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' 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.
Reference
External links
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