In 1611, and again in 1614, he was sent as ambassador to Spain. In 1617 he was made a peer, with the title of Lord Digby of Sherbourne. In 1620 he was sent ambassador to the Archduke Charles, and next year to the Emperor Ferdinand. He was again sent to Spain in 1622, to negotiate the marriage of Charles, prince of Wales, with the infanta. On his return he was created Earl of Bristol. Through the intrigues of the duke of Buckingham, the unprincipled favourite of James and Charles, Digby was for a short time committed to the Tower, but in the end he succeeded in proving the injustice of the charges brought against him. His resentment at the treatment he had received probably helped to throw him into the ranks of the popular party, in the contest between Charles and the Long Parliament; but alienated by the violence of some of their measures, he ultimately espoused the cause of the king, and was in consequence driven into exile and deprived of his estates. He died at Paris, 21st January, 1653. Digby was the author of some poems, and also translated Du Moulin's Defence of the Catholic Faith contained in the books of King James, against the answer of N. Coeffeteau, 1610.—J. T.
DIGBY, Sir Kenelme, son of Sir Everard, was born on the 11th June, 1603. There are two methods of judging those speculative physical philosophers of the seventeenth century, of whom Digby may be taken as a type. They may be laughed at as childishly ignorant of the boundary between a chemical experiment and a magical incantation; or they may be respectfully studied as the pioneers of modern science—if credulous as children yet still as simple-hearted, and putting to nature questions as necessary for the development of discovery, as the curiosity of the child for the wiser understanding of the man. Nothing could be more strangely absurd to modern investigators than the "chemical secrets" of Digby. He possessed a "sympathetic powder," a solution of which could effect the cure of a wounded man by having dipped into it a rag stained with his blood; he always kept by him another, of which crabs' claws, and crabs' eyes, and dust of pearls, and jelly of skins of vipers were chief ingredients, and which was potent to drive out "by transpiration" all bad humours. He believed that all imperfect metals might be converted into gold by one and the same method, but notwithstanding these and a hundred other fancies, he was one of those students whose simple credulousness was closely linked to that scientific humility which does not reject a fact because it cannot explain a mystery. Digby was educated a protestant, left Oxford with a considerable reputation in 1621, for foreign travel in France, Spain, and Italy. Returning to England he was knighted, and became under Charles I. a gentleman of the bed-chamber, a commissioner of the navy, and a governor of Trinity house. In 1628 he achieved high credit as a gallant soldier and a wise commander, by conducting successfully at his own expense, a naval expedition against the Algerines and Venetians. Returning to France he felt anxious concerning his religion, and was finally reconciled to the Church of Rome. A correspondence with Laud ensued, and the archbishop wrote with unusual gentleness to one whose character he honoured: "Nor can I tell," wrote Laud, "how to press such a man as you to ring the changes in religion. In your power it was not to change; in mine it is not to make you change again. Therefore to the moderation of your own heart, under the grace of God, I must and do now leave you for matter of religion; but retaining still with me entirely, all the love and friendliness which your worth won from me, well knowing that all differences of opinion shake not the foundations of religion." When the civil war broke out, Digby was committed prisoner to Winchester house by the parliament as a royalist. He was, however, treated with respect, and was ultimately permitted to leave England at the special request of the dowager-queen of France. During his imprisonment he wrote observations on the Religio Medici, and on 22nd stanza, 9th book of canto ii. of the Faery Queen. In France he became acquainted with Descartes, whom he advised to study the human body and the means of prolonging life; speculative matters being too uncertain to take up a man's whole thoughts. Digby now published a treatise on the nature of bodies; a treatise on the immortality of the soul; and "Five Books of Peripatetic Institutions." Upon the complete defeat of the royalist party he returned to England, but parliament did not deem it safe for a royalist of his influence and ability to reside in the country, and ordered him away. When Cromwell obtained supreme power, however, he offered no opposition to Digby's return home; and, indeed, appears to have welcomed him with friendship. It is probable that political intrigues may have guided the intercourse between Digby and Cromwell; but it is no less probable that the mighty mind of the protector felt the charm of that strange knowledge which the dawn of physical science brought near unto the world. There appears also to have been some fascination in Cromwell, which made Digby less eager a royalist than when in younger days he fought a duel for the honour of Charles I., or he could hardly have written to Mr. Secretary Thurlow in terms such as these—"I make it my business everywhere to have all the world take notice how highly I esteem myself obliged to his highness, and how passionate I am for his service and for his honour and interests, even to the exposing of my life for them." The remainder of Digby's life was spent partly in France and partly in England, in the society of the learned men of his day. On the first establishment of the Royal Society he was appointed one of the council, and worked very eagerly on behalf of its interests. His last literary work was a discourse concerning the vegetation of plants. With respect to science, as in diviner matters, it may truly be said that "wisdom is justified of all her children." Those who groped for truth in the dim light ere the dawn broke, brought nearer the coming day; and the analytical chemist is the natural descendant of such speculative alchemists as Sir Kenelme Digby. He married Venetia, daughter of Sir E. Stanley, a grandson of the earl of Derby, and endeavoured to preserve the remarkable beauty of his wife by many strange experiments and new cosmetics. Digby died 11th June, 1665, and was buried at Christ church, Newgate. His valuable library had been transported to France at the outbreak of the civil commotions; and, since he was no naturalized French subject, it became, by the droit d'aubain, the property of the French king.—L. L. P.
DIGGES, Sir Dudley, son of Thomas Digges, was born in 1583, and educated at University college, Oxford. After passing some time on the continent, he returned to England, and took to the legal profession. In 1618 he was sent by James I. on an embassy to the Russian court. He served in the third parliament of King James which sat in 1621, and in the first parliament of King Charles in 1626. He took the popular side in politics, and being appointed one of the managers of the impeachment brought by the house of commons against the duke of Buckingham, gave such offence to the king by an expression which he was said to have used, purporting that Charles had been an accomplice with the duke in administering a medicine which had accelerated the late king's death, that by the royal order he was committed to the Tower. But a strong protest from the commons procured his liberation, and he himself solemnly declared that he had made use of no such expression as that imputed to him. Sir Dudley sat again in the short parliament which met in March, 1628. But his opposition to the proceedings of the court was now less uncompromising than it had been; and the king, finding that the panoply of the patriot was not wholly impenetrable, gained him over by the grant of the reversion of the mastership of the rolls. He came into the enjoyment of the office in 1636, and lived only three years afterwards, dying on the 18th March, 1639. He was buried in Chilham church in Kent.—T. A.
DIGGES, Leonard, a mathematician and architect of the sixteenth century, was a member of the ancient family of that name residing at Digges Court in Kent. The date of his birth is unknown. He was, according to old Fuller, "the best architect in that age, for all manner of buildings, for conveniency, pleasure, state, and strength, being excellent at fortifications." He seems to have prospered in the world, for we find him mentioned as "of Wootton Court, Surrey," afterwards the residence of Evelyn. He wrote several works on practical mathematics, all of which are now obsolete. He died. Fuller thinks, early in the reign of Elizabeth.—Another Leonard, son of Thomas Digges, the subject of the next article, was born in 1588, educated at University college, Oxford, and died in 1635. He was much esteemed for his acquaintance with general literature, and was the author of several poems and translations.—(Wood's Ath.; Fuller's Worthies.)—T. A.
DIGGES, Thomas, son of the first Leonard, was born in Kent, and educated at Oxford. He inherited from his father a capacity and taste for mathematical studies. When Queen Elizabeth sent troops under the command of Leicester to the assistance of the revolted provinces of the Netherlands in 1585,
