George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol

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For the Administrator of Hong Kong, see George Digby Barker.

Portrait of George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, by Sir Anthony van Dyck, c. 1638

George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol

Royalists during the English Civil War
, but his ambition and instability of character caused serious problems to himself and both Kings he served.

Early life

Digby was baptized in

Roman Catholicism.[3]

Politics and the Civil War

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In April 1640, Digby was elected

public hangman by the order of the House of Commons.[3]

On 8 February he made an important speech in the Commons advocating the

episcopacy. On 8 June, during the angry discussion on the army plot, he narrowly escaped assault in the House, and the following day, in order to save him from further attacks, Charles I of England called him up to the House of Lords by writ of acceleration in his father's Barony of Digby.[3]

King Charles mistakenly followed Digby's advice in preference to such men as

five members, and urged upon him the fatal attempt to arrest them on 4 January 1642. He failed to play his part in the Lords in securing the arrest of Lord Mandeville, to whom on the contrary he declared that the king was very mischievously advised, and according to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon his imprudence was responsible for the betrayal of the king's plan. On the next day, Digby advised the attempt to seize the five members in the city by force.[3]

In the same month Digby was ordered to appear in the Lords to answer a charge of high treason for a supposed armed attempt at

Hull, but fled to the Dutch Republic, where he joined Queen consort Henrietta Maria of France
, and on 26 February was impeached.

Subsequently, he visited Charles at York disguised as a Frenchman, but on the return voyage to the Dutch Republic, he was captured and taken to Hull. For some time he escaped detection, but at last, after revealing his identity, he cajoled Sir John Hotham into letting him escape. Later on a second visit to Hull, he tried unsuccessfully to persuade Hotham to surrender York to the King. He was present at the Battle of Edgehill, and was wounded while leading the assault at Lichfield. After a quarrel with Prince Rupert of the Rhine, he threw down his commission and returned to the King at Oxford, over whom he obtained more influence as the prospect became more gloomy.[3]

On 28 September 1643 he was appointed secretary of state and a privy councillor, and on 31 October high steward of

Oxford University.[2] He now supported Henrietta Maria's policy of foreign alliances and use of help from Ireland
, and took part in several imprudent and ill-conducted negotiations which damaged the king's affairs. His fierce disputes with Prince Rupert and his party caused further embarrassment.

On 14 October 1645, he was made lieutenant general of the royal forces north of the River Trent. The intention was to push through to join James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, but he was defeated on 15 October at Sherburn, where his correspondence was captured. This correspondence revealed the king's expectations from abroad and from Ireland and his intrigues with the Scots. Digby reached Dumfries, but finding his way barred, escaped on 24 October to the Isle of Man. He then crossed to Ireland, where he caused Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, who had been sent to negotiate with the Irish Confederacy, to be arrested. In Ireland, he believed he was going to achieve wonders.[3] "Have I not carried my body swimmingly," he wrote to Hyde in irrepressible good spirits, "who being before so irreconcilably hated by the Puritan party, have thus seasonably made myself as odious to the Papists?" [5]

Exile

Digby's plan was to bring over Charles, Prince of Wales, to head a royalist movement on the island. When he joined Charles at Jersey in April 1646, he intended to entrap him on board, but was dissuaded by Hyde. Digby then travelled to Paris to gain Henrietta Maria of France's consent to his scheme, but returned to persuade Charles to go to Paris, and accompanied him thither. He revisited Ireland on 29 June once more, and on the surrender of the island to Parliament escaped again to France.

At Paris, amongst the Royalists, he found himself in a nest of enemies eager to pay off old scores. Prince Rupert challenged him, and he fought a duel with

lieutenant-general in the French army, and commander of the forces in Flanders. These new honours, however, were soon lost.[3]

During Cardinal Mazarin's enforced absence from the court Digby aspired to become his successor. However, when the Cardinal was restored to power, he sent Digby away on an expedition in Italy, having penetrated his character and regarded him as a mere adventurer.[6] When Digby returned to France he was told that he was included in the list of those expelled from France, in accordance with the new treaty with Oliver Cromwell.[3]

In August 1656 he joined

St. Ghislain
to Spain in 1657. On 1 January 1657, he was appointed by Charles II secretary of state, but shortly afterwards, he was compelled to resign office as he had become a Roman Catholic — probably with the view of adapting himself better to his new Spanish friends. Charles took him with him to Spain in 1659 on account of his "jollity " and Spanish experience.

Although unwelcome to the Spanish, he succeeded in ingratiating himself, and was later welcomed by

K.G. the same month.[3]

Restoration

As Lord Bristol, he returned to the

Medici princesses, but the royal marriage and treaty with Portugal were settled in his absence.[3]

In June 1663 Bristol tried to upset Clarendon's management of the House of Commons, but his intrigue was exposed to the parliament by Charles, and he had to attend the

high treason. When the charge was dismissed he renewed his accusation, was expelled from the court, and only avoided the warrant issued for his apprehension by hiding for two years.[3]

In January 1664 Bristol appeared at his house at Wimbledon, and publicly renounced before witnesses his Roman Catholicism and declared himself a Protestant. His motive was probably to secure immunity from the charge of recusancy preferred against him.[8] When, however, the fall of Clarendon was desired, Bristol was again welcomed at court. He took his seat in the Lords on 29 July 1667. "The king," wrote Samuel Pepys in November, "who not long ago did say of Bristol that he was a man able in three years to get himself a fortune in any kingdom in the world and lose all again in three months, do now hug him and commend his parts everywhere above all the world."[9] He pressed eagerly for Clarendon's committal, and on the refusal of the Lords accused them of mutiny and rebellion, and entered his dissent with "great fury".[3]

In March 1668, Bristol attended prayers in the Lords. On 15 March 1673 though still ostensibly a Roman Catholic, he spoke in favour of the

Test Act, describing himself as "a Catholic of the Church of Rome, not a Catholic of the Court of Rome", and asserting the unfitness of Romanists for public office.[3] In 1674, he acquired Buckingham House (later Beaufort House) in Chelsea.[10] His adventurous and erratic career was closed by his death on 20 March 1677.[1]

Character

Sir Anthony van Dyck. Althorp
, Northamptonshire.

Bristol was one of the most striking and conspicuous figures of his time, a man of brilliant abilities, a great orator, one who distinguished himself without effort in any sphere of activity he chose to enter, but whose natural gifts were marred by a restless ambition and instability of character fatal to real greatness.[3]

Clarendon describes him as "the only man I ever knew of such incomparable parts that was none the wiser for any experience or misfortune that befell him", and records his extraordinary facility in making friends and making enemies.

Test Act, though a Roman Catholic; and addicted himself to astrology on the birthday of true philosophy."[3] Samuel Pepys in 1668 records in the great Diary an outburst against Bristol from an elderly Cavalier, Mr Ball: "I said at the King's coming back that the nation could never be safe while that man was alive".[11]

Besides his youthful correspondence with Sir Kenelm Digby on the subject of religion, already mentioned, he was the author of an Apology (1643) [Thomason Tracts, E. 34 (32)], justifying his support of the king's cause; of a comedy, Elvira (1667) [Printed in R. Dodsley's Select Collection of Old English Plays (Hazlitt, 1876), vol. xv], and of Worse and Worse, an adaptation from the Spanish, acted but not printed. Other writings are also ascribed to him, including the authorship with Sir Samuel Tuke of The Adventures of Five Hours (1663). His eloquent and pointed speeches, many of which were printed, are included in the article in the Biog. Brit. and among the Thomason Tracts; see also the general catalogue in the British Museum. The catalogue of his library was published in 1680.[3]

Family

Bristol married Lady Anne Russell, a daughter of Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford and his wife Catherine Brydges. She died in 1697. They were parents to four children:

  • John Digby, 3rd Earl of Bristol (c. 1635 – 18 September 1698). He married twice, firstly Alice Bourne and secondly Rachel Wyndham, but died without issue, and the peerage became extinct.
  • Francis Digby (d. 1672), died unmarried.
  • Diana Digby, who married in 1658 Rene de Mol, Baron de Herent (died 1691), a nobleman of Flanders and had issue, including Jean-Baptiste, Baron de Herent, who was later styled "Comte de Bristole". Like her father, she was a convert to Catholicism.
  • Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (b. 1959) and Diana, Princess of Wales
    (1961–1997).

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ronald Hutton, ‘Digby, George, second earl of Bristol (1612–1677)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009.
  2. ^ a b c 'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714: Dabbe-Dirkin', Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891), pp. 366-405. Date accessed: 11 June 2011
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Yorke, Philip Chesney (1911). "Bristol, George Digby, 2nd Earl of". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 576–577. This cites:
  4. ^ Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
  5. ^ Clarendon State Papers,
  6. ^ Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz (2859), app.
  7. ^ Pepys Diaries, entry for Wednesday 1 July 1663
  8. ^ 437, 442.
  9. ^ Pepys Diaries IV. 19
  10. ^ "Landownership: Later estates Pages 123-145 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea". British History Online. Victoria County History, 2004. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
  11. ^ Pepys Diaries, entry for 17 March 1668.

External links

Parliament of England
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Member of Parliament for Dorset
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With: Richard Rogers
1640 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of State
1643–1645
With: Sir Edward Nicholas 		Succeeded by
Peerage of England
Preceded by Earl of Bristol
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writ in acceleration
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