jealousy of Sunderland, who was restored to office with Rochester's help (cf. Reresby, pp. 268–96; Burnet, ii. 338 sqq.). Finally, Rochester treated a charge of fraud brought by Halifax against certain contractors as implying an accusation of corruption against himself. The king's intention of annulling the obnoxious contract was frustrated by his death (cf. Reresby, pp. 268–96; cf. Lives of the Norths, iii. 148–51). In the meantime, parliament remaining unconvoked, Rochester maintained himself in power (Reresby, pp. 300, 305), although his overbearing demeanour made him unpopular at court, and did him harm with the king (Burnet, ii. 444, where the ‘stop of all payments’ is said to have been imputed to him). He was disappointed of his hope of being made lord treasurer; and when, in August 1684, he was promoted to the lord presidency of the council, he was declared by Halifax to have been ‘kicked upstairs’ (Macauley, i. 277; cf. Reresby, pp. 307–8; Evelyn, ii. 434; Diary and Correspondence, i. 94–6). Shortly afterwards (October), when Ormonde was recalled from Ireland, Rochester was, through the influence of the Duke of York, appointed his successor (see Diary and Correspondence, i. 96–105). He was not, however, on this occasion to cross the Channel. On 25 Jan. 1685 his daughter, Lady Ossory, died; and in the ‘Meditations’ which he put to paper on the first anniversary of this event (printed ib. i. 170–5) he relates how, his 'soul being gone,' and his wife 'lying weak and worn with continual sickness,' he resolved to retire into privacy and contemplation. He does not add that 2 Feb. 1685 had been fixed by the king for the investigation, suggested by Halifax, of the treasury books formerly under his control, and that a rumour was abroad that he 'would be turned out of all, and sent to the Tower' (Burnet, ii. 446, corroborated, according to Macauley, i.429 note, by the treasury books). On the previous night Charles II was mortally ill; on 6 Feb. he died; and ten days afterwards Rochester was made lord treasurer (Reresby, p. 316). In the course of the year several minor appointments were in addition bestowed on him, and on 29 June he was created K.G. (Doyle). Among those who speedily claimed his good offices in his new position was the Prince of Orange, at that time desirous of a reconciliation with his father-in-law (Diary and Correspondence, i. 115 sqq.); in return Rochester advised the prince to remove Monmouth from Holland (ib. i. 122). After Sedgmoor, Monmouth from Ringwood solicited Rochester's intercession with King James (ib. p.143).
Neither Rochester nor his brother in Ireland could look without distrust upon the development of the policy of the new king under the influence of the catholic clique, which came to the front towards the end of 1685. Sunderland seems early in December to have begun his manœuvres for the overthrow of the Hydes, and more especially of Rochester. While successfully undermining the position of Clarendon [q.v.] in Ireland, Sunderland at home alienated Queen Mary of Modena from Rochester and the other relatives and friends of the king's first wife (Reresby, p.349). Rochester was certainly believed to have been implicated in the unsuccessful intrigue to detach the king from the influence of the queen and the jesuits by means of his mistress, Catharine Sedley, just created Countess of Dorchester (Macauley, ii. 73, note; Diary and Correspondence, ii. 314, note). The temporary retirement of Lady Dorchester to Ireland, and the resentment of the queen, palpably diminished his influence. The rumour in March (Ellis Correspondence, i. 59) that he was to receive a dukedom was probably idle. What Roger North regards as his second infirmity, his love of the bottle, caused him at times to betray apprehensions of the decline of his authority (Bonrepaux ap. Macauley, ii. 75, note). In the vain hope of averting his fall, he agreed in the autumn of this year (1686) to serve on the ecclesiastical commission which the king was preparing to use against the church of England (if Burnet, iii. 111, is to be trusted), and he yielded to the peremptory command of the king by voting for the suspension of Henry Compton [q.v.], the bishop of London.
According to the account which Burnet (iii. 122 seqq.) professed to have derived from Rochester himself, the king had since Monmouth's execution never consulted him except on treasury business, in which he had recently proved his usefulness by procuring a loan (cf. Macauley, ii. 147). Finally James, on the direct suggestion of Sunderland (Clarke, Life of James II, ii. 100), pressed Rochester to allow himself to be ‘instructed in religion,’ and after some demur the latter agreed to a conference, at which two English clergymen should attend to confront the priests. The conference was held on 30 Nov. Rochester's enemies, according to Burnet, made his wife responsible for this step; but this Rochester denied. According to the same hostile evidence (which herein substantially agrees with that of Dalrymple, i. 182–3), Rochester had before the conference become convinced that nothing could avert his fall, and consequently bore himself so haughtily and contemptuously towards the
