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 the articles of peace between the kingdoms of England and Scotland in July 1646 (, State Papers, i. 77-9). With William Lenthall [q. v.] he was entrusted with the charge of the great seal from 30 Oct. to 15 March 1648. Early in 1647 he was busy with other leading presbyterian peers in sketching out a pacification more likely to meet with the royal approval. When the houses of parliament were attacked by the London mob in July 1647, Manchester, notwithstanding his presbyterian leanings, fled to the army on Hounslow Heath with the independent members, and signed the engagement of 4 Aug. to stand by the army for the freedom of parliament (, vii. 754). On 6 Aug. he returned to London escorted by Fairfax and resumed his duties as speaker of the upper chamber.

Manchester stoutly opposed the ordinance for the king's trial in the House of Lords on 2 Jan. 1649, and retired from public life when the formation of a commonwealth grew inevitable. After the death of the Earl of Holland he was, on 15 March 1649, made chancellor of the university of Cambridge, a post of which he was deprived in November 1651 for refusing to take the engagement (see letters in Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. ii. p. 64). Cromwell summoned him to sit in his upper house in December 1657 (Parl. Hist. iii. col. 1518), but the summons was not obeyed. Manchester took an active part in bringing about the restoration, and as speaker of the lords welcomed the king on his arrival (29 May). He was speedily invested with many honours. On 27 April 1660 he was appointed one of the commissioners of the great seal, on 22 May was restored to his lord-lieutenancy of the counties of Northampton and Huntingdon (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. ii. p. 65), and on the 26th to the chancellorship of Cambridge. He was made lord chamberlain of the household on 30 May, privy councillor on 1 June, and was also chamberlain of South Wales.

From 9 to 19 Oct. he was engaged on the trial of the regicides, and appears to have inclined to leniency (Exact and most impartial Account, E. 1047 [3], p. 53 b). At the coronation of Charles II on 23 April 1661 he bore the sword of state, and was made a knight of the Garter. He became joint commissioner for the office of earl-marshal on 26 May 1662, and was incorporated M.A. in the university of Oxford on 8 Sept. 1665. When, in 1667, the Dutch appeared in the Channel, Manchester was made a general, and a regiment was raised under his command (15 June). He was a fellow of the Royal Society from 1667 till his death. He died on 5 May 1671, and was buried in Kimbolton Church, Huntingdonshire.

Manchester was of a generous and gentle disposition. Burnet (Own Time, i. 98) speaks of him as 'of a soft and obliging temper, of no great depth, but universally beloved, being both a virtuous and a generous man,' and this view is corroborated even by Clarendon (Hist. of the Rebellion, ed. Macray, i. 242, ii. 545). Sir PhilipWarwick (Memoirs, p. 246) describes him as ' of a debonnair nature, but very facile and changeable,' while Baillie (Letters and Journals, ii. 229) calls him ' a sweet, meek man.' Peace, a constitutional monarchy, and puritanism were the objects at which he aimed, and his inactivity in the army dated from the time when protracted war, the rule of the people, and independency seemed to be the inevitable outcome of the struggle. It was easy to begin a war, he was in the habit of saying, but no man knew when it would end, and a war was not the way to advance religion (Cal. State Papers, 1644-5, Pickering's Deposition, p. 152). When actually in the field, his sense of duty and his humanity prompted him to activity. To encourage his men he marched among them for many a weary mile (, Particular Relation), or spent the night after an engagement in riding from regiment to regiment, thanking the soldiers and endeavouring to supply their wants (, Studies, p. 608). The same longing for peace and accommodation is exemplified in his religious connections. A presbyterian member of the assembly of divines, he used his influence to have Philip Nye, the independent, appointed to the vicarage of Kimbolton, and in the hearing of Baxter pleaded for moderate episcopacy and a liturgy (, Reliq. Baxterianæ, p. 278). Baxter, while designating him ' a good man,'complains that he would have drawn the presbyterians to yield more than they did, and was earnest in urging the suppression of passages that were 'too vehement' (ib. p. 365).

A portrait by Vandyck belongs to the Duke of Manchester. Engraved portraits of him have been published in Vicars's ' England's Worthies,' 1647, p. 16, by Hollar in 1644; in Ricraft's 'England's Champions,' London, 1647, p. 17, reproduced in an edition of the work entitled 'Portraits of the Parliamentary Officers,' London, 1873, p. 20; in Clarendon's 'History,' Oxford, 1721, vol. i. pt. i. p. 54, by M. Vandergucht; in Birch's 'Heads,' London, 1751, p. 31, by Houbraken; in Smollett's 'History of England,' 1759, vii. 209, by Benoist; in Lodge's 'Portraits,' vol. iii., by Dean, from a painting at Woburn 