George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol

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George Digby (left) with William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford , 1637

George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol , (baptized November 5, 1612 in Madrid , † March 20, 1677 ) was an English statesman and royalist. He was an advisor to Kings Charles I and Charles II of England, but did more harm due to his unsteady, impulsive, and adventurous character.

He was the son of John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, and was born while the Ambassador was in Madrid. He graduated from Magdalen College University of Oxford in 1636 as a Master of Arts . He then joined the army and became a colonel in a cavalry regiment.

In 1640 he was elected Knight of the Shire for Dorset in the House of Commons . In parliament he showed the first signs of his fickle political attitude. Initially he was in opposition to the king and supported the impeachment proceedings against Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford , but then switched fronts and delivered an eloquent speech against the validity of such charges (Wentworth was soon executed). He was now in the favor of Charles I, who made him royal advisor in 1641. In addition, Charles I let him inherit the subordinate title of his father as 2nd Baron Digby prematurely through Writ of Acceleration , whereby he left the House of Commons and was accepted into the House of Lords . When he tried to arrest the parliamentary leaders of the opposition against Charles I in January 1642, he was deposed by parliament and fled to the Netherlands on charges of high treason . At the beginning of the Civil War he returned in 1642, became Secretary of State to Charles I and a member of the Privy Council in 1643 and Lieutenant General in the Army of the Royalists in the north of England in 1645 , but was defeated at Sherburn in October . His correspondence also fell into the hands of the parliamentary party, which revealed the negotiations of Charles I with foreign powers.

Digby fled to France via Ireland and joined the court of Charles II in his exile. In Paris , Charles II accepted him into the Order of the Garter in 1653 . At times he served in the French army (fight against the Fronde, Flanders, Italy) and rose there to lieutenant general in 1651 and tried to interfere in French politics (he even planned to be the successor to Cardinal Mazarin ). After an understanding between England and France, he was one of those deported from France and went to the Habsburg Netherlands , where he served in the army of Juan José de Austria . He became State Secretary of Charles II in 1657, but had to resign in 1658 because he had converted to Catholicism. Soon afterwards he followed Charles II to Spain . When his father died in 1659, he inherited his title as Earl of Bristol . When Charles II became king, he returned to England in 1660. In 1663 he was banned from court because he expressed himself disrespectfully in speeches about the king and wanted to accuse Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde of high treason. It was only after his fall in 1667 that he was again in the king's favor and was again accepted into the House of Lords. In his final years he continued to cause confusion, on the one hand he publicly confessed to the Anglican Church, on the other hand he called himself Catholic.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life data according to ODNB, 2004
  2. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 34.
predecessor Office successor
Lucius Cary Secretary of State
1643-1645 		none
John Digby Earl of Bristol
1653-1676 		John Digby
personal data
SURNAME Digby, George, 2nd Earl of Bristol
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Digby, George, 2nd Baron Digby
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English politician
DATE OF BIRTH baptized November 5, 1612
PLACE OF BIRTH Madrid
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1677