Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/739

Rh   GODEFROI. See.  GODFREY. See.  GODOLPHIN,, (c.1635–1712), was a cadet of an ancient family of Cornwall, and was born most probably in 1635. At the Restoration he was introduced into the royal household by Charles II., with whom he had previously become a favourite, and he also at the same period entered the House of Commons as mem- her for Helstone. Although he very seldom addressed the House, and, when he did so, only in the briefest manner, he gradually acquired a reputation as its chief if not its only ﬁnancial authority. In March 1679 he was appointed a member of the privy council, and in the September follow- ing he was promoted, along with Viscount Hyde (afterwards earl of Rochester) and the earl of Sunderland, to the chief management of affairs. Though he voted for the Exclusion Bill in 1680, he was continued in ofﬁce after the dismissal of Sunderland, and in September 1684 he was created Baron Godolphin of Rialton, and succeeded Rochester as ﬁrst lord of the treasury. After the accession of James II. he was made Chamberlain to the queen, and, along with Rochester and Sunderland, enjoyed the king’s special con- ﬁdence. In 1687 he was named commissioner of the treasury. He was one of the council of ﬁve appointed by King James to represent him in London, when he went to join the army after the landing of William prince of Orange in England, and, along with Halifax and Nottingham, he was afterwards appointed a commissioner to treat with the prince. On the accession of William, though he only obtained the third seat at the treasury board, he had virtually the chief control of affairs. He retired in March 1690, but was recalled on the November following, and appointed ﬁrst lord. While holding this ofﬁce he for several years continued, in conjunction with Marlborough, a treacherous intercourse with James II., and is said even to have anticipated Marlborough in disclosing to James in- telligence regarding the intended expedition against Brest. After Fenwick’s confession in 1696 regarding the Assassina- tion Plot, Godolphin, who was compromised, was induced to tender his resignation; but when the Tories came into power in 1700, he was again appointed lord treasurer, and retained ofﬁce for about a year. Though not a favourite with Queen Anne, he was, after her accession, appointed to his old oﬂice, on the strong recommendation of Marlborough. He also in 170i received the honour of knighthood, andin December 1706 he was created Viscount Rialton and Earl of Godolphin. The influence of the Marlboroughs with the queen was, however, gradually supplanted by that of Mrs Masham and Harley earl of Oxford, and with the fortunes of the Marlboroughs those of Godolphin were indissolubly united. The services of both were so appreciated by the nation that they were able for a time to regard the loss of the queen’s favour with indifference, and even in 1708 to procure the expulsion of Harley from ofﬁce; but after the Tory reaction which followed the impeachment of Dr Sacheverel, the queen made use of the opportunity to take the initiatory step towards delivering herself from the irk- some thraldom of Marlborough by abruptly dismissing Godolphin from ofﬁce, 7th August 1710. He died 15th September 1712. Godolphin owed his rise to power and his continuance in it under four sovereigns chiefly to his exceptional mastery of ﬁnancial matters ; for if latterly he was in some degree indebted for his promotion to the support of Marlborough, he received that support mainly because Marlborough recog- nized that for the prosecution of England’s foreign wars his ﬁnancial abilities were an indispensable necessity. He was cool, reserved, and cautious, but his prudence was less associated with high sagacity than traceable to the weak- ness of his personal antipathies and prejudices, and his freedom from political predilections. Perhaps it was his unlikeness to Marlborough in that moral characteristic which so tainted Marlborough’s greatness that rendered possible between them a friendship so intimate and undis- turbed: he was, it would appear, eXCeptionally devoid of the passion of avarice; and so little advantage did he take of his opportunities of aggrandizement that, though his style of living was unostentatious,—and in connexion with his favourite pastimes of horse—racin g, card-playing, and cockﬁghting he gained perhaps more than he lost,—all that he left behind him did not, according to the duchess of Marlborough, amount to more than £12,000. His treacherous intercourse with James II. was doubtless largely due to the spell of Marlborough’s inﬂuence; but in any case it indicates that, if in other respects his political conduct was upright and trustworthy, this is to be accounted for by his prudence and certain other mental peculiarities, rather than by the strength of his moral principle or his keen sense of honour. His son and successor Francis, who had married Henrietta, eldest daughter of the duke of Marl- borough, in 1698, died in 1766, leaving no male issue.  GODOY. See.  GODWIN, (–1633), son of Dr Godwin, bishop of Bath and Wells, was born at Havington in North amptonshire in. He was elected student of Christ Church, Oxford, in, took his bachelor’s degree in , and that of master in. Entering holy orders, he became successively rector of Sampford-Orcais in Somerset: shire, and vicar of Weston-in-Zoyland in the same county. In he was appointed subdean of Exeter. Having turned his attention to the subject of British antiquities, he became acquainted with Camden, whom in he accompanied in a journey through Wales. He was created bachelor of divinity in, and doctor in. In he published his Catalogue of the Bishops of England since the ﬁrst planting of the Christian Religion in this Island, a Work which procured him in the same year the bishopric of Llandaﬂ' from Elizabeth. A second edition appeared in 1615, and in 1616 he published an edition in Latin with a dedication to King James, who in the following year con- ferred upon him the bishopric of Hereford. The work was republished, with a continuation by Dr Richardson, in 1743. In 1616 Godwin published Rerum Aaglicarum, IIem'ico VI I 1., Edwardo VI, et Jlar-ia regnantibus, Amzales, which was afterwards translated and published byhis son under the title Annates of England, 1630. The last of his works pub- lished before his death, which took place in 1633, was Com- putation of the calm of the Roman Sesterce and Attic Talent, which appeared in 1630. He is also the author of a some- what remarkable story, published posthumously in 1638, and entitled The JIan in the .lloon, or a Discourse of (1 Voyage thither, by Domingo Gonsales, written apparently sometime between the years 1599 and 1603. In this pro- duction Godwin not only declares himself a believer in the Copernican system, but adopts so far the principles of the law of gravitation by supposing that the earth’s attraction diminishes with the distance. The work, which displays considerable fancy and wit, was translated into French, and was imitated in several important particulars by Cyrano de Bergerac, from whom Swift obtained valuable hints in