Thomas Wentworth Strafford

STRAFFORD, THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF (1593-1641), English statesman, son of Sir William Wentworth, of Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham and of Anne Atkins, was born on April 13, 1593, in London. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, was admitted a student of the Inner Temple in 1607. In 1614 he represented Yorkshire in the Addled Parliament, but, so far as is now known, it was not till the parliament of 1621, in which he sat for the same constituency, that he took part in the debates.

Wentworth was returned for Pontefract to the parliament of 1624, but appears to have taken no part in the proceedings. In the first parliament of Charles I., June 1625, he again represented Yorkshire, and opposed the demand made under the influence of Buckingham for subsidies for a war with Spain, and was conse quently, after the dissolution in November, made sheriff of Yorkshire, in order to exclude him from the parliament which met in 1626. Yet his position was very different from that of the regular opposition. He was anxious to serve the Crown, but he disapproved of the king's policy. After the dissolution of the parliament he was dismissed from the justiceship of the peace and the office of custos rotulorum of Yorkshire, to which he had been appointed in 1615. He refused in 1627 to contribute to the forced loan, and was imprisoned in consequence.

In the parliament of 1628 Wentworth joined the popular lead ers in resistance to arbitrary taxation and imprisonment, but he was jealous for the prerogative of the Crown, to which he looked as a reserve force in times of crisis. A moderate bill supported by Wentworth for securing the liberties of the sub ject was wrecked between the uncompromising demands of the parliamentary party, who would give nothing to the prerogative, and Charles's refusal to make the necessary concessions, and the leadership was thus snatched from Wentworth's hands by Eliot and Coke. Later in the session he fell into conflict with Eliot, as he desired to modify the Petition of Right.

On July 22, 1628, Wentworth was created Baron Wentworth, and received a promise of the presidentship of the Council of the North at the next vacancy. He was now at variance with the parliamentary party both on the constitutional and on the religious question. In December he became Viscount Wentworth and president of the Council of the North. In the speech deliv ered at York on his taking office he said, almost in the words of Bacon: "Whoever," he said, "ravels 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."

The session of 1629 ended in a breach between the king and the parliament which made the task of a moderator hopeless. He stood definitely for the maintenance of the king's prerogative.

The Policy of Thorough.

In January 1632 Wentworth was named lord-deputy of Ireland, and he arrived in Dublin in July 1633. He reformed the administration, getting rid summarily of the inefficient English officials. He obtained the necessary grants from parliament, and secured its co-operation in various useful legislative enactments. He set on foot a new victualling trade with Spain, established or promoted the linen manufacture, and encouraged the development of the resources of the country in many directions. The customs rose from a little over £25,000 in 1633-1634 to £57,000 in 1637-1638. He raised an army. He swept the pirates from the seas. He reformed and instilled life into the Churcii and rescued church property. His strong and even administration broke down the tyranny of the great men over the poor. Such was the government of "Thorough," as Strafford expresses it. Yet these good measures were carried out by arbitrary methods, and their aim was the benefit to the English exchequer; Strafford suppressed the trade in cloth "lest it should be a means to prejudice that staple commodity of England." Extraordinary acts of despotism took place, as in the case of Esmond, Lord Chancellor Loftus and Lord Mountnorris, the last of whom Strafford caused to be sentenced to death in order to obtain the resignation of his office, and then pardoned. Strafford broke Charles's promise that no colonists should be forced into Connaught, and, raking up an obsolete title—the grant in the 14th century of Connaught to Lionel, duke of Clarence, whose heir Charles was—he insisted upon the grand juries in all the counties finding verdicts for the king. High-handed as Went worth was by nature, his rule in Ireland made him more high handed than ever. As yet he had never been consulted on English affairs, and it was only in February 4637 that Charles asked his • opinion on a proposed interference in the affairs of the Con tinent. In reply, he assured Charles that it would be unwise to undertake even naval operations till he had secured absolute power at home. He wished that Hampden and his followers "were well whipped into their right senses." When the Scottish Puritans rebelled he advocated the most decided measures of repression, in February 1639 sending the king £2,000 as his contribution to the expenses of the coming war, but he deprecated action before the English army was trained, and advised concessions in religion.