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 it is not easy to say what they could have done. Ormonde was told that he was distrusted solely on account of his relations with Inchiquin, while the latter was assured that he alone, as of the 'most ancient Irish blood,' could fill O'Neill's place in the popular esteem.' Clarendon (Hist. of Rebellion in Ireland, p. 106) not unfairly sums up the case by saying that 'when these two lords had communicated each to other (as they quickly did) the excellent addresses which had been made to them, and agreed together how to draw on and encourage the proposers, that they might discover as much of their purposes as possible, they easily found their design was to be rid of them both.' The choice of [q. v.], bishop of Clogher, as O'Neill's successor naturally brought disaster, and Ormonde, accompanied by Inchiquin and some forty other officers, left Ireland, and, after three weeks' tossing, landed safely at Perros Guirec, in Brittany.

Charles II was at this time in Holland, and Inchiquin was called upon to defend himself against many charges brought by Sir [q. v.], but soon withdrawn as without foundation (Clarendon Cal. ii. 522). Charles investigated the matter at Paris after his escape from Worcester, and on 2 April 1652 wrote himself to Inchiquin to declare his confidence in him (ib. p. 691). On 11 May he was made one of the royal council, 'of whose company,' Hyde wrote, 'I am glad; who is, in truth, a gallant gentleman of good parts and great industry, and a temper fit to struggle with the affairs on all sides that we are to contend with' (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 67). But neither Henrietta Maria, Jermyn, nor Wilmot liked the new appointment. In 1653 Inchiquin sought the command of all Irish soldiers in France; but this was opposed by the Irish clergy, who told the nuncio that he was a 'murderer of priests, friars, and such like' (Thurloe State Papers, i. 562); but he had either one or two regiments under him (ib. i. 590, ii. 85). In May 1654 he received the earldom which he had spurned ten years before (Clarendon Cal. ii. 1875). At this time the exiled king's council consisted of eleven persons, divided into two parties. The majority consisted of Ormonde, Rochester, Percy, Inchiquin, Taafe, and Hyde, who controlled the whole policy. Henrietta Maria, the Duke of York, Rupert, the Duke of Buckingham, and Jermyn were the minority (Thurloe State Papers, ii. 510). In October Inchiquin shipped his regiment from Marseilles, and it was destroyed in Guise's hare-brained expedition to Naples (ib. ii. 679, iii. 39). He himself went to Catalonia, where he became governor of the districts which still adhered to France, and occupied himself with some success in seducing Irish soldiers from the Spanish to the French service. He was back at Paris early in 1655, Charles II being then resident at Cologne. Inchiquin remained at Paris, or near it, till the summer of 1656, and was more or less engaged in the Sexby plot. A Colonel Clancy, from his name probably a native of Clare, was employed by him as a secret agent in London (ib. iv. 704, 766), and Henry Cromwell had information that Inchiquin himself was to command in Ireland (ib. v. 477). Charles II, who was now at Bruges, wished Inchiquin and his Irish soldiers to be at hand, and Hyde favoured all Spanish designs (Clarendon Cal. iii. 586, 595). Inchiquin was in Catalonia during the autumn of 1656, but at Paris again in the summer of 1657 (ib. p. 319). By this time he had joined the church of Rome, his wife remaining a staunch protestant, and there were great bickerings. The English envoy Lockhart says the lady was persecuted, and that he had given her a pass to England without consulting the Protector's government, for fear of the French protestants, who were witnesses of her sufferings (Thurloe State Papers, vi. 385). The great question was as to the custody of her young son, Lord O'Brien, Henrietta Maria and the catholic party favouring Inchiquin's claim, and the protestants taking the other side. Lockhart's diplomacy triumphed, and Inchiquin, who had violently carried the boy off from the English embassy, was ordered to restore him on pain of being banished from France and losing all his commissions and allowances (ib. p. 681). He was in Catalonia during the autumn of 1657, but returned to Paris in the following January, having been sent for expressly about his son's business (ib. p. 732). In April 1658 this son, about whom there had been so much dispute, was among his father's friends in Ireland; but Henry Cromwell sent him away with a caution only (ib. vii.56).

Inchiquin's own letters during 1658 and 1659 are in a hopeless strain (ib. vol. vii.), and he sought employment in any attempt which might be made on England. But Ormonde had been prejudiced against him, and probably his change of religion was fatal to his influence among the protestant royalists (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 415). The negotiations which led to the peace of the Pyrenees destroyed his chances in Catalonia; but Mazarin connived at his going with Count Schomberg to help the Portuguese, and he started for Lisbon in the autumn of 1659. On 10-20 Feb. 1659-60 it was known at Paris that he and his son had been taken