Authorities.—See the article in Dict. Nat. Biog.; Wood's Ath. Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 1100-1105; Biographia Brit. (Kippis), v. 210-238; H. Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors (Park, 1806), iii. 191; Roscius Anglicanus, by J. Downes, pp. 31, 36 (1789); Cunningham's Lives of Eminent Englishmen (1837), iii. 29; Somers Tracts (1750), iii. (1809), iv.; Harleian Miscellany (1808), v., vi.; Life by T. H. Lister (1838); State Papers.
(P. C. Y.)
[1] I.e. in the Digby line; for the Herveys see above.
[2] Clarendon State Papers, ii. 201.
[3] Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz (1859), app. iii. 437, 442.
[4] Pepys's Diary, iv. 51.
[5] Ib. vii. 199.
[6] Ib. 207; Protests of the Lords, by J.E.T. Rogers, i. 36.
BRISTOL, JOHN DIGBY, 1st Earl of[[1]] (1580-1653) English diplomatist, son of Sir George Digby of Coleshill, Warwickshire, and of Abigail, daughter of Sir Arthur Henningham, was born in
1580, and entered Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1595 (M.A. 1605), becoming a member of the Inner Temple in 1598. In 1605 he was sent to James to inform him of the safety of the princess Elizabeth at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. He gained his favour, was made a gentleman of the privy chamber and one of the king's carvers, and was knighted in 1607. From 1610 to 1611 he was member of parliament for Heydon. In 1611 he was sent as ambassador to Spain to negotiate a marriage between Prince Henry and the infanta Anne, and to champion the cause of the English merchants, for whom he obtained substantial concessions, and arranged the appointment of consuls at Lisbon and Seville. He also discovered a list of the English pensioners of the Spanish court, which included some of the ministers, and came home in 1613 to communicate this important intelligence to the king. In 1614 he again went to Spain to effect a union between the infanta Maria and Charles, though he himself was in favour of a Protestant marriage, and desired a political and not a matrimonial treaty. In 1616, on the disgrace of Somerset, he was recalled home to give evidence concerning the latter's connexions with Spain, was made vice-chamberlain and a privy councillor, and obtained from James the manor of Sherborne forfeited by the late favourite. In 1618 he went once more to Spain to reopen the negotiations, returning in May, and being created Baron Digby on the 25th of November. He endeavoured to avoid a breach with Spain on the election of the elector palatine, the king's son-in-law, to the Bohemian throne; and in March 1621, after the latter's expulsion from Bohemia, Digby was sent to Brussels to obtain a suspension of hostilities in the Palatinate. On the 4th of July he went to Vienna and drew up a scheme of pacification with the emperor, by which Frederick was to abandon Bohemia and be secured in his hereditary territories, but the agreement could never be enforced. After raising money for the defence of Heidelberg he returned home in October, and on the 21st of November explained his policy to the parliament, and asked for money and forces for its execution. The sudden dissolution of parliament, however, prevented the adoption of any measure of support, and entirely ruined Digby's plans. In 1622 he returned to Spain with nothing on which to rely but the goodwill of Philip IV., and nothing to offer but entreaties.