PHILLIP, ROBERT

Priest and court chaplain; b. in Scotland, probably in the 1580s; d. Paris, Jan. 4, 1647. Robert was a descendant of the family of Phillip of Sanquhar, but his early life remains almost wholly unknown. The first definite dates for him are those of his ordination as a seminary priest at the Scots College in Rome in 1612 and of his arrest in Edinburgh as a traitor on Sept. 14, 1613. The sentence of death was, however, commuted to exile, and he withdrew to France, where he joined the newly founded Oratory of Cardinal Bérulle. In 1628 he went to England as confessor to Queen Henrietta Maria, and as such he became identified with the interests of the court. His negotiations with Rome for papal financial aid at the time of the Long Parliament and a letter of his to the exiled Walter Montagu led to his denunciation by the parliamentary leaders as a spy and a pernicious influence on the Prince of Wales. Concern for Richelieu, whose name had been introduced into the proceedings, and eventually a direct intervention by Henrietta Maria terminated the inquiries, and Phillip was remanded to Somerset House. When the queen left England for the Hague in March of 1642, he accompanied her and resumed his role as her chaplain in Paris after 1644 until his death.

Bibliography: j. gillow, A Literary and Biographical History or Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics from 1534 to the Present Time, 5 v. (London–New York 1885–1902; repr. New York 1961) 5:304–305. m. j. havran, The Catholics in Caroline England (Stanford 1962). g. albion, Charles I and the Court of Rome (London 1935).

[r. i. bradley]