Walter Strickland

[1] In his youth he was nicknamed "Wild Walter" for his reckless irresponsible behaviour: on one occasion he was said to have ridden his horse over the roof of a local church.

Although his complaints to the States General about the assistance given by William II, Prince of Orange to Charles I bore little fruit, his efforts were judged satisfactory and he was voted a salary of £400 per annum, remaining at the Hague and hindering as far as he could the attempts of the Royalists to raise money and troops.

[3] In June 1650 Strickland was recalled and received the thanks of Parliament, but the following year after the death of William II of Orange (which to the stricter English Puritans looked like God's judgement against him for his protection of the Stuarts), he was again sent to the Netherlands, accompanying Oliver St John in his famous and unsuccessful embassy.

They proposed a close alliance against the Catholic world and ideally a merger of the two commonwealths into a single state, offering to restrain the English commercial-interest party, which saw the Dutch as their greatest opponents.

They returned home with no arguments to restrain unfettered commercial competition with the Dutch, and relations quickly deteriorated into the First Anglo-Dutch War.

Strickland had been elected to Parliament as member for Minehead in 1645, and from his final return from Holland in 1651 began to play an active role.