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EARL OF HENRY BENNET ARLINGTON (1618-...

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 559 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EARL OF See also:HENRY BENNET See also:ARLINGTON (1618-1685)  , See also:English statesman, son of See also:Sir See also:John Bennet of Dawley, See also:Middlesex, and of Dorothy Crofts, was baptized at Little Saxham, See also:Suffolk, in 1618, and was educated at See also:Westminster school and See also:Christ See also:Church, See also:Oxford . He gained some distinction as a See also:scholar and a poet, and was originally destined for See also:holy orders . In 1643 he was secretary to See also:Lord See also:Digby at Oxford, and was employed as a messenger between the See also:queen and See also:Ormonde in See also:Ireland . Subsequently he took up arms for the See also:king, and received a See also:wound in the skirmish at See also:Andover in 1644, the scar of which remained on his See also:face through See also:life.' And after the defeat of the royal cause he travelled in See also:France and See also:Italy, joined the exiled royal• See also:family in 1650, and in 1654 became See also:official secretary to See also:James on See also:Charles's recommendation, who had already been attracted by his "pleasant and agreeable See also:humour."2 In See also:March 16J7 he was knighted, and the same See also:year was sent as Charles's See also:agent to See also:Madrid, where he remained, endeavouring to obtain assistance for the royal cause, till after the Restoration . On his return to See also:England in 1661 he was made keeper of the privy See also:purse, and became the ' See his portrait in the See also:earl of See also:Arlington's Letters to Sir W . See also:Temple, by Tho . See also:Babington (17o1) . 2 See also:Clarendon's Life and Continuation, 397.See also:prime favourite . One of his duties was the procuring and management of the royal mistresses, in which his success gained him See also:great See also:credit . Allying himself with See also:Lady See also:Castlemaine, he encouraged Charles's increasing dislike to Clarendon; and he was made secretary of See also:state in See also:October 1662 in spite of the opposition of Clarendon, who had to find him a seat in See also:parliament . He represented Callington from 1661 till 1665, but appears never to have taken See also:part in debate . He served subsequently on the committees for explaining the Irish See also:Act of See also:Settlement and for Tangiers .

In 1663 he obtained a See also:

peerage as See also:Baron Arlington of Arlington, or Harlington, in Middlesex, and in 1667 was appointed one of the postmasters-See also:general The See also:control of See also:foreign affairs was entrusted to him, and he was chiefly responsible for the attack on the See also:Smyrna See also:fleet and for the first Dutch See also:War . In 1665 he advised Charles to See also:grant See also:liberty of See also:conscience, but this was merely a concession to gain See also:money during the war; and he showed great activity later in oppressing the nonconformists . On the See also:death of See also:Southampton, whose See also:administration he had attacked, his great ambition, the treasurership, was not satisfied; and on the fall of Clarendon, against whom he had intrigued, he did not, though becoming a member of the See also:Cabal See also:ministry, obtain the supreme See also:influence which he had expected; for See also:Buckingham first shared, and soon surpassed him, in the royal favour . With Buckingham a See also:sharp rivalry sprang up, and they only combined forces when endeavouring to bring about some evil measure, such as the ruin of the great Ormonde, who was an opponent of their policy and their schemes . Another See also:object of See also:jealousy to Arlington was Sir See also:William Temple, who achieved a great popular success in 1668 by the conclusion of the Triple See also:Alliance; Arlington endeavoured to procure his removal to Madrid, and entered with alacrity into Charles's plans for destroying the whole policy embodied in the treaty, and for making terms with France . He refused a bribe from See also:Louis XIV., but allowed his wife to accept a See also:gift of 1o,000 crowns'; in 167o he was the only See also:minister besides the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:Clifford to whom the first See also:secret treaty of See also:Dover (May 167o), one clause of which provided for Charles's See also:declaration of his See also:conversion to Romanism, was confided (see CHARLES II.); and he was the See also:chief actor in the deception practised upon the See also:rest of the See also:council.' He supported several other pernicious See also:measures —the See also:scheme for rendering the king's See also:power See also:absolute by force of arms; the " stop of the See also:exchequer," involving a repudiation of the state See also:debt in 1672; and the declaration of See also:indulgence the same year, " that we might keep all quiet at See also:home whilst we are busy abroad."' On the 22nd of See also:April 1672 he was created an earl, and on the 15th of See also:June obtained the Garter; the same See also:month he proceeded with Buckingham on a See also:mission, first to William at the See also:Hague, and afterwards to Louis at See also:Utrecht, endeavouring to force upon the Dutch terms of See also:peace which were indignantly refused . But Arlington's support of the See also:court policy was entirely subordinate to See also:personal interests; and after the See also:appointment of Clifford in See also:November 1672 to the treasurership, his jealousy and See also:mortification, together with his alarm at the violent opposition aroused in parliament, caused him to veer over to the other See also:side . He advised Charles in March 1673 to submit the legality of the declaration of indulgence to the See also:House of Lords, and supported the Test Act of the same year, which compelled Clifford to resign . He joined the Dutch party, and in See also:order to make his peace with his new See also:allies, disclosed the secret treaty of Dover to the staunch Protestants Ormonde and See also:Shaftesbury.' Arlington had, however, lost the confidence of all parties, and these efforts to procure support met with little success . On the 15th of See also:January 1674 he was impeached by the See also:Commons, the specific charges being "popery," corruption and the betrayal of his See also:trust—Buckingham in his own See also:defence having accused him the See also:day before of being the chief instigator of the See also:French and See also:anti-See also:Protestant policy, of the scheme of governing by s See also:Memoirs of Great See also:Britain and Ireland, by Sir John Dalrymple (1790), i . 125 . ' Ibid .

114 et seq . Arlington to Sir B . Gascoyn, in J . T . See also:

Brown's Miscellanea Aulica (1702), 66 . e On the authority of See also:Colbert, 2oth November 1673; Dalrymple's Memoirs, i . 131 . the See also:army, of responsibility for the Dutch War, and of See also:embezzlement . But the See also:motion for his removal, owing chiefly to the influence of his See also:brother-in-See also:law, the popular Lord See also:Ossory, was rejected by 166 votes to 127 . His See also:escape could not, however, prevent his fall, and he resigned the secretaryship on the 11th of See also:September 1694, being appointed lord See also:chamberlain instead . In 1675 he made another See also:attempt to gain favour with the parliament by supporting measures against France and against the Roman Catholics, and by joining in the pressure put upon Charles to remove James from the court . In November he went on a mission to the Hague, with the popular See also:objects of effecting a peace and of concluding an alliance with William and James's daughter See also:Mary .

Phoenix-squares

In this he entirely failed, and he returned home completely discredited . He had again been disappointed of the treasurership when See also:

Danby succeeded Clifford; Charles having declared " that he had too much kindness for him to let him have it, for he was not See also:fit for the See also:office." l His intrigues with discontented persons in parliament to stir up an opposition to his successful See also:rival came to nothing . From this See also:time, though lingering on at court, he possessed no influence, and was treated with scanty respect . It was safe to ridicule his See also:person and behaviour, and it became a See also:common jest for " some courtier to put a See also:black patch upon his See also:nose and strut about with a See also:white See also:staff in his See also:hand in order to make the king merry at his expense." 2 He was appointed a See also:commissioner of the See also:treasury in March 1679, was included in Sir William Temple's new modelled council the same year, and was a member of the inner See also:cabinet which was almost immediately formed . In 1681 he was made lord See also:lieutenant of Suffolk . He died on the 28th of See also:July 1685, and was buried at Euston, where he had bought a large See also:estate and had carried out extensive See also:building operations . His See also:residence in See also:London wasGoring House, on the site of which was built the See also:present Arlington See also:Street . Arlington was a typical statesman of the Restoration, possessing outwardly an' attractive See also:personality, and according to Sir W . Temple " the greatest skill of court and the best turns of See also:art in particular conversation," 3 but thoroughly unscrupulous and self-seeking, without a spark of patriotism, faithless even to a See also:bad cause, and regarding public office solely as a means of procuring See also:pleasure and profit . His knowledge of foreign affairs and of foreign See also:languages, gained during his residence abroad, was considerable, but See also:long See also:absence from England had also taught him a See also:cosmopolitan indifference to constitutions and religions, and a careless disregard for English public See also:opinion and the essential interests of the See also:country . According to Clarendon, he " knew no more of the constitution and See also:laws of England than he did of See also:China, nor had he in truth a care or tenderness for church or state, but believed France was the best See also:pattern in the See also:world." ' He was one of the chief promoters of the attempt to reintroduce into England arbitrary See also:government after the French See also:model, not because he imagined an absolute See also:monarchy essential to the well-being and See also:security of the state, but because undersuch an administration the favourites of a king enjoyed far greater privileges and profits than under a constitutional government . Of the same egotistical See also:character was his See also:religion, towards which his attitude was similar to that of Charles II. himself .

He was credited with having inclined the king towards Romanism . Before the Restoration he had attended See also:

mass with the king abroad, and in opposition to Lord See also:Bristol had urged Charles to declare publicly his conversion in order to obtain the long-expected succour from the foreign See also:powers . But his religion sat lightly upon him as it did upon his See also:master, and it was often convenient to disguise it . Like the king he continued to profess and practise Protestantism, and spent large sums in restoring the church at Euston; and, unlike Clifford, he took the Test in 1673 and remained in office, successfully concealing his faith till on his deathbed, when he declared himself an adherent of Roman Catholicism.' James's statement in See also:Macpherson's Orig . Pap. i . 67 . 2 See also:Eachard's See also:History of England (1720), 911 . 3 Memoirs of W . Temple, ed. by T . P . See also:Courtenay, ii . 27 .

4 Life and See also:

Con . 404 . s Cf . See also:North's Examen, 26; Dalrymple's Mem . (1790) i . 40; See also:Pepys's See also:Diary (Feb . 17, 1663); Cal. of Clarendon St . Pap. iii . 295; T . See also:Carte's Life of the See also:Duke of Ormonde (1851), iv . 109 . He married See also:Isabella of Beerwaert, daughter of Louis of See also:Nassau, by whom he had one daughter, Isabella, who married See also:Henry, duke of See also:Grafton, the natural son of Charles II. and Lady Castlemaine .

End of Article: EARL OF HENRY BENNET ARLINGTON (1618-1685)
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