George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol

George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol (bapt. 5 November 1612 – 20 March 1677) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he was raised to the House of Lords. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War but his ambition and instability of character caused serious problems to himself and the Kings he served.

Digby was baptized in Madrid, the eldest known son of John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol and his wife Beatrice Walcott. He is presumed to have been born there shortly before. At the age of twelve he appeared at the bar of the House of Commons and pleaded for his father who was then imprisoned in the Tower of London. His youth, graceful person and well-delivered speech then made a great impression. He was admitted to Magdalen College, Oxford, on 15 August 1626, where he was a favorite pupil of Peter Heylin. . He spent the following years in study and in travel, from which he returned, according to George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, "the most accomplished person of our nation or perhaps any other nation, and distinguished by a remarkably handsome person". In June 1634 Digby was committed to the Fleet Prison till July for striking Crofts, a gentleman of the court, in Spring Gardens, and possibly his severe treatment and the disfavour shown to his father were the causes of his hostility to the court. He became MA in 1636. In 1638 and 1639 were written the Letters between Lord George Digby and Sir Kenelm Digby, Knt. concerning Religion (published in 1651), in which Digby attacked Roman Catholicism.

In April 1640, Digby was elected Member of Parliament for Dorset in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Dorset for the Long Parliament in November 1640. In conjunction with John Pym and John Hampden he took an active part in the opposition to Charles I of England. He moved on 9 November for a committee to consider the deplorable state of the kingdom, and on 11 November was included in the committee for the impeachment of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, against whom he at first showed great zeal. However, after the failure of the impeachment, he opposed the attainder of Strafford, and made an eloquent speech on 21 April 1641, accentuating the weakness of Henry Vane's evidence against the prisoner, and showing the injustice of ex post facto legislation, in condemning a man for acts which were not treason when they were committed. He was regarded in consequence with great hostility by the parliamentary party, and was accused of having stolen from Pym's table Vane's notes on which the prosecution mainly depended. On 15 July his speech was burnt by the hangman by the order of the House of Commons.

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