By his eminent talents and abilities, Strafford merited all the confidence which his master reposed in him: his character was stately and austere; more fitted to procure esteem than love: his fidelity to the king was unshaken; but as he now employed all his counsels to support the prerogative, which he had formerly bent all his endeavors to diminish his virtue seems not to have been entirely pure, but to have been susceptible of strong impressions from private interest and ambition.

Sir Dudley Digges was about the same time created master of the rolls; Noy, attorney-general; Littleton, solicitor-general.

All these had likewise been parliamentary leaders, and were men eminent in their profession.[*] * Whitlocke, p.13.May, p.

20.
[Illustration: 1-647-strafford.jpg EARL OF STRAFFORD] In all ecclesiastical affairs, and even in many civil, Laud, bishop of London, had great influence over the king.

This man was virtuous, if severity of manners alone, and abstinence from pleasure, could deserve that name.