Edward Smith-Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby

“ Sir Edward Stanley, of the noble house of Derby, lived at Tong Castle, County Salop. He married the daughter and co-heir of the Earl of Northumberland, who brought him two daughters, ‘the divine Venetia’ being the youngest. Her mother died when she was a few months old. The widower gave himself up to grief, shunned the world, and could not even derive comfort from the society of his children. ”

“ Here he became intimate with many men who afterwards rose to great eminence, among others Edward G. G. S. Stanley, afterwards Lord Stanley and fourteenth earl of Derby. After leaving Oxford he travelled for some years on the continent, but married in London (15 April 1828) , and in Aug. 1830 entered parliament as representative, with his friend's father Lord Stanley, afterwards thirteenth earl of Derby, of his native county of Lancaster. ”

“ Durbar at, 750 Deorham, battle of, 18 Derby, Edward Stanley, Earl of, prime minister in 1852, 680; in 1858, 694; in 1866, 703 Dermot of Leinster, introduces English into Ireland, 107 Derry, siege of, 450 Derwentwater, Earl, Jacobite leader, 487-489 Desmond, Garrett, Earl of, rebellion of, 346 Despencer, Hugh, favourite of Edward II., 177-179 Dettingen, battle of, 502 Devon, John, Earl of, beheaded by Edward IV., 253; Edward, Earl of, conspires against Queen Mary, 317 Directory, proclaimed in France, 584; fall of, 593 Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield, leads Protectionists, 666, 667 ”

“ Whither, the majority of the men were far from being certain. The attachment of the Northerners of Derby, Cheshire, and Lancashire was very strong for the ancient race of Stanley. To go against an Earl of Derby was hardly less than actual laying of rough hands on their anointed King, and to that pass only the fiercest malignants had as yet desired; thus for a while the soldiers were permitted to suppose that they were bound for Westmoreland. ”

“ That plain looking man who with a slight inclination to the Speaker and doffing his hat, passes out to the Division Lobby, is Lord Stanley—now Earl Derby, since the death of his father. Lord Stanley, who is now in the House of Lords, was one of the ablest members of the House of Commons, a forcible debater, a logical reasoner, and a thorough gentleman in all respects. ”

“ His grandfather, Sir John Stanley (d. 1414) , had founded the fortunes of his family by marrying Isabel Lathom, the heiress of a great estate in the hundred of West Derby in Lancashire; he was lieutenant of Ireland in 1389–1391, and again in 1399–1401, and in 1405 received a grant of the lordship of Man from Henry IV. The future earl of Derby was a squire to Henry VI. in 1454, but not long afterwards married Eleanor, daughter of the Yorkist leader, Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury. ”

“ Thomas Lord Stanley, by his defection and opportunely going over, with his forces, at the battle of Bosworth, to the Earl of Richmond, was of the utmost service to him, and was the principal cause of his gaining the victory and the crown, was for so doing, created first Earl of Derby of that name, by Henry VII., in 1485, and died in 1504. ”

“ Sir John Stanley transferred a great deal of ecclesiastical power into the hands of the deemsters, and established other wise regulations.
Thus the Isle of Man became the brightest jewel in the possessions of the Earls of Derby; and now, in the opening year of the English Revolution, James, the seventh Earl, became Lord of Man. ”

“ It was something to have the commons on his side: but the magnates were still the greatest power in England, and in pressing his own policy to the uttermost, Simon had fatally alienated the few great lords who still adhered to him. There was a fierce quarrel in parliament between Leicester and the shifty Robert Ferrars, Earl of Derby. For the moment Leicester prevailed, and Derby was stripped of his lands and was thrown into prison. But his fate was a warning to others, and the settlement between Montfort and Edward aroused the suspicions of the Earl of Gloucester. ”

“ STANLEY, FERDINANDO, fifth Earl of Derby (1559?–1594) , son of Henry, fourth earl [q. v.] , was born in London about 1559. He matriculated in 1572, at the age of twelve, at St. John's College, Oxford, and graduated M.A. on 17 Sept. 1589. As a boy of fourteen he was called to Windsor by Queen Elizabeth, though he does not appear to have held any office. In 1585 and afterwards he acted as deputy lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire on behalf of his father, and during the time of the alarm of the Spanish invasion in 1588 he was mayor of Liverpool, and raised a troop of horsemen. ”

“ The "Dark Row" is the only one of these strange arcades that is closed from the light, for it forms a kind of tunnel through which the footwalk goes. Not far from this is the famous old "Stanley House," where one unfortunate Earl of Derby spent the last day before his execution in 1657 at Bolton. The carvings on the front of this house are very fine, and there is told in reference to the mournful event that marks its history the following story: Lieutenant Smith came from the governor of Chester to notify the condemned earl to be ready for the journey to Bolton. ”

“ His cultivated mind, and endearing manners, reconciled, in a short time, the noble house of Derby to his stolen union with Lady Charlotte Stanley: her father, the late Earl of Derby, acknowledged him for his son-in-law; while the present Earl considered him, not only as his uncle, but his friend 1.
The author was, at that period, but a subaltern in the army. The patronage of his new relations, more [4] than his own merit, it is probable, obtained him higher rank. He was, however, possessed of talents for a general, and those talents were occasionally rewarded with success. ”

“ His speeches are all the speeches of a steady, respectable, thoughtful sort of Liberal, inclined to study carefully both or all sides of a question, and opposed to extreme opinions either way. He will never, it is quite clear, be guilty of the audacity of openly breaking with his party while his father lives; and perhaps when he becomes Earl of Derby, there may be nothing distinctively Tory worth fighting about. Lord Stanley is indeed totally devoid of that generous ardor which makes men open converts. He is no longer young, and he will probably remain all his life where he stands at present. ”

“ On the contrary, Churchmen, Romanists, and Puritans were alike the dupes of the loathsome impostors who roamed the country, though each in turn was ready to upbraid the others with being [167] believers in the generally prevailing error, and not unfrequently with being participators in the frauds that were practised. The great and munificent Edward, Earl of Derby, “kept a conjuror in his house secretly;” and his daughter-in-law, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Derby, lost the favour of Queen Elizabeth for a womanish curiosity in “consulting with wizards or cunning men.” ”

“ On 15 April 1336 Edward III, who was his cousin, appointed him to command an army against the Scots (Fœdera, ii. 936) ; the king went to Scotland in person, and Henry, who was then a knight-banneret, was with him at Perth, and on 12 Dec. was named as a commissioner for the defence of England against the French (ib. p. 953) . On 16 March 1337 Edward created him Earl of Derby, one of the titles borne by his father, who was still living, as the heir of Earl Thomas, and assigned him a yearly pension from the customs. ”

“ The unquestioned leader of the royalists was the head of the great house of Stanley, James Stanley, Lord Strange, afterwards 7th Earl of Derby. Though not actually succeeding to the title until September, 1642, his father William the 6th Earl had resigned all his estates in his son's favour five years before, and Strange had been since then the leader of the county. Born on January 31, 1606‐7, he was educated in Bolton and at Oxford, and entered public life very early, becoming member of Parliament for Liverpool in 1625. ”

“ On 13 Oct. he was removed to Bolton, where he was executed on the 15th. ‘Among the sufferers for King Charles the First none cast greater lustre on the cause’ (Walpole, Royal and Noble Authors, iii. 37) . He was buried in Ormskirk church, and became known as the ‘martyr Earl of Derby.’
Two portraits of Derby, painted by Vandyck, belong to the present Earl of Derby (Cat. First Loan Exhib. 1866, Nos. 689, 691) . A copy of the first, painted while he was Lord Strange, was presented in 1860 to the National Portrait Gallery, London, by the fourteenth Earl of Derby. ”

“ January 26 was the date of the marriage of William Stanley, Earl of Derby, at Greenwich. Such events were usually celebrated with the accompaniment of plays or interludes, masques written specially for the occasion not having yet become fashionable. The company of players employed at these nuptials would certainly be the Chamberlain's, who had, so lately as the year before, been in the employ of the Earl's brother Ferdinand. No play known to us is so fit for the purpose as Midsummer-Night's Dream, which in its present form is certainly of this date. ”

“ Scarcely had he arrived with his soldiers before the place over which he anticipated an easy victory, than the King summoned him to join his army at Shrewsbury, since the Parliamentarians were marching upon them under Lord Essex. Full of regret at being called off, Lord Derby obeyed this mandate, to find himself once more the object of mistrust and of jealousy. Directly he arrived his command was taken from him, the King telling him that he was now wanted in Lancashire to keep watch there upon the rebels.
“Worms will turn.” The Earl was a man, though one of very equable temperament ”

“ Lord Derby he lost the statesman with whom in his later years he was most closely connected by private friendship and political sympathy, while the death of Lady Stanley of Alderley deprived him of an attached and lifelong friend.
Growing infirmities prevented him in his latter days from mixing much in general society in London, but his life was brightened by all that loving companionship could give; his mental powers were unfaded, and he could still enjoy the society of younger friends. ”

“ Derby was known in the time of the heptarchy as Northworthig, and did not receive the name of Deoraby or Derby until after it was given up to the Danes by the treaty of Wedmore and had become one of their five boroughs, probably ruled in the ordinary way by an earl with twelve “lawmen” under him. Being won back among the sweeping conquests of Æthelflæd, lady of the Mercians, in 917, it prospered during the 10th century, and by the reign of Edward the Confessor there were 243 burgesses in Derby. ”

“ The Earl of Derby of the earlier years of Charles’s reign presented Lathom House to his eldest son and heir, James, Lord Strange, the Earl himself making his home at Chester. Concerning her father-in-law, Lady Strange writes to her mother in the following terms—after premising that her epistle is merely the replica of one previously written, but which had gone astray in transit ”

“ Derby, 14th Earl of, British statesman, born at Knowsley Hall, Lancashire; entered Parliament in 1820 in the Whig interest, and was hailed as an accession to their ranks by the Whigs; supported the cause of reform; in 1830 became Chief Secretary for Ireland under Earl Grey's administration ”

“ Lord Derby further promulgated an announcement to similar effect, “inviting all his allies, friends, and acquaintance, all his tenantry in Lancashire, and Cheshire, and other places, as well as all his Majesty’s faithful and loyal subjects,” to repair to the Isle of Man, as a refuge and a rallying-place. No menaces or dangers, added the Earl in the proclamation, could trouble him, nor dangers deter him. A 165letter written by Lady Derby, the year of the King’s death, bitterly complains of the duplicity of Parliament dealings in respect of the disposal of their property. ”

“ Some days have elapsed since we penned the preceding pages of this article; and during that interval, having carefully watched the current of events, we declare that all our previous conclusions, not hastily arrived at, are confirmed—that the Earl of Derby will surmount his difficulties, and baffle his desperate, and, we regret being forced to say it, unscrupulous parliamentary opponents. His spirit is thoroughly English. As a people, we love courage, hate injustice, and despise trickery ”

“ The struggle between Richard II and the baronial opposition began in the parliament of October 1386, when Henry was not of age to receive a summons. Yet when, after Easter 1387, Richard withdrew to Wales to take counsel with Robert de Vere, duke of Ireland [q. v.] , Derby was one of the persons obnoxious to the king and his favourites (Walsingham, Hist. Anglic. ii. 161) . Derby now definitely joined his uncle Gloucester, Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel (1346–1397) [q. v.] , and Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick [q. v.] . Thomas Mowbray [q. v.] ”

“ In 1640 Lord Strange was appointed to share with his father in the office of Lord Chamberlain of Chester. Two years later the old Earl died; and his son succeeding him, “Madame Strange,” as her French and Dutch relatives called her, became Countess of Derby.
In the course of time, since the murder of the 63Duke of Buckingham, the affairs of the country had gone from bad to worse, and year by year the breach between Royalists and Parliamentarians widened. Outwardly the kingdom not only seemed to prosper, but was in a manner flourishing. ”

“ The Earl however, succeeded in allaying their discontent; and on quitting Shrewsbury to return to Lathom House, he left his troops loyal and determined as himself in the King’s service.
The Parliamentarians of Lancashire soon learned of the Earl’s treatment by the Royalists, and once more took advantage of it to try and tempt him over to their side. “The Earl of Derby ought,” said they, “to resent the outrages which he had suffered at Court from the King’s bad advisers. His enemies were the enemies also of the nation. They attacked the religion 105of all decent people ”