Philip Chesney Yorke

“ Several contemporary writers agree in testifying to Colepeper’s great debating powers and to his resources as an adviser, but complain of his want of stability and of his uncertain temper. Clarendon, with whom he was often on ill terms, speaks generally in his praise, and repels the charge of corruption levelled against him. ”

“ He was sent to Russia in 1650, where he obtained a loan of 20,000 roubles from the tsar, and, soon after his return, to Holland, to procure military assistance. By the treaty, agreed to between Cromwell and Mazarin, of August 1654, Colepeper was obliged to leave France, and he appears henceforth to have resided in Flanders. He accompanied Charles II. to the south of France in September 1659, at the time of the treaty of the Pyrenees. At the Restoration he returned to England, but only survived a few weeks, dying on the 11th of June 1660. ”

“ He strongly advocated the gaining over of the Scots by religious concessions, a policy supported by the queen and Mazarin, but opposed by Hyde and other leading royalists, and constantly urged this course upon the king, at the same time deprecating any yielding on the subject of the militia. ”