10 Traitors Who Were Proven Right

Thomas Wentworth wasn't a yes man. Early in his political career, he had disagreed with King Charles I's foreign policies. Wentworth also opposed the King's attempts to bypass parliament to raise finance for his wars on the European mainland.

Despite a reputation for bluntness, Wentworth worked long and hard to find a compromise between the Commons and the Crown. When both factions refused to budge, Wentworth was forced to choose sides. This is when he backed the King and remained faithful to him until the end. His own end to be precise.

Wentworth was promoted to Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632. He effectively ruled the island as both military governor and civilian administrator.

While Wentworth was away, the rift between the English parliament and the King grew ever wider. The situation got worse for Charles when his quarrel's with the Scottish parliament escalated into a full-scale conflict.

With the English parliament unwilling to support a war against the Scots unless their grievances were addressed, King Charles I turned to Wentworth to help him.

Recalled to England, Wentworth was seemingly unaware of how tense the situation was. Outraged that his fellow Englishmen would not fight on the side of their King, Wentworth became convinced that many in parliament were now effectively enemies of Charles. For its part, parliament saw Wentworth as a threat to its plans to bring the King to the negotiating table.

In a reversal of his earlier stance, Wentworth suggested the King raise money however he deemed necessary and reminded Charles that he had an army in Ireland that he could use to, as he put it, "reduce this kingdom."

The English parliament claimed that Wentworth meant for Charles to use the army against them, while Wentworth responded he was referring to the Scots. Parliament attempted to have Wentworth impeached on the grounds that suggesting an English army be used against the English was treason. The ambiguity of his words meant the bill didn't pass.

Instead, the anti-Wentworth faction passed an Act of Attainder against him. This effectively found him guilty without the need for anything as trivial as evidence or even a real trial.

Though King Charles assured Wentworth that he wouldn't face too harsh a punishment, parliament pushed the King to sign Wentworth's death warrant, and the Earl was duly executed on 12 May 1641.

Many of those parliamentarians, who had forced the King to order the death of his faithful servant, would soon go to war against King Charles, just as Wentworth had feared. In 1649, after defeating the royalists, parliament had the King himself executed.