James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby

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James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby

James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby KG (born January 31, 1607 in Knowsley , † October 15, 1651 in Bolton ) was an English peer , politician and military man. He fought on the side of Charles I in the English Civil War .

Life

James Stanley was born on January 31, 1607 as the eldest son of William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby , and Lady Elizabeth de Vere and is sometimes stylized as the Great Earl of Derby . During his father's lifetime, he held the courtesy title of Lord Strange .

His paternal grandparents were Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, and Lady Margaret Clifford . Margaret was the daughter of Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland and Lady Eleanor Brandon . Eleanor was the third child of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk , and Maria Tudor . Mary, in turn, was the fifth child of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York .

Early career

After traveling on various occasions, he was elected as Burgess for Liverpool in the English House of Commons in 1625 . On February 2, 1626, James Stanley was beaten on the occasion of Charles I's coronation as Knight of the Bath . In the same year he and his father became Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire and Chamberlain of the City of Chester . Later he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of North Wales and appointed on March 7, 1628 by Writ of Summons as Baron Strange in the House of Lords .

English Civil War

He did not take part in the political debates between the King and Parliament and preferred to hunt in the country and look after his own land at court and in political life. Regardless, he joined the king when the English Civil War broke out in 1642. With the death of his father on September 29, 1642, he inherited the earliest dignity.

His promising plan to protect Lancashire in the beginning and to reinforce troops there was crushed by Charles I, who was told that he was jealous of the royal lineage and power of the Earl of Derby and had therefore transferred him to Nottingham .

James Stanley, circa 1636-1637

The Earl's subsequent attempts to regain the county were unsuccessful. He did not succeed in conquering Manchester . He was defeated at the Battle of Chowbent and the Battle of Lowton Moor . After the conquest of Preston , attacks on Bolton Castle and Lancaster Castle failed . After repelling Sir William Brereton's attack on Warrington , he was defeated at the Battle of Whalley and retired to York . Warrington then surrendered to the enemy forces.

In June 1643 he left for the Isle of Man to settle his own affairs there. In the summer of 1644 he took part in the successful campaign to the north of Prince Ruprecht von der Pfalz , in the course of which Lathom House was liberated, where his wife Charlotte de La Trémoille fought heroically during the siege of Lathom House . Bolton le Moors, now known only as Bolton , was also conquered. The fortress Greenhalgh Castle near Garstang surrendered after two years of siege in 1645 after the assurance that the besieged could leave unharmed.

He followed Prince Rupert to the Battle of Marston Moor . After Charles I was completely defeated in the north, he withdrew to the Isle of Man, where he endured for the king and granted asylum to fleeing royalists. His administration of the island mimicked the politics of Strafford in Ireland . It was more strict than just. He retained the supreme command, revitalized trade, remedied some grievances and protected the people from the church's forced collections. But he crushed the opposition by imprisoning their leaders and accusing them of persistent agitation because of the demands for the abolition of property rights and the introduction of the right of lease.

In July 1649 he contemptuously refused the conditions offered by Henry Ireton . On January 12, 1650, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter as a Knight Companion . Charles II placed him in command of the forces in Lancashire and Cheshire, and on August 15, 1651, he landed at Wyre Water in Lancashire to aid in the invasion of Charles II. He met the king on August 17th. The attempt to advance to Warrington failed because of his refusal to take over Covenanters so as not to lose the support of the Presbyterians . On August 25, he was completely defeated at the Battle of Wigan Lane . He himself was wounded several times and fled with great difficulty.

In Worcester he joined Charles II. After the Battle of Worcester on September 3, he escorted the king to Boscobel House . On his way north alone, he was captured near Nantwich and given pardon. Due to the Chester court martial on September 29th and the fact that shortly before Parliament had passed a law that all those connected with Charles II were guilty of treason, he was considered a traitor, not a prisoner of war, refused his pardon and sentenced to death. When his request for a pardon was rejected by Parliament despite the support of Oliver Cromwell , he attempted to escape. He was recaptured and executed in Bolton on October 15, 1651 for his part in the Bolton massacre . He was buried in Ormskirk Church.

Lord Derby was a man of deep religious conviction and great refinement, who, although unsuccessful on the battlefield, fought for the king's cause purposefully and without expectation of a reward. His political activity was limited in the later stages of the struggle by his rejection of the Scots, who believed that he was guilty of the king's death and that he was unsuitable for restoring the monarchy. According to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon , he was "a man of great honor and evident courage" and his weaknesses the result of poor knowledge of the world.

Works

  • A Discourse concerning the Government of the Isle of Man. (printed e.g. in the Stanley Papers and in Francis Peck's Desiderata Curiosa , Volume II)

Marriage and children

Charlotte de La Trémoille

On June 26, 1626 he married Charlotte de La Trémoille , the daughter of Claude de Thouars and Charlotte Brabantia . Her maternal grandparents were Wilhelm der Schweiger and Charlotte de Bourbon .

They themselves had four daughters and five sons together. Only four of their children appear to have lived until they were married:

The two sons of Charles William Stanley, 9th Earl of Derby (around 1655–1702) and James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby (1664–1736) both died without leaving any sons. Logically, after James' death, all of his lands and his titles fell to Sir Edward Stanley (1689–1776), who was a descendant of the first earl. The Earls of Derby are all his descendants.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 160.
  2. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 34.
predecessor Office successor
New title created Baron Strange
1628-1651 		Charles Stanley
William Stanley Earl of Derby
1642-1651 		Charles Stanley
personal data
SURNAME Stanley, James, 7th Earl of Derby
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Derby, James Stanley, 7th Earl of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English peer, politician and military
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1607
PLACE OF BIRTH Knowsley
DATE OF DEATH October 15, 1651
Place of death Bolton