with which he contested points of etiquette (Guizot, Portraits Politiques, pp. 25–44). His letters during this period show with what jealous hostility he regarded the commercial and political projects of Louis XIV (Lister, Life of Clarendon, iii. 409, 414). In June 1667 he was one of the negotiators of the treaty of Breda between England and Holland, an unpopular task, of which he observes: ‘My conscience tells me that in this conjuncture we could not have done better service to king and country’ (ib. p. 467; see also A Narrative of the Proceedings of Lord Holles and Coventry at Breda, by a person of quality concerned in this Embassy, 4to, 1667). In the following December Holles was one of the four peers who protested against the bill for the banishment of the Earl of Clarendon, and it was reported that he was to be put out of the privy council (Lords' Journals, xii. 167; Pepys, Diary, 30 Dec. 1667). In 1674 the opposition leaders are described as meeting at the house of Lord Holles to concert their policy for the next session (Essex Papers, Camd. Soc., i. 168; Christy, Shaftesbury, ii. 189). Holles opposed the Test Act (1675) with great vigour, protested against it himself, and vindicated the right of the peers to protest (‘A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Country,’ in State Tracts of the Reign of Charles II, 1692, i. 40, 41). Like many other leaders of the parliamentary opposition, he entered into secret negotiations with the French ambassador in order to frustrate the policy of the king. Barillon, writing 14 Dec. 1679, describes Holles as ‘the man of all England for whom the different cabals have the most consideration. He is respected in general by all parties, but principally by the presbyterians. Although he does not often go to parliament, he is consulted by many people, and his advice has great weight. He is very moderate. He is apprehensive the court will always adhere to the design of governing more absolutely than the laws of England admit, and he knows your majesty alone can facilitate the success of such a design. Upon this account he wishes that the nation may not be stirred up against France.’ Barillon adds that Holles was particularly useful in the impeachment of Danby (1678) and the disbanding of the army (1678). Like Shaftesbury and Lord Russell, he was convinced that Charles II meant to use the army, raised on the pretext of defending Flanders, to suppress the English opposition and establish his absolute power (Dalrymple, Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. 1790, pp. 184–90, 337; see also Mignet, Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne, iv. 434, 533). He received no money from Barillon, and refused to accept a portrait of Louis XIV set in diamonds, which the ambassador offered him.
For some years Holles had acted in close agreement with Lord Shaftesbury, but on the question of the Exclusion Bill he separated from him (Christy, ii. 202, 283, 306). ‘He is very moderate,’ writes Barillon, ‘on the subject of the Duke of York, and declares that he cannot consent to his exclusion; but at the same time he is of opinion that the power of a catholic king of England should be limited.’ Holles was appointed one of the new privy council established by Charles II on 21 April 1679 (Oldmixon, History of England, p. 630). He died on 17 Feb. 1679–1680, and was buried 10 April 1680 in St. Peter's Church, Dorchester (Collins, p. 161; Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 383). His character is briefly sketched by Clarendon (History of the Rebellion, iii. 35) and by Burnet (Own Time, ed. 1833, i. 177). ‘Holles,’ says the latter, ‘was a man of great courage, and as great pride. … He was faithful and firm to his side, and never changed through the whole course of his life. … He was well versed in the records of parliament, and argued well, but too vehemently, for he could not bear contradiction. He had the soul of an old stubborn Roman in him. He was a faithful but a rough friend, and a severe but a fair enemy. He had a true sense of religion, and was a man of an unblameable course of life, and of a sound judgment, when it was not biassed by passion.’
A portrait of Holles, belonging to the Duke of Portland, was No. 723 in the Exhibition of National Portraits at South Kensington in 1868. An engraving by White is prefixed to the 1699 edition of his ‘Memoirs.’
Holles was three times married, and Collins, in his history of the family (p. 162), confuses the history of the three wives.
He married, first, 4 June 1626, Dorothy, only daughter and heiress of Sir Francis Ashley of Dorchester; she died 21 June 1640: secondly, 12 March 1641–2, Jane, eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir John Shirley of Isfield, Sussex, and widow of Sir Walter Covert of Slougham, Sussex, and of John Freke of Cerne, Dorsetshire; she was buried 25 April 1666: thirdly, 14 Sept. 1666, Esther, daughter of Gideon le Lou of Colombiers, Normandy; she was naturalised by act of parliament (8 Feb. 1667), and died in 1684 (Chester, Westminster Abbey Registers, p. 4).
By his second and third wives Holles had no issue. He was succeeded by his only son, Sir Francis Holles, born 1627, created a
