Walter Montagu

Walter Montagu (c. 1603–1677) was an English courtier, secret agent (a.k.a. David Cutler) and Benedictine abbot.

Life

He was the second son of Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester, by his first wife Catherine Spencer. He was born in the parish of St. Botolph Without, Aldersgate, London, and educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

He then spent some time abroad. In 1624 he was engaged by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, to take part in the diplomacy leading to the French marriage of the future Charles I of England to Henrietta Maria; and for subsequent diplomacy. He graduated M.A. at Cambridge in 1627. He was present at Portsmouth in 1628 when Buckingham was assassinated.

He continued to work in France, funded as a secret service agent, returning to England in 1633.

He went again to the Continent, as attaché to the Paris embassy, and also travelled.

Meanwhile, Queen Henrietta Maria had taken up residence at the Louvre, and had lost her chaplain, Fr. Robert Phillip, an Oratorian and a Scot, who died on 4 January 1647. The abbot was chosen his successor, and was also appointed her Majesty's Lord Almoner. Subsequently, he resided with her at the Palais Royal, with intervals of retirement to his abbey. Sir Edward Nicholas reported to Edward Hyde in 1652 that Montagu and other Catholics were the cause of the exclusion from the exile court of Thomas Hobbes, a suspected atheist. After the Restoration, and Somerset House had been prepared for her Majesty's reception in 1663, the abbot was summoned to reside with her there, and apparently returned to France with her in June 1665. At this period Edward Walsingham was acting as his secretary, and accompanied him to England. The Queen died on 31 August 1669 and the abbot officiated at her funeral. He then appears to have been appointed Grand Almoner to her daughter, the Duchess of Orleans, but she also died in the following year. he blessed the church decidated to St. Anne belonging to convent of the Conceptionist Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, at Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris.

Montagu was paid the usual revenue during life. He retired to Paris, and took up his residence in the hospital called the Incurables, where he died on 5 February 1677. A Letter sent from France by the Hon. Walter Montague to his father, the Earl of Manchester, containing the motives of his conversion, dated Paris, 21 Nov. 1635. A Coppy of (i) The Letter sent by the Queen's Majestic concerning the Collection of the Recusant's Mony for the Scottish Warre (2) The Letter sent by Sir K. Digby and Mr. Montagu concerning the Contribution, &c. Lond. 1641, 410. Miscellanea Spiritualia, or Devout Essaies: composed by the Hon. Walter Montagu, Esq, in Twenty-one Treatises. Lond. (Nov.) 1648, sm. 410, with cngr. front, by Marshall; 1649, 410. First part, on human nature, religion, devotion, scurrility, love, duties towards enemies, solitude, &c. &c. Jeremias redivivus: or, An elegiacall lamentation on the death of our English Josias, Charles the First, King of Great Britaine, &c. (1949) Miscellanea Spiritualia; or Devout Essayes. the Second Part. Containing Twelve Treatises. Lond. (31 Oct.), 1654, 4to. The Accomplish'd Woman. Written originally in French; since made English by Walter Montagu. Lond. (Nov.) 1656, 12mo. This is a translation of Jacques du Bosc. An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholique Church in the Points of Controversie with those of the Pretended Reformation. By James Benignes Bossuet, Counsellor in the King's Counsels, Bishop and Lord of Condom, Tutor to his Royall Highnesse the Dolphin of France. Translated into English by W. M. Paris, Yin. du Moutier, 1672, 12mo, pp. 196. A writer in the Rambler, vol. ix. N.S. p. 208, credits Abbot Montagu with a translation of St. Augustine's City of God, but assigns no date.