Walter Mountagu (Abbot of St Martin)

3 Annotations

First Reading

Wim van der Meij  •  Link

Walter, second son to the first Earl of Manchester, embracing the Catholic faith while on his travels, was made Abbot of Pontoise, through the influence of Mary de Medici. He afterwards became almoner to the Queen-Dowager of England, and died 1670.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

MONTAGU, WALTER (1603?-1677), abbot of St Martín near Pontoise; son of Sir Henry Montagu, first earl of Manchester; educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and on the continent; employed by Buckingham on a secret mission to France, 1624 and 1626; continued in secret service in France, 1627-33; became Roman catholic, 1636; collected catholic contributions to the royalist army; imprisoned in the Tower of London, 1643-7: exiled, 1649; became abbot of St. Martin near Pontoise; resigned in favour of Cardinal Bouillon at the request of the French government, 1670, but continued to enjoy the revenues; published a comedy, verses, and theological and political works.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Walter Montagu (c. 1603–1677) was an English courtier, secret agent (a.k.a. David Cutler) and Benedictine abbot. In 1624 he was engaged by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, to take part in the diplomacy leading to the French marriage of the future Charles I of England to Henrietta Maria; and for subsequent diplomacy. He graduated M.A. at Cambridge in 1627. He was present at Portsmouth in 1628 when Buckingham was assassinated. The Queen gave him a letter of introduction to the Papal Court, and Pope Urban VIII received him. Back in Paris, and went to see the exorcisms at Loudun. He became a Catholic convert under Jean-Joseph Surin, who was in charge of the exorcisms in the Loudun possessions. Queen Henrietta Maria had taken up residence at the Louvre, and had lost her chaplain, Fr. Robert Phillip, an Oratorian and a Scot, who died on 4 January 1647. The abbot was chosen his successor, and was also appointed her Majesty's Lord Almoner. Subsequently he resided with her at the Palais Royal, with intervals of retirement to his abbey. Sir Edward Nicholas reported to Edward Hyde in 1652 that Montagu and other Catholics were the cause of the exclusion from the exile court of Thomas Hobbes, a suspected atheist.[10] After the Restoration, and Somerset House had been prepared for her Majesty's reception in 1663, the abbot was summoned to reside with her there, and apparently returned to France with her in June 1665. The Queen died on 31 August 1669 and the abbot officiated at her funeral. In 1670 he received an order from Court to remove from his abbey, and surrender his apartments to the young Cardinal Bouillon, who was designated to be his successor, and forthwith assumed the title of Abbot of St. Martin's. Montagu was paid the usual revenue during life. He retired to Paris, and took up his residence in the hospital called the Incurables, where he died on 5 February 1677. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal…

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1661

  • Feb
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