Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/269

 [Lives, as above, prefixed to Works, by Dallaway and Moy Thomas, and Introductory Anecdotes; Spence's Anecdotes, 1820, pp. 224, 230, &c., 292, 371. Pope's Works (Courthope and Elwin) give full discussions of all the disputed points. See also Dilke's Papers of a Critic, i. 343-60.] 

MONTAGU, RALPH, (1638?–1709), born about 1638, was the second son of Edward Montagu, second lord Montagu of Boughton [see under, first  of Boughton], by Anne, daughter of Sir Ralph Winwood, knight (, Official Baronage, ii. 521). Montagu began his career as master of the horse to the Duchess of York, and on the death of his elder brother Edward succeeded him as master of the horse to Queen Catherine (28 Dec, 1665; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665-6, p. 120; Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. p. 279). In the court of Charles II he speedily distinguished himself by his successes in gallantry, and Grammont describes him as the favoured lover of the beautiful [q. v.] As a rival, says Grammont, he was ‘peu dangereux pour sa figure, mais fort à craindre par son assiduité, par l'addresse de son esprit, et par d'autres talens’ (Memoires de la Vie du Comte de Grammont, ed. 1716, p. 98). Dartmouth, in one of his notes on Burnet, attributes Montagu's rapid rise to female influence (Own Time, ed. 1833, i. 616). On 1 Jan. 1669 Montagu was appointed ambassador extraordinary to Louis XIV (for his instructions see Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 316, and, Arlington's Letters to Temple, p. 393). It is evident, however, that Montagu was not yet initiated in the secrets of his master's foreign policy, and he first learnt from the mouth of the Duchess of Orleans that Charles II intended to make a secret alliance with Louis XIV against the Dutch (, Negotiations relatives a la succession d'Espagne, iii. 88, 91;, p. 440). He was present in June 1670 at the deathbed of the duchess, received her last messages to her brother, and diligently inquired into the rumour that she was poisoned (ib. pp. 438-47;, Henrietta d'Angleterre, ed. Anatole France, 1882, p. 142). Charles II was so satisfied with his conduct that at his return Montagu was admitted to the privy council (2 Jan. 1672), and backed by the king in a quarrel with the Duke of Buckingham (, Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. 1790,i. 127). On 12 Aug. 1671 Montagu purchased from his cousin, the Earl of Sandwich, for 14,000l., the mastership of the great wardrobe (, ii. 522;, Annals, viii. 369).

A lucky marriage now crowned Montagu's fortunes. The great match of the day was Elizabeth Wriothesley, daughter of Thomas, earl of Southampton, and widow of Joceline Percy, eleventh earl of Northumberland, who was reputed to be worth 6,000 a year. She was unsuccessfully wooed by Harry Savile and others, and was reported to be reserving herself for the widowed Duke of York (Hatton Correspondence, i. 68; Savile Correspondence, pp. 32, 38). Tradition represents her as flying to France to avoid the designs of Charles II against her honour, and marrying Ralph Montagu during this enforced exile. But the marriage really took place at Titchfield, Hampshire, on 24 Aug. 1673, and was forwarded by the king in spite of the opposition of the lady's relatives (Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson, Camd. Soc., i. 164, 176, 179, 184). Two months later the countess and her husband began to quarrel, she alleging that he spread a report that he had 'bought her of her maid for 500l. per annum,' and a separation was talked of (ib. ii. 35, 63, 71). In December Montagu was sent to the Tower for challenging the Duke of Buckingham in the king's drawing-room, but released a few days later (ib. ii. 89).

On 1 Sept. 1676, and again in the following year, Montagu was appointed ambassador extraordinary to Louis X IV, and took a very active part in the bargains about the price of England's neutrality during the war between France and Holland (, i. 153;, iii. 529, 572). He aimed, however, higher than an embassy, and in the spring of 1678 was negotiating for the post of secretary of state, and had agreed with Henry Coventry to give him 10,000l. for his place. But Danby, whose assent was necessary, held himself pre-engaged to Sir William Temple, and refused to sanction the bargain. In the end Coventry was succeeded by Sir [q. v.] (Letters written to and from the Earl of Danby, 1710, 8vo, pp. 83, 88). While his ambition was thus checked; Montagu's diplomatic career was brought to a close by a quarrel with the Duchess of Cleveland. She had left England, and had established herself at Paris with her daughter, the Countess of Sussex. During the mother's temporary absence Montagu, apparently at the instigation of Charles II, persuaded the daughter to leave the convent where she had been placed and to take up her residence at the English embassy. Eager for revenge for this and other wrongs, the duchess wrote to Charles II denouncing Montagu, and revealing his political intrigues, with which their previous intimacy had made her acquainted. Montagu had told her, she declared, that he meant to make the secretaryship merely a stepping-stone to the