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 met with no better success. On 16 Oct. 1645 he succeeded Prince Rupert as lieutenant-general of the king's forces north of the Trent; but meeting with several reverses, and being unable to effect a junction with the army of the Marquis of Montrose, he fled after his defeat by Sir John Brown at Carlisle Sands, with Sir Marmaduke Langdale and other officers, to the Isle of Man. Thence he went to Ireland, where he conceived the plan of bringing the Prince of Wales over to that country, and of making one more effort for the royal cause. With this object in view he visited the Scilly Islands, Jersey, and France, but had at length to return to Ireland without being able to accomplish his cherished design. Upon the surrender to the parliamentary commissioners Digby escaped with some difficulty to France. He then enlisted as a volunteer in the French king's service, and took part in the war of the Fronde. His conspicuous bravery soon attracted attention, and he was taken into favour by the king and Cardinal Mazarin.

In August 1651 he became a lieutenant-general in the French army, and was in the same year appointed commander of the royal troops in Normandy. Upon the death of his father on 6 Jan. 1653 he succeeded as the second Earl of Bristol, and was nominated a knight of the Garter in the same month. In consequence of the failure of a political intrigue, by which he endeavoured to supplant Mazarin, Digby was dismissed from his commands in the French army, and ordered to leave the country. After paying a short visit to Charles at Bruges he retired to the Spanish camp in the Netherlands, where he gained the friendship of Don John of Austria, and rendered himself useful to the Spaniards in the negotiations with the garrison of St. Ghislain, near Brussels, which finally resulted in the surrender of that town by Marshal Schomberg. On 1 Jan. 1657 Digby was reappointed secretary of state. While staying at Ghent he became a convert to the Roman catholic faith, and was, much to his surprise, ordered by Charles to give up his seals, and at the same time was forbidden to appear at the council board in the future. Digby, however, accompanied Charles on his secret expedition to Spain, and afterwards went to Madrid, where he was well received and liberally treated by the Spanish king. Upon the Restoration, Digby returned to England, but was installed at Windsor as a knight of the Garter by proxy in April 1661, being at that time abroad. Though he took an active interest in public affairs, and spoke frequently in parliament, his religion precluded him from being offered any of the high offices of state. In the interest of Spain Digby vehemently opposed the negotiations for the king's marriage with the infanta of Portugal. In spite of his opposition they were successfully carried through, and Digby thereupon became conspicuous for his enmity against Clarendon, who had foiled his designs of an Italian marriage for the king. On 10 July 1663 he brought a charge of high treason against the lord chancellor in the House of Lords (Parl. History, iv. cols. 276–280). The judges, to whom the articles of impeachment were referred, decided that (1) a ‘charge of high treason cannot by the laws and statutes of this realm be originally exhibited by any one peer against another unto the house of peers; and that therefore the charge of high treason by the Earl of Bristol against the lord chancellor hath not been regularly and legally brought in. 2. And if the matters alledged were admitted to be true (although alleged to be traiterously done), yet there is not any treason in it’ (ib. col. 283). Though the house unanimously adopted the opinion of the judges, Digby once more brought forward his accusation against Clarendon, but with no better success than before. His conduct so displeased the king, that a proclamation was issued for his apprehension, and for near two years he was obliged to live in concealment. But before Clarendon's fall, Digby reappeared in parliament (29 July 1667) and renewed his attack. Though still a professed Roman catholic, he spoke in the Lords on 15 March 1673 in favour of the Test Act, declaring that he was ‘a catholic of the church of Rome, not a catholic of the court of Rome; a distinction he thought worthy of memory and reflection, whenever any severe proceedings against those they called papists should come in question, since those of the court of Rome did only deserve that name’ (ib. iv. col. 564). This is his last recorded speech. He died at Chelsea on 20 March 1677, in his sixty-fifth year. He is said to have been buried in Chelsea Church, but Lysons could find ‘no memorial of him, nor any entry of his interment in the parish register’ (Environs of London, 1795, ii. 87–8). Digby married Lady Anne Russell, second daughter of Francis, fourth earl of Bedford, by whom he had four children. His elder son, John, who succeeded him as the third earl of Bristol, married, first, Alice, daughter and heiress of Robert Bourne of Blackhall, Essex; and secondly, Rachael, daughter of Sir Hugh Windham, kt. John had no issue by either marriage, and the barony of Digby and the earldom of Bristol became extinct upon his death in 1698. Francis, the younger son, was killed in a sea-fight with the Dutch on 28 May 1672. Diana, the