Earls_Of._Shrewsbury

Earls Of. Shrewsbury The earldom of Shrewsbury, however, at last he did return to England in 1707 he gradually one of the most ancient in the English peerage, dates from the became alienated from his old political associates, and in 17.10 time of William the Conqueror. Roger de Montgomery (c. 1030he accepted the post of lord chamberlain in the tory administra1094), son of another Roger de Montgomery, known as "the tion to which the queen appointed him without the knowledge Great," was a councillor of William, duke of Normandy, before of Godolphin and Marlborough, while his wife was at the same his invasion of England, and was probably entrusted by William time made a lady of the bedchamber. After a diplomatic with the government of Normandy during the expedition of mission to France for the purpose of negotiating preliminaries 1066. Roger came to England in the following year and received of peace, Shrewsbury became lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1713; extensive grants of land in different parts of the kingdom. but he was in London in July 1714 during the memorable crisis Obtaining thus a large territory in Sussex, including the city of occasioned by the impending death of Queen Anne. On the Chichester and the castle of Arundel, he became earl of Arundel, 27th of July, when the queen was dying, the earl of Oxford or probably and more correctly earl of Sussex. In 1071 the received his long-delayed dismissal from the office of lord greater part of the county of Shropshire was granted to him, treasurer. On the 30th Shrewsbury and other ministers carrying with it the title of earl of Shropshire, though, from his assembled at Kensington Palace, and being admitted to the principal residence at the castle of Shrewsbury, he like his sucqueen's bedchamber Bolingbroke recommended the appointment cessors was generally styled earl of Shrewsbury. He probably of Shrewsbury to the vacant treasurership; Anne at once exercised palatine authority. He was the founder of Shrewsbury placed the staff of that high office in the duke's hands. When the queen died on the 1st of August Shrewsbury was thus in a position of supreme power with reference to the momentous question of the succession to the crown. He threw his influence into the scale in favour of the elector of Hanover, and was powerfully influential in bringing about the peaceful accession of George I., and in defeating the design of the Jacobites to place the son of James II. on the throne. His disinclination for the highest political offices remained, however, as great as before; and having resigned the lord-treasurership and the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, he was appointed lord chamberlain. This place he resigned in July 1715, and he died on the 1st of February 1718.

The duke of Shrewsbury was one of the greatest noblemen of the reign of Queen Anne. Strikingly handsome in person, his demeanour was dignified and his manners full of grace and courtesy. Swift described him as "the finest gentleman we have," and as "the favourite of the nation," while William III. spoke of him as "the king of hearts." Like most of his contemporaries he endeavoured to keep himself in favour both with the exiled house of Stuart and with the reigning sovereign in England; but at the two critical junctures of 1688 and 1714 he acted decisively in favour of the Protestant succession. At other times he appeared weak and vacillating, and he never whole-heartedly supported either whigs or tories, though he co-operated with each in turn. His magnanimous disposition saved him from the vindictiveness of the party politician of the period; and the weak health from which he suffered through life probably combined with a congenital lack of ambition to prevent his grasping the power which his personality and talents might have placed in his hands.

In 1705 Shrewsbury married Adelaide, daughter of the Marquis Paleotti of Bologna. This lady, who is said to have had "a great many engaging qualities" besides many accomplishments, was the subject of much malicious gossip. She was the widow, or as some declared, the mistress of a Count Brachiano; and Lady Cowper reported that the lady's brother had forced Shrewsbury to marry her "after an intrigue together." After Shrewsbury's return to England the duchess became conspicuous in London society, where the caustic wit of Lady Mary WortleyMontagu was exercised at her expense. On the accession of George I. the duchess of Shrewsbury became a lady of the bedchamber to the princess of Wales, a position which she retained till her death on the 29th of June 1726. Shrewsbury left no children, and at his death the dukedom became extinct, the earldom of Shrewsbury passing to his cousin Gilbert Talbot (see Talbot).

See Correspondence of Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, with King William, the Leaders of the Whig Party, eec., edited by W. Coxe (London, 1821); Gilbert Burnet, History of his own Time (6 vols., 2nd ed., Oxford, 1833); F. W. Wyon, History of Great Britain during the Reign of Anne (2 vols., London, 1876); Earl Stanhope, History of England comprising the Reign of Anne until the Peace of Utrecht  (London, 1870), and History of England from the Peace of Utrecht, vol. i. (7 vols., London, 1836-1854); The Wentworth Papers, edited by J. J. Cartwright (London, 1883); W. E. H. Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i. (new edition, 7 vols., London, 1892); and G. E. C., Complete Peerage, vol. vii. (London, 1896). (R. J. M.)