[Rarebooks] fa: EARL OF STRAFFORDE'S LETTERS AND DISPATCHES (1611-1639) - 2 vols./Folio - 1739

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other titles related to the English Civil War, the Stuart kings, and Jacobites, auctions ending MONDAY, October 21. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/lylcx3a

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford: The Earl of Strafforde’s Letters and Dispatches, with an Essay towards his Life by Sir George Radcliffe. From the Originals in the Possession of his Great Grandson The Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Malton, Knight of the Bath. By William Knowler, LL. D. Rector of Irthlingborough. London: Printed for the editor, by William Bowyer, MDCCXXXIX [1739]. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, folio (36.5 cm); [10], 527, [5] pp.; [2], 439, [5] pp.; complete with two engraved frontispieces (the second bound in with the text) and an engraved vignette.

An externally rough but internally quite nice example of this mammoth, handsomely printed work: bindings worn, scuffed and rubbed, boards and endpapers detached; dust-soiling and occasional spotting to the top margins of the leaves; a few random small spots elsewhere; some browning to the plates, tear to the bottom margin of one plate; creases and light spotting to the title of vol. II,; otherwise the contents are generally very clean and bright.

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1593–1641) was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. At one time a leading proponent of measures to curb the power of the king, he later became one of King Charles I's closest and most ruthless advisers, fighting to strengthen the royal position against  Parliament. Parliament ultimately impeached Strafford and condemned him to death. Forced to sign the death warrant, Charles remarked sadly (and with characteristic self-pity), "My Lord Strafforde's condition is happier than mine."