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rewarded for his neutrality at this crisis by his appointment to the office of custos rotulorum for the West Riding, in the room of Sir John Saville, with whom he was at feud. James continued to govern for six years without having recourse to a parliament; but the political horizon grew darker and darker, discontentment at home was followed by disasters abroad, and at length the urgent necessities of the king compelled him to summon another parliament in 1621. Wentworth, who had throughout this gloomy period remained on friendly terms with the court, though cautiously, was again elected for Yorkshire, and brought in Calvert, one of the secretaries of state, along with him. The popular party in the house lost no time in taking active and resolute steps to vindicate the rights of the nation, and to punish the courtiers who had abetted the arbitrary and unconstitutional policy of the king; but Wentworth took little or no part in these proceedings. His health gave way at this juncture, and he was attacked with fever, from which he recovered, but which soon after (1622) carried off his wife, to whom he seems to have been tenderly attached. He was returned for Yorkshire to the next parliament (1624), but his election was disputed and declared void, mainly by the influence of Sir John Eliot, against whom he ever afterwards bore a bitter grudge. He was again elected, but was detained in Yorkshire by a sudden illness. On his recovery he came up to London, when he found the throne occupied by Charles, but the influence of Buckingham even more predominant than before. Wentworth had for some reason or other become obnoxious to the dissolute and imperious favourite, and when a new parliament was summoned in 1626, to his great surprise and mortification he found himself among those who were disabled from serving, by being pricked sheriffs of their respective counties. He refused, however, to take any part in the attempt to evade or defeat this petty act of tyranny; and while the commons were impeaching Buckingham, and resisting the claim of the king to levy tonnage and poundage without their consent, he remained quiet in the country. Notwithstanding his moderate and cautious conduct, however, his office of keeper of the records was taken from him and given to his rival, Sir John Saville, whose son was at the same time promoted to a barony and an office in the household. This treatment induced Wentworth to quit the cautious and middle course he had hitherto pursued in parliament, and to take part with the opponents of the government. The second parliament of Charles was soon after dissolved, and the royal exchequer replenished by forced loans. A privy seal, as it was called, was sent to Wentworth, who after great hesitation refused to lend. He was in consequence summoned to appear before the council, and committed to the Marshalsea, where he remained six weeks. He was then removed to Dartford in Kent, where his imprisonment was alleviated by the presence of his wife, the Lady Arabella, daughter of Lord Clare, whom he had married in 1625. Another parliament, the third, of which Wentworth was again a member, was summoned by Charles in 1628, and wrested from the king the celebrated Petition of right. Wentworth, who was among the foremost promoters of this great charter of national rights, was now reckoned one of the most valuable supporters of the popular cause, and took a prominent part in condemning the arbitrary exactions of Charles, and his violent infringement of the liberties of the people. His speeches were remarkable both for the cogency of their reasoning and their impassioned eloquence, and produced a deep impression on the house. The court now saw their error in neglecting and slighting the advances of such a formidable politician, who under the guise of zeal for the liberties of the people, had made the government sensible of his power. A negotiation was accordingly opened with him before the close of the session, and on the 14th of July Wentworth was created a baron and called to the privy council. The death of Buckingham shortly after, having removed the last obstacle to Wentworth's advancement, he was created a Viscount and Lord-president of the council of the north, which had nearly unlimited jurisdiction over the northern counties of England, and included within itself the powers of the courts of common law, of the chancery, and even of the star-chamber. Wentworth immediately set himself to make his authority absolute, and he declared that he would "lay by the heels" any man who ventured to appeal against his decrees to the courts of law at Westminster. He punished with heavy fines those who refused to pay to him, as the representative of royalty, the most profound reverence and respect, and intrigued in the most unscrupulous manner with the chancellor and the lord-treasurer to obtain a severe sentence against Sir David Fowler and his son, who had offended him by making disrespectful mention of the council of York. The death of his second wife at this juncture, though he deeply felt her loss, diverted his attention for but a brief time from his ambitious projects, and he continued by his energetic measures to strengthen and extend the royal prerogative, and greatly to augment the royal revenues. The extraordinary success of Wentworth's northern presidency induced Charles to offer him the office of lord-deputy of Ireland, which at this moment was in its usual state of anarchy and strife. Protestants and Roman catholics were for once united in their opposition to the government, which had accepted their voluntary contributions, and violated the promises of a redress of grievances, on the faith of which the money had been given. Wentworth received his commission early in 1632; but before entering upon the duties of his office, he informed himself fully of the state of affairs in Dublin, and contrived to overawe both parties. His first grand object was to make the royal authority absolute in Ireland, with a view to the advancement of the same despotic power in England. Armed with extraordinary powers, for which he had carefully stipulated, and retaining still his presidency of the north, he proceeded to Dublin in July, 1632. He had some months before this married privately a third wife, the daughter of Sir Godfrey Rhodes, whom he sent over before him, and publicly acknowledged on his arrival. He entered upon his duties with great state, ordered the ceremonial of the English court to be observed at the castle, surrounded himself with a guard, a novelty in Dublin, and treated the other ministers and the Irish peers with a haughty dignity, to which they were entirely unaccustomed. At the outset he resumed an old privilege which had been surrendered—of superseding the common-law courts at the discretion of the deputy, and assuming the decision of private civil causes. He procured an order from the king, that "none of those that has either office or estate here" should presume to quit the kingdom without the permission of the lord-deputy. He browbeat the members of the privy council, treated their opinions with contempt, and made it evident to all that his will was to be law. By the promise of calling a parliament, he induced the nobles to continue their voluntary contributions for another year; and having with some difficulty obtained the consent of the king—to the great joy of the people, he issued his writs for a parliament to be immediately held in Dublin. The elections returned a well-balanced party of Roman catholics and protestants. They were informed that two sessions should be held, the first for granting supplies, the second for the redress of grievances, and by a dexterous combination of management and menace, they were induced to vote at once and unconditionally the enormous grant of six subsidies. The convocation of Irish clergy was managed with equal success, and from them eight subsidies were ultimately procured. In the following session, Wentworth, as he had promised the king, took upon himself the responsibility and odium of rejecting the promised "graces," and openly told the parliament that he had refused even to transmit them to England. A feeble show of resistance was made by the Roman catholics, who had been most deeply injured by the deception practised by the lord-deputy; but they were at once defeated with the assistance of the protestants; and when the latter claimed their reward for this opportune service, they were silenced by threats of heavier wrongs than those which they already endured. On bringing this troublesome affair to a successful issue, the triumphant deputy wrote to his bosom friend and accomplice Laud—"Now I can say the king is as absolute here as any prince in the whole world can be, and may be still if it be not spoiled on that side." Wentworth had even conceived the vast project of reducing all the inhabitants of Ireland to a conformity in religion; and with this view set vigorously to work in repairing the ruined churches, reclaiming the church revenues which had been alienated by fraud or negligence, and using other prudent measures for increasing the number, and elevating the character and qualifications of the clergy, while at the same time he forced upon them a series of metropolitan canons which they detested, and by his haughty and arbitrary treatment, silenced their murmurings and subdued their spirit. In the same way he contrived to render the lawyers submissive to his authority and subservient to his designs, "ministering wholly," as he said, "to uphold the sovereignty, carrying a direct aspect upon the prerogatives of his majesty, without squinting aside upon the vain and vulgar