STRAFFORD, TnomAs WENTWORTH, Earl of, eldest son of sir W. Wentworth of Wentworth, Woodhouse, Yorkshire, was h. April 13, 1593. In 1611 he married lady Margaret Clifford, eldest daughter of the earl of Cumberland. Subsequently he was chosen member of parliament for the co. of York. In 1615 he was appointed custos rotulorum for the West Riding of the same county. Being again returned to parlia ment for Yorkshire in 1621, shortly after his election he took up his residence in Lon don. Slighted by the duke of Buckingham, who then ruled the court and cabinet of Charles I., Wentworth signalized himself as an opposer of the administration. In 1626 he was made sheriff of his county, with the view of preventing him from attending pniliament. So resolutely did he oppose the arbitrary royal loan, exacted in the follow ing year, that the government deemed it advisable to put him in prison. But Bucking ham was little aware of the energy of his opponent. Strafford, having obtained his release, came to the following parliament, resolved to make his power felt both by king and minister. He spoke eloquently on the question of grievances, and was con spicuous in obtaining the royal assent to the petition of right. He was a man worth gaining; and his patriotism, if it had any genuine element, was, unhappily not strong enough to withstand the temptation now held out to his personal ambition. With his elevation to the peerage as baron Wentworth, in 1628, he seems not only to have lost all solicitude for popular liberty, but openly to have become its most deter mined enemy. As president of the " council of the north," he seems to'have abused his powers not only for political purposes, but often simply to gratify his own pride. The legality of the jurisdiction exercised by the council created by Henry VIII. was alto gether very doubtful, and interdicts against it were at various times applied for front the courts at Westminster. Strafford declared openly that he would "lay by the heels" any judge presuming to interdict the council from the exercise of such powers as he chose to hold that it possessed. Nevertheless, this was done by judge Vernon. In 1631
Strafford was made deputy of Ireland, and in 1639 earl of Strafford and lord lieutenant of Ireland. According to his views, that country belonged to the crown by right of conquest, and neither the natives nor the descendants of the conquerors themselves had any rights which could interfere with its sovereignty. His government was of despotic violence, but the alministration of justice, in ordinary cases, was prompt and vigorous. Outrage was suppressed and commerce flourished under his strong hand. Understand ing fully the feelings, policy, and resources of the party to which he had originally belonged, Strafford had matured a' vast political scheme, to which, in his confidential corraspoudenec,•, he gave the expressive name of " thorough." His object was to do in England what Rieldieu was doing in France—to make Charles as absolute as any con tinenial monarch; to put the estates and personal liberty of the whole people at the of the crown; to deprive the courts of law of all independent. authority ; and to punish with merciless severity all who murmured against the government, or who applied to any tribunal for relief from its despotism. Happily the people of England were too 'strong for 111;n. On his entering the house of peers on the meeting of the long par liament, in 1640. the message from the house of commons was called in. and Mr. Pym, in the name of the commons of England, impeached " Thomas, earl of Strafford, of high treason. 'Tiffs course was afterward abandoned, and the coalitions proceeded by bill of attainder. It passed the house on April 21, 1641. Immediately after it passed in the house of and received the royal assent. Strafford certainly merited his fate, but nothing can excuse the cowardice of the king. The earl was executedou May 12, 1641, Tho attainder was reversed in the reign of Charles IL, and his son succeeded to the honors. See Hallam's Constitutional History; Macaulay's History of England, with authorities cited in these works,