George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol (5 November 1612-20 March 1677) was an English nobleman who served as a Cavalier general during the English Civil War and a French and, later, Spanish general during the Franco-Spanish War.
Biography[]
Digby following the Battle of Naseby
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol was the son of John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol and the half-brother of Lewis Dyve, and he was baptized in Madrid. At the age of 12, he made an impassioned speech before Parliament which led to his father's release from the Tower of London, but he himself was imprisoned in 1634 for striking a gentleman of the court. In 1640, he was elected an MP for Dorset, and, alongside John Pym and John Hampden, he was affiliated with the Parliamentarian opposition to King Charles I of England. However, Charles appointed him to the House of Lords and became a key advisor to King Charles, suggesting the impeachment of five members of Parliament in 1642; Charles' attempt to arrest the five members led to the start of the English Civil War that same year. He fought for King Charles in the Battle of Edgehill and was wounded during the assault on Litchfield, and he resigned his commission after quarrelling with the King's nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine. In 1643, he was appointed to Charles' Privy Council, and he was made Lieutenant-General of the Royalist forces north of the River Trent on 14 October 1645. He was defeated at Sherburn in County Durham, and he fled to Ireland, where he attempted to convince Charles, Prince of Wales to lead a Royalist uprising. He later travelled to Paris and served as a general of King Louis XIV of France during the Fronde, becoming a Lieutenant-General in the French Royal Army and commander of the forces in Flanders in 1651. However, Cardinal Mazarin expelled him from France as part of a treaty with Oliver Cromwell, deducing that he was little more than a military adventurer. In 1656, he offered his services to John of Austria the Younger in the Spanish Netherlands, assisting in the 1657 capture of St. Ghislain. He converted to Catholicism in order to be more accepted by the Spanish, thus barring him from serving as King Charles' Secretary of State. In 1659, he became Earl of Bristol after his father's death, but he was excluded from office due to his faith. In 1673, he supported the anti-Catholic Test Act, claiming that his loyalty belonged to the Roman Catholic Church but not to the Roman court. He died in 1677.