Shrewsbury, Charles Talbot, duke of
Shrewsbury, Charles Talbot, duke of
(shrōz`bərē, shro͞oz`–), 1660–1718, English statesman. Brought up a Roman Catholic, he embraced Protestantism in 1679. A powerful Whig, he was one of the seven nobles who signed the invitation to William of Orange (later William IIIWilliam III,1650–1702, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1689–1702); son of William II, prince of Orange, stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and of Mary, oldest daughter of King Charles I of England.
..... Click the link for more information. ) to take the throne in 1688. After the Glorious RevolutionGlorious Revolution,
in English history, the events of 1688–89 that resulted in the deposition of James II and the accession of William III and Mary II to the English throne. It is also called the Bloodless Revolution.
..... Click the link for more information. , William made him (1689) secretary of state and privy councilor. He resigned in 1690, but William reappointed him in 1694 and made him duke of Shrewsbury. Despite persistent rumors of his correspondence with the Jacobites, it was against William's will that he resigned in 1699. Shrewsbury lived in Rome, uninvolved in politics, until 1706. On his return to England, he was won over by Robert Harley to the Tory cause, became lord chamberlain (1710), lord lieutenant of Ireland (1713), and lord treasurer (1714). He supported the Hanoverian succession and was briefly (1714–15) lord chamberlain under George I.
Bibliography
See biography by D. H. Somerville (1962).