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HOLLES, DENZIL HOLLES, BARON (1599-1680)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 614 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HOLLES, DENZIL HOLLES, See also:BARON (1599-1680) , See also:English statesman and writer, second son of See also:John Holles, 1st See also:earl of See also:Clare (c. 1564–1637), by See also:Anne, daughter of See also:Sir See also:Thomas See also:Stanhope, was See also:born on the 31st of See also:October 1599. The favourite son of his See also:father and endowed with See also:great natural abilities, Denzil Holles See also:grew up under advantageous circumstances. Destined to become later one of the most formidable antagonists of See also:King See also:Charles's arbitrary See also:government, he was in See also:early youth that See also:prince's playmate and intimate See also:companion. The earl of Clare was, however, no friend to the See also:Stuart See also:administration, being especially hostile to the See also:duke of See also:Buckingham; and on the See also:accession of Charles to the See also:throne the king's offers of favour were rejected. In 1624 Holles was returned to See also:parliament for See also:Mitchell in See also:Cornwall, and in 1628 for See also:Dorchester. He had from the first a keen sense of the humiliations which attended this See also:foreign policy of the Stuart See also:kings. See also:Writing to See also:Strafford, his See also:brother-in-See also:law, on the 29th of See also:November 1627, he severely censures Buckingham's conduct of the expedition to the Isle of Rhe; " since See also:England was England," he declared, " it received not so dishonourable a See also:blow "; and he joined in the demand for Buckingham's See also:impeachment in 1628. To these discontents were now added the abuses arising from the king's arbitrary administration. On the 2nd of See also:March 1629, when Sir John See also:Finch, the See also:speaker, refused to put Sir John See also:Eliot's Protestations and was about to adjourn the See also:House by the king's command, Holies with another member thrust him back into the See also:chair and swore " he should sit still till it pleased them to rise." Meanwhile Eliot, on the refusal of the speaker to read the Protestations, had himself thrown them into the See also:fire; the See also:usher of the See also:black See also:rod was knocking at the See also:door for admittance, and the king had sent for the guard. But Holies, declaring that he could not render the king or his See also:country better service, put the Protestations to the House from memory, all the members rising to their feet and applauding. In consequence a See also:warrant was issued for his See also:arrest with others on the following See also:day.

They were prosecuted first in the See also:

Star Chamber and subsequently in the King's See also:Bench. When brought upon his habeas corpus before the latter See also:court Holies offered with the See also:rest to give See also:bail, but refused sureties for See also:good behaviour, and argued that the court had no See also:jurisdiction over offences supposed to have been committed in parliament. On his refusal to plead he was sentenced to a See also:fine of r000 marks and to imprisonment during the king's See also:pleasure. Holies had at first been committed and remained for some See also:time a See also:close prisoner in the See also:Tower of See also:London. The " close " confinement, however, was soon changed to a " safe " one, the prisoner then having leave to take the See also:air and exercise, but being obliged to maintain himself at his own expense. On the 29th of October Holies, with Eliot and See also:Valentine, was transferred to the See also:Marshalsea. His resistance to the king's tyranny did not prove so stout as that of some of his comrades in misfortune. Among the papers of the secretary Sir John See also:Coke is a See also:petition of Holies, couched in humble and submissive terms, to be restored to the king's favour;' having given the See also:security demanded for his good behaviour, he was liberated early in 163o, and on the 3oth of October was allowed bail. Being still banished from London he retired to the country, paying his fine in 1637 or 1638. The fine was repaid by the parliament in See also:July 1644, and the See also:judgment was revised on a See also:writ of See also:error in 1668. In 1638 we find him, notwithstanding his See also:recent experiences, one of the See also:chief leaders in his See also:county of the resistance to See also:ship See also:money, though it would appear that he subsequently made submission. Holies was a member of the See also:Short and See also:Long Parliaments assembled in 164o.

According to La 1d he was now " one of the great leading men in the House of See also:

Commons," and in See also:Clarendon's See also:opinion he was " a See also:man of more accomplished parts than any of his party " and of most authority. He was not, however, in the confidence of the republican party. Though he was at first named one of the managers for the impeachment of Strafford, Holies had little See also:share in his See also:prosecution. According to See also:Laud he held out to Strafford hopes of saving his See also:life if he would use his See also:influence with the king to abolish See also:episcopacy, but the earl refused, and Holies advised Charles that Strafford should demand a short See also:respite, of which he would take See also:advantage to procure a See also:commutation of the See also:death See also:sentence. In the debate on the See also:attainder he spoke on behalf of Strafford's See also:family, and later obtained some favours from the parliament for his eldest son. In all other matters in parliament Holies took a See also:principal See also:part. He was one of the chief See also:movers of the Protestation of the 3rd of May 1641, which he carried up to the Lords, urging them to give it their approval. Although, according to Clarendon, he did not wish to See also:change the government of the See also:church, he showed himself at this time decidedly hostile to the bishops. He took up the impeachment of Laud to the House of Peers, supported the Londoners' petition for the abolition of episcopacy and the See also:Root and See also:Branch See also:Bill, and afterwards urged that the bishops impeached for their conduct in the affair of the See also:late canons should be accused of See also:treason. He showed equal See also:energy in the affairs of See also:Ireland at the outbreak of the See also:rebellion, supported strongly the See also:independence and purity of the judicial bench, and opposed See also:toleration of the See also:Roman Catholics. On the 9th of July 1641 he addressed the Lords on behalf of the See also:queen of Bohemia, expressing great See also:loyalty to the king and royal family and urging the See also:necessity of supporting the See also:Protestant See also:religion everywhere. Together with See also:Pym, Holies See also:drew up the See also:Grand Remonstrance, and made a vigorous speech in its support on 1 Hist.

See also:

MSS. See also:Comm., MSS. of Earl See also:Cowper, i. 422.the 22nd of November 1641, in which he argued for the right of one House to make a See also:declaration, and asserted: " If kings are misled by their counsellors we may, we must tell them of it." On the 15th of See also:December he was a See also:teller in the See also:division in favour of See also:printing it. On the great subject of the See also:militia he also showed activity. He supported Hesilriges' Militia Bill of the 7th of December 1641, and on the 31st of December he took up to the king the Commons' demand for a guard under the command of See also:Essex. " Holles's force and reputation," said Sir See also:Ralph See also:Verney, " are the two things that give the success to all actions." After the failure of the See also:attempt by the court, to gain over Holies and others by offering them posts in the administration, he was one of the " five members " impeached by the king.' Holies at once grasped the full significance of the king's See also:action, and after the triumphant return to the House of the five members, on the 11th of See also:January, threw himself into still more pronounced opposition to the arbitrary policy of the See also:crown. He demanded that before anything further was done the members should be cleared of their impeachment; was himself See also:leader in the impeachment of the duke of See also:Richmond; and on the 31st of January, when taking up the militia petition to the House of Lords, he adopted a very menacing See also:tone, at the same time presenting a petition of some thousands of supposed starving artificers of London, congregated See also:round the House. On the 15th of See also:June he carried up the impeachment of the nine Lords who had deserted the parliament; and he was one of the See also:committee of safety appointed on the 4th of July. On the outbreak of the See also:Civil See also:War (see GREAT REBELLION) Holies, who had been made See also:lieutenant of See also:Bristol, was sent with See also:Bedford to the See also:west against the See also:marquess of See also:Hertford, and took part in the unsuccessful See also:siege of the latter at See also:Sherborne See also:Castle. He was See also:present at Edgehill, where his See also:regiment of Puritans recruited in London was one of the few which stood See also:firm and saved the day for the parliament. On the 13th of November his men were surprised at See also:Brentford during his See also:absence, and routed after a stout resistance. In December he was proposed for the command of the forces in the west, an See also:appointment which he appears to have refused.

Notwithstanding his activity in the See also:

field for the cause of the parliament, the See also:appeal to arms had been distasteful to Holies from the first. As early as See also:September he surprised the House by the marked See also:abatement of his former " violent and fiery spirit," and his changed attitude did not See also:escape the taunts of his enemies, who attributed it scornfully to his disaster at Brentford or to his new wife. He probably foresaw that, to whichever See also:side victory See also:fell, the struggle could only terminate in the suppression of the constitution and of the moderate party on which all his hopes were based. His feelings and See also:political opinions, too, were essentially aristocratic, and he regarded with horror the transference of the government of the See also:state from the king and the ruling families to the See also:parliamentary leaders. He now advocated See also:peace and a See also:settlement of the disputes by concessions on both sides; a proposal full of danger because impracticable, and one therefore which could only weaken the parliamentary resistance and prolong the struggle. He warmly supported the peace negotiations on the 21st of November and the 22nd of December, and his attitude led to a See also:breach with Pym and the more determined party. In June 1643 he was accused of complicity in See also:Waller's See also:plot, but swore to his innocency; and his arrest with others of the peace party was even proposed in See also:August, when Holies applied for a pass to leave the country. The king's successes, however, for the moment put a stop -to all hopes of peace; and in See also:April 1644 Holies addressed the citizens of London at the See also:Guildhall, calling upon them " to join with their purses, their persons, and their prayers together " to support the See also:army of Essex. In November Holies and See also:Whitelocke headed the See also:commission appointed to treat with the king at See also:Oxford. He endeavoured to convince the royalists of the necessity of yielding in time, before the " new party of hot men " should gain the upper See also:hand. Holies and Whitelocke had a 2 The speech of January 5 attributed to him and printed in See also:Thomason Tracts, E 199 (55), is a See also:forgery. private See also:meeting with the king, when at Charles's See also:request they drew up the See also:answer which they advised him to return to the parliament.

This interview was not communicated to the other commissioners or to parliament, and though doubtless their motives were thoroughly patriotic, their action was scarcely compatible with their position as trustees of the parliamentary cause. Holles was also appointed a See also:

commissioner at See also:Uxbridge in January 1645 and endeavoured to overcome the See also:crucial difficulty of the militia by postponing its discussion altogether. As leader of the moderate (or Presbyterian) party Holies now came into violent antagonism with See also:Cromwell and the army See also:faction. " They hated one another equally "; and Holies would not allow any merit in Cromwell, accusing him of cowardice and attributing his successes to See also:chance and good See also:fortune. With the support of Essex and the Scottish commissioners Holies endeavoured in December 1644 to procure Cromwell's impeachment as an incendiary between the two nations, and " passionately " opposed the self-denying See also:ordinance. In return Holies was charged with having held See also:secret communications with the king at Oxford and with a See also:correspondence with See also:Lord See also:Digby; but after a long examination by the House he was pronounced See also:innocent on the 19th of July 1645. Determined on Cromwell's destruction, he refused to listen to the prudent counsels of Sir See also:Anthony See also:Ashley See also:Cooper, who urged that Cromwell was too strong to be resisted or provoked, and on the 29th of March 1647 drew up in parliament a hasty See also:proclamation declaring the promoters of the army petition enemies to the state; in April challenging See also:Ireton to a See also:duel. The army party was now thoroughly exasperated against Holies. " They were resolved one way or other to be rid of him," says Clarendon. On the 16th of June 1647 eleven members including Holies were charged by the army with various offences against the state, followed on the 23rd by fresh demands for their impeachment and for their suspension, which was refused. On the 26th, however, the eleven members, to avoid violence, asked leave to withdraw. Their reply to the charges against them was handed into the House on the 19th of July, and on the loth Holies took leave of the House in A See also:grave and learned speech .

. . After the See also:

riot of the apprentices on the 26th, for which Holles disclaimed any responsibility, the eleven members were again (3oth of July) recalled to their seats, and Holles was one of the committee of safety appointed. On the See also:flight of the speaker, however, and part of the parliament to the army, and the advance of the latter to London, Holies, whose party and policy were now entirely defeated, See also:left England on the 22nd of August for Sainte-See also:Mere Eglide in See also:Normandy. On the 26th of January 1648 the eleven members, who had not appeared when summoned to answer the charges against them, were expelled. Not long afterwards, however, on the 3rd of June, these proceedings were annulled; and Holies, who had then returned and was a prisoner in the Tower with the rest of the eleven members, was discharged. He returned to his seat on the 14th of August. Holies was one of the commissioners appointed to treat with the king at See also:Newport on the 18th of September 1648. Aware of the plans of the extreme party, Holles threw himself at the king's feet and implored him not to See also:waste time in useless negotiations, and he was one of those who stayed behind the rest in See also:order to urge Charles to compliance. On the 1st of December he received the thanks of the House. On the occasion of See also:Pride's Purge on the 6th of December Holles absented himself and escaped again to See also:France. From his retirement there he wrote to Charles II. in 1651, advising him to come to terms with the Scots as the only means of effecting a restoration; but after the See also:alliance he refused Charles's offer of the secretaryship of state. In March 16J4 Cromwell, who in alarm at the plots being formed against him was attempting to reconcile some of his opponents to his government, sent Holles a pass " with notable circumstances of kindness and esteem." His subsequent movements and the date of his return to England are uncertain, but in 1656 Cromwell's resentment was again excited against him as the supposed author of a See also:tract, really written by Clarendon.

He appears to have been imprisoned, for his See also:

release was ordered by the See also:council on the 2nd of September 1659. Bolles took part in the See also:conference with See also:Monk at See also:Northumberland House, when the Restoration was directly proposed, and with the secluded members took his seat again in parliament on the 21st of See also:February 166o. On the 23rd of February he was chosen one of the council to carry on the government during the See also:interregnum; on the 2nd of March the votes passed against him and the See also:sequestration of his estates were repealed, and on the 7th he was made custos rotulorum for See also:Dorsetshire. He took a leading part in bringing about the Restoration, was chairman of the committee of seven appointed to prepare an answer to the king's See also:letter, and as one of the deputed Lords and Commons he delivered at the See also:Hague the invitation to Charles to return. He preceded Charles to England to prepare for his reception, and was sworn of the privy council on the 5th of June. He was one of the See also:thirty-four commissioners appointed to try the regicides in September and October. On the loth of April 1661 he was created Baron Holles of Ifield in See also:Sussex, and became henceforth one of the leading members of the Upper House. Holles, who was a good See also:French See also:scholar, was sent as See also:ambassador to France on the 7th of July 1663. He was ostentatiously English, and a zealous upholder of the See also:national See also:honour and interests; but his position was rendered difficult by the absence of See also:home support. On the 27th of January 1666 war was declared, but Holles was not recalled till May. See also:Pepys remarks on the 14th of November: " Sir G. Cartaret tells me that just now my Lord Holles had been with him and wept to think in what a See also:condition we are fallen." Soon afterwards he was employed on another disagreeable See also:mission in which the national honour was again at stake, being sent to See also:Breda to make a peace with See also:Holland in May 1667.

He accomplished his task successfully, the articles being signed on the 21st of June. On the 12th of December he protested against Lord Clarendon's banishment and was nearly put out of the council in consequence. In 1668 he was manager for the Lords in the celebrated See also:

Skinner's See also:case, in which his knowledge of precedents was of great service, and on which occasion he published the tract The Grand Question concerning the Judicature of the House of Peeres (1669). Holles, who was honourably distinguished by Charles as a " stiff and sullen man," and as one who would not yield to solicitation; now became with See also:Halifax and See also:Shaftesbury a leader in the resistance to the domestic and foreign policy of the court. Together with Halifax he opposed both the arbitrary Conventicle See also:Act of 167o and the Test See also:Oath of 1675, his objection to the latter being chiefly founded on the invasion of the privileges of the peers which it involved; and he defended with vigour the right of the Peers to See also:record their protests. On the 7th of January 1676 Holies with Halifax was summarily dismissed from the council. On the occasion of the Commons petitioning the king in favour of an alliance with the Dutch, Holies addressed a Letter to See also:Van Beuninghen at See also:Amsterdam on " Love to our Country and Hatred of a See also:Common Enemy," enlarging upon the necessity of uniting in a common See also:defence against French aggression and in support of the Protestant religion. " The See also:People are strong but the Government is weak," he declares; and he attributes the cause of weakness to the transference of See also:power from the See also:nobility to the people, and to a See also:succession of three weak princes. " See also:Save what (the Parliament) did, we have not taken one true step nor struck one true stroke since Queen See also:Elizabeth." He endeavoured to embarrass the government this See also:year in his tract on Some Considerations upon the Question whether the parliament is dissolved by its See also:prorogation for 15 months. It was held by the Lords to be seditious and scandalous; while for See also:publishing another pamphlet written by Holles entitled The Grand Question concerning the Prorogation of this Parliament (otherwise The Long Parliament dissolved) the corrector of the See also:proof sheets was committed to the Tower and fined £1000. In order to bring about the downfall of See also:Danby (afterwards duke of See also:Leeds) and the disbanding of the army, which he believed to be intended for the suppression of the national Iiberties, Holles at this time (1677—1679) engaged, as did many others, in a dangerous intrigue with Courtin and Barillon, the French envoys, and See also:Louis XIV.; he refused, however, the latter's presents on the ground that he was a member of the council, having been appointed to Sir See also:William See also:Temple's new modelled See also:cabinet in 16i9. Barillon described him as at this See also:period in his old See also:age " the man of all England for whom the different cabals have the most See also:consideration," and as firmly opposed to the arbitrary designs of the court.

He showed moderation in the Popish Plot, and on the question of the exclusion followed Halifax rather than Shaftesbury. His long and eventful career closed by his death on the 17th of February 1680. The See also:

character of Holles has been See also:drawn by See also:Burnet, with whom he was on terms of friendship. " Hollis was a man of great courage and of as great pride. . . . He was faithful and firm to his side and never changed through the whole course of his life... . He argued well but too vehemently; for he could not See also:bear See also:contradiction. He had the soul of an old stubborn Roman in him. He was a faithful but a rough friend, and a severe but See also:fair enemy. He had a true sense of religion; and was a man of an unblameable course of life and of a See also:sound judgment when it was not biased by See also:passion."' Holies was essentially an aristocrat and a Whig in feeling, making Cromwell's supposed hatred of " Lords " a See also:special See also:charge against him; regarding the civil See also:wars rather as a social than as a political revolution. and attributing all the evils of his time to the transference of political power from the governing families to the " meanest of men." He was an authority on the See also:history and practice of parliament and the constitution, and besides the See also:pamphlets already mentioned was the author of The Case Stated concerning the Judicature of the House of Peers in the Point of Appeals (1675); The Case Stated of the Jurisdiction of the House of Lords in the point of Impositions (1676) ; Letter of a See also:Gentleman to his Friend showing that the Bishops are not to be See also:judges in Parliament in Cases See also:Capital (1679) ; Lord Holles his Remains, being a 2nd letter to a Friend concerning the judicature of the Bishops in Parliament. . . .2 He also published A True Relation of the unjust See also:accusation of certain French gentlemen (1671), an See also:account of Holles's intercession on their behalf and of his dispute with Lord Chief See also:Justice Keeling; and he left See also:Memoirs, written in See also:exile in 1649, and dedicated " to the unparalleled Couple, Mr See also:Oliver St John .

. . and Mr Oliver Cromwell . . ." published in 1699 and reprinted in Baron Maseres's Select Tracts See also:

relating to the Civil Wars, i. 189. Several speeches of Holies were printed and are extant, and his Letter to Van Beuninghen has been already quoted. Holles married (1) in 1628 Dorothy, daughter and heiress of Sir See also:Francis Ashley; (2) in 1642 Jane, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John See also:Shirley of Ifield in Sussex and widow of Sir See also:Walter Covert of Slougham, Sussex; and (3) in 1666 See also:Esther, daughter and co-heiress of See also:Gideon Le See also:Lou of Columbiers in Normandy, widow of See also:James Richer. By his first wife he left one son, Francis, who succeeded him as 2nd baron. He had no See also:children by his other wives, and the See also:peerage became See also:extinct in the See also:person of his See also:grandson Denzil, 3rd Baron Holles, in 1694, the estates devolving on John Holles (1662-1711), 4th earl of Clare and duke of See also:Newcastle. - Holles's brother, JOHN HOLLES, 2nd earl of Clare (1595-1666), was member of parliament for See also:East See also:Retford in three parliaments before succeeding to the peerage in 1637. He took some part in the Civil War, but " he was very often of both parties, and never advantaged either." The earldom of Clare, which had been granted in 1624 by James I. to his father, John Holles, in return for the See also:payment of £5000, became merged in the dukedom of Newcastle in 1694, when John Holles, the 4th earl, was created duke of Newcastle. Holles's Life has been written by C. H. See also:Firth in the See also:Dictionary of National See also:Biography; by See also:Horace See also:Walpole in Royal and See also:Noble Authors, ii.

28; by See also:

Guizot in Monk's Contemporaries (Eng. trans., 1851) ; and by A. See also:Collins in See also:Historical Collections of Noble Families (1752), and in the Biographia Britannica. See also S. R. See also:Gardiner, 1 Burnet's History of His Own Times, vi. 257, 268. 2 The rough draft, apparently in Holles's See also:handwriting, is in See also:Egerton MSS. if. 136-149. History of England (1883-1884), and History of the Great Civil War (1893); Lord Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, edited by W. D. Macray; G. Burnet, History of His Own Time (1833) ; and B.

See also:

White-See also:lock, Memorials (1732). (P. C.

End of Article: HOLLES, DENZIL HOLLES, BARON (1599-1680)

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