Bramhall spent the last few years of exile in the Low Countries. That he was in Bruges at least briefly in 1658 is indicated in a letter of Joseph Jane to Edward Nicholas: ‘We have a small congregation here, but expect its increase by the return of some from Brussels … The Bishop of Derry is now with us, but will not stay long.’ In the summer of 1659 Bramhall was in Brussels. In 1659, Bramhall seems to have been exhibiting serious physical frailty. In a letter to John Barwick, dated 14 September 1659, Hyde noted: ‘The Bishop of Derry … is infirm and cannot live long.’ Charles's exile court had recently moved to Brussels. Bramhall must have been in frequent contact with the king, or at least with some of his closest advisors, particularly Ormonde. As for Bramhall's polemical pen, it was still busy, but no longer scribbling against Hobbes. After writing the lengthy Castigations and Catching of Leviathan, he seems to have paid no more attention to the philosopher. As the Restoration began to unfold, the bishop had much other difficult business with which to occupy himself. Naturally he was highly concerned about restoring the church in a Laudian way. He returned to England in the summer of 1660. A letter written in July shows that he was in London, and John Evelyn recorded his ‘saluting his old friend, the Archbishop of Armagh, formerly of Londonderry’, in the capital on 28 July 1660.