CLEVELAND, THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF

born 1591 died March 25, 1667 also called (from 1593) 4th Baron Wentworth of Nettlestead, 4th Lord Le Despenser prominent Royalist during the English Civil Wars. The eldest son of Henry Wentworth (whom he succeeded as 4th Baron Wentworth and Lord le Despenser in infancy), he was created earl of Cleveland in 1626 by Charles I. Adhering to the king's cause in the Parliamentary troubles, he attended his kinsman Thomas Wentworth, 1st earl of Strafford, at his execution, and afterward Cleveland was a general on the Royalist side in the Civil Wars until he was taken prisoner at the second Battle of Newbury. Cleveland commanded a cavalry regiment at Worcester in 1651, when he was again taken prisoner, and he remained in the Tower of London until 1656. His early extravagance and the fortunes of war had greatly reduced his estates, and the family home of Nettlestead was sold in 1643. At his death the earldom of Cleveland became extinct.