Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/354

 the threatened invasion of England by France in 1692 an order was emitted on 11 May for committing him on the charge of high treason (, Short Relation, ii. 449). On the 17th he was apprehended in disguise at a quaker's in Goodman's Fields, and after examination by the council was committed to the Tower (ib. p. 453). As, however, no evidence was forthcoming against him, he was on 18 Aug. released on bail (ib. p. 543), and on 19 Nov. the bail was discharged (ib. p. 619).

Early in 1693 Middleton joined the court of St. Germains. Burnet mentions a general belief that he was sent to propose that King James ‘should offer to resign his title in favour of his son, and likewise to send him to be bred in England under the direction of a parliament till he should be of age;’ but adds that he ‘could never hear that he ventured on this advice’ (Own Time, ed. 1838, p. 598). It would at least appear that some endeavour was made either then or subsequently, and either at the instigation of Middleton or others, to induce William III to consent that the Prince of Wales should succeed him (, Life of James II, ii. 574); but James objected to this proposal on any conditions (, Original Papers, i. 553). Middleton, however, who had been in communication with the less extreme supporters of the revolution, was specially commissioned to induce James to sign the new declaration, by which he virtually withdrew from his position of absolutism, and renounced his endeavours to restore the catholic religion. He is said to have assured the king that if he signed it, ‘those who sent it engaged to restore him in three or four months after’ (, Life of James II, ii. 575). As a pledge of the reality of the new departure, Middleton now succeeded the Earl of Melfort [see, first , and titular ] as chief adviser of the exiled king, with the title of secretary of state. In consequence of his having joined the court at St. Germains, he was on 23 July 1694 outlawed by the high court of justiciary in Scotland, and on 2 July of the following year forfeited by parliament.

On the death of James II on 6 Sept. 1701, Middleton suggested the omission of the proposed ceremony of proclaiming the young king at St. Germains, on account of the difficulty of proclaiming him there king of France. By the titular James III he was created Earl of Monmouth. James II had on his deathbed earnestly exhorted Middleton to seek refuge from doubt in the catholic church. Middleton had been accustomed to parry the efforts to convert him by asserting that ‘a new light never came into the house except through a crack in the tiling’ (, Secret Memoirs, p. 239); but he now resolved himself to falsify this maxim by at least outwardly conforming to the king's dying request. Possibly he was chiefly influenced by the consideration that in no other way could he now maintain his position and influence at St. Germains and among the leading Jacobites. In any case he professed his conviction of the insufficiency of protestantism, and retiring for a time from the court of St. Germains, entered a convent in Paris to obtain fuller instruction in the catholic faith. In the will of the late king he had been named one of the council to assist the queen in the guardianship of the young prince, and soon after his return to St. Germains in the summer of 1703 he found abundant occupation in exposing and thwarting the intrigues of Simon Fraser, twelfth lord Lovat [q. v.], in connection with his pretended negotiations for a rising in the highlands. After Lovat's arrival in Paris, Middleton, on 16 Jan. 1704, recommended that he should be at once arrested, sending along with the recommendation a translation of his memorial to the exiled queen, with remarks upon it; Lovat, he wrote, had ‘not in some places been as careful as authors of romance to preserve probability’ (, Original Papers, i. 652).

Middleton was in a great degree responsible for the abortive expedition of the young prince James to Scotland in 1707, and advised that an attempt should be made to land at Burntisland, on the Firth of Forth. His two sons, Lord Clermont and Charles Middleton, accompanied the expedition, and being captured in the Salisbury, were detained in prison for three years. Subsequently he joined the prince in Flanders, and he also accompanied him to Lorraine, when in the beginning of 1713 he was compelled to leave France. In December 1713 he resigned the office of secretary of state, and returned to St. Germains, where he was appointed great chamberlain to the queen. He died in 1719.

Macky describes Middleton as ‘a black man, of a middle stature, with a sanguine complexion, and one of the pleasantest companions in the world.’ He also states that he was ‘one of the politest gentlemen in Europe; had a great deal of wit mixed with a sound judgment, and a very clear understanding’ (Secret Memoirs, pp. 238–40), to which Swift adds that Sir W. Temple told him ‘he was a very valuable man and a good scholar.’ By his wife, Lady Catherine Brudenell, daughter of Robert, second earl of Cardigan, and a zealous catholic and a great