Charles Talbot succeeded, when in the seventh year of his age, to the title of Earl of Shrewsbury, on the decease of his father who died on the 16th of March, 1667, of a wound received in a duel with the Duke of Buckingham. In 1681 he was appointed lord-lieutenant of the county of Stafford; and having previously devoted much time to the consideration of the doctrines of Christianity, on the discovery of the Popish plot he abjured the tenets of the church of Rome. He, however, continued steadfast in his loyalty even to a Popish sovereign, and on the breaking out of the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth in June, 1685, he raised a troop of horse for the service of King James II, and in the following month he was appointed colonel of the regiment which now bears the title of Fifth Dragoon Guards. He soon afterwards discovered that the arbitrary measures of the court were directed to the subversion of the Protestant religion, of which he was become a determined supporter; and having resigned his commission and mortgaged his estate for forty thousand pounds, he proceeded to Holland and made an offer of his sword and purse to the Prince of Orange, provided His Highness would attempt to deliver England from the power of the papists. From this period, until the revolution in 1688, his active mind was engaged in the glorious and patriotic labour of devising plans for the good of his native country, and he was one of the nobles in whom the Prince of Orange placed the greatest confidence, and by whose advice he was principally guided.
When William and Mary were elevated to the throne, the Earl of Shrewsbury was sworn of the Privy Council, and appointed principal Secretary of State; and in April, 1694, he was elected a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and created Marquis of Alton and Duke of Shrewsbury. After devoting himself to the service of his king and country in the important office of principal Secretary of State, for a period of ten years, he sustained a serious injury in the breast, from an unlucky fall of his horse while hunting, which rendered him incapable of attending so closely to business as his office required, and he resigned the seals as Secretary of State, but was shortly afterwards appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household. This office he resigned in 1700, in order to proceed to a warmer climate, and he resided for a short period at Montpellier in France. After the decease of the King of Spain and the accession of the Duke of Anjou to the throne of that kingdom, he quitted France and proceeded to Geneva, and subsequently crossed the Alps into Italy. After his return to England he was reappointed by Queen Anne to the office of Lord Chamberlain, and in 1712 he was appointed ambassador to the French court to finish the negociations for peace. In 1713 he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; and in the reign of George I. he was a member of the Privy Council and Lord Chamberlain of the Household. He was one of the most accomplished gentlemen of the age in which he lived; was remarkably handsome in person, had an admirable address, was just in his dealings, and distinguished for gallantry among the ladies; but was studious and reserved as a public character. He died at Isleworth on the 1st of February, 1718.
Marmaduke Lord Langdale,
Appointed 22d January, 1687.
This nobleman was the son of Sir Marmaduke Langdale of Holme, in Spaldingmore, Yorkshire, who, when the rebellion broke out in the reign of Charles I., raised at his own charge three companies of foot and a troop of horse for the king's service, with which force he defeated a party of Scots at Corbridge in Northumberland. Having been appointed to the command of a body of troops sent by the King from Oxford into Lincolnshire, he defeated Colonel Rosseter; then marching against Fairfax, put him to flight and relieved Pontefract Castle. He subsequently took Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the castle of Carlisle, but being involved in the defeat of the Duke of Hamilton, he was taken prisoner at Preston. Having escaped from confinement he fled to the continent, and in February, 1658, he was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron Langdale of Holme, in Spaldingmore, Yorkshire.
Marmaduke, second Lord Langdale, imbibed from his father strict principles of loyalty and attachment to the crown, and being known to be a faithful adherent to the house of Stuart, he was considered a suitable person to be placed at the head of the Seventh Regiment of Cuirassiers, now Fifth Dragoon Guards, at the critical period when the proceedings of the court had alarmed the nation, and commotions were expected to follow; but he was soon afterwards relieved from that charge by an officer of more experience in military affairs, and appointed to the important trust of Governor of Hull. This place he held in the interest of James II. at the Revolution in 1688; but he was surprised and made prisoner by Colonel Copeley, and a party of men who had taken arms and declared for the Prince of Orange. His lordship was not afterwards employed in any public capacity; and he died in 1703.
Richard Hamilton,
Appointed 15th February, 1687.