Charles Talbot, 12th Earl of Shrewsbury KG

Charles Talbot was a politician who changed his religion. He was born a Catholic in 1660 but c1880 during the popish Plot stirred up by Titus Oates he became a Protestant. It was as a Protestant that he was granted a commission by King James II in 1685 to raise a regiment of Horse that became the 5th Dragoon Guards. King James tried to persuade him to return to the Catholic fold but he refused. He resigned his commission and joined William of Orange in Holland. He was one of 7 English Statesmen to sign the invitation to William to invade England in 1688. But in 1690 he was in contact with the exiled Stuart court in France, involved in a Jacobite restoration.
Again, in 1694, he returned to William's government and campaigned for funds to finance Williams war against Louis XIV. In the same year he was elevated from 12th Earl to 1st Duke of Shrewsbury. He resigned his government post twice due to ill-health, in 1698 and in 1700. For 5 years he lived abroad and married Countess Adelaide Roffeni. Then he returned to England and built a home at Heythorp Park. In 1710 he returned to government and supported the Tory moves to negotiate a peace to end the War of the Spanish Succession. Towards the end of his life he sent money to the Stuart Pretender. He died on 1st Feb 1718.

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