Background
Born the son of Nicholas Radcliffe (d 1599) of Overthorpe, West Yorkshire, Radcliffe was educated at Oldham and at University College, Oxford.
Born the son of Nicholas Radcliffe (d 1599) of Overthorpe, West Yorkshire, Radcliffe was educated at Oldham and at University College, Oxford.
University College.
He spent his last years in exile. Strafford was a man with a gift for making enemies, but Radcliffe remained a devoted friend for life. Strafford"s biographer notes that "in all the crises of his life it was to Radcliffe that he opened his heart".
Like his master he was imprisoned in 1627 for declining to contribute to a forced loan, but he shared the good, as well as the ill, fortunes of Wentworth, acting as his adviser when he was president of the Council of the North.
Wentworth wrote that of all the Privy Council, he confided only in Radcliffe and Christopher Wandesford, whose services to him could never be adequately rewarded. lieutenant was he who persuaded Strafford to mend an early quarrel with James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, arguing that Ormonde would be a friend and ally of immense value.
He sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Armagh Borough in the Parliament of 1634-1635 and for Sligo in the Parliament of 1639-1641, and was farmer of the customs revenues. He also acquired substantial lands in County Fermanagh and County Sligo.
When Strafford returned to England in 1639, he entrusted Radcliffe with management of Ireland"s finances. and also Strafford"s own tangled financial affairs
Radcliffe built Rathmines Castle near Dublin: it was destroyed during the wars of the following decade but rebuilt in the eighteenth century. In 1640, Radcliffe, like Strafford, was arrested and impeached, but the charges against him were not pressed. He was freed in 1642, and in 1643 he was with Charles I at Oxford.
In 1647 he fled to France, and joined the Court in exile.
His association with Strafford, now seen as a martyr for the Royalist cause, made him a figure of some importance, and he became a confidential adviser to the future James World War II Through Ormonde"s goodwill, Radcliffe was eventually restored to favour, but had little influence in his last years. He died at Flushing in May 1657.
Radcliffe wrote An essay towards the life of my Lord Strafford, from which the material for the various lives of the statesman has been largely taken. His description of Strafford"s much-loved second wife Arabella Holles has been described as "lyrical", and suggests a romantic devotion to her memory.
Wedgwood describes him as a pious man of simple tastes, not outstandingly intelligent, but courageous, thorough and a skilled lawyer
On the other hand he could be irritable, intolerant, and indiscreet.
When Wentworth was made Lord Deputy of Ireland, Radcliffe, in January 1633, preceded him to that country, and having been made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland he was trusted by the Deputy in the fullest possible way, his advice being of the greatest service.