BRISTOL, GEORGE DIGBY, 2ND EARL of (1612-1677), eldest son of John Digby, 1st earl (see below), was born in Oct. 1612. He entered Magdalen college, Oxford, in 1626, and after taking his M.A. degree in 1636, travelled abroad for some years. In 1638--39 he attacked Roman Catholicism in a series of letters to Sir Kenelm Digby. Elected member for Dorsetshire he sup ported Pym and Hampden in the parliaments of 1640, and was one of the committee for the impeachment of Strafford. But in 1641 he voted against the third Attainder bill, and defended episcopacy in the debates on the Root and Branch bill. To save him from the attacks of the Commons, the king raised him to the peerage, in his father's barony of Digby, and he became one of Charles's advisers. He urged on the arrest of the five mem bers in Jan. 1642, and was soon after forced to escape impeach ment by flying to Holland. From there he wrote letters discuss ing plans to win Dutch support, which were intercepted on their way to Charles. Digby fought at Edgehill, but threw down his commission in consequence of a quarrel with Prince Rupert. In 1643 he was made secretary of state and privy councillor, and in Oct. 1645 lieutenant general of the king's forces north of the Trent. On Oct. 15 he was defeated at Sherburn, his correspond ence disclosing royal intrigues with Ireland and Scotland was captured and he was forced to escape to the Isle of Man and finally to France where he served in Louis XIV.'s troops in the Fronde. In 1656 Mazarin, who regarded Digby as a mere adven turer, had him expelled from France in accordance with the treaty with Cromwell, and he joined Charles II. at Bruges. Charles appointed him secretary of state in 16S7, but on his becoming a Roman Catholic he had to resign office.
By the death of his father Digby succeeded, in 1659, to the peerage as 2nd earl of Bristol. He returned to England at the Restoration, but was excluded from office on account of his reli gion. He adopted an attitude of violent hostility to Clarendon, and on July 10 1663, brought forward a charge of high treason against him. The charge was dismissed, and Clarendon expelled from court. On the fall of Clarendon, however, Bristol was again welcomed at court, and took his seat in the Lords, July 29 1667. In March 1673, though still a Roman Catholic, he spoke in favour of the Test act, describing himself as a "Catholic of the Church of Rome, not a Catholic of the court of Rome." He died on March 20 1677.