Diplomat, scientist, and writer, born in Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire, SC England, UK. He was brought up a Catholic, studied at Oxford, but left to travel abroad. In Madrid he met Prince Charles (1623), and on returning to England was knighted and entered his service. During the Civil War he was imprisoned by the parliament (16423), and had his estates confiscated. After the Restoration, he was chancellor to Queen Henrietta Maria until 1664.
Sir Kenelm Digby (July 11, 1603 – July 11, 1665) was born at Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire.
Early life and career
He went to Gloucester Hall, Oxford in 1618, but left without taking a degree. He had also become a member of the Privy Council of Charles I of England.
In 1628, Digby became a privateer, with some success: on January 18 he arrived off Gibraltar and captured several Spanish and Flemish vessels.
He returned to become a naval administrator and later Governor of Trinity House. (Digby was later Jonson's literary executor. Jonson's poem about Venetia is now mostly lost, because of the loss of the center sheet of a leaf of papers which held the only copy.) Digby, stricken with grief and the object of enough suspicion that the Crown had ordered an autopsy (rare at the time) on Venetia's body, secluded himself in Gresham College and attempted to forget his personal woes through scientific experimentation and a return to Catholicism. Digby received the regional monopoly of sealing wax in Wales and the Welsh Borders.
Catholicism and Civil War
Digby became a Catholic once more in 1635, publishing A Conference with a Lady about choice of a Religion, in which he argued that the Catholic Church, possessing alone the qualifications of universality, unity of doctrine and uninterrupted apostolic succession, is the only true church, and that the intrusion of error into it is impossible. Returning to support Charles I in his struggle to establish episcopacy in Scotland (the Bishops' Wars), he found himself increasingly unpopular with the growing Puritan party. Following an incident in which he killed a French nobleman in a duel, he returned to England via Flanders in 1642, and was jailed by the House of Commons. He remained there during the remainder of the period of the English Civil War.
Queen Henrietta Maria had fled England in 1644, and he became her Chancellor. He was then engaged in unsuccessful attempts to solicit support for the English monarchy from Pope Innocent X. Following the establishment of The Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell, who believed in freedom of conscience, Digby was received by the government as a sort of unofficial representative of English Roman Catholics, and was sent in 1655 on a mission to the Papacy to try to reach an understanding.
At the Restoration, Digby found himself in favor with the new regime due to his ties with Henrietta Maria, the Queen Mother. Nonetheless, he was generally highly regarded until his death at the age of 62, likely caused by the kidney stones (which were a common ailment of the period - Pepys had a yearly party celebrating his own successful kidney stone surgery - and which had plagued Digby for years).
Character and works
Digby was regarded as an eccentric even by his contemporaries, partly because of his effusive personality, and partly because of his interests in scientific matters.
Notable among his pursuits was the concept of the Powder of Sympathy. one manufactured a powder using appropriate astrological techniques, and daubed it, not on the injured part, but on whatever had caused the injury.
He was in touch with the leading intellectuals of the time, and was highly regarded by them;
Digby is known for the publication of a cookbook, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Knight Opened, but it was actually published by a close servant, from his notes, in 1669, several years after his death.
Digby is also considered the father of the modern wine bottle. During the 1630s, Digby owned a glassworks and manufactured wine bottles which were globular in shape with a high, tapered neck, a collar, and a punt. Digby's technique produced wine bottles which were stronger and more stable than most of their day, and which, due to their dark color, protected the contents from light.
User Comments Add a comment…