Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury (15 July 1660 – 1 February 1718) was an English peer and Whig politician who was part of the Immortal Seven group that invited William of Orange to depose King James II of England during the Glorious Revolution.

Born to Roman Catholic parents, he remained in that faith until 1679 when—during the time of the Popish Plot and following the advice of the divine John Tillotson—he converted to the Church of England.

After his return to England he avoided politics until April 1710, when he was appointed Lord Chamberlain and joined the Tory government of Robert Harley, the Earl of Oxford.

[1] In that year he entered in correspondence with the Prince of Orange; Shrewsbury's home became a meeting place for the opposition to James II and he was one of the seven signatories of the letter of invitation to William in June 1688.

[1][2] After the ascension of William and Mary, Shrewsbury regained his regiment, received the lieutenancies of Hertfordshire and Worcestershire,[1] and became Secretary of State for the Southern Department, succeeding his uncle the Earl of Middleton.

[2] Shrewsbury resigned from William's government in 1690 due to ill health and his opposition to the dissolution of Parliament and the dropping of the Bill that would have required an oath abjuring James as King.

In 1696 definite accusations of treason were brought against him by Sir John Fenwick, which William immediately communicated to Shrewsbury; and about this time the Secretary of State took but a small part in public business, again professing his anxiety to resign.

[2] From 1700 until 1705,[1] Shrewsbury lived abroad, chiefly at Rome, whence in 1701 he wrote a celebrated letter to Lord Somers expressing his abhorrence of public life and declaring that if he had a son he "would sooner bind him to a cobbler than a courtier, and a hangman than a statesman".

[1] However, he gradually became alienated from his old political associates, and in 1710 he accepted the post of Lord Chamberlain in the Tory administration, to which the queen appointed him without the knowledge of Godolphin and Marlborough; his wife was at the same time made a Lady of the Bedchamber.

[2] Shrewsbury played a vital role as a conciliator between Robert Harley, the Earl of Oxford and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke.

He was an early supporter of the Tory efforts to negotiate peace with France to end the War of the Spanish Succession, concerned at the negative financial impact it was having on landowners.

[1] After a diplomatic mission to France for the purpose of negotiating preliminaries of peace, Shrewsbury became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1713; but he was in London in July 1714 during the memorable crisis occasioned by the impending death of Queen Anne.

He threw his influence into the scale in favour of the Elector of Hanover, and was powerfully influential in bringing about the peaceful accession of George I, and in defeating the design of the Jacobites to place the son of James II on the throne.

His magnanimous disposition saved him from the vindictiveness of the party politician of the period; and the weak health from which he suffered through life probably combined with a congenital lack of ambition to prevent his grasping the power which his personality and talents might have placed in his hands.

[2] After Shrewsbury's return to England, the duchess became conspicuous in London society, where the caustic wit of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was exercised at her expense.