However much Bramhall had to do with Hobbes's disgrace and subsequent departure from France at the end of 1651, the bishop's main concern in the late 1640s and early 1650s was not to carry out a vendetta against a political philosopher whom he deemed noxious, and who had crossed him in a debate before the Marquess of Newcastle and afterwards in writing. To be sure, it was important to remove Hobbes as far away as possible from the new king. For the author of the Elements of Law, De Cive, the ‘Treatise’ and Leviathan was harmful to the anglican and constitutional royalist cause embodied and espoused by Bramhall. To discredit and expel Hobbes was clearly in the interest of the bishop of Derry. What might have worried Bramhall more during the early 1650s – after the failure of the Scots-presbyterian restoration venture of 1650–1 – was the possibility of the king's turning Roman catholic. Henrietta Maria's children and the émigré entourage of the Stuarts were all susceptible in these troubled years. Since Charles's Scottish alliance had proved fruitless, the Roman catholics on the continent now had their opportunity to propose an alliance for the purpose of restoring the Stuarts. As support from the dominant faction of Scots had required covenanting on the part of Charles, so support from Roman catholics would require some substantial concessions and promises, if not conversion, on the part of the young king.