later, in July 1867, when ambassador-extraordinary at Vienna, he received from the Emperor Francis Joseph the grand cross of the order of Leopold of Austria. He shared the distrust felt by Lord Carnarvon and Lord Derby of the Earl of Beaconsfield's eastern policy, and as the result of a tour in Bulgaria, undertaken after the war, published 'Observations on Bulgarian Affairs,' 1880. Bath was appointed trustee of the National Portrait Gallery in 1874, and of the British Museum in 1883. He was a member of the academy of Belgrade in 1884. He also served on the historical manuscripts commission. He died at Venice on 20 April 1896.
He married, in August 1861, Frances Isabella, eldest daughter of Thomas, third viscount de Vesci. His eldest son, Thomas Henry Thynne (b. 1862), succeeded as fifth marquis.
[Doyle's Official Baronage; Eurke's Peerage, 1896; Times, 21 April 1896; Bourke's Hist. of White's Club, 1892, vol. ii.]
THYNNE, THOMAS, of Longleat (1648–1682), 'Tom of Ten Thousand,' born in 1648, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Thynne of Richmond, Surrey, by the daughter and heiress of Walter Balanquil, dean of Durham. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 14 Dec. 1666, and two years later entered at the Middle Temple. On the death of his uncle, Sir James Thynne, in 1670, he succeeded to the Longleat estates. He also took his place in parliament as one of the representatives of Wiltshire, and continued to sit for the county till his death. He at first attached himself to the Duke of York, but, in consequence of some quarrel, he joined the opposition and became Monmouth's 'wealthy western friend,' the Issachar of 'Absalom and Achitophel.' In January or February 1680 he, with Sir Walter St. John and Sir Edward Hungerford, presented to Charles II a petition from Wiltshire praying for the redress of grievances and the punishment of popish plotters. The king said the petition came from 'a company of loose and disaffected persons.' He did not meddle with their affairs and desired them not to meddle with his, especially in a matter 'so essentially a part of his prerogative' (Echard). Thynne was one of ten lords and ten commoners who, on 30 June, met at the court of requests, and proposed to give an information against the Duke of York as a papist to the grand jury of Middlesex. In the next year he was a member of that body when they ignored the bill against Shaftesbury. In November 1681 he was removed from the command of the Wiltshire militia for his hostility to the court. On his return from banishment Monmouth was entertained at Longleat, to which he often paid informal visits. In the summer of 1681 Thynne privately married the widow of Lord Ogle, Elizabeth, daughter of Josceline, eleventh and last earl of Northumberland, and heiress of the Percy estates [see under Seymour, Charles, sixth Duke of Somerset]. Immediately after the marriage she went to stay at the Hague for a year with Lady Temple [see under Temple, Sir William (1628-1699], The marriage was not consummated. Thynne claimed his wife's property, but the claim was contested by her kindred, and the best civilians of Doctors' Commons were retained on each side (Echard; Luttrell). The proctors decided in favour of Thynne, and at the end of the year it was reported that his wife would return to live with him. The lady was only fifteen, and had certainly not been consulted in the matter. One of her unsuccessful suitors, a Swedish nobleman, Count John Philip Königsmark, sent two challenges to Thynne by a certain Captain Vratz, one of his followers. According to Echard, Königsmark and the captain were residing in France, and Thynne replied by sending six men to France to murder both of them. In January 1682 Königsmark and Vratz returned to England, and Vratz again tried to bring about a duel, this time between Thynne and himself. On the evening of Sunday, 12 Feb., when Thynne was riding in his coach down Pall Mall, Vratz rode up with two men and stopped the horses; one of the two retainers, a Pole, fired at Thynne with a blunderbuss and mortally wounded him. Within twenty-four hours the assassins were arrested, a hue and cry having been granted by Sir John Reresby. On the Monday, Reresby was taking their examinations at his own house, when he was sent for by the king, who examined the men himself before a council summoned for the purpose. On the same day Thynne expired. From the confessions of the Swedish lieutenant Stern and Boroski, the Pole, Königsmark seemed to be implicated, but he was found to have fled. On the Sunday following the murder he was taken in disguise at Gravesend, when just about to embark on a Swedish vessel. On the following day, 20 Feb., he underwent an examination, which Reresby says was 'very superficial,' before the king and council, and having been again examined by Lord-chief-justice Pemberton, was committed to Newgate. True bills having been found against them at Hick's Hall, the three assassins were tried on 27 Feb. at the Old Bailey for the murder, and Königsmark as an accessory. Vratz, Stern, and Boroski were convicted and
