Arrest of Strafford, 1640 (litho)

Arrest of Strafford, 1640. Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, represented Yorkshire in the parliament of 1614 as Sir T Wentworth. From 1633 to 1639 he ruled Ireland as lord-deputy in an able but high-handed and unscrupulous manner. In 1639 he became Charles I's principal adviser in his troubles with parliament and with the Scots. "He was," says Clarendon, "a man of too high and severe deportment . . . to have many friends at Court." In 1640 Strafford was impeached by the Long Parliament for high treason, and not-withstanding Charles's solemn promise that he "should not suffer in life, honour or fortune," he was executed on Tower Hill in 1641. Illustration for one a set of cards on Historical London, issued by Hignett's Cigarettes in 1926.