{{Short description|Irish Jacobite courtier, agent and diplomat}} '''Theobald Bourke''' (1675–12 May 1742), also known as '''Toby Bourke''' and '''Tobias du Bourk''', was an Irish [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] courtier, agent and diplomat.<ref name="Ó Ciardha">{{cite web |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/bourke-toby-don-tobias-a0808 |title=Bourke, Toby (‘Don Tobias’)|last=Ó Ciardha |first=Éamonn |date=2009 |website=dib.ie |publisher=Dictionary of Irish Biography |access-date=28 August 2023 |quote=}}</ref>
==Biography== Bourke was born at Shanid, [[County Limerick]], the son of Richard Bourke and his wife Silena O'Brien.<ref name="Ó Ciardha"/> He was from a [[Roman Catholic]] family and in 1688 he was sent to be educated at the [[Irish College in Bordeaux]]. After the conclusion of the [[Williamite War in Ireland]], Bourke travelled to the exiled Stuart court at [[Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye]]. He enlisted in the [[Irish Brigade (France)|Irish Brigade]] and fought in the [[Nine Years' War]], before securing employment in the household of [[Cardinal de Bouillon]], the French ambassador to Rome.<ref name="Ó Ciardha"/>
In 1702 he was knighted and made a [[baronet]] by the Old Pretender, [[James Francis Edward Stuart]], who appointed him as a gentleman of the privy chamber in January 1704.<ref name="Ó Ciardha"/> In 1705, the Jacobite Queen Regent, [[Mary of Modena]], appointed Bourke as the Jacobite ambassador to [[Philip V of Spain]].<ref>Marquis MacSwiney, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30097681 'Two Distinguished Irishmen in the Spanish Service: Sir Toby Bourke and Dr. John Higgins'], ''Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review'', Vol 28, No 109 (March 1939), p.63</ref> In Madrid he became the leading agent of Jacobite activity in Spain, assisting in the affairs of Irish emigres and exiles, such as [[James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde]], and facilitating the entry of men into the [[Regiment of Hibernia]]. In 1705 he also became an informant for the French diplomat, the [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquess of Torcy|Marquess of Torcy]], to whom Bourke sent detailed written reports twice a year in return for an annual subsidy of 6,000 francs from Louis XIV.<ref name="Ó Ciardha"/><ref>Eveline Cruickshanks, 'Toby Bourke, Ambassador of James III at the Court of Philip V, 1705-1713', [https://books.google.com/books?id=FW6vAwAAQBAJ ''The Stuart Court in Exile and the Jacobites''] (A&C Black, 1 Jul 1995), p.149</ref>
The [[Peace of Utrecht]] in 1713 saw relations deteriorate between the Jacobite and Spanish courts, but Bourke continued to reside in Spain. In 1715, the Spanish diplomat [[Giulio Alberoni]] commissioned Bourke to conduct an embassy to [[Charles XII of Sweden]], but the mission was later abandoned.<ref name="Ó Ciardha"/> The Spanish refused to reimburse Bourke for the task, despite the capture of his wife and children by the British admiral [[George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington|George Byng]] while they were sailing to Sweden. He subsequently joined the exiled Stuart court in Rome and in February 1727, Bourke was raised to the [[Jacobite peerage]] as Baron Bourke.<ref>Marquis of Ruvigny, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WrUEAAAAIAAJ ''The Jacobite Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Grants of Honour''] (T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1904), p.18-19.</ref> He had returned to Spain by 1739 and died in that country in 1742.<ref name="Ó Ciardha"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourke, Theobald}} [[Category:1675 births]] [[Category:1742 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel of France of the Nine Years' War]] [[Category:18th-century Irish people]] [[Category:Barons in the Jacobite peerage]] [[Category:Irish diplomats]] [[Category:Irish expatriates in Spain]] [[Category:Irish Jacobites]] [[Category:Irish soldiers in the French Army]] [[Category:Peers created by James Francis Edward Stuart]]