Charles Bertie (senior)

Determined upon a diplomatic career, Bertie served as attaché at Madrid from 1664 to 1665 under Sir Richard Fanshawe, who wrote favorably of him to the King.

He also purchased an estate at Uffington, Lincolnshire in 1673, and in the following year married Mary (d. 13 January 1679), daughter of Peter Tryon and widow of Sir Samuel Jones.

As Lord High Treasurer, Danby, though personally anti-French, had been deeply involved in Charles II's collection of a subsidy from Louis XIV, in exchange for English neutrality.

With the rupture of Anglo-French relations in 1678, Louis, through the agency of the disaffected Ralph Montagu, attempted by releasing several of his letters to make Danby the scapegoat for the policy.

Bertie himself became embroiled in the controversy over the distribution of secret service money, and in May, upon refusing to testify without the King's command, was placed in the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms of the British House of Commons, where he remained until Parliament was dissolved in July.

Bertie kept the favour of James throughout his change of policy and the issue of the Declaration of Indulgence and was a court candidate for the abortive 1688 elections.

[2] Although Danby, now Marquess of Carmarthen, had returned to eminence, Bertie was unable to achieve significant political power, being passed over as Secretary to the Treasury in 1691.

[3] With the final fall of Carmarthen, now Duke of Leeds, in 1699, Bertie lost his office as Treasurer of the Ordnance to Harry Mordaunt but regained it in 1702 with the accession of Anne.