Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan, (1607–1703), by Joshua Reynolds

Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan, 2nd Baron Brudenell (5 March 1607 – 16 July 1703) was an English nobleman.

Origins

He was born on 5 March 1607, the son of Thomas Brudenell, 1st Earl of Cardigan (c. 1593–1663) by his wife Mary Tresham, a daughter of Sir Thomas Tresham. Between 1661 and 1663 he was styled by the courtesy title Lord Brudenell, his father's subsidiary title.

Career

He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1663. Like most of his family, both Brudenells and Treshams, he was an adherent of Roman Catholicism. His father's devotion to that faith was so open that he was prosecuted regularly for recusancy. In 1613 the local justices of the peace remarked that only their personal regard for the Brudenell family had saved fourteen of them, including Robert's parents, from prison. His mother's family were deeply implicated in the Gunpowder Plot.[1]

Robert himself and his eldest son Francis, as two of the most influential members of the Catholic nobility, inevitably became the target of informers, particularly William Bedloe, during the Popish Plot:[2] Robert retired to France for a time, while his son spent a year in prison.[3]

Marriages and children

He married twice:

Death

He died in July 1703, aged 96, and was succeeded in the earldom by his grandson George Brudenell, 3rd Earl of Cardigan.

References

  1. Fraser, Antonia The Gunpowder Plot- Terror and Faith in 1605 Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1996
  2. Kenyon The Popish Plot Phoenix Press reissue 2000 p.109
  3. Kenyon p.123
  4. "Person Page".
  5. "Person Page".
  6. Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland and Ireland, volume I (1790) page 108
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