James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby

James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby KG (January 31, 1607 – October 15, 1651) was a supporter of the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

Born at Knowsley, he is sometimes styled the Great Earl of Derby, eldest son of William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby and Lady Elizabeth de Vere. During his father's life he was known as Lord Strange.

His paternal grandparents were Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby and Lady Margaret Clifford. Margaret was a 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 Mary Tudor. Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York.

Early career

After travelling abroad he was chosen Member of Parliament for Liverpool in 1625. On February 2, 1626, James was created a Knight of the Bath on occasion of the coronation of Charles I of England. He was joined with his father the same year as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire and chamberlain of Chester. He assisted in the administration of the Isle of Man and was appointed in 1627 as Lord of Mann. Subsequently he was appointed lord-lieutenant of North Wales and on 7 March 1628 he was called up to the House of Lords as Baron Strange.

English Civil War

He took no part in the political disputes between king and parliament and preferred country pursuits and the care of his estates to court or public life. Nevertheless when the English Civil War broke out in 1642, Lord Strange devoted himself to the king's cause. By the death of his father on the 29 September 1642 he had succeeded to the earldom.

His plan of securing Lancashire at the beginning and raising troops there, which promised success, was however discouraged by Charles, who was said to be jealous of his power and royal lineage and who commanded his presence at Nottingham.

His subsequent attempts to recover the county were unsuccessful. He was unable to get possession of Manchester, was defeated at Chowbent and Lowton Moor, and in 1643 after gaining Preston failed to take Bolton and Lancaster castles. Finally, after successfully beating off Sir William Brereton's attack on Warrington, he was defeated at Whalley and withdrew to York, Warrington in consequence surrendering to the enemy's forces.

In June 1643 he left for the Isle of Man to attend to affairs there, and in the summer of 1644 he took part in Prince Rupert of the Rhine's successful campaign in the north, when Lathom House, where his wife Charlotte de la Tremoille (Lady Derby) had successfully resisted the Siege of Lathom House, was relieved, and Bolton le Moors (now just known as Bolton) taken.

He followed Rupert to Battle of Marston Moor, and after the complete defeat of Charles's cause in the north withdrew to the Isle of Man, where he held out for the king and offered an asylum to royalist fugitives. His administration of the island imitated that of Strafford in Ireland. It was strong rather than just. He maintained order, encouraged trade, remedied some abuses, and defended the people from the exactions of the church; but he crushed opposition by imprisoning his antagonists, and aroused a prolonged agitation by abolishing the tenant-right and introducing leaseholds.

In July 1649 he refused scornfully terms offered to him by Henry Ireton. On 12 January 1650 he obtained the Garter. He was chosen by Charles II to command the troops of Lancashire and Cheshire, and on the 15 August 1651 he landed at Wyre Water in Lancashire in support of Charles's invasion, and met the king on the 17 August. Proceeding to Warrington he failed to obtain the support of the Presbyterians through his refusal to take the Covenant, and on the 25 August was totally defeated at the Battle of Wigan Lane, being severely wounded and escaping with difficulty.

He joined Charles at Worcester; after the battle on the 3 September he accompanied him to Boscobel House, and while on his way north alone was captured near Nantwich and given quarter. He was tried by court-martial at Chester on the 29 September, and on the grounds he was a traitor and not a prisoner of war under the act of parliament passed in the preceding month, which declared those who corresponded with Charles guilty of treason, his quarter was disallowed and he was condemned to death. When his appeal for pardon to parliament was rejected, though supported by Oliver Cromwell, he endeavoured to escape; but was recaptured and executed at Bolton on the 15 October 1651 because of his part in the Bolton Massacre. He was buried in Ormskirk church.

Lord Derby was a man of deep religious feeling and of great nobility of character, who though unsuccessful in the field served the king's cause with single-minded purpose and without expectation of reward. His political usefulness was handicapped in the later stages of the struggle by his dislike of the Scots, whom he regarded as guilty of the king's death and as unfit instruments of the restoration. According to Clarendon he was "a man of great honour and clear courage," and his defects the result of too little knowledge of the world.

Literary works

Lord Derby left in MS. "A Discourse concerning the Government of the Isle of Man" (printed in the Stanley Papers and in Francis Peck's "Desiderata Curiosa", vol. ii.) and several volumes of historical collections, observations, devotions (Stanley Papers) and a commonplace book.

Marriage and children

He married on the 26 June 1626 Charlotte de la Tremoille (1599–1664), daughter of Claude, duc de Thouars and Charlotte Brabantina of Nassau. Her maternal grandparents were William the Silent and Charlotte de Bourbon. They were parents of four daughters and five sons.

Only four of their children seem to have survived long enough to marry:

*Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby (19 January, 1628 - 21 December, 1672).
*Lady Henriette Mary Stanley (17 November, 1630 - 27 December, 1685). Married William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford.
*Lady Amelia Ann Sophia Stanley. Married John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl.
*Lady Catherine Stanley. Married Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester.

Charles' two sons, William, the 9th Earl (c. 1655–1702), and James, the 10th Earl (1664–1736), both died without sons, and consequently, when James died in February 1736, his titles and estates passed to Sir Edward Stanley (1689–1776), a descendant of the 1st earl. The Earls of Derby are his descendants.

References

*

External links

* [http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/hist1900/ch22.htm Book 2 chap 2 - History of Isle of Man, 1900]
* [http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/manxsoc/msvol12/p079.htm Note 21 - ManxSoc Vol 12 Parr's Abstracts]
* [http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/ss4tz/stanley02.htm A genealogy of the Stanley family]
* [http://link.library.utoronto.ca/reed/patron.cfm?PeopleListID=497 Stanley's patronage of theatre and/or music: "Patrons and Performances Web Site"]