Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby

[1] Immediately after the fall of Warrington, she was requested to acknowledge Parliament's authority and surrender her house, but she refused on the grounds that doing so would dishonour her husband.

Lady Derby had fortified the castle to resist bombardment and assembled a militia of seasoned marksmen who were able to inflict significant losses by sniping.

Lady Derby's attempt to barter the Island for her husband's freedom provoked an anti-English revolt led by Illiam Dhone.

Lady Derby was holding Man, but the total destruction of the Royal army at the Battle of Worcester, the flight of Prince Charles to an exile in France and the execution of her husband left her without hope of assistance.

The last Royalist stronghold to surrender to parliamentarian forces at the conclusion of civil war hostilities was Castle Rushen at Castletown on the Isle of Man, defended under the leadership of the redoubtable Charlotte, widow of James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby.