Edward Colman

Edward Colman or Coleman (17 May 1636 – 3 December 1678) was an English Catholic courtier under Charles II of England. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on a treason charge, having been implicated by Titus Oates in his false accusations concerning a Popish Plot. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

He was born at Brent Eleigh, Suffolk, son of the local vicar Thomas Colman and his wife Margaret Wilson, and was cousin to the Salisbury MP, Richard Colman. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving an MA in 1659. Colman converted to Roman Catholicism in the early 1660s. He has been described as a man of charm and ability, but utterly lacking in common sense or political realism: Sir Robert Southwell, who knew him well, called him "a man who must run himself into the briars". He was married: his wife has been described as a woman of great charm, but little else seems to be known of her.

In June 1661 he became a gentleman pensioner to Charles II. He was a charismatic advocate of the Catholic cause and is credited with several high-profile conversions, including possibly, the future James II. In 1673 James appointed him secretary to his wife, Mary of Modena, despite warnings from several sources, including Charles II, that he was not a man to be trusted. Subsequently, he was in contact with highly placed Catholics in France. Through an English Catholic army officer stationed in Paris, Sir William Throckmorton, he passed on political information to the Jesuit Jean Ferrier who was confessor to Louis XIV. In 1675 he offered his services in favour of Catholicism to François de la Chaise, successor to Ferrier; in 1676 he was in communication with Father Saint-Germain, former confessor to Charles II's sister-in-law Mary of Modena, offering his assistance to prevent a rupture between England and France. These attempts failed to procure money, due mainly to the scepticism of Simon Arnauld, Marquis de Pomponne, Louis' Foreign Minister, who put no faith in Colman, Throckmorton or indeed King Charles II, whom he did not even think worth the trouble of bribing. Louis evidently shared this view for as Throckmorton admitted: "he hath so mean an opinion of King Charles and all his partners". Colman succeeded later in obtaining £3500 from three successive French ambassadors, whom he supplied with information on the proceedings of Parliament.

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