Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/293

 congratulations, and the mission was very successful. When King William received his fatal accident, Raby was superintending the embarkation of his regiment for Flanders, but he hurried back to his master, and was with him until his death. Queen Anne, on Raby kissing hands on her accession, said she was sorry he offered to resign his regiment, because there was no man she would sooner give it to than him. During the campaign of 1702 Raby had his horse shot under him at Helchteren, and lost his younger brother, Allen, who had been a page to King William, at the storming of Liège. In November the Duke of Marlborough, having been unable to persuade him to go on a mission to the king of Prussia (who desired to have him again at his court), carried him to the queen, who pressed him to accept the post, promising that he should have his promotion in the army as if present. In February 1703 the king of Prussia expressed his great pleasure at learning that Raby was coming as envoy to Berlin; and, after visits to The Hague and Hanover, the envoy reached Berlin in June.

Raby paid a visit to England in July 1704 (ib. v. 460), and in September it was reported that he would be sent to Poland to warn the king of Sweden of the results which would follow if he did not withdraw his troops from that kingdom (ib. v. 468); but by November he was again in Berlin, joining in the reception given to the Duke of Marlborough at that court; and at about the same time he wrote two curious letters to Lord Godolphin respecting a Prussian gentleman who wanted to go to England to carry out some experiments in the transmutation of metals (Addit. MS. 28056, ff. 194, 234). Early in 1706 Raby was advanced from the position of envoy to that of ambassador-extraordinary at Berlin, and in April he made a formal entry into the city in his new capacity. In June he went with the king to Holland, and was much with the Duke of Marlborough during the sieges of Menin and Ostend. Afterwards he accompanied General Cadogan as a volunteer, and in a tussle with some French hussars near Tournay narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. In September it was said that he was to go to the emperor's court, as envoy-extraordinary, in the place of George Stepney [q. v.], but the king of Prussia having requested that he might remain at his court, this plan was abandoned, Baron Spanheim, the Prussian ambassador in London, being by his new credentials directed to continue in that character only so long as Lord Raby stayed at Berlin (ib. vi. 84, 97, 100–1).

In January 1707 Raby returned to Berlin, whence he sent an amusing account of Charles XII of Sweden and his court (, Remarks and Collections, ed. Doble, ii. 42–3); but he was again in England from May to September 1708 (, vi. 309), when he bought an estate at Stainborough, near Barnsley, and represented to Marlborough his desire to be made a privy councillor and Earl of Strafford, being weary of his post abroad. In the autumn he spent two months in Italy, where he bought many pictures, and suffered severely from fever in Rome.

In March 1711 Raby was appointed ambassador at The Hague, in succession to Lord Townshend. Before leaving Berlin he was presented by the king of Prussia with a sword set with diamonds, worth fifteen thousand crowns (ib. vi. 706). On the 15th Swift obtained for his protégé, young William Harrison (1685–1713) [q. v.], ‘the prettiest employment in Europe—secretary to Lord Raby, who is to be ambassador-extraordinary at The Hague, where all the great affairs will be concerted’ (, Journal to Stella, 15 March 1710–11). In June Raby was made a privy councillor, and was created Viscount Wentworth of Wentworth-Woodhouse and of Stainborough, and Earl of Strafford, with special remainder, failing heirs male, to his brother Peter. His mother had for years been suggesting to him eligible matches, and on 6 Sept. he married Anne, only daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Johnson of Bradenham, Buckinghamshire, a prosperous shipbuilder, who had married, as his second wife, Martha, daughter of Lord Lovelace (afterwards Baroness Wentworth in her own right). Through this lady the manor of Toddington, Bedfordshire, afterwards came into Lord Strafford's possession. Swift says that Strafford's wife brought to him a fortune of 60,000l., ‘besides the rest at the father's death’ (ib. 3 Sept. 1711); Strafford's own income at this time seems to have been about 4,000l. a year, with ready money, investments, and plate amounting to 46,000l., besides pictures and furniture. Lady Strafford's letters show that the marriage was in every respect a happy one.

Early in October Strafford returned to The Hague, ‘to tell them what we have done here towards a peace,’ as Swift says (ib. 9 Oct. 1711), and in November he was nominated as joint plenipotentiary with the lord privy seal, John Robinson (1650–1723) [q. v.], bishop of Bristol, to negotiate the terms of a treaty. It appears that Prior also would have been a plenipotentiary but for Strafford's refusal to be associated with him.