Losing the Plot: Agents, Spies and Traitors

Abstract

The biographer of Sir George Carteret, the generous host to Charles and his followers during their two separate sojourns on the island of Jersey, claimed that when it came to Carteret’s turn to go into exile in France, in his case for eight years, ‘unlike most of his fellow exiles, he did not idle about doing nothing’. A similarly harsh judgement, quoted in the previous chapter, refers to how ‘Charles II and his courtiers lounged and fornicated’ their way through the 16505.² While these opinions may be justified in the case of some of the courtiers whose experience of exile was considered in the previous chapter, they certainly cannot be applied to the Cavaliers, most of whom were courtiers, who are the subject of this chapter. Some of the exiled Cavaliers were men of infinite resource and energy; they were both anxious to contribute in some way to the overthrow of the Commonwealth and the restoration of the monarchy and ambitious to win the approval and patronage of the King and his principal counsellors. To these men exile was not necessarily a barren and bitter experience; on the contrary, it offered opportunities for adventure, advancement and rewards.

Long, dangerous and expensive journeys.

(Daniel O’Neill to Sir Edward Hyde)¹