Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/338

 that he would be sent to the Tower, he made the servants drunk and got away to the river, where he hid on shipboard. He reached Brussels on 3 Jan. 1655–6 (Cal. of Clarendon Papers, iii. 82). Hyde accused him of being in Cromwell's pay, but he strenuously denied this, and Ormonde does not appear to have believed it (, Letters, ii. 67–73). Talbot's brother Peter says he denied the charge, ‘swearing and damning himself’ (Spicilegium Ossoriense, ii. 161); but another brother, Gilbert, was certainly in correspondence with Thurloe, and the Talbots hung closely together (Cal. of Clarendon Papers, iii. 70). Richard Talbot served with Condé in June 1656 (ib. p. 141). In spite of much opposition he was given the command of the Duke of York's regiment, consisting chiefly of Munster men (, Ormonde, ii. 234). Talbot was a duellist, like his brother Gilbert, and ready to fight on the smallest provocation or on none at all (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 147).

At the Restoration Talbot returned to England and was much at court as a gentleman of the Duke of York's bedchamber, with a salary of 300l. a year (ib. 8th Rep. p. 2792). He was one of the ‘men of honour’ who tried to take away Anne Hyde's character. Partly by looking after his own interests, and partly by successful play, he acquired a considerable property in Ireland. Grants of land were made to him, and he procured the restoration of some estates to their old owners, for which he was well paid (Jacobite Narrative, p. 156; Hist. MSS. Comm. 15th Rep. i. 110). In advocating the claims of his less fortunate countrymen he came into collision with Ormonde in 1661, and used language equivalent to a challenge. Ormonde went to the king and asked ‘if it was his pleasure that at this time of day he should put off his doublet to fight duels with Dick Talbot.’ Talbot was sent to the Tower, but was allowed to go to Ireland on making an apology. After this Talbot went to Portugal, and probably returned with the infanta Catherine in April 1662. On 3 June 1665 he fought under the Duke of York in the naval action off Lowestoft.

According to Hamilton, Talbot carried his attachment to James so far as to help him in his amours (cf., i. 227). He himself formed a connection with the open-hearted Lady Shrewsbury (mother of Charles Talbot, duke of Shrewsbury [q. v.], but left her to pay attention to Miss Hamilton, who married the Comte de Grammont in or before 1668 (, Memoirs, ii. 26). The Hamiltons were closely connected with Ormonde, and Talbot's advances were not well received by them. Afterwards he made love to the beautiful Fanny Jennings, the Duchess of Marlborough's elder sister. Though virtuous, she carried levity of deportment very far, and the story of her queer adventure as an orange-girl is told both by Anthony Hamilton [q. v.] and Pepys (Diary, 21 Feb. 1664–5). She kept Talbot in suspense for some time, but in the end preferred Anthony Hamilton's brother (Sir) George [see under ], and Talbot married ‘the languishing Miss Boynton.’

Talbot went to Ireland in July 1665, and was at Bath in September 1668. In 1670 he became the agent and chief spokesman of the Irish Roman catholics who had suffered under the acts of settlement and explanation. This brought him again into collision with Ormonde, whom he tried to intimidate by threats and by publicly stating that his life was in danger. The result was another short imprisonment in the Tower. The grievances of those whom Talbot represented were very real, but there was not land enough in Ireland to satisfy all (Sir H. Finch's Report in Ormonde, ii. App. p. 91). Talbot was taken prisoner in the naval battle at Southwold Bay on 29 May 1672 (Rawdon Papers, p. 253). After this there is for some time but little notice of him, and he probably made a long stay in Ireland, where he was arrested in the autumn of 1678 upon a warrant from England for supposed complicity in the ‘popish plot.’ As his health suffered, he was allowed to go abroad. His wife died in Dublin in 1679, and before the year was out he married at Paris his old love Lady Hamilton, whose husband had been killed in 1676, leaving her with six children.

Talbot was allowed to return to England not long before Charles II's death, and he thanked Ormonde for helping to procure him this indulgence. On his way to Ireland he openly boasted that the catholics would soon be in power and would then pay off old scores (Clarendon and Rochester Correspondence, i. 198). Charles, who now no longer feared parliament, contemplated a remodelling of the Irish army. As a preliminary step Ormonde was recalled, and one of the first acts of James was to give his regiment of horse to Talbot. Talbot took command of the army in Ireland, the civil government being entrusted to lords justices. Three months after the accession of James, Talbot was created Earl of Tyrconnel, and was at once engaged in military reorganisation. His object was the same as Strafford's—to make the king independent in England by means of an Irish army, but the plan of operations was different. The protestant militia