Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1593-1641), the presumed sitter, was the eldest son of Sir William Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse. Strafford was Member of Parliament for Pontefract in opposition to the King between 1624 and 1629, and was appointed President of the Council of the North in 1628. On 12 January 1632 he was sent to Ireland as Lord Deputy. He was found guilty of high treason and executed on 12 May 1641

Strafford was one of van Dyck's major patrons and portraits of him by the artist are in the Fitzwilliam collection and at Petworth