Philip Chesney Yorke

“ Clifford was an ardent Roman Catholic, a supporter of the royal prerogative and of the French alliance. He regarded with favour the plan of seeking French assistance in order to force Romanism and absolute government upon the country, and his complete failure to understand the real political position and the interests of the nation is reflected in the advice he was said to have given to Charles, to accept the pension from Louis, and “be the slave of one man rather than of 500.” ”

“ On the 22nd of April he was raised to the peerage as Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, and on the 28th of November, by the duke of York’s interest, he was made lord treasurer; his conduct to Arlington, whose claims to the office he had pretended to press, was, according to Evelyn, the only act of “real ingratitude” in his career. Arlington, however, quickly discovered a means of securing Clifford’s fall. The latter was strongly in favour of Charles’s policy of indulgence, and supported the declaration of this year, urging the king to overcome the resistance of parliament by a dissolution. ”

“ In August he said a last farewell to Evelyn, and in less than a month he died at Ugbrook. In Evelyn’s opinion the cause of death was suicide, but his suspicions do not appear to have received any contemporary support. Clifford was one of the worst advisers of Charles II., but a sincere and consistent one. Evelyn declares him “a valiant, uncorrupt gentleman, ambitious, not covetous, generous, passionate, a most constant, sincere friend.” He married Elizabeth, daughter of William Martin of Lindridge, Devonshire, by whom he had fifteen children, four sons and seven daughters surviving him. ”