 the hands of Wandesford, and to arrange some of his 
 domestic concerns. His children were his great care. 
 " God bless the young whelps," he said, " and for the 
 old dog there is less matter." ^ Lady Clare, his mother- 
 in-law, had often requested to have the elder girl with 
 
 much to say, that, in reading these papers, the memory is called to 
 the Swifts of past days, and the Fonblanques of our own. The poor 
 lord's pretensions are most ludicrously set forth, and in a vein of 
 exquisite pleasantry, but little consistent with the popular notion of 
 Strafford's unbending sternness. 
 
 ^ See various lettei's in the course of his correspondence, in which 
 the most tender enthusiasm is expressed for them and for their dead 
 mother, (vol. i. p. 236. ; vol, ii. pp. 122, 123. 146. 379, 380.) Nor 
 was his affection less warmly expressed to the child of his living 
 wife. In several affectionate letters to the latter he never fails to 
 send his blessing to "the baby," or to *• little Tom," Shortly 
 before this visit to England, however, the latter died, — and shortly 
 after it, a girl was born. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 221 
 
 her, and Wentworth had as often vainly tried to let her 
 leave his side. His passion was to see them all near 
 him in a group together, as they may yet be seen in the 
 undying colours of Vandyke, from whose canvass, also, 
 as though it had been painted yesterday, the sternly 
 expressive countenance of their father still gazes at 
 posterity. The present was a time, however, when the 
 sad alternative of a separation from himself promised 
 him alleviation even, and he resolved to send both sisters 
 to their grandmother. The letter he despatched on the 
 occasion to the Lady Clare remains, and it is too touch- 
 ing and beautiful to be omitted here. A man so 
 burthened with the world's accusations as Strafford, 
 should be denied none of the advantage which such 
 a document can render to his memory. It is unneces- 
 sary to direct attention to its singularly characteristic 
 conclusion : — 
 
 " My lord of Clare having writ unto me, your ladyship 
 desired to have my daughter Anne with you for a time 
 in England, to recover her health, I have at last been 
 able to yield so much from my own comfort, as to send 
 both her and her sister to wait your grave, wise, and 
 tender instructions. They are both, I praise God, in 
 good health, and bring with them hence from me no 
 other advice, but entirely and cheerfully to obey and do 
 all you shall be pleased to command them, so far forth 
 as their years and understanding may administer unto 
 them. 
 
 ** I was unwilling to part them, in regard those that 
 must be a stay one to another, when by course of nature 
 I am gone before them. I would not have them grow 
 strangers whilst I am living. Besides, the younger 
 gladly imitates the elder, in disposition so like her blessed 
 
222 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 mother, that it pleases me very much to see her steps 
 followed and observed by the other. 
 
 " Madam, I must confess, it was not without difficulty 
 before I could perswade myself thus to be deprived the 
 looking upon them, who with their brother are the 
 pledges of all the comfort, the greatest at least, of my 
 old age, if it shall please God I attain thereunto. But 
 I have been brought up in afflictions of this kind, so as 
 I still fear to have that taken first that is dearest unto 
 me, — and have in this been content willingly to over- 
 come my own affections in order to their good, acknow- 
 ledging your ladyship capable of doing them more good 
 in their breeding than I am. Otherways, in truth, I 
 should never have parted with them, as I profess it a 
 grief unto me, not to be as well able as any to serve 
 the memory of that noble lady, in these little harmless 
 infants. 
 
 " Well, to God's blessing and your ladyship's goodness 
 I commit them ! where-ever they are my prayers shall 
 attend them, and have of sorrow in my heart till I see 
 them again I must, which I trust will not be long neither. 
 That they shall be acceptable to you, I know it right 
 well, and I believe them so graciously minded to render 
 themselves so the more, the more you see of their atten- 
 tion to do as you shall be pleased to direct them, which 
 will be of much contentment unto me. For whatever 
 your ladyship's opinion may be of me, I desire, and 
 have given it them in charge (so far as their tender years 
 are capable of), to honour and observe your ladyship 
 above all the women in the world, as well knowing that 
 in so doing they shall fulfil that duty, whereby of all 
 others they could have delighted their mother the most ; 
 — and I do infinitely wish they may want nothing in their 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 223 
 
 breeding my power or cost might procure them, or their 
 condition of life hereafter may require, for, madam, if I 
 die to-morrow, I will by God's help leave them ten 
 thousand pounds apiece, which I trust, by God's blessing, 
 shall bestow them to the comfort of themselves and 
 friends, nor at all considerably prejudice their brother, 
 whose estate shall never be much burthened by a second 
 venter, I assure you. 
 
 '• I thought fit to send with them one that teacheth 
 them to write ; he is a quiet soft man, but honest, and 
 not given to any disorder; him I have appointed to 
 account for the money to be laid forth, wherein he hath 
 no other direction but to pay and lay forth as your 
 ladyship shall appoint, and still as he wants, to go to 
 Woodhouse, where my cousin Rockley will supply him. 
 And I must humbly beseech you to give order to their 
 servants, and otherwise to the taylors at London, for 
 their apparel, which I wholly submit to your ladyship's 
 better judgment, and be it what it may be, I shall think 
 it all happily bestowed, so as it be to your contentment 
 and theirs, for cost I reckon not of, and any thing I 
 have is theirs so long as I live, which is only worth 
 thanks, for theirs and their brothers all I have must be 
 whether I will or no, and therefore I desire to let them 
 have to acknowledge me for before. 
 
 " Nan, they tell me, danceth prettily, which I wish (if 
 with convenience it might be) were not lost, — more to 
 give her a comely grace in the carriage of her body, than 
 that I wish they should much delight or practise it when 
 they are women. Arabella is a small practitioner that 
 way also, and they are both very apt to learn that or any 
 thing they are taught. 
 
 "Nan, I think, speaks French prettily, which yet I 
 
224 
 
 BROIVNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 might have been better able to judge had her mother 
 lived. The other also speaks, but her maid being of 
 Guernsey, the accent is not good. But your ladyship is 
 in this excellent, as that, as indeed all things else which 
 may befit them, they may, and I hope will, learn better 
 with your ladyship than they can with their poor father, 
 ignorant in what belongs women, and otherways, God 
 knows, distracted, and so awanting unto them in all, 
 saving in loving them, and therein, in truth, I shall never 
 be less than the dearest parent in the world ! 
 
 " Their brother is just now sitting at my elbow, in 
 good health, God be praised ; and I am in the best sort 
 accommodating this place for him, which, in the kind, 
 I take to be the noblest one of them in the king's 
 dominions, and where a grass time may be passed with 
 most pleasure of that kind. I will build him a good 
 house, and by God's help, leave, I think, near three 
 thousand pounds a year, and wood on the ground, as 
 much, I dare say, if near London, as would yield fifty 
 thousand pounds, besides a house within twelve miles of 
 Dublin, the best in Ireland, and land to it which, I hope, 
 will be two thousand pounds a year, — all which he shall 
 have to the rest, had I twenty brothers of his to sitt 
 beside me. This I write not to your ladyship in vanity, 
 or to have it spoken of, but privately, to let your lady- 
 ship see I do not forget the children of my dearest wife, 
 nor altogether bestow my time fruitlessly for them. It 
 is true I am in debt, but there will be, besides, sufficient 
 to discharge all I owe, by God's grace, whether I live or 
 die. And next to these children, there are not any other 
 persons I wish more happiness than to the house of their 
 grandfather, and shall be always most ready to serve 
 them, what opinion soever be had of me, for no others 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 225 
 
 usage can absolve me of what I owe not only to the 
 memory, but to the last legacy, that noble creature left 
 with me, when God took her to himself. I am afraid to 
 turn over the leaf, lest your ladyship might think I could 
 never come to a conclusion ; and shall, therefore," &c. 
 
 He had arranged everything for his departure, when 
 one of his paroxysms of illness seized him. He wrestled 
 with it desperately, and set sail. On landing at Chester 
 he wrote to lady Wentworth a sad description of the 
 effects of the journey upon his gout, and the "flux," 
 which afflicted him. He rallied, however, and appeared 
 in London in November, 1639. In a memorable passage, 
 the historian May has described the general conversation 
 a-nd conjecture which had prepared for his approach. 
 Some, he says, remembering his early exertions in the 
 cause of the people, fondly imagined that he had hitherto 
 been subservient to the court, only to ingratiate himself 
 thoroughly with the king, and that he would now employ 
 his ascendancy to wean his majesty from arbitrary 
 counsels. Others, who knew his character more pro- 
 foundly, had different thoughts, and secretly cherished 
 their own most active energies. 
 
 Wentworth, Laud, and Hamilton, instantly formed a 
 secret council — a "cabinet council," as ihey were then 
 enviously named by the other courtiers — a "junto," as 
 the people reproachfully called them. The nature of 
 the measures to be taken against the Scots was variously 
 and earnestly discussed, and Wentworth, considering the 
 extremity of affairs, declared at once for war. 
 
 Supplies to carry it on formed a more difficult question 
 still, but it sank before Wentworth's energy. He pro- 
 posed a loan, — subscribed to it at once, by way of 
 example, the enormous sum of 20,000/., — and pledged 
 
 Q 
 
^26 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 himself to bring over a large subsidy from Ireland if 
 the king would call a parliament there. Encouraged 
 by this assurance, it was resolved to cail a parliament 
 in England also. Laud, Juxon, Hamilton, Went worth, 
 Cottington, Vane, and Windebanke, were all present in 
 council when this resolution was taken. The king then 
 put the question to them whether, upon the restiveness 
 of parliament, they would assist him " by extraordinary 
 ways." They assented, passed a vote to that effect, 
 writs for parliaments in both countries were issued, and 
 Wentworth prepared himself to quit England. 
 
 Charles, unsolicited, now invested him with the dignity 
 of earldom. His own very existence seemed dependent 
 on Wentworth's faith, and there was sufficient weakness 
 in the character of the king to render it possible for him 
 to suppose that, even at such a time, the inducement of 
 reward might be necessary as a precaution. The lord 
 deputy was created earl of StVafford and baron of Raby, 
 adorned with the garter, and invested with the title of 
 lord-lieutenant, or Heutenant-general, of Ireland — a title 
 which had not been given since the days of Essex. 
 '' God willing," wrote Strafford to his wife immediately 
 after, " you will soon see the lieutenant of Ireland, but 
 never like to have a deputy of Ireland to your husband 
 any more." ^ 
 
 On his way to Ireland, the earl was overtaken, at 
 Beaumaris, by a severe attack of gout, yet, still able to 
 move, he hurried on board, notwithstanding the contrary 
 
 1 Letter in the Thoresby Museum, Biog. Brit. vol. vii. p. 4182. 
 Some days before he had written to her characteristic news of his 
 children. "The two wenches," he said, "are in perfect health, and 
 now at this instant in this house, lodged with me, and rather desirous 
 to be so than with their grandmother. I am not yet fully resolved 
 what to do with them." They were afterwards sent back to lady 
 Clare, till the lady Strafford arrived in London. 
 
BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 227 
 
 winds, lest he should be thrown down utterly. He wrote 
 at the same time to secretary Cooke, in the highest 
 spirits, to assure him and his master that they need not 
 fear for his weakness. " For," exclaims the lord-lieu- 
 tenant, " I will make strange shift, and put myself to 
 all the pain I shall be able to endure, before I be any 
 where awanting to my master or his affairs in this con- 
 juncture, and, therefore, sound or lame, you shall have 
 me with you before the beginning of the parliament. I 
 should not fail, though sir John Eliot were living ! 
 In the mean space, for love of Christ, call upon and 
 hasten the business now in hand, especially the raising 
 of the horse and all together, the rather, for that this 
 work now before us, should it miscarry, we all are like to 
 be very miserable, — but, carried through advisedly and 
 gallantly, shall by God's blessing set us in safety and 
 peace for our lives at after, nay, in probability, the 
 generations that are to succeed us. Fi afaute de courage^ 
 je n'en aye que trop ! What might I be with my legs, 
 that am so brave without the use of them ? Well, halt, 
 blind, or lame, I will be found true to the person of my 
 gracious master, to the service of his crown and my 
 friends." Strange that, at such a moment, lord Strafford 
 should have recalled the memory of the virtuous and 
 indomitable Eliot ! He was soon doomed to know 
 on whose shoulders the mantle of Buckingham's great 
 opponent had fallen. 
 
 In March, 1640, Strafford again arrived in Ireland. 
 The members of the parHament that had just been 
 summoned, crowded round him with lavish devotion, 
 gave him four subsidies, which was all that he had 
 desired, and declared that that was nothing in respect 
 to their zeal, for that " his majesty should have the fee 
 
228 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 simple of their estates for his great occasions." In a 
 formal declaration, moreover, they embodied all this, 
 declared that their present warm loyalty rose from a 
 deep sense of the inestimable benefits the lord-lieutenant 
 had conferred upon their country, and that all these 
 benefits had been effected " without the least hurt or 
 grievance to any well-disposed subject." ^ The authors 
 of this declaration were the first to turn upon Strafford 
 in his distress. Valuing their praise for its worth in the 
 way of example, the earl forwarded it to England, and 
 requested it to be published to the empire. 
 
 He had now been a fortnight in Ireland. Within that 
 time, with a diligence unparalleled and almost incredible, 
 he had effected these results with the parliament, and 
 levied a body of 8000 men as a reinforcement to the 
 royal army.^ He again set sail for England. 
 
 I pause here to illustrate the character of this extra- 
 ordinary person in one respect, which circumstances are 
 soon to make essential. His infirmities of health have 
 frequently been alluded to, but they come now upon the 
 scene more fatally. No one, that has not carefully ex- 
 amined all his despatches, can have any notion of their 
 frightful nature and extent. 
 
 The soul of the earl of Strafford was indeed lodged, 
 to use the expression of his favourite Donne, within a 
 " low and fatal room." We have already seen his friend, 
 Radclifife, informing us, that in 1622 "he had a great 
 fever, and the next spring a double tertian, and after his 
 recovery a relapse into a single tertian, and a while after 
 a burning fever." It is melancholy to follow the progress 
 
 ^ See Strafford Papers, vol. ii. pp. 396, 397. Rushworth, vol. 
 iii. p. 105 1. Nalson, vol. i, p. 280—284. 
 ^ See Radcliffe's Essay. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 229 
 
 of his infirmities as they are casually recorded by him- 
 self! — How the trouble of *'an humour, which in strict 
 acceptation you might term the gout," soon increases to 
 *' an extreme fit, which renders him unfit, not only for 
 business, but for all handsome civility," and is aggravated 
 by " so violent a fit of the stone, as I shall not be able 
 to stir these ten days — it hath brought me very low, and 
 was unto me a torment for three days and three nights 
 above all I ever endured since I was a man ! " — How 
 the eyes that are "these twelve days full of dimness," 
 ere long are " scarce able to guide his pen thorough 
 bUndness with long writing ; " — and this, too, while '* an 
 infirmity I have formerly had in great measure, saluteth 
 me, to wit, an intermitting pulse, attended with faint 
 sweats and heaviness of spirits ! " 
 
 But ever by the side of the body's weakness we find 
 a witness of the spirit's triumph, — a vindication of the 
 mightiness of will ! A lengthened despatch to the 
 secretary is begun in "a fit of the gout which, keeping 
 me still in bed, partly with pain and partly with weari- 
 ness, makes me unfit for much business." — When he 
 intreats a correspondent to " to pardon my scribbling, 
 for since the gout took me I am not able to write but 
 with both my legs along upon a stool, believe me, which 
 is not only wearisome in itself, but a posture very un- 
 toward for guiding my pen aright," — it is with the 
 consolation that " as sir Walter Raleigh said very well, 
 so the heart lie right, it skills not much for all the rest." 
 — And the advice to " forbear his night watches, and 
 now begin to take more care of his health," is met by 
 the assurance that, " had he fivescore senses to lose, he 
 did and ought to judge them all well and happily 
 bestowed in his majesty's service ! " 
 
23© BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 On the occasion of this last return to England, how- 
 ever, even what has been described would serve little to 
 express what he suffered. Then, when every energy was 
 to be taxed to the uttermost, the question of his fiery 
 spirit's supremacy was indeed put to the issue, by a 
 complication of ghastly diseases ! In the letter from 
 Dublin, dated Good Friday, 1640, which assures the 
 king that " from this table I shall go on ship board," he 
 is compelled to add that, " besides my gout, I have a 
 very violent and ill-conditioned flux upon me, such as I 
 never had before. It hath held me already these seven 
 days, and brought me so weak, as in good faith nothing 
 that could concern myself should make me go a mile 
 forth of my chamber. But this is not a season for 
 bemoaning of myself^ for I shall cheerfully venture this 
 crazed vessel of mine, and either^ by God's help, wait upon 
 your majesty before the parliament begin, — or else deposit 
 this infirm humanity of mine in the dust ! " And " from 
 the table," on " ship board," he went accordingly, and 
 arrived at Chester on the 4th of April, quite broken 
 down by the fatigues of a rough voyage. " I confess," 
 he writes, " that I forced the captain to sea against his 
 will, and have since received my correction for it. A 
 marvellous foul and dangerous night, indeed, we have 
 had of it ! " In this state he despatches the following 
 letter to the king : — " May it please your sacred majesty, 
 — With some danger I wrought thorough a storm at sea, 
 yet light on a greater misfortune here in harbour, having 
 now got the gout in both my feet, attended with that ill 
 habit of health I brought from Dublin. I purposed to 
 have been on my way again early this morning, but the 
 physician disadviseth it; and in truth such is my pain 
 and weakness, as I verily believe I were not able to 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD, 231 
 
 endure it. Nevertheless, I have provided myself of a 
 litter, and will try to-morrow how I am able to bear 
 travel, which if possible I can do, then by the grace of 
 God will I not rest till I have the honour to wait upon 
 your majesty. In the mean time it is most grievous unto 
 me to be thus kept from those duties which I owe your 
 majesty's service on this great and important occasion. 
 In truth, sir, in my whole life I never desired health 
 more than now, if it shall so please God, — not that I can 
 be so vain as to judge myself equally considerable with 
 many other of your servants, but that I might give my 
 own heart the contentment to be near your commands, 
 in case I might be so happy as to be of some small use 
 to my most gracious master in such a conjuncture of 
 time and affairs as this is. God long preserve your 
 majesty.'' 
 
 Next, he dictates a long despatch to the earl of 
 Northumberland, and attempts, at least, to conclude it 
 with his own hand : — " and yet howbeit, I am much 
 resolved and set on all occasions for your service, will 
 my weary hand be able to carry on my pen not one 
 Ime further, than only in a word to write myself, in all 
 truth and perfection, your lordship's most humbly to be 
 commanded, Strafford." 
 
 I quote also from this despatch to Northumberland an 
 extraordinary incident which occurred on this occasion, 
 and which illustrates his unremitting vigilance in matters 
 which he could hardly have been expected to superintend 
 even under far more favourable circumstances. " Upon 
 my landing at Nesson I observed a Scottish ship there 
 riding upon her anchors, of some six or sevenscore ton, 
 and of some eight or ten pieces of ordnance, and here in 
 town I learn that the ship belongs to Irwin, that sh*" was 
 
232 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 fraught by some merchants here with sacks, and that the 
 master now in town, is this morning to receive some 
 600/. for freight. Hereupon, considering the day for the 
 general imbargo is so instant, as your lordship knows, I 
 have privately advised the merchants to stay payment of 
 the freight until to-morrow, and will give present direction 
 for the apprehension of the master and his mate, now in 
 town. I have also spoken to the customers to send 
 down to Nesson to arrest the said ship upon pretence of 
 cozening the king in his customs, for which the master is 
 to be examined, and, however, the ship to be fraught for 
 the king's service for the transportation of these men. I 
 have likewise given command to captain Bartlett pre- 
 sently to repair thither, to be assistant therein to the 
 ofhcers of the customs, and before his leaving the port 
 to see execution of all this, as also to take forth of her, 
 all her Scottish mariners, her sails and guns, and to 
 bring them on shore, leaving only aboard such English 
 mariners as shall be sufficient to send the ship there, till 
 further directions. Thus will she lye fair and open for 
 your arrest, and perchance prove your best prize of that 
 kind, and really being manned with English mariners, 
 which may be pressed for that occasion, be of all other 
 the fittest vessel for the transportation of your men and 
 ammunition to Dunbarton. If I have been over diligent 
 herein, in doing more than (I confess) I have commission 
 for, I humbly crave your lordship's pardon, and hope 
 the rather to obtain it, in regard it is a fault easily 
 mended, — for my honest blue-cap will be hereby so 
 affrighted, as the delivery back unto him of his freight, 
 goods and ship, will sufficiently fulfil his desires and 
 contentment." 
 
 A letter written the following day to Windebanke is. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 233 
 
 most eminently characteristic : — " I thank you," he says, 
 " for your good wishes, that I might be free of the gout ; 
 but a deaf spirit I find it, that will neither hear nor be 
 persuaded to reason. My pain, I thank God, is gone, 
 yet I am not able to walk once about the chamber, such 
 a weakness hath it left behind. Nevertheless my ob- 
 stinacy is as great as formerly, for it shall have much 
 more to do before it make me leave my station in these 
 uncertain times. Of all things I love not to put off my 
 cloaths and go to bed in a storm. The lieutenant," he 
 proceeds, " that made the false muster, cannot be too 
 severely punished. If you purpose to overcome that evil, 
 you must fall upon the first transgressors like lightning ! " 
 Beside such zealousness as Strafford's, the devotion 
 of others was like to come tardily off. The letter to 
 Windebanke proceeds : — " The proxies of the Irish 
 nobility 1 have received and transmitted over. I cannot 
 but observe how cautious still your great friend, my lord 
 of St. Alban's, is, lest he might seem to express his 
 affections towards the king with too much frankness and 
 confidence. Lord ! how willing he is, by doing some- 
 thing, as good as nothing, to let you see how well con- 
 tented he would be to deserve the crown, if it were in 
 his power, as indeed it is not. But if his good lordship 
 and his fellows were left to my handhng, I should quickly 
 teach them better duties, and put them out of liking with 
 these perverse froward humours. But the best is, by the 
 good help of his friends, he need not apprehend the short 
 horns of such a curst cow as myself, — yet this I will say 
 for him, all your kindness shall not better his affections 
 to the service of the crown, or render him thankful to 
 yourselves longer than his turn is in serving. Remember, 
 sir, that I told you of it. The lord Roch is a person ia 
 
234 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 a lesser volume, of the very self-same edition. Poor 
 soul, you see what he would be at, if he knew how. But 
 seriously let me ask you a question, What would these 
 and such like gentlemen do, were they absolute in them- 
 selves, when they are thus forward at that very instant of 
 time, when their whole estates are justly and fairly in the 
 king's mercy ? In a word, 'till I see punishments and 
 rewards well and roundly applied, I fear very much the 
 frovvardness of this generation will not be reduced to 
 moderation and right reason, but that it shall extreamly 
 much difficult his majesty's ministers, nay, and himself 
 too, in the pursuit of his just and royal designs." 
 
 Mr. Brodie has accused Strafford's despatches of 
 heaviness, and certainly every word in them has its 
 weight. This extraordinary letter concludes thus : — 
 " It troubles me very much to understand by these your 
 letters, that the deputy lieutenants of Yorkshire should 
 shew themselves so foolish and so ingrate as to refuse 
 to levy 200 men and send them to Berwick, without a 
 caution of reimbursement of coat and conduct money. 
 As for the precedent they alledge, they well term them to 
 be indeed of former times, for sure I am none of them 
 can remember any such thing of their own knowledge, 
 or have learnt any such thing by their own practice. 
 What they find in some bUnd book of their fathers kept 
 by his clerk, I know not, but some such poor business is 
 the best proof I believe they can shew for that allegation. 
 Perchance queen Elizabeth now and then did some such 
 thing ; but then it ought to be taken as matter of bounty, 
 not of duty, the law being so clear and plain in that 
 point, as you know. Upon my coming to town I will 
 inform myself who have been the chief leaders in this 
 business, and thereupon give my gentlemen something 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 235 
 
 to remember it by hereafter. But, above all, I cannot 
 sufficiently wonder that my lords at the board should 
 think of any other satisfaction than sending for them up, 
 and laying them by the heels, especially considering 
 what hath been already resolved on there amongst us. 
 What, I beseech you, should become of the levy of your 
 30,000 men* in case the other counties of the kingdom 
 should return you the like answer ? And therefore this 
 insolence of theirs ought, in my poor opinion, to have 
 been suffocated in the birth, and this boldness met with 
 a courage, which should have taught them their part in 
 these cases to have been obedience, and not dispute. 
 Certain I am, that in queen Elizabeth's time (those 
 golden times that appear so glorious in their eyes, and 
 render them dazzled towards any other object), they 
 would not have had such an expostulation better cheap 
 than the fleet. The very plain truth is, and I beseech 
 you that it may humbly on my part be represented to his 
 majesty in discharge of my own duty, that the council- 
 board of late years have gone with so tender a foot in 
 those businesses of lieutenancy, that it hath almost lost 
 that power to the crown ; and yet such a power it is, and 
 so necessary, as I do not know how we should be able 
 either to correct a rebellion at home, or to defend our- 
 selves from an invasion from abroad, without it. All 
 which, nevertheless, I mention with all humility in the 
 world, without the least imputation to any particular 
 person living or dead, and humbly beseech his majesty 
 to cause the reins of this piece of his government to be 
 strongly gathered up again, which have of late hung too 
 long loose upon us his lieutenants and deputy lieutenants 
 within the kingdom." 
 
 Notwithstanding his desperate state, Strafford caused 
 
236 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 himself to be pushed on to London. A desire of the 
 king that he should not hazard the journey, reached him 
 already engaged in it.^ He persisted in being trans- 
 ported thither in a litter by easy journeys. In London 
 a greater and final occasion was yet to be afforded him, 
 for the display of an indomitable nature triumphantly 
 baffling disease and decay, and still, with the increasing 
 and imperious urgency of the need, towered ever proudher 
 the inexhaustible genius of Strafford. 
 
 The parliament had met, and the earl immediately 
 took his seat in the house of lords. Their proceedings, 
 and their abrupt dissolution, belong to history. After 
 that fatal state error, an army, to the command of which 
 Northumberland had been appointed, was marched 
 against the Scots. Severe illness, however, held North- 
 umberland to his bed, and the king resolved to appoint 
 Strafford in his place. " The earl of Strafford," observes 
 Clarendon, " was scarce recovered from a great sickness, 
 yet was willing to undertake the charge out of pure 
 indignation to see how few men were forward to serve 
 the king with that vigour of mind they ought to do ; but 
 knowing well the malicious designs which were contrived 
 against himself, he would rather serve as lieutenant- 
 general under the earl of Northumberland, than that he 
 
 ^ It is worth quoting as almost the only expression of care and 
 sympathy Charles had hitherto given to his minister. "Having 
 seen divers letters, Strafford, to my lord of Canterbury, congerning 
 the state of your health at this time, I thought it necessary by this 
 to command you, not to hazard to travel before ye may do it with 
 the safety of your health, and in this I must require you not to be 
 your own judge, but be content to follow the advice of those that 
 are about you, whose affections and skill ye shall have occasion to 
 trust unto. If I did not know that this care of your health were 
 necessary for us both at this time, X woidd have deferred my thanks 
 to you for your great service lately done, until I might have seen 
 you. So praying to God for your speedy recovery, I rest your 
 assured friend." 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 237 
 
 should resign his commission : and so, with and under 
 that qualification, he made all possible haste towards the 
 north before he had strength enough for the journey."^ 
 The same noble historian, after saying that Strafford 
 could with difficulty, in consequence of illness, sit in his 
 saddle, describes the shock he experienced in receiving 
 intelligence of the disgraceful flight of a portion of the 
 king's troops at Newbourne on the Tyne, and proceeds 
 thus : — " In this posture the earl of Strafford found the 
 army about Durham, bringing with him a body much 
 broken with his late sickness, which was not clearly 
 shaken off, and a mind and temper confessing the dregs 
 of it, which, being marvellously provoked and inflamed 
 with indignation at the late dishonour, rendered him less 
 gracious, that is, less inclined to make himself so, to the 
 officers upon his first entrance into his charge : it may 
 be, in that mass of disorder not quickly discerning to 
 whom kindness and respect was justly due. But those 
 who by this time no doubt were retained for that purpose, 
 took that opportunity to incense the army against him, 
 and so far prevailed in it, that in a short time it was 
 more inflamed against him than against the enemy." ^ 
 In this melancholy state, with a disgraced and mutinous 
 force, Strafford fell back upon York. 
 
 From this moment he sank daily. Intrigues of the 
 most disgraceful character, carried on by Holland, 
 Hamilton, and Vane, and assisted every way by the 
 queen, united with his sickness to break him down. 
 Still he was making desperate efforts to strengthen and 
 animate his army, when suddenly he found that a treaty 
 with the Scots had actually commenced, and that his 
 especial enemy, lord Savile, was actively employed to 
 ^ History, vol. i. p. 1 14. ^ Vol. i. p. 115, 
 
238 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 forward it. Ultimately, these negotiations were placed 
 in the hands of sixteen peers, every one of whom w^re 
 his personal opponents. And the crowing enemy was 
 behind, — "an enemy," as lord Clarendon observes, 
 " more terrible than all the others, and like to be more 
 fatal, the whole Scottish nation, provoked by the declara- 
 tion he had procured of Ireland, and some high carriage 
 and expressions of his against them in that kingdom." 1 
 They illustrated this eminent hatred, by peremptorily 
 refusing, in the midst of much profession of attachment 
 to the king and the English nation, to hold any confer- 
 ences at York, because it was within the jurisdiction of 
 him whom they called that " chief incendiary," their 
 "mortal foe," the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. 
 
 In this there was exaggeration. Notwithstanding the 
 assertions of nearly all the histories, that Strafford's 
 continual counsel to Charles was to rely on arms alone, 
 it is quite certain, from the minutes of the council of 
 peers at York 2, that this is erroneous. When he sent 
 the commission to Ormond to bring over his own army 
 of 20,000 men from Ireland, the negotiations had not 
 been resumed, and, on the resumption of them, that 
 
 1 The hatred was, indeed, mutual. Strafford more than once, in 
 his despatches, shows that he even disliked, and was disposed to 
 turn into ridicule, their mode of speech. Alluding to a Scotchman, 
 for instance, a Mr. Bane, whom he supposed to have been favoured 
 by the court intriguers against him, he writes from Ireland thus : — 
 "Then on that side he procures, by some very near his majesty, 
 access to the king, there whispering continually something or 
 another to my prejudice ; boasts familiarly, how freely he speaks 
 with his majesty, what he saith concerning me, and nou'ant pleese 
 your jnejesty ea werde mare anent your debuty of Yrland, with many 
 such like botadoes, stuffed with a mighty deal of untruths and follies 
 amongst." And see Rush worth, vol. iii. p. 1293. 
 
 ^ Printed in the Hardv\icke State Papers. And see a very able 
 and impartial view of Strafford's conduct and character, in the 
 History continued from Mackintosh. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 239 
 
 commission was withdrawn. Now, however, thwarted 
 and exasperated on all sides, he resolved to furnish one 
 more proof (it was destined to be the last !) of the 
 possibility of recovering the royal authority, by a great 
 and vigorous exertion. During the negotiations no 
 actual cessation of arms had been agreed to by the 
 Scots, and he therefore secretly despatched a party of 
 horse, under a favourite officer, to attack them in their 
 quarters. A large body of the enemy were defeated by 
 this manoeuvre, all their officers taken prisoners, the army 
 inspirited, and the spirits of Strafford himself restored. 
 Again he spoke confidently of the future, when suddenly 
 the king, prevailed on by others, commanded him to 
 forbear. In the same moment, without any previous 
 warning, he was told that a parliament was summoned. 
 
 Strafford saw at once the extent of his danger. He 
 had thrown his last stake and lost it. He prayed of the 
 king to be allowed to retire to his government in Ireland, 
 or to some other place, where he might promote his 
 majesty's service, and not deliver himself into the hands 
 of his enraged enemies. Charles refused. He still 
 reposed on the enormous value of his minister's genius, 
 and considered that no sacrifice too great might be 
 incurred, for the chance of its service to himself in the 
 coming struggle. At the same time he pledged himself 
 by a solemn promise, that, " while there was a king in 
 England, not a hair of Strafford's head should be touched 
 by the parliament ! " The earl arrived in London. 
 
 " It was about three of the clock in the afternoon," 
 says Clarendon, ''when the earl of Strafford (being in- 
 firm and not well disposed in health, and so not having 
 stirred out of his house that morning,) hearing that both 
 houses still sate, thought fit to go thither. It was believed 
 
240 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 by some (upon what ground was never clear enough) 
 that he made that haste there to accuse the lord Say, 
 and some others, of having induced the Scots to invade 
 the kingdom ; but he was scarce entered into the house 
 of peers, when the message from the house of commons 
 was called in, and when Mr. Pym at the bar, and in the 
 name of all the commons of England, impeached 
 Thomas, earl of Strafford (with the addition of all his 
 other titles) of high treason ! " 
 
 Upwards of twelve years had elapsed since sir Thomas 
 Wentworth stood face to face with Pym. Upon the eve 
 of his elevation to the peerage, they had casually met 
 at Greenwich, when, after a short conversation on public 
 affairs, they separated with these memorable words, 
 addressed by Pym to Wentworth. '^ You are going to 
 leave us, but I will never leave you, while your head is 
 upon your shoulders ! " ^ That prophetic summons to a 
 more fatal meeting was now at last accomplished ! 
 
 Strafford had entered the house, we learn from one 
 
 who observed him, with his usual impetuous step — 
 
 "with speed," says Baillie, "he comes to the house; he 
 
 calls rudely at the door ; James Maxwell, keeper of the 
 
 black rod, opens ; his lordship with a proud glooming 
 
 countenance, makes towards his place at the board head ; 
 
 but at once many bid him void the house; so he is 
 
 forced, in confusion, to go to the door till he was called. 
 
 . . He offered to speak, but was commanded to be gone 
 
 without a word. In the outer room, James Maxwell 
 
 required him, as prisoner, to deliver his sword. When 
 
 he had got it, he cries, with a loud voice, for his man to 
 
 ^ An admirable commentary on this fierce text is supplier! by my 
 friend Mr. Cattermole, at the commencement of the volume. [In 
 his vignette on the title-page, of Wentworth walking downstairs 
 from Pym to his boat.] 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 241 
 
 carry my lord-lieutenant's sword. This done, he makes 
 through a number of people to his coach, all gazing, no 
 man capping to him, before whom that morning the 
 greatest in England would have stood uncovered." 
 
 This was a change indeed ! Yet it was a change for 
 which Strafford would seem to have been found not 
 altogether unprepared. In all the proceedings prelim- 
 inary to his memorable trial, in all the eventful incidents 
 that followed, he was quiet and collected, and showed, 
 in his general bearing, a magnanimous self-subduement. 
 It is a mean as well as a hasty judgment, which would 
 attribute this to any unworthy compromise with his real 
 nature. It is probably a juster and more profound view 
 of it, to say that, into a few of the later weeks of his life, 
 new knowledge had penetrated from the midst of 'the 
 breaking of his fortunes. It was well and beautifully said 
 by a then living poet, — ■ 
 
 *' The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, 
 Lets in new light through chinks that time has made ! " 
 
 — and when suddenly upon the sight of Strafford broke 
 the vision of the long unseen assembly of the people, 
 with the old chiefs, and the old ceremonies, only more 
 august and more fatal, — when he saw himself in a single 
 hour, disabled by a set of men not greater in vigour or 
 in intellect than those over whom the weak-minded 
 Buckingham had for years contemptuously triumphed, — 
 the chamber of that assembly forsaken for Westminster 
 Hall, — its once imperious master become a timid auditor, 
 listening unobserved through his screening curtains, and 
 unable to repress by his presence a single threatening 
 glance, or subdue a single fierce voice, amongst the 
 multitude assembled to pronounce judgment on his 
 
 R 
 
242 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 minister, — that multitude grown from the "faithful 
 commons " into the imperial council of the land, and the 
 sworn upholders of its not yet fallen liberties, — Pym no 
 longer the mouth-piece of a faction that might be trampled 
 on, but recognised as the chosen champion of the people 
 of England, " the delegated voice of God ; " — when 
 Strafford had persuaded himself that all this vision was 
 indeed a reaUty before him, we may feel the sudden and 
 subduing conviction which at once enthralled him to 
 itself! the conviction that he had mistaken the true 
 presentment of that principle of power which he wor- 
 shipped, and that his genius should have had a different 
 devotion. He had not sunk lower, but the parUament 
 had towered immeasurably higher ! 
 
 The first thing he did after his arrest,, was to write to 
 the lady Strafford. *' Sweet hart, — You have heard before 
 this what hath befallen me 'in this place, but be you 
 confident, that if I fortune to be blamed, yet I will not, 
 by God's help, be ashamed. Your carriage upon this 
 misfortune I should advise to be calm, not seeming to 
 be neglective of my trouble, and yet so as there may 
 appear no dejection in you. Continue on the family as 
 formerly, and make much of your children. Tell Will, 
 Nan, and Arabella, I will write to them by the next In 
 the mean time I shall pray for them to God, that he may 
 bless them, and for their sakes deliver me out of the 
 furious malice of my enemies, which yet I trust, through 
 the goodnesse of God, shall do me no hurt. God have 
 us all in his blessed keeping. Your very loving husbande, 
 
 ^TRAFFORDE." 
 
 A few days after this, having vainly proffered bail, he 
 w^as committed to the Tower. Thereupon he wrote again 
 to lady Strafford. " Sweet hart, — I never pityed you so 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 243 
 
 much as I do now, for in the death of that great person 
 the deputy, you have lost the principal friend you had 
 there, whilst we are here riding out the storm, as well as 
 God and the season shall give us leave. Yet I trust lord 
 Dillon will supply unto you in part that great loss, till it 
 please God to bring us together again. As to myself, 
 albeit all be done against me that art and malice can 
 devise, with all the rigour possible, yet I am in great 
 inward quietnesse, and a strong behefe God will deliver 
 me out of all these troubles. The more I look into my 
 case, the more hope I have, and sure, if there be any 
 honour and justice left, my life will not be in danger, 
 and for any thing els, time I trust will salve any other 
 hurt which can be done me. Therefore hold up your 
 heart, look to the children and your house, let me have 
 your prayers, and at last, by God's good pleasure, we 
 shall have our deliverance, when we may as little look 
 for it as we did for this blow of misfortune, which, I 
 trust, will make us better to God and man. Your loving 
 husbande, Strafforde." 
 
 The preliminary arrangements having been settled, 
 and some negotiations proposed by Charles with a view 
 to his rescue having failed, Strafford's impeachment 
 began. Never had such " pompous circumstances " and 
 so "stately a manner" been witnessed at any judicial 
 proceeding in England. One only, since that day, has 
 matched it. It was not the trial of an individual, but 
 the solemn arbitration of an issue between the two great 
 antagonist principles, liberty and despotism. Westminster 
 Hall, which had alternately witnessed the triumphs of 
 both, was the fitting scene. Scaffolds, nearly reaching 
 to the roof, were erected on either side, eleven stages 
 high, divided by rails. In the upper ranks of these were 
 
244 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 the commissioners of Scotland and the lords of Ireland, 
 who had joined with the commoners of England in their 
 accusations. In the centre sat the peers in their parlia- 
 ment robes, and the lord keeper and the judges, in their 
 scarlet robes, were on the woolsacks. At the upper end, 
 beyond the peers, was a chair raised under a cloth of 
 state for the king, and another for the prince. The 
 throne was unoccupied, for the king was supposed not 
 to be present, since, in his presence, by legal construc- 
 tion, no judicial act could legally be done. Two cabinets 
 or galleries, with trellis work, were on each side of the 
 cloth of state. The king, the queen, and their court, 
 occupied one of these ^ — the foreign nobility then in 
 London the other. The earls of Arundel and Lindsey 
 acted, the one as high-steward, and the other as high- 
 constable, of England. Strafford entered the hall daily, 
 guarded by two hundred trainbands. The king had 
 procured it as a special favour, that the axe should not 
 be carried before him. At the foot of the state- cloth 
 was a scaffold for ladies of quality ; at the lower end was 
 a place with partitions, and an apartment to retire to, for 
 the convenience and consultations of the managers of the 
 trial; opposite to this the witnesses entered; and between 
 was a small desk, at which the accused earl stood or sate, 
 with the lieutenant of the Tower beside him, and at his 
 back four secretaries. 
 
 The articles of accusation had gradually, during the 
 long and tedious preliminary proceedings, swelled from 
 nine — which was their original number — to twenty- eight. 
 
 ^ The king, however, observes BailHe, "brake down the screens 
 with his own hands, so they sat in the eyes of all, but little more 
 regarded than if they had been absent, for the lords sat all covered." 
 Baillie was the principal of the college of Glasgow, and present by 
 order of the Scottish party. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 245 
 
 Pym, in an able speech, presented Ihem to the house of 
 lords. Strafford entreated that — seeing these charges 
 filled 200 sheets of paper, and involved the various and 
 ill-remembered incidents of fourteen years of a life of 
 severe action — the space of three months should be 
 permitted for the answer. He was allowed three weeks, 
 and, on the 24th of February, 1641, his answers, in 
 detail, to the charges of the commons were read to the 
 house. The 2 2d of March was then fixed for the 
 commencement of his trial. 
 
 On the first reception of the articles, Strafford, with 
 characteristic purpose, wrote to his wife. *' Sweet Harte, 
 — It is long since I writt unto you, for I am here in such 
 a trouble, as gives me little or no respitt. The charge is 
 now come in, and I am now able, I prayse God, to tell 
 you that I conceive there is nothing capitall ; and for the 
 reste, I know at the worste his majestic will pardon all, 
 without hurting my fortune ; and then we shall be happy, 
 by God's grace. Therefore comfort yourself, for I trust 
 thes cloudes will away, and that wee shall have faire 
 weather afterwardes. Farewell. Your loving husband, 
 Strafforde." He expressed the same opinion in a 
 letter to sir Adam Loftus. 
 
 A short summary of the charges will be sufficient for 
 the present purpose. For it is not necessary, after the 
 ample notice which has been given of Strafford's life 
 and actions, to occupy any considerable space with 
 the proceedings, which only further illustrated them 
 here.^ 
 
 The grand object which the leaders of the commons 
 had in view, was to establish against Strafford an attempt 
 
 1 Rush worth has devoted a large folio volume, to the occurrences 
 of the impeachment alone. 
 
246 BROWN mas LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 TO SUBVERT THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF THE COUNTRY.^ 
 
 They had an unquestionable right, with this view, to 
 blend in the impeachment offences of a different degree ; 
 nor was it ever pretended by them that more than one 
 or two of the articles amounted to treason. Their course 
 — to deduce a legal construction of treason from actions 
 notoriously gone *' thorough " with in the service and in 
 exaltation of the king — was to show that, no matter with 
 what motive, any actions undertaken which had a tendency 
 to prove destructive to the state, amounted, in legal 
 effect, to a traitorous design against the sovereign. The 
 sovereign, it was argued by these great men, could never 
 have had a contemplated existence beyond, or indepen- 
 dent of, the state. It could never have been the object, 
 they said, to have defended the king by the statute of 
 Edward III., and to have left undefended the great body 
 of the people associated under him. This principle 
 Strafford had himself recognised in his support of the 
 petition of right, and it is truly observed by Rushworth, 
 that " all the laws confirmed and renewed in that petition 
 of right were said to be the most envenomed arrows that 
 gave him his mortal wound." The proofs by which it 
 was proposed to sustain the tremendous accusation, were 
 to be deduced from a series of his actions infringing the 
 laws, from words intimating arbitrary designs, and from 
 certain counsels which directly tended to the entire ruin 
 of the frame of the constitution. 
 
 Over the three great divisions of his public functions 
 the articles of impeachment were distributed. As pre 
 
 ^ They had passed this vote in the house of commons, and against 
 it not a voice was raised, even by the earl's most ardent supporters, 
 *' That the earl of Strafford had endeavoured to subvert the ancient 
 and fundamental laws of the realm, and to introduce arbitrary and 
 tyrannical government. " 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 247 
 
 sident of the council of York, he was charged with having 
 procured powers subversive of all law, with having com- 
 mitted insufferable acts of oppression under colour of his 
 instructions, and with having distinctly announced tyran- 
 nical intentions, by declaring that the people should find 
 *'the king's little finger heavier than the loins of the law." 
 As governor of Ireland, he was accused of having publicly 
 asserted, " That the Irish was a conquered nation, and 
 that the king might do with them as he pleased." He 
 was charged with acts of oppression towards the earl of 
 Cork, lord Mountnorris, the lord chancellor Loftus, the 
 earl of Kildare, and other persons. He had, it was 
 alleged, issued a general warrant for the seizure of all 
 persons who refused to submit to any legal decree against 
 them, and for their detention till they either submitted, 
 or gave bail to appear before the council table : he had 
 sent soldiers to free quarters on those who would not 
 obey his arbitrary decrees : he had prevented the redress 
 of his injustice, by procuring instructions to prohibit all 
 persons of distinction from quitting Ireland without his 
 express licence : he had appropriated to himself a large 
 share of the customs, the monopoly of tobacco, and the 
 sale of licences for the exportation of certain commodi- 
 ties : he had committed grievous acts of oppression in 
 guarding his monopoly of tobacco : he had, for his own 
 interest, caused the rates on merchandise to be raised, 
 and the merchants to be harassed with new and unlawful 
 oaths : he had obstructed the industry of the country, 
 by introducing new and unknown processes into the 
 manufacture of flax : he had encouraged his army, the 
 instrument of his oppression, by assuring them that his 
 majesty would regard them as a pattern for all his three 
 kingdoms : he had enforced an illegal oath on the Scottish 
 
248 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 subjects in Ireland : he had given undue encourage- 
 ment to papists, and had actually composed the whole of 
 his new-levied troops of adherents to that rehgion. As 
 chief minister of England, it was laid to his charge that 
 he had instigated the king to make war on the Scots, and 
 had himself, as governor of Ireland, commenced hos- 
 tilities : that, on the question of supplies, he had declared, 
 **That his majesty should first try the parliament here, 
 and if that did not supply him according to his occasions, 
 he might then use his prerogative to levy what he 
 needed ; and that he should be acquitted both of God 
 and man, if he took some other courses to supply 
 himself, though it were against the will of his subjects : " 
 that, after the dissolution of that parliament, he had said 
 to his majesty, "That, having tried the affections of his 
 people, he was loose and absolved from all rules of 
 government, and was to do every thing that power would 
 admit; that his majesty had tried all ways, and was 
 refused, and should be acquitted both to God and man ; 
 that he had an army in Ireland, which he might employ to 
 reduce England to obedience." He was farther charged 
 with having counselled the royal declaration which re- 
 flected so bitterly on the last parliament ; with the seizure 
 of the bullion in the Tower; the proposal of coining 
 base money ; a new levy of ship-money ; and the loan of 
 100,000/. from the city of London. He was accused of 
 having told the refractory citizens that no good would 
 be done till they were laid up by the heels, and some of 
 their aldermen hanged for an example. It was laid to 
 his charge that he had levied arbitrary exactions on the 
 people of Yorkshire to maintain his troops : and, finally, 
 that his counsels had given rise to the rout at Newburn." 1 
 ^ Strafford's Trial, pp. 61 — 75. Nalson, vol. ii. pp. 11 — 20. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 249 
 
 In his answers and opposing evidence Strafford main- 
 tained, that "the enlarged instructions for the council 
 of York had not been procured by his solicitations ; that 
 the specified instances of oppression in the northern 
 counties were committed after his departure for Ireland ; 
 and that the words imputed to him were directly the 
 reverse of those which he had spoken. With regard to 
 Ireland, he vindicated his opinion that it was a conquered 
 country, and that the king's prerogative was much greater 
 there than in England. He contended that all the 
 judgments, charged on him as arbitrary, were delivered 
 by competent courts, in none of which he had above a 
 single voice : that the prevention of persons from quitting 
 the kingdom without licence, as well as placing soldiers 
 at free quarters on the disobedient, were transactions 
 consistent with ancient usages : that the flax manu 
 facture owed all its prosperity to his exertions, and that 
 his prohibition tended to remedy some barbarous and 
 unjust methods of sorting the yarn : that his bargains for 
 the customs and tobacco were profitable to the crown 
 and the country: and that the oath which he had 
 enforced on the Scots was required by the critical 
 circumstances of the times, and fully approved by the 
 government. In regard to his transactions in England, 
 he answered that hostility against Scotland having been 
 resolved on, he had merely counselled an offensive in 
 preference to a defensive war : that his expressions 
 relative to supplies were in strict conformity to the 
 established maxim of the constitution ^ : that, in such 
 emergencies as a foreign invasion, the sovereign was 
 entitled to levy contributions, or adopt any other measure 
 for the public defence : that the words relative to the 
 ^ Salus popidi supretna lex. 
 
250 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 employment of the Irish army were falsely stated, and 
 that he had not ventured to apply to the kingdom of 
 England words uttered in a committee expressly as- 
 sembled to consider of the reduction of Scotland. He 
 said that his harsh expressions towards the citizens of 
 London were heard by only one interested individual, 
 and not heard by others who stood as near him : that 
 the contributions in Yorkshire were voluntary : and that 
 the proposals for seizing the bullion and coining base 
 money did not proceed from him.^ 
 
 The charges which remained untouched by these 
 answers were abandoned by the commons, as irre- 
 lative or incapable of proof, and on the 23d of 
 March, 1641, the chief manager, Mr. Pym, rose 
 in Westminster Hall, and opened the case against 
 him. 
 
 The "getting up" of that mighty scene has been 
 described, and a few words may serve to put it, as it 
 were, in action. 
 
 Three kingdoms, by their representatives, were pre- 
 sent, and for fifteen days, the period of the duration of 
 the trial, "it was daily," says Baillie, "the most glorious 
 assembly the isle could afford." The earl himself ap- 
 peared before it each day in deep mourning, wearing his 
 George. The stern and simple character of his features 
 accorded with the occasion, — his " countenance manly 
 black," as Whitelock terms it, and his thick dark hair 
 cut short from his ample forehead. A poet who was 
 present exclaimed, 
 
 1 Strafford's Trial, pp. 61—75. Nalson, vol. 11. pp. 11—20. I 
 have partly availed myself, in the above, of Mr, MacDiarmid's 
 abstract — pp. 251 — 259. Some of the charges specified, were added 
 in the course of the trial. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 251 
 
 "On thy brow 
 ■ Sate terror mixed with wisdom, and at once 
 Saturn and Hermes in thy countenance." 
 
 — To this was added the deep interest which can never 
 be withheld from sickness bravely borne. His face was 
 dashed with paleness, and his body stooped with its own 
 infirmities even more than with its master's cares. This 
 was, indeed, so evident, that he was obliged to allude to 
 it himself, and it was not seldom alluded to by others. 
 "They had here," he said, on one occasion, "this rag of 
 mortality before them, worn out with numerous infir- 
 mities, which, if they tore into shreds, there was no great 
 loss, only in the spilling of his, they would open a way 
 to the blood of all the nobility in the land," His 
 disorders were the most terrible to bear in themselves, 
 and of that nature, moreover, which can least endure the 
 aggravation of mental anxiety. A severe attack of 
 stone ^ gout in one of his legs to an extent even with 
 him unusual, and other pains, had bent all their afilic- 
 tions upon him. Yet, though a generous sympathy was 
 demanded on this score, and paid by not a few of his 
 worst opponents, it availed little with the multitudes that 
 were present. Much noise and confusion prevailed at 
 all times through the hall ; there was always a great 
 clamour near the doors ; and we have it on the authority 
 of Rush worth himself, that at those intervals when 
 Strafford was busied in preparing his answers, the most 
 distracting "hubbubs" broke out, lords walked about 
 and chatted, and commoners were yet more offensively 
 loud.2 This was unfavourable to the recollection, for 
 
 ^ See Nalson, vol. ii. p. icx). et seq. 
 
 2 Baillie adds, that in these periods *' flesh and bread" was ate, 
 and "bottles of beer and wine were going thick from mouth 10 
 mouth." 
 
252 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 disproof, of incidents long passed, and of conversations 
 forgotten ! ^ But conscious that he was not to be 
 allowed in any case permission to retire, as soon as one 
 of his opponent managers had closed his charge, the earl 
 calmly turned his back to his judges, and, with uncom- 
 plaining composure, conferred with his secretaries and 
 counsel. 
 
 He had, indeed, it is not to be forgotten, strong 
 assurances to sustain him secretly. He had, first, his 
 own conviction of the legal incompetency of the charges, 
 and to this was added the doubly pledged faith of the 
 king. In his prison he had received the following 
 letter ; — " Strafford, — The misfortune that is fallen 
 upon you by the strange mistaking and conjuncture of 
 these times, being such that I must lay by the thought 
 of employing you hereafter in my affairs, yet I cannot 
 satisfy myself in honour or conscience, without assuring 
 you (now in the midst of your troubles) that upon the 
 word of a king you shall not suffer in life,' honour, or 
 fortune. This is but justice, and therefore a very mean 
 reward from a master to so faithful and able a servant, 
 as you have showed yourself to be, — yet it is as much as 
 I conceive the present times will permit, though none 
 shall hinder me from being your constant and faithful 
 friend, Charles." But against these aids, were opposed 
 certain significant symptoms of a desperate and fatal 
 purpose on the part of the managers of the impeachment. 
 The bishops, on whom he might reasonably have relied, 
 had, on the motion of Williams, withdrawn from attend- 
 ance '"''in agitatione causes sanguinis,^* surrendering the 
 
 1 Baillie cannot refrain from saying, while he describes the guilt 
 to have been fully proved, that some of the evidence was only 
 "chamber and table-discourse, flim-flams, and fearie -fairies." 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 253 
 
 right they had, under what was called " the constitutions 
 of Clarendon," of attending in capital trials up to the 
 stage of judgment. Next, — the person on whose evi- 
 dence Strafford mainly relied in the proof of his answers, 
 sir George Radcliffe, had, by a master-stroke of Pym's, 
 been incapacitated suddenly by a charge of treason 
 against himself, — not preferred certainly without cause, 
 on the presumption of the guilt of the principal, for he 
 had been Strafford's guilty agent in all things, but pre- 
 ferred with a fatal effect to Strafford himself. Again, — 
 though counsel had been granted him, they were re- 
 stricted by the lords, on conference with the commons, 
 to the argument of points of law. Lastly, — with an 
 irresistible energy, equalled only by Strafford's own, 
 Pym had forced from the king a release for all the 
 members of his secret council from their oath of secrecy, 
 in order to their examination before the committee of 
 impeachment. 
 
 "My lords," said Strafford, — alluding to this, and to 
 certain words of his own wliich such examination had 
 been alleged to have proved, — " My lords, these words 
 were not wantonly or unnecessarily spoken, or whispered 
 in a corner, but they were spoken in full council, where, 
 by the duty of my oath, I was obliged to speak accord- 
 ing to my heart and conscience, in all things concerning 
 the king's service. If I had forborne to speak what I 
 conceived to be for the benefit of the king and the 
 people, I had been perjured towards almighty God. 
 And for delivering my mind openly and freely, shall I 
 be in danger of my life, as a traitor? If that necessity 
 be put upon me, I thank God, by his blessing I have 
 learned not to stand in fear of him who can only kill 
 the body. If the question be, whether I must be traitor 
 
254 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 to man, or perjured to God, I will be faithful to my 
 creator. And whatsoever shall befall me from popular 
 rage or from my own weakness, I must leave it to that 
 almighty being, and to the justice and honour of my 
 judges. My lords, I conjure you not to make your- 
 selves so unhappy, as to disable yourselves and your 
 children from undertaking the great charge and trust 
 of the commonwealth. You inherit that trust from your 
 fathers, you are born to great thoughts, you are nursed 
 up for the great and weighty employments of the 
 kingdom. But if it be once admitted, that a counsellor, 
 delivering his opinion with others at the council-table, 
 candide et caste, under an oath of secrecy and faithfulness, 
 shall be brought into question, upon some misappre- 
 hension or ignorance of law, — if every word, that he 
 speaks from a sincere and noble intention, shall be 
 drawn against him, for the attainting of him, his children 
 and posterity, — I know not (under favor I speak it,) any 
 wise or noble person of fortune, who will, upon such 
 perilous aftd unsafe terms, adventure to be counsellor to 
 the king ! Therefore, I beseech your lordships so to 
 look on me, that my misfortune may not bring an incon- 
 venience upon yourselves. And though my words were 
 not so advised and discreet, or so well weighed, as they 
 ought to be, yet I trust your lordships are too honourable 
 and just, to lay them to my charge as high treason. 
 Opinions may make an heretic, but that they make a 
 traitor, I have never heard till now." 
 
 Again, in reference to matters alleged against him on 
 the evidence of familiar conversations, he eloquently 
 protested thus : — " If, my lords, words sjDoken to friends 
 in familiar discourse, spoken in one's chamber, spoken 
 at one's table, spoken in one's sick bed, spoken perhaps 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 255 
 
 to gain better reason, to give himself more clear light 
 and judgment, by reasoning ; — if these things shall be 
 brought against a man as treason, this, under favour 
 takes away the comfort of all human society, — by this 
 means we shall be debarred from speaking (the principal 
 joy and comfort of society) with wise and good men, to 
 become wiser, and better our lives. If these things be 
 strained to take away life and honour, and all that is 
 desirable, it will be a silent world ! A city will become 
 a hermitage, and sheep will be found amongst a crowd 
 and press of people ! and no man shall dare to impart 
 his solitary thoughts or opinions to his friend and 
 neighbour ! " Noble and touching as this is, let the 
 reader remember, as he reads it, the case of Mount- 
 norris, and the misquoting and torturing of words, in 
 themselves harmless, by which the lord deputy of Ireland 
 sacrificed that man to his schemes of absolute power. 
 It is mournful to be obliged to add that, it is chiefly the 
 genius of a great actor which calls for admiration in this 
 great scene ; for though he was, as we may well believe, 
 sincere in his sudden present acknowledgment of that 
 power of the commons which he had so often braved, 
 the same plea of sincerity cannot serve him in his bold 
 outfacing of every previous action of his power. 
 
 As the trial proceeded, so extraordinary were the 
 resources he manifested, that the managers of the 
 commons failed in much of the eflect of their evidence. 
 Even the clergy who were present forgot the imprison- 
 ment of the weak and miserable Laud (who now lay 
 in prison, stripped of his power by this formidable par- 
 liament, which the very despotism of himself and Straf- 
 ford had gifted with its potently operative force!) and 
 thought of nothing but the "grand apostate" before 
 
256 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 them. *'By this time," says May, "the people began 
 to be a little divided in opinion. The clergy in general 
 were so much fallen into love and admiration of this 
 earl, that the archbishop of Canterbury was almost quite 
 forgotten by them. The courtiers cried him up, and the 
 ladies were exceedingly on his side. It seemed a very 
 pleasant object to see so many Sempronias, with pen, 
 ink, and paper in their hands, noting the passages, and 
 discoursing upon the grounds, of law and state. They 
 were all of his side, whether moved by pity, proper to 
 their sex, or by ambition of being able to judge of the 
 parts of the prisoner. But so great was the favour and 
 love which they openly expressed to him, that some 
 could not but think of that verse : — 
 
 * Non formosus erat, sed erat facundus Ulysses 
 Et tamen aequoreas torsit amore deas ! ' " 
 
 Even the chairman of the committee who prepared his 
 impeachment, the author of the Memorials, observes, 
 "Certainly never any man acted such a part, on such 
 a theatre, with more wisdome, constancy, and eloquence, 
 with greater reason, judgment, and temper, and with a 
 better grace in all his words and gestures, than this great 
 and excellent person did." 
 
 Such, indeed, appeared to be a very prevailing feeling, 
 when on the morning of the loth of April, before the 
 opening of that day's trial, Pym entered the house of 
 commons and announced a communication respecting 
 the earl of Strafford, of vital importance. The members 
 were ordered to remain in their places, and the doors of 
 the house were locked. Pym and the young sir Harry 
 Vane then rose, and produced a paper containing "a 
 copy of notes taken at a junto of the privy council for 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 257 
 
 the Scots affairs, about the 5th of May last." These 
 were notes made by sir Henry Vane the elder, and 
 Clarendon says, that he placed them in the hands of 
 Pym out of hatred to Strafford. With much more ap- 
 pearance and likelihood of truth, however, Whitelocke 
 states that the elder Vane, being absent from London, 
 and in want of some papers, sent the key of his study 
 to his son, and that the latter, in executing his father's 
 orders, found this paper, and was ultimately induced by 
 Pym to allow its production against Strafford. The 
 commons received this new evidence with many ex- 
 pressions of zealous thankfulness. 
 
 On the 13th of April the notes were read in West- 
 minster Hall by Pym. They were in the shape of a 
 dialogue and conference, and contained opinions de- 
 livered by Laud and Hamilton ; but the essential words 
 were words spoken by Strafford to the king. "You 
 have an army in Ireland that you may employ to reduce 
 this kingdom to obedience." Vane the elder was then 
 called. He denied recollection of the words at first, 
 till it had been asserted by others of the privy council, 
 that Strafford had used those words, " or the like," when 
 the earl's brother-in-law, lord Clare, rose and suggested 
 that " this kingdom," by grammatical construction, might 
 mean Scotland. With singular ability Strafford directed 
 all his resources to the weakening of this evidence, but 
 it was generally regarded as fatal. He urged his brother- 
 in-law's objection ; the very title of the notes, in proof 
 of the country referred to, "no danger of a war with 
 Scotland, if offensive, not defensive;" and protested 
 against a man's life being left to hang upon a single 
 word. The evidence was, finally, admitted against him, 
 and he was called upon to make his general defence 
 
 s 
 
258 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 in person against the facts, leaving the law to his 
 counsel. 
 
 He began by adverting to his painful and adverse 
 position, alone and unsupported, against the whole 
 authority and power of the commons, his health im- 
 paired, his memory almost gone, his thoughts unquiet 
 and troubled. He prayed of their lordships to supply 
 his many infirmities, by their better abiUties, better 
 judgments, better memories. " You alone," he said, " I 
 acknowledge, with all gladness and humility, as my 
 judges. The king condemns no man ; the great opera- 
 tion of his sceptre is mercy; he dispenses justice by 
 his ministers ; but, with reverence be it spoken, he is not 
 my judge, nor are the commons my judges, in this 
 case of life and death. To your judgment alone, my 
 lords, I submit myself in all cheerfulness. I have great 
 cause to give thanks to God for this, and celebrated be 
 the wisdom of our ancestors who have so ordained." 
 
 With great force and subtle judgment, he then argued 
 against the doctrine of arbitrary and constructive treason, 
 and afterwards proceeded — " My lords, it is hard to be 
 questioned upon a law which cannot be shown. Where 
 hath this fire lain hid so many hundred years, without 
 smoke to discover it, till it thus burst forth to consume 
 me and my children? That punishment should precede 
 promulgation of a law, to be punished by a law 
 subsequent to the fact, is extreme hard ! What man can 
 be safe, if this be admitted? My lords, it is hard in 
 another respect, — that there should be no token set, by 
 which we should know this ofi'ence, no admonition by 
 which we should avoid it. My lords, be pleased to give 
 that regard to the peerage of England, as never expose 
 yourselves to such moot points — such constructive inter- 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 259 
 
 pretations of laws : if there must be a trial of wits, let the 
 subject matter be of somewhat else than the lives and 
 honours of peers. It will be wisdom for yourselves, for 
 your posterity, and for the whole kingdom, to cast into 
 the fire these bloody and mysterious volumes of con- 
 structive and arbitrary treason, as the primitive Christians 
 did their books of curious arts, and betake yourselves to 
 the plain letter of the law and statute, that telleth us 
 what is and what is not treason, without being more 
 ambitious to be more learned in the art of killing than 
 our forefathers ! It is now 240 years since any man was 
 touched for this alleged crime, to this height, before 
 myself. Let us not awaken these sleeping lions to our 
 destructions, by taking up a few musty records, that have 
 lain by the walls so many ages, forgotten or neglected. 
 May your lordships please not to add this to my other 
 misfortunes, — let not a precedent be derived from me, 
 so disadvantageous as this will be in its consequence to 
 the whole kingdom. Do not, through me, wound the 
 interest of the commonwealth : — and howsoever these 
 gentlemen say, they speak for the commonwealth, yet, 
 in this particular, I indeed speak for it, and show the 
 inconveniences and mischiefs that will fall upon it : for, as 
 it is said in the statute i Hen. IV., 'No one will know 
 what to do or say for fear of such penalties.' Do not 
 put, my lords, such difficulties upon ministers of state, 
 that men of wisdom, of honour, and of fortune, may not 
 with cheerfulness and safety be employed for the public. 
 If you weigh and measure them by grains and scruples, 
 the public affairs of the kingdom will lie waste, no man 
 will meddle with them who hath any thing to lose. My 
 lords, I have troubled you longer than I should have 
 done, were it not for the interest of those dear pledges 
 
26o BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 a saint in Heaven hath left me." At this word (says the 
 reporter) he stopped awhile, letting fall some tears to her 
 memory; then he went on: — "What I forfeit myself is 
 nothing ; but that indiscretion should extend to my 
 posterity woundeth me to the very soul. You will 
 pardon my infirmity ; something I should have added, 
 but am not able ; therefore let it pass. Now, my lords, 
 for myself, I have been, by the blessing of Almighty 
 God, taught that the afflictions of this present life are 
 not to be compared to the eternal weight of glory, which 
 shall be revealed hereafter. And so, my lords, even so, 
 with all tranquillity of mind, I freely submit myself to 
 your judgment, and whether that judgment be of life or 
 dQ2ii\ Te Deum iaudamus."'^ 
 
 ^ This is from Whitelocke's Memorials. It is the most beautiful 
 and complete report that has been given. I may subjoin a character- 
 istic note from Baillie's letters. "At the end he made such a 
 pathetic oration, for half an hour, as ever comedian did on the stage. 
 The matter and expression was exceeding brave. Doubtless if he 
 had grace and civil goodness he is a most eloquent man. One 
 passage is most spoken of; his breaking off in weeping and silence 
 when he spoke of his first wife. Some took it for a true defect in 
 his memory ; others for a notable part of his rhetoric ; some that 
 true grief and remorse at that remembrance had stopt his mouth ; 
 for they say that his first lady, being with child, and finding one 
 of his mistress's letters, brought it to him, and chiding him there- 
 fore, he struck her on the breast, whereof she shortly died." — 
 Letters, p. 291. The latter statement is only one of a thousand 
 horrible and disgusting falsehoods which, notwithstanding the 
 abundance of true accusatory matter, were circulated at the time 
 against Strafford, and one or two specimens of which may be found 
 in the fourth volume of lord Somer's Collection of Tracts. His 
 friends, however, it is to be remarked, were not less forward in 
 getting up all sorts of fictitious points of sympathy (in some 
 respects, also, unnecessary, since they had plenty of true resources 
 in that regard around him and his memory ; and as an instance I 
 may mention that an extremely pathetic letter of sir Walter 
 Raleigh to his wife (the most pathetic, probably, in the language), 
 written while he expected execution, was printed with Strafford's 
 signature, and with the alteration of words to meet the circumstances 
 of Strafford's death. The writers of the Biog. Brit, do not seem to 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 26 1 
 
 Great was the struggle to be made against such noble 
 and affecting eloquence, and Pym proved himself not 
 unequal to it. While we yield due admiration to the 
 unexampled demeanour of Strafford in this conjuncture ; — 
 to that quick perception of his exact position, which, 
 while it revealed to him the whole magnitude of the 
 dangerj suggested the most plausible defence, and sup- 
 plied resolution where, to an ordinary spirit, it would 
 have induced despair, — so that, while sinking down the 
 tremendous gulf into which he had been so suddenly 
 precipitated, he displayed the same coolness in catching 
 at every weed, however feeble, that might retard his 
 descent, as though the peril had long been foreseen and 
 the methods of escape long rehearsed, — while we praise 
 this in him, let us not forget the still more extraordinary 
 bearing of his adversary — the triumph of Pym, as un- 
 paralleled as the overthrow of Strafford. In either 
 case the individual rose or fell with the establishment or 
 the withdrawal of a great principle. Pym knew and felt 
 this, and that with him it now rested whether or not the 
 privileges so long contested, the rights so long misunder- 
 stood, of the great body of the people, should win at last 
 their assured consummation and acknowledgment. In 
 the speeches of Pym the true point is to be recognised, 
 on which the vindication of Strafford's death turns. The 
 defence of the accused was technical, and founded on 
 rules of evidence, and legal constructions of statutes, 
 which, though cleirly defined since, were in that day 
 recognised doubtfully, and frequently exceeded. The 
 defence of the accusers, if they are indeed to be put 
 
 have been aware of this. But see Somers' Tracts, vol. iv. pp. 249, 
 250. ; and compare with Biog. Brit. vol. v. p. 3478. 
 
262 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 upon their defence before a posterity for whose rights 
 they hazarded all things, rests upon a principle which 
 was implanted in man when he was born, and which no 
 age can deaden or obscure. " My lords," said . Pym, 
 "we charge him with nothing but what the 'law' in 
 every man's breast condemns, the light of nature, the 
 light of common reason, the rules of common society." ^ 
 Nor can it be doubted, that occasions must ever be 
 recognised by the philosopher and the statesman, when 
 the community may be re-invested in those rights, which 
 were theirs before a particular law was established. If 
 ever such an occasion had arisen, surely, looking back 
 upon the occurrences of the past, and forward upon the 
 prospects of the future, it had arisen here. It was time 
 that outraged humanity should appeal, as Pym afterwards 
 urged, to " the element of all laws, out of which they are 
 derived, the end of all laws, to which they are designed, 
 and in which they are perfected." ^ The public liberty 
 was in danger, from the life of Strafford, and the question 
 of justice reared itself above the narrow limits of the law. 
 For yet, again Pym urged, the law itself can be no other 
 than that "which puts a difference betwixt good and 
 evil, betwixt just and unjust I It is God alone who 
 subsists by himself, all other things subsist in a mutual 
 dependence and relation ! " ^ Nor can it be alleged, 
 even by the legal opponents of this impeachment, that 
 the proofs advanced under the fifteenth article, which 
 had charged Strafford with raising money by his own 
 authority, and quartering troops upon the people of 
 Ireland, did not advance far more nearly to a substantive 
 treason, within the statute of Edward III., than many of 
 
 ^ Rushworth, vol. viii. pp. io8, 109. ^ Ibid. p. 661. 
 
 8 Ibid. p. 663. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 263 
 
 the recognised precedents that were offered. " Neither 
 will this," Pym contended on that ground with a terrible 
 earnestness, " be a new way of blood. There are marks 
 enough to trace this law to the very original of this 
 kingdom ; and if it hath not been put in execution, as he 
 allegeth, this 240 years, it was not for want of a law, but 
 that all that time had not bred a man, bold enough to 
 commit such crimes as these ! " 
 
 At this moment, it is said, Strafford had been closely 
 and earnestly watching Pym, when the latter, suddenly 
 turning, met the fixed and wasted features of his early 
 associate. A rush of other feelings crowding into that 
 look, for a moment dispossessed him. " His papers, he 
 looked on," says Baillie, " but they could not help him 
 to a point or two, so he behoved to pass them." But 
 a moment, and Pym's eloquence and dignified com- 
 mand returned. He had thoroughly contemplated his 
 commission, and had resolved on its fulfilment. The 
 occasion was not let slip, the energies wound up to this 
 feat through years of hard endurance were not frozen, — 
 and the cause of the people was gained. In the condem- 
 nation of Strafford, they resumed an alienated power, 
 and were re-instated in an ancient freedom. 
 
 He was condemned. The judges themselves, on a 
 solemn reference by the house of lords for their opinion, 
 whether some of the articles amounted to treason, 
 answered unanimously that upon all which their lord- 
 ships had voted to be proved, it was their opinion the 
 earl of Strafford did deserve to undergo the pains and 
 penalties of high treason by law. 
 
 Meanwhile, before this opinion was taken, the com- 
 mons had changed their course, and introduced a bill of 
 attainder. This has been sorely reproached to them, 
 
264 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 and one or two of the men who had acted with them up 
 to this point now receded. Lord Digby was the 
 principal of these. "Truly, sir," he said, on the dis- 
 cussion of the bill, ** I am still the same in my opinions 
 and affections, as unto the earl of Strafford. I con- 
 fidently believe him to be the most dangerous minister, 
 the most insupportable to free subjects, that can be 
 charactered. I believe his practices in themselves as 
 high, as tyrannical, as any subject ever ventured on ; and 
 the malignity of them hugely aggravated by those rare 
 abilities of his, whereof God had given him the use, but 
 the devil the application. In a word, I believe him to 
 be still that grand apostate to the commonwealth, who 
 must not expect to be pardoned in this world, till he be 
 dispatched to the other. And yet, let me tell you, Mr. 
 Speaker, my hand must not be to that dispatch. I pro- 
 test, as my conscience stands informed, I had rather it 
 were off!" The authority of Digby in this affair, how- 
 ever, may well be questioned, since it has been proved 
 that he had at this time entered into an intrigue to save 
 the life of the prisoner, and though he spoke against the 
 bill with extreme earnestness, he at the same time no 
 less earnestly offered to swear, that he knew nothing of 
 a certain copy of important notes which had been lost, 
 though they were afterwards found in his handwriting, in 
 the royal cabinet taken at Naseby, and it turned out that 
 having access to them, as a member of the impeachment 
 committee, he had stolen them.^ 
 
 The bill of attainder was passed on the 21st of April. 
 
 While on its way to the lords, the king went to that 
 
 house and addressed them. "I am sure," he said, " you 
 
 all know that I have been present at the hearing of this 
 
 ^ See Whitelocke, p. 43. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 265 
 
 great case from the one end to the other ; and I must 
 tell you, that I cannot in my conscience condemn him 
 of high treason : — it is not fit for me to argue the busi- 
 ness ; I am sure you will not expect that ; a positive 
 doctrine best becomes the mouth of a prince." After 
 beseeching them not to treat the earl with severity, he 
 thus concluded : — " I must confess, for matter of mis- 
 demeanors, I am so clear in that, that though I will not 
 chalk out the way, yet let me tell you, that I do think 
 my lord Strafford is not fit hereafter to serve me or the 
 commonwealth in any place of trust, no, not so much as 
 that of a constable. Therefore, I leave it to you, my 
 lords, to find some such way as to bring me out of this 
 great strait, and keep ourselves and the kingdom from 
 such inconveniences. Certainly he that thinks him 
 guilty of high treason in his conscience may condemn 
 him of misdemeanor." 
 
 When Strafford heard in his prison of this intended 
 interference, he had earnestly protested against it, and, 
 on learning that the step was actually taken, he gave 
 himself up for lost.^ He had judged truly. The leaders 
 of the commons took advantage of the occasion it offered. 
 The presbyterian pulpits of the following day, which 
 happened to be Sunday, sent forth into every quarter of 
 London, cries of "justice upon the great delinquent;" 
 and on the succeeding morning, furious multitudes, 
 variously armed, thronged the approaches to the house 
 of lords; placarded as " Strafifordians, or betrayers of 
 their country," the names of those commoners who had 
 voted against the attainder; and shouted openly for the 
 blood of Strafford. 
 
 Pym, meanwhile, had discovered and crushed a con- 
 ^ Clarendon and Radcliffe. 
 
266 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 spiracy for his release, which had originated in the court, 
 and was disclosed by the inviolable fidelity of the 
 governor of the Tower. 
 
 No hope remained. The lords, proceeding upon the 
 judicial opinion I have named, passed the bill of attainder, 
 voting upon the articles judicially, and not as if they 
 were enacting a legislative measure. 
 
 The earl of Strafford, with a generosity worthy of his 
 intellect, now wrote to the king and released him from 
 his pledged word. " To say, sir," he wrote in the course 
 of this memorable letter, " that there hath not been a 
 strife in me, were to make me less man than, God 
 knoweth, my infirmities make me ; and to call a destruc- 
 tion upon myself and my young children (where the 
 intentions of my heart at least have been innocent of 
 this great offence), may be believed, will find no easy 
 consent from flesh and blood." Its concluding passages 
 ran thus : — " So now, to set your majesty's conscience 
 at liberty, I do most humbly beseech your majesty, for 
 prevention of evils which may happen by your refusal 
 to pass this bill, and by this means to remove, praised 
 be God, (I cannot say this accursed, but, I confess), 
 this unfortunate thing, forth of the way towards that 
 blessed agreement, which God, I trust, shall ever es- 
 tablish between you and your subjects. Sir, my con- 
 sent shall more acquit you herein to God, than all the 
 world can do besides. To a willing man there is no 
 injury done. And as, by God's grace, I forgive all the 
 world with a calmness and meekness of infinite content- 
 ment to my dislodging soul, so, sir, to you I can give the 
 life of this world, with all the cheerfulness imaginable, 
 in the just acknowledgment of your exceeding favours, 
 and only beg, that in your goodness you would vouchsafe 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 267 
 
 to cast your gracious regard upon my poor son and his 
 three sisters, less or more, and no otherwise, than as 
 their (in present) unfortunate father may hereafter appear 
 more or less guilty of this death." 
 
 The singular note which has been preserved by Burnet, 
 and which relates circumstances taken from the lips of 
 Hollis himself, continues the deep interest of this tragic 
 history : — " The earl of Strafford had married his sister : 
 so, though in the parliament he was one of the hottest 
 men of the party, yet when that matter was before them, 
 he always withdrew. When the bill of attainder was 
 passed, the king sent for him, to know what he could do 
 to save the earl of Strafford. Hollis answered that, if 
 the king pleased, since the execution of the law was in 
 him, he might legally grant him a reprieve, which must 
 be good in law; — but he would not advise it. That 
 which he proposed was, that lord Strafford should send 
 him a petition for a short respite, to settle his affairs, and 
 to prepare for death, upon which he advised the king to 
 come next day with the petition in his hands, and lay it 
 before the two houses, with a speech which he drew for 
 the king, and Hollis said to him, he would try his interest 
 among his friends to get them to consent to it. He 
 prepared a great many by assuring them that, if they 
 would save lord Strafford, he would become wholly 
 theirs in consequence of his first principles, and that he 
 might do them much more service by being preserved, 
 than he could do if made an example upon such new 
 and doubtful points. In this he had wrought on so 
 many, that he believed if the king's party had struck into 
 it he might have saved him." ^ 
 
 While the party thus prepared to second Hollis waited 
 ^ Own Time, book i. 
 
268 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 their time, the king suddenly resorted to a different 
 scheme, and, having with tears in his eyes signed the 
 commission for giving assent to the bill, declaring at the 
 same time, that Strafford's condition was happier than 
 his own, sent the lords a letter, written by his own hand, 
 and, as a further proof of his deep interest, with the 
 young prince of Wales as its messenger. " I did yester- 
 day," ran this letter, " satisfy the justice of the kingdom, 
 by passing the bill of attainder against the earl of 
 Strafford ; but mercy being as inherent and inseparable 
 to a king as justice, I desire at this time, in some 
 me-isure, to show that likewise, by suffering that unfortu- 
 nate man to fulfil the natural course of his life in a close 
 imprisonment. Yet so, if ever he make the least offer to 
 escape, or offer directly or indirectly to meddle in any 
 sort of public business, especially with me, either by 
 message or letter, it shall cost him his life without 
 farther process. This, if' it may be done without the 
 discontentment of my people, will be an unspeakable 
 contentment to me. To which end, as in the first place, 
 I by this letter do earnestly desire your approbation, and, 
 to endear it more, have chose him to carry it, that of 
 all your house is most dear to me. So I desire, that by 
 a conference you will endeavour to give the house of 
 commons contentment, assuring you that the exercise of 
 mercy is no more pleasing to me, than to see both houses 
 of parliament consent, for my sake, that I should 
 moderate the severity of the law in so important a case. 
 I will not say, that your complying with me in this my 
 intended mercy shall make me more willing, but certainly 
 't will make me more cheerful, in granting your just 
 grievances. But if no less than his life can satisfy my 
 people, I must S2iy—fiat justitia. Thus again, recom- 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 269 
 
 mending the consideration of my intention to you, I 
 rest." -The following was added as a postscript : — 
 '"'' If he must die, it were charity to reprieve him until 
 Saturday.''^ 
 
 Hollis's scheme was now thoroughly defeated, and 
 death secured to Strafford. This pitiable letter ended 
 all. It is a sorry office to plant the foot on a worm so 
 crushed and writhing as the wretched king who signed 
 it, for it was one of the few crimes of which he was in 
 the event thoroughly sensible, and friend has for once 
 co-operated with foe in the steady application to it of the 
 branding iron. There is in truth hardly any way of 
 relieving the " damned spot " of its intensity of hue, even 
 by distributing the concentrated infamy over other por- 
 tions of Charles's character. The reader who has gone 
 through the preceding details of Strafford's life can surely 
 not suggest any. For when we have convinced ourselves 
 that this " unthankful king " never really loved Strafford ; 
 that, as much as in him lay, he kept the dead Bucking- 
 ham in his old privilege of mischief, by adopting his 
 aversions and abiding by his spleenful purposes ; that, 
 in his refusals to award those increased honours for 
 which his minister was a petitioner, on the avowed 
 ground of the royal interest, may be discerned the petty 
 triumph of one who dares not dispense with the services 
 thrust upon him, but revenges himself by withholding 
 their well-earned reward ; — still does the blackness accu- 
 mulate to baffle our efforts. The paltry tears he is said 
 to have shed only burn that blackness in. If his after 
 conduct indeed had been different, he might have availed 
 himself of one excuse,— but that the man, who, in a few 
 short months, proved that he could make so resolute a 
 stand somewhere, should have judged this event no 
 
2 70 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 occasion for attempting it, is either a crowning infamy or 
 an infinite consolation, according as we may judge 
 wickedness or weakness to have preponderated, in the 
 constitution of Charles I. 
 
 Sufficient has been said to vindicate these remarks 
 from any, the remotest, intention of throwing doubt on 
 the perfect justice of that bill of attainder. Bills of 
 attainder had not been uncommon in England \ are the 
 same in principle as the ordinary bills of pains and 
 penalties ; and the resort to that principle in the present 
 case, arose from no failure of the impeachment, as has 
 been frequently alleged i, but because, in the course of 
 that impeachment, circumstances arose, which suggested 
 to the great leader of the popular cause the greater safety 
 of fixing this case upon wider and more special grounds. 
 Without stretching to the slightest extent the boundaries of 
 any statute, they thought it better at once to bring Straf- 
 ford's treason to the condemnation of the sources of all 
 law. In this view it is one of their wisest achievements that 
 has been brought within the most hasty and ill-considered 
 censure— their famous proviso that the attainder should 
 not be acted upon by the judges as a precedent in deter- 
 mining the crime of treason. As to Strafford's death, 
 the remark that the people had no alternative, includes 
 all that it is necessary to urge. The king's assurances 
 of his intention to afford him no further opportunity of 
 crime, could surely weigh nothing with men who had 
 observed how an infinitely more disgusting minister of 
 his will had only seemed to rise the higher in his master's 
 estimation for the accumulated curses of the nation. 
 Nothing but the knife of Felton could sever in that case 
 
 ^ The judges and peers voted judicially even on the bill, as has 
 been already stated. 
 
BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 27 1 
 
 the weak head and the wicked instrument, and it is to 
 the honour of the adversaries of Strafford that they were 
 earnest that their cause should vindicate itself completely, 
 and look for no adventitious redress. Strafford had 
 outraged the people — this was not denied. He was 
 defended on the ground of those outrages not amounting 
 to a treason against the king. For my own part, this 
 defence appears to me decisive, looking at it in a 
 technical view, and with our present settlement of evi- 
 dence and treason. But to concede that point, after the 
 advances they had made, would have been in that day 
 to concede all. It was to be shown that another power 
 had claim to the loyalty and the service of Strafford — 
 and if a claim, then a vengeance to exact for its neglect. 
 And this was done. 
 
 Nor should the subject be quitted without the remark, 
 that the main principle contended for by Pym and his 
 associates was, at the last, fully submitted to by Strafford. 
 He allowed the full power of the people's assembly to 
 take cognizance of his deeds and to dispose of his life, 
 while most earnestly engaged in defending the former 
 and preserving the latter. Now the calm and magnani- 
 mous patience of Strafford was very compatible with a 
 fixed denial of the authority of his judges, had that 
 appeared contestible in his eyes, — but we find no in- 
 timation of such a disposition. He would not have the 
 parliament's punishment precede promulgation of a law; " 
 he pleads that " to be punished by a law subseqiTent to 
 the fact is extreme hard;" and that "it is hard that 
 there should be no token set by which we should know 
 this offence, no admonition by which we should avoid 
 it ; " and he is desirous that " a precedent may not be 
 derived from one so disadvantageous as this ; " — but, in 
 
272 BROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 the mean time, the cause is gained, the main and 
 essential point is given up ! The old boasts of the lord 
 lieutenant's being accountable to the king alone, of the 
 king's will being the one and the only law of his service, 
 are no longer heard. It may be said that a motive of 
 prudence withheld Strafford from indignantly appealing 
 to the king in his lurking place, from the unrecognised 
 array of questioners and self constituted inquisitors, who 
 had taken upon themselves to supersede him, — but when 
 the sentence was passed and its execution at hand, when 
 hope was gone and the end rapidly hastening, we still 
 find Strafford offering nothing against the right. 
 
 One momentary emotion, not inconsistent with his 
 letter to the king, escaped him when he was told to 
 prepare for death. He asked if the king had indeed 
 assented to the bill. Secretary Carleton answered in the 
 affirmative, and Strafford, laying his hand on his heart, 
 and raising his eyes to heaven, uttered the memorable 
 words, — " Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons 
 of men, for in them there is no salvation." Charles's 
 conduct was indeed incredibly monstrous. 
 
 Three days more of existence were granted to Strafford, 
 which he employed calmly in the arrangement of his 
 affairs. He wrote a petition to the house of lords to 
 have compassion on his innocent children ; addressed a 
 letter to his wife bidding her affectionately to support 
 her courage ; and accompanied it with a letter of final 
 instru(?tion and advice to his eldest son. This is in all 
 respects deeply touching : — " My dearest Will," he 
 wrote, " These are the last Hues that you are to receive 
 from a father that tenderly loves you. I wish there were 
 a greiter leisure to impart my mind unto you, but our 
 merciful God will supply all things by his grace, and 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 273 
 
 guide and protect you in all your ways,— to whose in- 
 finite goodness I bequeath you. And therefore be not 
 discouraged, but serve him, and trust in him, and he will 
 preserve and prosper you in all things. Be sure you give 
 all respect to my wife, that hath ever had a great love 
 unto you, and therefore will be well becoming you. 
 Never be awanting in your love and care to your sisters, 
 but let them ever be most dear unto you :— for, this will 
 give others cause to esteem and respect you for it, and is 
 a duty that you owe them in the memory of your ex- 
 cellent mother and myself; therefore your care and 
 affection to them must be the very same that you are to 
 have of your self; and the like regard must you have to 
 your youngest sister ; for indeed you owe it her also, both 
 for her father and mother's sake. Sweet Will, be careful 
 to take the advice of those friends, which are by me 
 desired to advise you for your education." And so the 
 tenderness of the father proceeds through many fond 
 and affectionate charges. With characteristic hope he 
 says — " The king I trust will deal graciously with you, 
 and restore you those honours and that fortune, which a 
 distempered time hath deprived you of, together with 
 the life of your father." Advice is next given to meet 
 the occurrence of such a chance. " Be sure to avoid as 
 much as you can to enquire after those that have been 
 sharp in their judgments towards me, and I charge you 
 never to suffer thought of revenge to enter your heart ; 
 but be careful to be informed, who were my friends in 
 this prosecution, and to them apply yourself to make 
 them your friends also ; and on such you may rely, and 
 bestow much of your conversation amongst them. And 
 God almighty of his infinite goodness bless you and your 
 children's children ; and his same goodness bless your 
 
 T 
 
274 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 sisters in like manner, perfect you in every good work, 
 
 and give you right understandings in all things. Amen. 
 
 Your most loving father, Thomas Wentworth." i 
 
 At one time, probably, a deeper pang would have been 
 
 involved to Strafford in this affecting surrender of his 
 
 cherished title, than in that of existence itself But this 
 
 was not the time. Nothing but concern for his family 
 
 and friends disturbed the composure of his remaining 
 
 hours. He wrote kind and encouraging letters to "dear 
 
 George," as he called sir George Radcliffe; shed tears 
 
 for the death of Wandesford, whom he had entrusted 
 
 with the care of his government and family, but who 
 
 broke his heart on hearing of the sad events that had 
 
 fallen on his patron ; and requested of the primate of 
 
 Ireland (Usher), who attended him, to desire "my lord's 
 
 Grace of Canterbury," his old friend, the now imprisoned 
 
 and afflicted Laud, "to lend me his prayers this night 
 
 and to give me his blessing when I go abroad to-morrow, 
 
 and to be in his window, that, by my last farewell, I may 
 
 give him thanks for this, and all other, his former 
 
 favours." He had previously asked the lieutenant of the 
 
 Tower if it were possible to have an interview with Laud, 
 
 adding with playful sarcasm, " You shall hear what 
 
 passes betwixt us. It is not a time either for him to 
 
 ^ Strafford Papers, vol. ii. p. 416, The letter bears date the nth 
 of May, 1641, and has the following postscript: — "You must not 
 fail to behave yourself towards my lady Clare, your grandmother, 
 with all duty and observance ; for most tenderly doth she love you, 
 and hath been passing kind unto me. God reward her charity for 
 it. And both in this and all the rest, the same that I counsel you, 
 the same do I direct also to your sisters, that so the same may be 
 observed by you all. And once more do I, from my very soul, 
 beseech our gracious God to bless and govern you in all, to the 
 saving you in the day of his visitation, and join us again in the 
 communion of his blessed saints, where is fulness of joy and bliss for 
 evermore. Amen, Amen." The "youngest sister" was the infant 
 of lady Strafford. 
 
B-ROWNINCS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 275 
 
 plot heresy, or me to plot treason." The lieutenant in 
 reply suggested a petition to the parliament. "No," 
 was the quiet rejoinder. " I have gotten my despatch 
 from them, and will trouble them no more. I am now 
 petitioning a higher court, where neither partiality can 
 be expected, nor error feared." 
 
 Laud, old and feeble, staggered to the window of his 
 cell as Strafford passed on the following morning, and, 
 as he lifted his hands to bestow the blessing his lips were 
 unable to utter, fell back and fainted in the arms of his 
 attendant. 
 
 Strafford moved on to the scaffold with undisturbed 
 composure. His body, so soon to be released, had given 
 him a respite of its infirmities for that trying hour. 
 Rushworth, the clerk of the parliament, was one of the 
 spectators, and has minutely described the scene. 
 " When he arrived outside the Tower, the lieutenant 
 desired him to take coach at the gate, lest the enraged 
 mob should tear him in pieces. ' No,' said he, ' Mr. 
 Lieutenant, I dare look death in the face, and the people 
 too ; have you a care I do not escape ; 't is equal to me 
 how I die, whether by the stroke of the executioner, or 
 by the madness and fury of the people, if that may give 
 them better content.'" Not less than 100,000 persons, 
 who had crowded in from all parts, were visible on 
 Tower-hill, in a long and dark perspective. Strafford, in 
 his walk, took off his hat frequently, and saluted them, 
 and received not a word of insult or reproach. His step 
 and manner are described by Rushworth to have been 
 those of " a general marching at the head of an army, to 
 breathe victory, rather than those of a condemned man, 
 to undergo the sentence of death." At his side, upon 
 the scaffold, stood his brother, sir George Wentworth, 
 
276 BROWNINGS LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 the bishop of Armagh, the earl of Cleveland, and others 
 of his friends, — and behind them the indefatigable 
 collector Rushworth, who "being then there on the 
 scaffold with him," as he says, took down the speech 
 which, having asked their patience first, Strafford at some 
 length addressed to the people. He declared the inno- 
 cence of his intentions, whatever might have been the 
 construction of his acts, and said that the prosperity of 
 his country was his fondest wish. But it augured ill, he 
 told them, for the people's happiness, to write the com- 
 mencement of a reformation in letters of blood. " One 
 thing I desire to be heard in," he added, "and do hope 
 that for Christian charity's sake I shall be believed. I 
 was so far from being against parliaments, that I did 
 always think parUaments in England to be the happy 
 constitution of the kingdom and nation, and the best 
 means, under God, to make the king and his people 
 happy." 1 
 
 He then turned to take leave of the friends who had 
 accompanied him to the scaffold. He beheld his brother 
 weeping excessively. " Brother," he said, " what do you 
 see in me to cause these tears ? Does any innocent fear 
 betray in me — guilt? or my innocent boldness — atheism? 
 Think that you are now accompanying me the fourth 
 tim.e to ray marriage bed. That block must be my 
 pillow, and here I shall rest from all my labours. No 
 thoughts of envy, no dreams of treason, nor jealousies, 
 nor cares, for the king, the state, or myself, shall interrupt 
 this easy sleep. Remember me to my sister, and to my 
 wife \ and carry my blessing to my eldest son, and to 
 
 ^ The paper of minutes from wliich he had spoken this speech, 
 was afterwards found lying on the scaffold, and was printed by 
 Rushworth, vol. viii. p. 761. See Appendix to this Memoir. 
 
BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 277 
 
 Ann, and Arabella, not forgetting my little infant, that 
 knows neither good nor evil, and cannot speak for itself. 
 God speak for it, and bless it ! " While undressing 
 himself, and winding his hair under a cap, he said, 
 looking on the block — " I do as cheerfully put off my 
 doublet at this time as ever I did when I went to 
 bed." 
 
 "Then," proceeds Rushworth, closing this memorable 
 scene, " then he called, ' Where is the man that shall do 
 this last office (meaning the executioner)? call him to 
 me.' When he came and asked him forgiveness, he told 
 him he forgave him and all the world. Then kneeling 
 down by the block, he went to prayer again by himself, 
 the bishop of Armagh kneeling on the one side, and the 
 minister on the other ; to the which minister after prayer 
 he turned himself, and spoke some icw words softly; 
 having his hands lifted up, the minister closed his hands 
 with his. Then bowing himself to the earth, to lay down 
 his head on the block, he told the executioner that he 
 would first lay down his head to try the fitness of the 
 block, and take it up again, before he laid it down for 
 good and all ; and so he did ; and before he laid it down 
 again he told the executioner that he would give him 
 warning when to strike, by stretching forth his hands; 
 and then he laid down his neck on the block, stretching 
 out his hands ; the executioner struck oif his head at one 
 blow, then took the head up in his hand, and showed it 
 to all the people, and said, ' God save the king ! ' " 
 
 Thus, on Wednesday, the 12th of May, 1641, died 
 Thomas Wentworth, the first earl of Strafford. Within 
 a few weeks of his death, the parliament mitigated the 
 most severe consequences of their punishment to his 
 children ; and, in the succeeding reign, the attainder was 
 
278 BROWNING'S LIFE OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 reversed, the proceedings obliterated, and his son restored 
 to the earldom. 
 
 A great lesson is written in the life of this truly ex- 
 traordinary person. In the career of Strafford is to be 
 sought the justification of the world's "appeal from 
 tyranny to God." In him Despotism had at length 
 obtained an instrument with mind to comprehend, and 
 resolution to act upon, her principles in their length and 
 breadth, — and enough of her purposes were effected by 
 him, to enable mankind to see "as from a tower the end 
 of all." I cannot discern one false step in Strafford's 
 public conduct, one glimpse of a recognition of an alien 
 principle, one instance of a dereliction of the law of his 
 being, which can come in to dispute the decisive result 
 of the experiment, or explain away its failure. The least 
 vivid fancy will have no difficulty in taking up the inter- 
 rupted design, and by wholly enfeebling, or materially 
 emboldening, the insignificant nature of Charles, and by 
 according some half dozen years of immunity to the 
 "fretted tenement" of Strafford's *' fiery soul," — con- 
 template then, for itself, the perfect reaHsation of the 
 scheme of " making the prince the most absolute lord in 
 Christendom." That done, — let it pursue the same 
 course with respect to Eliot's noble imaginings, or to 
 young Vane's dreamy aspirings, and apply in like manner 
 a fit machinery to the working out the projects which 
 made the dungeon of the one a holy place, and sustained 
 the other in his self-imposed exile. — The result is great 
 and decisive ! It estabhshes, in renewed force, those 
 principles of political conduct which have endured, and 
 must continue to endure, " like truth from age to age." 
 
APPENDIX [I.] 
 
 TO THE 
 
 LIFE OF THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 HUMBLE OPINION CONCERNING A PARLIAMENT IN THIS 
 YOUR majesty's KINGDOM OF IRELAND. 
 
 Charles R. 
 Sections i, 2, 3, 4, 5. Upon 
 these reasons alledged by you, and 
 the confidence which we have that 
 you have well weighed all the cir- 
 cumstances mentioned by you, or 
 otherwise necessary to the calling 
 of a parliament ; and especially 
 relying upon your faith and dex- 
 terity in managing so great a 
 work for the good of our service ; 
 we are fully persuaded to conde- 
 scend to the present calling of a 
 parlia??ient ; which accordingly 
 we authorise and require yoti to 
 do, and therein to make use of all 
 the motives you here propound. 
 
 I. Albeit the calling of a par- 
 liament in this kingdom is at no 
 time of so much hazard, where 
 nothing is propounded as a law 
 before it first borrow motion from 
 your majesty's immediate allow- 
 ance under your great seal, as it 
 is in England, where there is a 
 liberty assumed to offer every 
 thing in their own time and 
 order ; and this subordination, 
 whereunto they have been led by 
 the wisdom of former times, is 
 ever to be held as a sacred pre- 
 rogative, not to be departed from, 
 in no piece to be broken or in- 
 fringed. Yet is the proposition 
 
 always weighty — very necessary 
 to be considered with great deliberation — whether the present con- 
 juncture of affairs doth now advise a parliament or no? And, after 
 a serious discourse with myself, my reason persuades me for the 
 assembling thereof. 
 
 2. For, the contribution from the country towards the army 
 ending in December next, your majesty's revenue falls short twenty 
 thousand pounds sterling by the year of the present charge it is 
 burthened withal, besides the vast debt of fourscore thousand 
 pounds, Irish, upon the crown ; which yearly payments, alone, are 
 impossible by any other ordinary way to be in time supplied, but by 
 the subject in parliament ; and to pass to the extraordinary, before 
 there be at least an attempt first to efifect it with ease, were to love 
 
28o APPENDIX I. 
 
 difficulties too well, rather voluntarily to seek them, than unwill- 
 ingly to meet them, and might seem as w 11 vanity in the first 
 respect so to affect them, as faintness to bow under them, when 
 they are not to be avoided. 
 
 3. The next inclination thereunto ariseth in me, from the con- 
 dition of this country, grown very much more civil and rich since 
 the access of your royal father of blessed memory, and your majesty 
 to the crown ; that all you have here is issued out again amongst 
 them for their protection and safety, without any considerable re- 
 servation, for other the great affairs and expences abroad ; that this 
 great charge is sustained, and this great debt contracted through 
 imployments for a publick good, whereof the benefit hitherto hath 
 been intirely theirs ; that there hath been but one subsidy granted 
 in all this time, nor any other supply but this contribution ; in 
 exchange whereof, your princely bounty returned them graces as 
 beneficial to this subject as their money was to your majesty ; so as 
 their substance having been so increased under the guard of your 
 wisdom and justice, so little issued hence from them, the crown so 
 pressed, only for their good, and so modest a calling upon them 
 now for a supply, which in all wisdom, good nature, and conscience, 
 they are not to deny ; should they not conform themselves to your 
 gracious will, their unthankfulness to God, and the best of kings, 
 becomes inexcusable before all the world, and the regal power 
 more warrantably to be at after extended for redeeming and 
 recovering your majesty's revenues thus lost, and justly to punish so 
 great a forfeit as this must needs be judged to be in them. 
 
 4. Next, the frightful apprehension, which at this time makes 
 their hearts beat, lest the quarterly payments towards the army, 
 continued now almost ten years, might in fine turn to an hereditary 
 charge upon their lands, inclines them to give any reasonable thing 
 in present, to secure themselves of that fear for the future ; and 
 thei'efore, according to the wholesome counsel of the physician, — 
 Dum dolet accipe. 
 
 5. And lastly. If they should meanly cast from them these 
 mighty obligations, which indeed I cannot fear, your majesty's 
 affairs can never suffer less by their starting aside, when the general 
 peace abroad admits a more united power in your majesty, and less 
 distracted thoughts in your ministers, to chastise such a forgetful- 
 ness, to call to their remembrance, and to inforce from them other 
 and better duties than these. 
 
 Sect. 6, 7, 8, 9. We appomt .6. In the second place, the 
 the time of the meetmg to he in time your majesty shall in your 
 Tri7iity term next, for the reasons wisdom appoint for this meeting 
 yoit here alledge. imports very much ; which with 
 
 all submission I should advise, 
 might not be longer put off than Easter or Trinity term at farthest ; 
 and I shall crave leave to offer my reasons. 
 
 7. The improvements mentioned in my dispatch to the lord 
 treasurer, from which I no ways recede, would not be foreslowed ; 
 wherein we lose much by deferring this meeting ; a circumstance 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 2«I 
 
 very considerable in these streights, wherein, if surprised, might be 
 of much disadvantage, in case the parliament answer not expecta- 
 tion ; and to enter upon that work before, would be an argument 
 for them to scant their supply to your majesty. 
 
 8. Again, a breach of parliament would prejudice less thus than 
 in winter, having at the worst six months to turn our eyes about, 
 and many helps to be gained in that space ; where, in the other 
 case, the contribution ending in December next, we should be put 
 upon an instant of time, to read over our lesson at first sight. 
 
 9. Then the calling of a parliament, and determining of the 
 quarterly payments, falling out much upon one, might make them 
 apprehend there was a necessity enforcing a present agreement, if 
 not the good one we would, yet the best we could get, and so 
 embolden them to make and flatter theinselves to gain their own 
 conditions, and conditions are not to be admitted with any subjects, 
 less with this people, where your majesty's absolute sovereignty goes 
 much higher than it is taken,, perhaps, to do in England. 
 
 Sect. 10. We well approve 
 and require the making of two 
 sessions, as you propose. The 
 first to be held in sunwier for our 
 own supplies ; and the second in 
 winter, for passing such laws and 
 graces only, as shall be allotved by 
 us. But this intimation of two 
 sessions, we think not fit to be 
 imparted to any, till the parlia- 
 ment be set. And further, we 
 zvill admit no capittdations nor 
 demafids of any assurance under 
 our broad seal, nor of sending 
 over deputies or committees to treat 
 here zvith us, nor of any restraint 
 in our b.ll of S7ibsidies, nor of any 
 condition of not maintaining the 
 army ; but in case any of these be 
 insisted upon, and that they will 
 
 10. And lastly, There being 
 some of your majesty's graces, 
 which being passed into laws, 
 might be of great prejudice to 
 the crown ; and yet it being to 
 be feared they will press for them 
 all, and uncertain what humour 
 the denying any of them might 
 move in their minds, I conceive, 
 under favour, it would be much 
 better to make two sessions of it, 
 one in summer, the oiher in 
 winter ; in the former, to settle 
 your majesty's supply, and in the 
 latter, to enact so many of those 
 graces as in honour and wisdom 
 should be judged equal, when 
 the putting aside of the rest might 
 be of no ill consequence to other 
 your royal purposes. 
 
 not otherwise proceed or be satisfied 
 with our royal promise for the second session, or shall deny or delay 
 the passing of our bills, we reqtdre you thereiipon to dissolve the par- 
 liament ; and forthwith to take order to continue the contributions for 
 our army, and tvithal to proceed to such improvements of our revemie 
 as are already in proposition, or may hereafter be thought upon for 
 the advantage of our croxon. 
 
 Sect. II. Concerning the short 
 law to preserve the uttermost bene- 
 fit of the co7npositions upon con- 
 cealments, and the plantations of 
 Cotmaght and Ormond, %ve like 
 it well, if you can obtain it, for 
 
 II. All the objections I am 
 able to suggest unto myself, are 
 two : That it might render fruit- 
 less the intended improvement 
 upon the concealments, and pre- 
 judice the plantations of Con- 
 
282 APPENDIX I. 
 
 confirmation of what yoii have naght and Ormond. The for- 
 done, or shall hereafter do about mer may easily be helped by a 
 those businesses, Biit your pro- short law, propounded in my 
 inising of such a law^ we doubt, dispatch to my lord treasurer ; 
 may hitider the service, and cause and posito, that there no other 
 them to be satisfy d tvith Clothing law pass the first session ; the 
 but a special statute. second is likewise sufficiently 
 
 secured. 
 Sect. 12, 13, 14, 15. For 12. Then it is to be foreseen, 
 de77iands to be made for tis, we what your majesty will demand, 
 allow your propositions in these how induce and pursue the same, 
 sections, both in the matter and in for the happy settlement of the 
 the form ; only the last clause, regal rights and powers in this 
 which giveth hope to maintain more subordinate kingdom. 
 the army afterzvards without 13. My humble advice is, to 
 further charge to them at all, we declare, at the first opening of 
 conceive may be drazvn to a bind- the meeting, that your majesty 
 ing assumption ; and besides, it intends and promises two ses- 
 is not necessary ; the very pro- sions ; this former for yourself, 
 position being sufficient to that that latter, in Michaelmas term 
 effect. next, for them ; this to ascertain 
 
 the payments of your army, and 
 to strike off the debts of your crown ; that, for the enacting of all 
 such profitable and wholsome laws, as a moderate and good people 
 may expect from a wise and gracious king. 
 
 14. That, this being the order of nature, reason, and civility, 
 your majesty expects it should be entirely observed, and yourself 
 wholly intrusted by them ; which they are not only to grant to be 
 fit in the general case of king and subjects, but ought indeed to 
 acknowledge it with thankfulness due to your majesty in particular, 
 when they look back, and call to mind, how for their ease you were 
 content to take the sixscore thousand pounds (which their agents 
 gave to be paid in three) in six years ; and not barely so neither, 
 but to double your graces towards them the whilst, which they have 
 enjoyed accordingly, much to their advantage and greatly to the 
 loss of the crown. 
 
 15. And that considering the army hath been represented over to 
 your majesty from this council, and in a manner from the body of 
 this whole kingdom, to be of absolute necessity, to give comfort to 
 the quiet minds in their honest labours, to contain the licentious 
 spirits within the modest bounds of sobriety, it consists not with 
 your majesty's wisdom to give unto the world, no, not the appear- 
 ance of so much improvidence in your own counsels, of so much 
 forgetfulness in a case of their safety, as to leave that pillar of your 
 authority, and their peace, unset for continuance, at least one six 
 months before the wearing forth of their contribution. 
 
 Sect. 16, 17, 18. We do 16. Therefore your majesty 
 
 not conceive that hereby you was well assured in conformity 
 
 purpose easily to relinquish any to the rules of reason and 
 
 of our demands, for all which judgment, they would presently 
 
APPENDIX I. 283 
 
 you have laid so fair and solid grant three subsidies to be paid 
 grounds. And considering the in three years, to disengage 
 payment of the army is abso- the crown of fourscore thousand 
 lutely necessajy to be born by pound debt ; and continue their 
 the country^ they cannot pre- quarterly payments towards the 
 taid by their three subsidies to army four years longer; in 
 make a fitting recognition of which time it was hopeful (suit- 
 respect for our coi7iing to the able to your gracious intentions) 
 crotvn, without that last addition some other expedient might be 
 to buy 171 rents and pe^tsions . found out, to maintain the army 
 
 without further charge to them 
 at all ; which law past, they shou'd have as much leisure to enact 
 for themselves at after, as they could desire, either now, or in 
 winter. Nay your majesty wou'd be graciously pleased, with the 
 assistance of your council, to advise seriously with them, that 
 nothing might remain, either unthought of, or deny'd, conducing to 
 the publick good of this kingdom : but if they made difficulty to 
 proceed with your majesty in this manner, other counsels must be 
 thought of, and little to be rely'd, or expected for from them. 
 
 17. I am not to flatter your majesty so far, as to raise any hope, 
 on that side, that all this shou'd be granted, but by pressing both ; 
 and especially the continuance of the quarterly payments to the 
 army, which they dread above any earthly thing, I conceive it 
 probable, that to determine and lay asleep (as they think) the con- 
 tribution, and in acknowledgment of your majesty's happy access to 
 the crown, they may be drawn to a present gift of three subsidies, 
 payable in three years, which alone wou'd keep the army on foot 
 during that time ; and if my calculation hold, almost discharge the 
 debt of the crown besides. 
 
 18. For thus I make my estimate : the contribution from the 
 country, is now but twenty thousand pounds sterling by the year ; 
 whereas I have good reason to trust, each subsidy will raise thirty 
 thousand pounds sterling ; and so there will be ten thousand pounds 
 for three years, over and above the establishment : which thirty 
 thousand pounds sterling, well and profitably issued, will, I trust, 
 with honour to your majesty, and moderate satisfaction of the parties, 
 strike off the whole fourscore thousand pounds Irish, which in 
 present presseth so sore upon this crown. 
 
 Sect. 19, 20, 21, 22. We 19. And then, sir, after that 
 like well the apfointing of such in Michaelmas term, all bene- 
 a committee^ and we refer the ficial acts for the subject be 
 nomination to yourself . We have thought of, as many, no fewer 
 also given order to some of our nor no more, enacted, than were 
 council here, with the assistance fit in honour and wisdom to be 
 of our attorney general, to con- granted ; if for a conclusion to 
 sider of the g^'aces, that nothing this parliament, we could gain 
 pass by law which may prejudice from them other two subsidies, 
 ourcrowfi. to buy in rents and pensions, 
 
 to ten thousand pounds yearly 
 value ; (a thing they are inclinable unto, as is mention'd in my 
 
284 APPENDIX I. 
 
 dispatch to the lord treasurer) I judge, there were an happy issue of 
 this meeting ; and that it shou'd, through God's blessing, appear to 
 the world in a few years, you had without charge made a more 
 absolute conquest of this nation by your wisdom, than all your 
 royal progenitors have been able to accomplish by their armies, and 
 vast expense of treasure and blood. 
 
 20. These being the ends, in my poor opinion, which are to be 
 desired and attained, the best means to dispose and fit all concurring 
 causes thereunto, are not to be forgotten ; and therefore as pre- 
 paratives, I make bold to offer these ensuing particulars : — 
 
 21. It seems to be very convenient, a committee be forthwith 
 appointed of some fevv of us here, to take into consideration all the 
 bills intended when there was a parliament to have been called in 
 the time of my lord Falkland ; such as shall be judged beneficial, 
 to make them ready ; such as may be of too much prejudice to the 
 crown, to lay them aside ; and to draw up others, which may chance 
 to have been then omitted. This work may be by the committees 
 either quickened or foreslowen as the parliament proceeds, either 
 warmer or cooler in your majesty's supplies. 
 
 22. Next, that your majesty's acts of grace directed to my lord 
 Falkland the 24th of May, 1628, may be considered by such of 
 your council in England as shall please your majesty to appoint ; 
 there being many matters therein contained, which in a law, wou'd 
 not futurely so well sort with the power requisite to be upheld in 
 this kingdom, nor yet with your majesty's present profit ; which 
 hath persuaded me to except against such as I hold best to be 
 silently passed over, and to transmit a paper thereof to my lord 
 treasurer. 
 
 Sect. 23. We approve the 12. It is to be feared, the 
 reformation of these pressures meaner sort of subjects here, 
 and extortions by exa?uples, and live under the pressures of the 
 by commissions, by our ozvn great men ; and there is a 
 authority ; but by no means to general complaint, that officers 
 be done by parliament. exact much larger fees, than of 
 
 right they ought to do. To 
 help the former, if it be possible, I will find out two or three to 
 make examples of; and to remedy the latter, grant out a com- 
 mission for examining, regulating, and setting down tables of fees 
 in all your courts : so as they shall find your majesty's goodness 
 and justice, watching and caring for their protection and ease, both 
 in private and publick respects. 
 
 Sect. 24. We alloiu of this 24. I shall endeavour, the 
 course. lower house may be so com- 
 
 posed, as that neither the re- 
 cusants, nor yet the protestants, shall appear considerably more 
 one than the other ; holding them as much as may be upon an equal 
 ballance ; for they will prove thus easier to govern, than if either 
 party were absolute. Then wou'd I, in private discourse, shew the 
 recusant, that the contribution ending in December next, if your 
 majesty's army were not supply'd some other way before, the twelve 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 285 
 
 pence a Sunday must of necessity be exacted upon them ; and shew 
 the protestant, that your majesty must not let go the twenty thou- 
 sand pounds contribution, nor yet discontent the other in matters 
 of religion, till the army were some way else certainly provided for ; 
 and convince them both, that the present quarterly payments are 
 not so burdensome as they pretend them to be ; and that by the 
 graces they have had already more benefit, than their money came 
 to. Thus poising one by the other, which single might perchance 
 prove more unhappy to deal with. 
 
 Sect. 25. To make captains 
 and officers burgesses rue alto- 
 gether dislike : because it is fitter 
 they attend their charges at that 
 tifjte. Make your choice rather 
 by partictdar knowledge of metH s 
 interests, and good affections to 
 our service. 
 
 Sect. 26. In the higher house, 
 for the prelates -we have written 
 our special letter to the priinate 
 of Armagh, addressing him there- 
 in to be directed by yourself 
 
 may be thought of on this side. 
 
 25. I will labour to make 
 as many captains nnd officers, 
 burgesses, as possibly I can, who, 
 having immediate dependance 
 upon the crown, may almost 
 sway the business betwixt the 
 two parties, which way they 
 please. 
 
 26. In the higher house, your 
 majesty will have, I trust, the 
 bishops wholly for you. The 
 titular lords, rather than come 
 over themselves, will put their 
 proxies into such safe hands, as 
 
 And in the rest, your majesty 
 hath such interest, what out of duty to the crown, and obnoxious- 
 ness in themselves, as I do not apprehend much, any difficulty 
 amongst them. 
 
 Sect. 27. For the peers, that 
 their proxies ?nay be well disposed, 
 we wou^d have you settd ivith 
 speed the names of those there, in 
 ivhom you repose special trust. 
 And in case your list cannot be 
 here in time, we will give order 
 that all the proxies be sent to you 
 with blanks to be assigned there. 
 In general for the better prevent- 
 iftg of practices and disorders, you 
 shall siiffer no meetitigs during 
 the setting of the houses, save only 
 771 p^^blick, and for the service of 
 the houses by appoint7nent, and 
 for no other ejids. 
 
 1634, April 12. 
 
 77ie answers contained in the 
 apostiles are made by his majesty, 
 oitd by his commandmejit set down 
 in this manner. 
 
 John Coke. 
 
 27. To these, or to any thing 
 else directed by your majesty, 
 I will with all possible diligence 
 apply myself so soon as I shall 
 understand your pleasure therein ; 
 most humbly beseeching, you 
 will take it into your gracious 
 memory, how much your ma- 
 jesty's speedy resolution in this 
 great business imports the pros- 
 perity of your affairs in this 
 place ; and in that respect, vouch- 
 safe to hasten it as much as 
 conveniently may be. 
 
 Wentworth. 
 
2 86 APPENDIX I. 
 
 A Copy of the Paper containing the Heads of the Lord Strafford'' s 
 last Speech, written by his own Hand, as it was left upon the 
 Scaffold. 
 
 1. I come to pay the last debt we owe to sin. 
 
 2. Rise to righteousness. 
 
 3. Die willingly. 
 
 4. Forgive all. 
 
 5. Submit to what is voted justice but my intentions innocent 
 
 from subverting, &c. 
 
 6. Wishing nothing more than great prosperity to king and 
 
 people. 
 
 7. Acquit the king constrained. 
 
 8. Beseech to repent. 
 
 9. Strange way to write the beginning of reformation, and 
 
 settlement of a kingdom in blood on themselves. 
 
 10. Beseech that demand may rest there. 
 
 11. Call not blood on themselves. 
 
 12. Die in the faith of the church. 
 
 13. Pray for it, and desire their prayers with me. 
 
28; 
 
 APPENDIX 11. 
 
 SELECTED PAPERS AND LETTERS PRINTED SINCE 
 
 THE PUBLICATION OF BROWNING'S LIFE 
 
 OF STRAFFORD. 
 
 I. Sept. 15,1617. Sir Thomas 
 Wentworth to the Earl 
 of Buckingham, giving 
 reasons why he should not 
 be called on to resign his 
 place of Gustos Rotuloj'icm, 
 p. 287. 
 ]i. Jan. 2C, 1625-6, Sir Thomas 
 Wentworth to Lord Con- 
 way, asking for the place 
 of Lord President of the 
 North, p. 290, 
 III. May 27, 1627. Sir Thomas 
 Wentworth to the Com- 
 missioners for the forced 
 Loan : he is too ill to 
 attend them at York, 
 p. 291. 
 
 IV. Dec. 1628, Viscount Went- 
 
 worth's Speech when he 
 first sate President of the 
 North, p. 291. 
 
 V. Sept. 24, 1632. Viscount 
 
 Wentworth to the Earl 
 of Carlisle (?), on the case 
 of Sir David Foulis ; on 
 the necessity of keeping 
 up the King's power ; and 
 on Wentworth's devotion 
 to this, p. 296. 
 
 VI, Oct. 24, 1632. Viscount 
 
 Wentworth to the Earl of 
 Carlisle. On Wentworth's 
 devotion to the Crown, 
 and his dislike and censure 
 of Sir David Foulis, with 
 an appeal that Payler's 
 thousand-pound fine for 
 incest be given to a church 
 for a pair of Organs, 
 p. 300. 
 
 VII. April 12, 1639. Viscount 
 
 Wentworth to Chief Jus- 
 tice Bramston, on the 
 former's suit against Sir 
 Piers Crosby, p. 302. 
 
 15 Sept. 161 7. SIR THOS. WENTWORTH TO THE EARL 
 OF BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 {Fortescue Papers (p. 23). Camden Society, 1871, 40.) 
 Right Honorable and my very good Lord. Thes are to give 
 your Lordship humble thankes for your respective letters dated 
 from Warwicke the 5 of this instant September, which I receaved 
 the 13 of the same ; the messinger told me your Lordsliip expected 
 a speedy answear, in observance whearof I must crave your patience 
 in reading a long letter. 
 
 Your Lordship was pleased therin to lett me understande, that 
 
288 APPENDIX IL I. LETTER TO BUCKINGHAM. 
 
 wheras his Majestic is informed that Sir John Savill yealded up 
 his place of Custos Potulorum voluntarily unto me, his Majestic 
 will take it well att my hands that I resigne itt up to him againe, 
 with the same willingnes, and will be mindfull of me to give me as 
 good prefermentt upon any other occasion. 
 
 My Lord : I am with all duty to receave and with all humble 
 thanicfullnes to acknowledge his Majesties great favours hearin : 
 both of his espetiall grace to take the consentt of his humblest 
 subject, wher it might have pleased his Majestic absolutely to 
 commaund, as alsoefor soe princely a promise of other prefermentt : 
 and itt wear indeed the greatest good happ unto me, if I had the 
 means wherby his Majestic would be pleased to take notice how 
 much I esteem myself bownd to his princely goodnes for the 
 same. 
 
 When your Lordship is informed that Sir Jhon yealded up his 
 place of Citstos Rohilornm willingly unto me ; under favour, I hauc 
 noe reason so to conceavc ; for, first, he had noc interest to yeald, 
 and, further, I imagin he would not hauc done the same willingly 
 att all, wherof this his desiring itt againe is a sufficientt argumentt. 
 Butt, howsoever, voluntarily unto me I cannot be perswaded, both 
 in respect he neuer acquainted me with this motion, which would 
 hauc been done, had 1 been soe much behoulden unto him as is 
 pretended, and in regard I had then some reason to misdoubt 
 (which I have since found) he was not soe well affected towards 
 me. 
 
 Butt if itt please your Lordship to be satisfied of the truth, you 
 shall find Sir Jhon brought into the Staire-chamber for his passion- 
 ate cariage upon the benche towards one of his fellow commissioners ; 
 upon a motion in that Court for his contempts committed to the 
 Fleet, and, upon reading of an affidavit, thought unfitt to be 
 continued in the Commission of Peace, to which purpose my late 
 Lord Chancclour gave his direction about the 3. of December shall- 
 bc tow years ; which Sir Jhon getting notice of, to give the better 
 coullor to his displacing, writt some 3 dayes after to my Lord 
 desiring his Lordship would be pleased to spaire his service in 
 respect of his years ; wher indeed he was in effect out of the 
 Commission before, by vertu of that direction : and so consequently 
 tlier was nothing in him to resigne, aither voluntarily or other 
 wayes. This will partly appear by a coppy of Sir Jhon's letter, and 
 my Lord's answear under the same, which this bearer hath to shew 
 your Lordship. 
 
 Presently hearupon itt pleased my Lord Chancclour, I being att 
 that time in the cuntry, freely of himself to conferre that place upon 
 nie, and, as his Lordship did fully assure me, without any motion 
 made unto him, directly or indirectly, by any frend of mine 
 whoesoever. 
 
 Being thus placed I have ever since, according to that poore 
 talent God hath lentt me, applied myself, with all paines, dilligcnce, 
 care, and sincerity to his Majesties service, bothe according to the 
 common duty of a subject and the particuler duty of my place, 
 
APPENDIX 11. I. LETTER TO BUCKINGHAM. 289 
 
 wherin if any man can charge me to the contrary, I wilbe ready to 
 justifie my self. 
 
 Allbeitt I doe infinittly desire to doe his Majestic service, I may 
 truly say that I am free from ambition to desire places of imploy- 
 mentt wherby ether his Majesties service might not be soe well 
 performed, or my owne ends better effected ; yett, my Lord, to be 
 removed without any misdeamenour, I trust, that can be alledged. 
 against me, the like I thinke hath not been heard of ; but thatt 
 Sir Jhon should supply the roome in my place, the world conceaving 
 generally, and I having felt experiencedly, to be very little frendly 
 towards me, itt might justly be taken as the greatest disgrace that 
 could be done unto me, and being that which his Majestic never 
 offered to Sir Jhon during all the time of his displeasure against him, 
 I might well conceave his Majestic to be (to my greatest greef) 
 highly offended with me, by some indirect means of my adversaries. 
 
 Thes reasons give me assurance in my hope that his Majestic out 
 of his accustomed goodnes to all sort of persons willbe pleased to 
 deale graciousely with me, espetially when his Majestic shallbe 
 informed of these reasons, which I humbly desire he may by your 
 Lordship's good means, as alsoe if Sir Jhon be soe desirouse to doe 
 his Majestic service (which is all our duties) he may doe itt as 
 effectually, being Justice of peace, as if he wear the Custos 
 Rotulorum. 
 
 Howsoever, with all due reverence and observance shall I waite 
 his Majesties best pleasure, and willingly and dutifully submitt 
 myself to the same, yett humbly crave to be excused, if, out of thes 
 reasons, I say plainly as yett I finde no willingnesse in myself ta 
 yeald up my place to Sir Jhon Savill. 
 
 Thus much am I hc»ld to signifie to your Lordship to give you 
 satisfaction, which I doe very much desire, and withall to move your 
 Lordship very humbly that ther may be noe further proceedings 
 hearin, till I attend your Lordship, which shalbe, God willing, with 
 all convenient speed. 
 
 Lastly, my Lord, myself never having nourished a thought that 
 might in any sortt draw your Lordship's hard conceitt towards me, I 
 fully rely upon your Lordship's favour, in a matter of this nature, 
 that soe deeply concerns my creditt in the cuntry whear I live, 
 which makes me now therof the more sensible ; and shall give me 
 just occasion still to indevour myself to doe you service, and 
 beseeche God to blesse your Lordship with longe life and all 
 hap pines. 
 
 Your Lordship's humbly to be commaunded, 
 
 Th. Wentworth. 
 
 Gawthorp, 
 this i$th of September, 1617. 
 
2 90 APPENDIX IT. No. 2. LETTER TO CONWAY. 
 
 II. 
 
 20 Jan. 1625-6. Wentworth to Lord Conway, asking for the place 
 of Lord President of the North. (State Papers, Domestic, Charles 
 I. xviij, no.) 
 
 My much Honored Lorde. 
 
 The duties of the Place I now hold, not admitting my 
 absence out of thes parttes, I shallbe bold to trouble yowr lord- 
 ship w/th a few lines, wheras otherwayes I W'ould haue attended 
 you in person. Ther is a stronge and generall beleefe wzth vs hear, 
 that my Lord Scroope, purposeth to leaue the Presidentshippe of 
 Yorke ; whearvpon many of my frendes, haue earnestly moued me to 
 vse sum meanes to procure itt, and I haue att Last yealded to take 
 itt a little into consideration, more to complye w/th them, then out 
 of any violentt, or inordinate desire thervnto in my self: yet as on 
 the one side, I haue neuer thought of itt, vnlesse itt might be ef- 
 fected, wz'th the good liking of my Lord Scroope ; soe will I neuer 
 moue further in itt, till I knowe allsoe, how this sute may please, 
 my Lord of Buckingham, seeing indeed such a scale of his graciouse 
 good opinion would comfortt me much, make the place more accept- 
 able ; and that I am fully resolued nott to ascende one steppe in 
 this kinde, excepte I may take alonge wz'th me by the way a spetiall 
 obligation to my Lord Duke, from whose bowntye and goodnesse I 
 doe nott only acknowledge much allready ; but iustified in the 
 truthe of my owne hartte, doe still repose and rest vnder the shadow 
 and protection of his fauoure. I beseeche yowr 'L.ordshi^^ therfore 
 be pleased to take sum good oportunity fully to acquainte his Grace 
 hearwz'th, and then to voutchsafe (wz'th your accustomed freedum 
 and noblenesse) to giue me your Counsell and direction, Wy^zch I 
 am prepaired strictly to obserue, as one allbeitt chearfully imbracing 
 better meanes to doe his Maz>i'tie humble and faithful! seruice in 
 thes parttes whear I Hue ; yet can wz'th as well a contented minde 
 rest wher I am, if by reason of my many imperfections I shall not 
 be iudged capable of nearer imploymentt and trust. Ther is nothing 
 more to adde for the presentt, saue that I must rest much bounden 
 vnto your Y^ordshv^, for the light I shall borrow from youriudgmentt, 
 and affection hearin, and soe borrowe itt too, as may better inable 
 me more effectually to exspresse my self hearafter. 
 
 Yowr lor^.y^/ps most humble and affectionate 
 
 kinsman to be commaunded, 
 
 Th. Wentworth. 
 
 Wentwo>th this 7.0th of January, 1625. 
 
 (Addressed) To the Right Honorable my much honored Lorde the 
 Lorde Conway Principal! Secretarye to his MazVi'tie. 
 
 (Endorsed) 20 January 1625 Szr Thomas Wentworth to the Lor^ 
 Conway, ffor the place of Lor^ President of the North. 
 
 (Wei! preserved seal. ) 
 
APPENDIX II. Nos. 3 and 4. 291 
 
 III. 
 
 27 May 1627. Sir Thos. Wentworth to the Commissioners for 
 the forced loan. (State Papers, Domestic, Charles I, Ixv, 12, ii. ) 
 
 May itt please you. I haue to day receaued your letter, dated 
 the tenthe of this instant : whearin I am required to be with you 
 att Yorke, on tuesday next ; the occasion is as I perceave con- 
 cerning the late loan to his MazV^tie by me as yet vnpaid. I should 
 precisely have obserued your time, if infirme bodyes weare as readye 
 ministers of the minde, as pens, out of which reason I trust, my 
 absence willbe rightly interpreted, and held excused by you. This 
 gentle proceeding of the Lordes of the Counsell (whear they might 
 haue sent for me vp by Pursevant) I humbly acknowledge ; and 
 therfore to apply myself vnto ther commaunds in the dutifullest 
 manner, I shall desire, that, with your good leaues, I may present 
 my own answeare att the borde, which I will hearby by God's 
 helpe vndertake to performe, in as short a space as the moderate 
 care of my healthe will well admitt, and ease you therby of any 
 further trouble or burthen. But if itt soe fall forth, as you shall not 
 thinke good to grant me this request, I will then waite upon you 
 before the end of the weeke, albeitt I be carried in a litter. Thus 
 desiring to vnderstande by the bearer your good pleasure hearin I 
 rest. 
 
 Your very affectionate freinde, 
 
 T. Wentworth. 
 
 Thornhill, ih's -zjth of May, 1627, 
 
 To my Honorable good and much respected freindes, Sir Henry 
 Savile, Barronet, Sir Tho. Fairfaxe, Sir Wm. Ellis, Knights, and 
 Wm. Mallorye, Esquier, att Yorke. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Dec. 1628. Thomas Lord Viscount Wentworth's speech when he 
 first sate Lord President of the North. (From the Tanner MSS. 
 in the Bodleian Library ; printed by Professor S. R. Gardiner in 
 The Academy, June 5, 1875.) 
 
 My Lords and Gentlemen, — Much reading or affected elegance in 
 speech are seldom heard without some mixture of ostentacion or 
 levity ; the modest sense, therefore, of my own weakness, the gravity 
 of the persons, the dignity of the place, move us to become com- 
 formable to the rule of the architect, Minervae propter virtutem sine 
 deliciis aedeficia constittd decet. Indeed, natural, substantial plain- 
 ness many times persuades, prevails most with sad judgements ; nay, 
 it seems, at least in the opinion of these times, even best becoming 
 the Goddess of wisdom and eloquence herself Without any shadow 
 or light of art then, I must sett forth myself before you this day for 
 the most obliged man in the world ; an evident, a manifest truth ; 
 my testimonies are your own great trusts. We frequently communi- 
 cated in diverse Parliaments j your chearful affections enlarged not 
 
292 APPENDIX II. 4. LOPD PRESIDENTS SPEECH. 
 
 present alone, but in my confinement — in a degree exile — when I 
 was asinfeccion tootiiers, you vouchsafed then again to take me into 
 your bosoms. "What confidence greater ? Or what affection warmer ? 
 But cast the free bomities of my gracious master into the other scale ? 
 there weigh me, within the space of one year a bird, a wandring 
 bii-d cast out of the nest, a prisoner, planted here again in my own 
 soil amongst the companions of my youth ; my house honoured, my- 
 self entrusted with the rich dispensacion of a soveran goodness, nay, 
 assured of all these before I ask'd, before I thought of any. Can 
 you show me so sudden, so strange variety in a private fortune ? Tell 
 me, was there ever such over-measure ? The like credit given to so 
 weak a debtor ? Baulked indeed before I begin, owing more both 
 to king and people than I shall ever be able to repay to either. Yet 
 to the joint individual well being of Soverainty and of subjeccion do 
 I here vow all my cares and diligences through the whole course of 
 this my ministry. I confess I am not ignorant how some dis- 
 temperd minds have of late very farr endeavoured to divide the 
 consideracions of the two ; as if their ends were distinct, not the 
 same, nay in opposition ; a monstrous, a prodigious birth of a 
 licentious conception ; for so we should become all head or all 
 members. But, God be praised, human wisdom, common experi- 
 ence, Christian religion teach us farr otherwise. 
 
 Princes are to be indulgent, nursing fathers to their people ; their 
 modest liberties, their sober rights ought to be precious in their eies, 
 the branches of their government be for shadow for habitacion, the 
 comfort of life, repose, safe and still under the proteccion of their 
 scepters. Subjects, on the other side, ought with solicitous eyes of 
 jealousy to watch over the prerogatives of a Crown ; the authority 
 of a King is the key-stone which closeth up the arch of order and 
 government, which contains each part in due relation to the whole, 
 and which once shaken, infirm'd all the frame falls together into a 
 confused heap of foundation and battlement, of strength and beauty. 
 Furthermore subjects must lay down their lives for the defence of 
 Kings freely, till those offer out of their store freely like our best 
 grounds, Qui majore tibertate gratiam quietis 7-eferre solent. 
 
 Verily, these are those mutual intelligences of love and proteccion 
 descending, and loyalty ascending, which should pass, be the enter- 
 tainments between a king and his people. Their faithfuU servants 
 must look equally on both, weave, twist these two together in all 
 their counsells, study, labour to preserve each without diminishing 
 or enlarging either, and by running in the worn, wonted channells, 
 treading the ancient bounds, cutt off early all disputes from betwixt 
 them. For whatever he be which ravells forth into questions the 
 right of a King and of a people, shall never be able to wrap them 
 up again into the comeliness and order he found them. 
 
 So I trust you see that by this great access of honour and place, I 
 am not only a stone — so to use a word of art — set upon my own 
 bed for continuance, for lasting, but acquisitive posiitis too, gain- 
 fully, commodiously seated for the service both of king and people. 
 And I take God to witness my chiefest comfort herein is to consider 
 
APPENDIX IL 4. LORD PRESIDENTS SPEECH. 293 
 
 that the occasions whei-eby to express my duties to God, my faith to 
 my master, my love to you, will be more frequently put into my 
 hands in this than in a privater condicion, which I beseech God 
 I may do as I ought, as I infinitely desire to travail under and out 
 of these great obligacions with vertue, truth, and thankfullness. 
 
 Give me leave, therefore, as one who comming forth of the sweets, 
 the ease of a private life, already feel the weight that presseth upon 
 me, to charge, to adjure you each one, by those tender respects 
 which have hitherto, and shall still move me rather to serve you 
 uprightly than myself profitably, by those dear affeccions which you 
 have ever born me, by the care you ought to have of him that will 
 very gladly spend and be spent for you ; by the private interest of 
 your selves and posterity, not to leave me, shrink from me now 
 when I have most need of you ; but by your counsell, by your paines, 
 to be still assisting, aiding towards the performance of this so ex- 
 cellent, so necessary a duty ; surely it is the strongest engagement 
 any mortal man can put upon me ; this is my greatest ambition, 
 above any earthly thing to serve his MazV^tie, and you acceptably and 
 fruitfully. I challenge your best help then, I require it of you ; you 
 will not as friends, you may not as Christians, you cannot as lovers 
 of your countrie deny it me. 
 
 So as in full affiance thereof, I will leave my self, and observe 
 some rules which concerne the place ; a distinction by which I shall 
 futurely govern my self ; for in relation to my own person, never 
 President expected so little ; in relation to this place, never any more 
 jealous of the honour of his master, never any that lookd for more. 
 
 Unity inwards amongst ourselves ; uniform justice outwards to 
 such as come before us, are I trust the Boni Genii, the acquir'd 
 habits of this Council, I shall by the way then only do them 
 reverence, entirely submitt myself to their skill, their equal regiment, 
 arid so to pass on to the bleeding evill, which unless it be stanched, 
 closed by a ready, a skilfull hand, will quickly let out the very 
 vitals of this Court, I mean prohibitions ; the necessity whereof 
 cries not alone to us that are judges to attend the cure, but as you 
 have heard, his MazVj-tie himself requires it of us. 
 
 Well, the disease is recoverable ; the remedies I propound are 
 two ; the first to assume nothing to ourselves but what is our own, 
 being ever mindfull that the voice which speaks here is vox ad 
 licitum ; we can go no farther than our instruccions lead us, move 
 only within their circle ; once take wandring planets out of that 
 sphere, presently the interposicion of other courts shadow, eclipse 
 the influence, the beams of this. Assure yourselves, the way to 
 loose what we have is to embrace more than belongs to us. You 
 that are of the fee must guide us herein, you are answerable for it, 
 it is expected from your learning and experience, and therefore I am 
 confident you will carefully intend it. 
 
 Secondly, we must apply a square courage to our proceedings, 
 not fall away as water spilt upon the ground, from that which is 
 once justly, warrantably done ; nor yet give off upon prohibicions 
 till the suitor hath the fruit of his plaint, for the Commonwealth 
 
2 94 APPENDIX 11. 4. LORD PRESIDENT'S SPEECH. 
 
 hath no more interest herein than that justice be done, whether 
 with us or elsewhere it skills not ; the inherent rights of a subject 
 are no waies touched upon here ; these are only disputes betwixt 
 courts, actuated many times out of heat, nay out of wantoness. 
 And thus the seats of justice, which should nourish, establish a 
 perfect harmony betwixt the head, the members, and amongst 
 themselves, degenerate, become instruments of strife, of separacion, 
 whiles these furies, like that enraged Turnus in the Poet, catch what 
 comes first to hand, tear up the very bounderstones set by the 
 sobriety of former times, and hurl them at their fellows in govern- 
 ment : and therefore I will declare this point clearly, that albeit 
 none before me reverenced the law and the Professors of it more, 
 having the honour to be descended from a Chief Justice myself, 
 yet if we here take ourselves to be within, they there conceive us 
 to be out of our instruccions, I shall no more acknowledge them to 
 be our judges, than they us to be theirs, but with all due respect to 
 their persons, must in these questions of jurisdiction appeal to his 
 MazVitie, the soverain judge of us all. Neither do I this barely in 
 relation to my master's command, but to retain in ourselves a 
 capacity, ist, to serve you, for if we yield up our arms, how shall 
 we exercise our vertue amongst you ? 2ly, in consideration of the 
 good and benefit of these parts, for surely however some may 
 desire a dissolucion of this court, yet I persuade myself so soon as 
 the number, the heat of small suites carried farr remote at great 
 charges were multiplied amongst them, they would confess their 
 ancestours to have been much wiser who peticioned, gave a sub- 
 sidy for erecting the Provinciall Court, than themselves who are 
 now so much for the taking them away. May the tent of this court 
 then be enlarged, the curtains drawn out, the stakes strengthned, yet 
 no farther than shall be for a covering to the common tranquillity, 
 a shelter to the poor and innocent from the proud and insolent. 
 
 To this end must I not only profess my entire filial obedience to 
 the Church, but also covet a sound, a close conjunction with the 
 grave, the Reverend clergy that they to us, we to them, may as 
 twins administer help to each other ; that ecclesiastical and civil 
 constitutions, the two sides of every state, may not stand alone by 
 themselves upon their own single walls, subject to cleave, fall in 
 sunder, but joind strongly bound together in the angle — where his 
 Ma7>Jtie under God is the Mistress of the Corner — the whole frame 
 may rise up unitate ordinata^ both in the spirituals and in the 
 temporals. 
 
 To this end and no other must I encourage you, the Deputy 
 Lieftenants, to proceed roundly to see the arms of the County fully 
 furnishd, I say encourage, in regard some quicker sighted than 
 those that liv'd before them conceive the law to be scant in that 
 point ; Reverentius est credere quam scire is an old rule I could wish 
 were more practis'd nowadaies as well in matters of State as 
 Religion ; for ad mitt the law were defective, yet then it will be 
 confessed a necessary service for the State, for the defence of our- 
 selves, wives, and children so as we might manifest more discretion 
 
APPENDIX II. 4. LORD PRESIDENT'S SPEECH. 295 
 
 to wink at it than thus narrowly to pry into it. But the truth of 
 the case is farr otherwise, his Ma^Vj'tie hath power coercive. Let no 
 prevaricating spirit flatter itself, it must be obedient ; for after I saw 
 the statute of 5 H. 4 — not printed, I confess — therein, even upon 
 the Peticion of the Commons themselves in Parlament, authority 
 given the King to appoint Commissioners of array for taking view 
 of arms, charging all degrees of men, raising moneys for maintaining 
 them at their discretions ; nay, yet more to imprison the refusers, to 
 destrain upon their lands for the summs so imposed upon them ; I 
 had not then onely the moderacion of our ancestours in singular 
 recommendacions, who never question'd, repin'd at these necessary 
 provisions for the honour the safety of the kingdom ; but plainly 
 said they were the wise intelligent men, and we of these later times 
 the ignorant, the misconceiving. 
 
 Again to the same, and no other end must I awaken you that be 
 Justices of the Peace to become vigilant in the execucion of your 
 charges, who — being still upon the place — should seasonably wipe 
 from the face of this government the very complexions towards 
 disorder and idleness ; I say awaken you, in regard you have 
 alwaies ow'd an account unto this Council of your proceedings, we 
 must call upon you for it, we shall strictly require it at your hands, 
 albeit I am well assured the sense of your own honours and con- 
 science will be quicker persuaders to you herein than any thing that 
 can move from hence. 
 
 Next must I come to the practisers before us ; amongst them, Mr. 
 Attorney, you are the eye of the Court, to look abrode upon the 
 pressure of the grievances of the subject, to bring delinquents to 
 justice, that so the oppressed may go free. There is a band of 
 Escheators, Feodaries, Undersheriffs, Clerks of the Market, 
 Attornies, Registers, Bailiffs, and suchlike, which snatch on the 
 right hand and are hungry, eat on the left and are not satisfied. It 
 is befitting the integrity, the watches expected from you to be a 
 means their fees be reduced to moderacion and certainty ; severity 
 must effect it ; these nettles gently touch'd, sting, bite ; taken up 
 with a closer hand loose their heat, their venom ; this fartherance 
 you have towards the work that we will thoroughly join with you in 
 the imdoing this heavy burthen ; therefore if you slip, grow remiss 
 in your duty you are the more to be blamed. So much to you 
 alone. 
 
 In the second place, I must admonish you with the rest, that your 
 pleeding be here heard with just regard to the dignity of this Court. 
 The rules I will give you for the present are not many ; they are 
 these. First, that you do that for one another which we will do for 
 you all, hear out patiently one side without interupcion, so may you 
 with better order, more advantage, defend your client's cause ; 
 secondly, touch not upon the by, the person, the adverse party, but 
 keep close to the matter ; else you will appear more to study the 
 passion of your client, than the respect you owe us, the civility you 
 owe to yourselves. He that pleads more with foul language than 
 reason imminucionem patitur saith the Law. So say I too. 
 
296 APPENDIX IP 5. LETPER ON SIR R. FOULIS, 
 
 Thirdly, in the progress of suits to a hearing, move nothing against 
 the constant, ordinary rules of the Court ; 1 shall take it for a great 
 presumpcion in any man that offers it. 4ly. After publicacion, the 
 proof before your eyes, inform truth, else your reward must be such 
 as will little please you ; neither shall it serve for a cloak either of 
 your malice, or negligence to say, *' it is in my brief ; " where it is 
 your part in this case to take informacion forth of the books them- 
 selves. Look to it then, I say, and remember what Papinian 
 recites : Advocatum ordine motu?n ex falsa recitacione. These rules 
 observ'd you will become worthy of your calling indeed, which 
 certainly is one of the noblest ; for what greater comfort, greater 
 honour, than for a man by those abilities God hath lent him above 
 others to vindicate silly naked truth from the vizard, the blemish, 
 craft and power might put upon her. 
 
 Finally, I do here offer myself, an instrument for good in every 
 man's hand, he that thus useth me most hath the most of my heart, 
 even to the meanest man within the whole jurisdiccion ; and then 
 excite all to lay aside to forget private respects, to join hands and 
 hearts, that we may go on chearfully as one man in the service of 
 the publick, for where the thoughts of particulars are sever'd then 
 the common business is in danger to be jointly lost. These are 
 those waies which travail'd with integrity diligence and perseverance 
 shall undoubtedly lead in a direct line to the honour of his Maz^jtie, 
 bring wealth and peace to his people ; put upon this Court the 
 garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness ; and shew those wanton 
 gallants that alwaies fly upon the superior powers that are next 
 them, the necessity, the comfort of being govern'd by and under it. 
 Thus may we walk and not fainte ; thus may we run and not be 
 weary. 
 
 Methinks I hear now the envious viper mordens in silmtio M^hisper 
 there is a great space betwixt promise and performance ; it may be, 
 I confess, the objeccion of wisedom too ; therefore I end all with a 
 suit I have to make, which is that in my particular you will proceed 
 prudently, severely, give no credit to your ears, farther than charity 
 wills, which is to hope the best, but call to witnesse your eyes too ; 
 for I had much rather you should take me from the original life of 
 that faithfulnesse, that diligence, wherewith I shall express myself 
 in your service, than from these weak draughts, these imperfect 
 copies of my words. 
 
 24 Sept. 1632. Viscount Wentworth to the Earl of Carlisle (?) 
 on the case of Sir Richard Foul is, the necessity of keejDing up the 
 King's power, and Wentworth's devotion to this. (From the 
 Forster MSS. at South Kensington, printed by Prof. S. R. 
 Gardiner in The Academy, June 2, 1877.) 
 
 My very good Lord 
 
 As for many your other favours, soe am I infinitely much 
 bownde unto you for the honoure of your lines, see multiplied and 
 
APPENDIX II. 5. LETTER ON SIR R. FOULIS. 297 
 
 with soe highe a hande as I have with one hold receaved three of 
 them from you, thus distant, and thus little able to serve you, an- 
 swearable to ther meritt. 
 
 I must ever acknowledge with all possible comfortt his Ma?Vjtyes 
 goodnesse towardes me in this matter betwixt Sz'r David Fowlis and 
 me, and humbly thanke your herds Aip for the particular and 
 authentike relation I have therof from you ; which well weighing 
 with myself I have been bold to write the inclosed to his Mztestye 
 which will be much graced, if you be pleased to present itt with my 
 humble service to his Mziestj. 
 
 Nor should I have troubled your hords/np hearin, but that you 
 are pleased to take sum small notice of the man ; therfore I beseech 
 your hordsAi-p lett me detaine you a while with a short accompte 
 of this businesse, and espetially what hath paste heare sine the 
 gentlemans cumming from London. 
 
 Sir David Fowlis, a person raysed by the favoure and bownty of 
 the Crowne to a faire and plentifuU fortune, and one I had upon all 
 occasions given the best respectt unto I could, as promising myself 
 helpe and assistance from him, in his MazVi-ties service, it seemed to 
 me marvelouse strange to heare how ill and mutinously affected he 
 was to his Maiestyes rights and government, soe as takinge the 
 reportte either to be mistaken, or to be grownded upon sum 
 personall mallice I gave noe greate beleefe or regarde thereunto : 
 untill this late rioute of his brake forth with such violence and 
 virulence, as might not with my dutye be longer silenced. The 
 particulares would growe tediouse, but in the word of truthe, I 
 take them to be as highly criminall, being only civill, as maybe, 
 nor shall I need to say more for the presentt, saving that he was as 
 insolent after he understoode the whole matter was knowen unto 
 me, as maliciouse and malevolent before ; albeit I confesse you 
 have sent him me downe humbled with a witnesse, a thing ordinary 
 indeed with thos meane natures to becum as low under the cudgill 
 as penitentt^ wheare they pride themselves upon the advantadge 
 grownde. 
 
 The manner of his appearing and intertainment heare was this ; 
 the Counsell and myself sett upon the Commission for Recusantts, 
 my secretary cam to me and tells me S?r David Fowlis was without, 
 desirouse to speake with me, which in good faithe at first I could 
 not beleeve, but being confirmed it was soe, I sent to knowe 
 wheather it was anything concerning his Mamtyes service, or only 
 concerning myself ; if the former, I was ready to speake with him ; 
 if the latter I desired to be excused. His answer was, it was both. 
 Soe I caused him to be brought inn, and being called to the borde, 
 wee saluted him, and desired him to sitt downe at the borde, as 
 being one of the Kings Counsell ; he cam up to me wheare I satt 
 and gave me a very low salute, I told him that the borde was the 
 kings, that he was very wellcum and might sitt downe. 
 
 Sir William Ellis lettinge him knowe we understood he had sum- 
 
 1 sic. ; qucere impenitent ? 
 
298 APPENDIX 11. 5. LETTER ON SIR R. FOULIS. 
 
 thing to acquaint us concerning the kings service, wished him to 
 relate what he had to say. 
 
 S/r Davide then professed he had nothing of that nature to impart 
 unto us, and that he only cam to speake to me in sum things touch- 
 ing our owne privats. 
 
 Then I told him I was gladde when I hearde he had any thing to 
 offer for the service of our Maister, as that which he had never 
 seemed to looke after, sine I had the honoure to serve him in this 
 place, allbeit I had exspected and promised myself as much from him 
 in that nature as from any other : but seeing that it now all termin- 
 ated in pai-ticulares of our owne, the kings bord was noe fitt place 
 for thos discourses ; therfore I desired him to excuse me, the matters 
 betwixt him and me being of such a condition as should not be heard 
 betwixt us privately in a chamber, but must passe the file of his 
 Maz>jties Courtts of Justice, and soe risse,^ went my way and left 
 them. 
 
 This I haue been more induced to relate prescisly to your 'Lord- 
 shi-p, in regarde the condition of the man is to mistake others as 
 much as himself, and to speake with that confidence as if he himself 
 believed he spake the truthe, and that whatever the report be he 
 shall make, that this is squarly and really the truthe. 
 
 My Lor^, you best knowe how much the regall power is be- 
 cummed infirm, by the easye way such have founde, who with rough 
 hands have laid hold upon the flowers of itt, and with unequall and 
 swaggering paces have trampled upon the rights of the Crowne, 
 and how necessary examples are, (as well for the subject as the 
 Soveraigne) to retaine licentious spiritts within the sober boundes of 
 humility and feare. And surely if in any othei-, then in the case of 
 this man, who hath the most wantonly, the most disdainefully de- 
 meaned himself towards his Ma?>j-tye and his Ministers that is 
 possible, so as if he doe not taste of the rodde, itt will be impossible 
 to have his MazVi'ties Counsell heare to be obayed, and should I say 
 lesse weare to bestray the trust my maister hath honoured me with. 
 I heare he cries out of oppression ; soe did my 'Lord Fauconberge 
 too, your Lordship hearde with what reason or truthe ; beleeve me, 
 this man hath more witt, but his cause is soe much worse, as he 
 hath notwithstanding lesse to say for himself; in this, never the 
 lesse, they are tied by the tales togeither that both of them dared 
 to strike the crowne upon my shoulders without being at all con- 
 cerned in my owne interest, or having any other partte to play then 
 such as innocense and patience shall suggest unto me. And truly 
 give me leave to asseure your Lordship I have much reason to 
 carrye my eyes along with me whearever I goe, and to exspectt my 
 actions from the highest to the lowest, shall all be cast into the 
 ballance and tried wheather heavye or lighte. Content in the 
 name of God ! Lett them take me up and cast me downe, if I doe 
 not fall square, and (to use a word of artte) paragon, in every pointe 
 of my duty to my maister : nay, if I doe not fully complie with that 
 
APPENDIX 11. 5. LETTER ON SIR R. FOULIS. 299 
 
 publicke and common protection which good kings afforde their 
 good people, let me perishe, and let no man pitty me. In the 
 meane time none of thes clamours or other apprehensions shall 
 shake me, or cause me to decline my maisters honour and service, 
 therby to please or soothe thes populare frantike humoures, and if I 
 miscarry this way, I shall not, even then, be founde either soe 
 indulgent to myself, or soe narrowly harted towards my maister, as 
 to thinke myself too good to die for him. El deve bastar. 
 
 I confesse indeed S/r Davide shewed himself a wise man in apply- 
 ing to yoz/r 'Lordship as a mediator for him with me, being a noble 
 freinde who I am ambitiouse the world should see hath power as 
 greate and absolute as with any other servantt you have ; and myself 
 as little will to denie any thing you shall move me unto, as is 
 possible ; and therefore am I much bownde to your tender respectt 
 that are pleased only to mention a reconsiliation, rather as a relation 
 of what he would have then as an injunction of your owne, for 
 which I humbly thanke you, for in truthe you had then putt me too 
 a greate straite betwixt my will to obay you, and my care of the 
 kings service, and this government, w/zz'ch I exspectt to finde now 
 in the time of my absence much shaken or much confermed, by the 
 hande men shall observe to be held with this gentleman in the 
 prosecution of this cause, W/^/ch I propose to beginn wz'lh him in 
 that Courtt, itt seames (and w?th good reason) he most feares, 
 having three weekes since taken a subpena forth against him. Only 
 this I will protest to yo/^r \^ordshi\> in the wordes of truth, I have 
 been hithertoo knowen to this gentleman only by curtesyes ; that I 
 beare noe mallice to his person, or att all consider my owne interests 
 in this proceeding (wy^/ch in truth are none att all) but simply the 
 honoure and service of his Ma^Vj-ty, and the seasonable correcting 
 an humoure and libertye I finde raigne in these partts, of observing 
 a superiour commande noe farther than they like themselves, and of 
 questioning any profitt of the Crowne, called upon by his Ma?>j-ties 
 ministers, w/«'ch might inable itt to subsiste of it selfe, without 
 being necessitated to accepte of such conditions, as others might 
 vainly thinke to impose upon itt. Tis true this way is displeasing 
 for the presentt, layes me open to calumnye and hatred, causeth me 
 by sum ill disposed people, to bee, it may be ill reported ; wheare 
 as the contrary would make me passe smothe and still along witVi- 
 out noyse ; but I have not soe learnt my maister, nor am I soe in- 
 dulgent to my own ease, as to see his affaires suffer shipwracke 
 whilste I myself rest secure in harboure. Noe, lett the tempest be 
 never soe greate, I will much rather putt forth to sea, worke forth 
 the storme, or at least be founde deade with the rudder in my 
 handes. And all that I shall desire is that his Ma/<?jty and my 
 other freinds should narrowly observe me, and see if ever I question 
 any man in my owne interests, but whear they are only interlaced 
 as accessoryes, his Ma/Vjties service, and the just aspectte towards 
 the publicke and duty of my place sett before them as principalis. 
 
 But alas, my Y.ord, I weary you extreamly w/^/ch you will please 
 to pardon, being entered a discourse upon a subjectte wA;ch I 
 
300 APPENDIX 11. No. 6. ON SIR R. FOULIS, dfc. 
 
 attende next the saving of a soule, more than all the world besides, 
 and should I lesse take it to hartte I weare of all others the most 
 unthankful! wretche to soe gratiouse a maister. Craving then yont 
 pardon for detaining you thus long, I will redeeme my faulte with 
 as much speed as I may, giving you this unfained testimony and 
 assurance of my being 
 
 Yowr 'Lordship?, most humble and most faithfull servantt, 
 
 Wentworth. 
 Yorke, 24 September, 1632. 
 
 VI. 
 
 24 Oct. 1632. Lord Wentworth to the Earl of Carlisle. His de- 
 votion to the King's cause ; his dislike and censure of Sir David 
 Fowlis ; his appeal for Payler's incest-fine for a Church's pair of 
 Organs. State Papers, Domestic, Chas. I, ccxxiv, 45. 
 
 Yorke, i^th of Octobox 1632. 
 
 My very good Lorde. 
 
 The excesse of your fauoure in sending your footman soe 
 long and wearisum a jurney, I must acknowledge, and contemplate 
 your Xordshiy^?, noblenesse to your absentt seruantts ; soe truly and 
 soe thankfully, as to keepe my self in a« equall temper, (wheareuer 
 god and his MazVi-ty shall bestowe me), to receaue yota commaunds 
 wzth all chearfullnesse, and to fullfill them, wzthall readinesse and 
 care. That his MazVj'tie rests satesfied in the course I hold in this 
 Gouernementt, in my cheefest Exaltation before men, and my 
 fullest contentmentt in my inmost retirementts. And surely I will 
 neuer omitt continually to serue him his owne way, wheare I once 
 vnderstande it ; and wheare that beame leaues me, serue hira the 
 most profitable way, the dimmer lights of my owne iudgmentt 
 shall by any meanes be able to leade me vnto. In this truthe I will 
 liue and die ; all the diuells of Hell, all ther ministers on earth, 
 shall neuer be able to impeatche, or shake itt. 
 
 For S/r dauide Fowlis, the vnfortunate subiectt of partte of my 
 letters of late, when I consider him as a gentleman, that hath re- 
 ceaued sum respects from me, neuer the least iniurye, I pitty him ; 
 when I consider him your Lor^j-/zzps kinsman, in that relation I am 
 hartely sorrye for him and for myself too, that, being soe cordially 
 an honourour of yours and all that depende on you, should thus 
 misaduenturousely light vpon a man, that hath of your blood run- 
 ning in his vaines : yet cannot without much comfortt in myself 
 wzthout much iniurye to you, but obserue the vigoure of your 
 respectt towards me, in thus passing him ouer to a course of Justice, 
 wAz'ch libertye you bestowe vpon me, and w/^/ch I will neuerthelesse 
 exercise w/th such modesty and moderation, as shall shew you I am 
 as farre from drinking a la confusion des personnes, as the frenche 
 man the last summer. When I reade his letter (w/^zch of your 
 goodnesse is communicated wzth me) I finde that insolentt vanitye 
 of his, w^/ch hath brought forth all this trouble, written in capitall 
 letters. He sayth it was to the admiration of all men, I would not 
 
APPENDIX II. No. 6. ON SIR R. FOULIS, a^c. 301 
 
 heare him. Alas, I did heare him and vsed him w/th all ciuility, 
 but ther was a wonder, (catholike enoughe indeed) in all men, to 
 see him see poorely, and meanly humble himself in the same toune, 
 wheare within a iew weekes before he had as insolenttly demeaned 
 himself, I dare confidently say, more insolently, then euer any of 
 his MazVj'ties Counsell heare, and a deputye Lieutenante had dun to 
 the Presidentt, and Kings Lieutenantt. 
 
 But, good man, heare is the ieste, he tells vs, that by taking this 
 businesse into his owne hande, his MazV^tye shall make a purchaise 
 of him ; a purchaise weth a witnesse, soe clogged wz'th wretched 
 wofull incumbrances as makes it nothing worthe. He will leade 
 and perswade others, he will by his example much better the kings 
 seruice, leaues it to be considered by the beste affected how much 
 his disgrace might hurtt his Maz>^tyes seruice. Lord, wz'th Esopes 
 flie vpon the axeltree of the wheele, what a dust he makes ? whear 
 are thos he can leade or persuade ? take him out of the Commission 
 of the Peace, (the instrument of terroure by which he pulled them 
 on along wz'th him by the noses), he gouerned himself wzth such 
 exactte pride and distemper amongst them, that in good faith I 
 verely beleeue that ther are not halfe a score, that would either 
 followe or be perswaded by him. as for his example of life, itt was 
 soe vertuouse, or so viciouse, as I beleeue wee might finde hundreths 
 scandalled sooner, then one betterd by it. and surely if he leaue it 
 to be considered by the best affected, ther verdict willbe, his MazVjtye 
 shall contribute more to his owne auctority, by making him an ex- 
 ample of his iustice, then can possibly be gained by taking him inn 
 againe. But this is an arrogance growen frequent now adayes, 
 w/??ch I cannot indure, euery ordinary man must putt himself in 
 ballance wz'th the king, as if it weare a measuring cast, betwixt 
 them, whoe weare like to proue the greater loosers vpon the parting, 
 let me then cast this graine of truthe inn, and it shall turn the Scale. 
 Silly wretches, let vs not deceaue our selues, the kings seruice can- 
 not suffer by the disgrace of him and me and forty more such, the 
 grownde whearvpon gouernment standes will not soe easilye be 
 washed away, soe as the sooner wee vnfoole ourselues of this 
 errore, the sooner wee shall learne to know our selues, and shake 
 of that self pride w///ch hath to our owne esteeme, represented vs 
 much bigger, more considerable, then in deed ther is cause for. 
 
 But the world will speake of his sufferings, who hath dun soe 
 inuch seruice for the Crowne, and that a submission, w/th a sure 
 promise to amende willbe more honorable, his sufferings are not 
 like to be other, then such as shallbe measured forth vnto him by 
 the equall and streighte rule of Iustice, and then who can he faulte 
 but himself? what he hath merited of the Crowne in former times I 
 knowe not, but I am sure it is visible he hath serued himself to a 
 faire fortune by the meanes of the crowne, and that of late sine I 
 cam heather, I haue hearde of many disseruices, but not any one 
 seruice he hath paid backe vnto the Crowne. It is true indeed he 
 hath been content to bagge vp fiue or sixe thousande poundes of the 
 Kings money, kept itt close in his stomacke this twenty yeares, in 
 
302 APPENDIX IL No. 7. ON SIR PIERS CROSBY. 
 
 plaine termes cheated the king of it, and now it seemes, that Spiritt 
 being cuniured forth of his pockett againe, he bound to pay it inn ; 
 hath occasioned all this foule wheather w/^/ch he hath blowen vpon 
 other the innocent Ministers of his Maz>j-ty in other remote quarters, 
 not daring to breathe the least blaste of it vpon thos taller Cedars, 
 that had soe ouerlooked him as to finde him out when he least 
 dreamt of it. And for his sure promise of amends, trust him that 
 list, for he that hath falsified all thos great obligations, let him self 
 loosse from thos strongest bonds of Loue and thankfullnesse, I shall 
 neuer flatter my self to hold him faste by the sliperye ties of feare and 
 strained professions ; and soe I leaue him, and buy or purchaise him 
 that lists, for my partte he shall neuer cost me farthing, or a line 
 more Laboure. 
 
 My lor^, hear was one Payler fined by the hie Commission looo/z. 
 for an incest, this fine, vpon a sute of this Churche was by his 
 Ma2<?J-ty bestowed vpon them, for buying a paire of Organs, adorning 
 the Altar, and such sacred vses. you may be informed by the in- 
 closed how, and by whom it is indeuoured to be carried an other 
 way. Good my lor^, be soe farre a Patron to this Churche, as if 
 you heare any thing of it, cast in a worde to conferme his Ma;>J-ty in 
 soe gratiouse and a piouse an intention. I will detaine yoz/r Xord- 
 shi-^ noe longer then in all truthe to asseure you that I am, 
 
 Youx lordships, most faithfull most humble seruantt 
 
 Wentworth. 
 
 (Endorsed) L^//re Lcrd Wentworth to the Earle of Carlisle, 
 Yorke, 24th October, 1632. 
 
 VII. 
 
 12 April 1639. Viscount Wentworth to Chief Justice Sir John 
 Bramston on his (Lord W.'s) suit against Sir Piers Crosby. 
 (Printed in the Newbery House Magazine, from the original in 
 the possession of Mrs. Bramston. ) 
 
 My very good Lord, 
 
 The cause betwixt S/r Piers Crosby others and myselfe, 
 is now at last to fall in Judgment before yo?^r L^^rd^/zzps in the 
 Starr Chamber towards the beginning of this next Terme. And 
 then I trust, by God's Grace, to be quitt from one of the most 
 impudent and false Conspiracys that, as I think, was ever hatched 
 against soe great a Minister as the Deputy of Irelande is, how 
 meane soever my person in my private Capacity should be. And 
 sure, when I Consider how wickedly I have been delt wz'th-all, it 
 has been God's Great Goodness : not any Innocency or Providence 
 of my owne that hath delivered me out of their hands. For I con- 
 fesse it never fell into my thoughts that any man Could have beene 
 soe wicked, as to have sworne that I either hurt or Struck Esmond, 
 being soe notoriously and prodigeously false as, had not y^ De- 
 fendants pleading not guilty, brought the Publishing of y^ Scandall 
 
APPENDIX II. No. 7. ON SIR PIERS CROSBY. 303 
 
 to be only in Issue amonst us, I had been able to have fully dis- 
 proved that Single Knight of the Post suborned against me by (I 
 daresay) a dozen witnesses of Credit at least, as I have allready in 
 the books by His MarV^ties Secretary of State, and another, though 
 my Stevi^arde, yet an Approved Honest and Faithful! person ; and 
 verily, my Lord, I on this Good Friday (a Day whereon it pleased 
 God to bring me forth into this world, and the Eternall Sonn of the 
 Father died for the Sinnes of this world). Renounce all the Blessings 
 of this Passion, if ever 1 did, or had it in my thought, to strike 
 Esmonde ; And when y^ poore wand [shall be shewen in Court 
 whervvz'th I must have beaten the man to death, the impudent 
 untruth will further appeare unto you. But all this is extra-iuditiall, 
 and therefore I will trouble you noe further, only become an humble 
 Suitour that your Lcrdi-/^?p will be at the hearing of the Cause, and 
 there Afford me the Justice that in Honour & Truth youx L(?rd^/^rp 
 will iudge me worthy of My Lord, I wish yo?<r Lord^/^z'p all 
 increase of Greatnesse and Happynesse, allways remaining 
 Your L^rdj/«ps very faithfull humble servant, 
 
 Wentworth. 
 Fairwood Parke, 12th 0/ April 1639. 
 
304 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 By Mr. B. SAGAR. 
 
 Abbot, Archbishop, concerning 
 his disgrace at court, 49 
 
 Absolute Government," Ireland 
 to be the scene of " an, 109 
 
 Admiration," calculated to "be- 
 get an awful, 79 
 
 Advice to his nephew (Want- 
 worth's), 65 
 
 "Anagram of a good face," — 
 Wentworth quotes Donne's, in 
 a dispatch to Laud, 205 
 
 Annesley, Mr., an attendant of 
 Wentworth's, accidentally 
 
 drops a stool on Wentworth's 
 gouty foot, 192 
 
 Antrim," Earl of, "a foolish," 
 whom Charles sends to "assist " 
 Wentworth, 219 
 
 Apostacy, "much good wrath is 
 thrown away on what is usually 
 called ; 61 
 
 Appearance, personal, Went- 
 worth's, 127 
 
 Appendix I. — Wentworth's dis- 
 patch to Charles on his (Went- 
 worth's) humble opinion con- 
 cerning parliament in Ireland, 
 279—85 ; ditto II. selected 
 papers and letters by Went- 
 worth, 287 — 302 
 
 Aristocracy, Wentworth's policy 
 of opposition to the, 172 
 
 Armagh, the Bishop of, is with 
 Strafiford on the scaffold, 276 
 
 Army, Condition of the Irish, 
 100 ; Wentworth turns his 
 attention to, 175 
 
 Arundel, Earl of, his presence at 
 Strafford's trial, as high-con- 
 stable of England, 244 
 
 Atkinson, Mr. Robert, the Earl's 
 grandfather, i 
 
 Bacon, Sir Francis, appeals for 
 the due administration of 
 justice in the courts, 12; pre- 
 vails on the King to summon 
 another (his second) parliament, 
 
 17 
 Baillie, on Strafford's approach 
 and entry into the House at 
 the time of his impeachment, 
 240 ; his report of Charles's 
 presence at the trial, 242, 251, 
 252, 260 
 Balfour, Lord, 112, 113 
 Baltimore, Lord, letter to Went- 
 worth, 50, 51 
 Bates, a merchant, refusing to pay 
 duties to James I., is refused 
 justice by the judges, 12 
 Beaumont, Sir Richard, 39 
 Bellasis, Sir Henry, 69 ; his 
 
 insult to Wentworth, 85-6 
 Benevolences," exaction of, 29 
 
 Bens, "Prynnes, Pims, and ," 
 
 21, 161 
 Bishoprics, the value of Irish, 
 
 169 
 Bouchier, Sir John, 113 
 Boynton, Sir Matthew, 71 
 Brodie, Mr., History of British 
 Empire, 19, 24, 25, 94, 117; 
 on the heaviness of Went- 
 
INDEX, 
 
 305 
 
 worth's (Strafford's) dispatches, 
 
 234 
 
 Browning, helped Forster in Life 
 of Strafford, v — x ; Letter of, 
 viii ; Browning Societies, Lon- 
 don and Boston, xi 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of, 26-7 ; his 
 influence over Charles, 38 ; 
 makes Wentworth Sheriff of 
 Yorkshire, 40 ; clearly, strongly 
 disliked Wentworth, xviii, 48 ; 
 his objections to Wentworth are 
 set aside, 58 ; his death referred 
 to, 58, 60 ; his assassination 
 by Felton, 81 ; letter to, from 
 Wentworth, urging his claim 
 to retain his place of Ct(stos 
 Rotulorum, Appendix IL, 287 ; 
 his death, xxiii 
 
 Burnet, note by, on the trial, 
 267 
 
 Butler, George, a friend of Went- 
 worth's, is written to by him, 
 on earthly rewards and punish- 
 ments, 204 
 
 Calvert, Sir George, 28, 34 ; 
 Mr. Secretary, xvii, 69, 71, 72 
 
 Carleton, Secretary, tells Straf- 
 ford, the King has assented to 
 his death, 272 
 
 Carlisle, Earl of, Wentworth's 
 letter to, on the case of Sir 
 David Foulis, &c., App. IL, 
 296 ; and his letter to the same 
 on his (Wentworth's) devotion 
 to the Crown, &c., 300 
 
 Carlisle, Lady, wife of the Earl 
 of Carlisle, had secretly become 
 Wentworth's mistress, Ixvii, 
 Ixviii, 118; one of the "favour- 
 ites" of Wentworth, 124; her 
 characteristics, 129; Dryden 
 and Waller on, 129 ; Lord 
 Conway may show to her a 
 letter of Wentworth referring 
 to some "merry tale," 213 
 
 Carne, Mr., 69 
 
 Cato Censorius, Wentworth's 
 queried title for himself, 195 
 
 Cattermole, Mr., "my friend 
 
 ," the artist, referred to, 
 
 240 
 
 Cecil tries to effect compromise 
 with the Commons ; presses for 
 subsidies, 14 ; his exorbitant 
 demands, 15 ; destroys the 
 foreign policy of the govern- 
 ment, 30 
 
 Ceremonial, Court, Wentworth 
 institutes, in Dublin, 135 
 
 Charles L ascends the throne, 
 38 ; is favourably inclined to 
 Wentworth, 40 ; his liberal 
 bestowment of honours in Ire- 
 land, 79 ; his revenue increased 
 by Wentworth's administration 
 in Yorkshire, 95 ; re-models his 
 counsels consequent on Went- 
 worth's success in the northern 
 presidency, 97-8 ; his scheme 
 for governing the three divisions 
 of the kingdom, 98 ; offers 
 Wentworth the government of 
 Ireland, which he accepts, 98 ; 
 sends Falkland to Dublin, 100 ; 
 his hatred of parliaments, loi ; 
 his order to the Lords Justices 
 of Ireland on Wentworth's 
 appointment, 104; his weak- 
 ness and insincerity distrusted 
 by Wentworth, 137 ; his aver- 
 sions to parliaments, 142-4 ; 
 Wentworth's dispatch to the 
 issue of second parliament ses- 
 sion, 160 ; refuses an earldom 
 to Wentworth, 172-3; shows 
 signs of wishing to discontinue 
 the Irish parliament, 189 ; 
 Wentworth's dispatch to, 011 
 ship-money, 203 ; refuses for 
 second time to make Went- 
 worth an eaid, 203 ; becomes 
 more under the influence of the 
 Queen, who is against Went- 
 worth, 208 ; grudges to Laud 
 Wentworth's share of profit 
 from the Irish customs, 211 ; 
 whilst secretly authorizing 
 Wentworth's acts of despotism, 
 X 
 
3o6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 he was known to be against 
 their author — writes to Laud 
 thereon, 214-5 ; meditates a 
 war with Spain for the re- 
 covery of the palatinate, but 
 is dissuaded therefrom by 
 Wentworth, 215 ; finds that 
 Wentworth is his great hope, 
 and determines to have him 
 with him in England, 220; 
 unsolicited, he invests Went- 
 worth with an earldom, 226 ; 
 his anxiety respecting Straf- 
 ford's health, 236'; appoints 
 him to command against the 
 Scots, 236 ; orders Strafford to 
 cease' operations, and summons 
 a new parliament, 232 ; assures 
 Strafford that "not a hair of 
 his head shall be touched," 
 239 ; failure of some prelimi- 
 nary negotiations by Charles 
 for the rescue of Strafford, 243 ; 
 writes Strafford that he "shall 
 not suffer in life, honour, or 
 fortune," 1, 252 ; addresses the 
 Lords on Strafford's guilt, 
 264-5 5 proposes to the Lords, 
 after having signed the bill of 
 attainder, to have Strafford 
 imprisoned for life, 268 ; gives 
 way to public opinion, li ; on 
 Charles's conduct throughout, 
 269-70 ; his conduct was " in- 
 credibly monstrous," 272 ; pub- 
 lic morality in his reign, ix 
 
 Chaucer, was evidently one of 
 Wentworth's favourite poets, 
 196-7 
 
 Chichester, Lord, 117 
 
 Cholmondeley, Lady, 118 
 
 Church courts, rigour of, in Ire- 
 land, 99 
 
 Circumstance, the prism of, re- 
 marks on the nature and effects 
 of, 61 
 
 Clanricarde, Lord, his death 
 "from a broken heart," 199 
 
 Clare, Earl of (his father-in- 
 law), 38, 41, 68 
 
 Clare, Lady, his mother-in-law, 
 desires to take charge of his 
 elder girl, letter to, thereon, 
 and on his children generally, 
 220, 225 
 
 Clare, Lord, Strafford's brother- 
 in-law, his opinion on the dis- 
 pute between Wentworth and 
 Mountnorris, 194 ; his sug- 
 gested meaning of the vital 
 words "his kingdom," during 
 the trial, 257 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, on Strafford's 
 health, 236-7 ; and on his 
 march northwards against the 
 Scots, 238-9 
 
 Clark, Baron, law-lord of James 
 L, 12 
 
 Cleveland, the Earl of, Went- 
 worth's cousin, letter to, on Sir 
 D. Foulis, 91 ; is with Straf- 
 ford on the scaffold, 276 
 
 Clifford, Lord, brother-in-law of 
 Wentworth, 31, 50, 71, 72 
 
 Coat-and-conduct money, xli 
 
 Coke, Sir Edward, 30 ; the dis- 
 grace of, 30, 41, 42 
 
 Cole, Sir William, " mutinies the 
 country against the King's 
 service," 1 14 
 
 Commissioners for the forced 
 Loan, Wentworth's letter to, 
 he is too ill to attend them at 
 York, 291 
 
 "Conquered Country," Ireland 
 a, 142, 154 
 
 Consistency, Wentworth '''"was 
 consistent to hi?nself through- 
 oiit,^^ 60 
 
 Conway, Lord, on Lady Carlisle 
 and the court, 129-30; to 
 Wentworth, on his gout, sends 
 him the Duke of Rohan's book 
 Le parfait Capitaine, and is 
 cognisant of Wentworth's " in- 
 trigues," 213; Wentworth's 
 letter to, asking for the place of 
 Lord President of the North, 
 290 ; defeated at Newburn, 
 xl 
 
INDEX. 
 
 307 
 
 Conway, Sir Edward, letter to, 
 from Wentworth, 32 
 
 Cooke, Mr. Secretary, letter to, 
 20 ; presses for subsidies, 56 ; 
 letter to, on patience, &c., 67 ; 
 Wentworth's letter to, on Sir 
 D. Foulis, 91 ; to Wentworth 
 on his powers, &c., in Ireland, 
 112 ; Wentworth writes to, on 
 an Irish parliament, 145, 
 158-59 ; diligently supplies 
 Wentworth with information, 
 176; Wentworth to, on the 
 case of Mountnorris, 195-6 
 
 Cork, Earl of. Lord High 
 Treasurer of Ireland, rigorous 
 oppressor of the Roman Catho- 
 lics, 103 ; Strafford's feuds with 
 him, Iviii — Ixii ; is reprimand- 
 ed for neglect by Wentworth, 
 108 ; Wentworth destroys the 
 family tomb of, 165 ; is com- 
 pelled by Wentworth to "re- 
 store" an annual value of 
 ;^2000, 171 
 
 Cottington, Chancellor of Ex- 
 chequer, Wentworth's practise 
 of sending duplicate dispatches 
 to, 68, 85, 88, 90, 113 ; Went- 
 worth writes to, on Irish 
 sport, 159 ; Wentworth to, on 
 Charles's refusing him an earl- 
 dom, 174 ; letter to Wentworth, 
 176 ; on Weston's death, 178 ; 
 on the Mountnorris incident, 
 198 ; gives to Charles ;,^6ooo, 
 as "purchase-money" for the 
 succession to Mountnorris's 
 offices, 199, 226 
 
 Court of high commission, 
 Wentworth introduces, into 
 Ireland, 165 
 
 Cowell, Dr., book by, urging 
 monstrous doctrines on the 
 subject of kingly power, and 
 the suppression of the book, 
 
 I3» 14 
 Croker, Mr., Crofton's, transla- 
 tion of some French travels 
 bearing on state of Ireland, 
 
 157 ; his MSS. quoted, on 
 Wentworth's palatial residence, 
 210 
 
 Crosby, Sir Piers, Wentworth's 
 sneer at him, 197 
 
 Cumberland, Earl of, his father- 
 in-law, 4 
 
 Cunctative, Wentworth will be 
 
 "very and cautious," in 
 
 the business of an Irish parlia- 
 ment, 145 
 
 Custos Rotulorum, 25, 26, 44-5, 
 287, 289 
 
 D'Arcy, Lord, letter to, from 
 Wentworth on the dissolution 
 of second parliament, 32 
 
 Darcy, Sir Francis, 73 
 
 Despot, Wentworth was a, 138, 
 165 
 
 Digby, Lord, on Strafford's 
 offences, 264 
 
 Discord, theological, in Ireland, 
 
 99 
 Dispossession of Irish proprietors 
 
 of estates, loi 
 Donne, Dr., Wentworth is 
 
 "amazingly fond of his 
 
 poetry," and has copies sent to 
 
 him in Ireland, 188, 196-7 ; 
 
 his " anagram of a good face," 
 
 205 
 Drunkenness has largely increased 
 
 in Ireland, 213; is strongly 
 
 condemned by Wentworth, 
 
 214 
 Dryden, the poet, called Lady 
 
 Carlisle the " Helen of her 
 
 country," 129 
 
 Ears cut off, as punishment to 
 Puritans, 168 
 
 Eliot (Sir John?), 33; success- 
 fully opposes Wentworth's 
 election for Yorkshire, 39 ; 
 proposes impeachment of Buck- 
 ingham, 40 ; Wentworth refers 
 to him in a letter to Secretary 
 Cooke, 227; "noble imagin- 
 ings," 278 
 
3o8 
 
 Ellesmere, Lord-Chancellor, 25 
 
 Ely, Viscount, Lord-Chancellor 
 of Ireland, his rigorous op- 
 pression of the Roman Catho- 
 lics, 103 ; reprimanded by 
 Wentworth, 108 
 
 Epsley, Gabriel, hawks with 
 Wentworth, 159 
 
 Error, the "fatal state error" of 
 abruptly dissolving the parlia- 
 ment of 1640, 236 
 
 Excise, an object of mortal hatred 
 with the L-ish, i?o 
 
 Exeter, Earl of, letter to, by 
 Wentworth, 127 
 
 Ezzelin, at this time, changed 
 totally his disposition, 61 
 (what of Sordello T) 
 
 Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 26 ; Went- 
 worth writes to, respecting 
 standing as Knight of the 
 Shire, 72 
 
 Falkland, Lord, is sent by 
 Charles to Dublin, lOO; returns 
 to England, 103, 117 
 
 Faulconberg, Lord, Wentworth's 
 treatment of his son, 85-6, 
 114, 116, 173 
 
 Felton, — , assassinator of Duke 
 of Buckingham, 81 
 
 Fidelity, Wentworth's, to his 
 wives, 126 
 
 Finch acts as "go-between," 
 58 
 
 Fingal, Earl of, protests against 
 Wentworth's projected mea- 
 sures, 153 
 
 Flax, Wentworth grows and 
 manufactures at his own costs, 
 182 
 
 Fleming, Baron, law lord of 
 James L, 12 
 
 Fonsail, Lord of, joins Went- 
 worth in his hawking party, 159 
 
 Forster, Richard, workman on 
 Wentworth's Yorkshire estates, 
 185 
 
 Forster's Life of Strafford, v — • 
 ix ; Life of Eliot, xiii 
 
 LNDEX. 
 
 Foulis, Sir David, seeks to im- 
 pair the royal power, xxv ; his 
 action towards Wentworth, 86- 
 7, 88—90 
 
 France, a conclusion of peace 
 with, and Spain, 98 
 
 Frecheville, Sir Peter's letter 
 to the Earl's father on his 
 knighthood, 4 
 
 Friendship.s of statesmen, 162 
 
 Galway, the Sheriff of, his death 
 attributed to Wentworth's im- 
 prisonment of him, 199 
 
 Gardiner, Prof., vi — viii, xi 
 
 Garrard, Rev. Mr., a "gossiping 
 person," Wentworth hires as a 
 retainer to furnish him with 
 gossip, 134 ; Wentworth's 
 "newsmonger," 166, 177, 188 ; 
 quotes Donne to Wentworth, 
 197 
 
 Genius, Wentworth's, perverted 
 by birth and education, 162 
 
 Gififord, Sir John, brings a suit 
 against the Lord Chancellor, 
 212 
 
 Gookin, Sir Vincent, the case of, 
 161 
 
 Gore, Sir Thomas, 173 
 
 Gower, vSir Thomas, high sheriff 
 of York, 69 
 
 Graces, all the, prejudicial to 
 the crown are laid " sound 
 asleep," 160 
 
 Grandison, Lord, 117 
 
 Greenwood, Mr. ( ? per p. 19) 
 Charles, the Earl's tutor, 3, 5, 
 19 ; a letter by Wentworth to, 
 21, 22, 92 ; Wentworth writes 
 to, respecting conduct of his 
 Yorkshire estates, 185 
 
 Grievances, redress of Irish, 
 1 00- 1 
 
 Habeas Corpus, the Commons 
 complain of delay in granting 
 writs of, 14 
 
 Hncket, his wrong account of 
 Wentworth, 59 
 
INDEX. 
 
 309 
 
 Hakewill opposes Sir Francis 
 Bacon's appeal for the due 
 administration of justice, 12- 
 
 Hamilton, Marquis of, is governor 
 for Scotland under Charles's 
 scheme, 98, 226, 237 
 
 Hampden, 33 ; Wentworth 
 wishes he and others well 
 whipped into their right senses, 
 207 
 
 Haughton, Lord, letter to Went- 
 worth, 50 
 
 Henry IV. (of France) assassin- 
 ated, 5 
 
 Hesilrige, Sir Arthur, introduces 
 Strafford's Bill of Attainder, 
 xlviii 
 
 Heylin, his wrong account of 
 Wentworth, 59 
 
 High treason, Strafford is im- 
 peached of, by Pym, 240 
 
 Holland, Lord, the Queen's 
 favourite counsellor, insinuates 
 Wentworth is subject to oc- 
 casional touches of madness, 
 208 ; intrigues against Strafford, 
 
 237 
 
 Hollis, Arabella, Wentworth's 
 second wife, 38 ; her second 
 accouchement, a daughter, 52 ; 
 presents Wentworth with his 
 
 . second son and third child, 
 93 ; ditto, his fourth child and 
 second daughter, 94 ; her death, 
 
 94 
 
 Hollis, Denzil, 38, 52; (Straf- 
 ford's brother-in-law) is con- 
 sulted by, and advises with, the 
 King on Strafford's parliament, 
 267 
 
 Houses of Parliament, riotous 
 scene, xlvii, xlviii 
 
 Howelliancp, Epistola, extract 
 from, on Wentworth's being 
 made Viscount, 78 
 
 Hutton, Sir Richard, letter to 
 Wentworth on his Viscount- 
 ship, 81 
 
 " Hypochondriack humours," 
 
 Wentworth to Charles on his, 
 
 208-9 
 
 "Ifs," Laud's rejoinder to Went- 
 worth's, "if this, that, and the 
 other," 163-4 
 
 Impeached, Strafford is, for 
 high treason by Pym, 240 
 
 Impeachment, privilege of, 
 wrested from (Irish) Lords and 
 Commons, 161 
 
 "Impositions," bill against, 
 passed by the Commons, re- 
 jected by the Lords, 13 
 
 Incest, one Padley is fined ;({^iooo 
 for, Appendix II., 302 
 
 Ingram, Sir Arthur, 40, 73 
 
 Intrigue, Wentworth was a 
 man of, 123 
 
 Intrigues arise against Wentworth 
 at Court, 94, 96 
 
 Ireland, Wentworth accepts the 
 government of, from Charles, 
 98 ; general condition of, at 
 this time, 98 — 100 ; condition 
 of its army, 100; voluntary 
 money contributions offered to 
 Charles, loi ; which were 
 subsequently declared an intol- 
 erable burthen, 102 ; Lord 
 Falkland, driven from power, 
 returned to England, 103 ; the 
 scene of an absolute govern- 
 ment, 109 ; departures of 
 nobility from, without license, 
 prohibited, 139 ; a "conquered 
 country," 142; Wentworth's 
 Irish parliament assembles, 
 July, 1634, 154 ; his advice 
 to it, xxiv, xxix ; the Irish 
 army improved by Wentworth, 
 175 ; great increase in receipts 
 from customs, 179 ; tobacco is 
 taxed, brewing also, 180 ; a 
 mint is erected in, 180 ; manu- 
 facture of flax and hemp en- 
 couraged, 181 ; the annual 
 revenue exceeds expenditure 
 by ;^6o,ooo, 184 ; Connaughr, 
 Mayo, and Sligo are juggled 
 
3IO 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 into the absolute possession of 
 the crown, 190-1 ; Wentworth 
 .leaves Ireland temporarily in 
 charge of Wandesford, 199; he 
 returns thereto, 206 ; drunken- 
 ness becomes epidemic in, 213 ; 
 Wentworth's dispatch to Charles 
 concerning a parliament in 
 Ireland, is the Appendix I., 
 279, 285 
 
 James I.'s accession to the English 
 throne, his shrewdness and per- 
 sonal characteristics, ix, 6, 7 ; 
 his counterblast to toljacco, &c., 
 7 ; his personal appearance, 
 8,9; his first proclamation for 
 the assembly of parliament, 9 ; 
 is warned of his imprudence, 
 &c., 9 ; he had no clear here- 
 ditary right to the crown, 90 ; 
 declared himself ' ' a vice-regent 
 of God," 10 ; his constant 
 wrangles with the Commons, 
 10 — 14 ; his '* exquisite phil- 
 osophy," 16 ; his court, its 
 profligacy, the ladies of, their 
 laxity of virtue and drunken- 
 ness, 16 ; dissolution of his 
 first parliament, 16 ; his second 
 parliament, 1621, 29 ; dissolves 
 his second parliament, 31 ; his 
 hunting at Rufford, 35 ; his 
 death not mentioned^ about, 
 
 37,38 
 
 Jones, Inigo,, Wentworth van- 
 quishes in a discussion on archi- 
 tecture, 188 
 
 Journals of the parliamentary 
 session (1610-11?), loss of, 15 
 
 Juggarstowne Castle, the palatial 
 residence of Wentworth, 210 
 
 Junto, the name given to the 
 council formed of Wentworth, 
 Laud and Hamilton, 225 
 
 Juxon, Bishop of Durham, is 
 appointed Lord Treasurer in 
 place of Weston, deceased, 
 178 ; is present at the council 
 which decided to call an 
 
 English parliament on the 
 Scots affairs, 226 
 
 Killala, Bishop of, is reprimanded 
 by Wentworth for defrauding 
 his see, 171 
 
 Knight service, tenure by, is 
 retained, 15 
 
 Knights, hereditary, created, 16 
 
 Lake, Sir Thomas, 73 
 
 Laud, Wentworth sends duplicate 
 dispatches to, 68 ; his rising 
 influence with Charles L, 82; 
 his letters to Strafford, Ixvi ; 
 Wentworth's letter to, on Sir 
 David Foulis, 90 ; is the 
 minister governing England 
 under Charles's scheme, 98 ; 
 letter to Wentworth on his 
 third marriage, 122 ; is made 
 archbishop, 133 ; on the re- 
 ceipt of Wentworth's dis- 
 patch, 152; sincere in his 
 counsels to Charles, 161-2; 
 his friendship for Wentworth, 
 162 ; his horrible persecutions 
 of the Puritans, 166 ; appoints 
 Juxon, Bishop of Durham, to 
 be Lord Treasurer, 178; 
 cautions Wentworth against 
 the enmity of Mountnorris, 
 198 ; Wentworth writes to, 
 respecting his second applica- 
 tion for an earldom, 203 ; Went- 
 worth to, on Hampden and 
 others, 207 ; refers Wentworth 
 to the Book of Ecclesiastes on 
 his earldom disappointment, 
 206 ; Wentworth to, on the 
 state of his health, 209 ; on 
 Wentworth's sporting pro- 
 clivities, 212 ; is present at the 
 council which decided to call 
 an English parliament concern- 
 ing the Scots affair, 226 ; is 
 in prison, stripped of his 
 power, at time of Strafford's 
 trial, 255 ; sees Strafford pass 
 to his execution, 275 
 
INDEX. 
 
 311 
 
 Lawyers, the Irish common, re- 
 ceive proofs of Wentworth's 
 "care," 174 
 
 Layton, Sir Thomas, his action 
 towards Wentworth, 87, 89, 
 90 
 
 Leicester, Earl of, congratulates 
 Wentworth on his third mar- 
 riage, 122 
 
 Leighton, a Scotch divine, is 
 horribly mutilated for " con- 
 science sake," 166 
 
 Leland, History of Ireland, re- 
 ferred to, on the insecurity of 
 tenure in Ireland, loi 
 
 Levities, Wentworth's, 124 
 
 Life, the intensity of, not its 
 duration, is the real test, 197-8 
 
 Lindsey, Earl of, is at Strafford's 
 trial, as high-steward of Eng- 
 land, 244 
 
 Linen-clothing, Wentworth is 
 anxious to set up a trade of, 
 in Ireland, 183 
 
 Loan, Commissioners for the 
 forced, Wentworth's letter to, 
 291 ; loan refused by City of 
 London, xli 
 
 Loftus, Lady, sues the Lord 
 Chancellor, through Sir John 
 Giffard and Sir Francis Ruishe, 
 for an "increase of portion," 
 212; her parentage, Ixix ; 
 death, Ixx 
 
 Loftus, Lord Chancellor, dis- 
 agrees with Strafford, Ixx ; is 
 deprived of the seals, and con- 
 demned to prison, 214 
 
 Loftus, Sir Adam, proposes 
 continuation of voluntary con- 
 tributions in Ireland, 140 ; per- 
 suades the (Irish) privy council 
 to grant two subsidies, 156 ; 
 Wentworth intends him to 
 have Mountnorris's offices, 199 
 
 Loftus, Sir R., is one of those who 
 try and judge Lord Mount- 
 norris, 193 
 
 Lords, a party in the, favourable 
 to Strafford, xlix 
 
 MacDiarmid, Mr. {Lives of 
 British Statesmen), 4, 17 ; 
 an error of his indicated, 94 ; 
 his summary of Wentworth's 
 financial measures quoted, 206 ; 
 is mistaken as to the lady 
 suing the Lord Chancellor for 
 increase of portion, 212; on 
 Strafford's trial, 250 
 
 Madness, Lord Holland insinu- 
 ates Wentworth is subject to 
 occasional touches of, 208 
 
 Man, Pieter, 187 
 
 Mansfield, Lord, his letter to 
 Wentworth on Buckingham, 
 48 
 
 Margaret, daughter of Earl of 
 Cumberland, her marriage with 
 the Earl in 161 1, 4 ; her death, 
 32 
 
 Marriage-bed, fidelity to, 123 
 
 Marris, Richard, Wentworth's 
 steward in Yorkshire, 185 
 
 Maxwell, James, keeper of the 
 Black Rod, demands and re- 
 ceives Strafford's sword, 240 
 
 May, the historian, on Went- 
 worth's return to England, 225 ; 
 on the state of feeling during 
 the trial, 256 
 
 Monasteries, the scheme for the 
 suppression of, under Henry 
 VIIL, 82 
 
 Moore, Lord, is one of the coun- 
 cillors who try Lord Mount- 
 norris, 193 
 
 Mountjoy's, Lord, suppression of 
 the Irish chiefs, 99 
 
 Mountnorris, Lord, vice-treasurer 
 of Ireland, 116; his comment 
 respecting the stool dropping 
 incident, his trial, and his 
 punishment therefor, 193-4 
 
 Mutilation, horrible, of Leigh- 
 ton, a Scotch divine, 166 
 
 Naas, Wentworth purposes to 
 build a palace there for Charles, 
 210 
 
312 
 
 INDEX.' 
 
 Nalson, 228 ; on Strafford's trial, 
 
 248, 250-51 
 Napoleon I,, Browning refers to 
 
 his anger, 67 
 Newburgh, Lord, busies himself 
 
 to promote a pi-otege in the 
 
 Irish army, 80 
 Newcastle, Earl of, Wentworth's 
 
 letter to, on Weston's death, 
 
 177, 178 
 Northumberland, Lord, Lord 
 
 Conway is authorized to show a 
 
 letter of Wentworth's to, 213 ; 
 
 appointed to command against 
 
 Scotland, but is too ill to act, 
 
 236 
 
 O'Byrnes, the Wicklow family of, 
 Wentworth extracts ;,^i5,ooo 
 from them, 206 
 
 Ormond, Earl of (the young), 
 insists on carrying his sword, 
 157 
 
 Osborne, Edward, selected by 
 Wentworth as his vice-presi- 
 dent, 113 
 
 Overbury, death of, 30 
 
 Palatine, Prince, xix 
 
 Pale, lords of the, claim right 
 of being consulted respecting 
 Wentworth's projected Irish 
 measures, 153 
 
 Pan, " Pleasures in the court of 
 
 Charles I. was a god ," 
 
 125 
 
 Parliaments, according to Charles, 
 are of the nature of cats, they 
 grow cursed with age, 189 
 
 Parsons, Sir William, his opinion 
 on the voluntary contributions, 
 141 
 
 Patents of monopolies, remon- 
 strated against, 14 
 
 Patronage, Wentworth requests 
 
 the rendering matters of , 
 
 &c., into his own hands, 161 
 
 Peace, a conclusion of, with 
 France and Spain, 98 
 
 Peerage, honours of the, sold, i6 
 
 Pennyman, Sir William, is en- 
 trusted with the care of Went- 
 worth's children, 92 
 
 "Peril of my head, at," Went- 
 worth's frequent use of this 
 phrase, 144, 164 
 
 Petition of Right, xxii 
 
 Philips, Sir Robert, 41, 42 
 
 "Pims," "Prynnes, , and 
 
 Bens," 161 
 
 Pirates, the Irish Channel in- 
 fected with, 133 
 
 Plumleigh, Captain (marine), 112, 
 
 133 
 
 Pontefract, borough of, is secured 
 as a seat for Wentworth, 39 
 
 Power, abstract veneration for, 
 Wentworth's, 64 ; the great 
 law of Wentworth's being, 144 
 
 Powis, Lord, his remark on 
 Wentworth's being made Vis- 
 count, 78 
 
 Poynings, Sir Edward, governor 
 of Ireland under Henry VIT., 
 procures a decree from the 
 English parliament that all laws 
 theretofore enacted in Eng- 
 land, should have equal force 
 in Ireland (afterwards referred 
 to as Poynings' Act), 98, 99, 
 144, 146, 158, 159, 161, 174 
 
 President of the North, Went- 
 worth's speech when he first 
 sate as, Appendix 11. , 291 
 
 Prince Henry, death of, 30 
 
 Privy Seals, the issuing of, 50 
 
 Prynne, Mr., 21; "Prynnes, 
 Pims, and Bens," that gener- 
 ation of odd names and natures, 
 161, 164; a prisoner in the 
 Tower, has his ears seivcd on, 
 after having been cut off, 
 166 
 
 Purveyance, James I. objects to 
 the abolition of, 15 
 
 Pym, 21 ; his relations with 
 Strafford, Ixii— Ixiv; Lady Car- 
 lisle became his mistress after 
 Wentworth's death, 129, 161 ; 
 at the bar of the House, im- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 313 
 
 peaches Strafford of high trea- 
 son, 240 ; attacks Strafibrd at 
 his trial, Ixv ; his previous 
 meeting with Strafford and his 
 parting words tliereat, 240, 
 245 ; on his reply to Strafford's 
 defence, 261 — 63 
 
 Raby, Baron of, Wentworth is, 
 unsohcited, created Earl of 
 Strafford and Baron of Raby, 
 226 
 
 Radcliffe, Sir George, personal 
 attache of the Earl, 3, 19 ; on 
 Wentworth's leaving, &c., 65, 
 66, 71, 120 ; on Wentworth's 
 character and religion, 131 ; 
 is given a seat in the privy 
 council, 134, 150, 157 ; on 
 Wentworth's deportment in 
 private life, 189 ; on Went- 
 worth's personal habits and 
 temperance, 213 ; is himself 
 charged by Pym with treason 
 in order to prevent his evidence 
 helping Strafford, 253 ; Straf- 
 ford writes to him previous to 
 beiiig executed, 274 ; letters 
 from Strafford to, xxxix, xliii, 
 xlvi ; his Memoir of Strafford, 
 xiv 
 
 Ranelagh, Lord, 118 
 
 Ravillac, the French ? 6 
 
 Religion, conformity of Ireland 
 with England, Wentworth 
 determines on, 167 
 
 Rhodes, Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Sir Godfrey Rhodes, becomes 
 
 ' Wentworth's third wife, 119, 
 122 
 
 Roch, Lord, Wentworth on his 
 Weakness of character, 233 
 
 Rockley, Robin, a tenant of 
 Wentworth's in Yorkshire ? 
 185 
 
 Roman Catholics, ascendancy and 
 conduct of, 102 ; public exercise 
 oftheir religion forbidden, 102 ; 
 are opposed by Viscount Ely 
 and the Earl of Cork, 103 
 
 Rudyard, Sir Benjamin, 21 
 Ruishe, Sir Francis, sues the 
 Lord Chancellor, on behalf of 
 Lady Loftus, 212 
 Rushworth (the clerk of parlia- 
 ment) cited, passim, 262 ; on 
 Strafford's approach to the 
 scaffold, 275 ; is on the scaffold 
 at the execution, 276 ; on tlie 
 last moments of Strafford, the 
 execution, 277 
 
 St. Albans, Lord, his caution, 233 
 
 Salt, a necessity to Irish manu- 
 facturers, is an object of Went- 
 worth's "care," 183 
 
 "Satisfaction," document drawn 
 up by the Commons and pre- 
 sented to James I. 
 
 Satyr, pleasure in the court of 
 
 Charles II., was a vulgar , 
 
 124 
 
 Savile, Lord, 25 ; Strafford's es- 
 pecial enemy, intrigues against 
 him, 237 
 
 Savile, Sir George, Wentworth's 
 brother-in-law, 23, 49 
 
 Savile, Sir Henry, 70 
 
 Savile, Sir John, father of Lord 
 Savile, is custos rotulorum for 
 Yorkshire, 25 ; succeeds Went- 
 worth as custos rottdorum, 45, 
 50, 51, 72 
 
 Savile, Sir W,, Wentworth's 
 nephew and ward, letter to, 64 
 
 Scotch enter Newcastle, xl 
 
 Scottish nation, the whole, rises 
 against Charles, on account of 
 Laud's religious innovations, 
 and Wentworth's energetic 
 measures to subdue, 216-17 
 
 Scroop, Lord, Earl of Sunder- 
 land, W^entworth's predecessor 
 at York, 84 
 
 Seisin, premier, an incident in 
 the tenure by Knight service, 1 5 
 
 Services to the King, always 
 remembered by Wentworth, 
 156 
 
 Seymour, Sir Francis, 41, 42 
 
314 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ship-money, this tax had been 
 recently levied, xxxviii ; Went- 
 worth collects it vigorously in 
 York, 202 
 
 Silenus, pleasure in the court of 
 James I. was a, 124 
 
 Socage, other kinds of tenure to 
 be changed into "free and 
 common," 15 
 
 Society, foibles of, 123 
 
 Spain, the inglorious peace v^^ith, 
 12, 98 ; war with, contemplated 
 by Charles, who is dissuaded 
 therefrom by Went worth, 215 
 
 Stanhope, Sir Edward, letter to, 
 on court intrigues against Went- 
 worth, 94 
 
 Star-chamber, usurpations of the, 
 
 30 
 
 State error, the fatal, of dissolving 
 
 the parliament of 1640, 236 
 Stuart, Arabella, death of, 30 
 Sunderland, Lord Scroop, Earl 
 of, Wentworth's predecessor at 
 York, 84 
 
 Talbot, Sir Robert, protests 
 against the granting of two 
 subsidies, 156 
 
 Tankersly Park, Wentworth 
 writes to Mr. Greenwood con- 
 cerning, 185 
 
 Theological strife, Wentworth 
 knows tlie uselessness of, 166 
 
 "Thorough," Laud was bent 
 upon going, regarding supre- 
 macy of ecclesiastical power, 
 
 163 
 
 Tobacco, Wentworth "farms," 
 the tax on, 180 ; monopoly, 
 Wentworth was open to grave 
 charges respecting the, 211-12 
 
 " Trouts," Laud's name for Irish- 
 men, being " tickled out of 
 their money," 167 
 
 " Tyranny," appeal from, to 
 God, 278 
 
 "Undertakers," a confederacy 
 for influencing the elections, 24 
 
 Usher, the learned, surrenders 
 the "ecclesiastical articles" he 
 had forwarded to Ireland, 174 
 
 Vandyke, Sir Anthony's unlucky 
 courtships, 130 ; Wentworth 
 discusses with him on various 
 marbles, 189 ; Wentworth re- 
 fers to his art, 205 ; portrait by, 
 of Wentworth and his children 
 referred to, 221 
 
 Vane, Sir Harry, the treasurer of 
 the King's household, Went- 
 worth writes to, on the Scotch 
 disquiet, 217, 226, 237 ; senior 
 and junior, 256-7; "dreamy 
 aspirings," 278 
 
 Vere, Sir Horace, 33 
 
 Vermuyden, 1 73 
 
 Vernon (Justice) opposes Went- 
 worth's restrictions on Irish 
 litigants, 115 
 
 " Villanous juggle," Wentworth's, 
 on the two sessions of his pro- 
 posed Irish parliament, 149 
 
 Villiers, rapid rise of, 30 
 
 Waller, Edmund, the poet, called 
 Lady Carlisle "the bright 
 Carlisle," 129 
 
 Wandesford, Sir Chr., 19, 35, 
 38, 43, 49, 52, 53, 71, 81, 84, 
 96 ; is a privy councillor, 134, 
 150, 157 ; administers in Ire- 
 land whilst Wentworth is in 
 England, 200 ; Wentworth 
 arranges to place his Govern- 
 ment in the hands of, whilst 
 away in England, 220 
 
 Warwick, Sir Peter, his descrip- 
 tion of Strafford, Ivi — Iviii 
 
 Weakness and insincerity of 
 Charles, Wentworth distrusts 
 the, 137 
 
 Welwood's Memoirs, Ixii 
 
 Wentworth, Darcy, 187 
 
 Wentworth, Michael, fifth brother 
 of Strafford, 33 
 
 Wentworth, Sir George, Straf- 
 ford's brother, is with him on 
 
INDEX. 
 
 315 
 
 the scaffold, 275-6 ; Strafford's 
 farewell to him, 276-7 
 Wentworth, Thomas, Earl of 
 Strafford : born in London in 
 I593> I ; his ancestry and 
 estates, 1-2; early education, 
 goes to St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, 2 ; letter to provost 
 and fellows of his old college, 
 3 ; his knighthood (which was 
 doubtless purchased), 4 ; his 
 relations with Pym, Ixii — Ixiv ; 
 his early independence, his en- 
 gagement to, and marriage in 
 161 1 with, Margaret, daughter 
 of the Earl of Cumberland, 4 ; 
 goes to France and Venice, 5 ; 
 his friendship with Sir Henry 
 Wotton, 5 ; his return to 
 England from the Continent, 
 is made knight of the shire for 
 Yorkshire, 17 ; the nature of 
 his MSS. called the " Strafford 
 Papers," 19 ; letter to his tutor, 
 Mr. Greenwood, 21-2 ; is re- 
 turned to parliament in 1614 
 for Yorkshire, 23 ; returns to 
 his Yorkshire residence, 25 ; is 
 appointed Ctistos Rohdortini for 
 Yorkshire in 1615, xvii, 26 ; re- 
 commences his election cam- 
 paign, 28 ; letter to his brother- 
 in-law, Lord Clifford, 31 ; letter 
 to Lord D'Arcy on the dissolu- 
 tion of James' second parlia- 
 ment, 32 ; is ill of fever in 1622, 
 32 ; as is also his wife the Lady 
 Margaret, who dies therefrom, 
 32 ; exerts himself in behalf of 
 his brothers, 32-3 ; letter to 
 Sir George Calvert, 35-7 ; is 
 again ill, recovers, and goes to 
 London, 38 ; his desire to *' ex- 
 hibit himself" personally to 
 the new King, Charles L, 38; 
 marries, for his second wife. 
 Lady Arabella Hollis, younger 
 daughter of the Earl of Clare, 
 38 ; his election as member for 
 Yorkshire disputed, 38 ; is 
 
 thrown out of parliament, 39 ; 
 Pontefract is secured as a seat 
 for him, in case of re-defeat in 
 Yorkshire, 39 ; is made sheriff 
 of Yorkshire, 40 ; writes to his 
 father-in-law, Lord Clare, is 
 dismissed from his office of 
 Ctistos Rotjiloruvi^ 44-5 ; letter 
 thereon to Sir Richard Weston, 
 45-6 ; his letter thereon to the 
 Earl of Buckingham, Appendix 
 IL, 287; letter to Weston 
 on Charles' indifference to him, 
 47-8 ; his dilemma as to a 
 "privy seal," 50-1 ; refuses 
 to lend money (to the Govern- 
 ment ?), 52 ; and is committed 
 to the Marshalsea (therefor?), 
 52 ; has already had a son 
 (William) born to him, and 
 whilst a prisoner at Dartford, 
 a daughter (Anne) is born, 52 ; 
 his meeting with other re- 
 cusants, 53-5 ; his speeches in 
 the house, 56-7 ; and con- 
 sequent favour at court, 58 ; is 
 created Baron Wentworth on 
 14th July, 1628, though he had 
 stipulated to be made Viscount, 
 xxiii, 58 ; estimate of Went- 
 worth's opening passages in his 
 political career, he was con- 
 sistent to himself throughout, 
 58 — 62 ; his love for his college 
 at Cambridge, 63 ; and his 
 esteem for his old tutor, Mr. 
 Greenwood, 64; his "abstract 
 veneration for power," 64 ; let- 
 ter to his nephew, 64-5 ; his 
 learning, 66 ; had a passionate 
 temper, 66 ; letters respecting 
 election as knight of the shire, 
 69 — 77 ; is made Viscount 
 Wentworth and president of 
 the North, xxiii, 78 ; his letter 
 to Lord Conway, asking for 
 this post, Appendix IL, 290; 
 his opinion on this matter of 
 place, a womanly thing, 79 ; 
 is indifferent to the opinions of 
 
3i6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 his opponents, 7980; one of 
 his first announcements on 
 being made president of the 
 North, 83 ; his first speech as 
 president of the North, Ap- 
 pendix II., 291 ; "absokite 
 government " was Wentworth's 
 notion of "doing good," 84; 
 his treatment of Henry Bellasis, 
 son of Lord Faulconberg, 85- 
 6 ; and ditto of Sir David 
 Foulis and Sir Thomas Layton, 
 86-8 ; their punishment, 90 ; 
 his care for his children, 92 ; 
 his third child (Thomas) Isorn, 
 and dies, 93-4 ; his fourth child 
 (Arabella) born, 94 ; his second 
 wife dies, 94 ; intrigues against 
 Wentworth at court, 94-6 ; 
 letter to Weston on the intrigues, 
 &c., 96-7 ; his arrival in London 
 exploded the attempts at court 
 against him, 97 ; is appointed 
 Governor of Ireland, xxiii, 98 ; 
 receives his commission therefor 
 early in 1632, 104 ; his dispatch 
 thereon to Lord Cottington, 
 104, 105 ; sends a Roman 
 Catholic envoy secretly to Ire- 
 land, 107 ; his letter to Lords 
 Ely and Cork, on their neglect 
 of Charles's instructions, 108 ; 
 on Charles's express pleasure 
 regarding Irish suits, &c., no, 
 III; letters to Irish parliament, 
 xxix, XXX ; the powers, &c., 
 demanded by Wentworth, 
 112; resolved not to resign 
 the presidency of Yorkshire, 
 114; presses for settlement 
 of his dispute with Lord 
 Faulconberg, 115; wrests 
 from Irishmen their privilege 
 of protection in Westminster 
 Hall, and his letter to Cotting- 
 ton thereon, 1 15; proposition 
 is made that he marry the 
 daughter of Lord Cork (the 
 Earl of?), 118; enters on a 
 purchase of (? for) ;^ 14,000, 
 
 119; is at this time privately 
 married (to his third wife) to 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Sir 
 Godfrey Rhodes, 119 — 121 ; 
 Wentworth's fifth child, 
 "Tom," was born, Sep. 17th, 
 1634 (child died in infancy), 
 121; Wentworth's sixth child, a 
 girl, is born, 121 ; his personal 
 vices and virtues, 125 ; his 
 "fidelity" to his wives, 125, 
 
 126 ; his personal appearance, 
 
 127 ; his court amours, 128, 
 129 ; his energy and dispatch, 
 132 ; arrives in Dublin, July 
 1633, 135 ; institutes court 
 ceremonial there, 135 ; his 
 first dispatch therefrom, 136 ; 
 distrusts the weakness and 
 insincerity of Charles, 137 ; 
 resumes the privilege of super- 
 seding the common law courts 
 in private civil causes, 138 ; 
 Wentworth "was a despot," 
 138 ; secures the prohibition 
 ot departure from Ireland, by 
 the nobility, 139 ; calls his first 
 privy council, 139 ; conduct of 
 debate in council, 140 ; had 
 resolved to make Ireland a 
 slave, 142 ; his, and Charles's, 
 views on parliaments, 142 — 
 144 ; writes to Cooke on an 
 Irish parliament, 145 ; proposes 
 to call an Irish parliament, 147, 
 148 ; issues writs for his first 
 Irish parliament, 149 ; Irish 
 House of Commons assemble, 
 July 1634, 154; Wentworth's 
 speech to them, 154; his 
 policy to set the commons and 
 peers against each other, 157; 
 conclusion of his Irish Parlia- 
 ment's first session, 158; the 
 second session, 159; his passion 
 for hunting and hawking, 159 ; 
 flings his influence amongst the 
 Protestants, 160; the "two 
 ends" he had his "eye on," 
 respecting the Irish parliament 
 
INDEX. 
 
 317 
 
 and Chailes, 160 ; his friend- 
 ship with Laud, Ixvi, 162 ; his 
 reply to Laud's criticism on his 
 "ifs,"i64; his object in Ireland 
 is to raise "a good revenue 
 to the crown/' 166 ; determines 
 to draw Ireland into religions 
 conformity with England, 167 
 — 169 ; he solicits, and is re- 
 fused, an earldom, 172; his 
 disappointment thereat is 
 shown in a dispatch to 
 Chanc. Cottington, 174; turns 
 his attention to the Irish 
 lawyers, 174, and to the Irish 
 soldiers, 175; has a troop at 
 his own cost, 1 74-5 ; is foiled 
 hy the indolent envy of his 
 English coadjutors, 176; fears 
 he'll have the post of Lord 
 Treasurer, vacant by Weston's 
 death, offered to him, 177 ; 
 the Irish customs increase 
 rapidly, 179 ; improves mer- 
 cantile and other Irish trade, 
 179; taxes tobacco, 180; 
 introduces flax and manufac- 
 tures it, 182 ; writes to Mr. 
 Greenwood respecting his 
 Yorkshire estates, 185 ; writes 
 for copies of Dr. Donne's 
 poetry, which he was 
 amazingly fond of, 188 ; de- 
 clares province of Connaught, 
 with others, to have lapsed ab- 
 solutely to the crown, 190-2 ; 
 his treatment of Lord Mount- 
 norris, 193-4 ; writes to Secre- 
 tary Cooke thereon, 195-6; is 
 clearly well versed in Shak- 
 speare, Chaucer, and Donne's 
 works, 196 ; his view on the 
 value of life, 197 ; appears at 
 the English court in May, 
 1636, 129 ; his colonies in Ire- 
 land, XXXV ; repeats the story 
 of his Irish successes at a very 
 full court at Charles's request, 
 200-1 ; he collects, vigor- 
 ously, ship-money in Yorkshire, 
 
 202 ; applies for the second 
 time to Charles for an earldom, 
 and is for the second time 
 refused, 203 ; consoles himself 
 thereon in letters to Butler 
 and Laud, 204-5 J he returns 
 to Ireland, 206 ; foresees trouble 
 in the news he is receiving from 
 England, the popular party 
 therein are loud and violent in 
 their clamour against him, 207 ; 
 writes to Charles on these 
 symptoms, and on Lord 
 Holland's insinuations as to 
 his occasional insanity, 208 ; 
 and of his " hypochondriack 
 humours," 208 ; his growing 
 ill-health, 209 ; his magnificent 
 mode of life, 2 10- 11 ; was 
 "exceeding temperate " in the 
 pleasures of the table — "he 
 was never drunk in his life," 
 213 ; his opinions on war with 
 Spain, xix ; the Queen's grow- 
 ing disfavour of him, 215-16 ; 
 his strenuous and energetic 
 measures, respecting Charles's 
 dispute with Scotland, 216-17 ; 
 Charles desires his presence in 
 England, 220 ; arrives in Lon- 
 don in November 1639, forms a 
 "cabinet council" along with 
 Laud and Hamilton, to discuss 
 the measures to be taken 
 against the Scots, xxxvi, 225 ; 
 subscribes ;^ 20, 000 to a loan 
 therefor, 225 ; is, unsolicited, 
 created Earl of Strafford and 
 Baron of Raby, is styled lord- 
 lieutenant, or lieutenant-gen- 
 eral of Ireland, xxxvii, 226 ; 
 writes to Cooke on his physical 
 infirmities, 227 ; arrives back 
 in Ireland, March 1640, 227 ; 
 writes to the King on his health, 
 &c.. Good Friday, 1640 ; and 
 returns to England, arriving 
 at Chester, 4th April, 1640, in 
 very bad health, 230 ; seizes a 
 Scotch vessel at Nesson, 232 ; 
 
3i8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 letter to Windebank, 233 ; 
 Charles expresses his anxiety re- 
 specting Strafford's health, 236 ; 
 Strafford takes his seat in the 
 Lords in the new parliament, 
 which was abruptly dissolved, is 
 appointed to command against 
 Scotland in place of Earl of 
 Northumberland, xxxvii, 236 ; 
 has Order of the Garter, xxxvii ; 
 leaves Ireland, to aid the king, 
 xxxix ; proceeds, though ex- 
 ceedingly ill, northwards against 
 the Scots, falls back on York, 
 xxxix, 237 ; from this time he 
 sank daily, intrigues against 
 him are carried on by Holland, 
 Hamilton, Vane, and Lord 
 Savile, 237 ; unknown to Straf- 
 ford, a treaty with the Scots is 
 commenced, 237-8 ; is ordered 
 by Charles to cease operations 
 against Scotland, and a new 
 parliament is summoned, 239 ; 
 is summoned to London, xlii ; 
 Strafford perceives his danger- 
 ous position, and requests leave 
 to return to Ireland, the request 
 refused ; Charles assures Straf- 
 ford that not a hair of his head 
 should be touched, he returns 
 to London, 239 ; proceeds to 
 the houses of parliament, and is 
 there impeached of high treason 
 by Pym, 240 ; his reflections 
 on his changed position, 241-2 ; 
 letter to his wife thereon, 242 ; 
 is committed to the Tower, xlv, 
 242 ; Bill of Attainder, xlvii ; 
 particulars of the preparations 
 for the trial, 244 ; files his an- 
 swers to the charges against him, 
 24th Feb., 1641, 245 ; letter to 
 his wife on the charges, 245 ; 
 Strafford's chief offence was the 
 "attempt to subvert the funda- 
 mental laws of the country," 
 245-6 ; the general charges 
 against him, 245-8 ; his replies 
 thereto, 249-50 ; Pym opens 
 
 the case against him in West- 
 minster Hall, 23rd March, 
 1641, 250 ; letter from Charles, 
 assuring Strafford that he 
 *' shall not suffer in life, honour 
 or fortune," 252 ; Strafford on 
 his defence, 253, 257 — 260 ; is 
 condemned, 263 ; a bill of at- 
 tainder is introduced, 236, and 
 passed, 264 ; releases the King 
 from his pledged word, 266 ; 
 petitions the Lords on behalf 
 of his children, writes to his 
 wife, and to his eldest son, 
 William, 272-4 ; concern for 
 his family and friends only dis- 
 turbs his last hours, 274 ; re- 
 quests the prayers of Laud, 
 and that he will be at his 
 window as Strafford passes to 
 execution, 274 ; his deportment 
 on the way to, and on, the scaf- 
 fold, 275-6 ; his farewell to his 
 brother and to his friends, his 
 final declaration in his belief of 
 the good of parliaments, 276 ; 
 his execution, 12th May, 1 641, 
 liv, Iv, Ixii, 277 ; his speech on 
 the scaffold, xxiv ; the most 
 severe consequences to his chil- 
 dren are mitigated within a few 
 weeks of his death, and in the 
 succeeding reign the attainder 
 was reversed and his son re- 
 stored to the earldom, 277-8 ; 
 Strafford's dispatch to Charles, 
 giving his "humble opinion 
 concerning a parliament " in 
 Ireland, Appendix L, 279 — 
 285 ; paper containing the 
 "heads of Strafford's last 
 speech," as left (and found) 
 upon the scaffold, 286 ; se- 
 lected papers and letters by 
 Strafford, Appendix II., 287 — 
 302 ; Dr. Knowler's selection, 
 xiv 
 Wentworth, Sir William, the 
 Earl's father, i — 4 ; his death 
 in 1614, 23 
 
INDEX. 
 
 319 
 
 Weston, Sir Richard, Chancellor 
 of Exchequer, and Lord Trea- 
 surer to Charles I., letters by 
 Wentworth to, xxvi, 45, 48, 
 
 58, 81, 84, 90, 94, 96, 137 ; 
 
 Lord Cork appeals to, against 
 Wentworth, 165 ; is jealous of 
 Wentworth's friendship with 
 Laud, 176; his death, 177 
 ** Whitelock's Memorials," on 
 Strafford's death. Hi ; on Straf- 
 ford's appearance during the 
 trial, 250 ; on the Vane papers 
 incident, 257 
 
 Williams, Archbishop, the in- 
 triguing, 49 
 
 Wills, statutes of, and uses, in- 
 troduced into Ireland, 180 
 
 Wind, Sir Robert, hawks with 
 Wentworth, 159 
 
 Windebank, Mr. Secretary, to 
 Wentworth, on his policy re- 
 specting the English aris- 
 tocracy, 172; hints to Went- 
 worth of his impending danger, 
 219, 226, 233 
 
 Wotton, Sir Henry, a friend of 
 the Earl, 5 
 
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