Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T05:18:01.285Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Duty, Faith, and Fraternity: Thomas, Richard, and Gilbert Talbot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2014

Mark R. F. Williams
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Early Modern History at Cardiff University
Get access

Summary

Whosoever betrayes his King, will betraye his brother.

Father Peter Talbot to the Marquis of Ormond,

3 February 1655/6, Antwerp.

Peter Talbot was not the only one of his brethren to have conducted this sort of moral, spiritual, and political arithmetic during the course of the exile. Nor was he the only one of his brothers to have been variously encouraged, ignored, or condemned by Charles II's court in exile, despite great utility, by virtue of perceived duplicity or untrustworthiness. Many of the same attributes which had made Peter Talbot such an appealing, if not wholly trustworthy intermediary within Catholic Europe were present in his brothers, who shared similar connections with the collegiate networks, monasteries, ambassadors, and soldiery of Europe. Unfortunately, their greater degree of removal from Charles II's court and their relative inconsequence in the shaping of politics among the exiles makes the salvaging of their affairs and allegiances during this period far more difficult. Indeed, Peter's prolific correspondence with the exiled Court and numerous publications throughout the 1650s, in addition to the archival expansion generated by later interest in his beatification, has made him the far more accessible of the many brothers. Equally obstructive is the nature of those remaining brothers’ activities and the secrecy of their affairs during this period. As will be shown, Thomas's flitting throughout France, Italy, and England during this period with little correspondence to track his whereabouts left his movements open to rumour and speculation (much of it negative).

Type
Chapter
Information
The King's Irishmen
The Irish in the Exiled Court of Charles II, 1649-1660
, pp. 158 - 180
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×