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Sir Edward Stanhope's Advice to Thomas Wentworth, Viscount Wentworth, Concerning the Deputyship of Ireland: an Unpublished Letter of 1631

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2010

Perez Zagorin
Perez Zagorin
Affiliation:
McGill University
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Type
Communication
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The Historical Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 1964 , pp. 298 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1964

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References

1 The Earl of Strafforde's letters and dispatches, ed. Knowler, William, 2 vols. (London, 1739)Google Scholar.

2 Papers relating to Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford, ed. Firth, C. H., Camden miscellany, IX, 1895Google Scholar, Preface, IX.

3 Ibid. Preface, XI; The Earl of Strafforde's letters and dispatches, 1, Dedication. Knowler was Lord Malton's chaplain.

4 Cf. Gardiner's exasperated protest in 1884: ‘I regret that Lord Fitzwilliam has not considered it to be consistent with his duty to allow me to see the Strafford correspondence preserved at Wentworth Woodhouse.’ ( Gardiner, S. R., History of England from the accession of James I to the outbreak of the Civil War 1603-1642, 10 vols. (London, 1883-1884), IXGoogle Scholar, VIII).

5 Cooper, J. P., ‘The fortune of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford’, The Economic History Review, 2nd ser., XI, 2 (1958)Google Scholar;Kearney, H. F., Strafford in Ireland 1633–41 (Manchester, 1959Google Scholar); Wedgwood, C.V., Thomas Wentworth first Earl of Strafford 1593-1641. A revaluation (London, 1962Google Scholar). Cf. also Ranger, T., ‘Strafford in Ireland: a revaluation’, Past & Present, no. 19 (1961)Google Scholar. It might be pointed out that Lord Fitzwilliam permitted Burghclere, Lady (Strafford, 2 vols., London, 1931Google Scholar) and Birkenhead, Lord (Strafford, London, 1938Google Scholar) to read the Strafford papers at Wentworth Woodhouse, but neither biographer made any effective use of them.

6 Cf. , Knowler, op. cit. 1, 60, 304Google Scholar.

7 Sir Michael Stanhope fell with Somerset and was executed toon after him; D.N.B., s.v. ‘Sir Michael Stanhope’.

8 Cf. MacCaffrey, W. T., ‘Talbot and Stanhope: an episode in Elizabethan polities’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, XXXIII, 87 (1960), 74–75Google Scholar;‘Place and patronage Elizabethan polities’, Elizabethan government and society, ed. Bindoff, S. T. and Hurstfield, J. (London, 1961), pp. 112–113Google Scholar. There is an account of the Stanhope family in Collins, A., The peerage of England, 5th ed., 8 vols. (London, 1779), III, 300 ff.Google Scholar and Thoroton, R., Nottinghamshire, 3 vols. (ed. 1790), I, 288–291Google Scholar.

9 Somerville, R., History of the Duchy of Lancaster, Vol. 1, 1265-1603 (Oxford, 1953), 446–447Google Scholar;Reid, R., The King's Council in The North (London, 1921), 495Google Scholar;Hunter, J., The History and Topography of Doncaster, 2 vols. (London, 1828-1831), 1, 192Google Scholar. The elder Sir Edward Stanhope had a brother also named Edward, d. 1608. The latter, a civil lawyer who attained high church office, is noticed in the D.N.B., s.v. ‘Sir Edward Stanhope8. Genealogists appear have confused some of the particulars pertaining to these two Edward Stanhopes.

10 There is a pedigree of Sir Edward Stanhope in Hunter, J., Familiae minorum gentium, ed. Clay, J. W., Harleian society publications, XXXIX (1895), III, 986–987Google Scholar.

11 Cartwright, J. J., Chapters in the history of Yorkshire (Wakefield, 1872), 238Google Scholar and n. Sir Edward's name occurs as High Sheriff in the sessions records of 1616, Quarter sessions records, ed. Atkinson, J. C., North Riding record society, 9 vols. (1884-1892), 11, passimGoogle Scholar.

12 Calendar of the proceedings of the Committee for Compounding, ed. Green, M. A. E., II, 982Google Scholar. In July 1649, Stanhope's oldest son, Edward, was fined £258. 3s. 4d.

13 Cf. Raddiffe's sketch of Wentworth's life in Knowler, op. cit. 11, App., 433.

14 Printed in Knowler, op. cit. 1, 60.

15 Dr Kearney's reference to Stanhope's letter gives its date variously as September 1632 and 23 October 1631 (op. cit. p. 30 and n.). The first must be a slip; as to the second, I don't know how it can be so precisely fixed, but some time in October is pretty certainly right.

16 Kearney, H. F., op. cit. p. 30Google Scholar.

17 , Knowler, op. cit. 1, 60Google Scholar.

18 Gardiner, S. R., op. cit. VI, 335–338Google Scholar.

19 Hacket, John, the seventeenth-century biographer of Archbishop Williams, gave a similar account of the origin of Wentworth's rise in Scrima reserata (London, 1693), pt. 11, 82Google Scholar. Stanhope's letter is an authoritative confirmation of the substantial truth of Hacket's statement.

20 His financial dealings illustrate this; cf. J. P. Cooper, op. cit.

21 Letters of John Chamberlain, ed. McClure, N. E., 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1939), 11, 446Google Scholar; Wentworth to Christopher Wandesford, 4 April 1625, Stratford MSS., vol. 2, fo. 170.

22 Wentworth's first effort to achieve an alliance with Buckingham occurred at the Oxford parliament in the summer of 1625, where the intermediary was the Lord Keeper, Bishop Williams. The second was a personal interview with the duke at Whitehall at Easter 1626 when Weston was also present; cf. J. Hacket, op. cit. pt. II, 17, and Wentworth's undated letter to Weston, written in July 1626, in , Knowler, op. cit. 1, 34–35Google Scholar.

23 C.S.P.D. 1625-1626, p. 228.

24 Sheffield Central Library, Strafford MSS., vol. 21 (79). I have expanded abbreviations and contractions, altered punctuation, and reduced some capitals. My best thanks are due to Earl Fitzwilliam and the Trustees of Earl Fitzwilliam's Wentworth Estates Company for permission to publish Sir Edward Stanhope's letter. I am also grateful to Mr John Bebbington, Sheffield City Librarian, and his staff for providing me with a microfilm of the letter and for other helpful assistance. My colleague, Professor A. E. Malloch, gave valuable aid in preparing the letter for publication.

25 Richard Weston, Lord Weston, Lord Treasurer, and Francis Cottington, Lord Cottington, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

26 Weston.

27 Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, King James's one-time favourite.

28 John Holles, Earl of Clare, Wentworth's father-in-law by his second wife, Arabella Holles.

29 On 29 May 1630, the Earls of Somerset, Clare, and Bedford, Sir Robert Cotton, John Selden, and Oliver St John, were brought to trial in the Court of Star Chamber for the publication of a seditious paper, A Proposition for His Majesties Service, to bridle the Impertinency of Parliaments (printed in J. Rush worth, Historical Collections, 8 vols. (London, 1682-1701), 1, App., 12-17). This paper described the means by which the King could make himself absolute. Written sixteen years before by Sir Robert Dudley, it had come into Sir Robert Cotton's library. The defendants, opponents of the crown, were charged with circulating it in order to discredit Charles I's government, whose popularity was at its lowest ebb after the breakdown of relations with Parliament in the angry dissolution of March 1629. In November 1629, a copy of the paper fell into Wentworth's possession, who gave it to the King. The day of the trial coincided with the birth of the Prince of Wales, and in honour of the occasion the king extended his clemency by ordering the proceedings dismissed (State trials, ed. Howell, T. B., 21 vols. (London), III, 387–400Google Scholar; Gardiner, S.R., op. cit. VII, 138–141Google Scholar). Wentworth on this occasion doubtless wished to assist his father-in-law in the tatter's difficulties, and apparently tried unsuccessfully to obtain Weston's intercession and support.

30 Christopher Wandesford, Wentworth's close friend and kinsman.

31 Arthur Hopton accompanied Cottington to Spain as secretary on the tatter's embassy in October 1629. At the conclusion of the mission, he remained in Spain as English agent; D.N.B. s.v. ‘Arthur Hopton’.

32 It seems Cottington promised Wentworth to find a post for Wandesford and did not do so.

33 Wentworth did not acquire the lease of the alum farm until 1634, for a term which was to begin in 1638. It then brought him nearly £2500 p.a. ( Cooper, J. P., op. cit. pp. 236–40)Google Scholar.

34 Weston.

35 Charles I.

36 Queen Henrietta Maria.

37 The episode here mentioned, in which Wentworth's fidelity to Weston brought on him the King's displeasure and the Queen's antagonism, is difficult to identify precisely. In July 1629 Weston was reported to be out of the Queen's favour because he stinted her expenditure and advocated friendly relations with Spain. In June 1631 the Queen and a group at Court which included the Earl of Holland attempted to bring about Weston's fall (C.S.P. Venetian 1629-1632, 142, 510, 527). Presumably Stanhope refers to one of these occasions.

38 A reference to Weston's suspected Catholicism ( , Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion, ed. Macray, W. D., 6 vols. (Oxford, 1888), 1, 107)Google Scholar.

39 Allurements; cf. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. ‘inescate’.

40 Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy and Earl of Devonshire, Lord Deputy of Ireland, 1600-3, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (honorary), 1603-6, who brought the Irish war to a successful end.

41 Philip II of Spain.

42 Ecdes. iv. 4.

43 Prov. xvi. 7.

44 Self-conceit; cf. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. ‘outrecuidance’.

45 Foul; cf. ibid.s.v. ‘feculent’.

46 Unnumbered page insetted here: ‘Multa petentibus, desunt multa: here are som things omitted, not safe for me to write nor you to reade; therfore I have linked the last syd and the next together as well as I could, and they are passable enoughe not to be discerned by every eye, noe not though Eagle sighted: Therefore long not.’

47 Isa. liii. 1.

48 A reference to Cardinal Wolsey's part in bringing Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, to his death for treason in 1521. Wolsey was a butcher's son, Buckingham of Plantagenet descent. According to the story told by Polydore Vergil and followed by Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Wolsey hated Buckingham and determined to destroy him. To isolate him, Wolsey Drought his friends into the King's displeasure or had them sent away. He got rid of Buckingham's supporter and son-in-law, the Earl of Surrey, by procuring his appointment as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Hence the connection between Ireland and Buckingham's fall ( Vergil, Polydore, Angtica historia A.D. 1483-1537, ed. Hay, D., Camden Soc., 3rd ser, LXXIV (1950), 262–5; Lord Herbert of Cherbury,Google ScholarThe life and reign of King Henry the Eighth (London, ed. 1672), pp. 98-101)Google Scholar.

49 An allusion to Walter Devereux, first Earl of Essex (d. 1576), Governor of Ulster and Earl Marshal of Ireland, who, according to rumour, was poisoned in Ireland at the instigation of the Earl of Leicester, his rival for Lady Essex's favour ( Camden, William, Annals, Eng. trans., 3rd ed. (London, 1675), 217Google Scholar;SirNaunton, Robert, Fragmenta regalia, Harleian miscellany, 12 vols. (London, ed. 1810), v, 131)Google Scholar.

50 Another allusion to the first Earl of Essex, grandfather to Stanhope's contemporary, Robert Devereux, the third earl. It was notorious that Lettice, wife of the first earl, was the Earl of Leicester's mistress. She became his wife after her husband's death in Ireland ( Camden, W., op. cit. pp. 217–18Google Scholar;Leycesters commonwealth (London, ed. 1641), p. 23Google Scholar;Bagwell, Robert, Ireland under the Tudors, 3 vols. (London, 1885-1890), II, 327)Google Scholar.

51 Probably a reference to Sir John Norm, Lord President of Munster and General in Ireland, a famous soldier. Norris arrived in Ireland in 1595 and died there two yean later after many difficulties and much frustration in his service. ( Camden, W., op. cit. pp. 509Google Scholar, 542-3; SirNaunton, R., op. cit. v, 138–9, 148Google Scholar; Bagwell, R., op. cit. III, 251, 287-8)Google Scholar.

52 Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1599, executed for treason, 1601.

53 The second Earl of Essex was Leicester's step-son by the tatter's marriage with his mother, Lettice, widow of the first earl. It was Leicester who introduced Essex to the Court ( SirNaunton, R., op. cit. v, 146)Google Scholar.

54 Thomas Burgh, Lord Burgh, appointed Irish Lord Deputy in April 1597, died in Ireland the following October after a short illness. Rumour in Ireland said Burgh was poisoned (C.S.P. Ireland 1598-1599, pp. 16, 20-2).

55 A reference to the Earl of Essex's opposition to the conclusion of peace with Spain in 1598, after Henry IV of France had done so by the Treaty of Vervins ( Camden, W., op. cit. p. 555Google Scholar).

56 , Camden (op. cit. pp. 567–8)Google Scholar describes how Essex sought the Irish lieutenancy after Lord Burgh's death and outlined qualifications for the office that plainly pointed to himself.

57 Sir Robert Cecil became Master of the Wards on 21 May 1599, while Essex was in Ireland. He, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, and Sir Walter Raleigh were all Essex's enemies ( Handover, P. M., The Second Cecil (London, 1959), p. 190Google Scholar;Camden, W., op. cit. P. 535)Google Scholar.