Through his paternal grandmother, he was a great-great-grandson of Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, thereby making him a direct descendant of Henry VII.

He assisted in the administration of the Isle of Man and in 1627 was appointed Lord of Mann, a position first awarded in 1405 by King Henry IV to his ancestor John Stanley (c. 1350–1414), KG.

His plan of securing Lancashire at the beginning and raising troops there, which promised success, was however discouraged by Charles, said to be jealous of his power and royal lineage, who commanded his presence at Nottingham.

He was unable to get possession of Manchester, was defeated at the battles of Chowbent and at Lowton Moor, and, in 1643, after gaining Preston he failed to take Bolton and Lancaster Castle.

He followed Rupert to the Battle of Marston Moor, and after the complete defeat of Charles's cause in the North, withdrew to the Isle of Man, where he held out for the king and offered asylum to royalist fugitives.

He maintained order, encouraged trade, remedied some abuses, and defended the people from the exactions of the church; but he crushed opposition by imprisoning his antagonists, and aroused a prolonged agitation by abolishing the tenant-right and introducing leaseholds.

He proceeded to Warrington but failed to obtain the support of the Presbyterians due to his refusal to take the Covenant, and on 25 August was totally defeated at the Battle of Wigan Lane, being severely wounded and escaping with difficulty.

[3][4] He was beheaded on 15 October 1651 at the market cross in Churchgate, Bolton, near the Man and Scythe Inn, owned at the time by the Earl of Derby's family.

His political usefulness was handicapped in the later stages of the struggle by his dislike of the Scots, whom he regarded as guilty of the death of Charles I and as unfit instruments of the Restoration.

[3] Lord Derby left in manuscript A Discourse Concerning the Government of the Isle of Man (later printed in the Stanley Papers and in Francis Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol.