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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BRI-BUN |
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BRISTOL, GEORGE DIGBY, 2ND EARL OF1 (1612-1677) , eldest son of the 1st earl
1 I. e. in the Digby line; for the Herveys see above. impression. He was admitted to Magdalen College, Oxford, on the 15th of August 1626, where he was a favourite pupil of Peter Heylin, and became M.A. in 1636. He spent the following years in study and in travel, from which he returned, according to Clarendon, " the most accomplished person of our nation or perhaps any other nation," and distinguished by a remarkably handsome person. In 1638 and 1639 were written the Letters between Lord George Digby and Sir Kenelm Digby, Knt. concerning Religion (publ. 1651), in which Digby attacked Roman Catholicism. In June 1634 Digby was committed to the Fleet till July for striking Crofts, a gentleman of the court, in Spring Gardens; and possibly his severe treatment and the disfavour shown to his father were the causes of his hostility to the court. He was elected member for Dorsetshire in both the Short and Long parliaments in 164o, and in conjunction with Pym and Hampden he took an active part in the opposition to Charles. He moved on the 9th of November for a committee to consider the " deplorable state " of the kingdom, and oh the 11th was included in the committee for the impeachment of Strafford, against whom he at first showed great zeal. He, however, opposed the attainder, made an eloquent speech on the 21st of April 1641, accentuating the weakness of Vane's evidence against the prisoner; and showing the injustice of ex post facto legislation. He was regarded in consequence with great hostility by the parliamentary party, and was accused of having stolen from Pym's table Vane's notes on which the prosecution mainly depended. On the 15th of July his speech was burnt by the hangman by the order of the House of Commons. Meanwhile on the 8th of February he had made an important speech in the Commons advocating the reformation and opposing the abolition of episcopacy. On the 8th of 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, the king called him up to the Lords in his father's barony of Digby.He now became the evil genius of Charles, who had the incredible folly to follow his advice in preference to such men as Hyde and Falkland. In November he is recorded as performing " singular good service," and " doing beyond admiration," in speaking in the Lords against the instruction concerning evil counsellors. He suggested to Charles the impeachment of the five members, and urged upon him the fatal attempt to arrest them on the 4th of January 1642; but 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 Clarendon his imprudence was responsible for the betrayal of the king's plan. Next day he advised the attempt to seize them in the city by force. The same month he was ordered to appear in the Lords to answer a charge of high treason for a supposed armed attempt at Kingston, but fled to Holland, where he joined the queen, and on the 26th of February was impeached. Subsequently he visited Charles at York
the 15th at Sherburn, where his correspondence was captured, disclosing the king's expectations from abroad and from Ireland and his intrigues with the Scots; and after reaching Dumfries, he found his way barred. He escaped on the 24th to the Isle of Man, thence crossing to Ireland, where he caused Glamorgan to be arrested. Here, on this new stage, he believed he was going to achieve wonders. " Have I not carried my body swimmingly," he wrote to Hyde in irrepressible good spirits, " who beingbefore so irreconcilably hated by the Puritan party, have thus seasonably made myself as odious to the Papists?"1 His project now was to bring over Prince Charles to head a royalist movement
Jersey
scheme , but returned to persuade Charles to go to Paris, and accompanied him thither, revisiting Ireland on the 29th of June once more, and finally escaping to France on the surrender of the island to the parliament. 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 Lord Wilmot. He continued his adventures by serving in Louis XIV.'s troops in the war of the Fronde, in which he greatly distinguished himself. He was appointed in 1651 lieutenant-general in the French army, and commander
list
By the death of his father Digby had succeeded in January 1659 to the peerage as 2rld earl
excited general amusement. Exasperated by these failures, in a violent scene with the king early in July, he broke out into fierce and disrespectful reproaches, ending with a threat that unless Charles granted his requests within twenty-four hours " he would do somewhat that should awaken him out of his slumbers, and make him look better to his own business." Accordingly on the loth he impeached Clarendon in the Lords of high treason, and on the charge being dismissed renewed 1 Clarendon State Papers, ii. 201. 6 Mimoires du Cardinal de Retz (2859), app. iii. 437, 442. IV. 19 his accusation, and was expelled from the court, only avoiding the warrant issued for his apprehension by a concealment of two years. In January 1664 he caused a new sensation by his appearance at his house at Wimbledon, where he publicly renounced before witnesses his Roman Catholicism, and declared himself a Protestant, his motive being probably to secure immunity from the charge of recusancy preferred against him.3 When, however, the fall of Clarendon was desired, Bristol was again welcomed at court. He took his seat in the Lords on the 29th of July 1667. " The king," wrote Pepys in November, " who not long ago did say of Bristoll 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."4 He pressed eagerly for Clarendon's commital, and on the refusal of the Lords accused them of mutiny and rebellion, and entered his dissent with "great fury." In March ,668 he attended prayers in the Lords. On the 15th of 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. His adventurous and erratic career closed by death on the loth of March 1677. 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. 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 extra-ordinary facility in making friends and making enemies. Horace Walpole characterized him in a series of his smartest antitheses as "a singular person whose Iife was one contradiction." "He wrote against popery and embraced it; he was a zealous opposer of the court and a sacrifice for it; was conscientiously converted in the midst of his prosecution of Lord Strafford and was most unconscientiously a persecutor of Lord Clarendon. With great parts, he always hurt himself and his friends; with romantic bravery, he was always an unsuccessful commander
the king's cause; of Elvira . . . a comedy (1667), printed in R. Dodsley's Select Collect. 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. He married Lady Anne Russell, daughter of Francis, 4th earl of Bedford, by whom, besides two daughters, he had two sons, Francis, who predeceased him unmarried, and John, who succeeded him as 3rd earl of Bristol, at whose death without issue the peerage became extinct. End of Article: BRISTOL, GEORGE DIGBY, 2ND EARL OF1 (1612-1677) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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