THE FIRST DUKE 



settlement of the Somerset estates, which he had 

 done nothing to forfeit. Cromwell seems to have 

 acknowledged this, and granting his premiss, that 

 those who had taken up arms against the Parliament 

 were traitors, he acted in the matter in a perfectly- 

 just way. Lord Worcester therefore being con- 

 sidered as legally dead owing to his attainder, 

 Henry Somerset's claims were admitted, and he 

 appears shortly afterwards to have taken possession 

 of some of the family estates, and to have enjoyed 

 a considerable income from them. 



The price he paid for the concession was con- 

 formity to the religion of the Lord Protector. He 

 was advised to attend the chapel at Whitehall, and 

 after some little delay he did so. Cromwell liked 

 him personally, and soon admitted him to some 

 degree of friendship. At this time he was known 

 as " Mr. Herbert," and as such he sat in the Long 

 Parliament. 



To what extent his conformity in the matter of 

 religion was real it is difficult to judge. There are 

 traits in his character not inconsistent with genuine 

 Puritanism, but my own impression is that he was 

 always a Catholic at heart. After the Restoration 

 we find him ever opposed to Protestantism, and he 

 was more than suspected of a leaning towards 

 Catholicism. He never took the oaths to William 

 HI., after whose accession he retired to Badminton. 

 Whether, therefore, his conformity under Cromwell 

 was the result of indifferentism or policy, or a 



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