Biography of Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford 1593-1641
Paternal Family Tree: Wentworth
1641 Trial and Execution of the Earl of Strafford
1680 Trial and Execution of William Howard 1st Viscount Stafford
In or before 1591 [his father] William Wentworth 1st Baronet (age 28) and [his mother] Anne Atkins Baroness Wentworth Woodhouse (age 23) were married. She by marriage Lady Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire.
On 13 Apr 1593 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford was born to William Wentworth 1st Baronet (age 31) and Anne Atkins Baroness Wentworth Woodhouse (age 26).
Around 1609 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 15) educated at St John's College, Cambridge University [Map].
In Feb 1612 [his father] William Wentworth 1st Baronet (age 50) died at Wentworth. His son Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 18) succeeded 2nd Baronet Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire.
In or before 1622 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 28) and Margaret Clifford were married. She the daughter of Francis Clifford 4th Earl of Cumberland (age 62) and Grisold Hughes Countess Cumberland.
In 1622 [his wife] Margaret Clifford died.
In Feb 1625 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 31) and Arabella Holles were married. She the daughter of John Holles 1st Earl de Clare (age 60) and Anne Stanhope Countess de Clare (age 49).
On 08 Jun 1626 [his son] William Wentworth 2nd Earl Strafford was born to Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 33) and [his wife] Arabella Holles at Wentworth.
On 04 Sep 1626 [his brother-in-law] John Holles 2nd Earl de Clare (age 31) and Elizabeth Vere Countess Clare were married. She by marriage Countess Clare. He the son of [his father-in-law] John Holles 1st Earl de Clare (age 62) and [his mother-in-law] Anne Stanhope Countess de Clare (age 50). They were second cousin once removed.
On 22 Jul 1628 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 35) was created 1st Baron Wentworth.
In 1629 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 35) was created 1st Viscount Wentworth.
On 08 Oct 1629 [his daughter] Anne Wentworth Baroness Rockingham was born to Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 36) and [his wife] Arabella Holles at Wentworth.
After 08 Oct 1629 [his daughter] Arabella Wentworth was born to Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 36) and [his wife] Arabella Holles at Wentworth.
In 1631 [his wife] Arabella Holles died in childbirth.
On 12 Jan 1632 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 38) was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland arriving in Dublin [Map] in Jul 1633.
In 1633 Anthony Van Dyck (age 33). Portrait of Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 39).
Around 1635 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 41) prosecuted Richard Boyle 1st Earl Cork (age 68) for misappropriating the funds of Youghal College; and ordered him to take down the tomb of his first wife in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, making another lifelong enemy.
On 12 Nov 1635 Richard Burke 4th Earl Clanricarde 1st Earl St Albans (age 63) died. His son Ulick Burke 1st Marquess Clanricarde (age 31) succeeded 5th Earl Clanricarde, 2nd Earl St Albans. Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 42) was blamed for his death making an enemy of Ulick Burke 1st Marquess Clanricarde and his half-brother (they shared the same mother Frances Walsingham Countess Essex) Robert Devereux 3rd Earl Essex (age 44).
Around 1636 Anthony Van Dyck (age 36). Portrait of Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 42).
In 1640 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 46) was appointed 438th Knight of the Garter by King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland (age 39).
On 12 Jan 1640 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 46) was created 1st Earl Strafford. [his wife] Elizabeth Rhodes Countess Strafford (age 34) by marriage Countess Strafford.
On 13 Apr 1641 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 48) was attainted by 204 votes to 59 ostensibly for his authoritarian rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Despite his promise not to King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland (age 40) signed the death warrant on the 10 May 1641 in the light of increasing pressure from Parliament and the commons.
Wenceslaus Hollar (age 33). Engraving of the Trial of Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford with the following marked:
A. King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland.
C. Henrietta Maria Bourbon Queen Consort England (age 31).
D. King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland (age 10).
E. Thomas Howard 21st Earl of Arundel 4th Earl of Surrey 1st Earl Norfolk (age 55), Lord High Steward.
F. Henry Montagu 1st Earl Manchester (age 78), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.
G. John Paulet 5th Marquess Winchester (age 43).
H. Robert Bertie 1st Earl Lindsey (age 58), Lord Chamberlain.
I. Philip Herbert 4th Earl Pembroke 1st Earl Montgomery (age 56), Lord Chamberlain of the Household.
V. Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford.
Z. Alethea Talbot Countess Arundel, Surrey and Norfolk (age 56).
Wenceslaus Hollar: On 23 Jul 1607 he was born. Pepy's Diary. 22 Nov 1666. Up, and to the office, where we sat all the morning, and my Lord Bruncker did show me Hollar's new print of the City, with a pretty representation of that part which is burnt, very fine indeed; and tells me that he was yesterday sworn the King's servant, and that the King hath commanded him to go on with his great map of the City, which he was upon before the City was burned, like Gombout of Paris, which I am glad of. On 25 Mar 1677 he died.
Evelyn's Diary. 15 Apr 1641 I repaired to London to hear and see the famous trial of the Earl of Strafford, Lord-Deputy of Ireland (age 48), who, on the 22nd of March, had been summoned before both Houses of Parliament, and now appeared in Westminster Hall [Map], which was prepared with scaffolds for the Lords and Commons, who, together with the King (age 40), Queen (age 31), Prince (age 10), and flower of the noblesse, were spectators and auditors of the greatest malice and the greatest innocency that ever met before so illustrious an assembly. It was Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey (age 55), Earl Marshal of England, who was made High Steward upon this occasion; and the sequel is too well known to need any notice of the event.
On 12 May 1641 Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 48) was beheaded at Tower Hill [Map]. His execution was attended by an enormous crowd.
Wenceslaus Hollar (age 33). Engraving of the execution of Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford marked as C with James Ussher (age 60) marked as A.
Evelyn's Diary. 12 May 1641, I beheld on Tower-hill [Map] the fatal stroke which severed the wisest head in England from the shoulders of the Earl of Strafford (age 48), whose crime coming under the cognizance of no human law, or statute, a new one was made, not to be a precedent, but his destruction. With what reluctancy the King (age 40) signed the execution, he has sufficiently expressed; to which he imputes his own unjust suffering - to such exorbitancy were things arrived.
On 21 Apr 1641 Henry Mildmay (age 48) voted against the attainder of Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford (age 48).
Evelyn's Diary. 05 Oct 1649. Dined with Sir George Ratcliffe, the great favorite of the late Earl of Stratford, formerly Lord Deputy of Ireland, decapitated.
Pepy's Diary. 25 Mar 1664. Lady-day. Up and by water to White Hall, and there to chappell; where it was most infinite full to hear Dr. Critton (age 71). Being not knowne, some great persons in the pew I pretended to, and went in, did question my coming in. I told them my pretence; so they turned to the orders of the chappell, which hung behind upon the wall, and read it; and were satisfied; but they did not demand whether I was in waiting or no; and so I was in some fear lest he that was in waiting might come and betray me. The Doctor preached upon the thirty-first of Jeremy, and the twenty-first and twenty-second verses, about a woman compassing a man; meaning the Virgin conceiving and bearing our Saviour. It was the worst sermon I ever heard him make, I must confess; and yet it was good, and in two places very bitter, advising the King (age 33) to do as the Emperor Severus did, to hang up a Presbyter John (a short coat and a long gowne interchangeably) in all the Courts of England. But the story of Severus was pretty, that he hanged up forty senators before the Senate house, and then made a speech presently to the Senate in praise of his owne lenity; and then decreed that never any senator after that time should suffer in the same manner without consent of the Senate: which he compared to the proceeding of the Long Parliament against my Lord Strafford. He said the greatest part of the lay magistrates in England were Puritans, and would not do justice; and the Bishopps, their powers were so taken away and lessened, that they could not exercise the power they ought. He told the King and the ladies plainly, speaking of death and of the skulls and bones of dead men and women1, how there is no difference; that nobody could tell that of the great Marius or Alexander from a pyoneer; nor, for all the pains the ladies take with their faces, he that should look in a charnels-house could not distinguish which was Cleopatra's, or fair Rosamond's, or Jane Shoare's.
Note 1. The preacher appears to have had the grave scene in "Hamlet" in his mind, as he gives the same illustration of Alexander as Hamlet does.
Pepy's Diary. 04 Nov 1667. Thence home, and there met Sir H. Cholmly (age 35), and he and I to the Excise Office to see what tallies are paying, and thence back to the Old Exchange [Map], by the way talking of news, and he owning Sir W. Coventry (age 39), in his opinion, to be one of the worthiest men in the nation, as I do really think he is. He tells me he do think really that they will cut off my Chancellor's (age 58) head, the Chancellor at this day showing as much pride as is possible to those few that venture their fortunes by coming to see him; and that the Duke of York (age 34) is troubled much, knowing that those that fling down the Chancellor cannot stop there, but will do something to him, to prevent his having it in his power hereafter to avenge himself and father-in-law upon them. And this Sir H. Cholmly fears may be by divorcing the Queen (age 28) and getting another, or declaring the Duke of Monmouth (age 18) legitimate; which God forbid! He tells me he do verily believe that there will come in an impeachment of High Treason against my Lord of Ormond (age 57); among other things, for ordering the quartering of soldiers in Ireland on free quarters; which, it seems, is High Treason in that country, and was one of the things that lost the Lord Strafford his head, and the law is not yet repealed; which, he says, was a mighty oversight of him not to have it repealed, which he might with ease have done, or have justified himself by an Act. From the Exchange [Map] I took a coach, and went to Turlington, the great spectacle-maker, for advice, who dissuades me from using old spectacles, but rather young ones, and do tell me that nothing can wrong my eyes more than for me to use reading-glasses, which do magnify much.
Evelyn's Diary. 30 Nov 1680. The signal day begun the trial (at which I was present) of my Lord Viscount Stafford (age 66), (for conspiring the death of the King (age 50), second son to my Lord Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, Earl Marshal of England, and grandfather to the present Duke of Norfolk (age 52), whom I so well knew, and from which excellent person I received so many favors. It was likewise his birthday, The trial was in Westminster Hall [Map], before the King, Lords, and Commons, just in the same manner as, forty years past, the great and wise Earl of Strafford (there being but one letter differing their names) received his trial for pretended ill government in Ireland, in the very same place, this Lord Stafford's [his father] father being then High Steward. The place of sitting was now exalted some considerable height from the paved floor of the hall, with a stage of boards. The throne, woolsacks for the Judges, long forms for the Peers, chair for the Lord Steward, exactly ranged, as in the House of Lords. The sides on both hands scaffolded to the very roof for the members of the House of Commons. At the upper end, and on the right side of the King's state, was a box for his Majesty, and on the left others for the great ladies, and over head a gallery for ambassadors and public ministers. At the lower end, or entrance, was a bar, and place for the prisoner, the Lieutenant of the Tower of London, the ax-bearer and guards, my Lord Stafford's two daughters, the Marchioness of Winchester being one; there was likewise a box for my Lord to retire into. At the right hand, in another box, somewhat higher, stood the witnesses; at the left, the managers, in the name of the Commons of England, namely, Serjeant Maynard (age 76) (the great lawyer, the same who prosecuted the cause against the Earl of Strafford forty years before, being now near eighty years of age), Sir William Jones (age 49), late Attorney-General, Sir Francis Winnington (age 46), a famous pleader, and Mr. Treby, now Recorder of London, not appearing in their gowns as lawyers, but in their cloaks and swords, as representing the Commons of England: to these were joined Mr. Hampden, Dr. Sacheverell, Mr. Poule, Colonel Titus (age 57), Sir Thomas Lee (age 45), all gentlemen of quality, and noted parliamentary men. The first two days, in which were read the commission and impeachment, were but a tedious entrance into matter of fact, at which I was but little present. But, on Thursday, I was commodiously seated among the Commons, when the witnesses were sworn and examined. The principal witnesses were Mr. Oates (age 31) (who called himself Dr.), Mr. Dugdale (age 40), and Turberville (age 32). Oates swore that he delivered a commission to Viscount Stafford from the Pope, to be Paymaster-General to an army intended to be raised; Dugdale, that being at Lord Aston's, the prisoner dealt with him plainly to murder his Majesty; and Turberville, that at Paris he also proposed the same to him.
Evelyn's Diary. 12 Dec 1680. This evening, looking out of my chamber window toward the west, I saw a meteor of an obscure bright color, very much in shape like the blade of a sword, the rest of the sky very serene and clear. What this may portend, God only knows; but such another phenomenon I remember to have seen in 1640, about the trial of the great Earl of Strafford, preceding our bloody Rebellion. I pray God avert his judgments! We have had of late several comets, which though I believe appear from natural causes, and of themselves operate not, yet I cannot despise them. They may be warnings from God, as they commonly are forerunners of his animadversions. After many days and nights of snow, cloudy and dark weather, the comet was very much wasted.
Around 1712. Charles D'Agar (age 43). Portrait of Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford.
Kings Wessex: Great x 18 Grand Son of King Edmund "Ironside" I of England
Kings Gwynedd: Great x 15 Grand Son of Owain "Great" King Gwynedd
Kings Seisyllwg: Great x 21 Grand Son of Hywel "Dda aka Good" King Seisyllwg King Deheubarth
Kings Powys: Great x 16 Grand Son of Maredudd ap Bleddyn King Powys
Kings England: Great x 8 Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Kings Scotland: Great x 17 Grand Son of King Duncan I of Scotland
Kings Franks: Great x 14 Grand Son of Louis VII King Franks
Kings France: Great x 10 Grand Son of Philip IV King France
Great x 4 Grandfather: Thomas Wentworth
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Wentworth 9 x Great Grand Son of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Jane Redman 8 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 2 Grandfather: Thomas "Golden Thomas" Wentworth 10 x Great Grand Son of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Richard Fitzwilliam 11 x Great Grand Son of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Isabel Fitzwilliam 12 x Great Grand Daughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 1 Grandfather: William Wentworth 9 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: Richard Woodruffe
Great x 2 Grandmother: Beatrix Woodruffe 8 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Thomas Fitzwilliam 10 x Great Grand Son of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Beatrix Fitzwilliam 7 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Margaret Dymoke 6 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
GrandFather: Thomas Wentworth 10 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Father: William Wentworth 1st Baronet 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: William Gascoigne 4 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Gascoigne 4 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Margaret Percy 3 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: William Gascoigne 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Alice Frognall
Great x 1 Grandfather: William Gascoigne 5 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Richard Fitzwilliam 11 x Great Grand Son of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 3 Grandfather: Thomas Fitzwilliam 12 x Great Grand Son of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England
Great x 2 Grandmother: Margaret Fitzwilliam 4 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: John Neville 1st Marquess Montagu 2 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Lucy Neville 3 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Isabel Ingaldsthorpe 5 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
GrandMother: Margaret Gascoigne 6 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: William Tempest of Broughton
Great x 3 Grandfather: John Tempest of Borughton
Great x 2 Grandfather: Roger Tempest of Broughton
Great x 1 Grandmother: Beatrice Tempest
Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl Strafford 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England
GrandFather: Robert Atkins
Mother: Anne Atkins Baroness Wentworth Woodhouse