page_title: Benjamin Valentine
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Benjamin Valentine / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir John Eliot (1592-1632)
context_page_description: Benjamin Valentine, was an English politician and Member of Parliament.
  Of obscure origins, he attached himself to various influential politicians and favourites and rose to prominence with the support of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and Sir John Eliot. With Eliot he opposed the religious and fiscal innovation taking place in the early period of King Charles I's reign, and attacked one of his favourites, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. He became embroiled in controversy when was one of the members to hold Speaker John Finch in his chair to prevent him adjourning parliament and preventing Eliot from denouncing such measures as tonnage and poundage. For this Valentine and his associates were arrested and tried.
  The trial revealed the clash between the rights and prerogatives of parliament versus the king, and became a political storm. Valentine refused to admit guilt or comply with orders, and was eventually fined and imprisoned for a number of years. Released prior to the resumption of parliament after eleven years of Personal Rule, Valentine returned to sit as a member, but took little part in the English Civil War.
context_section_description: Valentine's early origins are obscure but records of the baptism of a Benjamin Valentine at St Giles-without-Cripplegate on 9 March 1584 probably refer to the future parliamentarian. His family may have originated in Suffolk, and his father was perhaps a member of the Inner Temple in the early 1570s. Valentine can first be traced with surety in historical records in relation to some business transactions with his future father-in-law, Matthias Springham, in July 1610. He married Springham's daughter, Elizabeth, on 11 November 1610.
  Valentine established connections with several powerful figures at court, including by 1613 Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, a favourite of James I. Somerset's fall from favour in 1615 reduced Valentine's influence, and he was briefly imprisoned for debt in 1619. Valentine then attached himself to the retinue of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and sought to undermine the royal favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, with limited success. He became intimate with Sir John Eliot through his opposition to Buckingham, and Eliot arranged for him to be elected on 3 March 1628 to represent the borough of St. Germans in the Parliament of 1628–9. He used his place in parliament to mount further attacks on Buckingham, and as one biographer has stated, he was "clearly moving in circles hostile to both arbitrary government and High Church innovations".
caption: Sir John Eliot, Valentine's political patron, who arranged his entry into Parliament
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