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| Earl of Portland (first creation) | |
|---|---|
| Title | Earl of Portland (first creation) |
| Creation date | 1633 |
| Monarch | Charles I of England |
| Peerage | Peerage of England |
| First holder | Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland |
| Last holder | Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland |
| Extinction date | 1663 |
Earl of Portland (first creation) was a title in the Peerage of England created in 1633 by Charles I of England for Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, a prominent Lord Treasurer and statesman associated with the reigns of James I of England and Charles I of England. The creation occurred amid disputes over royal finance and foreign policy involving Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, Francis Bacon, and ministers in the Stuart period. The title became extinct in 1663 following the death of the second earl during the period of the English Civil War aftermath and the Restoration of the Monarchy.
The earldom was created on 9 April 1633 by Charles I of England as part of a pattern of peerage elevations that also involved figures such as George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and William Laud. The first earl, Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, had earlier served as Lord Treasurer under James I of England and Charles I of England and was associated with policies negotiated in the Treaty of Madrid (1630) and financial measures debated in the House of Commons of England and the House of Lords. His elevation intersected with the political careers of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, and parliamentary critics including John Pym and Oliver St John, 1st Earl of Bolingbroke.
The first holder, Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, previously Baron Weston of Nayland and (Viscount Weston), was a central figure in the Stuart administration and took part in diplomatic missions involving Spain and the Dutch Republic. Upon his death, the title passed to his son, Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland, whose tenure overlapped with the rise of figures such as Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and Prince Rupert of the Rhine. The second earl's period saw interactions with peers including Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne, and James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde. The extinction in 1663 followed the line's failure to produce surviving male heirs, a fate shared by other creations like the early Earl of Sunderland and some branches of the Howard family.
As Lord Treasurer, Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland engaged with fiscal policy, Crown borrowing, and royal household expenditure, often negotiating with financiers and court figures such as Sir William Strode, Sir John Coke, and Sir Edward Nicholas. Weston’s administration intersected with the work of legal minds including Edward Coke and judges such as Sir John Vaughan, as well as ecclesiastical leaders like William Laud and George Abbot. During the Personal Rule of Charles I and the subsequent Bishops' Wars, the family's loyalties and offices brought them into contact with military leaders like Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford and commanders in the English Civil War theatres, including Sir Thomas Fairfax and Lord General Cromwell. Diplomatic and parliamentary maneuvers also connected the earls to continental envoys from Spain, the Dutch Republic, and the Holy Roman Empire.
The Portland family’s principal residences and holdings linked them to prominent county seats and architectural patrons such as Nayland in Suffolk, country estates frequented by peers like the Duke of Buckingham and Earl of Arundel, and properties affected by wartime requisitions and sequestrations overseen by committees in the Long Parliament and the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents. Their landed interests brought them into local relationships with magnates such as Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford, and county administrations in Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk. Estates were managed in the context of legal instruments processed at the Court of Chancery and disputes sometimes resolved by chancery officials and lawyers associated with Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn.
The extinction of the first creation in 1663 coincided with the broader realignment of aristocratic titles during the Restoration of the Monarchy under Charles II of England, who redistributed honours among supporters including Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon and George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle. The vacant estates and any remaining entailments interacted with processes handled by institutions such as the Court of Wards and Liveries and the Exchequer; claimants and purchasers included families allied to the Cavendish family, the Percy family, and other peers like the Sackville family and the Herbert family. Later creations of the title in subsequent centuries involved different lineages and intersected with figures such as William Bentinck, 1st Duke of Portland and the Bentinck family, but the first creation remained distinct in the chronicle of Stuart peerage politics and the governance crises leading up to the English Civil War.
Category:Extinct earldoms in the Peerage of England Category:Peerage of England Category:Stuart England