The Limits of Indemnity: The Earl of Derby, Sovereignty and Retribution at the Trial of William Christian, 1660–63

Abstract

IOn 2 January 1663, William Christian, one-time Governor and Receiver-General of the Isle of Man, went to his death on Hango Hill, 'most penitently and ... curragiously'.1 Having prayed, addressed the assembled crowd and refused the offer of a blindfold, his last view of the world was of a people and a political landscape made familiar to him throughout both his long public career and private life. The boundaries of his own estate of Ronaldsway ran right up to the foot of the hill, while the gates of his manor house were only a few hundred yards distant. Clearly visible to the west, were the towers of Castle Rushen, the centre of Manx government and home to the House of Keys, where before his fall he had collected tithes and administered justice. To the east, guarding the straits, lay the coastal fort of Derbyhaven, a potent symbol of the power of the Stanley family which he had at one time served, and had latterly come to oppose. His execution, ordered by Charles the 8th Earl of Derby, would therefore seem to have been staged as an unambiguous piece of political theatre. It served not only as a stark warning to any future rebellious subjects, but also as a grim testimony to the Earl's ruthless commitment to the maintenance of his family's dominant hold over the politics of the Isle and to his determination to resist any attempt at outside interference in his affairs.2Unfortunately for the Earl, a death is far easier to order than to choreograph and, through the making of a 'good end', the myth of Illiam Dhone - 'Brown haired William' - the patriot martyred in the name of Manx liberty, soon became established throughout the Isle. Souvenirs were sought of him and tales of his deeds, which bore precious little relation to the historical record, were immortalised in folklore, popular song, and broadside ballads, as well as in the pages of romantic novels.3 However if the appropriation of Christian as a nationalist hero, whose example and endeavour could henceforth be appealed to by islanders straining under the pressures of proprietorial government, was not already bad enough for the heirs of the House of Stanley, worse still was the fracturing of its relations with the Crown occasioned by this judicial murder and the long-term political marginalisation of the 8th Earl, and his descendants, which resulted from it. The reasons which led Charles Stanley, as a committed Royalist and fervent Anglican, to break with his king over the issue of Christian's death, and to pursue such a single-minded and disastrous course of action, will become clear only upon a closer examination of the Earl's career and of the tensions inherent in Manx politics, from the Interregnum through to the return of the monarchy.The Restoration of May 1660 was initially welcomed right across the Isle of Man. The proclamation of Charles II as king was greeted, in each of the major towns in turn, with 'shouting, shooting of muskets and ordnance [sic], drinking of beer, [and] with great rejoicing'.4 In this heady atmosphere it was comparatively easy for Charles, as the new Earl of Derby, to reassert the traditional rights of the House of Stanley as Lords of Man, even after an absence of some nine years. The administration of the Isle, under both Commonwealth and Protectorate governments, had left most of the pre-existing social structures intact and had allowed the local elites to continue largely unmolested in their offices, while Sir Thomas Fairfax had simply assumed the prerogatives of the Stanley Lords and had ruled largely according to their precedents.5 In contrast to his return to his Lancashire estates, where he had to fight hard to impose his authority and to guarantee the election of his placemen, Earl Charles appeared to have inherited an extremely favourable set of circumstances on Man.6 The Island was capable of supporting a large population through agriculture and fishing, while its strategic position, commanding the trade and invasion routes across the Irish Sea, ensured it a value and an importance that far exceeded its modest geographical size. …