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diff --git a/38294.txt b/38294.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3c5e42 --- /dev/null +++ b/38294.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11989 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Henrietta Maria, by Henrietta Haynes + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Henrietta Maria + + +Author: Henrietta Haynes + + + +Release Date: December 13, 2011 [eBook #38294] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HENRIETTA MARIA*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Alex Gam, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 38294-h.htm or 38294-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38294/38294-h/38294-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38294/38294-h.zip) + + +Transciber's note: + + Scribal abbreviations are depicted as "v[~re]" when in the + original the tilde appeared above the letters enclosed in + brackets. + + The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter + is superscripted (example: advancem^t). If two or more + letters are superscripted they are enclosed in curly brackets + (example: Ma^{tie}). + + + + + +[Illustration: HENRIETTA MARIA + +FROM THE PAINTING BY VAN DYCK AT WINDSOR] + + + + +HENRIETTA MARIA + +by + +HENRIETTA HAYNES + +With Twelve Illustrations + + + + + + + +New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons +London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. +1912 + + + + +PREFACE + + +A bibliography of the sources from which this book has been written would +extend to many pages: much information has been derived from the +collections of MSS. preserved in Paris in the Bibliotheque Nationale, in +the Archives Nationales, and in the Bibliotheque Mazarine; from the +valuable series of Roman Transcripts in the Public Record Office, London; +from the curious and interesting documents in the archives of the See of +Westminster, and from the newspapers and pamphlets which form a branch of +the literature of the Civil War. + +I have to express my thanks to His Eminence Cardinal Bourne, who kindly +permitted me to consult the archives of the See of Westminster and to print +three of the documents in the Appendix; to Mr. Edward Armstrong, Provost of +Queen's College, Oxford, and to the Rev. H. Thurston, S.J., who have given +me much help and advice; to the nuns of the Convent of the Visitation, +Harrow-on-the-Hill, who lent me the rare _Vie de la Ven. Mere Louise +Eugenie de la Fontaine_; and, finally, to my friend, Miss H. M. Morris, who +with unwearied kindness read through nearly the entire MS. of the book, and +helped me much by her criticisms and suggestions. + + + + +ERRATA + + + Page 65, line 7. For "complimentary" read "complementary." + " 66, " 24. For "neither of whom" read "who, neither of them." + " 69, " 14. For "were" read "was." + " 72, " 16. For "new" read "own." + " 77, " 7. Omit "to" between "turns" and "a street." + " 77, " 32. For "imaginares" read "imaginaires." + " 110, note 1. For "Anglicans" read "Anglicanus." + " 138, " 1. For "Anglians" read "Anglicanus." + " 155, line 28. For "In" read "For." + " 155, note 2. For "Corznet" read "Coignet." + " 155, " 2. For "Bahn" read "Baker." + " 227, " 1. For "Magasin" read "Mazarine." + " 244, " 2. For "trois" read "train." + " 275, " 2. For "Lovel" read "Loret." + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + Introduction xi + + I. The Daughter of France 1 + + II. The Bride of England 28 + + III. The Queen of the Courtiers 61 + + IV. The Queen of the Catholics 92 + + V. The Queen's Converts 130 + + VI. The Eve of the War. I 141 + + VII. The Eve of the War. II 167 + + VIII. The Queen and the War. I 193 + + IX. The Queen and the War. II 217 + + X. The Queen of the Exiles 252 + + XI. The Foundress of Chaillot 276 + + XII. The End 302 + + Appendix 321 + + Index 331 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + HENRIETTA MARIA _Frontispiece._ + From the painting by Van Dyck at Windsor + (From a photo by F. Hanfstaengl) + + FACING PAGE + + HENRY IV 18 + From an engraving after the picture by Francis Pourbus + + CARDINAL PIERRE DE BERULLE 32 + From an engraving + + OLD SOMERSET HOUSE 68 + From an engraving after an ancient painting in Dulwich College + + CHARLES I AND HENRIETTA MARIA 90 + From the painting by Van Dyck in the Galleria Pitti, Florence + (From a photo by G. Brogi) + + THE DUCHESS OF CHEVREUSE 146 + After the picture by Moreelse, once in the possession of Charles I + + CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU 168 + From a portrait by Phillippe de Champaigne + (From a photo by Neurdein) + + THE QUEEN'S DEPARTURE FROM HOLLAND 200 + From an engraving + + SIR KENELM DIGBY 232 + From an engraving after the painting by Van Dyck + + HENRY JERMYN, EARL OF ST. ALBANS 260 + From an engraving + + HENRIETTA MARIA 278 + From an engraving + + THE RUE ST. ANTOINE, PARIS (SHOWING THE CHAPEL OF THE VISITANDINES) 304 + From an engraving by Ivan Merlen + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The woman to whose life and environment the following pages are dedicated +was called upon to play her part in one of the most difficult and +perplexing periods of our history: she lived just on the edge of the modern +world, when the Middle Ages, with their splendid simplicity of +all-embracing ideals, had passed away, and when even the ideals of +nationality and religious freedom which the Renaissance and the Reformation +had brought were becoming modified by the stirring of a new spirit of +liberty. The two countries which Henrietta Maria knew were throughout her +lifetime making their future destiny: the France which cherished her youth +and sheltered her age was becoming the greedy France of Louis XIV, with its +splendid Court, its attempts at territorial growth, its downtrodden, +suffering people; the England of her happy married life was growing in +political self-consciousness and in a stern and repellent godliness which +was to mould the character of the nation, and to educate it to become in +the next century the builder-up of the greatest empire which the world has +ever seen. + +Henrietta's life touches both England and France: by race, by education she +was a Frenchwoman; by marriage she was an Englishwoman, and it is on +English history that she has left the impress of her vivid personality; but +the France which she never forgot coloured her thoughts throughout, and +taught her in all probability those maxims of statecraft which she +attempted to apply when the troubles of her life came upon her. + +She was the daughter of Henry IV, the great restorer of the French +monarchy, the champion of an unified France, embracing in wide toleration +Catholic and Protestant alike: her youth witnessed the beginning of +Richelieu's continuance of her father's work; under the auspices of the +great Cardinal she was married, and though later her regard for him turned +to hatred, yet the impress which his genius had left upon her mind was not +thereby destroyed. + +But her marriage transported her to a very different scene. England, under +the iron heel of the Tudor despotism, had been worn out by no wasting civil +wars; even the Reformation had brought little disturbance, for Henry VIII, +by his amazing force of character, had been able to carry through a +religious revolution almost without the people being aware of it; but the +long peace was teaching men to forget the horrors of war and division. By +the time the crown of the great Elizabeth passed to her Scotch cousin, +Englishmen had ceased to look to the monarchy as the centre of unity. There +was no need of a Henry of Navarre to bind up the wounds of the country. The +old factious nobility had for the most part been slain in the War of the +Roses, and the peaceful generations which followed had allowed of the +growth of a powerful upper and middle class, which, originally fostered by +the Crown as a counterpoise to the decayed feudal nobility, was now +aspiring to a large share in the ruling of the people. + +Henrietta wished to see her husband great and powerful, and she could not +appreciate that the day of despotism which in France was beginning, in +England was ending. Charles had not in him the stuff of greatness, but it +is doubtful if even a Henry IV or a Richelieu could have put back the hands +of the clock and realized her ambition. The despotism which was building up +on the other side of the Channel in this country was tottering to its fall +by the development of the intellect and character of the people. Henrietta +clung to the ideals of the past instead of stretching out to meet the +ideals of the future, and so her work failed even as did that of Strafford, +in spite of his greatness. + +And this national development was connected with perhaps the most important +aspect of the matter. The Civil War was, more fundamentally than anything +else, a war of religion, another act in the great drama which had been +played in France half a century earlier, and which was still being played +in Germany. Henry VIII and Elizabeth seemed to have saved England from the +common fate of Europe; but it was not so: they only delayed the strife and +gave it a turn unknown elsewhere, adding to the disadvantages of the +champion of tradition this last, that he was a renegade in the eyes of the +party to which by the logic of history he belonged. To many of their +enemies, perhaps to most of them in certain moods, Charles and Henrietta +were not so much the hinderers of political freedom as the supporters of an +alien and blasphemous system of religion. It was the peculiar fortune of +England that it gained liberty by the lever of religion. But for the fear +of Popery it is far from improbable that the nation would not have arisen +to strike down thus violently the despotism of the Tudors. Rather, the +monarchy might have been gradually transformed, and with a very different +and more tardy result, by the character of the people. But Puritan England +could not leave irresponsible power in the hands of a sovereign whose very +Protestantism was not unimpeachable, and thus the victories which were won +by sectarian enthusiasm resulted not in the advancement of a barren +fanaticism, but in the sure laying of the foundations of the liberty of the +people. In France, where, among many differences from England, there was +this great one, that the people and the monarch were substantially agreed +on religious matters, there was discontent, even rebellion, but there was +no revolution, and the people was left for another century and a half to +bear the accumulating load of its misery, until the burden became +unbearable and was cast off with a shock from which Europe still trembles. + +Henrietta Maria's life was a failure. She failed to commend either her +person, her religion, or her political ideals, and she brought her husband +a degree of unpopularity which without her he might have escaped. Her +circumstances were hard. She could not help being a Catholic, nor the fact +that under her womanly softness lay the absolutism which was in the Bourbon +blood. Like Charles, she was called upon to weather a storm which she had +not raised, and she had not inherited with her father's temperament and +charm his unrivalled political sagacity. Moreover, she had to win her +private happiness by humouring a despotic and difficult-tempered man, and +she could hardly be expected to recognize that that man, in marrying her, +had made, on public grounds, the greatest mistake of his life. James I, +whose ideas were always too large for his circumstances, had dreamed of +securing England's place in the comity of nations by marrying his son to +the daughter of one of the great Catholic houses. The result was not +increased honour abroad, but hatred at home, such hatred as Henrietta in +her early life was unable even to suspect. Accustomed in her own land to +see Catholic and Protestant dwelling at least outwardly in peace together, +knowing that the Catholic faith was professed at most of the Courts and +among most of the peoples of Europe, she could not appreciate the +insularity of the English mind which saw in every Catholic a political +assassin wearing the colours of the Pope and the King of Spain; nor was she +aware of the historical facts, which if they did not justify, at least +explained this point of view. And as she failed to understand England, so +she failed to understand Europe. The outstanding fact of continental +politics was the long duel which was going on between France and the House +of Austria. France was eventually to be the victor, but it was to be a hard +struggle, and few were sharp-sighted enough to see in the splendid Spain of +Philip IV the signs of a decadence which had already set in. But +Henrietta's blindness was more than a dimness of sight, which she shared +with Cromwell and others of the great ones of her age. It hid from her that +which it was essential to her to know, namely, that this struggle underlay +the whole policy of her native land. Thus she failed to understand the real +causes of the enmity with which Richelieu came to regard her and her +husband, and thus in later days she was unable to grasp the attitude of +Mazarin, or to appreciate why it was impossible that he should give her the +fullness of succour for which she asked. + +Had she been a Protestant and a woman of profound sagacity, she might have +saved her husband. As it was, by her reckless defiance of forces whose +strength she was unable to appreciate, she hurried him to his doom. She +lived at a great moment, and she had no greatness to meet it. Herein alone +is her condemnation. She has received more than her fair share of blame, +for she has been made the scapegoat of Charles' faults. The tragedy of her +fate rivals that of Mary Stuart or of Marie Antoinette, but she missed the +historical felicity of a violent death, so that she has failed to touch the +popular imagination. Had she done so, the most charming queen who ever sat +upon the English throne, the daughter of the man whom France still adores, +would have been saved from a verdict at the tribunal of posterity which, if +not altogether unjust, is totally inadequate. + + + + +HENRIETTA MARIA + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE DAUGHTER OF FRANCE + + In this more than kingly state + Love himself shall on me wait. + Fill to me, Love, nay, fill it up; + And mingled cast into the cup + Wit and mirth and noble fires, + Vigorous health and gay desires. + + ABRAHAM COWLEY + + +On a May morning in the year of grace 1625, a young girl, watching in the +Chateau of the Louvre in the city of Paris, was awaiting the greatest event +which had yet come to disturb the tenor of her life; for, before the sun +had set, she, Henrietta Maria of France, would be the betrothed wife of +Charles, King of England. + +It was a brilliant match for the little Princess, the youngest child of +Henry IV, King of France, and of his wife Mary de' Medici of the great +Florentine House: she owed it in part to the far-reaching policy of the +father she had never known, and in part to the exertions of her mother and +of a new favourite of that lady, M. de Richelieu. As she was only fifteen +years old[1] she was, perhaps, too young to enter into the political aspect +of the matter, but she was fully alive to the social and ceremonial +advantages to which it would entitle her: a few years before she had gazed +with envy at the honours prepared for her elder sister, Christine, the +bride of Savoy: now she could afford to think of them almost with contempt, +for, to her, the bride of proud England, far more splendid homage was about +to be offered. Nor, though the bridegroom was absent and both betrothal and +wedding would have to be by proxy, was he unknown. Henrietta had seen him +when he was in Paris on the return journey of his romantic expedition to +Spain, and she knew that he was a tall and proper man, handsome in face and +royal in bearing, with a certain melancholy persuasiveness of address which +not even a slight stammer could spoil. "I do not think he need have gone +quite so far as Spain for a bride," she had said then, with the freedom of +her tender years; even now, nearly a year later, she felt such an interest +in her prospective bridegroom, that by the help of an old servant she +borrowed his portrait from one of the English envoys who was accustomed to +wear it round his neck, and, having carried it off to her private +apartments, she gazed at it for the space of an hour, blushing the while at +her own audacity. + +Of Henrietta's childhood there is little to record; as one of her +biographers sadly remarks, her troubles began before she could know them, +for she was not a year old when her noble-hearted father perished by the +knife of Ravaillac. Her early years were passed under the care of her +mother, who, though she was solicitous for the child's health and +education, and reared her with the state due to a daughter of France,[2] is +said to have cared much less for her than for her elder sister Christine: a +sister still older, the beautiful and high-minded Elizabeth, left her +native country to become the unhappy wife of Philip IV of Spain, while +Henrietta was still too young a child to retain much personal memory of +her; but touching letters remain written from the desolate grandeur of +Madrid to show how fondly Elizabeth's heart clung to the pretty child she +had left in Paris, for whose portrait she begs, and to whom she sends +little gifts such as some toys for the toilet of her dolls, "so that when +you play you may remember me."[3] The two sisters never met again, and +the Spanish princess who came to France in Elizabeth's stead was a poor +exchange for her, even if Henrietta, who was possessed of a sparkling and +somewhat biting wit, had not been fond of exercising it upon her brother's +demure wife, with whom her mother was never on good terms. + +That Henrietta's childhood was, in the main, healthy and happy, cannot be +doubted. In person she resembled her father more than did either of her +sisters, and she had inherited also his gay disposition. Her days were +passed in one beautiful chateau or another, either the Louvre or the +Luxembourg, or S. Germain-en-Laye, with its beautiful forest and its +terrace overlooking the Seine. Her governess was the kind and faithful +Madame de Montglas, who had tended not only her, but her brothers and +sisters from their earliest years; and if she failed in some degree to win +her mother's heart, with others she was more fortunate. Christine left her +when her years numbered but ten, but so strong was the tie of the common +childhood of the sisters, that they corresponded warmly to the end of their +lives. Her relations with her brothers were very affectionate, and the +King, in particular, cherished her as his favourite sister, probably on +account of her ready wit, a quality which, like many people who are dull +themselves, he greatly admired. Finally, her charms invited a suitor while +she was still almost a child, in the person of the Count of Soissons, a +scion of the royal house, who may well have been as much enamoured of the +dark, sparkling eyes which were the little Princess's chief beauty, as of +her position as a daughter of France. + +There is, however, one sentence in an old biography of Henrietta which +shows her youth in another and a sadder aspect. Young as she was at the +time of her marriage, it appears that already she had had to learn the +difficult art of adjusting her conduct to the requirements of Court +factions and family dissensions.[4] Her childhood was cast in the stormy +times which followed the removal of the strong hand of Henry IV. Her +mother, whose lead she followed in the main, was a foolish woman under the +domination of unworthy favourites, until by good fortune she fell in with +Richelieu. It would be impossible to give here even an outline of the +history of the events which in 1617 drove Mary de Medici in disgrace from +her son's Court. It must suffice to point out that until her return in +triumph in 1621 her little daughter had some difficulty in reconciling the +respective claims of her mother and her brother, and in preserving the +favour of both. + +It was not long after this return that negotiations for a matrimonial +alliance with England were opened, and thereupon Henrietta became for the +first time a person of political importance. Her mother learned to +appreciate her wit and beauty, and Richelieu, whose reign was just +beginning, looked upon her with interest as a co-operator in his schemes +for the humiliation of the House of Austria and of the French Protestants, +objects which he thought would be considerably furthered by the union of +Henrietta with the heir of England. + +In due time two envoys-extraordinary arrived from England to carry out the +negotiations for the marriage. They were both very fine gentlemen, but the +elder, the Earl of Carlisle, who was a Scotchman and an able diplomatist, +on whom most of the real work of the mission fell, was in social matters +quite outshone by his junior, the Lord Kensington, shortly to become Earl +of Holland,[5] who was the handsomest man of his time and accounted so +fascinating that he was the despair of jealous husbands. He was a great +connoisseur in female beauty, and was smiled upon by Madame de Chevreuse, +the most brilliant woman of the French Court; but he was kind enough to +approve of Henrietta, and he sent home to the bridegroom-elect such glowing +accounts of her beauty as roused that rather cold person to a fever of +expectation. She was, he wrote, "the sweetest creature in France. Her +growth is very little short of her age, and her wisdom infinitely beyond +it. I heard her discourse with her mother and the ladies about her with +extraordinary discretion and quickness. She dances (the which I am a +witness of) as well as ever I saw any creature. They say she sings very +sweetly. I am sure she looks so."[6] To the Duke of Buckingham, who at this +time entirely governed Charles' mind, he wrote an equally enthusiastic +account, praising the Princess as a "lovely sweet young creature," who, if +she was not tall in stature, was "perfect in shape."[7] + +Marriage negotiations between royal persons are always lengthy, and in this +case there was the additional difficulty of the difference of religion +between the contracting parties, which necessitated a dispensation from the +Pope. But James of England eagerly desired the alliance, seeing in it a +means of winning back the Palatinate for his daughter's husband, a hope +which was encouraged by the diplomacy of Richelieu, who probably also +worked upon the mind of Mary de' Medici, so that, in spite of her bigoted +attachment to the Roman Catholic Church, the whole weight of her now +powerful influence was thrown on the side of the marriage. Father Berulle, +the founder of the French Oratory, who was a great friend of hers, was sent +to Rome to procure a dispensation from Urban VIII. Arrangements were made +to secure Henrietta's religion and morals in the heretic country to which +she was going, and it was provided that she should have the bringing up of +her children until they reached the age of twelve years. Finally, secret +articles[8] were inserted in the marriage treaty, in which James of England +and his son promised that toleration should be granted to the English +Catholics. Everything seemed settled, and all was rejoicing both in England +and France, except for two malcontents: the Spanish Ambassador in Paris +stood sullenly aloof, "who, without question, doth not well like that +England and France should bee joyned together with such a firme +alliance,"[9] and the Count of Soissons was so angry and disappointed at +the loss of his bride that he refused to treat Lord Kensington with common +courtesy, savagely declaring that the negotiations went so near his heart +that were the Englishman not the ambassador of so great a King, he would +cut his throat. + +Henrietta herself was well pleased, and her cheerful countenance reflected +her content. She exchanged a number of quaint and rather formal +love-letters with her future husband, who sometimes employed as his +intermediary a young protege of Buckingham, by name Walter Montagu, who was +destined to a singular career and to a lifelong friendship with the +Princess, whom he now saw for the first time. In March, 1625, he left Paris +and returned to England carrying the good news that all was forward, and +that the lady should be delivered in thirty days. He was able to supplement +Holland's description of the charms of the Princess, for, like that +nobleman, he was something of a connoisseur in such matters. "I have made +the Prince in love with every hair on Madame's head,"[10] he wrote +cheerfully to Carlisle. So eager was the bridegroom that he would not allow +the match to be stayed for the final settlement of the details of the +dispensation. + +But just as everything was ready an event of another character occurred to +retard matters again. On March 27th, 1625, King James died, and the +question arose as to whether the wedding could be celebrated during the +period of mourning. However, as Henrietta could hardly be expected to feel +acutely the death of an unknown father-in-law which made her a queen, and +as Charles' impatience for his bride overcame any scruples with regard to +decorum, it was settled that the great event should take place in the +ensuing May. The decision that the bridegroom should not be present in +person at the ceremony was probably a disappointment to Henrietta. It had +been suggested that he should come over to France, but the proposal had not +met with approval on either side of the Channel, the English thinking it +beneath their King's dignity to seek his bride in a foreign land, and the +French fearing, with good reason, the expense of such a guest. The +selection of a proxy caused some difficulty. Charles wished that his great +friend, the Duke of Buckingham, should impersonate him on this interesting +occasion, but that nobleman, for private reasons which will be explained +below, was not agreeable to the French Court. The choice finally fell upon +the Duke of Chevreuse,[11] who was at once a high-born Frenchman and a +relative of the King of England, being a prince of the House of Lorraine, +and thus connected with Charles' great-grandmother, Mary of Guise. In spite +of his high rank he was a person of sufficient obscurity, and chiefly +remarkable as the husband of his brilliant wife. + +The betrothal was solemnized on May 8th, which happened to be the Feast of +the Ascension. The ceremony took place in the Louvre in the King's own +room, which was elaborately fitted up for the occasion, and where, in the +late afternoon, he appeared as (we are told) "a beautiful sun which shines +above all others."[12] Lesser lights were present in the persons of his +wife, his only brother Gaston, Duke of Orleans, and a crowd of noblemen, +all of whom waited impatiently for the bride-elect, who at last appeared, +attended by her mother and by Madame de Chevreuse. Henrietta entered the +room with a dignity worthy of the occasion and of the great race from which +she was sprung. Her magnificent dress, which perhaps a little eclipsed her +girlish beauty, consisted of a robe of cloth of gold and silver thickly +sprinkled with golden fleurs-de-lis and enriched by diamonds and other +precious stones. This wonderful garment was further adorned by a long train +carried by the little Mademoiselle de Bourbon, the Madame de Longueville of +later days, who at this time was so young that she could only nominally +fulfil her office, while the long, heavy folds were really supported by +Madame de Montglas' daughter, Madame S. Georges, who was to accompany the +young Queen to England. + +Henrietta's entry was followed by that of the two English Ambassadors and +the proxy bridegroom. Then, after the signing and countersigning of the +articles of marriage, the betrothal ceremony was solemnized according to +the rites of the Church by Cardinal de Rochefoucault, Grand Almoner of the +King of France. In the evening a ball was held in the Louvre, while outside +the firing of cannon and the letting off of fireworks testified to the +public rejoicing. + +It was not until three days later, on May 11th, that the actual wedding +took place.[13] The church chosen for the religious ceremony was the +Cathedral of Notre-Dame, which was adorned with hangings of silk and +tapestry and of cloth of gold, to hide as far as possible the lines of the +Gothic architecture which was condemned by the taste of the day. Every +detail of the ceremony[14] was arranged when an unfortunate difficulty +arose which caused much ill-feeling and considerable trouble. + +Jean Francois de Gondi, a member of one of those Italian families which had +found fortune in France in the wake of a foreign Queen, now occupied the +See of Paris. He was the first of the long line of bishops of the capital +to receive the honours of archiepiscopal rank, and, as his character, which +has been sketched for us by his candid nephew, Cardinal de Retz, was at +once feeble and vainglorious, it is probable that his head was a little +turned. His anger, therefore, may be imagined when he discovered that he +was not to officiate at a wedding which took place at his own cathedral, +but was to be set aside for the Cardinal de Rochefoucault. Mingled with +personal pique was the bitter feeling of the infringement of the rights of +the episcopate. He summoned all the prelates who were then in Paris to a +meeting, and they joined with him in presenting a petition on the subject +to the King. But Louis and the Cardinal (who had provided himself with a +brief from the Pope which, however, was not produced) stood firm; and the +upshot of the affair was that the Archbishop, though he was forced to give +way and was much blamed by his clergy for doing so, was nevertheless so +angry that he went off to the country, refusing to have anything to do with +the wedding, and leaving the nuptial mass to be said by his senior +suffragan, the Bishop of Chartres. + +But this was not the worst. The absence of the Archbishop might have been +supported with philosophy, but the strike extended not only to the Chapter, +but even to such indispensable people as the singing-men, who, at the last +moment, had to be hurriedly replaced by singers from the King's cabinet and +chapel. + +The English alliance was very popular in Paris. It was remembered that if +the bridegroom was King of England and a heretic, he was also a Scotchman +born and the grandson of the much-loved Mary of Scotland, who, it was +said, was doubtless praying in heaven for his conversion. Another side of +the general satisfaction was expressed by poetic references to the union of +the sister of Mars with Neptune, the King of the Waves, which, it was +hoped, would bring about a happy state of things when + + "toute la Terre + Soit aux Francois et Anglois."[15] + +It is not surprising, therefore, that the early hours of the great day saw +the _parvis_ of Notre-Dame crowded with spectators waiting patiently under +the rain of an inclement May morning. The concourse was so great that the +neighbouring streets had to be secured by barriers and patrolled by the +Swiss Guard to make free passage for the coaches of the nobility which were +perpetually arriving at the doors of the cathedral to deposit their loads +of gaily dressed ladies. + +Meanwhile, what of the bride for whom all this was prepared? She had spent +the previous day at her mother's favourite convent, that of the Carmelite +nuns whom Berulle had "fetched out of Spain" to place in a house of the +Faubourg S. Jacques. There her mother's friend, Mother Magdeleine of S. +Joseph, gave her a great deal of advice, seasoned with much piety and some +judgment. Thence she returned to pass the night at the Louvre, and to spend +a quiet morning, until at about two o'clock on the afternoon of her +wedding-day she set out for the Archbishop's palace, which that dignitary, +in spite of his chagrin, had placed at the disposal of the wedding-party. +There in the fine old house overlooking the Seine, which two hundred years +later was to fall a victim to the fury of the Parisian mob,[16] Henrietta +spent several hours in putting on the same magnificent dress which she had +worn at her betrothal, so that five o'clock had already struck when her +brother the King came to fetch her that he might conduct her to the +cathedral. + +The procession was drawn up. First came an officer known as the captain of +the gate, behind whom walked a hundred men of the King's Swiss Guard, drums +beating and banners flying. They were followed by the band, which was so +effective that while the hautbois ravished the ears of those who heard +them, the drums would have stirred the most faint-hearted to courage. As to +the trumpets, they made the hearts of the listeners leap for joy within +their bodies. + +At last, after heralds, marshals, peers, and dukes, after the proxy +bridegroom and the Ambassadors from England, came the central figure of the +procession, the bride herself, supported by her two brothers, one of whom +was also her King. + +The sickly, depressed Louis XIII, notwithstanding his magnificent dress of +_cramoisi_ velvet, so thickly covered with cloth of gold that the +foundation hardly appeared, afforded a sad contrast to the splendid +vitality of his little sister, whose dark curls were adorned by a crown of +gold set with diamonds, and bearing in front an enormous pearl of +inestimable value. The train of her royal mantle, which was of velvet and +cloth of gold, embroidered with fleurs-de-lis, was carried by the +Princesses of Conde and Conti and by the Countess of Soissons, the mother +of the rejected lover, who had asked and obtained leave to absent himself +from the ceremony. So heavy was it that to give the bride greater comfort +an officer walked under it and supported it with his head and hands. Gaston +of Orleans, who was at his sister's left hand, was not allowed to rival his +sovereign in apparel, for a rule had been made that the King, the Duke of +Chevreuse, and the Earls of Carlisle and Holland should be the only +gentlemen to appear in cloth of gold. He had to content himself with silk. +The rear was brought up by the two Queens, the elder plainly dressed in +black, relieved by splendid jewels; the younger magnificent in cloth of +gold and silver. A crowd of highly born ladies followed, among whom may be +mentioned Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the rich heiress whom Gaston of +Orleans was to wed reluctantly a year later, and Madame de Chevreuse, who, +no doubt, cast admiring glances at the handsome face and figure of her +lover, the Earl of Holland. + +The wedding ceremony was not to take place in the church but, in accordance +with the old ritual of matrimony, on a platform erected outside the west +door,[17] which was connected with the archiepiscopal palace by a long +wooden gallery upholstered in beautiful tapestry. On this platform, under a +canopy of cloth of gold, Cardinal de Rochefoucault was waiting to receive +the bride, while from the stands which had been put up round the _parvis_, +and from the windows of the tall neighbouring houses, eager heads were +thrust forward to catch a glimpse of the procession as it wound along in +the sunshine which had succeeded the rainy morning. Henrietta, the Duke of +Chevreuse, and the royal party ascended the platform. The short marriage +ceremony was gone through, and immediately on its conclusion an English +gentleman who was present, by name George Goring,[18] set off to carry to +the King of England, as quickly as relays of the swiftest horses would +allow, the tidings of his own marriage. + +The new Queen only lingered at the church door to receive the kneeling +homage of the English Ambassadors. Then, accompanied by her mother, her +brothers, and the rest of the wedding-party, she entered the great +church.[19] There awaited her not only the nobility of France, but also +such dignitaries as the provost of the merchants, the aldermen of the city +of Paris, and the rector of the university, while "Messieurs du Parlement" +had, with some difficulty, made good their claim to be present in a body. +All eyes were turned upon the bride as she moved along another richly +decorated gallery, which conducted her to a dais in the chancel from which +she was to hear the nuptial Mass. It was past seven o'clock before the +offertory was reached, an almost unprecedented hour at which to say Mass, +and many may have envied the heretic Ambassadors who were able to retire +for a brief rest, owing to their unwillingness to be present at a popish +service. The only consideration shown for Henrietta was that she was not +required to communicate, as it was thought that to fast until that late +hour and to undergo at the same time so much fatigue and excitement might +prove injurious to her health. + +But even when the Mass was over there was no rest to be had. That evening +saw the Archbishop's palace turned into a scene of royal festivity. In the +hall the banquet was spread. At the middle of the table sat the King, with +his mother on his right hand and his sister, the queen of a day, on his +left. The Duke of Chevreuse and the English Ambassadors were privileged to +sit down with the royal party, which was waited on by "our lords the +princes, dukes, peers, and marshals of France," who did not disdain to +bring in the meats for the feast. Outside in the May darkness all Paris was +_en fete_. Bonfires and fireworks were to be seen in every street, so that +it seemed that never had there been such rejoicings as at the marriage of +Princess Henrietta. + +It might have been expected that the newly married Queen would have set off +at once for her adopted country, but, on the contrary, there were +considerable delays caused, it was believed, by the Pope's agents, who were +annoyed that the marriage had taken place before the details of the +dispensation had been settled.[20] When these difficulties had been +overcome the King fell ill, and it seems probable that the departure would +have been postponed even longer than was the case had not an event occurred +to hasten it, namely, the arrival in Paris of an unexpected and most +unwelcome guest, George, Duke of Buckingham. + +This extraordinary person, whose career reads like a fairy story, was at +this time at the height of his fame. His handsome face and a certain +careless magnificence of manner, which might almost have passed for +magnanimity, were greatly admired, and if he showed at times the insolence +of the parvenu, much was condoned, at least outwardly, in the man who was +the acknowledged favourite of the King of England, and who was able to +appear in almost regal splendour, decked out, it was even said, by the +jewels of England. He was already well known in Paris, and in the few days +he had spent there in 1624, between Madrid and London, he had made an +ineffaceable impression upon at least one heart. + +Few royal stories are sadder than that of Anne of Austria, the queen of +Louis XIII. Married as a mere child to an apathetic boy, she neither knew +how to win his love nor how to adapt herself to the requirements of her +position. Neglected by her husband, bullied by her mother-in-law, and later +by Richelieu, she may almost be forgiven for her treasonable correspondence +with the enemies of France. Still less can she be blamed that her heart +clung too fondly to the relatives she had left in Madrid. To the end of her +days she remained a Spaniard, _devote_ and fanatical beyond the liking of +the lively Parisians; a Spaniard also in her unconquerable coquetry. The +ladies of her mother's Court, shut up in almost monastical seclusion, were +accustomed to amuse themselves during the long hours which intervened +between the various religious exercises by dwelling on and recounting in +every detail their conquests of the men whom they seldom saw except in the +silence of a church or among the crowds of a Court ceremony. Anne, coming +from such a life, was unable to understand at once the greater liberty and +the greater decorum of French manners. She was beautiful, and she was +gifted with a pair of soft, white, exquisitely modelled hands, so that she +was able to command the flattery which she loved. Many a gallant worshipped +at a distance, but none dared to pay her attentions which seriously +compromised her until the English favourite crossed her path. + +The true story of the loves of these two is not fully known. It died with +them and with those in whom they confided; but it is probable that during +Buckingham's first visit to Paris something was suspected, and that this +was the real reason of the refusal to receive him as the proxy of the King +of England. When it was known that he had arrived, uninvited, the wrath of +his unwilling hosts was so great that it was only through the intervention +of Madame de Chevreuse, the devoted friend of Queen Anne, and the +representations of the English Ambassadors that he obtained a reception +befitting his rank. + +The Duke urged strongly the immediate departure of the bride; and though it +was felt that such a desire for haste was indelicate, yet the French royal +family, with one exception, was so anxious to see the last of him, that +they were fain to comply. Henrietta, probably, was not consulted. She was a +pawn in the political game, and she was still too young to assert herself. + +Perhaps she was in no hurry to be gone. She clung to her home and her +country, and the waiting time was made very pleasant by festivities in +which, for the first time, she tasted the pleasures of her queenly rank. +All were splendid; but probably the most magnificent was an entertainment +offered by Richelieu to the three queens during the indisposition of the +King. It took place at the Luxembourg, that monument of the Italian +renaissance within Paris, which was built for Mary de' Medici in her +widowhood to remind her of her own Florentine palace, whose beautiful +gardens, unchanged since her day, remain to witness to the taste of +gardeners before Le Notre.[21] On this occasion the spacious rooms were +magnificently decorated. The most skilful musicians which Paris could +furnish had been procured, and the ears of the guests were delighted by +choice music, both vocal and instrumental, while the courtly host employed +all the grace and charm which he had ever at command to fascinate the three +royal ladies, and particularly the young Queen of England, who was inclined +to look upon him with favour as in some sort the author of her marriage. +Finally, at the close of the entertainment all went out into the gardens to +witness a display of fireworks, "the most superb and the most beautiful +invention which had been seen for a long time."[22] The Cardinal, who had +given the fete to mark his satisfaction at the issue of his diplomacy, had +cause to congratulate himself upon its success. As Queen Henrietta said +good-bye to him with grateful cordiality, he bent his keen glance upon her +and saw in her another subservient tool of his ambition, as she saw in him +her protector and her friend. Neither the statesman nor the Queen could +read the secrets of the future, nor know that each would come to regard the +other as an enemy. + +At last, when May had passed into June, the day came which witnessed the +Queen of England's departure from Paris. The King, who was still far from +well, determined, nevertheless, to see his sister on her way as far as +Compiegne, and apart from his royal presence she had goodly attendance. It +included the Queen-Mother and her second son Gaston, both of whom intended +to accompany the bride to the coast; the Queen Consort, who, against the +advice of her best friends, could not tear herself from the fascinating +company of Buckingham; the Duke of Chevreuse, and M. de Ville-aux-Clercs, +who were commissioned by the King of France to deliver over his sister to +her royal husband. Finally, Madame de Chevreuse, who had asked and obtained +permission to accompany the bride to her new home for a reason similar to +that which actuated her friend Queen Anne--namely, the love which she bore +to the Earl of Holland. + +It was three o'clock in the afternoon when Henrietta left the Louvre to set +out on her journey to England. Her brother, who, perhaps to dazzle the more +homely English, had spared no expense on her trousseau and equipment, had +provided for her personal use a magnificent litter upholstered within and +without in red _cramoisi_ velvet, which was relieved by the gold embroidery +of the cushions and curtains. It was drawn by two fine mules, gorgeous in +their red velvet cloths, and with white aigrettes nodding merrily on their +heads. They were led by a muleteer who was handsomely dressed, and who rode +another richly caparisoned mule. The trappings of the rest of the party +were also splendid in proportion to their rank. A brave escort saw on her +way the daughter of Henry IV. Archers and guards turned out to do her +honour, and by her side rode that great civic dignitary, "M. le prevost des +Marchands." To the sound of martial music went the gay cavalcade, through +the narrow streets of old Paris up to the Porte S. Denys, and so beyond the +wall, which still guarded the city, into the suburbs. Working men and +women, leaving their toil, lined the road, many of whom looking on the fair +child who was leaving them, and having no expectation of seeing her again, +could not restrain their weeping. + +[Illustration: FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PICTURE BY FRANCIS POURBUS] + +Half-way to S. Denys the party halted. The provost of the merchants +delivered a weary discourse, "full of matter," and then bidding Henrietta +farewell he turned back to Paris with his escort. The rest pushed on. There +was no time to wait at S. Denys, where the dust of Henrietta's father lay, +and whither her own dead body was to be carried nearly half a century +later. The summer evening was drawing in, and it was thought wiser to go on +to Stains, where a night's rest awaited the bride, who may well have been +fatigued by the toils of this exciting day. + +The first considerable town through which the royal party passed was +Amiens. This great city, "the metropolis and key of all Picardy," was +determined, notwithstanding its depressed financial position, to give the +three Queens, no one of whom had ever before been within its walls, a +splendid reception. This resolve was all the more loyal as the +consideration of the King had only indicated a few simple tokens of +respect, such as a reception by the aldermen, as obligatory on the +occasion. It was late in the afternoon before the royal ladies and their +train approached the city, for they were much delayed by the concourse of +people who came out to see them. Not far from the city gates they were met +by the Governor, the Duke of Chaulnes, who brought with him three hundred +horsemen whose steeds, we are told, were of the same race as those sung by +the poets--whose eyes and nostrils emitted flames and fire. Of the +cavaliers each might have been taken for chief and leader, so splendid were +they all. Accompanied by this dashing cavalcade the cortege swept on, to be +met on its way by a troop of archers bearing an ensign with the device of a +cupid, by the youth of the city drawn up in companies, and finally by six +thousand of the mature citizens, whose martial discipline was the +admiration of all. By a wise precaution no salvos were fired until the +royal party was safely passed, for experience had shown that, though only +two or three horses might be frightened, yet they were sufficient to cause +unseemly disturbance. + +After the formal greeting had been given to the guests at the gate of the +city by the mayor and aldermen, a ceremony took place specially designed in +compliment to the bride of the island King. Fifty young girls, all pretty +and some very beautiful, dressed up to represent the demi-goddesses of the +sea, came to hail Henrietta as Thetis, queen of the waves, sitting upon the +throne of her litter which had brought her from the banks of the Seine, and +to whom, in token of humble submission, they presented the keys of the +city. So great was the crush to see this sight that the gentleman to whom +we owe the story of the details of the day[23] was unable to get near +enough to hear the speeches of the marine goddesses. The crowds in the +streets were great, and as there were neither archers nor Swiss, as at +Paris, to range the people against the houses and to keep a clear passage, +the confusion was considerable; but it was not allowed to interfere with +the programme drawn up by the loyal people of Amiens. Henrietta saw not +only triumphal arches and columns in abundance, but also curious +allegorical ceremonies in the taste of the times. She beheld Jason, who, +after fighting with fire-breathing bulls, bore off triumphant the golden +fleece, and in whom she was to recognize an impersonation of her husband, +Charles of England. She listened to the hymeneal god, who, attended by +nymphs, stepped forward and, to the accompaniment of sweet music, sang a +wedding-song specially composed for the occasion. The last three verses, +notwithstanding their extravagance of compliment, are so fresh and charming +as to be worthy of the pretty bride to whom they were addressed. + + "Mais que fais je par ces carmes + Vous arrestant en ces lieux + C'est que je suis pris aux charmes + Que vous avez dans les yeux. + + "Allez, j'ay peur que vous-mesme + Nous emportiez votre coeur; + Vous portez un diademe + Soubs un front toujours vainquer. + + "Ne demeurez, ie vieux suyvre + Mon coeur ne sera retif, + C'est glorieusement vivre + Que d'estre en vos mains captif."[24] + +Henrietta looked and smiled and listened. She was new to such honours, and +it was pleasant to be for the moment a greater person than her stern mother +or her stately sister-in-law. But the rejoicings were long-drawn-out, and +she must have been very weary before they culminated in a joyous _Te Deum_ +sung in the cathedral, which, like Notre-Dame in Paris, had been disfigured +as much as possible with pictures and hangings. Nor even then were her +toils over. Long and dreary speeches awaited her, to which she had to +listen with some show of interest, before at last she could lie down to +rest. + +Henrietta's innocent dreams were perhaps of Jason and the goddesses of the +sea; but there were those about her whose pillows were haunted by visions +of a very different character. + +Had all France been searched through it would have been difficult to find a +more undesirable friend and adviser for a young married woman than Marie de +Rohan, once Duchess of Luynes, and now by her second marriage Duchess of +Chevreuse. Beautiful, unscrupulous, and gifted with a remarkable talent for +diplomacy, which enabled her to give effect to her audacious schemes, she +had little difficulty in recommending herself to Henrietta, into whose +young mind she dropped seeds of distrust and of a love of crooked ways +which were to bear fruit in the future. It was not her fault if other seeds +failed to ripen there, and if the purity of the little bride's mind was +proof against the evil example of certain events which occurred during the +few days of the halt at Amiens. + +The city had no house large enough to accommodate the three Queens. The +Queen-Mother, as befitted her age and dignity, was lodged in the episcopal +palace, while Henrietta and her sister-in-law had to find apartments +elsewhere. The bride's domicile is not known, but to Queen Anne and her +attendants was allotted a fine house with gardens sloping down to the River +Somme. In these gardens took place a famous scene destined to influence +several lives, and among them that of Henrietta Maria. + +Already at a ball given by the Duchess of Chaulnes the animation and +brilliant looks of the Queen of France had been remarked, and ill-natured +people were not lacking who saw in the English duke, who had danced on that +evening with infinite grace, the magician able to rouse her from the +listlessness which usually spoiled her undoubted beauty. Such public +meetings were safe enough, but Buckingham was constantly at the Queen's +lodgings. One evening, in company with Madame de Chevreuse and the Earl of +Holland, he was paying his respects when Anne, who, remembering the soft, +scented nights of her native land, loved to wander abroad after dusk, +invited him to enjoy with her the cool beauty of the June twilight. Their +companions, who were carrying on their own flirtation under the cloak of +another's, followed, but, perhaps intentionally, they lagged behind, so +that the royal lady found herself alone with her bold admirer in a dark, +winding walk. Suddenly the silence of the evening was broken by a shrill +cry. The Queen's equerry, who was in attendance at a discreet distance, +rushed up to find his mistress in a state of trembling agitation, and the +duke so red and confused that he was glad to make his escape as quickly as +possible. There were, of course, explanations and excuses. The matter came +to the ears of the Queen-Mother, who, worn out by her exertions, was lying +seriously ill; she helped to hush up the scandal, and both Anne and +Buckingham seemed, for the moment, to escape easily; but it was felt that +they must part at once, and the duke, with a tact which he sometimes +displayed, began to talk of the King of England's impatience to see his +bride, and to hint that it was not necessary to wait for the Queen-Mother's +recovery. + +Henrietta, the sport of others less innocent than herself, knelt to receive +her mother's last blessing. That lady, touched by some real maternal +feeling, bade her a tender farewell, pressing into her hand a letter which +the girl found, when she came to read it, to be full of the most admirable +sentiments of piety and virtue and of excellent advice as to her conduct in +the married state. She probably knew Mary de' Medici too well to attribute +this composition to her, and perhaps no one attempted to disguise the fact +that its author was the pious Father Berulle who was going with her to +England in the capacity of confessor.[25] + +Through Abbeville, with its soaring cathedral, through picturesque +Montreuil, Henrietta came to Boulogne, whence she was to cross to England, +as the plague was reigning at Calais. Though it was June, the weather was +wild and stormy, and a further delay was inevitable. Buckingham, forgetful +of all propriety, careless of the trust confided to him by his friend and +King, took advantage of this delay to steal back, on a frivolous pretext, +to Amiens, and to Anne. His audacity little availed him. After one brief +agitated interview he had to tear himself from his idol, whom he never saw +again. + +During the waiting time at Boulogne, Henrietta made acquaintance with some +of her new subjects who had crossed the Channel to meet her, and who were +greatly disappointed when they found her without her mother and +sister-in-law, for, as one of them wrote, they had looked forward to seeing +beauty not only in the future tense, but in the present and the +preterperfect as well.[26] Buckingham, who up till now had been too +occupied with Anne to pay much attention to the bride, and who was too much +of a man of the world to care for the "future tense" of beauty, now, it +seems, bethought him of winning the favour of the Queen of England. +Certainly he secured a flattering reception for his mother, the Countess of +Buckingham, who improved the occasion of her visit to France by reconciling +herself to the Church of Rome. In later days Henrietta did not like the +lady, but at this first introduction she received her "with strange +courtesy and favour."[27] Nor was she alone in her kindness. Gaston of +Orleans, who, in his mother's enforced detention at Amiens, had adhered to +his plan of escorting his sister to the coast, paid the English lady the +unusual compliment of visiting her, and the haughty and high-born Madame de +Chevreuse actually waived her right of precedence in favour of the +Buckinghams, whose family was of yesterday. It need hardly be said that +such courtesy was greatly relished by the English visitors, who found no +drawback to the happy intercourse with their new friends except in the +Countess' ignorance of the French tongue. But even this difficulty was got +over by the presence at Boulogne of Sir Tobie Matthew, who, though the son +of a Protestant archbishop, was a Catholic and a citizen of the world whose +linguistic talents, which were much admired in continental circles, were +joined to a refined culture which rendered him a fitting intermediary +between these distinguished persons. Fortunately all his time was not taken +up by such duties, and he employed his leisure very profitably in writing a +long letter to a lady acquaintance, which contains the fullest account we +possess of Henrietta in her early youth before the cares of married life +had come upon her. + +Sir Tobie's ready and subtle pen drew such a sketch of the young Queen as, +interpreted by the future, shows him to have been a keen analyst of +character. Henrietta had grown a good deal during the past year; and though +she was still small, "she sits," he wrote, "upon the very skirts of +womanhood." Her mind and character were as yet undeveloped; but in the +mingled gentleness and wit of her conversation, in the sweet courtesy shown +to her inferiors, in the faithful affection which clung to the mother she +had left, finally, in the courage and enterprise which, to the despair of +her attendants, tempted her to a sea-trip in an open boat with her brother +Gaston, we recognize the woman of later days, as in the girl of fifteen we +see the beautiful queen of Van Dyck's portraits. "Upon my faith," wrote the +worthy knight, giving utterance to a prophecy which unfortunately was not +completely fulfilled, "she is a most sweet, lively nature, and hath a +countenance which opens a window into her heart, where a man may see all +nobleness and goodness; and I dare venture my head (upon the little skill I +have in physiognomy) that she will be extraordinarily beloved by our nation +and deserve to be so, and that the actions of her life which are to be her +owne will be excellent."[28] + +At length, after nearly three weeks of waiting, during which Henrietta's +health and spirits flagged a little, the twenty-second day of June dawned +calm and fair, and it was decided that the voyage should be made. +Heretofore the Queen of England had been her brother's guest, but now, on +the eve of embarking, she was delivered over to the care of the Duke of +Buckingham, and the deed of consignation was signed by that nobleman and by +the two French Ambassadors, to witness that the responsibility of the +latter was ended. After the little ceremony the Queen was escorted to the +quay by her brother. She went on board the beautiful ship, _The Prince_, +which her husband had sent for her. The preparations for departure were +quickly made. The moment came when she clung in a last embrace to Gaston. +Then the sails were unfurled, and _The Prince_ rode proudly out of Boulogne +harbour. As Henrietta stood gazing upon the rapidly receding cliffs of +France, did any foreboding of the future come over her, any presage of +coming grief such as weighed upon the heart of her husband's grandmother, +Mary of Scotland, on a similar occasion? Did any shadow of that day nearly +twenty years later, when, a fugitive pursued by unrelenting foes, she would +see again her native land, darken her spirit? We cannot tell. We only know +that she had a moment's _serrement de coeur_, such as any girl might feel +on leaving home, and that she was a little afraid of sea-sickness. + +No inconvenience, however, arose. Charles' care had caused his bride's +cabin to be so beautified that she might have imagined herself in her own +Louvre rather than on the sea; and to complete the illusion a choice +concert of delicate instruments and sweet voices was in readiness to amuse +her. Moreover, no precaution was omitted which might ensure the safety of +so precious a freight. _The Prince_ and the vessels which formed her escort +carried the most experienced pilots that could be obtained, whose work was +so well done (though unfortunately it was never paid for) that in +four-and-twenty hours the Channel was crossed. Dover harbour was safely +made, and amidst a throng of interested spectators Henrietta Maria touched +the soil of her new kingdom. It was noticed that immediately on her arrival +the wind rose again with its former violence, and that the sea was again +troubled as if for her alone they had stilled their raging. It was now +evening, and as the Queen, in spite of the pleasures of the little voyage +which seemed to have restored her health and spirits, confessed to great +fatigue, she was allowed to retire at once and to postpone until the next +day the meeting with her husband. M. de Chevreuse and M. de +Ville-aux-Clercs wrote a formal letter to their master, informing him of +his sister's happy arrival, while the King of England awaited, with as much +patience as he could command, the morrow which was to give to his arms the +bride who had tarried so long. + +[Footnote 1: She was born on November 25th, 1609 (November 15th, O.S.).] + +[Footnote 2: The elaborate ceremonies of her baptism are described in a +pamphlet entitled _Discours sur le bapteme de Monsieur frere du Roy et de +la petite Madame_. 1614.] + +[Footnote 3: Bib. Nat., Paris. MS. Francais, 3818.] + +[Footnote 4: After this marriage (of Christine) Her Majesty durst not +follow her mother, to the displeasure of her brother, lest she might hinder +her own, until June 21st, 1620, when the Queen-Mother and her son were +reconciled. + +_The Life and Death of that matchless mirror of Magnanimity and Heroick +Vertue, Henrietta Maria de Bourbon_ (1669), p. 5.] + +[Footnote 5: He was created Earl of Holland September 15th, 1624.] + +[Footnote 6: _Cabala_ (1691), Pt. II, p. 287.] + +[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, p. 290. The following descriptions of Henrietta +shortly after her marriage show the impression she made upon Englishmen: +"We have now a most Noble new Queen of England who in true beuty is beyond +the Long-Wood Infanta; for she was of a fading Flaxen-Hair, Big-Lipp'd and +somewhat heavy Ey'd, but this Daughter of France, this youngest Branch of +Bourbon ... is of a more lovely and lasting Complexion, a dark Brown, she +hath Eyes that sparkle like stars and on her Physiognomy she may be said +to be a mirrour of perfection."--J. Howell: _Epistolae Ho-Eliamae_ (1645), +sec. IV, p. 30. " ... I went to Whitehall purposlie to see the queene, +which I did fullie all the time shee sate at dinner and perceived her to +bee a most absolute delicate ladie, after I had exactly surveied all the +features of her face, much enlivened by her radiant and sparkling black +eye. Besides her deportment amongst her women was so sweete and humble, +and her speech and lookes to her other servants soe milde and gracious, +as I could not abstaine from divers deep-fetched sighes that she wanted +the knowledge of the true religion."--_D'Ewes' Diary_: printed in +_Bibliotheca Typographica Britannica_ (1790), Vol. VI, p. 33.] + +[Footnote 8: These articles were signed at Cambridge in December, 1624; see +MS. Francais, 3692: also the _Memoirs du Comte de Brienne_ (M. de +Ville-aux-Clercs) (Petitot), 1824, p. 389, who was in England at the time +negotiating the matter.] + +[Footnote 9: _Continuation of Weekly News_, No. 43, 1624.] + +[Footnote 10: Egerton MS., 2596, f. 49.] + +[Footnote 11: The procuration of the King of England authorizing the Duke +of Chevreuse to marry the Princess Henrietta in his name is dated April +11th, 1625.] + +[Footnote 12: L'Ordre des ceremonies observes au mariage du roy de la +Grande Britagne et de Madame soeur du roy. Paris, 1625.] + +[Footnote 13: Many of the details of the marriage, departure from Paris, +etc., are taken from the official account, MS. Francais, 23,600.] + +[Footnote 14: The ceremonies followed the precedent of those used at the +marriage of Henrietta's father, Henry of Navarre, with Margaret of Valois.] + +[Footnote 15: Part of the song with which Henrietta was greeted at Amiens +on her wedding journey. See pp. 20, 21.] + +[Footnote 16: Destroyed in February, 1831.] + +[Footnote 17: Cf. Chaucer, _Canterbury Tales_: Prologue. + + A good Wif was ther of byside Bath + + * * * * * + + Sche was a worthy womman al hire lyfe + Housbondes atte chirche dore hadde sche fyfe.] + +[Footnote 18: George Goring, Baron Goring, 1628, Earl of Norwich, 1644; d. +1663.] + +[Footnote 19: At some point in the ceremony Henrietta Maria renounced all +her rights to the throne and dominions of France, as had been stipulated in +the marriage treaty.] + +[Footnote 20: The dispensation is dated December, 1625.] + +[Footnote 21: They are smaller, part of them having been built over.] + +[Footnote 22: MS. Francais, 23,600.] + +[Footnote 23: L'Entree superbe magnifique faite a la Royne de la grande +Bretagne dans la Ville d'Amiens, le Samedy septisme de Juin, 1625. Sur les +fideles relations d'un seigneur de qualite. A. Paris, MDCXXV.] + +[Footnote 24: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 25: On the question of the authorship of this letter see Avenal: +_Lettres de Richelieu_, VIII., p. 27. There seems no doubt that it was +written by Berulle. Among the Berulle papers (Archives Nationales, M. 232) +is an authenticated copy, whose note of authentication states that "ce +discours a este compose par nostre tres reverend pere" (i.e. Berulle), as +the copyist was informed in 1660. Berulle in 1627 wrote another letter for +Mary de' Medici to send to her daughter. See chap. IV.] + +[Footnote 26: Sir Tobie Matthew. Tanner MS., LXXII.] + +[Footnote 27: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 28: Tanner MS., LXXII, 40.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BRIDE OF ENGLAND + + Parents lawes must beare no weight + When they happinesse prevent. + And our sea is not so streight, + But it room hath for content. + + WILLIAM HABINGTON + + +Long years after the events occurred, when many happy years had softened +the memory of their bitterness, Henrietta Maria confessed to her friend +Madame de Motteville that her early married life had not been free from +disappointment and vexation. Charles Stuart was not an easy man to live +with, as all those who had much to do with him found out. He was moral, +conscientious, in many respects admirable; but he was oppressed by a sense +of his own importance, he was entirely without humour, and he was convinced +that he was always, on all occasions, in the right. He did not, as many +royal husbands, break his marriage vow, but he treated his girl-wife with a +harshness which fell little short of unkindness, and that though she was +ever anxious to do her duty and he was always sincerely a lover. + +It is probable that the difficulties began almost immediately. Charles, on +his arrival at Dover, did, indeed, greet his beautiful bride with delight, +and when she would have knelt at his feet he prevented her by clasping her +in his arms instead. But the French visitors soon showed that they were +dissatisfied with the Queen's reception. They were ignorant of the more +homely character of the English people and Court; and, contrasting the +poverty of the festivities and welcome offered by the King of England to +his queen with the splendour which the King of France had freely displayed +to do honour to his sister, they concluded a lack of respect and affection +on the part of Charles which had no foundation in fact. Some of the +difficulty was indeed wholly due to national misunderstanding, as, for +instance, the ill-feeling caused by the gloomy splendours of Dover Castle, +where the young Queen spent her first night in England, and, later, by an +antique bed, dating from the reign of Elizabeth, in which she was invited +to repose in London. How could the English know that these relics of a +glorious past were in the eyes of these visitors, accustomed to the +new-fashioned luxuries of the French Court, nothing but relics of +barbarism? "None of us, however old, could remember ever having seen such a +bed," wrote Tillieres,[29] in deep indignation. Nor was the public welcome +to London more successful, though the marriage was fairly popular, and +there was much kindly feeling towards the bride. The plague was raging in +the city, so that, for prudence'sake, festivities had to be curtailed; +while, to make matters worse, the entry into the capital took place on one +of those drenching summer days which are not of infrequent occurrence in +these islands. To the French visitors used to Paris, which, if one of the +dirtiest of cities, was, then as now, one of the most beautiful and +magnificent, London, at the best, would have looked rather shabby,[30] in +these circumstances it appeared ugly and squalid. The English were little +more pleased with their guests. "A poor lot, hardly worth looking at," was +the comment of one Englishman on the brilliant train of French ladies who +accompanied the Queen; and if he made an exception in favour of Madame de +Chevreuse, who could hardly have been called plain, it was only to find +fault with her for painting her face. It was perhaps not to be expected +that this remarkable lady should find favour in Puritan eyes, for during +her stay in England, where she remained over the birth of her daughter, the +Mademoiselle de Chevreuse of later French history, she exhibited more than +her usual eccentricity, indulging in such freaks as swimming across the +Thames, an exploit which was celebrated in half-mocking verse by a Court +poet.[31] But such petty national jealousies were annoyances of a trivial +character. The more serious disagreements which arose between the royal +pair may be traced, almost entirely, to two sources: the influence over the +Queen of her French attendants, and the influence over the King of the Duke +of Buckingham. + +Among the articles of the marriage treaty was a stipulation that the +Queen's household should be composed of those who were of her own faith and +nation. This body consisted of more than a hundred persons, civil and +religious, chosen by Mary de' Medici and Richelieu, ranging from such great +nobles and ladies as Madame S. Georges, the principal lady-in-waiting, and +the Count de Tillieres, the lord chamberlain, to the humble servants of the +royal kitchen and laundry. Certainly the presence of so many of her own +countrymen about the person of the young Queen tended to prevent that +assimilation of English ideas and habits which was so desirable. It is not +surprising that Charles disliked his wife's French servants as standing +between him and his bride, particularly when it is remembered that they +looked upon themselves as the servants of the King of France, who provided +many of them with pensions. + +The object of his special dislike was Madame S. Georges, who, as the +daughter of Madame de Montglas, had great influence with Henrietta, and +who, though she had had long experience in Courts,[32] was foolish enough +to show herself aggrieved at not being permitted to ride in the same coach +with the King of England and his bride. Madame de Tillieres, who ranked +next to her, was more discreet in her conduct, probably owing to her +husband's intimate knowledge of England, where he had resided a while as +ambassador. + +But if the secular part of the Queen's household was objectionable, still +more so was the ecclesiastical establishment, of which the leading spirits +were her confessor, Father Berulle, who had brought over with him twelve +fathers of the French Oratory,[33] whose long habit, worn on all occasions, +startled the eyes of sober Londoners, and her Grand Almoner, Daniel de la +Motte du Plessis Houdancourt, who had under him four sub-almoners, one of +whom was said to have openly defended at Court the doctrine of tyrannicide +which Ravaillac put into practice. Berulle, who lived to wear the +Cardinal's purple, left behind him when he died a few years later the +reputation almost of a saint.[34] He was also a very intellectual man, +being one of the early admirers of the genius of Descartes; but he was not +suited either in mind or character for the position which the partiality of +Mary de' Medici had called him to fill; a man of stern and narrow piety, +neither a Fenelon nor even a Bossuet, he knew not how to deal +sympathetically with those whose religion and manners differed from his +own; and the scorn which, as a Catholic ecclesiastic, he felt for "the +ministers," at whom, in his letters, he loses no opportunity of sneering, +as an abstemious Frenchman he felt no less for the gluttonous English. He +recognized Charles' affection for his bride; but when the artistic King +thought to please her by giving her a beautiful picture of the Nativity, +all that the priest found to say on seeing it was that it was older than +the religion of its donor. His very virtues were unfortunate. Though +practised in Courts, he was too sincere to be a successful diplomat, and he +showed a singular lack of enlightened self-interest, both in the just +reproaches with which he overwhelmed Buckingham on the subject of the +Catholics, and also in the friendship which he extended to Bishop Williams, +whose sun was setting before that of the younger favourite. Nor was he +altogether successful in his dealings with the Queen. He did indeed win +Henrietta's respect, and to his teaching may be attributed, in some degree, +the lifelong conduct which distinguishes her so honourably from others of +her rank and day. But a Catholic Puritan himself--it is significant that +the French Oratory a few years later was believed to be infected with +Jansenism--and looking upon all Courts, specially Protestant ones, as +chosen haunts of the devil, he was wont to rebuke his royal penitent for +such natural sentiments as pleasure in her pretty dresses and jewels, and, +forgetting that she was not a Carmelite nun in the Faubourg S. Jacques, he +attempted to force upon her a strictness of manners and observance suited +neither to her nature nor to her position. Charles' complaints of the cold +and unloving conduct of the wife with whom, even by the testimony of his +enemies, he was deeply in love; Buckingham's gibes at a queen who lived "en +petite Mademoiselle," had their foundation in facts, facts for which +Berulle was largely responsible. + +[Illustration: CARDINAL PIERRE DE BERULLE + +FROM AN ENGRAVING] + +The Bishop of Mende was a very different person from the austere Oratorian. +A member of one of the noblest houses in France, high-spirited, cultured, +and fascinating, he owed a position to which his twenty and odd years would +not have entitled him to the fact that he was a relative and intimate +friend of Richelieu. He knew how to win the affection of the Queen, who on +one occasion warmly recommended him to the Pope,[35] and who, when he left +her to pay a visit of a few weeks to his native land, wrote requesting his +return, as she could not get on without him; but the King frankly detested +him, and years later, when the Bishop was in his grave, remembered angrily +the arrogance with which the latter was wont to enter his wife's private +apartments at any hour that pleased him. That the charges of indiscretion +brought against him by the English were not unfounded may be gathered not +only from the amazing audacity of his proposal to place the crown on the +Queen's head in Westminster Abbey--a proposal which led to her never being +crowned at all[36]--but also from the reluctant admission of his friend +Tillieres that he was too young for his post, and from an admonitory letter +addressed to him by his masters in Paris, urging him to moderate his zeal +and to bridle his fiery tongue. + +But there were reasons other than personal, of which Charles and his +subjects were certainly in some degree aware, for disliking and distrusting +Henrietta's household. + +One of the causes of the extraordinary success of Richelieu's policy is no +doubt to be sought in the accuracy and range of the information at his +command, which was furnished by persons in every country, who, though a +prettier name might be given to them, were, to speak plainly, his spies. +Some of them were French subjects abroad, others were subjects and often +even servants of the King in whose land they lived, who were persuaded by +the powerful argument of a pension to engage in this traffic in news.[37] +By this means the Cardinal found out most things that it was to his +interest to know, and often, while he was professing goodwill and affection +to some hapless wight who was in his power, he was, at the same time, +collecting information to be used against him. + +Richelieu's content at the English alliance has already been referred to. +He was, at this time, at the height of his influence over the Queen-Mother, +and he was rapidly building up the power which was to make him the +strongest and most irresponsible minister that France has ever seen. +Judging perhaps from the precedent of Queen Anne of Austria, he believed +that Henrietta would be the instrument of France and consequently of +himself in England. He was determined that she should have those about her +in whom he could feel confidence; in other words, that the choice and +highly born body of men and women who served the person of the Queen of +England should be also the servants of an alien power. They played their +part well. Even Berulle, who was too good an ecclesiastic not to know the +duties of the married state, summed up, in a letter to a private friend, +the objects of his mission to England as being "to initiate the spirit of +the Queen of England into the dispositions necessary," not only "for her +soul," but also "for this country,"[38] i.e. France. The Bishop of Mende, +by the testimony of Tillieres, detailed everything that occurred to +Richelieu, and abundance of letters written by his hand remain to prove the +truth of this statement. As for Tillieres himself, his attitude both to +England and France may be gathered from his own Memoirs, and from the +reputation he earned in this island, where he was considered very +"jesuited." + +Such being the state of things, it would not perhaps be difficult, without +seeking for further cause, to account for the irritation of a young and +high-spirited King; but there is another factor to be taken into +consideration. + +If we are to believe the testimony of those who on the Queen's behalf +watched the course of events, the real author of the King's harshness to +his wife and of his dislike to her servants was his favourite, the Duke of +Buckingham, whose power over his royal master was so unbounded that he had +but to indicate a line of action for Charles to follow it. This, indeed, +was the deliberate opinion of Henrietta, who years later told Madame de +Motteville that the Duke had announced to her his intention of sowing +dissension between her and her husband, and though it is probable, from +letters of Charles which are still extant, that the French underrated his +independent dislike of them, and consequently exaggerated the guilt of the +favourite, yet the substantial truth of the accusation can hardly be +doubted. Buckingham was acute enough to perceive the naturally uxorious +bent of the King's mind, and also the rare gifts and graces of the young +Queen; and as soon as he discovered that it was impossible to make a slave +of the wife as he had of the husband, he began to regard her as an enemy. +He may well have trembled for an influence which was threatened on another +side by the rising indignation of the people, whose voice did not scruple +to point him out as a public enemy, and even to accuse him of the death of +the late King. + +But there was another reason, equally in keeping with his haughty +character, which the gossips of the time freely alleged for his persistent +persecution of the Queen of England. Over in Paris the Queen of France, +with Madame de Chevreuse whispering temptation in her ear, was waiting for +the man to whom she owed the brightest hours of her shadowed life. Unless, +in this case, history lies in no ordinary manner, Henrietta's married +happiness was put in jeopardy as much by the soft glances of Anne of +Austria, as by the austerity of Berulle or by the audacity of the Bishop of +Mende. Was it not for the sake of this fair charmer that Buckingham, +wishing to discredit her enemies, Mary de' Medici and Richelieu, tried to +nullify the political effects of the match they had made? Was it not that +he might return to France and to her that he stirred up strife between two +great Kings? Was it not, finally, to revenge the smarts of his hindered +love for her that he first persecuted and then expelled those who in the +Court of England were living under the protection of that Court which +refused to receive him as ambassador? To all these questions contemporaries +have replied, and their answer comes with no uncertain sound. + +Buckingham hated all the French, but his chief enemy was the Bishop of +Mende. This young ecclesiastic possessed a stingingly sarcastic tongue, +which the favourite, who, like most vain people, detested ridicule, both +hated and feared. The former had, besides, a malicious habit of insisting +with the most courtly grace upon long conversations in the French tongue, +by which means the Englishman, who was not a perfect linguist, appeared, to +his infinite chagrin, to disadvantage by the side of his nimble-tongued +adversary. Nor did the Bishop confine himself to words. Secure in the +favour of Richelieu he dared to oppose the Duke when that nobleman induced +the King to appoint his wife, his sister,[39] and his niece _dames du lit_ +to the Queen. Henrietta, though she pointed out that already she had three +ladies in place of the two who had served her mother-in-law, yet weary of +opposition, would have given in, and perhaps the French Ambassadors, who +were still in England and to whom the matter was referred, might also have +been won over by the soft speeches of Buckingham. But the watchful Bishop +was not thus to be tricked. He represented so strongly the danger of +placing "Huguenot" ladies near the person of the young Queen, and spoke so +earnestly of the scandal which such a proceeding would occasion among the +Catholics both of England and the Continent, that the favourite's ambitious +intrigues were defeated. He was unused to such checks, and Tillieres was +probably right in seeing in this incident the cause of his hatred to the +man who had thus foiled him. + +Nevertheless, there was a moment when the Bishop of Mende hoped to win over +the Duke to France and to Henrietta. In August, 1625, the first Parliament +of Charles I met. It was in no amiable mood, for it was known that the King +had lent ships to be used against the Protestants of Rochelle, and the +concessions to the Catholics, though nominally secret, were more than +suspected. Charles found himself embarrassed by a request to put in force +the recusancy laws, while at the same time he was angered by an open attack +upon his favourite. Now, in the opinion of the Bishop, was the moment to +offer to Buckingham the French alliance, and in a long cipher dispatch to +Richelieu he detailed his hopes. Spain had turned against the Duke, the +English detested him. What course was open to him but to fling himself into +the arms of the most Christian King? But Buckingham had other and opposite +views. He believed that his best chance of political salvation lay in +counselling his master to grant the petition of Parliament. Without abiding +principle, careless which religious or political party he favoured so that +it furthered his own ends, he thought only of his personal safety. He had +not overrated his hold on Charles' heart. The King of England, to save his +unworthy favourite, bowed to the storm. He put in force the recusancy laws, +thus breaking the solemn promise which he had made only a few months before +to a brother-sovereign, and inflicting an almost unbearable insult upon his +young wife. + +It was little she could do. Earnestly as she strove to do her duty, Charles +was never satisfied with her, and he not only resented unduly the small +errors of taste and tact inevitable in a girl of her age, left without +proper guidance in a land of which she did not even know the language, but +he exposed her to the almost incredible rudeness of Buckingham, to whom he +commented on her conduct[40] and who chided her like a child, and once even +dared to tell her that if she did not behave better her husband would see +order to her. It is not surprising that her temper sometimes failed her. +Once, even in the opinion of Tillieres, she spoke unbecomingly about Madame +S. Georges' exclusion from the royal coach; and another time, in a fit of +girlish anger, she marked her displeasure at the reading of Anglican +prayers in the house where she was staying by attempting to drown the voice +of the minister in loud and ostentatious talk with her ladies outside the +room in which he was officiating. Thus her spirit sometimes rose, but in +the main she was quite submissive, answering sadly and meekly the +reproaches of her husband. + +But this last insult was no private matter, and, urged by Berulle and the +Bishop, Henrietta pleaded for her co-religionists. Her prayers were +unavailing, and only served to anger Charles further. "You are rather the +ambassador of your brother the King of France than Queen of England,"[41] +he said coldly, in reply to her entreaties. Even the diplomatic +representations of Tillieres only procured a slight delay in the +publication of the Proclamation putting in force the laws against the +recusants. + +The wrath of the French on both sides of the Channel knew no bounds. Not +only was the breach of promise an insult to the Crown of France, which was +thus set at naught to "pleasure the views of Parliament," but political +interests were also at stake.[42] In the opinion of Tillieres and the +Bishop, what was needed was a vigorous ambassador to teach Charles his +duty, and to cajole or threaten him into keeping his share of the marriage +contract, "for," wrote the Grand Almoner, with his usual candour, to +Ville-aux-clercs, "you know so well the humour of our English that it would +be superfluous to tell you that one can expect nothing from them unless one +acts with force and vigour." Such attributes were never wanting to +Richelieu's government. Ville-aux-clercs, whom the exiles would gladly have +welcomed, "if we were worthy that God should work for us the miracle of +enabling you to be in two places at once,"[43] could not indeed be spared, +but a substitute was found in the person of "M. le Marquis de Blainville," +who before he left Paris had a long conversation with Berulle; for that +ecclesiastic, whose position had been of a temporary nature, had now +returned to his native land, leaving to fill his office one of his trusted +Oratorians, Father Sancy, a priest who, during a previous embassy to +Constantinople, had acquired a profound knowledge of the world which it was +supposed would enable him to advise judiciously the Queen of England. + +She, meanwhile, worn by chagrin and unkindness, was losing the bloom and +the high spirits she had brought with her from her native land. The +England, which had been represented to her as a paradise, was a poor +exchange for the home she had lost; and when she looked across the Channel +for help, all that came to her was the advice, in conformity with the +intrigues of the Bishop of Mende, to make friends with Buckingham, whose +overbearing rudeness was hateful to her, and on whom it is probable she +never looked with favour, except perhaps at the very beginning of her +married life, when she thought he might help her to revisit, in the midst +of her miseries, her home and her mother. Now she showed herself restive, +and Richelieu, who was much set on the conciliation of the Duke, discussed +her conduct in a note which contains some of the earliest evidence as to +Henrietta's personal character. The Queen of England, he said, was a little +firm in her opinions, and those about her thought that her mother, whose +displeasure she feared, should write a letter to her, pointing out her duty +in this matter. The trouble might have been spared, for Buckingham at the +time seems to have been as little anxious as herself for a friendly +understanding. + +Blainville arrived in the late autumn of 1625. He was received with the +courtesy due to his position as Ambassador-Extraordinary--a title which he +had been given at the instance of Richelieu to overawe the King of +England--but from the first he had little hope of accomplishing the objects +of his mission. The Queen, stung by the harshness of her husband, who +sometimes did not speak to her for days, goaded by the insolence of +Buckingham, and surrounded by those who taught her to despise the language, +the manners, and the religion of her adopted country, seemed to be at the +beginning of the unhappy married life which so many princesses have had to +endure. She was, moreover, more melancholy than usual, owing to the recent +departure of Berulle, which she regretted so deeply that her attendants +were able to count more than twenty sighs as she sat at the table on the +day he left her. The members of her ecclesiastical household were +correspondingly depressed, for the loss of the distinguished Oratorian +exposed them to even worse treatment than they had experienced before. The +Bishop of Mende himself, on whose young shoulders the burden of +responsibility had descended, could not keep up his spirits. He retired to +his room, where he sat alone brooding upon the hard fate which had brought +him to a barbarous and heretical isle, and whence he refused to move except +to perform his religious duties and to wait upon the Queen. + +The King of England was hardly in a happier mood. That he had legitimate +cause of complaint cannot be denied, and a letter which about this time he +wrote to Buckingham proves that he had almost made up his mind to the only +real cure for his troubles. The extraordinarily violent tone of this +epistle suggests that his dislike to his wife's foreign attendants required +by this time no fostering from the Duke. It even seems as if the favourite +were less hostile to them than his master.[44] + +With such a state of feeling prevailing at Court, Blainville's position was +not a comfortable one; but he remained there until an incident occurred +which is believed to have occasioned his withdrawal and which deserves a +detailed description, as it illustrates admirably the petty persecution to +which the high-spirited Henrietta, the daughter of a hundred kings, was +subjected.[45] + +The second Parliament of the reign, whose short existence was to be ended +by the impeachment of Buckingham, met in the early spring of 1626. +Henrietta, who was anxious to see the opening procession, had made +arrangements to witness it from a gallery situated in the Palace at +Whitehall, and she was annoyed when on the very day of the ceremony her +husband told her that he wished her to go to the house of the Countess of +Buckingham, whence a particularly fine view of the proceedings could be +obtained. Still, she was always compliant in trifles, and at this time she +desired to conciliate Charles by prompt obedience in such commands as her +sensitive conscience could approve. She therefore signified her assent +without, however, considering the matter of grave consequence. + +It happened that just before the hour of the procession, when Henrietta was +about to set out for the Countess' apartments, a heavy shower of rain came +on. The young Queen, looking out on the unsheltered court which she would +have to cross to reach her goal, shrank back, fearing for her elaborately +dressed hair, which she did not wish to have done again for the evening +festivities. She told her husband, who was with her, that she thought the +weather too bad to go, and asked him to conduct her to the gallery which +had been her first choice. To her great surprise he was much displeased, +and it was only after a somewhat bitter altercation that he complied with +her request, leading her to her place and taking leave of her with cold +politeness. + +Henrietta was sitting quietly, overcoming her vexation, when, to her +surprise, the Duke of Buckingham, from whose bold eye and arrogant bearing +she instinctively shrank, appeared. Rude he always was in his dealings with +her, but on this occasion he surpassed himself, telling her roughly that +the King was exceedingly displeased with her, and that it was surprising +that for a little rain she should have refused to obey the commands of her +husband. The proud young French Princess could not brook such language from +one of her own subjects. Haughtily she made answer that in the Court of +France she had been accustomed to see the Queen her mother and the Queen +her sister use their own judgment in such trifles. Nevertheless (and in +this her real sweetness and desire to please appeared), she mastered +herself sufficiently to plead a woman's dread of bad weather, and to +request Blainville, who was at her side, to lead her again to her husband. + +Charles was found to be in a less implacable mood than Buckingham had +represented, and Henrietta went off to the Countess' apartments, hoping +that the storm had blown over. She was soon undeceived. The Duke sought her +again at his mother's house, and with unpardonable insolence again assured +her that her husband was very angry with her, and that he did not wish her +to remain in her present quarters. It was too much. Henrietta's wrath +blazed forth. "I have sufficiently shown my obedience," she cried; "but +unhappy me! obedience in England seems to be a crime." Buckingham, who was +bent on making himself disagreeable all round, disregarding the Queen's +protest, now turned to Blainville and remarked in a meaning way that he +believed there were those who from motives of superstition had hindered her +presence at a ceremony of the Knights of the Bath, and that he was +surprised that her friends should be so injudicious. The French Ambassador, +who knew well what was in the Duke's mind, and who had no wish to disclaim +responsibility, replied with spirit that he would rather advise the Queen +of England to absent herself from fifty ceremonies than counsel her to take +part in one which was of doubtful permission for a Catholic. On receiving +this answer the unwelcome visitor withdrew. + +Henrietta had a brave spirit, but the conduct of Buckingham had cut her to +the quick, since it humiliated her in sight of the Court. That night, in +the privacy of her own apartments, she appealed to her husband, whose cold +looks and manners informed her that she was not forgiven. She was, she +said, the most unhappy creature in the world, seeing him thus keep up his +anger against her for so long. She would die rather than give him just +cause for offence, and anyhow, whatever his feelings, could he not treat +her in public with more respect, as otherwise it would be thought that he +did not care for her. Pleadingly the young wife looked at her husband, for +even at the worst she had some faith in the goodness and kindness of his +natural character apart from the influence of Buckingham. + +But Charles, with a heavy pomposity, which in happier circumstances would +certainly have made Henrietta laugh, replied that he had grave cause of +offence. The Queen had said that it was raining, and that if she went out +in the rain she would soil her dress and disarrange her hair. "I did not +know that such remarks were faults in England," was her sarcastic answer. + +The King left his wife's apartments unappeased, and not all her entreaties, +nor those of Madame de Tillieres, whom he regarded with less disfavour than +any other Frenchwoman, could induce him to return. He only sent a most +unwelcome emissary, in the person of the Duke of Buckingham, who reiterated +his assurances of the King's wrath, and informed Henrietta that if within +two days she did not ask pardon her husband would treat her as a person +unworthy to be his wife, and would drive away all the French, Madame S. +Georges included, he thoughtfully added, knowing well that that lady held +the first place in his auditor's affections. + +Such words no woman of spirit, much less a Princess of one of the greatest +houses of Europe, could tamely suffer; but the young Queen, though in a +white heat of passion, seems to have kept her temper admirably. Calmly and +contemptuously she wondered that the Duke undertook such a commission as he +was fulfilling. As for her position, only one thing could make her unworthy +of it, and that she was too well-born to think of doing. Nor was she to be +frightened by his threat with regard to her servants. They would be +retained, she felt sure, not for love of her, but on account of the pledge +given to her brother the King of France. As for asking pardon, she could +not do so for a fault she had never committed. Her conduct had been open +and public, and all around her had praised rather than blamed her. No, she +added, she would not ask pardon, unless at the express command of the King. +Buckingham, whose loquacity for once found nothing to reply, returned to +the King, who, it appears, must, on reflection, have appreciated in some +degree the sorry part he had played, for no apology was exacted, and the +matter was quietly allowed to drop. As for the poor young Queen, she was so +overcome by chagrin and misery that she kept her bed, where she was visited +by Blainville, who thought to cheer her by lending her some letters which +he had recently received from Father Berulle. + +The Ambassador felt that it was time to be gone. He had borne annoyances, +such as the interception of his letters, and insults, such as the continued +persecution of the Catholics, but this treatment offered to the sister of +his royal master was the last straw. The English, on their side, were only +too glad to get rid of him, for they considered that he meddled unduly in +private matters between the King and Queen. It is even said that he was +forbidden the Court. But still, he was not to depart without a final brush +with the enemy, for on Sunday, February 26th, a number of English Catholics +who, following their usual but quite illegal practice, had come to hear +Mass at the French Ambassador's chapel in Durham House in the Strand, were +unpleasantly surprised as they came out after the service to find waiting +for them at the door the officers of the King. A free fight followed, which +was only stopped by the appearance and authority of the Bishop of Durham. +Blainville, who in his irritated condition was not likely to reflect that +Charles, after all, was within his legal rights, was roused to fury at what +he considered a violation of the majesty of France. "I wish," he said +vindictively, "I wish that my servants had killed the King's officer." + +Thus angrily he departed from the country to bear to France the tidings of +his ill-success. + +After this matters went from bad to worse. Henrietta tried to please her +husband, but she always found herself in the wrong, as when, for instance, +she attempted to conciliate him by appointing to the offices created by a +grant to her of houses and lands a preponderance of English Protestants. +She found that her submission was entirely thrown away, because, +injudiciously indeed, she had appointed to the office of Controller, which +was only honorary, the Bishop of Mende. She was curtly informed that the +post was required for the Earl of Carlisle, who was particularly odious to +her on account of the indecent zeal which had prompted him within a few +months of signing her marriage contract to urge the persecution of the +Catholics. Goaded by such treatment, she claimed, with some warmth, the +right to appoint her servants, and thus another cause of dispute arose +between her and her husband, whose unkindness even extended to keeping her +so short of money that she was reduced to borrowing from her own +servants.[46] + +So the summer of 1626 wore on amid misunderstandings and recriminations +until, in the month of June,[47] an event occurred which probably +precipitated the inevitable crisis. + +One afternoon the Queen and her principal attendants, among whom the +courtly figure of her Grand Almoner was conspicuous, were walking in that +which even then was known as Hyde Park. In their walk they turned aside, +and, to the astonishment of those of the public who observed their +movements, were seen directing their steps towards Tyburn, the place of +public execution, which was near the present site of the Marble Arch. +Arrived at this ill-omened spot, the royal lady and her suite fell upon +their knees as upon holy ground, and so, indeed, in their eyes it was, for +was not this spot, wet with the blood of malefactors, watered also by the +blood of those whom a tyrannical and heretical Government had slain for the +crime of confessing the true faith? The airing of the Court had become a +pilgrimage to the unsightly shrine of the English martyrs. + +It was an act of amazing imprudence such as would only have suggested +itself to a man who, like the Bishop of Mende, never summoned discretion to +his council but to eject it ignominiously. It is impossible to say how far +the deed was of premeditation, but it is not unlikely that it was arranged +by the Grand Almoner to give a demonstration to Protestants and to +pro-Spanish Catholics of the devotion of a French Princess. It was even +reported that the stern ecclesiastic had required the pilgrims--Henrietta +included--to walk barefoot; but this, no doubt, was a sectarian +exaggeration. Apart from such extravagances, that which had been done was +in the eyes of the King--and not without justice--unpardonable. Not only +had his wife, the Queen of England, been placed in an undignified position +by those who had permitted her to appear among the memorials of misery and +crime, but a direct and most bitter insult had been offered to him, to his +father, and to the great Queen on whose throne he sat. The Catholics who +laid down their lives at Tyburn with a courage which forced the reluctant +admiration even of their enemies, were indeed, from one point of view, +martyrs of the purest type. From another, and that Charles', they were +traitors executed for the crime of treason in the highest degree. "Neither +Queen Elizabeth nor I ever put a man to death for religion," James had said +on one occasion. This doctrine was one which, in its nice distinctions, a +foreigner and a Catholic could hardly be expected to grasp, yet the hard +fact remained that these victims of Tyburn, however innocent, suffered +under the laws of the land and under the authority of the Crown. + +Charles was wounded in his most sensitive feelings, and it speaks something +for his forbearance that, as far as is known, he recognized the innocence +of his girl-wife, and reserved his wrath for her advisers, particularly for +the Bishop of Mende. "This action," he is reputed to have said, "can have +no greater invective made against it than the bare relation. Were there +nothing more than this I would presently remove these French from about my +wife." + +Their removal was indeed, as Charles had perceived eight months earlier, +the only solution of the difficulty, and to it events were now rapidly +tending. It was necessary to cajole the French Court. Buckingham, even +before the departure of Blainville, had made fresh overtures to Henrietta, +which the astute Ambassador had advised her to reject. After the failure of +this ruse the adroit Walter Montagu was dispatched to Paris to speak fair +words to Mary de' Medici, and so well did he succeed that cordial letters +were interchanged between the Duke and the Queen-Mother, even while, at the +same time, the young diplomatist was able to carry out the more secret task +which had been confided to him, which was nothing less than to discover +whether the state of French domestic politics was such as to make it safe +for the King of England to offer to the King of France so grave an insult +as the expulsion of his sister's household. Montagu's report was +encouraging. Owing to the great favour with which both Queen Anne and +Madame de Chevreuse regarded him, he was able to pick up a good deal of +information which would have escaped an ordinary envoy; he was thus, no +doubt, able to trace in the ramifications of Chalais' plot, which at this +time was agitating the French Court, and in which both the above-named +ladies, as well as Henrietta's younger brother Gaston, were implicated, not +only the general hatred of Richelieu, but even a positive desire on the +part of some to see the Cardinal humiliated by such an affront to his +policy as would be involved in the violation of the Queen of England's +marriage treaty. And with such discontent at home, what vengeance could be +taken? "The cards here," wrote Montagu in great glee, "are all mixed up, +and Monsieur [Gaston of Orleans] is on the point of leaving the Court." + +Charles' decision was taken, and when his mind was made up it was not easy +to turn him from his purpose. He knew, also, that he had the feeling of the +Court and the people with him. English insularity could not brook the +permanent presence of a large body of foreigners in so prominent a +position, and English Protestantism took alarm at a royal establishment +avowedly Catholic, which was considered "a rendezvous for Jesuits and +fugitives,"[48] and whose ecclesiastical head was believed to hold special +powers from the Pope, and to be "a most dangerous instrument to work his +ends here."[49] At the Court feeling ran equally high. Buckingham's +intentions and hopes have been sufficiently indicated, and there were +others who, in a measure, shared them. Carlisle, whose anti-Catholic +bitterness had been conspicuous throughout, and who had cynically remarked +that the religious concessions made at the time of the marriage were only a +blind to satisfy the Pope, and that the King of France had never expected +them to be kept, was statesman enough to appreciate the real objections to +the position in which he had helped to place Charles. There were endless +broils at Court between the two nations, particularly among the ladies. +Altogether Charles, taking into consideration the satisfactory disturbances +across the Channel, was well justified, from the point of view of +expediency, in choosing this moment to carry out that which had +become--even setting aside the desires and influence of Buckingham--the +wish of his heart. He was a man of monopolies, and he believed--and +believed with justice--that the French stood between him and his bride. + +He laid his plans with skill. Carleton, a diplomatist of great experience, +was sent over to Paris, not only to assist in the stirring up of strife +there, but also to complain of the conduct of the Queen's servants, and, if +possible, to obtain Louis' consent to their dismission. In case of refusal +he was to intimate, with such tact as he could, that they would be +dismissed all the same. The vigilant Bishop of Mende, who probably knew a +good deal of what was going on, himself proposed to hasten to the French +Court, where his influence with Richelieu rendered him so effective, to +represent matters in their true light. He was told, to his great wrath, +that the King of England would not allow him to cross the sea, and he was +exclaiming that such threats were the very way to confirm him in his +purpose, and that he would start the next day, when the Duke of Buckingham +sought him, and the two enemies had their last passage-of-arms. + +"Do not run the risk of this journey," said the Duke with elaborate +friendliness. "I am sorry for the bad impression that you have made on the +King. I myself have tried to remove it without effect." "I thank you for +your kindness," replied the Bishop satirically. "It is indeed unfortunate +that your credit, which stands so high with the King in all other matters, +fails in this. But I am not surprised, as I have noticed that it always +falls short in anything which concerns the Queen of England and her +household." + +In the end Tillieres went to France, though Buckingham, stung by the +Bishop's biting words, really asked the King to grant him leave of absence. +But the Grand Almoner now thought that his place was at his mistress' side, +and he knew that it would be difficult to detain the Count, however much +Buckingham and the rest might desire to do so, as there was an unanswerable +pretext for his journey in the approaching wedding of Gaston of Orleans, +who was to expiate his share in Chalais' plot by marrying Mademoiselle de +Montpensier. + +The danger, indeed, drew on apace. A few days after Tillieres' departure +Charles announced his intention to his Council, and any lingering +hesitation he may have felt was swept away by the encouragement given by +Buckingham and Carlisle, both of whom spoke in favour of the project. "The +French," said the latter, "are too busy with their own affairs to make war +on such a pretext." + +The die was now cast, and it was necessary to inform the Queen. The Council +had been held in the Palace of Whitehall, and the King, with Buckingham at +his heels, had only to go to another part of the house to find his wife, +who was sitting in her own room with two of her ladies. The King rather +rudely desired her to come to his apartments, but she, not altogether +ignorant of the state of affairs, replied coldly that she begged him to say +his pleasure in the place in which they found themselves. "Then send your +women out of the room," said the King. Henrietta complied with his request, +and her heart sank as she saw her husband carefully lock the door behind +them. + +Then, without further preface, he curtly announced to his young wife the +sentence of banishment. He could endure her French people and their +meddling no longer, he said. He was going to send them all back to France, +and she would have in their place those who would teach her to behave as +the Queen of England. + +Henrietta first of all looked incredulously at her husband, for she had +never believed, protected as she was by her marriage treaty and by the +Crown of France, that, however dissatisfied he might be, he would push +matters to an extremity. Then, as she saw no relenting on his cold, +handsome face, she burst into tears and wept unrestrainedly. It was long +before she found voice to plead that if Madame S. Georges, whom she knew he +disliked, was too obnoxious, yet that she might keep Madame de Tillieres, +against whom no complaints had been brought. But Charles was inflexible. +All were to go. More piteous sobbing followed, until the poor girl--she was +only sixteen--appreciated that her misery was making no impression upon her +husband. Then she stayed her weeping to make a final request. Might she not +see her friends once more, to bid them good-bye, for it had been intimated +to her that sentence would take effect without a moment's unnecessary +delay. + +No, was the curt reply. She must see her friends no more.[50] + +At this final outrage to her wounded feelings Henrietta's spirit--the +spirit of the Bourbons--rose in revolt. Forgetful of her husband, forgetful +of her queenly dignity, remembering only that those whom she loved were +leaving her for ever, she rushed to the window, that thence she might +obtain a farewell glimpse of her banished compatriots. Such was her +eagerness that she broke the intercepting panes of glass. But even this +poor comfort was denied her. The King pursued her and dragged her back with +such ungentle force that her dress was torn, and her hands with which she +clung to the bars of the windows were galled and grazed. + +Elsewhere dismay and consternation reigned. Conway, the Secretary of State, +announced their doom to the assembled French ladies, informing them that +the King wished to have his wife to himself, and that he found it +impossible to do so while she had so many of her own countrywomen about +her. They were begged to retire to Somerset House, whence they would be +sent to France. Madame S. Georges, acting as spokeswoman for the rest, said +that they were the servants of the King of France, they could not leave +their royal mistress without the orders of the Bishop of Mende, who was +their superior. That gentleman arriving, in obedience to a hasty summons, +did indeed at first assert with his usual hauteur that neither he nor any +of the household would depart without the commands of their own sovereign. +But he was soon made to understand, by arguments which not even his spirit +could resist, that no choice was left to him. That evening saw the French +at Somerset House and Henrietta desolate at Whitehall. It was probably +during the few days that had to elapse before her friends were deported to +France that the Queen wrote the following note to the Bishop, which vividly +reflects her loneliness and sorrow:-- + + "M. DE MANDES, + + "I hide myself as much as I can in order to write to you. I am treated as + a prisoner, so that I cannot speak to any one, nor have I time to write + my miseries nor to complain. Only, in the name of God, have pity on a + poor prisoner in despair, and do something to relieve my sorrow. I am the + most afflicted creature in the world. Speak to the Queen my mother about + my miseries, and tell her my troubles. I say good-bye to you and to all + my poor officers, and I charge my friend S. Georges, the Countess, and + all my women and girls, that they do not forget me, and I will never + forget them, and bring some remedy to my sorrow, or I die.... Adieu, + cruel adieu, which will kill me if God does not have pity on me. + + "[Ask] Father Sancy to pray for me still, and tell Mamie that I shall + love her always."[51] + +Such a letter was not calculated to soothe the excitable Bishop of Mende, +whose spirit had already been roused to fury by hearing the cries and +protestations of the poor young mistress whom he was not permitted to see. +But it was little he could do. His captivity at Somerset House was broken +in upon by the King of England himself, who, with the unfortunate desire +for explanation which was always his, was anxious to point out with his own +mouth to those whom it most concerned the reasons of his action. According +to the Bishop, who occupied his leisure in writing angry letters to the +King of France and the Queen-Mother, Charles acknowledged that he had no +personal fault to find with his wife's servants, but said that it was +necessary, to content his people and for the good of his affairs, that they +should be expelled. This admission, which, if it ever existed outside the +mind of the Bishop, was intended as a courteous softening of unpleasant +truths, did not prevent the King from adding a command (which was obeyed) +that all the French were to be gone within four-and-twenty hours.[52] It +was perhaps some solace to them that before their departure a considerable +sum of money and costly jewels were distributed among them. + +It remained to bring Henrietta, who was still weeping angrily in her +apartments, to a state of calm more befitting the Queen of England. Charles +was not cruel, and when the first flush of anger was over he could feel for +his wife's grief. At first he had determined that all the French, whether +lay or ecclesiastic, should go. "The Queen has been left neither confessor +nor doctor, and I believe that her life and her religion are in very grave +peril,"[53] wrote the Bishop. But Charles, though he was not to be moved by +such innuendoes, relented in some degree. In the end one of Henrietta's +ladies, Madame de Vantelet, was permitted to remain with her, and two of +the priests of the Oratory were granted like indulgence; one of whom was +the pious and sagacious Scotchman, Father Robert Philip, who continued the +Queen's confessor until his death, years later, in the days of the +exile.[54] + +The French were gone, and on the whole, in spite of the Bishop's protest, +quietly; but Charles and Buckingham knew well that they had to face the +wrath of France for this the audacious violation of the Queen's marriage +treaty. Henrietta naturally looked to her own family to right her wrongs, +and she wrote piteous letters to her brother asking for his help, which +show the sad condition to which sorrow and unkindness had reduced the +bright Princess who had left France little more than a year earlier. "I +have no hope but in you. Have pity on me.... No creature in the world can +be more miserable than I."[55] Mary de' Medici could not turn a deaf ear to +such appeals nor to the complaints of the exiles who were pursued into +France by aspersions on their characters not calculated to soothe their +feelings, such as a charge of taking bribes, which charge their royal +mistress, with characteristic justice and generosity, was at pains, even in +the midst of her misery, to confute.[56] The Queen-Mother's remonstrances +to her son-in-law were, indeed, quite unavailing, but they were dignified +and expressed a surprise at his conduct which probably she did not feel, +since, as the English took care to point out, it was not long since similar +measure had been meted out to the Spanish attendants of Queen Anne. With +her daughter she felt the warmest sympathy. "If your grief could be +assuaged by that which I feel at the news of the expulsion of your servants +and of the ill-treatment to which you are subjected, it would soon be +diminished,"[57] she wrote, and she added, perhaps sincerely, that never +had she felt such grief since the assassination of her husband, Henrietta's +father. As for her son, his indignation was such that he would leave +nothing undone that might procure for his sister redress and contentment. +It is probable that Richelieu, with the Bishop of Mende at his elbow, +shared these sentiments. Nevertheless, Carlisle was right. France had too +much on her hands to pick a quarrel with England, even though her daughter +had been insulted and her authority set at naught. All that could be done +was to send another embassy, and this, it seems, was only decided upon at +the instance of the Pope. + +Two persons were joined in the embassy, the Count of Tillieres, whom the +English were believed greatly to fear, and his brother-in-law, the Marshal +de Bassompierre, an elderly diplomat of great experience, whose +old-fashioned elegance of manner was already making him a little ridiculous +in the eyes of younger men who despised the Italian grace of the days of +Catherine de' Medici. In the end this exquisite person had to go alone, for +it was intimated that the King of England would not receive his colleague; +he was rather unwilling to undertake the embassy, and his dissatisfaction +was not decreased by the coolness of his reception in London, which +coolness, as he reminded himself, it was clearly a duty to resent as an +insult to the Crown of France. + +He found matters in bad case. The King was inflexible in his refusal to +come to terms, and the Queen, though she was still depressed and bitterly +angry with Buckingham, showed herself, since the cession which permitted +her to retain Madame de Vantelet and her old nurse, more reconciled to the +change. About her spiritual welfare the Ambassador expressed himself much +concerned, for she was surrounded by heretics, and in place of the +irreproachable ecclesiastics appointed by her brother she had been forced +to receive two English priests, by name Godfrey and Potter, who belonged to +a school of thought which in his eyes, and in those of the Bishop of Mende, +was little less than heretical, for they had both taken the oath of +allegiance, and they had both assured the Earl of Carlisle that they did +not belong to the Church of Rome, but to that which was Catholic, Gallican, +and "Sorbonique," an assertion which particularly enraged Bassompierre, who +saw in it an insult to the French Church and nation. He was probably little +more moved by the accusation brought against one of them by the Bishop of +bracketing together "the three Impostors, Mahomet, Jesus Christ, and +Moses."[58] Only one person showed any cordiality to the unfortunate +Ambassador. Buckingham, thinking on the Queen of France in Paris, felt that +he had gone too far, and decided that it would be well to conciliate +Henrietta. With this purpose he came secretly, through the darkness of the +night and attended only by his young friend Montagu, to wait on +Bassompierre. He complained bitterly of the hatred of which he was the +victim, and inquired plaintively whether M. de Mende were saying as many +disagreeable things about him on the other side of the Channel as he had +been wont to do in England. To the last question the polite Frenchman must +have found it difficult to frame an answer at once courteous and true, but +he promised to use his influence as intermediary with Henrietta, and he was +so far successful that the young Queen was induced to regard the Duke, at +any rate outwardly, with greater favour. + +But the situation, as regarded its real objects, was foredoomed to failure. +Madame S. Georges, the Bishop of Mende, and the Fathers of the Oratory had +so prejudiced Charles' mind that he refused to receive Frenchmen, bishop or +religious, at the Court of his Queen. There was a deadlock, and +Bassompierre, who had made matters worse by his grave indiscretion in +bringing as his chaplain the Queen's late confessor, Father Sancy, with all +his diplomacy could do no more. He was indeed anxious to be gone. The +account of his embassy in England, which he included in his memoirs, is +penned in no flattering spirit towards this island, but the full irritation +of his feelings can only be gathered from the private letters which, during +his sojourn in London, he dispatched to the Bishop of Mende, who was with +Richelieu at Pontoise, watching the course of events. + +"I have found," wrote the enraged diplomatist in one of these epistles, +"humility among the Spaniards and courtesy among the Swiss during the +embassies which I have carried on there on behalf of the King, but the +English have abated nothing of their natural pride and arrogance."[59] + +The Bishop sent a sympathetic answer, commenting on our national character +in a manner which is worth quoting, as it serves to explain the +unpopularity of that fascinating person in English society. + +"I am not surprised," so ran the letter, "that you have found more courtesy +and satisfaction among the Spaniards and the Swiss than in the island on +the shores of which the tempest has thrown you. I myself have always +considered the English less reasonable than the Swiss, and at the same time +less faithful, while I think they are just as vainglorious as the +Spaniards, without possessing anything of their real merit." + +This was not all. A report was about that the Bishop wished to return to +England, and he thoughtfully seized the opportunity to set everybody's mind +at rest on the subject. The English were to have no uneasiness, he was only +too willing to fall in with their wishes. "They will not have much +difficulty in carrying into effect the resolution which they have taken to +prevent my return," he wrote, "for both parties are quite of one opinion on +that matter, my humour (setting aside the interests of my mistress) being +rather to fly from than to invite another sojourn in England. It would need +a very definite command to induce me to live there again, while to persuade +myself to remain here I have only to consult my own inclination."[60] + +So Bassompierre departed, taking with him, as a slight compensation for his +trouble, some English priests who had been released from prison in +compliment to the King of France. And thus ended the last stage of this +sordid struggle which came near to wrecking the happiness of what was to +prove one of the most loving of royal marriages. + +It is hard in such a matter to apportion blame. Charles cannot be acquitted +of harshness and of a certain degree of subservience to Buckingham, while +the act of expulsion was a flagrant breach of the faith plighted only a +year before to a brother-sovereign. But it must be remembered that most of +the information comes from French, and consequently hostile, sources. After +all, the King of England's real fault was that, by his marriage contract, +he had allowed himself to be placed in an impossible position, from which +only violence could extricate him. On their own showing it is difficult to +see how any self-respecting husband, let alone a great king, could have +endured the Bishop of Mende, Madame S. Georges, or even Father Berulle. +They, for their part, had much to complain of, and they saw in every +approximation of their mistress to English customs and ways of thought a +menace, not only to the interests of France, but to the immortal soul +placed in their charge. As for Henrietta herself, she can hardly be blamed. +She was but a child, and it is not surprising that she followed the counsel +of those whom her mother had set over her. The severest thing that can +justly be said of her is that, at the age of sixteen, she had not +completely learned the lesson of a wife, and, above all, of a royal wife, +"to forget her own people and her father's house." + +[Footnote 29: The _Memoires inedits du Comte Leveneur de Tillieres_, +published in 1862, are one of the principal authorities for Henrietta +Maria's early married life: they are very full and vivid, but are coloured +by the writer's dislike to the English, and especially to Buckingham.] + +[Footnote 30: Cf. the following description of Paris in a humorous poem of +the day: + + "We came to Paris, on the Seyn, + 'Tis wondrous faire but nothing clean, + 'Tis Europes greatest Town. + How strong it is, I need not tell it, + For any man may easily smell it, + That walkes it up and down." + +_Musarum Deliciae_, by Sir J. M. and Ja. S. (1655), p. 19.] + +[Footnote 31: _Musarum Deliciae_, by Sir J. M. and Ja. S. (1655), p. 49.] + +[Footnote 32: She had been in Turin with Henrietta's sister, Christine.] + +[Footnote 33: The French Oratory was quite distinct from the better known +Roman Oratory founded by S. Philip Neri.] + +[Footnote 34: See the list of miracles attributed to his intercession in +_La Vie du Cardinal Berulle_. Par Germain Habert, Abbe de Cerisy (1646). +Liv. III, chaps. XIV., XV.] + +[Footnote 35: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 36: The English Catholics were anxious lest she should allow +herself to be crowned by a heretic: Fr. Leander de S. Martino, an English +Benedictine, wrote a long letter to Berulle on the subject in June, 1625, +expressing his anxiety. Archives Nationales, M. 232.] + +[Footnote 37: As, for instance, Sir Lewis Lewknor, an official charged with +the reception of ambassadors: he received L2000 per annum from Richelieu, +and he was particularly useful to the French, whom he did not openly +favour, because, being a Catholic, he received the confidences of the +Spaniards and the Flemings.] + +[Footnote 38: Berulle to P. Bertin, Superior of French Oratory at Rome. +Arch. Nat., M. 232.] + +[Footnote 39: La Hermana y Mujer [of Buckingham] son Eresas muy +perniciosas. Spanish news-letter, P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 40: "My Wyfe beginnes to mend her maners."--Harleian MS., 6988, +f. 5.] + +[Footnote 41: _Verissima relacion en que se da cuenta en el estado en que +estan los Catholicos de Inglaterra, ete Sevilla_ (1626).] + +[Footnote 42: See chapter IV.] + +[Footnote 43: Bishop of Mende to Ville-aux-clercs. MS. Francais, 3693.] + +[Footnote 44: "Seeing daylie the malitiusness of the Monsers by making and +fomenting discontentments in my Wyfe I could tarie no longer from +adverticing of you that I meane to seeke for no other grounds to casier my +Monsers,"--Harleian MS., 6988, f. I.] + +[Footnote 45: Arch. Nat., M. 232, from which the account in the text is +taken: perhaps an account written by Charles or Buckingham would have been +somewhat different: it is printed in an article entitled "L'Ambassade de M. +de Blainville," published in _Revue des Questions Historiques_, 1878, t. +23.] + +[Footnote 46: Bishop of Mende to (apparently) Richelieu, June 24th, 1626. +"La Royne ma maitresse est reduite de fouiller dans nos bourses, si ces +choses dureront sa maison durera fort peu."--Affaires Etrangeres Ang., t. +41, f. 133.] + +[Footnote 47: The date is not certain, it was probably at the time of the +Jubilee, June, 1626: in February Henrietta had written to the Pope asking +that she, her household, and the Catholics of England might share in the +privileges of the Jubilee.--P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 48: Archives of See of Westminster. See Appendix, Doc. I.] + +[Footnote 49: _Court and Times of Charles I_, I, 119.] + +[Footnote 50: Such petty malice was part of Charles' character: cf. his +refusal to allow Sir John Eliot to be buried at his home in Cornwall.] + +[Footnote 51: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41: it is endorsed "copie," and is +perhaps a rough draft; it is apparently in Henrietta's handwriting. "Mamie" +is Madame S. Georges.] + +[Footnote 52: Charles wrote a violent note to Buckingham, commanding him to +see to the departure of the French. "If you can by faire meanes (but stike +not longe in disputing) otherways force them away, dryving away so manie +wild beasts untill you have shipped them and so the Devill go with them." +The French landed at Calais, August 3/13, 1626.] + +[Footnote 53: Bishop of Mende to Mary de' Medici. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.] + +[Footnote 54: The second Oratorian who remained was Father Viette, who +became the Queen's confessor on Father Philip's death. She was allowed to +keep also a few inferior French servants, and Maurice Aubert, who appears +in a list of her servants made at the time of her marriage, continued with +her; he was the companion of Windbank's flight to France in 1641.] + +[Footnote 55: Baillon: _Henriette Marie de France, reine d'Angleterre_ +(1877), p. 348.] + +[Footnote 56: She said, probably with truth, that the money they had +received was in part payment of the debts incurred by her to them: her +statement is confirmed by the fact that Charles requested the French +Government to pay the debts owing to his wife's servants out of the half of +her _dot_, which had not yet been paid.--Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.] + +[Footnote 57: Mary de' Medici to Henrietta Maria, August 22nd, 1626. MS. +Francais, 3692. She wrote on the same day to Charles.] + +[Footnote 58: Bishop of Mende to King of France, August 12th, 1626. Aff. +Etran. Ang., t. 41.] + +[Footnote 59: Bassompierre to Bishop of Mende, October 17th. MS. Francais, +3692.] + +[Footnote 60: Bishop of Mende to Bassompierre, October 29th, 1626. MS. +Francais, 3692.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE QUEEN OF THE COURTIERS + + Let's now take our time + While w'are in our prime, + And old, old Age is a-farre off: + For the evill, evill dayes + Will come on apace + Before we can be aware of. + + ROBERT HERRICK + + +"I was," Henrietta Maria[61] was accustomed to say in the days of her +sorrow, "I was the happiest and most fortunate of Queens. Not only had I +every pleasure which heart could desire, but, above all, I had the love of +my husband, who adored me." The expulsion of her French attendants was the +foundation of the Queen's married happiness. Away from the insinuations of +Madame S. Georges and the gibes of the Bishop of Mende, she began, in an +amazingly short time, to appreciate the good qualities of her husband, to +which indeed she had never been totally blind; and, in the words of Madame +de Motteville, to "make her pleasure of her duty." "The incomparable +virtues of the King," wrote Holland at this time, "are working upon the +generosity and goodness of the Queen, so that his Majesty should soon have +the best wife in the world."[62] And somewhat later an exceptionally +well-qualified witness[63] was able to say that the royal couple lived +together with the satisfaction which all their loyal subjects ought to +desire. + +But still one thing was lacking to her full content. Her husband's nature +was such that his full confidence and affection could only be bestowed upon +one person at the time, and she knew well who held the first place in his +heart and counsels. But she had not long to wait. On August 23rd, 1628, the +knife of Felton ended, in a few moments, the dazzling career of the Duke of +Buckingham. Charles' grief was deep and lasting. He had loved his favourite +like a brother, and he never had another personal friend. But to Henrietta +the news, though shocking in its suddenness, cannot have been unwelcome. +She showed all due respect to his memory, but, as one of her friends wrote +to Carlisle, her lamentations were rather "out of discretion than out of a +true sensation of his death. I need not tell you she is glad of it, for you +must imagine as much."[64] + +Thenceforward there was nothing to check the growth of an affection which +became the admiration of Europe. Charles' artistic eye had always dwelt +with pleasure upon his wife's beautiful face, and her wit and readiness +relieved his sombre nature much as Buckingham's bright audacity had, and +now that the latter's hostile influence was removed, he was so completely +captivated that the watchful courtiers soon perceived that the advent of +another favourite was not to be feared, "for the King has made over all his +affection to his wife."[65] The tokens of his love were innumerable. He +delighted in making her gifts of jewels, of religious pictures, of anything +which he thought would please her. He caused her portrait, painted by the +hand of Van Dyck, to be hung in his bedroom, and as early as 1629 it was +remarked that he wished always to be in her company. Nor was she behindhand +in affection. It is pleasant to read that when the King was away for a few +days his wife lay awake at night sighing for his return, and that, on +another occasion when she was at Tunbridge Wells drinking the waters which +were just coming into fashion, she was so home-sick for her husband after a +few days' separation that she cut short her visit and went home to him, +arriving after a long journey quite unexpectedly. Such little incidents +show that Charles was not exaggerating when, in 1630, he wrote to his +mother-in-law that "the only dispute that now exists between us is that of +conquering each other by affection, both esteeming ourselves victorious in +following the will of the other";[66] and that the virtuous Habington, the +poet of wedded love, was not paying one of the empty compliments of a +courtier when he appealed to the example of his sovereign to enforce the +lessons of virtue: + + "Princes' example is a law: then we + If loyalle subjects must true lovers be."[67] + +Of course the Queen's great wish was to give the King, her husband, an heir +to his throne. But for several years no children appeared, and it was not +until the early spring of 1629 that Henrietta retired to Greenwich for her +first confinement, and even then her hopes were disappointed, for the boy +who was born only lived long enough to receive his father's name. She +herself was very ill; but she showed the brave spirit which never deserted +her in suffering, and her physician was able to report that she was "full +of strength and courage."[68] + +But the next year she was more fortunate, perhaps because, owing to her +mother's representations, she had been induced to take great care of +herself and to avoid exertion. This time she chose to remain at St. James's +Palace, which was considered a very suitable place as being near London, +and yet quiet and retired; and there, on May 29th, 1630, the boy was born +who was afterwards Charles II. The delight of the parents and of the Court +may be imagined, while the people at large, who had not been very anxious +for the birth of an heir to the Popish Queen, now remembering that the baby +was the first native-born prince since the children of Henry VIII, entered +with zest into the public rejoicings, which took the usual form of +bell-ringing, bonfires, and fireworks, and which were increased by a +general pardon and release of prisoners. The christening, though it was a +private ceremony, was worthy of the rank of the child who was the first +prince to be born heir, not only of England, but of Scotland also. It took +place in the chapel of St. James's Palace, in the middle of which a dais +was erected bearing the silver font which the loyalty of the Lord Mayor of +London had provided. The chapel and every room through which the +christening procession had to pass were hung with choice tapestry, while +the greatness of the occasion was marked by the munificent gift of L1000 +which was offered to the nurse. + +It was a happy day for Henrietta, but marred by one disappointment, and +that a great one. It was the King of England's wish that, against the +spirit of the stipulations of his marriage treaty,[69] his heir's +christening should follow the rites of the Established Church. +Nevertheless, two of the baby's sponsors, the King of France and the +Queen-Mother, were Catholics. These and the second godfather, the Prince +Palatine, were represented by three noble Scots, the Duke of Lennox--a +member of a family that the Queen particularly disliked--the Duke of +Hamilton, and the Duchess of Richmond; and the King, with characteristic +unwisdom, desired to pay yet another compliment to his native land by +appointing another Scotchwoman, Lady Roxburgh, to the office of governess +to his infant son. But this lady, who was a Catholic and who, as lady of +the bedchamber to the consort of James, was supposed to have exercised a +baleful religious influence over her mistress, discreetly refused the +offered dignity, which was passed on to the Countess of Dorset, whose +husband was to fill the complimentary position of governor to the royal +child. + +The baby inherited neither the stately beauty of his father nor the +vivacious prettiness of his mother, though he was rather like his +grandfather, Henry IV, whom Henrietta so greatly resembled. But his size +and forwardness atoned for his lack of beauty. "He is so fat and so tall," +wrote the happy mother to her old friend Madame S. Georges, "that he is +taken for a year old, and he is only four months. His teeth are already +beginning to come. I will send you his portrait as soon as he is a little +fairer, for at present he is so dark that I am quite ashamed of him."[70] +And again, somewhat later, her humorous delight in her baby comes out in +another letter to the same correspondent. "I wish you could see the +gentleman, for he has no ordinary mien. He is so serious in all he does, +that I cannot help fancying him far wiser than myself."[71] + +Henrietta's happiness was crowned by the birth of her son, which was +followed as the years went on by that of other sons and daughters.[72] But +apart from these domestic joys, in which she delighted with all the +strength of her healthy nature, her life was a very happy one. To the +pleasures of love she added those of friendship, and she had the art, all +too rare among the great, of treating her friends with openness and +confidence without losing her royal dignity. No sooner were her French +ladies gone than she turned to those of her new country to fill their +place, and perhaps her principal choice was not altogether a happy one. + +No woman of that time was more brilliant than Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, +whose romantic friendship with the great Strafford, which the imagination +of a modern poet has immortalized, is only one of her claims to +remembrance. A member of the border House of Percy, she incurred, by her +marriage with a Scotch nobleman, the serious displeasure of her father, +who, as he said, could not bear that his daughter should dance Scotch jigs. +But her union with the distinguished Lord Carlisle, whom Henrietta speedily +forgave for his share in her early troubles, was to her advantage at Court, +where, in virtue of her ten years' seniority over the young Queen, she +wielded the influence which often belongs to a married woman, who, though +still in the bloom of her beauty, has had time to acquire a knowledge of +life. That she was beautiful her portraits remain to testify; that in the +mingled arts of coquetry and diplomacy she was so proficient as to +challenge comparison with Madame de Chevreuse herself there is ample +evidence in the fascination which she exercised, first over Strafford and +then over Pym, neither of whom were men to be caught by mediocre ability or +charm; that she was cowardly, false, treacherous to her heart's core +Henrietta's simple and affectionate nature had as yet no means of +discovering.[73] + +There was another man of less intellectual distinction whom she had once +been able to lead captive by her charms, but who had deserted her for a +royal mistress across the Channel. The story of her frustrated revenge, +though it rests upon the authority of gossiping memoirs,[74] is so +characteristic of the lady herself and of others who played a part in +Henrietta's life, that it carries with it some degree of conviction, and +moreover has an illustrative value apart from its literal truth. + +Lady Carlisle was not a woman to forgive a faithless lover, even though +that lover were the favourite of her King and had left her for the smiles +of a foreign Queen. She determined to take a delicate revenge which should +punish both the Duke of Buckingham and the Queen of France; and to compass +this end she became one of the earliest of the English spies of Richelieu, +who would be only too glad to welcome any proof of the levity of Anne of +Austria. + +The Countess laid her plans well. She noticed that Buckingham, after his +return from France, was accustomed to wear some diamond studs which she had +never seen before, and which she conjectured correctly to have been given +to him by the Queen of France. She determined to gain possession of one of +these jewels, that she might send it to Richelieu, who would be at no loss +to draw his own conclusions. A Court ball gave her an opportunity, and +before the evening was out she held in her hand the compromising ornament. + +But she was to be outwitted after all by Buckingham, who, whatever his +failings, was neither a tepid nor a dull-witted lover, and who was able to +gauge, pretty correctly, the spite of the woman he knew so well. Taking +advantage of his unbounded power with the King, he obtained the closure of +all the ports of England for a certain time, during which interval he +caused an exact replica of the stolen stud to be made, which, together with +the remaining studs, he dispatched to Anne. The Queen of France was thus +able to produce the jewels when her husband, their original donor, asked +for them, and the accusing stud which the malice of her enemies sent to +Paris was deprived of power to injure her. + +It is not surprising that there were people at the Court of England who +disliked the young Queen's intimacy with Lady Carlisle. That lady, whose +talk with those of her own sex was ever of dress and fashion, had already, +it was rumoured, taught Henrietta to paint, and she would, no doubt, lead +her on to other "debaucheries"; but her influence seemed established. By +the royal favour she enjoyed a pension of L2000 a year, and Henrietta's +affection was so great that even when the Countess had the smallpox she +could hardly be kept from her side. The Queen was the convalescent's first +visitor, and a little later she permitted her favourite to appear at Court +in a black velvet mask, so that she might enjoy her society at an earlier +date than otherwise would have been possible, for it was not to be expected +that Lady Carlisle would show her face in the circles of which she was one +of the brightest ornaments until its beauty was fully restored. Such a +woman could not fail to arouse jealousy. Buckingham's relatives, who served +the Queen, feared and distrusted her, and perhaps her most formidable rival +in Henrietta's affection was the Duke's sister, the pious and cultured Lady +Denbigh, who, distasteful at first, had won her mistress' heart, and whose +long fidelity, which neither years nor exile could diminish, contrasts +favourably with the self-seeking of the more brilliant Lady Carlisle. + +[Illustration: OLD SOMERSET HOUSE + +FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER AN ANCIENT PAINTING IN DULWICH COLLEGE] + +But the society of friends of her own sex was only one among the many joys +which were Henrietta's during the happy years which elapsed between the +troubles of her youth and the storm of the Civil War. For a few months +after the departure of the French her husband seems to have kept her short +of money,[75] but in 1627 she enjoyed the income of L18,000, which was +guaranteed to her by the terms of her marriage contract. Moreover, large +grants of manors and lands were made to her. Thus came into her possession +the park of East Greenwich, whither she was wont to retire when she wished +for country air and quiet, and yet could not be far from town; thus she +acquired Oatlands in Surrey, the pleasant country-house of which nothing +now remains, where she spent many happy days with her friends and children; +thus she was able to call her own Somerset or Denmark House, her much-loved +and beautiful London home which stood with other noblemen's houses facing +the Strand, while behind lovely pleasure gardens sloped down to the still +silver Thames. None of her other houses, probably, were as dear to her as +this, where she kept an establishment befitting her rank as Queen-Consort, +and where she frequently gave entertainments which reflected the taste and +grace of their hostess, and to which she had the pleasure of inviting her +husband, the King. + +Henrietta was not a lady of literary tastes, and in spite of the fact that +the Scotch poet, Sir Robert Ayton, was her private secretary, her patronage +of general literature was confined to smiling on poets, such as Edmund +Waller, who presented her with copies of complimentary verses, and to +receiving the dedication of devotional works, usually translated from +foreign originals. But to the drama she was devoted, and she specially +liked the pretty and fashionable plays known as masques, of which the +veteran laureate, Ben Jonson, wrote a number, and of which a younger poet, +John Milton, produced in _Comus_, the most famous example. Henrietta was +delighted with the great pageant and masque offered to their Majesties by +the Inns of Court in 1633,[76] and even the grave Laud, when he entertained +royalty at Oxford in 1638, provided a play, Cartwright's _Royal Slave_, for +the amusement of his guests. But the Queen's pleasure was not only as a +spectator. As a child she had been accustomed to take her part in private +theatricals acted in the spacious _salons_ of the Luxembourg, where Rubens' +voluptuous women looked down upon the royal actresses. She brought the +taste for these amusements with her to England. The first Christmas after +her marriage she and her ladies acted a French pastoral at Somerset House, +in which she took the leading part. "It would have been thought a strange +sight once,"[77] commented sourly her new subjects. + +But she was not to be deterred from her pleasures. She was always too +careless of public opinion, and, as an acute and sympathetic observer +remarked somewhat later, she was a true Bourbon in her love of amusement. +To a lady whose dancing was something quite unusual, and whose sweet voice +and skill in touching the lute testified to real musical taste, dramatic +representations were naturally attractive. Her second English Christmas was +enlivened by a masque, in which, as her French attendants were gone by this +time, she had the assistance of her English friends. Her own band of +players was always ready, and played for her amusement, now at Hampton +Court, now at Somerset House, and it was owing to her influence and +patronage that theatres increased to such an extent in the capital that the +Puritan feeling of the City was aroused, which produced an order in Council +"for the restraint of the inordinate use and company of playhouse and +players." The playgoers were to content themselves with two theatres, of +which one was to be in Middlesex and the other across the river in Surrey, +while no plays were to be acted on Sunday, in Lent, or in times of common +infection. + +But the merrymakings of the Court became more instead of less as the years +went on. In 1631 the Queen was so taken up with her Shrovetide play that +she had no thoughts to spare for important news which came from France, and +the next year she took the principal part in an elaborate play, _The +Shepherd's Paradise_, which was written for her by Walter Montagu, who +added to his fine manners and diplomatic skill some pretensions (if nothing +more) to literature. This play, which is of the allegorical type so dear to +the heart of the seventeenth century, is indeed a very poor one, and hardly +contains a line which rises above the level of an indifferent verse-maker. +It is, moreover, fatiguingly long, and the Queen must have found her part a +great labour to learn, specially as, notwithstanding her seven years' +residence in England, she was not yet perfect in the English tongue, and +indeed was acting partly in order to improve herself in this necessary +accomplishment.[78] Her companions in the play were her ladies, for not a +man was admitted even to take the male parts. But in spite of difficulties, +when the night of the representation came, everything went off merrily at +Somerset House; all acted with great spirit, and the Queen was able to +speak with playful conviction the oath of the new queendom to which she had +been elected:-- + + "By beauty, Innocence, and all that's faire + I, Bellesa, as a Queen do sweare, + To keep the honour and the regall due + Without exacting anything that's new, + And to assume no more to me than must + Give me the meanes and power to be just, + And but for charity and mercies cause + Reserve no power to suspend the Lawes. + This do I vow even as I hope to rise + From this into another Paradise."[79] + +The author of these lines was in high favour, not only with the Queen, but +with the King, who went out of his way to congratulate his father, the Earl +of Manchester, on such a son. This approval more than compensated for the +castigation of the pastoral by another poet, whose verses, unlike +Montagu's, still retain power to charm:-- + + "Wat Montague now stood forth to his trial, + And did not so much as suspect a denial; + But witty Apollo ask'd him first of all + If he understood his new Pastoral. + + "For if he could do it, 'twould plainly appear + He understood more than any man there, + And did merit the bayes above all the rest; + But the mounsieur was modest, and silence confest."[80] + +There was another slight annoyance connected with the play which was, +perhaps, even less felt than Suckling's wit, for what did it matter to +Henrietta, to Montagu, or to any of the brilliant company, if a +cross-grained puritanical lawyer such as William Prynne chose to insult the +Queen by base and indiscriminate charges against actresses, thereby +bringing upon himself the just punishment of the loss of his ears? + +All disagreeable matters were, indeed, shut out from the brilliant +drawing-rooms of Henrietta Maria, where the hostess set an example of free +amiability at which strict persons looked a little askance. Those were most +welcome who could most contribute by beauty, wit, or conversation to the +entertainment of all. Lord Holland,[81] the most elegant dandy of the day, +was often to be seen there chatting with the Queen about France or Madame +de Chevreuse, to whom he was known to be devoted. Walter Montagu's ready +wit and charming conversation always availed to win him a few smiles from +his royal hostess. Henry Percy was welcomed as much, perhaps, for the sake +of his sister, Lady Carlisle, as for any shining qualities of his own. +Above all, Henry Jermyn, the Queen's greatest friend--and she was a woman +of many men friends--was constantly to be seen at her side, building up a +friendship which only death was to end. + +It is hard to account for Henrietta's affection for this man--an affection +so great that from that day to this scandal has been busy with their names. +Henry Jermyn was not particularly well born, and he was neither radiantly +handsome like Holland, nor clever and witty like Montagu. His abilities, +which were severely tested in the course of his life, did not rise above +mediocrity; his religion, such of it as existed, was of a very nebulous +character, and his morals were of a distinctly commonplace type; indeed, +one of his early achievements at Court was to run off with a maid of +honour. To set against all this we only know that he was a man of very soft +and gentle manners, such as made him a fitting agent in delicate +negotiations, and that when the day of trouble came he showed considerable +fidelity to the interests of a losing cause. That Henrietta should have +lavished on such a man an affection and a confidence which some of her best +friends, both now and later, thought exaggerated, is surprising; but she +was never a good judge of character, and it must be remembered that +personal charm is one of the most evanescent of qualities which cannot be +bottled for the use of the historian. + +That in these happy days Henrietta was one of the brightest ornaments of +her own Court cannot be doubted. Old men, who remembered the later years of +Elizabeth, must have contrasted the forced compliments offered to her faded +charms with the free devotion laid at the feet of this young and beautiful +woman, + + "In whom th' extremes of power and beauty move, + The Queen of Britain and the Queen of Love."[82] + +Her beauty soon reached its prime and soon faded a little, so that in later +days she used to say with a touch of pique that no woman was handsome after +two-and-twenty. Though she was not tall, her figure was good, and her sweet +face with its animated expression attracted all beholders. Fastidious +critics did, indeed, find fault with her mouth, which was rather large, but +they had nothing but praise for her well-formed nose, her pretty +complexion, and, above all, for her sparkling black eyes which, as in the +days of her girlhood, were her most striking beauty; so lovely were they +that the Puritan Sir Simonds d'Ewes was fain to lament that their owner +should be in the thraldom of Popery.[83] + +With such beauty to adorn, no woman, much less a Frenchwoman and a queen, +could be indifferent to dress. Henrietta took a great interest in the +subject, and loved to deck herself in the beautiful robes which were then +in fashion and which we know so well from the portraits of Van Dyck. The +trousseau which she had brought with her to England bore witness to her +brother's generosity, and was so ample and magnificent[84] that it may well +have lasted her life, as trousseaux did in those days. Four dozen +embroidered nightgowns with a dozen night-caps to match, four dozen +chemises with another "fort belle, toute pointe coupe" thrown in for +special occasions, and five dozen handkerchiefs seem an ample allowance of +linen even for a queen, while the five petticoats which were provided made +up in splendour what they lacked in number. The dozen pairs of English silk +stockings, to which was added a dainty pair of red velvet boots lined with +fur, were a luxury to which few could have aspired. But it was in the +matter of gowns that Henrietta was most fortunate. No less than thirteen +did she possess, apart from her "royal robe," and all were very +magnificent, four being of gold and silver cloth on a satin foundation, +whether of black, crimson, green, or "jus de lin," those of the two +last-named colours being provided with a court train and long hanging +sleeves. As for the robe of state, which perhaps is the same as that which +had already done duty at the wedding, it surpassed the rest in splendour, +being of red velvet covered with fleur-de-lis. A heavy mantle of the same +material and colour lined up with ermine was evidently intended to be worn +with it on ceremonial occasions. + +Such toilettes would have been incomplete without magnificent jewels, of +which the taste of the time allowed great display. With Mary de' Medici +they were a passion, and her daughter, though she had no avarice in her +nature and was to show herself capable of sacrificing jewels or any other +material good for those she loved, yet was far from indifferent to the +sparkle and colour of these beautiful ornaments. Many and valuable were the +jewels which on her departure from France were handed over to the care of +her _dame d'atours_, who must have found them an anxious charge. Fillets of +pearls, chains of precious stones, diamond ear-rings, a magnificent diamond +ring, all these were provided for the young Queen, besides such fine jewels +as a cross of diamonds and pearls, an anchor studded with four diamonds, +and a "bouquet" of five petals made of diamonds, together with a quantity +of lesser trinkets, including several dozen diamond buttons to be used as +trimmings for dresses. It may be safely conjectured that the Queen found +plenty of use for a "grand mirror, silver-backed," which she brought over +with her from Paris, and it is not surprising to learn that Father Berulle +thought her rather too fond of dress. + +A very girl Henrietta remained for several years after her marriage. +Politics did not greatly interest her, and her trust in her husband was +such that she turned aside from serious matters to employ herself in bright +trifles, for, to the _joye de vivre_, which came to her from her father, +she added a delight in all that was pretty, which recalls her descent from +Florence and the Medici. She had, also, a taste for the grotesque which was +common in her day, and she long kept at her Court a pugnacious dwarf, by +name Geoffrey Hudson, who, later on, during the exile, caused her +considerable embarrassment by killing a gentleman in a duel. There is ample +evidence of her interest in dainty possessions and amusements. Now she is +writing to Madame S. Georges for velvet petticoats from her Paris tailor, +or "a dozen pairs of sweet chamois gloves and ... one of doe skin." Now she +is receiving "rare and outlandish flowers," or asking her mother to send +her fruit trees and plants for her gardens, whose "faire flowers" she so +cherished as to merit the dedication by Parkinson the herbalist of his +Paradisus Terrestris. Or, again, she is setting out with her lords and +ladies to celebrate in good old English fashion the festival of May Day, +and to witness all those pretty rights of country festivity over which the +withering wind of the Civil War had not yet passed. + + "Marke + How each field turns to a street: each street a Parke + Made green and trimm'd with trees: see how + Devotion gives each house a Bough + Or Branch: each Porch, each doore, ere this + An Arke a Tabernacle is + Made up of white thorn neatly enterwove + As if here were those cooler shades of love."[85] + +Nor was the Queen merely an idle spectator. No sooner did the first snowy +May bush catch her eye than, with all the zest of a village maiden, she +leaped from her fine coach, and breaking off a bough placed it merrily in +her hat. + +In all the revels of the Court Henrietta's was the moving spirit, but her +sweetness of temper prevented her energy from degenerating into +domineering. She was never really popular with the people at large, on +account of her race and her religion, and there were murmurs now and then +at Court about her undue preference for the Scotch. But that in her own +circle she was tenderly loved there can be no doubt. Innocent,[86] yet so +sprightly that she sometimes gave scandal without suspecting it; gay, yet +with moments of sadness which only solitude could relieve; open and +talkative, yet faithful to conceal secrets, "for a queen should be as a +confessor, hearing all yet telling nothing"; sympathetic with sorrow, yet +chaffing unmercifully the _malades imaginares_ of a luxurious Court; +delicate in consideration for the feelings of the meanest of her servants, +yet gifted with a caustic tongue used at times rather unsparingly. Such was +Henrietta Maria, Queen of England. + +But it is time to turn from the merely social and decorative aspect of +Henrietta's married life to consider the interests and intrigues which, +behind the brilliant show, were working and struggling. + +One of the first questions which came up for settlement on the conclusion +of peace between England and France in 1629 was that of the Queen's +household, and the ambassador sent to London to arrange this matter turned +out to be one of those fascinating but factious persons whom ill-fortune +threw so often in Henrietta's path. To make things worse he found already +in England another Frenchman more fascinating and more factious than +himself, with whom he formed a close friendship. The Chevalier de Jars,[87] +whose exile was the result of Anne of Austria's affection and of +Richelieu's dislike, added to all his other charms a skill in the game of +tennis, which commended him to the King of England, himself a proficient in +the game. + +Charles de l'Aubepine, Marquis of Chateauneuf, arrived in London in 1629. +He was a finished gentleman, and he was able quickly to win the confidence +of the Queen whose heart always turned kindly to those of her own nation. +But the ambassador was not slow in discovering that instead of having to +defend an ill-used and discontented wife, as perhaps he had expected, he +must adapt his diplomacy to the requirements of a happy married couple. "I +am not only the happiest princess, but the happiest woman in the +world,"[88] said Henrietta to him triumphantly, while Charles was careful +to show his affection for his beautiful wife by kissing her a hundred times +in the course of an hour as Chateauneuf looked on. "You have not seen that +in Piedmont," said the King, turning to his foreign guest, "nor," he added, +sinking his voice to a discreet whisper, "in France either." + +Such news was gratifying to Mary de' Medici's maternal affection, and +Chateauneuf dwelt in his dispatches upon the kindness of the King, on the +pretty gifts of jewellery which he gave to his wife, and on the general +happiness of the royal marriage. But the real objects of his mission, +despite the personal favour with which he was regarded, were not advanced, +for Henrietta had now no wish to receive a French establishment such as she +had wept for so bitterly three years earlier.[89] She was now an English +queen, and she was well content with the attendance which her husband +provided for her. She confessed, however, that she should like to have a +lady of the bedchamber to whom she could talk in her own language and who +could come to church with her, "for the Countess of Buckingham and Madame +Savage are often away, and the rest of my ladies are Protestants," she +said. + +She took a favourable opportunity of expressing her views to her brother's +ambassador with the frankness she was accustomed to show towards those she +liked. She invited him to stay with her at Nonsuch "as a private person +serving the Queen," and one evening there, after supper, when Charles had +ridden away to hunt, she requested her guest to walk with her in the park, +to enjoy the coolness of the July evening. A long conversation followed. +Chateauneuf spoke to the Queen of the great affection which her mother had +for her, the daughter whom she had kept longest at her side, and whose +marriage was her own work. Henrietta assented, and confessed that the +jealousy she had once felt of her sister Christine was unfounded, but she +quickly went on to speak of the happiness of her married life and of the +religious freedom which she enjoyed. "I do not want another governess," she +declared at last. "I am no longer a child to allow myself to be ruled."[90] + +There were indeed many difficulties to be smoothed if Mary de' Medici was +to realize her hope of bringing her young daughter again into tutelage. +Both Charles and Henrietta saw what the aim of the French Government was, +and they quietly defeated it. The ecclesiastical question, which will be +discussed elsewhere, was, indeed, settled by a compromise favourable to +Catholic interests, but no _gouvernante_ arrived to oust the Countess of +Buckingham, who held the position formerly occupied by Madame S. Georges; +and the doctor, "a Frenchman and a Catholic," who came to supplant the +excellent Mayerne, a learned French Protestant who served Henrietta +faithfully for many years, found his position at the English Court so +intolerable that he begged to be recalled. + +But there is another aspect of Chateauneuf's brief stay in England which +requires careful consideration. The French ambassador was believed to be +devoted to the interests of Richelieu, or else, assuredly, he had never set +foot in the English Court; but even Richelieu was sometimes mistaken, and +the man whom he had chosen to represent him was probably already jealous of +his patron, and already falling under the influence of the bright eyes of +Madame de Chevreuse, the friend of Queen Anne, the ally of Spain. + +It is probable also that Henrietta was beginning to look coldly upon +Richelieu even before she met Chateauneuf, for other influences were +working against him in her mind. The day of Dupes was fast approaching, +when her mother would leave for ever the Court of France. Gaston of +Orleans' persistent hostility to the Cardinal was not without its weight +with his sister. Berulle, whose memory she deeply revered, had died in +1628, summing up the experience of a lifetime in his dying words, "As for +the Court it is but vanity"; it was well known that he was at enmity with +the man who had raised him from the simple priesthood to the dignity of the +cardinal's purple. Taking all these things into account, it is not +surprising that the young Queen of England turned no unwilling ear to the +insinuation of Chateauneuf and the hints of Jars, and the result was an +intrigue which only became apparent when the ambassador had returned to +France, leaving the fascinating Chevalier to carry on the work which he had +begun. + +The interaction of French and English politics now becomes of great +importance. Charles never allowed another to occupy the place of +Buckingham, either in his heart or in his counsels; but at this time his +chief dependence was upon the Treasurer, Richard Weston, who became Earl of +Portland in 1633; a dull, safe man, who could be trusted to prevent the +disagreeable necessity of calling a Parliament. He was, certainly at the +beginning of his career, rather pro-Spanish in his sympathies, and he died +a Catholic; but his aversion from war so recommended him to Richelieu, who +knew that while he held the reins of power England would not interfere in +his continental designs, that an understanding and almost a friendship +gradually grew up between them. + +Henrietta never liked Weston. Perhaps she was jealous of her husband's +regard, and saw in him a potential Buckingham; certainly she disliked his +close-fisted ways, which curbed her extravagance, always considerable, in +money matters. She allowed a cabal of discontented spirits to gather round +her, whose double aim was the overthrow of the powerful minister in England +and of the far greater statesman across the Channel. That cabal, founded in +French opinion by Chateauneuf,[91] included most of the Queen's personal +friends. Holland,[92] who was jealous of Weston, and whose devotion to +Madame de Chevreuse accounted for his attitude to Richelieu, without taking +into account a warm friendship with Chateauneuf; Montagu, who laid such +portion of his homage as he could spare from Queen Anne at the feet of the +same seductive lady, and who had been and was "very well" with Monsieur the +factious Duke of Orleans; Jermyn and Henry Percy--these are some of +those[93] implicated in Henrietta's first attempt at the fascinating game +of diplomatic chicanery. To them must be added Madame de Vantelet, whom +Chateauneuf thought a little neglected, but who, as the only French lady of +the royal household, had considerable influence over her mistress, and +whose partisanship became so marked that the pension assigned to her by the +King of France was taken away. + +The difficulties began with the arrival of Chateauneuf's successor, the +Marquis of Fontenay-Mareuil, who threw himself on the side of Weston, and +who soon found that he had to reckon with a foe in the person of the +Chevalier de Jars. He met with little less opposition from Madame de +Vantelet and from Father Philip, who disliked the ecclesiastical policy of +the ambassador, and who was himself disliked by the party of Richelieu, +because as a subject of King Charles he was quite independent of France and +could not be persuaded to use the great influence over the Queen which his +position gave him in the interests of a foreign Government.[94] The Queen +proved even more intractable. She refused to dismiss Father Philip at her +eldest brother's request, and it was an ominous sign that in 1631 an agent +of Monsieur was in England, even though Charles took care that his presence +should be reported to the French authorities. When the news arrived of the +execution of the gallant Montmorency, Henrietta spoke with pity of his +fate, while her husband, who had many of the instincts of absolutism, +readily allowed that it was a painful necessity. + +Her friendship for Jars continued unabated in spite of the open enmity +which that worthy showed to Fontenay-Mareuil, whose position was only +rendered tolerable by the kindness of the King, who had not yet fallen +under the domination of his wife in affairs, however much he might kiss and +caress her. As for Henrietta, she was openly rude to the hapless +ambassador. She frankly told him that though she was obliged to receive him +in his official capacity, out of respect for her brother, she would not +discuss her private affairs with him, and wished to have as little to do +with him personally as possible. It is not surprising that he was anxious +to return to his own country. + +Nor is it surprising that he took steps to clear himself from the name +freely bestowed upon him. Apart from the clique of Chateauneuf's personal +friends, of whom the chief perhaps were Holland and Montagu, he was fairly +liked at Court, and he believed that, could he but unmask the intrigues of +the Chevalier and of his patron Chateauneuf, he might yet triumph over his +enemies. With this object in view he descended to a trick hardly in keeping +either with his rank or with his office. One evening when he knew that the +Chevalier would be away from home, he caused two of his servants to enter +the rooms of his rival, where they carried on a burglarious search, which +ended in a small cabinet containing letters finding its way into the hands +of the ambassador. + +Jars, as was only to be expected, was exceedingly angry, but he believed +that his influence with the King and the Queen would ensure his redress. +They did indeed take up the matter with great zeal, and, for a few days, +nothing else was talked of at Court. But when Charles came to question +Fontenay-Mareuil, the affair assumed a different complexion. The ambassador +did not attempt to deny the theft. He only said coolly that since Jars was +a subject of the King of France, and since he had reason to believe that he +was compromising his sovereign's interests, he was at liberty to take any +steps which seemed good to him to discover the truth. The King of England +was much struck by this reply, which fitted in well with his own theory and +practice of statecraft. Moreover, much as he personally liked Jars, he +distrusted the political party to which he belonged. He therefore +determined to take no steps in the matter. He showed marked cordiality to +Fontenay-Mareuil, and the Chevalier, to his infinite chagrin, had to submit +to the loss of his papers, which were probably sent to Richelieu to help +forward the disgrace of Chateauneuf. + +For in the early spring of 1633 the Court of England was startled by the +news of the arrest of that nobleman and of the Chevalier de Jars, who had +returned to France after the above incident. In a moment the power of those +who were the Queen of England's friends in her native land seemed +destroyed. Chateauneuf was sent into captivity at Angouleme. His fair +charmer, Madame de Chevreuse, was forced into uncongenial retirement, which +ended in her dramatic escape, dressed up as a man, across the Pyrenees into +Spain. While for Jars was reserved a still harder lot. Two years of +rigorous imprisonment in the Bastille were followed by a sentence of death, +pronounced by one who was known as the "bourreau du Cardinal." It was only +as the victim kneeled upon the scaffold awaiting the stroke of the +executioner that he received, by the tardy mercy of Richelieu, a reprieve +from death, a reprieve so sudden and startling that for many minutes he was +too stunned to appreciate his good fortune, which, however, was none too +great, for he was reconducted to his prison, whence all the efforts of his +friends, headed by the Queen of England, were long unavailing to drag him. + +It was not indeed likely that Richelieu would look favourably on a request +proferred by Henrietta, for he was beginning to feel that distrust of her +which never left him to the end of his life. Among the letters which the +_affaire_ Chateauneuf placed in his power were many written by English +hands, those of Holland, of Montagu, of the Queen herself. He knew also +that the royal lady had spoken slighting words of him, saying that +Chateauneuf was no participant of the evil counsels of the Cardinal, and +that after the death of the latter he would be able to fill his place much +more worthily. This information, moreover, came from an unimpeachable +source, none other than the Treasurer of England. Weston indeed watched +with no ordinary interest the course of events in France, and it is not +surprising that he did not scruple to report to the Cardinal the +uncomplimentary remarks of the Queen of England. The enemies of Richelieu +were his own, and their overthrow prepared the way for his victory, which, +though on a smaller scale and of less dramatic quality, was equally +decisive. + +In the spring of 1633, not long after the fall of Chateauneuf, Jerome +Weston, the son of the Treasurer, was on his way home from Paris, whither +he had been as ambassador. On the journey he happened to fall in with a +letter which he thought to be written by the Earl of Holland, and +remembering the hostility of that nobleman to his father, he took +possession of it. On opening the packet he found within a letter addressed +in the Queen's handwriting, which he did not presume to unfold; but on his +arrival in London laid it, just as he had found it, in the hands of the +King. + +It appears that the letter was of trifling importance, being nothing more +than one of the many which, at different times, Henrietta Maria wrote on +behalf of the Chevalier de Jars to Cardinal Richelieu. But Holland, not +unnaturally perhaps, felt that he had been insulted, and he probably +thought that the King would see in Jerome Weston's conduct an affront to +his wife. In a moment of imprudence he sent a challenge by the hands of +Henry Jermyn to the Treasurer's son, asking for satisfaction. The latter, +instead of sending an answer in the way usual in such cases, informed his +father of what had occurred, and Portland without delay laid the matter +before the King. This trifling incident thus became the touchstone of the +respective influence of the Treasurer and of the cabal which was trying to +ruin him. It was the former who came off victorious. Charles' trust in his +minister was not to be shaken, while he was exceedingly angry with Holland. +To his punctilious mind it seemed intolerable that a nobleman of his own +council should send a challenge to one of his servants on account of an act +performed in his official capacity. His orders were sharp and stern. +Jermyn, as an accessory, was to be confined in a private house, while +Holland was ordered to retire to the beautiful mansion at Kensington, which +he had acquired with his wealthy wife Isabel Cope, and there to remain +during His Majesty's pleasure. All believed that the day of the brilliant +Earl was over, and that his friends, particularly Montagu and Madame de +Vantelet, would share in his fall. Holland House was indeed a gilded +prison, but the prisoner was made to feel that the sentence had not been +pronounced in play, for when he showed a disposition to amuse himself with +his friends, Charles sent a stern rebuke, forbidding him to receive +company. Everything pointed to a complete withdrawal of royal favour. + +But Henrietta, as she proved in the case of Jars and of many others, was a +good friend. She was truly attached to Holland, who was not only possessed +of unrivalled grace of person and manner, but was connected in her mind +with the happy memory of her marriage. Exerting all the strength of her +growing influence over her husband--an influence which was increased by the +fact that she was about again to become a mother[95]--she succeeded in +winning the pardon of the now repentant Earl. Handsome and brilliant as +ever, Holland reappeared in the drawing-rooms of the Queen, and his +accomplices, Jermyn, Montagu, and Madame de Vantelet, seemed to be in as +high favour at Court as before the occurrence of this untoward event. + +But, nevertheless, Portland was the victor. Charles' eyes had been opened +to see the machinations of the enemies of his minister who, notwithstanding +the smothered hostility of the Queen and her circle, preserved his +confidence until his death. Henrietta's first attempt to play the game of +politics--an attempt into which she had been drawn by her friends with +probably little volition or comprehension of her own--had ended on both +sides of the Channel in sorry failure. In France her friends were scattered +and exiled, and the great Cardinal was stronger than ever; in England she +had proved her power to touch her husband's heart, but not to rule his +counsels. + +But other days were coming. In March, 1635, Portland died. As Charles grew +older his disposition to keep the direction of affairs in his own hands +grew also, and as Buckingham had had no real successor so Portland had +none. Instead, his heritage of influence and power was divided among +several heirs, one of whom was the Queen of England. Hardly was the +Treasurer in his grave when Henrietta Maria began to show an interest in +political concerns which she had not previously displayed. + +She was now twenty-five years of age, and her early marriage had brought +with it an early development of character. She had outgrown the levity of +extreme youth, and her acute and energetic mind was beginning to feel and +respond to the stimulus of affairs. She had not lived for ten years with +her husband without being aware of the difficulties of his sombre and +obstinate character,[96] but she knew also his great love for her, and she +was encouraged by the fact that her devoted servant the Earl of Holland had +been restored to more than his former place in Charles' confidence. Perhaps +the hostile influence which she most feared was that of Laud, for whom the +King had a regard not only as an ecclesiastic after his own heart, but as a +friend and protege of Buckingham. There was also another and a stronger +mind from which she instinctively shrank, but Wentworth was far away in +Ireland, and, at the time, seldom came into personal relation with her. But +though it is unquestionable that the disappearance of Portland marks a +change which came over the spirit of the Queen, yet that change may easily +be exaggerated. It was, moreover, very gradual, and only became complete in +the dark days which preceded the Civil War. For the present, though the +instincts of intrigue inherent in the Medici blood were aroused, yet her +chief interests remained those of the normal young married woman, her +husband, her babies, her home. If she entered into political matters, as +she had not done in earlier years, yet her efforts were intermittent, and +two independent witnesses attest with regret the indifference of her +attempts to win over the Ministers of State, and the slightness of the part +which she played in public life.[97] Nevertheless, as the death of +Buckingham gave her ascendancy over her husband's heart, so that of +Portland paved the way for the ascendancy which she gradually acquired over +his mind. + +It was not to be expected that Henrietta's development of character, slight +and gradual though it might be, would escape the vigilant eyes fixed upon +her from across the Channel. Portland's death was a blow to Richelieu, who, +with a European war about to begin, could not afford the hostility of +England. He did not like Henrietta, but he was too acute not to appreciate +that her character was of the feminine type, which is largely dependent +upon personal influence, and he hoped that the removal of Chateauneuf and +Jars would lead to a return on her part to such sentiments as he conceived +to be fitting towards her native land, in other words, towards himself, for +to the Cardinal even more than to Louis XIV "l'Etat c'est moi." When he +heard how all the courtiers of England, and even the Archbishop of +Canterbury himself, were trying to win her favour, he felt that he must +take some pains to recapture her. His schemes--the details of which may be +read in the dispatches which he wrote and received--were not quite +unsuccessful. Henrietta, for a few years, did show a certain friendliness +towards him, and perhaps, had he complied at once with her wishes in +releasing Jars, he might have won her real friendship.[98] Her friends in +England were not neglected. The unstable Montagu, who at this time had +great influence over her, and who was attempting, quite unsuccessfully, to +make Richelieu forget the part he had played in Chateauneuf's schemes, was +rewarded for his shuffling by the offer of a pension, which, however, the +Queen thought it prudent he should refuse.[99] Certainly grievances of her +French servants were removed. Madame de Vantelet's pension was restored, +while in 1637 Francis Windbank, one of the Secretaries of State, who was +becoming involved in her schemes, was delicately asked to accept a present +in lieu of the less respectable pension.[100] + +[Illustration: CHARLES I AND HENRIETTA MARIA + +FROM THE PAINTING BY VAN DYCK IN THE GALLERIA PITTI, FLORENCE] + +But Richelieu, in spite of all his schemes, was by now aware of one fact, +which redounds greatly to Henrietta's credit: he recognized that she would +never be an Anne of Austria, an alien and spy in the Court of her husband, +and that all he could hope for was to win her as a friendly ally who should +counteract in some degree the pro-Spanish tendencies of the King. "The +Queen of England," ran the instructions given to an ambassador who was +starting for London, "shows herself always very well disposed towards +France. But care must be taken, and she must not be required to act beyond +that which she considers may contribute to the common good of the two +crowns."[101] + +For as the years rolled on the union between Charles and Henrietta proved +to be no passing affection born of youth and beauty, but the deep and +increasing love of true marriage. It was as impossible for Henrietta as for +any other good wife, whether princess or peasant, to consider a course of +action apart from the interests of her husband, and those who had dealings +with her had to learn, sometimes painfully, that her first consideration +must always be he of whom she was accustomed to write, with pretty +formality, as "le roi Monseigneur." + +She is considered, and rightly, to be a Queen of Tragedy. But in any +estimate of her life it must be remembered that she had at least twelve +years of such happiness as seldom falls to the lot of a royal woman. If +later she was to find out that + + "There is no worldly pleasure here below + Which by experience doth not folly prove," + +now she was learning + + "But among all the follies that I know + The sweetest folly in the world is love";[102] + +and thus rank and riches, which to the unhappy are but an aggravation of +their misery, could yield to her their truest pleasure. Moreover, she never +had to learn, like poor Anne of Austria, how + + "Rich discontent's a glorious Hell."[103] + +Sorrow, when it came, stripped her bare of the mocking accessories of joy. + +[Footnote 61: In England Henrietta Maria was known as Queen Mary, but she +always used the signature "Henriette Marie."] + +[Footnote 62: _Cal. S.P. Dom._, 1625-6, p. 415.] + +[Footnote 63: Sir Theodore Mayerne.] + +[Footnote 64: Henry Percy to Earl of Carlisle. _Cal. S.P. Dom._, 1625-49, +p. 292.] + +[Footnote 65: _Cal. S.P. Dom._, 1628-9, p. 412. (Dec., 1628.)] + +[Footnote 66: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 15.] + +[Footnote 67: William Habington: "Castara."] + +[Footnote 68: Sir Theodore Mayerne: _Cal. S.P. Dom._, 1628-9, p. 548.] + +[Footnote 69: See chapter IV.] + +[Footnote 70: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 17.] + +[Footnote 71: _Ibid._, p. 18.] + +[Footnote 72: Mary, who married the Prince of Orange; James, afterwards +King of England; Elizabeth; Henry, Duke of Gloucester; Henrietta Anne, +Duchess of Orleans; Anne, who died as an infant, and another daughter, who +also died in infancy.] + +[Footnote 73: Her character is described at length in "The Character of the +Most Excellent Lady Lucy of Carlisle," by Sir Tobie Matthews, prefixed to +_A Collection of Letters made by Sir Tobie Matthews, K.C._ (1660).] + +[Footnote 74: Those of Rochefoucault.] + +[Footnote 75: In 1626 she was in debt to the amount of L6662 16s. 9d. to +various tradesmen; it was her custom, as that of former Queen-Consorts, to +employ chiefly foreign tradesmen and workmen.] + +[Footnote 76: The Queen saw it twice; the music was written by Simon Ivy +and Henry Lawes.] + +[Footnote 77: _Cal. S.P. Dom._, 1625-6, p. 273.] + +[Footnote 78: In later days Henrietta Maria could say with Katharine of +Aragon, + + "I am not such a truant since my coming + As not to know the language I have liv'd in." + +for her children grew up unable to speak French, and Mme de Motteville says +that she had spoilt her French by talking English. Perhaps even now it was +only the accent which was at fault. Probably she never wrote English with +ease. Her first letter written in that language is to Lord Finch; the date +is about 1641. Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 28.] + +[Footnote 79: _The Shepherd's Paradise: a comedy_ (1659).] + +[Footnote 80: Sir John Suckling: "A Session of the Poets."] + +[Footnote 81: He was the Queen's Lord Steward.] + +[Footnote 82: Edmund Waller.] + +[Footnote 83: The following description of the Queen is written by a +Catholic hand: "Seremissima Maria Regina quinque ac viginti circiter +annorum, figura corporis parva, sed venustissima, crine cum suo Rege +consimili [dark chestnut] constitutione corporis prima, de qua hac virtutum +Epitome quod formosissima, quod in aetatis vere, quod Regina, in Aula +deliciis, et voluptatibus affluente, atque etiam Religionibus dispari, nec +vel lerissimam offensionem dederit."--Archives of the See of Westminster: +Status Angliae, 1635.] + +[Footnote 84: The official list of the clothes, jewels, furniture, etc., +which the Queen brought to England and from which the above account is +taken, forms part of MS. Francais, 23,600. Among the furniture are +mentioned "trois tapis de velours" and "deux grands tapis de Turquie."] + +[Footnote 85: Robert Herrick: "Corinna's going a-Maying."] + +[Footnote 86: The evidence of Father Philip on this point is conclusive. +See Con to Barberini: Add. MS., 15,389, f. 196.] + +[Footnote 87: He was in England at the time of Bassompierre's mission.] + +[Footnote 88: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 43.] + +[Footnote 89: In a secret article of the treaty between France and England, +made in 1629, it was recognized by the King of France that it was +inadvisable that Henrietta should have a large French household. Aff. +Etran. Ang., t. 43.] + +[Footnote 90: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 43.] + +[Footnote 91: Fontenay-Mareuil to Richelieu (apparently). "Vos actions sont +en telle veneration par tout le monde que le Roy de la Grande Bretagne +anime d'un si bon exemple s'est enfin resolu de ruiner la Cabale qui estoit +en sa Cour dont il estime que le Roy ni vous Monsieur ne serez pas marris +puis-qu'elle avoit este fondee par M. de Chasteauneuf et sur les mesmes +desseins que celle de France tres prejudiciables aux deux royaumes.... 14 +April, 1633."--Aff. Etran, Ang., t. 45.] + +[Footnote 92: Richelieu thought that Mme. de Chevreuse, swayed by her love +for Holland, induced Chateauneuf to act against Weston, whom Holland hoped +to supplant.] + +[Footnote 93: This clique was considered "Puritan" as against the +"Protestantism" of Portland. See chap. IV.] + +[Footnote 94: "Pere Philippe qui possede la conscience de la Reyne de la +Grande Bretagne est subject du roy son Mary et establi par luy de sorte +qu'il est impossible d'y prendre aucune confiance pour les interests de +France a laquelle il ne se tient point oblige."--Letters of +Fontenay-Mareuil, French Transcripts P.R.O.] + +[Footnote 95: Her son James was born October 14th, 1633.] + +[Footnote 96: "La Reyne de la Grande Bretagne ne fait que commencer aussy a +se mesler des affaires laquelle bienque son Mary layme extremement il fault +de l'humeur qu'il est quelle use de grandes maniers avec luy et quelle y +aille tres doucement."--Letters of French Ambassador (Senneterre). May +24th, 1635. MS. Francais, 15,993.] + +[Footnote 97: "J'ay beaucoup loue et remercie la Reyne de la Grande +Bretagne de son election qui est un esprit qu'elle doive conserver a elle +pour prendre plus de part dans les affaires quelle n'a fait iusques +ici."--Letter of Senneterre, February, 1636. MS. Francais, 15,993. + +"Al futuro applica poco confidata tutta nel Re. Bisogna che prema piu di +guadagnare li ministri dello Stato de quali puo essere Padrona +volendo."--Con to Barberini, Aug. 25, 1636. Add. MS., 15,389, f. 196.] + +[Footnote 98: "... La reyne d'Angletera qul prendra entierement +Vostre party sy vous luy donnez la liberte du chevalier de +Jars."--Fontenay-Mareuil to Richelieu. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 45.] + +[Footnote 99: MS. Francais, 15,993.] + +[Footnote 100: The Queen's Grand Almoner, Du Perron, was the intermediary +in this matter. Windbank's name is not mentioned in Du Perron's letters, +but there is little doubt he is intended. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 46.] + +[Footnote 101: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 46] + +[Footnote 102: Sir Robert Ayton] + +[Footnote 103: William Habington.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE QUEEN OF THE CATHOLICS + + They knew not + That what I motioned was of God; I knew + From intimate impulse and therefore urged + The Marriage on, that by occasions hence, + I might begin Israel's deliverance, + The work to which I was divinely called. + + JOHN MILTON + + +Among all the activities of Queen Henrietta Maria's life none deserves more +careful study than those connected with her work for her co-religionists in +England. + +The French marriage of Charles I represented, in a measure, a compromise +between the hopes of the English Catholics and the fears of the English +Puritans. From the point of view of the latter an alliance with any +Catholic Princess was a misfortune; but, nevertheless, Henrietta was +regarded as a modified evil by those who had feared a Spanish Infanta. +Spain was the old enemy, the land which had sent out the Great Armada, and +which in every way had fostered the most militant and uncompromising +elements of English Catholicism; France, if unfortunately it had not +fulfilled the promise it had once given of becoming a Protestant country, +was Catholic in another and a far less rigid sense, and it was remembered +that Henrietta was the daughter of the man who had been at one time the +hope of the Reformers, and who, if he had deserted his faith with a +light-hearted cynicism not often to be paralleled, had found at the end +that the Mass which gained Paris for him could not save him from the knife +of the man who was believed to be the pupil of the Jesuits. The qualified +satisfaction which was general in England is well reflected in the +following paragraph which appeared in a newsletter when it was known that +the negotiations for the marriage were approaching completion:-- + +"The first tidings of this joyfull newes were welcome unto all except +Jezuited English who have not so much hope to accomplish their ambitious +projects, allwayes hurtfull to the good and tranquillity of this Kingdome +by this Marriage of France, as they had by that of Spaine, since all men +know who know any thing at all, how all true-hearted Frenchmen detest and +hate this cruell king-killing Ignatian order since the death and murther of +two Burbonian Henries kild by them and their accomplices."[104] + +But, on the other hand, the substitution of a French for a Spanish Queen +was a severe blow to the English Catholics. These heroic men who, hiding +their heads "mid ignomy, death and tombs," had kept alive through years of +persecution the faith of their fathers, had acquired something of the +harshness and narrowness which belongs to a persecuted remnant. The more +liberal type of Catholicism prevalent in France was not congenial to +them,[105] and they had, moreover, good reason to be grateful to the House +of Austria. The King of Spain not only permitted English seminaries and +religious houses to be established in Spain and in the Low Countries, but +he even supported some of them with pensions, and during the negotiations +with James I for a matrimonial alliance he showed both his will and his +power to protect the English Catholics at home, where a peace of the Church +was then enjoyed which was long remembered in less happy times. All +persecution ceased, and at St. James's Palace a Catholic Chapel was seen in +course of building, designed for the use of the Spanish Queen who never +came. + +It was not likely that the eyes of Richelieu,[106] which saw everything, +should fail to observe the unfortunate predilection of the English +Catholics for the enemies of France, and there is no doubt that one of the +reasons for which Henrietta was sent into England was to detach them from +this alliance. During the period of negotiations Richelieu wrote a friendly +letter to the Catholic body in England,[107] and the French ambassadors +were charged to do all in their power to win the confidence of its +principal members, and to combat the wiles of the Spaniards, who tried to +persuade them that the French had no true regard for religion. +Ville-aux-clercs, when he was in London, was on one occasion obliged to +attend a service at Westminster Abbey. He was careful to behave with the +utmost rudeness, in order to show the uncompromising character of a +Frenchman's Catholicism.[108] Tillieres took great pains to conciliate the +chiefs of the English Catholics, and to persuade them that his master was +as good a Catholic as the King of Spain. But it was no easy task, and it +was not until Louis XIII had stayed the passage of an anti-Catholic law in +the English Parliament that they began to feel some confidence in him. Then +a letter of thanks was sent to Paris,[109] and even the Jesuits, who were +considered peculiarly pro-Spanish, wrote to express their desire for the +coming alliance. Matters were the more satisfactory inasmuch as William +Smith, who had recently been consecrated Bishop of Chalcedon, and who, in +the teeth of the Jesuits, claimed the jurisdiction of an ordinary in +England, was well known in France, where he had resided for many years in +the household of Richelieu. It was, moreover, with the same object that the +French Government insisted upon the promise to suspend the execution of the +recusancy laws as a _sine qua non_ of the marriage, "otherwise," wrote +Tillieres frankly, "the English Catholics will be lost to France and +assured to Spain."[110] Thus Richelieu's action in this particular fits +into his general scheme of anti-Austrian policy, and he is cleared from any +suspicion that he was actuated by weak religious scruples in thus setting +himself against the Protestant prejudice of England. + +Henrietta was probably not unconscious of the dubious reception which would +be afforded to her by her co-religionists, and her advisers were still more +alive to the necessity of her making a good impression upon the English +Catholics. At first all went well. Those who were unaware of the religious +revival which was taking place in France were surprised at the piety of +Berulle (who was one of the leaders of the revival), and at the zeal of the +Bishop of Mende,[111] who, with great diplomacy, took care to interest +himself in the general affairs of his co-religionists in England. The young +Queen herself, who in Paris had not been remarkable for devotion, seemed on +entering the heretic country to be dowered with a new piety and zeal. She +showed great compassion for her Catholic subjects, and such devotion to her +religious duties that she heard Mass every day, even when she was on one of +the frequent progresses of the English Court, and on Sundays listened to a +sermon and attended Vespers, which was usually enlivened by instrumental +music. "Can such good things come out of Galilee?" was the wondering +question of the pro-Spanish English Catholic; and if he suspended his +ultimate judgment, he at least rejoiced for the time in the edifying +conduct of those whose presence was the guarantee of his peace. + +Even some of the Protestants seemed softened. Henrietta, in her earlier +days, before sorrow deepened and hardened her character, was far from a +bigot, and indeed the daughter of Henry IV never had in her the true stuff +of fanaticism. When just after her marriage some one was rude enough to ask +her if she disliked Huguenots, she answered gently, "Why should I? My +father was one"; and some of Berulle's enemies, "the ministers," presuming +on such girlish kindliness, boasted that in six months she would be at +their preachings. Others, less sanguine, contented themselves with admiring +the decorum of the services to which curiosity led them, and with praising +the outward regularity of the lives of the Oratorian Fathers. Thus the +Catholics had ground for hope, but not for exultation. "These are flowers +of hopes," wrote the cautious Berulle, "but nothing but flowers and, +moreover, flowers surrounded by thorns. These are hopes, but they have need +of a greater maturity in the Queen and more persevering conduct on the part +of France."[112] + +It was therefore the greater disappointment when the persecution of 1625 +fell. Nor was it a slight and passing storm. Never, even in the days of +Edward VI or Elizabeth, had the Catholics been in such evil case, except +that the death penalty, to which the King had an invincible repugnance, was +not exacted.[113] But the most loyal of laymen, such as the Marquis of +Winchester, suffered in their goods, while the prisons became veritable +cloisters of religious. It is not surprising that the persecuted contrasted +the peace and security of the days of mere negotiations with Spain with the +misery brought about by a consummated marriage with France, or that +Richelieu and his emissaries in England ground their teeth with rage to see +those whom they had hoped to capture flung back again into the arms of His +Catholic Majesty. + +Henrietta herself, though much distressed, did not despair. She had already +discovered that her husband was naturally inclined to mercy, and she knew +that persecution was to a great extent a financial expedient to fill the +empty coffers of the State. Young as she was, she understood the task to +which, religiously speaking, her marriage had called her,[114] for the +performance of which the papal dispensation had been granted, and of which +the importance had been impressed upon her by her mother, by Berulle, and +by the Bishop of Mende, all of whom saw in her another Bertha who was to +effect a new conversion of England. Even in the dark days of April, 1626, +she did not falter. She was praying, she wrote to the Pope, who had +honoured her with a Brief, not only that she might stand firm in the true +religion, but that also she might "procure all the peace and comfort which +I can for the Catholics of the Kingdoms, hoping that the natural goodness +of the King my Lord, touched by a holy inspiration and by my ardent +prayers, will produce some sweet and favourable effect for their comfort. +And although up to now there has been little fruit of my endeavours, yet I +promise myself that my persevering constancy, aided by divine assistance, +will not always be useless to them."[115] + +The first step towards a better state of things was the reconstruction of +the Queen's religious establishment which had been so abruptly broken up. +Charles was at first quite obdurate to the requests of the French +Government, and refused not only to receive a Bishop as Grand Almoner,[116] +but even to entertain the idea of the establishment of a religious Order in +England. But in this case, as in many others, he was talked over. Years +before, in Spain, he had been acquainted with some Capuchin Fathers who had +impressed him by their good sense and piety. The Order was a humble one, +not likely to mix in politics, and eventually he intimated that he would be +willing to receive some of its members in the capacity of chaplains to his +wife. + +But difficulties arose. The two Fathers of the Oratory, who were still in +England, had been drawn into the intrigues of Chateauneuf, and Father +Philip was considered almost an enemy of France. The Capuchins, on the +other hand, were under the protection of Fontenay-Mareuil, and they quite +expected to see the members of the rival congregation expelled and the path +left clear for themselves. + +It was, therefore, a grave disappointment, when, on their arrival in +England, they found that the Queen had no intention of changing her +confessor, of whose long-headed Scotch prudence she had a just +appreciation. The poor Capuchins, with a certain Father Leonard at their +head, were subjected to considerable annoyances from the Chateauneuf clique +and the Fathers of the Oratory,[117] who were more men of the world than +they, did not scruple to show a refined contempt for them. So uncomfortable +were they that but for the support of Fontenay-Mareuil they would almost +have returned to France. + +But they were cheered by the courtesy of the Queen. Henrietta, in spite of +her refusal to submit to their direction, received them with all kindness, +and settled them in her own establishment at Somerset House, where, to +their great satisfaction, they were permitted to wear the religious habit. +They were indeed simple men, so simple that she showed her wisdom in +seeking a confessor elsewhere than among them; but they were zealous and +disinterested, and, if at times they attempted to impose upon the ungodly +Protestant by a profession of greater austerity than that actually +practised, there was no sham in their labours among the sick and poor of +plague-stricken London, or in their devotion to their religious +duties.[118] They, on their side, became much attached to Henrietta, and it +is to the pen of one of them, Father Cyprien de Gamache, who in his old age +wrote his memoirs of the English mission, that we owe many curious +particulars of the Queen's life.[119] + +With the Capuchins came a more distinguished person, who shared with them +for a while the dislike of Chateauneuf's friends. + +Jacques de Nowell du Perron, a nephew of the famous Cardinal of that name, +who had had much to do with the conversion of the Queen's father, came to +London as the successor of the Bishop of Mende, but no two men could have +been less alike, and perhaps du Perron was selected because Richelieu had +learned by experience that "surtout point de zele" was a sound maxim in +dealing with heretics. Certainly the second Grand Almoner of Henrietta +Maria was as much liked as the first had been detested. A man of the +softest manners, "neutral in every question whatsoever,"[120] as a stronger +spirit said of him with a touch of contempt, he knew not only how to keep +the favour of the French authorities who had sent him to England, but how +to win that of Charles, whom he charmed by his flow of interesting talk, +and of the Protestant public, who so respected the regularity of his life +and the moderation of his conduct, that even on the eve of the Civil War he +was regarded "as among the hated the least so."[121] There were moments +when his task of serving many masters was difficult, as when his courtier's +soul was vexed because, by obeying Henrietta's commands to officiate at a +service of welcome to her mother,[122] he offended his patrons in Paris; +but in the main his conduct met with its due reward. It was no small +tribute to his tact and prudence that he so far obliterated from the mind +of Charles the memory of the Bishop of Mende that he permitted him, in +1637, to accept the Bishopric of Angouleme without forfeiting his position +as Grand Almoner of the Queen. He went off to France to be consecrated, and +returned to England with all the dignity of episcopal rank. + +It fell to the lot of this courtly ecclesiastic to officiate at one of the +most picturesque ceremonies of Henrietta's London life. Among the unkept +stipulations of the marriage contract was a provision for the building of a +chapel for the Queen's use. Henrietta, at her first coming, had been +obliged to content herself with a small and mean room in which her +chaplains, as best they might, celebrated divine service. It was not until +1632[123] that she had so won her husband's heart as to wring from him by +prayers and caresses, and sometimes even by tears, permission to build a +church for her Capuchins, which should be at once a memorial of her +religious zeal and a thank-offering for her married happiness, which now +had been crowned by the birth of her little son. + +On September the 14th the foundation-stone was laid. The site of the new +building, which was the tennis courtyard of Somerset House, was fitted up +as a temporary church with tapestries for walls and stuffs of great price +for roof. A large and brilliant company, numbering at least two thousand +persons, was present, while at the beautifully decked altar stood M. du +Perron to sing a Mass, which was accompanied by rare voices and choice +instrumental music, and at which the attendant ceremonies were so +magnificent that a Frenchman who happened to be present confessed[124] that +nothing more splendid could be seen at Notre-Dame de Paris, even when a +King of France honoured that cathedral with his presence. The Mass ended, +Henrietta stepped forward, handed by her brother's ambassador, M. de +Fontenay-Mareuil, to whom the establishment of the Capuchins was so largely +due. A trowel delicately fringed with velvet was offered to her, together +with mortar served in a silver-gilt bowl. Thrice she threw the mortar on to +the stone of foundation, which was then lowered into its place, bearing on +a plate an inscription telling how she, the Queen of England and the +daughter of France, had founded this temple for the honour of Catholicism +and for the use of her servants the Capuchin Fathers. + +This was one of Henrietta's brightest days, in which she tasted the joy her +disappointed life knew so seldom, of seeing a happy result of her works and +prayers. It began by a devout confession and reception of the Eucharist. It +ended with cannon and fireworks and every sign of public rejoicing. So +cordial seemed the attitude of the London populace that the rosiest hopes +for the future were entertained, specially by the French,[125] who would +have welcomed the conversion of England by a French Queen as a delicate +triumph, not only over the heretic, but over the Spaniard.[126] These +sanguine persons did not go about in the streets and taverns of the city to +hear, under the official rejoicings, the curses, "not loud but deep," of +the Puritan citizens. + +The Queen's workmen, whom she encouraged by kind words and good pay, must +have worked with energy, for by the middle of December in the same year the +church was ready for use. It was modelled on that begun for the Spanish +Infanta at St. James's, though, perhaps in view of possible developments, +it was of a larger size than the original. The opening ceremonies were +comparable in splendour to those of the foundation. Many Protestants were +attracted thither by curiosity to admire its beautiful furnishings, among +which perhaps was already to be seen the splendid specimen of the art of +Rubens, which is known to have adorned the high altar in later days. Even +the King came in to see the great attraction, a construction about forty +feet high, which the ingenuity of a young Roman architect who happened to +be in London had fashioned into a representation of Paradise, wherein, +guarded by sculptured angels and prophets, and blazing with innumerable +lights, reposed the Sacred Host. Taking into account these splendours, it +is not perhaps surprising that those who on this happy day turned their +eyes toward the kneeling figure of the royal foundress saw stealing down +her cheeks the happy tears of an emotion she could not restrain. She had +indeed cause for self-congratulation, for already the hopes which had +cheered her in her dark days were beginning to be realized. + +Henrietta never laid aside the devout habits which Berulle had taught her, +and which--no doubt with much anxiety in his mind--he again inculcated in +1627 in a pious letter which he wrote and to which the Queen-Mother put her +name.[127] She was indeed sometimes inclined to lie in bed in the morning +so late that Mass could not be said till midday, but her excellent husband, +who desired her to be as precise in her religious duties as he was in his +own, was not slow to chide gently this laxity, so that her regularity of +attendance became the admiration of all. At each festival she received the +Sacrament of Penance, and communicated with such devotion that her fervour +astonished not only her fellow-worshippers, but her spiritual advisers. In +matters of fasting she was very strict, only asking for a dispensation when +there was real need, in spite of the specious advice of her heretic +physician Mayerne, who urged her to take meat on Fridays and Saturdays, "an +indulgence," as a Frenchman justly remarked, "which would be of little +account in France, but in England, and in the person of the Queen, +appearances must be kept up."[128] + +To all these virtues she added a zeal for her faith which, if still checked +by the girlish levity which easily turned from religious as from political +matters, was sufficiently urgent both to champion her faith in Protestant +circles and to plead for her oppressed co-religionists, so that with the +growth of her influence over her husband grew their peace and prosperity. +It is true that for a year or two after the expulsion of the French the +persecution continued, and was, particularly in Scotland, at one time very +fierce,[129] so that it was noted with malicious satisfaction that the +Queen fell into her premature travail on the very day that her husband had +signed a decree against the Catholics of his northern kingdom; but it so +quickly and thoroughly abated that in 1633 a Roman correspondent in London +was able to declare that never before had Catholics been less +molested.[130] Not only were priests permitted to live undisturbed in the +capital, but English Catholics were allowed to attend the chapels of the +Queen and the ambassadors, a privilege which Richelieu had vainly +endeavoured to win for them at the time of the royal marriage, and which +the King had angrily refused to the Queen's entreaties only a year or two +before. "I permit you your religion," he had said to her on that occasion, +"with your Capuchins and others. I permit ambassadors and their retinue, +but the rest of my subjects I will have them live that I profess and my +father before me." The Catholics were so encouraged by the lenity now shown +that in the course of this same year, on the occasion of Charles' +coronation in Scotland, they presented to him a petition pleading for +toleration and urging him to follow the example of his father-in-law, Henry +the Great, who, by granting religious liberty, had won for himself the +title of Pater Patriae et Pacis Restitutor.[131] + +That the softening of Charles' heart was due to his wife is indisputable, +though her unfortunate hostility to Portland prevented her from utilizing +the influence of that statesman, who was a Catholic at heart.[132] "The +Queen is not unmindful to press the Catholic cause with the King as often +as opportunity permits," writes a Catholic reporter[133] as early as 1632. +The mere turning over of the State papers of these years reveals ample +evidence of her activity. A priest who had languished seven years in the +Clink prison, Catholic prisoners at York, another priest who for five years +had lain in Newgate, these are some of the recipients of her mercy, taken +from the records of little more than a year. "A great Princess," wrote Du +Perron of her in a letter which he dispatched to Rome in 1635, "by whom +religion exists in this Kingdom, and who is the refuge of the poor +Catholics, who, thanks to God and by the clemency of the King, whom this +virtuous Princess has inclined in our favour, have enjoyed during the four +years I have been here a greater liberty than has ever been seen since the +change of religion, and which we hope will continually increase, provided +that it please God to preserve the King and to favour the good designs of +our Mistress."[134] + +In London Catholicism became almost fashionable. The Queen's new chapel at +Somerset House,[135] where an urbane sermon by the eloquent du Perron might +sometimes be heard, was often visited by Protestants, of whom some, like +the astrologer Lilly, were drawn by curiosity, while others came from more +mixed motives. The Capuchin Fathers and their rivals the Oratorians +received many visitors who came to discuss religious matters, not a few of +whom were inclined by the engaging arguments of their hosts to abjure the +heresy of their birth, so that little by little an imposing list of +converts was compiled.[136] Sometimes the good Capuchins would open their +monastery to the Protestant public, and, arranging it a little more +ascetically[137] than usual, to impress the heretics, would thus help on +the cause of the faith among those who flocked to see them as if, says +Father Cyprien pathetically, they had been Indians, Malays, or savages. At +the chapels of the ambassadors and at Somerset House English sermons were +preached for the edification of the English Catholics and of the more +interesting Protestant visitors. Dispensations from the action of the +recusancy laws were given by the Crown in such numbers as to alarm the +Puritans.[138] The recusants were relieved of part[139] of the financial +burden which the law bound upon them, and, above all, it began to be +whispered that the King, whose devotion to his wife was well known, was +beginning to look with favour upon the Catholics. His objection to them had +always been political rather than religious, and was based upon his +suspicion of their loyalty and upon his dread of the deposing power claimed +by the Pope. Henrietta's constant endeavour was to disabuse her husband's +mind of this, perhaps not unreasonable, prejudice. She met with fair +success, so that a Catholic writer felt able to describe Charles as a +"Prince of most milde and sweet disposition," who suffered the partial +execution of the recusancy laws rather from political and financial than +from religious reasons, and whose "great ornaments of God and Nature doe in +a manner foretell that one day he shall restore this country to its former +happiness, and himself become the most glorious and most renowned Monarch +that ever did governe among us."[140] There was, of course, only one way by +which this happy consummation could be attained, and already some sanguine +spirits were beginning to think of another and happier Pole reconciling +England anew to the Holy See. + +And there were other and perhaps more solid grounds for hopes in the +changing character of the Anglican Church, which about this time was +attracting great attention among a certain school of Catholics. The results +of the Elizabethan settlement were becoming apparent, and the two great +parties, known then as Protestant and Puritan, now as High Church and Low +Church, were beginning to stand out clearly. Liberal-minded Catholics, some +of them converts from the English Universities, were learning, what the +narrower type of Seminarist refused to recognize, the wide gulf which +yawned between an Anglican "Protestant" and a continental Sectary. Already +in the days of James a French priest[141] of Ville-aux-clercs' train was +surprised by the decorum of the liturgy at Westminster Abbey, and roundly +abused as liars the English Catholics of the Continent who had drawn fancy +pictures of Anglican services. The religious revival, with which the name +of Laud is associated, emphasized every Catholic element yet remaining in +the Church of England. It was barely a century since the schism. Berulle, +living in London or at the Court, regarding all with unfriendly and +prejudiced eyes, might be surprised at the total absence of all sign or +memory of the old religion. But had a man of sympathy gone about among the +people, or sought the lonely valleys of Yorkshire and the remote villages +of Devon and Cornwall, he would have told another tale of lingering +superstitions, of ancient customs which had their root in Catholic +practices. Such a man as Bishop Andrewes, who died in old age in 1626, and +who was the master of Laud, is a witness that the Church revival of the +seventeenth century was no more a complete innovation than that of the +nineteenth century, which is associated with the names of the Tractarians, +to which, in many respects, it bears so close a resemblance. But under the +patronage of the King and the Archbishop the movement developed rapidly. +Altars were set up, decked in Catholic fashion, in most of the cathedrals +and in many parish churches; Latin services were read at Oxford and +Cambridge; books were published, such as Anthony Stafford's _Female Glory_, +which might have been written by Catholic pens; a desire for a return to +Catholic discipline, of which perhaps the most interesting manifestation +was the Protestant nunnery at Little Gidding, was apparent in earnest +Churchmen; and, above all, not only did a considerable number of +conversions take place, but some of those who remained in the Anglican +fold, like Bishop Goodman of Gloucester and Bishop Montague of Chichester, +became enamoured of the haunting dream of corporate reunion. It is not +surprising that Catholics and Puritans alike should have seen in the whole +movement a tendency to a reversal of the Reformation settlement, and should +equally have failed to distinguish between the staunch Anglicans, of whom +Laud was the leader, and the advance-guard which really was looking to +Rome. The Queen herself believed that Laud[142] was a good Catholic at +heart, and there is no doubt that overtures were made to him by Catholics, +while the more liberal-minded of that communion, recalling to the Pope the +example of his great predecessor St. Gregory, who "did yeeld somewhat to +the Britans before he could work their conversion," urged upon him the +expediency of meeting half-way those erring children who already believed +"the Pope of Rome to be cheefe and supreame Pastor," and of a little +condescending "unto their weakness, whome unhappy errors have made +infirme."[143] + +Urban VIII, to whom this appeal was addressed, was one of those decorous +ecclesiastics whom the counter-reformation had substituted for the more +picturesque figures of Renaissance Rome. He had a kindness for Henrietta, +whom he had seen when she was a baby and he was Nuncio in the French +capital, on which occasion the Queen-Mother had replied to his courteous +augury that the little Princess would one day be a great Queen in the +prophetic words, "That will be when you are Pope." He felt a real interest +in England, which he had shown in a somewhat equivocal way when, incited by +Berulle, he had urged France and Spain in 1628 to unite in attacking the +faithless King of England. Circumstances, however, were now changed, and he +was anxious to commend himself to Charles and Henrietta. His nephew +Francesco Barberini, the Cardinal Protector of England, who shared with him +the considerable, if misdirected, artistic taste of the family,[144] was +equally alive to the opportunities of the hour, and he showed the King of +England from time to time such attentions as were most acceptable to a +monarch who was not only the patron of Rubens and Van Dyck, but was himself +one of the best judges of art in Europe. Barberini allowed a large number +of statues and pictures to be exported from Rome to England, while he sent +over as gifts choice pictures painted by Leonardo and Correggio and other +masters of the Renaissance, together with a Bacchus by the hand of the +still living Guido Reni, "understanding that His Majesty was a great +admirer of such curiosities."[145] Finally, he induced the haughty Bernini +to sculpture the busts of the King of England and of his Queen, in which +task the great sculptor is said to have read a tragic fate in the long, +melancholy lines of the countenance of Charles Stuart. + +But the more serious results of the intercourse between Rome and +England--results which had no small influence on future events--touched +another side of Henrietta's dealings with the English Catholics. + +The history of the Catholic Church in England, from the Reformation +onwards, is a curious mixture of heroic endurance and of sordid squabbles +among those who, in the face of a common enemy, should have shown above all +an united front. The disputes which raged between the secular clergy and +the religious Orders on the subject of Episcopal jurisdiction were at an +acute stage when Henrietta came into England, and in the course of the next +few years the feeling became so bitter on both sides that the seculars did +not scruple to accuse the Jesuits, the protagonists of the regulars, of +heinous crimes, such as the instigation of the Powder Plot,[146] while +these latter, in their turn, are said to have taken their revenge by +disseminating information important to the Government which led to the +banishment of the Bishop of Chalcedon.[147] + +It was only natural that each party should desire the favour of the young +Queen. The Jesuits, who commanded the larger following among the English +Catholics, were the more objectionable to the Government and the nation, +who considered them meddlers in matters of State, and who remembered, with +a vividness not decreased by the Powder Plot, the career and the writings +of Father Robert Parsons. Charles' dislike of them[148] was inherited from +his father, who on one occasion broke off a conversation most favourable to +the Catholics to assert that never should a daughter-in-law of his be under +Jesuit direction. Another person whose opinion was likely to weigh with +Henrietta, Father Berulle, had so Protestant a hatred of the Society that +in 1628 he used his powerful influence to prevent the dispatch to England +of a Grand Almoner[149] who was believed to regard it with favour. The +daughter of Henry IV must surely have felt an antipathy as strong as that +of any Stuart for those whom many held responsible for her father's murder. +In short, the secular clergy had some reason for hope, even setting aside +the fact that the Jesuits were the soul of the pro-Spanish party which +dominated English Catholicism, while they, under their pro-French Bishop, +had a certain leaning to France, of which they were prepared to make the +most now that a French Queen sat upon the throne of England. + +It was a blow to these worthy men that they were not permitted to serve the +Queen's chapel, for which office they possessed, certainly in their own +eyes, every qualification.[150] It was a greater blow when, owing doubtless +to the machinations of the Jesuits, the Bishop of Chalcedon was +banished.[151] But, after all, this untoward event took place while the +Queen's influence was still small. As it grew, and with it the general +prosperity of the Catholics, the secular clergy took heart again. + +Henrietta cared little or nothing for Bishop Smith personally, and his +connection with Richelieu was by this time small recommendation to her. But +it galled her pride that whereas there had been a Bishop in England on her +arrival now there was none, and she probably believed, what even the +cautious Du Perron on one occasion admitted, that the regulars were jealous +of her as a Frenchwoman, and unwilling that she should have too great +honour as a mother in Israel. It was whispered among the secular clergy +that the Queen was "all for the Bishop and his jurisdiction" in spite of +the efforts of the Jesuits to win over not only her, but Father Philip. +Their hopes were not unfounded. Henrietta was so far roused as to write a +strongly worded letter to the Pope on behalf of the Bishop, who was out of +favour not only with the English Government, but with the authorities at +Rome. She begged the Holy Father to restore "this good father to his +children,"[152] and she entreated him, in words that are no obscure hit at +the Jesuits and their friends the English Catholics, not to allow so good a +prelate to be oppressed by those who regarded their own interest rather +than the good of religion and the union of Catholics. To strengthen her +appeal she dispatched a letter at the same time to her brother's ambassador +in Rome, asking him[153] to use his influence in the matter. She knew that +the Bishop was a _persona grata_ at the French Court, where his +elevation to the Cardinalate was at one time desired. + +Henrietta's intervention effected nothing, and Richard Smith lived and died +in an exile which was due at least as much to his fellow-Catholics as to +his Protestant oppressors. But in the year following she was engaged in +negotiations with the Papacy as fruitful as these had been abortive. + +In 1633 a Scotch gentleman, by name Sir Robert Douglas,[154] appeared in +Rome. He was a cousin of the Earl of Angus, a noted Scotch Catholic, and he +was the bearer of letters from that nobleman to the Pope. But there were +other and greater people responsible for his presence. Behind Angus stood +the Queen of England, and behind the Queen stood her husband the King, +though, as the emissary carefully explained, the latter could not openly +appear in the affair, as he was not yet reconciled to the Catholic Church. + +Douglas was one of those sanguine Catholics who believed Charles' +conversion to be a matter of a short delay, and that then the whole nation, +weary of heresy, would be only too glad to walk contentedly in the path to +heaven in obedience to the Holy See. He drew a rosy picture of these +prospects and of the Queen's virtues and piety as he proceeded to unfold +the object of his mission, which was to induce the Pope to bestow a +Cardinal's hat upon a subject of the King of England. He was even kind +enough to spare the Holy Father the trouble of selection by indicating a +certain George Con, a Scotch gentleman in the service of Barberini, as a +worthy recipient of the honour. The nationality of this person, he hastened +to point out, was all in his favour. Not only was the King's partiality for +his own countrymen well known, but the English Catholics were so torn +asunder by their internal feuds that they would welcome the elevation of a +Scotchman which would not give rise to the jealousies which would +inevitably attend the promotion of a member of either of the rival parties. +Such at least was the view of the Scotch envoy. It would be interesting to +hear the comments of the English Catholics, who a few years earlier had +described their northern brethren as almost barbarians, unable to speak the +English tongue, and in every way inferior to themselves.[155] + +There is no doubt that Henrietta's heart was much set upon this project, +nor did she ever relax her efforts in Con's behalf until his death. It is +possible that she felt the danger, which Douglas pointed out to the Pope, +of her position as an uncrowned Queen in case of her husband's death, and +that she thought that a Cardinal devoted to her service would be a support +in such a strait. It is improbable that at this time she had ever set eyes +on her candidate, though she had heard accounts which were not unfounded of +his goodness and learning, and she, as well as her husband, no doubt was +aware that he had given a pleasing proof of judiciously mingled loyalty and +piety by writing a sympathetic biography of Charles' grandmother, Mary of +Scotland.[156] But beyond any personal feeling, Henrietta always believed, +though why it is a little difficult to say, that the creation of a Cardinal +who was a native of Great Britain would help forward in the highest degree +the cause of the Catholic Church in England. Thus she wrote to Cardinal +Barberini at this time and thus she wrote several years later to the Pope, +expressing herself on the latter occasion very strongly and assuring the +Holy Father that by complying with her wishes in the matter he would not +only oblige her personally, but would give the greatest possible impetus to +the cause of religion in England.[157] + +The King's attitude is more difficult to determine, but there seems no +reason to distrust Douglas' assertion that the project had his royal +support and concurrence. Such intrigues were indeed only too congenial to +his tortuous mind. Nor is the knight's statement without corroboration. +Another Scot, the Earl of Stirling, who as Sir William Alexander had won a +considerable reputation both as poet and statesman, and who had formerly +been concerned in certain cryptic negotiations between James I and the Holy +See, wrote to Rome[158] expressing his pleasure that the son was following +in his father's footsteps, and urging Con's candidature on the ground that +his elevation would be a matter of great satisfaction to the King. + +It might be thought that the Roman authorities would welcome with +_empressement_ an emissary who came under such distinguished patronage. +But, as a matter of fact, the reception accorded to Sir Robert Douglas was +distinctly cool. The King of England's conduct had not been such as to +inspire confidence, and the Jesuits in Rome and elsewhere were still busily +representing him "as the greatest persecutor that ever was."[159] It was +suggested that his friendly attitude to the Papacy was only a ruse to +secure the restoration of the Palatinate to his sister's husband. Even the +Queen was not regarded with great favour. It was believed in certain +quarters that she was rather indifferent to Catholic interests, an +impression which may have arisen partly from the favour which she showed to +a Puritan clique, of which the Earl of Holland was the principal +member,[160] and partly from her acquiescence in her husband's wish that +their children should receive Anglican baptism.[161] Perhaps the Pope and +Cardinal Barberini did not share this view, as they had read with great +interest an account of the laying of the foundation-stone of the new chapel +at Somerset House, which the judicious Du Perron had written to a +compatriot in Rome, who with equal tact passed it on to the Holy +Father.[162] + +But there is no doubt that the Queen's insistent requests for the creation +of a Cardinal did her no service, either now or later, with Urban VIII and +his nephews. Many surmises were rife in Rome as to Douglas and his mission. +He might be an agent of the secular clergy. The whole thing might be a +deep-laid plan of Richelieu to secure the Cardinalate for his creature the +Bishop of Chalcedon, who was certainly an English subject, and on whose +behalf the Queen of England had written only a year earlier. There seems to +have been no intention of granting Henrietta's request, and the kind +letters which the Pope wrote to her and to Father Philip, saying how +pleased he was to hear of their piety and virtue, were more lavish of +compliments than of promises. + +Nevertheless Douglas' mission was not unsuccessful. The Pope talked over +English affairs with him freely, and the result was that in the spring of +1634 Gregorio Panzani set out for England. + +Panzani was a priest of the Italian Oratory, and his ostensible mission in +England was to heal the long-standing feud between the secular clergy and +the religious Orders, and to remedy certain irregularities of morals and +discipline which specially affected the younger religious and the London +clergy who were unable to resist the seductions of heretical society. It is +probable that the Pope and Cardinal Barberini desired these ends. It is +certain that they saw in the state of affairs a convenient cloak to cover +different and more important designs. + +For Panzani was not in London without the connivance of the King and the +express desire of the Queen, who had arranged the matter with her husband. +"I have no objection," said Charles, "as long as things are done quietly +and matters of State are not meddled with; but I do not wish it said that +the Pope has sent an agent to the King of England."[163] + +This was said, of course, and perhaps not altogether to the dissatisfaction +of Panzani and those who sent him. Nevertheless he behaved with great +discretion, and was liked by everybody, except the Jesuits, to whose +pretensions he was greatly opposed, and whose ill opinion was an advantage +to him rather than otherwise in dealing with the King and the people. On +the advice of the sage Father Philip he refused to express any opinion on +the thorny question of the lawfulness of taking the oath of allegiance[164] +to the King, thus following the example of the Capuchin Fathers, who were +wont to tell inquirers that they knew nothing of the matter, and that it +would be well to seek other advisers; altogether so judicious was his +conduct that he was described as "a person greatly to be esteemed for his +many vertues and religious life and great zeale and industry for the +advancem^t of the Catholick cause in this Country."[165] He was able, +towards the end of his stay, to do the Catholics a notable service by +persuading the King to dismiss the pursuivants, the most odious instruments +of the recusancy laws, comparable to the familiars of the Spanish +Inquisition, and to leave the prosecution of recusants in the hands of the +justices of the peace. + +About this time the hopes of the Catholics were rising high, both at home +and in the Eternal City. They believed, with touching simplicity, that the +wise policy of the King had almost destroyed the hated sect of the +Puritans, "which formerly was stronger."[166] The centenary of the schism +was not allowed to pass without meaning allusions. From the pulpit of the +Queen's chapel at Somerset House, Du Perron commented on the occasion with +even more than his wonted suavity. Continual accounts were sent to Rome of +the mildness of the King, of the changing character of the Church of +England, and, above all, of the piety and zeal of the Queen. She was +described as "a Princess on whom God and nature have bestowed most rare +gifts," whose "sweete and vertuous carriage, her religious zeale and +constant devotions have purchased unto herselfe love and admiration from +all the Court and Kingdome, and unto the Catholique Religion (which she +piously pfesseth) great respect and honor. She is," added the writer in a +glow of enthusiasm, "Una beata de Casa, for whose sake Heaven, I hope, doth +intend many blessings towards our Country."[167] Cardinal Barberini +rewarded these shining qualities by writing flattering letters to +Henrietta, and by sending to her some relics of an obscure Roman lady named +Martina, whose martyred body had recently been dug up in an ancient church +dedicated to her memory. + +Nor were Panzani's accounts less satisfactory; the King received him with +great kindness, and openly expressed his regret for the schism between the +Churches. "I would rather have lost my hand than it had happened," he said +on one occasion. He showed an unexpected reverence for relics, and much +interest in a remarkable book[168] written by a liberal-minded Catholic, +Father Santa Clara, of the Order of S. Francis, which foreshadowed the +famous "Tract 90" of later days. "The book pleases the King and some of the +nobles of this Kingdom very much,"[169] wrote the envoy, and he begged on +this ground that it might not be condemned at Rome, where (as well as in +certain Catholic circles in England) its liberality had given offence. Nor +were others more backward than the King. These were the days of the hopes +of reunion, at which Santa Clara's book had not obscurely glanced; the days +in which the appeal to the Pope, described above, was drawn up. Panzani was +less sanguine than some of the English Catholics, and, in particular, seems +to have appreciated Laud's real attitude towards the Church of Rome.[170] +But he had much to tell of interesting conversations on religious subjects +with Windbank, who assured him that the Jesuits and the Puritans were the +only real obstacle in the path of unity, and with Anglican clergy of +advanced views such as Bishop Montagu, who appeared a little surprised that +the Roman ecclesiastic did not agree very warmly to his assertion that +there could be no doubt of the validity of his Orders. + +And the Holy See was to have another proof of Henrietta's zeal and of her +husband's compliance. It was not enough that an agent of the Pope should +dwell in London; an agent of the Queen of England was to go to Rome, and in +dispatching him she was to realize a long-cherished wish. + +The first person selected for this delicate post was a gentleman named +Brett, who died on his journey to Italy. He was succeeded by a Scotchman, +Sir William Hamilton, brother of the Earl of Abercorn, who arrived in Rome +in the early summer of 1636. The Queen had given him a letter of +introduction to Barberini, which ensured him a good reception at the Papal +Court, thus described in a private letter:-- + +"Last Monday Sir William Hamilton had his first audience of his Holiness +who receaved him with very greate signes of joy, he is exceeding well liked +of here by all and indeed I think he will give as good satisfaction as any +that could have been sent from England. Cardl. Barberini hath presented him +with tow very faire horses for his coache. He keeps correspondence with the +Secretarye of State Winebanck ... and useth F. Jhon the Benedictine his +meanes to conveye these letters, but this must be kept secrett to yourself +only."[171] + +It appears that the Queen was obliged to exercise a good deal of pressure +before her husband would consent to the establishment of this agency. Blind +as Charles was to the dangers surrounding him on all sides, he may well +have been aware of some of the difficulties attendant on a course of action +which led to such communication between an English Secretary of State and +an agent accredited to the Court of Rome. + +The success which attended these first bold attempts to establish relations +between the Holy See and the Court of England encouraged further efforts. +It was felt that Panzani, after all, had obvious disadvantages for the post +which, nevertheless, he had filled with such promising results. He was an +Italian, and foreigners were not liked in the British Isles. He could talk +no English, and this was a drawback to one whose work was, in a sense, +missionary. He had done his part in spying out the land. He must now yield +his place to a successor, who, not handicapped by race and language, would +be able to reap the fields already ripe to harvest. + +That successor was none other than the candidate of the King and the Queen +for the Cardinalate, George Con, the Scot, Canon of S. John Lateran in +Rome, who arrived in England in the early part of 1636. + +In a sense, no better appointment could have been made. The new envoy was a +singularly fascinating person, whose long residence in the country which +was still the intellectual and artistic centre of Europe had added an +urbane culture to the prudence and moderation which were the gifts of his +Scottish birth. Less opposed to the Jesuits than Panzani, he was better +able to deal with the pro-Spanish English Catholics, who still had a +lurking distrust of the Queen, while he was too wise to be drawn into their +schemes. A scholar and a courtier, he knew how to commend himself to the +Protestants of the Court, and, above all, to the King, who evinced a real +liking for him. "I hope," said the envoy to him upon one occasion, "that my +being a good servant to the Pope and to Cardinal Barberini will not +prejudice me with your Majesty." Charles quickly gave him his hand, and +said earnestly, "No, Giorgio, no, always be assured of this."[172] The +Queen's feeling to him was even warmer. Indeed, it may be said that George +Con took his place among the little group of her personal friends. His +Scotch birth was no less a recommendation to her than to Charles himself, +for she so well remembered the ancient tie between her own land and the +northern kingdom that she was wont to show an injudicious partiality, which +did not tend to her popularity in England, for those who came from beyond +the Tweed. She was prejudiced in his favour before his arrival, and she +found him even more pious and charming than she had anticipated, so that +both she and the King gradually received him to such intimacy and +confidence that he seemed almost like one of the royal household. + +It is not surprising that, under the spell of this fascinating personality, +Henrietta's Catholic zeal should have attained to a fervour unknown before, +which annoyed and alarmed even her own Protestant servants, such as Sir +Theodore Mayerne, who expressed his views on the matter to Con himself. The +envoy, indeed, had come at a fortunate moment. Already Portland was dead, +and the Queen was beginning to tread the path of influence and intrigue. +She found in him not only a friend who warmly encouraged her efforts, but +an efficient helper in her schemes, for what had become, in her own words, +her "strongest passion, the advancement of the Catholic religion in this +country."[173] Moreover, he showed himself a true friend by attempting to +correct the opinion which was rife in Rome as well as in France, that the +quiet enjoyed by the Catholics was due rather to political reasons than to +her influence.[174] Perhaps he had some success; certainly prayers were +offered for her in Rome, and a beautiful golden heart studded with gems, +which she sent by the hands of one of her Capuchin Fathers to the Holy +House of Loretto, was looked upon in papal circles "as the pledge of the +greatness of the devout and pious heart"[175] that was doing so much for +the Catholics of England. + +Con's dispatches are written in much the same strain as those of Panzani. +They tell of kindness, of religious sympathy, of even greater royal favour, +of the King's evident sympathy with Catholicism--how on one occasion he +said, "I, too, am a Catholic," how on another his talk with the Queen on +religious subjects was such that it would hardly be credited at Rome; of +the success which attended the distribution among the ladies of the Court +of the pretty religious trifles such as rosaries and pictures, which the +care of Cardinal Barberini had sent over; of the Queen's delight in a cross +sent to her by the Pope--how she always wore it, and how she said that it +was the most precious thing she possessed; of the favour shown to Father +Sancta Clara at Court, and by Windbank--how it had even been proposed that +he should preach a sermon in the Queen's chapel about the anniversary of +the Powder Plot, "to exculpate the Catholics from treason against Princes"; +how even the Jesuits acknowledged that never since the days of the +negotiation for the Spanish match had the Catholics enjoyed such peace. +Nevertheless, Con was too sagacious not to be able to read in some measure +the signs of the times. "God only knows how long this calm will last," he +wrote.[176] + +It was unfortunate that a person who seemed so admirably fitted for his +post should have been obliged to relinquish his task half done. But the +rigours of the northern climate told so severely on a constitution long +accustomed to the suns of Italy that in 1639 Con was obliged to think of +turning his steps southward, for not even the distinguished attentions he +received in his sickness from the King, the Queen, and the nobility availed +to cure him. He reached Rome, but he only recrossed the Alps to die before +he could place on his head the Cardinal's hat, which had been so much +striven for. On his death-bed he thought of Henrietta, and begged Cardinal +Barberini, who was by his side, to send her a little picture of the Virgin +as a recognition of his gratitude for her kindness, and as a memorial of +their friendship. + +But already the shadows of the Civil War were beginning to close about the +Queen. The bright hopes which had marked the days of Con's sojourn in +England were becoming haunting fears, which, in their turn, were to give +place to feelings as like despair as such natures as Henrietta's can know. + +It was probably a sad surprise to the Queen when, on the eve of the war, +she discovered the intensity of the hatred with which her faith was +regarded by a large section of her husband's subjects. Sagacious foreigners +knew something of it. "The Puritans hate the Catholics as much as the +Devil,"[177] wrote Tillieres frankly as early as 1624. But in the Queen's +Court all mention of such ill-bred persons and factions was avoided, unless +some wit cracked a joke at their expense. It is true that a few of the +great nobles were Puritans, but during the years of Charles' triumph their +opinions were expressed with moderation, and most of the courtiers appeared +rather inclined to the fashionable Protestant variety of faith which the +King, the Ministers, and the higher clergy professed. The real strength of +Puritanism was in the lower middle-class, a section of the community with +which the Queen was not likely to come in personal contact, and which, +partly perhaps for this very reason, she was never able to conquer. Her +refusal to be crowned with her husband gave bitter offence, and was to cost +her dear in the future. Discontented spirits muttered to themselves that +the King might be murdered as Henry IV had been, "and then the Queen might +mar all."[178] When in 1629 prayers were offered in the Church for the +birth of an heir to the throne, scarcely a man could be found to answer +Amen; and even after the birth of a Prince there were mutterings that God +had already provided for the nation in the hopeful issue of the Queen of +Bohemia. Ill-bred Puritan ministers, in the outspoken theological language +of the day, prayed for the conversion of the Popish Queen; and as the +Catholic revival developed, to dislike and disapproval was added the more +potent force of fear. + +The language of the _Grand Remonstrance_ and of many other contemporary +documents leaves no doubt that there was a widespread belief in the +existence of a plot managed by the "engineers and factors of Rome," of whom +the Queen was one of the chief,[179] to capture the country and the Church +of England. The signs in the national establishment which raised the hopes +of the Catholics became a terror to the Puritans. It was no wonder. As Du +Perron said from the other point of view, it was but a century since the +schism, and the Anglican Church had not yet the stability which comes from +time, so that the idea of its reconciliation to Rome was less chimerical +than in later times. Nor had the attempts to make Protestantism +co-extensive with the nation been altogether successful. It is probable +that Richelieu overrated the importance of the English Catholics, but, +nevertheless, the trouble he took to conciliate them bears witness to the +light in which they were regarded in the best-informed circles on the +Continent. Not a few of them were men of position and wealth, and their +number was certainly considerable; it probably reached at least +150,000,[180] or three in every hundred,[181] and one Catholic reporter +says that in Lancashire and Yorkshire as many as a third of the population +adhered to the old faith.[182] The Archbishop of Embrun, who was in England +in the latter days of James, is said to have confirmed in London as many as +10,000 persons. Another witness,[183] who had some opportunities for +forming a judgment, believed that a third of the nation was either openly +or secretly Catholic, and that another third, the Protestant part of the +Church of England, only remained in schism from fear of the recusancy laws, +and though this estimate is of course grossly exaggerated, it is +significant as showing the opinions which were prevalent. The loudly +expressed hopes of the Catholics reacted upon the fears of the Puritans, +who saw in them not only the proof of the power of their open foes, but a +confirmation of their worst suspicions regarding their more secret enemies +in the Church of England. Laud, the most loyal of Anglican Churchmen, did +not recognize his mistake until it was too late. Charles, who was always a +good Protestant, or in modern parlance a High Churchman, perhaps never +recognized his even when it led him to the scaffold. + +The recklessness with which the King gave colour to the suspicions of the +Puritans is indeed remarkable. The husband of a Catholic Queen, the son of +a lady whose Protestantism was far from unimpeachable, he had recognized in +early life the necessity of caution; he had no belief in the claims of the +Church of Rome, and probably felt its attraction less strongly than his +father, whose grandiose imagination was struck by its great claims and long +history. Yet he showed marked favour to Roman ecclesiastics such as Du +Perron, he allowed the triumphant ceremonies of Somerset House, and he +sanctioned the almost open exercise of Catholic worship, only from time to +time showing a feeble concession to the feeling of the country by such +measures as forbidding the English Catholics to frequent the chapels of the +ambassadors, and by issuing a proclamation which at the Queen's prayers he +deprived of most of its force. There is, of course, only one sufficient +explanation of his conduct. He was, it is true, like others of his family, +a believer in a certain kind of toleration. He thought it a base thing for +a man to change his religion, and he considered that any Christian might be +saved. He was also, except when actuated by feelings of revenge, a merciful +man to whom persecution was distasteful, and there were probably moods in +which he imagined himself a second Henry IV, under whose paternal sway the +rival religions could live at peace; but the real reason of his tenderness +to the Catholics was his love for his wife. As in the old days Buckingham +could make him do anything, so in later times could Henrietta Maria. Her +tears, her smiles, her caresses won boon after boon for her +co-religionists, until she wrung from him the last, the most disastrous +concession of all. No single act was more fatal to his throne or more +prejudicial to the ultimate interests of the Catholics than the +establishment of the agency which brought into England Panzani, Con, and +later Rosetti; as these worthy men rolled about London in their fine +carriages, secure in the royal favour, and none daring to make them afraid, +they believed that they were helping forward the conversion of England. In +reality, they were riveting for more than a century longer the chains of +the English Catholics. + +As for Henrietta herself, she was unfortunate in religious as in other +matters. It is hardly too much to say that she pulled down her husband's +throne to help her co-religionists, and yet in the light of future events +it must be gravely questioned whether the progress of Catholicism under her +protection was not too dearly bought by the terror and hatred which it +inspired in the English mind, and whether in the end the Church was +advanced by her coming into England. On the other hand, she had just +sufficient moderation (which showed itself particularly in her recognition +of the impossibility of bringing up her children in her own faith) to +render her slightly suspect to the more fanatical Catholics in Rome and +elsewhere. When the hour of need came the English Catholics, recalling her +benefits and dreading above all things the domination of the Puritans, did +indeed for the most part rally loyally round her; but on the Continent it +was chiefly remembered that she was the devoted wife of a heretic King, +whose qualified mercy so prized at home seemed abroad but a mockery of the +hopes of the royal marriage.[184] + +[Footnote 104: _Continuation of Weekly Newes_, No. 43, 1624.] + +[Footnote 105: The following extract from J. Evelyn's _State of France_ +(1652) shows the opinion which cultivated Protestants held of French +Catholics:-- + +"The Roman Catholicks of France are nothing so precise, secret and bigotish +as are either the Recusants of England, Spain and Italy, but are for the +most part an indifferent sort of Christian, naturally not so superstitious +and devout, nor in such Vassallage to his Holinesse as in other parts of +Europe where the same opinions are professed: which indifferency, whether I +may approve of or condemn, I need not declare here."] + +[Footnote 106: See Avenel: _Lettres de Richelieu, passim._ The importance +of winning over the English Catholics is dwelt upon in the instructions +given to ambassadors; see also the memorial on the state of England drawn +up by Fontenay-Mareuil, in 1634, which dwells upon the pro-Spanish +tendencies of the English Catholics and the means of overcoming them: those +English Catholics who desired benefits from France were wont to consider, +"that whereas the Catholics of England have been traduced to be all of the +Spanish faction, that is a mere calumny."--Archives of the See of +Westminster.] + +[Footnote 107: The original of this letter is preserved among the Archives +of the See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 108: During the singing of the hymns and psalms he knelt down, +and during the prayers he said his rosary: "Cela edifia fort les +Catholiques Anglais qui ne manquoient pas d'epier les actions des ministres +de France, pour les rapporter aux Espagnols avec lesquels ils etoient fort +unis."--_Memoires de Brienne (Ville-aux-clercs), Petitot_ (1824), p. 391.] + +[Footnote 109: Bib. Nat., MS. Dupuy, 144.] + +[Footnote 110: Bib. Ste Genevieve, Paris, MS. 820. Tillieres to Puisieux, +January 9th, 1624.] + +[Footnote 111: He seems to have been much liked by the English Catholics; +he is said to have held a special commission to advance their interests. +P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 112: Arch. Nat., M. 232.] + +[Footnote 113: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 44. This document goes on to say that +the request of the Parliament for the execution of the recusancy laws was +founded "sur la crainte des Espagnols desquels les Catholiques sont tenus +pour fauteurs et pensionnaires," and also in the fear that the liberty +promised at the time of the marriage would enable the Catholics "de faire +quelque entreprise contre le bien de l'Estat." Dod, in his _Church +History_, gives the names of only two priests who suffered the death +penalty during the years of Charles' power.] + +[Footnote 114: See the letters which, just before her marriage, she wrote +to her brother the King of France and to the Pope on this subject. Green: +_Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, pp. 8, 9.] + +[Footnote 115: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 116: Charles wished Father Philip to be consecrated Bishop, but +this suggestion did not meet with the approval of the French Government. +Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 43.] + +[Footnote 117: P.R.O. French Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 118: "Je ne dis rien de l'assiduite de ces peres a ouir les +confessions depuis six heures du matin iusques a midi et demy, l'assistance +qu'ils rendoyent aux malades et aux prisonniers. . . ."--Henrietta Maria to +Card. Barberini, 1658. P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 119: A translation of these memoirs is published at the end of +the _Court and Times of Charles I_; they are inaccurate in detail, and +though amusing reading, do not give a high opinion of the intellect of the +writer.] + +[Footnote 120: Panzani: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 121: Salvetti: Add. MS., 27,962, I, f. 263.] + +[Footnote 122: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.] + +[Footnote 123: A chapel had been built at St. James's at an earlier date; +the "new chapel at St. James's" is mentioned in 1630.] + +[Footnote 124: "Les royales ceremonies faites en l'edification d'une +chapelle de Capucins a Londres en Angleterre dans le Palais de la Roine; +faite par son commandement et par la permission du Roy; en laquelle +chapelle elle a pose la premiere pierre."--Paris, 1632.] + +[Footnote 125: "Si cette genereuse Princesse, soeur du plus juste et du +plus vaillant de tous les roys . . . s'est ainsi acquise ceste liberte de +conscience chez elle, pensez-vous qu'elle en demeure la? et qu'elle ne +l'acquiere pas bien tost en faveur de tous les Catholiques qui sont en +Angleterre."--_Ibid._] + +[Footnote 126: The French were inclined from experience in their own land +to believe that Protestants and Catholics could live peaceably together. +See _Remonstrance au roy d'Angleterre sur la miserable condition des +Catholiques ses subjects en comparaison du favorable traictement que +Huguenots recoivent en France_. MDCXXVIII.] + +[Footnote 127: Arch. Nat., M. 232. The letter is endorsed "coppie d'une +lettre dressee par le R. P. General pour la Reyne Mere a la Reyne +d'Angleterre."] + +[Footnote 128: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 44.] + +[Footnote 129: The Queen's attempts to soften her husband's heart towards +the Scotch Catholics are mentioned in _Memoirs of Scottish Catholics during +Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries_, by W. Forbes Leith, S.J.] + +[Footnote 130: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 131: The French translation of this petition is entitled: +"Remonstrance et Declaration des Catholiques Anglais faites au roi +d'Angleterre a son Couronnement du royaume d'Escosse." + +"Pour obtenir de sa Majeste la Liberte de la Religion Catholique dans +l'estendue de ses royaumes" (1633).] + +[Footnote 132: Tillieres (see his _Memoires_) believed that the Queen, +during the years of Weston's power, could have obtained much more liberty +for the Catholics than she did had she been willing to work with him: he +dwells, as do Salvetti (Add. MS., 27,962) and Fontenay-Mareuil +(_Memoires_), upon the favour she showed to Puritans; the latter says that +the peace of the Catholics came from their insignificance between the +nearly equal parties of the Protestants and the Puritans, but his personal +hostility to Henrietta may have made him unwilling to give her the credit +which in this matter she certainly deserved.] + +[Footnote 133: Archives of See of Westminster: _Summarium de rebus +religionis in Anglia_, 1632.] + +[Footnote 134: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. As early as 1629 a letter from +London speaks of the confidence of the Catholics in the protection of the +Queen--"gia piu volte isperimentata" (_ibid_).] + +[Footnote 135: "Elle [Henrietta Maria] edifia ce Temple magnifique dans son +Palais de Somerset ou les Peres Capucins qu'elle y logea chanterent en +toute liberte les louanges de Dieu. La s'assembloient comme dans le Temple +de Jerusalem, tous les fideles d'Angleterre: la Jesus-Christ etoit offert a +Dieu son pere dans le tres auguste Sacrifice: la se preschoient hautement +les veritez Catholiques: la les Sacremens s'administroient: la se +vendroient a la porte les livres saints: la tous les jours le pave s'etoit +baigne de larmes de joye et de douleur des justes et pecheurs penitents: la +les enfans venoient adorer le Dieu de leurs Peres: la s'abjuroit +publiquement le schisme et le heresie: la le Pape etoit honore comme le +Vicaire de Jesus-Christ: la les Images, les Huiles saintes, les prieres +pour les Morts estoient en usage et en respect: la en un mot l'Arche +Vivante renversoit Dagon sur terre: la elle exercoit ses jugements sur les +Philistines: la elle triomphoit des faux Dieux de Samarie."--Francois +Faure, Oraison Funebre de Henriette Marie de France, Reyne de la Grande +Bretagne (1670).] + +[Footnote 136: Henrietta Maria speaks of nine hundred persons converted by +the Capuchins, besides some ministers. P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. Henrietta +Maria to Cardinal Barberini, 1658. Du Perron says that every year between +two and three hundred persons were converted by means of the Capuchins and +the Oratorians, and that besides a large number were converted by English +priests working under the protection of the toleration.] + +[Footnote 137: See Memoirs of Pere Cyprien de Gamache.] + +[Footnote 138: Prynne, _Popish Royal Favourite_.] + +[Footnote 139: The King contented himself with taking one-third instead of +two-thirds of the property of recusants.] + +[Footnote 140: Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 141: Bishop Hacket: _Memoirs of the Life of Archbishop Williams_ +(1715), p. 87.] + +[Footnote 142: Madame de Motteville, in the account of the troubles of +England, which she heard from Henrietta Maria, says, "l'Archeveque de +Cantorberi qui dans son coeur etant tres bon Catholique...."--_Memoires +de Mme. de Motteville_ (1783), t. 1, p. 242. + +Heylin, who knew a good deal of Laud's mind, says: "I hold it probable +enough that the better to oblige the Queen unto him (of whose prevailing in +the King's affections he [Laud] could not be ignorant), he might consent to +Con's coming hither over from the Pope."--_Cyprianus Anglicans_, IV, p. +411.] + +[Footnote 143: Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 144: Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini.] + +[Footnote 145: Panzani: _Memoirs_, ed. Berington (1793), p. 191.] + +[Footnote 146: Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 147: This statement rests on the authority of Panzani, who had a +considerable prejudice against the Jesuits.] + +[Footnote 148: Pere Suffren, the confessor of Mary de' Medici, seems to +have been the only Jesuit whom he ever regarded with favour.] + +[Footnote 149: Jean Jaubert de Barrault, Bishop of Bazas.] + +[Footnote 150: "Les religieux et particulierement les Jesuites sont estimes +en Angleterre broullons, aux affaires destat et les Prestres seculiers +n'ont iammais estes soubsones de ceste faulte."--Archives of See of +Westminster.] + +[Footnote 151: The Proclamation against the Bishop dates from 1628, but it +seems only to have been intended to frighten him; he did not leave England +until 1631.] + +[Footnote 152: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 153: Archives of See of Westminster. Bishop Smith had compromised +his position at Rome by expressing himself willing to resign his See and +afterwards refusing to do so.] + +[Footnote 154: The details of Douglas' mission are to be found in papers +among the Roman Transcripts P.R.O.] + +[Footnote 155: Archives of See of Westminster. This unfavourable +description occurs in a curious paper, drawn up in 1625, headed: "Que les +ecclesiastiques qui seront aupres de la Royne d'Angleterre doivent etre +natives d'Angleterre mesme." A later section of the same paper is headed: +"Que les ecclesiastiques qui seront aupres de la Royne d'Angleterre doivent +plustost estre Prestres seculiers que Religieux." See note 1 on p. 113, +which contains an extract from the same paper.] + +[Footnote 156: _Vita Mariae Stuartae Scotiae Reginae Dotariae Galliae, +Angliae et Hibernis Heredis, scriptore Georgia Conaeo._ MDCXXIV.] + +[Footnote 157: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. Henrietta Maria to Urban VIII, +163-8/9.] + +[Footnote 158: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 159: Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 160: See chapter III.] + +[Footnote 161: She never made any great effort to bring up her children as +Catholics. She took Prince Charles to Mass sometimes, but desisted at her +husband's request. In the marriage contract all that was said about the +religion of the children of the marriage was, that they were to have free +exercise of the Catholic religion, but it was provided that they were to be +brought up by their mother until they reached the age of thirteen years.] + +[Footnote 162: Bib. Nat., Paris, MS. Cinq Cents de Colbert, 356. Greffier +to Du Perron, December 9th, 1632.] + +[Footnote 163: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 164: There were two oaths which troubled the Catholics, that of +supremacy and that of allegiance; the first declared the King "supremo Capo +della Chiesa Anglicana," the second was aimed at the deposing power of the +Pope, and was drawn up in 1606. A good many Catholics, particularly the +Benedictines, believed that the second, or oath of allegiance, could +lawfully be taken by Catholics (who suffered commercially from their +refusal) notwithstanding its condemnation by Paul V. Panzani's Relazione, +Add. MS., 15,389.] + +[Footnote 165: Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 166: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 167: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 168: _Deus, Natura, Gratia_ (1635). The real name of the author +was Christopher Davenport; he died in 1680.] + +[Footnote 169: Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 170: "Il Laboru sacerdote secolare m'ha detto che pochi giorni +sono il Cantuarieuse diose alia Duchessa di Buchingam che presto questo +Regno sara reconciliata alia Chiesa Romana. Io non volevo credere questo ma +detto Laboru me l'ha giurato. Io manco lo credo e se l'ha detto havra +burlato."--Panzani to Barberini, April 9th, 1636. Add. MS., 15,389.] + +[Footnote 171: Archives of See of Westminster. Letter of Peter Fitton, +agent of English secular clergy in Rome, July, 1636.] + +[Footnote 172: Add. MS., 15,389.] + +[Footnote 173: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. Henrietta Maria to Cardinal +Barberini, October, 1637.] + +[Footnote 174: "Da questo e da altri motivi puotiamo vedere che la quiete +che godiamo per la gratia di Dio non e per ragione del Stato come alcuni +politici a Roma discorrono, perche tal quiete non e giudicata a proposito +da questi ministri di Stato ma piu presto il contrario accio che tanto piu +apparisca il zelo constante della Regina alla quale sola in terra si deve +tutto."--June, 1639. Add. MS., 15,392, f. 64.] + +[Footnote 175: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. In 1629 she had accepted the +dedication of the English translation of Richeome's _Pilgrime of Loretto_.] + +[Footnote 176: Add. MS., 15,389.] + +[Footnote 177: MS. Francais, 23,597.] + +[Footnote 178: Rous: _Diary_, Camden Soc. (1856), p. 12.] + +[Footnote 179: Cf. Prynne: _Popish Royal Favourite_ (1643). "By all these +our whole 3 Kingdomes ... must of necessity now see and acknowledge that +there is and hath bin all his Majesties Reigne till this instant a most +strong cunning desperate confederacie prosecuted (wherein the Queens +Majestie hath been chiefe) to set up Popery in perfection and extirpate the +Protestant party and religion in all his Majesties dominions" (p. 35).] + +[Footnote 180: 150,000 is the number given by a Catholic reporter in 1635 +(Westminster Archives), and Panzani gives the same number. Add. MS., +15,389.] + +[Footnote 181: The population of England and Wales was probably about +5,000,000.] + +[Footnote 182: Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 183: Du Perron: _Proces Verbal de l'assemblee du clerge_, 1645.] + +[Footnote 184: It can hardly be doubted that when the marriage dispensation +was given it was hoped that Charles' successor would be a Catholic. The +English Catholics resident abroad shared to some extent the continental +opinion of the King and Queen of England.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE QUEEN'S CONVERTS + + Now for my converts who, you say, unfed, + Have follow'd me for miracles of bread, + Judge not by hearsay, but observe at least, + If since their change their loaves have been increas'd. + + J. DRYDEN + + +Considering the activity of the Catholics at the Court of Charles I and his +Queen, it is not surprising that from time to time some one, man or woman, +abjured the national faith to enter what it was so confidently asserted was +the one true fold. When this occurred Protestant feeling was apt to run +high, and the King, to whose indulgence the trouble was certainly in some +measure due, usually expressed himself greatly shocked and indignant, and +for a time, at least, withdrew his favour from the offender. + +Perhaps the most remarkable of these cases was that of the Queen's friend, +Walter Montagu. This gentleman, who had improved his natural talents by +travels which led him to Madrid, to Paris and to Rome, was also much +noticed by the King, to whom he was recommended by the fact that he had +been a friend of Buckingham, and had actually been with the Duke when he +was assassinated at Portsmouth. He was employed a good deal on secret +service, and once he was able to render an important service, destined to +influence both their lives, to Queen Anne of Austria. He had been sent by +his own sovereign to stir up Savoy and Lorraine against France, and not +even his position as envoy of England could save him or his dispatches from +the emissaries of Richelieu or from the Bastille. Anne was implicated in +these intrigues against her husband's country, and in an agony of terror, +haunted by visions of the ignominious return to Spain with which she had +several times been threatened, she sent to Montagu to learn the extent of +her danger. The young Englishman, who had long worshipped the beautiful +Queen,[185] gladly seized the opportunity of proving his devotion. Let the +Queen have no fear, came back his chivalrous answer; she was not mentioned +in the dispatches, and rather than that she should come to harm he would +lay down his life. This sacrifice was not required, but Anne escaped +detection and Montagu earned her lifelong gratitude. On his return to +England after his enlargement, he made rapid progress in the favour of +Henrietta Maria in spite of the connection with Buckingham, which can +hardly have been a recommendation to her. So great was the kindness with +which she regarded him, that no courtier seemed to have before him a more +prosperous career, when towards the end of 1635 the Court was startled by +the news that he had joined the Church of Rome. "Sure the Devil rides +him,"[186] was the pithy comment of one of his acquaintance, John +Ashburnham. + +Walter, who at this time was living in Paris, defended his action in a +highly argumentative letter which he addressed to his father, but which he +took care to have distributed among his friends in many copies. The Earl of +Manchester, who was said to be the best-tempered man in England, does not +seem to have been able to support this vexation with equanimity, and he +sent a somewhat acrid reply to his son, whose apologetics were also refuted +by Lucius, Lord Falkland. Montagu had often enjoyed the intellectual +hospitality of Great Tew, where men of wit and learning were accustomed to +gather round this accomplished young nobleman, who was the more fitted for +his task of controversy, inasmuch as his mother, his brothers and his +sisters were among the "revolters to Rome," while his own fidelity to the +Church of England had been for a while gravely in question. + +But before Montagu received the remonstrances and arguments of his friends +(which, as usually happens in such cases, proved quite unavailing), he had +met with an adventure which connects his change of faith with one of the +most curious episodes in the religious history of the period. + +At this time all France was talking of the terrible fate of the Ursuline +nuns at Loudun, who were manifestly possessed by the devil, and of the +wonderful exorcisms whereby certain holy men were able to overcome his +wiles and machinations. It was quite a fashionable amusement to ride out to +Loudun, visit the "possessed," and witness the ceremonies of exorcism; and +one day at the end of November, 1635, Montagu, accompanied by Thomas +Killigrew, a literary friend whom he had met in Paris, set off and arrived +in due course at the convent of which Satan had made his stronghold. There +the two Englishmen, who were provided with a letter of introduction from +the Archbishop of Tours, saw some of the marvels which are recorded in the +_Histoire des Diables de Loudun_. The poor possessed nuns crawled about +before them gnawing and bellowing like wild beasts and uttering fearful +blasphemies, until the devil was forced to relinquish his prey by the +application of various relics and the recitation of appropriate prayers. +Strangers were always welcome at these spectacles, though sometimes they +came away calling the poor nuns "impostorious," an epithet applied to them +by honest John Evelyn, who knew them but by repute; but Montagu, as an +Englishman of noble birth high in the favour of the Queen of France, was +treated with special distinction, Father Surin, the exorcist, who had been +told by the Archbishop of Tours "so to manage matters that the English lord +might receive edification,"[187] even permitting him to hold the hand of +one of the most distinguished of the patients, Mother des Anges, from whom +eventually four demons were chased. On this occasion she was possessed by +an evil spirit named Balaam, who had boasted that on his exit he would +print his name upon his victim's hand. But the good Father, "judging it +more proper that a religious person should bear on her hand the name of a +saint than that of a devil,"[188] forced him to another course of action. +As Montagu gazed upon the poor struggling woman, who required several +persons to hold her in her paroxysm, he beheld, as he had been led to +expect, the name of Joseph write itself on the back of her hand in small +red dots. This strange occurrence, which seemed to him explicable on no +natural ground, impressed his mind as much as it was intended that it +should,[189] and he convert returned to Paris with an increased +appreciation of the advantages of belonging to a Church which held in her +hand the power of such marvels. He hastened to communicate his impressions +to Richelieu, who took an interest in the nuns, and who was wont to extend +a condescending patronage to the Englishman, whom in his heart he despised +and distrusted. "I have seen at Loudun," wrote the new convert after +relating his experiences, "proofs so miraculous of the power of the Church +that above my belief I owe to God perpetual gratitude"; nor, he added, was +he alone in his admiration. Several Englishmen "who were possessed by a +spirit of falsehood and contradiction"[190] had come away confessing with +him that the matter was miraculous. His friend Killigrew was not, it seems, +one of these convicted gainsayers. The poet left Loudun quite unconvinced +and rather sceptical about the whole affair, though he confessed that he +could not account for the print on the nun's hand.[191] + +Montagu's prospects of a great career in the service of the King were over. +He loudly asserted his loyalty, but probably he hardly needed his father's +stern reminder that though "the King's benignitie and goodnesse is always +to interpret the best," yet "his Majestie hath a better opinion of those +that are bred such [i.e. Catholics] than of those who become such by +relapse."[192] + +In effect, the King from that moment turned his back upon his servant, +whom, it seems, he had never personally much liked. Not even the memory of +Buckingham could cover such a failure of loyalty and patriotism. + +But Walter was not to suffer by a change of faith, which some people, and +among them Cardinal Richelieu (whom the convert's account of his +experiences left untouched), were not slow to attribute to self-interest +rather than to religious feeling. The Queen had always been fond of him on +account of his singular charm of manner, which often fascinated even his +enemies, and after his conversion she admitted him to a degree of intimacy +and confidence which more than made up for the coldness of the King. It was +felt, indeed, that for a while he had better remain upon the Continent, and +he spent a pleasant time in Paris, where he showed his zeal for his +new-found faith by professing himself ready to die for it, and by +accompanying the King of France to Mass with a rosary hung round his neck. +Thence he passed on to Turin, where he met with a warm reception from +Henrietta's sister Christine, whose acquaintance he had made some years +earlier when he was in Savoy as secret agent for the King of England. Now +he was able to present to the Duchess a warm letter of introduction from +her sister, and it appears that he did her some trifling service which led +to a pleasant correspondence between the Courts of England and Savoy. + +"Pardon me," wrote Henrietta, "that I have not written to you earlier ... +to thank you ... for the favours which you have shown to Wat Montague. I +know that you have done it for my sake, though truly he merits them for his +own. He does nothing but praise the honours which you have done him, and I +believe that he for his part would gladly lose his life for your +service.... I am very glad that Wat has been able to do you some service. I +am sure that he has done it with all his heart. As for his melancholy +humour, that is perhaps some scruple of conscience which he will lose at +Rome. Besides, he is not naturally very gay."[193] + +He went to Rome, and whether he lost his scruples there or not he enjoyed +himself very much, keeping a household of seven servants, dining at the +English College with the prestige of a recent convert, and cultivating the +further acquaintance of the Barberini who, when he was in the city before, +had shown him distinguished attentions, which they now felt had not been +thrown away. The Pope, who "was as much a pretender to be oecumenical +patron of poets as Head of the Church,"[194] liked a convert who was also a +wit, while Cardinal Francesco honoured his visitor with so warm a +friendship that henceforth the two men carried on a frequent +correspondence.[195] Still, despite these distractions, Montagu's eyes all +the time were fixed upon England. His return thither was much desired by +the papal party, and particularly by Con, who was aware of his influence +over the Queen. She, for her part, used all her power with her husband to +win his recall; but Charles, who never got over an affront, was not easily +to be persuaded, and it was not until 1636 that the offender was allowed to +return to take his place among Henrietta's servants and friends. + +At the Court of the Queen he found plenty to occupy him. He was, above all +things, a ladies' man--_un petit fou_, only fit to amuse ladies[196]--as +Richelieu rudely wrote of him; and it was to be expected that in the +religious struggles of the Court women should take a considerable part. +Such a war always appeals to feminine feelings and logic, and in this case +the leader of the army was a woman, and one who, though clever and +energetic, was essentially feminine both in heart and mind. The agents of +the Papacy were far too acute to neglect so obvious a source of influence. +Not only was the Queen flattered in every way, but skilful efforts were +made to win the noble ladies who surrounded her. The Anglicans were not +blind to the danger, as appears from the fact that John Cosin, who spent +most of his life in fighting the Catholics and in being accused of Popery +by the Puritans, published a little book of Hours of Prayer, which the +latter called by the pretty name of "Mr. Cozens his cozening devotions," to +counteract the influence of the _Horae_, used by Henrietta's Catholic +ladies. But the attacking party had certain advantages to which those of +the defence could not aspire. The pictures, the relics, the medals, which +Panzani and Con took care to distribute, were greatly valued by their +recipients, and pleased even such great ladies as the Marchioness of +Hamilton and the Countess of Denbigh. The latter of these ladies had long +been unsettled in the established religion. It was indeed for her guidance +and at her request that Cosin had written his _Book of Hours_. Many years +were to elapse before she finally abandoned the Church of England, but no +doubt these fascinating trifles played their part in preparing her spirit +for the eventual change. + +But there were women at the Court who were not to be won by such methods, +but who entered into the thorny path of controversy. Such an one was Lady +Newport, a relative of the late Duke of Buckingham. She had Catholic +relatives, and, thinking perhaps to reclaim them, she attempted argument +with no less a person than Con himself. The result was not very surprising. +Lady Newport was no match for the subtle and insinuating envoy, and the +upshot of her discussions with him was that one night, as she was returning +home from the play in Drury Lane, she turned aside to Somerset House, where +one of the Capuchin Fathers quietly reconciled her to the Church of Rome. +Her feet were caught in the snare from which she had hoped to rescue +others. + +A storm of indignation arose. The irate husband hurried off to Lambeth to +enlist the sympathy of Laud, who, nothing loath, laid the matter before the +King and the Council. "I did my duty to the King and State openly in +Council,"[197] wrote the Archbishop complacently to Wentworth. The names of +Sir Toby Matthew and of Walter Montagu were freely mentioned in connection +with the conversion, and though well-informed persons believed that Con +alone was to blame, these two gentlemen did not escape a considerable +measure of unpopularity. Laud, who, though he was anxious not to offend the +Queen, was becoming alarmed at the boldness of the Catholics, went down on +his knees to the King, praying for the banishment of Montagu, and for leave +to proceed against Sir Toby in the High Commission Court. As for Con, he +said bitterly, he knew neither how he came to Court nor what he was doing +there, and therefore he would say nothing of him. + +The King did not grant the Archbishop's modest request, but at the Council +table he spoke so bitterly of both the culprits that "the fright made Wat +keep his chamber longer than his sickness would have detained him, and Don +Tobiah was in such perplexity that I find he will make a very ill man to be +a martyr, by now the dog doth again wag his tail."[198] + +The storm, indeed, quickly blew over. Lord Newport forgave his wife, who +discreetly retired to France for a time. Even the Queen, who had been +greatly angered at the treatment of the Catholics, particularly of Montagu, +forgave the Archbishop and received him with the modified favour which was +all she ever had to bestow upon him. Everything seemed to be as before, +only perhaps Laud kept a more watchful eye upon the recusants, and two +years later he was able to take a revenge at once upon the Queen and upon +her priests by causing "two great Trusses of Popish books,"[199] coming +from France for the use of the Capuchins, to be seized by the officers of +the Court of High Commission. + +But unfortunately the troubles which had been occasioned by the conversion +of the Countess of Newport did not deter other susceptible ladies from +following in her steps. "The great women fall away every day,"[200] sighed +a good Protestant, writing to a friend in May, 1638. That his plaint was +not without cause is evident from the following portion of a letter which +was written by a foreigner who was then resident in England:-- + +"The Queen's Majesty has frequented her chapel of Somerset House all Holy +Week with great concourse and rejoicing of these Catholics, to the great +chagrin of the Puritans. Besides the accustomed ceremonies and devotions of +this week, on Holy Saturday a score of ladies of the Court, of whom the +chief was the Duchess of Buckingham, were seen to receive all the +ceremonies of baptism (except the water) at the hands of a Capuchin Father, +and afterwards the sacrament of confirmation at those of the Bishop of +Angouleme, the Grand Almoner of the Queen. All was done within the chapel +in the tribune of Her Majesty ... and in her presence. These ladies desired +this kind of second baptism because they received the first at the hands of +Protestant ministers, which they hold to be valid in a certain sense, and +yet nevertheless mutilated." + +The narrator goes on to speak of the anger of the Puritans, who complained +bitterly of such proceedings and of the indifference of Charles to their +clamour. "They will have to calm themselves," he adds, for "to-day the +Queen has greater authority with the King than any one else."[201] + +This was in the spring of the year 1638, a few months after the beginning +of the Scotch troubles and two years and a half before the meeting of the +Long Parliament. + +[Footnote 185: "My sute is that if ever you have occasion to speak to the +Blessed Queene (Anne) of any ill thing that you express it by naming me, +for that's the only way I can hope she should ever heare of me +againe."--Walter Montagu to Earl of Carlisle. Egerton MS., 2596.] + +[Footnote 186: _Cal. S.P. Dom._, 1635, p. 512.] + +[Footnote 187: "Le Pere Surin de la compagnie de Jesus aiant recu une +lettre de Mgr. l'archeveque de Tours par laquelle il lui reccommandoit de +faire en sorte que le Sieur de Montagu recut edification aux +exorcisms."--_Proces-verbal_ of exorcisms printed in _Histoire des Diables +de Loudun_, 1693.] + +[Footnote 188: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 189: The following is Montagu's own account: "Nous estions ... +presents au sortir du diable qui avoit commandment de tracer le nom de +Joseph sur la main pour marque de la sortie. Je tenois la fille par la main +quand elle fit le grand cris [sic] et quand le prestre nous nous dit qu'il +falloit chercher le signe et ie vis escrire peu a peu les lettres de Joseph +sur le dos de la main en petites pointes de sang ou elles demeurent +gravees."--Montagu to Richelieu, November 30th, 1635. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. +45. + +The case of the nuns of Loudun has never been satisfactorily explained; the +"possessions" and exorcisms were witnessed by a large number of persons, +none of whom were able to convict the nuns of fraud. Urbain Grandier, the +priest who was believed to have bewitched them, was burned in 1634. The +following account of Mother des Anges is taken from a biography, written +towards the end of the seventeenth century, of Mother Louise Eugenie de la +Fontaine of the Order of the Visitation: "Mere des Anges etoit une ame dont +les conduites extraordinaires de Dieu sur elle donnoient beaucoup +d'admiration. Chacun scait que dans les fameuses possessions de Loudun ces +saintes filles eprouverent cet effroyable fleau. La mere des Anges (que le +feu Pere Surin conduisit et admiroit) en etoit une; il chassa de son corps +quatre demons dont le premier ecrivit en sortant en gros ses lettres sur la +main droite Jesus, le second en moindre caractere Marie, et le troisieme +Joseph en plus petit, et le quatrieme encore moindre Francois de Sales; ces +noms etoient gravez sous le peau, ils paroissoient comme de coleur de rose +seches mais ils prenoient un vermeil miraculeux au moment de la sainte +communion."] + +[Footnote 190: Montagu to Richelieu, November 30th, 1635. Aff. Etran. Ang., +t. 45.] + +[Footnote 191: See Killigrew's own account of the _affaire_ printed in +_European Magazine_, 1803, Vol. 43, p. 102.] + +[Footnote 192: "The coppy of a letter sent from France by Mr. Walter +Montagu to his father the Lord Privie Seale with his answere thereunto. +Also a second answer to the same letter by the Lord Falkland" (1641), p. +20.] + +[Footnote 193: Ferrero: _Lettres de Henriette Marie de France reine +d'Angleterre a sa soeur Christine duchesse de Savoie_ (1881), p. 45.] + +[Footnote 194: _Lignea Ligenda_ (1653), p. 169.] + +[Footnote 195: Copies of Montagu's letters to Barberini, extending over +many years, are among the Roman Transcripts in the P.R.O.] + +[Footnote 196: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 197: Laud wrote to Wentworth November 1st, 1637. Laud's Works, +Vol. VII, p. 379. See the account of the matter from Laud's point of view +in Heylin: _Cyprians Anglians_, Bk. IV, p. 359 (1668).] + +[Footnote 198: Conway to Strafford. _The Earl of Stafford's Letters and +Dispatches_, II, 125.] + +[Footnote 199: Turner MS., LXVII.] + +[Footnote 200: _The Earl of Stafford's Letters and Dispatches_, II, 165.] + +[Footnote 201: Salvetti. Add. MS., 27,962, H., f. 125.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE EVE OF THE WAR + +I + + Some happy wind over the ocean blow + This tempest yet, which frights our island so. + + EDMUND WALLER + + +On July 23rd, 1637, the new liturgy, which the care of Archbishop Laud had +provided for the Scottish Church, was to be read for the first time in the +Church of St. Giles in Edinburgh. The clergyman entered the reading-desk +and the service began. But before he had read many words a tumult, in which +a crowd of women of the lower class took a prominent part, arose. National +feeling and religious feeling were alike outraged by the introduction of +the new Mass-book from England,[202] and the assembly, which had been +called together for public worship, broke up in wild confusion. That local +riot, which seemed but an ebullition of temporary fanaticism and +discontent, was in reality the symptom of a grave disease in the body +politic. It meant for Scotland the beginning of a civil war, which soon was +to cross the border and to break up in the sister kingdom the long internal +peace which had made her the envied of Europe. It meant for Henrietta Maria +and her husband the end of their happy, careless years, and the entering +upon a series of misfortunes, the number and bitterness of which are almost +unparalleled even in the annals of the House of Stuart. + +After the riot events moved quickly, for behind the rioters was the virile +force of the Scottish nation. Charles was unwilling to give way, and by +November his northern subjects were almost in open revolt. + +It was an unfortunate moment. The English Puritans, who were irritated by +their own grievances, showed an indecorous satisfaction in the Scottish +events, as shrewd observers, such as Salvetti, the Florentine envoy in +London, were not slow to observe. The King had no money to meet expenses, +and no means of getting any, except the objectionable one of calling a +Parliament. Abroad the outlook was no better, and Charles and Henrietta +ought to have known, if they did not, that they had no friend upon whom +they could rely in such a strait. + +They were to find that it was not for nothing that they had scouted the +threats and warnings of Richelieu. That old man, sitting in his study in +the Palais Cardinal in Paris, held in his frail hands the threads of all +the diplomacy of Europe. He had long looked with no favourable eye upon +England, for the alliance which he had himself brought about had proved one +of his greatest disappointments. The union of the crowns of England and +Scotland had deprived France of a warm and constant ally,[203] and it was +to counterbalance this loss that Henry IV had planned, and Richelieu had +carried out, Henrietta's marriage. The Cardinal had not reckoned upon the +indeed somewhat unlikely contingency that a royal marriage should also +become a marriage of affection and community of interest. The first step in +his defeat was the dismission of the French in 1626, and this insult, which +circumstances did not permit him to avenge at once, was never forgiven to +its author the King of England, whom he also hated, because, in the words +of Madame de Motteville, he believed him to have a Spanish heart, and +because Queen Anne was allowed to carry on her Spanish correspondence by +way of England. Of Henrietta he had hardly a better opinion. She had +fulfilled none of the purposes for which he had sent her into England, and +though originally she had unwillingly submitted to her husband's will in +the matter of her servants, in later days she had made no great effort to +recall them. She had done little to cement an alliance between the two +kingdoms, and the English Catholics, whom she had been specially +commissioned to win over, remained, for the most part, obstinately attached +to the interests of Spain. Their relations had been, moreover, severely +strained by the Chateauneuf episode, and they were further embittered by +the disgrace and exile of Mary de' Medici, which her daughter rightly +attributed to Richelieu, whose conduct in the matter she considered an act +of the blackest ingratitude towards the woman who had made his fortune. + +Nevertheless, about this time Richelieu made a final attempt to win the +personal favour of the Queen of England. He dispatched the Count of +Estrades on a special mission to England, of which no inconsiderable part +was to discover the sentiments of the Queen, and he told Bellievre, the +French ambassador in London, that he believed her to be friendly towards +France, and requested him to treat her with kindness and sympathy. Neither +of the envoys met with much success. Estrades found Henrietta so forbidding +that he did not dare to deliver the letter which Richelieu had confided to +him, and which he had charged him to give or retain, according to the +disposition of the royal lady to whom it was addressed.[204] Bellievre was +rather better received, but though the Queen showed herself willing to talk +with him and expressed general goodwill towards the Cardinal, the +diplomatist soon discovered that all she desired was help in a private +matter which he waived aside, but in which Richelieu determined to gratify +her, as he saw in it a means of ingratiating himself with her at small +cost. + +The Chevalier de Jars, since his dramatic reprieve on the scaffold, had +languished in the Bastille. He had good friends both in England and in +France, but none more persevering and faithful than the Queen of England, +who never forgot a friend in trouble. Over and over again she pleaded with +Richelieu on his behalf, but for a long while he turned a deaf ear to her +appeals, answering her letters on the subject almost rudely. But in the +beginning of 1638 his attitude changed, and he intimated that a little more +persuasion on the part of Henrietta would result in the fulfilment of her +desire. + +The matter was conducted with a studied picturesqueness of detail which was +carefully arranged by Richelieu to gratify the vanity of the woman he +wished to please. It was taken out of the hands of the English ambassador, +the Earl of Leicester, and arranged by Walter Montagu, who was at the +Queen's side in London, and by his personal friend Sir Kenelm Digby, who +was staying in Paris, in a private capacity, enjoying the society of his +many learned and scientific friends who resided there. Montagu and Digby +exchanged many letters, and the latter had several interviews with +Richelieu. During one of these he presented to the Cardinal a letter which +the Queen had requested him to deliver. The old man read it with great +satisfaction, though he had to request Sir Kenelm to help him in +deciphering several words, for Henrietta's writing was always very +illegible. When he had finished he laid it down, and looking hard at his +visitor, said in a meaning tone, "I am much pleased with the Queen's +letter, and you may assure her that she shall soon have cause to be pleased +with me."[205] + +A few days later, about eight o'clock in the morning, a coach stopped at +the door of Sir Kenelm's lodgings, from which descended Chavigny, the +Secretary of State, and the Chevalier de Jars. Chavigny, after he had +greeted the astonished knight, waved his hand towards his charge and said, +in the courtly accents of a French diplomatist, "Monsieur, I have the +orders of the King and of M. le Cardinal to place this gentleman in your +hands. He is no longer the prisoner of the King of France, but of the Queen +of England."[206] + +"It is to be hoped," Montagu had written a few weeks earlier to a member of +the French Government, "that the end of this affair will be the beginning +of that end to which we have always looked, namely, a good understanding +between the Queen and M. le Cardinal."[207] This hope was not fulfilled. +Henrietta was indeed greatly pleased at her friend's release, and she +cannot have failed to admire the graceful manner in which the great man had +granted his favour, but a single act of kindness on the one hand and a +single sentiment of gratitude on the other could not overcome the mutual +distrust of years. Moreover, events were even then occurring which were +destroying any good feeling of which the incident may have been productive. + +For some years Mary de' Medici had been casting her eyes upon England as a +possible refuge. She disliked the Low Countries, where she was living, and +as she felt no desire to return to her native Florence, which was the place +of retirement selected for her by Louis XIII, or rather by Richelieu, she +thought that it might be wise to take advantage of the kindness which her +son-in-law, the King of England, had always felt for her. Her presence was +not desired in England; she was considered, with some justice, a +quarrelsome and mischief-making old lady, and her bigoted religious +attitude, joined with the favours which she showed to Spain, were +sufficient to make her unpopular among the people. Charles, however much he +might pity her as the victim of Richelieu, dreaded, short of money as he +was, so expensive and inconvenient a guest. Even Henrietta, with the +thought of her childhood in her mind, was afraid of her mother's arbitrary +interference. "_Adieu ma liberte_," she sighed. Perhaps the Queen-Mother +gathered that she would not be welcome, for the project seems to have been +in abeyance when England was startled by the arrival of another exiled lady +whose character and career presented even more of excitement and variety. + +[Illustration: THE DUCHESS OF CHEVREUSE + +AFTER THE PICTURE BY MOREELSE ONCE IN THE POSSESSION OF CHARLES I] + +Madame de Chevreuse, on arriving in Madrid, had been received with great +kindness, as was only to be expected, for she had been a good friend to +Spain. But after some years of residence in the Spanish capital she found +that, owing to the war between the two countries, communication with France +was extremely difficult. She also began to think of England, where she had +spent some happy days of her earlier life. She felt sure of a good +reception, for she was united to the King by their common political +sympathy with the Spanish, and the Queen, in the past, had regarded her +with much affection. Her intention was quickly acted upon. She set sail +from Corunna in May, 1638, and after a successful voyage landed in England. +She had not deceived herself. The reception given to her by her royal hosts +was worthy of her rank as the wife of a kinsman of the King of England and +of her position as a personal friend of his Queen. Charles and Henrietta, +who were never wanting in hospitality, bade her heartily welcome, and even +invited her to be present at Windsor on the occasion of the little Prince +of Wales' investiture with the insignia of the Order of the Garter, an +attention which was due to the fact that her husband was himself a knight +of that noble order.[208] Nevertheless, the arrival of this factious lady +at so critical a moment was part of that tragic ill-luck of the King and +Queen of England on which their contemporaries remarked. + +In London Madame de Chevreuse found many friends, among whom were her +former lover, the Earl of Holland, and Walter Montagu, whose early devotion +to her time had not destroyed. With the latter she at once began to scheme +for the coming of Mary de' Medici, and though for a while it seemed +unlikely that her plans would succeed, owing to the opposition of the King +and the whole nation, yet such was the effect of her skill and persistency +that, a few months after her own arrival, she witnessed the entry into +London of that unfortunate royal lady, in whose sojourn in England must be +sought one of the immediate contributory causes of the Civil War. Well +might Richelieu write on this occasion, with even more truth than he knew, +that "there is nothing so capable of destroying a state as evil minds +protected by their sex."[209] + +Mary de' Medici arrived in the end unexpectedly. One Sunday afternoon a +gentleman of her suite arrived at the Court and announced that she had +already put to sea, and would land at Harwich that same evening if she were +assured of a welcome. Neither the King nor the Queen was pleased, but +Charles was too true a gentleman and Henrietta too affectionate a daughter +not to receive her with all honour. The King rode out into the country to +meet her, and escorted her through London amid official rejoicings, +described by a French gentleman in an elaborate account which reflects his +satisfaction.[210] Henrietta awaited her mother at St. James's Palace, +where she received her affectionately, settling her in the pleasant rooms +which had been there prepared, whence the old lady could look out upon the +deer park, and upon the beautiful terrace, which formed the favourite +promenade of the Court. + +Meanwhile, Scottish affairs were going from bad to worse. "They growl, but +I hope they will not bite,"[211] wrote a courtier. They were to bite only +too soon. In February, 1638, thousands of Scots were signing the National +Covenant. A few months later the General Assembly of the Kirk sitting at +Glasgow abolished episcopacy, and followed up this act of defiance by +refusing to dissolve at the command of the King's commissioner. Charles +began to appreciate that his northern subjects were in open rebellion, +whose due chastisement was the sword. + +But then, as ever, he was crippled by lack of money, and one of the means +which was taken to procure it was another of those acts by which he and his +wife set themselves against the will and sentiment of their people, and +thus prepared the way for their own final ruin, though, in this case, the +blame fell chiefly upon Henrietta, and it is doubtful whether Charles' +share in the transaction was known to the Puritans.[212] + +The English Catholics had enjoyed for many years an unprecedented peace and +liberty, which now, owing to the kindness of the King and the Court for the +fascinating Con, had reached such a pitch that England appeared to +foreigners almost like a Catholic country. The recusancy fines, which were +still exacted in a modified form, kept up a certain feeling of irritation, +but on the whole the Catholics were loyal. They felt much gratitude towards +the Queen, on whom their prosperity depended, and when the Scotch rebellion +broke out they would have liked to bear arms in the King's service. Con, +who believed that Charles would willingly have employed them, assured him +that few of his subjects would fight for him as loyally as those of the +ancient faith. The King possibly believed him, but true to his cautious +nature he preferred to ask for a present of money, which the envoy, who, +notwithstanding his short sojourn in England, had a minute acquaintance +with the persons and circumstances of the English Catholics, set himself to +procure. As a first step he called together representatives both of the +clergy and of the laity, and laid before them the royal request. + +He had undertaken no easy task. Some of the Catholics, to whom sad +experience had taught prudence, were alarmed at the idea of helping the +King to rule without the need of calling Parliament. Others, going to the +opposite extreme, offered their contributions separately, hoping thus to +gain the royal favour. Worst of all, the ill-feeling between the secular +and regular clergy made any cooperation between the two bodies a matter of +great difficulty. From meetings lasting many hours, at which he had +attempted to weld together these discordant elements, and from still more +fatiguing private audiences, Con, ill and suffering as he then was, came +away weary and dispirited, complaining bitterly of the "obstinate prudence" +of the Jesuits and of the self-seeking of all. "This kingdom," he wrote on +one of these occasions to Cardinal Barberini, "has no men who are moved by +the common good, but each one thinks only of his private interest."[213] + +At first the Queen's name appears little, but she watched the negotiations +carefully, and in their latter stages she sent Montagu and Father Philip to +attend the meetings on her behalf, and to bring her news of an undertaking +in whose success she was deeply interested, and in which, for +constitutional reasons, she was now actively to intervene. + +The fears of the more timid Catholics were not idle, but showed a truer +political insight than either Charles or Henrietta possessed. It was +necessary to reassure them without allowing the King's name to appear. The +best expedient which could be devised was to make the contribution appear +as a gift, which at the Queen's instigation was offered to her by her +co-religionists. Henrietta had at her side the ingenious Montagu and the +fantastic Sir Kenelm Digby, who was always pleased to adventure himself in +any new enterprise. These two gentlemen now issued a joint appeal to the +Catholics of England, asking, in the Queen's name, for liberal +contributions, and to this appeal she herself prefixed a dignified letter +urging her co-religionists to contribute liberally to the King's expenses +in the northern expedition, "for we believed that it became us who have +been so often interested in the solicitation of their benefits, to show +ourselves now in the persuasion of their gratitudes."[214] These letters, +together with one from the ecclesiastical authorities, were circulated +throughout the land; for each shire of England and Wales one or more +collectors was appointed from among the Catholic gentry.[215] + +The Queen had already asked the Catholics to fast every Saturday "for the +King's happy progression in his designs, and for his safe return," and +special services were held in her chapel for the same intention. This was +very well, but it was a different matter when money was asked for from +those who for years had borne more than their share of taxation. In spite +of the zeal of the promoters of the scheme, the money came in but slowly. +The difficulties of collection were great, and though individuals, such as +the Dowager Countess of Rutland, who cheerfully gave L500, were generous, +the general response was not hearty. The Queen, whose sanguine disposition +often caused her to be disappointed, was distressed at the smallness of the +sum which she would be able to offer to the King, and her fertile brain +devised another expedient by which she hoped to increase the L30,000[216] +she had received from the Catholics to L50,000; L10,000 she laid aside out +of her own revenue, and the remainder she hoped to raise among the ladies +of England, "as well widows as wives." Her own friends, the great ladies of +the Court, offered each her L100 with due _empressement_, but outside that +circle the project was not a success, and Henrietta and her advisers were +left to lament once more the lack of loyalty in those whose pleasure they +considered it should have been to contribute to their sovereign's need. + +In April Charles set out for Scotland. He left his wife almost regent in +his absence, for he had ordered the Council to defer to her advice. +Henrietta was thus in a position of greater importance and authority than +ever before, and she had the satisfaction of feeling that her influence +over her husband was steadily increasing. The difficult circumstances, now +beginning to entangle her as in a net, were developing that love of +intrigue which had already shown itself in happier times. She had, +moreover, no mean instructors in the art of diplomatic chicanery in two +women who at this time were together at her side exercising a considerable +influence over her. Madame de Chevreuse and Lady Carlisle, since the +arrival of the former in England, had joined hands in a friendship which +had its origin, perhaps, in a common hatred of Richelieu, but which might +be easily accounted for by similarity of character and aims. Madame de +Chevreuse could, indeed, boast a wider experience, for she had taken all +Europe for her stage, while Lady Carlisle was content to play her part in +the comparative obscurity of the British Isles; but a restless love of +power and domination, which expressed itself in a determined effort to +influence by womanly charms those who by force of intellect or by accident +of birth were making the history of the time, was common to both, as also +was a real talent for intrigue, which enabled these society ladies so far +to conquer the disadvantages of their sex as to become of considerable +importance in affairs. Of such teachers Henrietta was a willing learner and +in some sense an apt pupil. She, too, learned to plot and to scheme, to +play off enemy against enemy, and to attempt to win over a chivalrous foe +by honeyed words. But she never became in any real sense a diplomatist. Her +brain, quick to seize a point of detail and sometimes sagacious in weighing +the claims of alternate courses of action, had not sufficient grasp to take +in the broad outlines of a complicated situation, nor the judicial faculty +which can calmly appraise even values which are personal. It is the +misfortune of the great that they breathe an atmosphere of fictitious +importance which induces a mental malady, whose taint infects all but the +strongest intellects and the largest hearts. From the worst forms of this +disease, as it appears, for instance, in Louis XIV, who at the end of his +life believed himself to be almost superhuman, Henrietta escaped, by the +strong sense of humour which was her father's best legacy to her. However +obsequious her attendance and however regal her robes, she knew at heart +that she was but a woman of flesh and blood as the rest; but the more +subtle workings of the poison of flattery she could not escape, and the +great weakness of her diplomacy--a weakness which that of her husband +shared to the full--was her inability to appreciate that things precious to +her were not necessarily so to other people, and that her friends and her +foes were likely to be influenced by self-interest not largely coloured by +a romantic sympathy with her misfortunes. + +Henrietta's regency came to an end before she had much opportunity for +action, for by July her husband was back in London. This is not the place +to tell the story of the disastrous Scotch expedition; it suffices to say +that Charles returned nominally a conqueror,[217] but in reality defeated, +and with the bitter knowledge that he could only overcome his rebellious +subjects in Scotland by asking the help of his discontented people in +England. + +Nevertheless, there was an interval of a few months before the next act of +the tragedy was played, and during it were celebrated some of the last of +those splendid festivities for which the Court of the Queen of England was +renowned. A particularly splendid masque, which was played at Whitehall on +January 21st, 16-39/40, deserves mention on account of the tragic +discrepancy between the spirit of triumphant rejoicing and secure +prosperity breathed by it, and on the one hand the discontent which, +outside the brilliantly lighted rooms, was surging through the winter +darkness of the city, and on the other the anxiety which was gnawing at the +heart of some of those who appeared among the gayest and most careless of +the revellers. The masque was got up by the Queen, whose fondness for such +amusements did not decrease with age, and who found in the hard work which +such a task involved a welcome diversion from her anxieties. It bore the +name of _Salmacida Spolia_,[218] and was written by Sir William D'Avenant, +the reputed son of Shakespeare, who had succeeded Ben Jonson as laureate, +and who was specially devoted to Henrietta's service. The scenery and +decorations, so important to the success of a masque, were supplied by +Inigo Jones, who had before now co-operated with D'Avenant, while for the +musical part of the entertainment Lewis Richard, Master of His Majesty's +Musick, was responsible. Henrietta had considerable difficulty with her +troupe,[219] which included not only the King but a number of ladies and +gentlemen of the Court, and great annoyance was caused by Lady Carnarvon, +who showed symptoms of the invading Puritan spirit in refusing to take part +in the masque unless she were assured that the representation would not +take place on a Sunday. However, all difficulties were smoothed over by the +Queen, who was usually compliant in small matters, and the play was a +notable success, though the Earl of Northumberland, who was not acting, +wrote to his sister that "a company of worse faces was never assembled than +the Queen had got together."[220] The royal pair alone might have given the +lie to the Earl's ungallant words. King Charles, whose splendid looks have +entered, through the genius of Van Dyck, into the heritage of the nation, +played his part with the external dignity in which he was never lacking; +while his wife displayed her still abundant charms to great advantage in an +"Amazonian habit of carnation, embroidered with silver, with a plumed Helme +and a Bandricke with an antique Sword hanging by her side, all as rich as +might be." Her attendant ladies were similarly dressed, and it is perhaps +not surprising that the strangeness of these habits was even more admired +than their beauty. + +The theme was designed, in reference to recent public events, to flatter +the King, who played the part of Philogenes triumphing over Discord, which, +"a malicious Fury, appears in a storme, and by the Invocation of malignant +spirits proper to her evill use, having already put most of the world into +discord, endeavours to disturb these parts, envying the blessings and +Tranquillity we have long enjoyed." + + "How am I griev'd," + +she cries out, + + "The world should everywhere + Be vext into a storme save only here, + Thou over-lucky, too much happy Ile! + Grow more desirous of this flatt'ring style + In thy long health can never alter'd be + But by thy surfets on Felicitie."[221] + +After these words, which surely might have been spoken by the lying spirit +in the mouth of the prophets of Ahab, the Queen came forward to be greeted +by an outburst of triumphant loyalty:-- + + "But what is she that rules the night + That kindles Ladies with her light + And gives to Men the power of sight? + All those that can her Virtue doubt + Her mind will in her face advise, + For through the Casements of her Eyes + Her Soule is ever looking out. + + "And with its beames, she doth survay + Our growth in Virtue or decay, + Still lighting us in Honours way! + All that are good she did inspire! + Lovers are chaste, because they know + It is her will they should be so, + The valiant take from her their Fire!" + +The masque "was generally approved of, specially by all strangers that were +present, to be the noblest and most ingenious that hath been done heere in +that kind." When, in future days, some of the company looked back upon that +evening, its festivities must have seemed to them as one of the jests of +him whom Heine called the Aristophanes of Heaven. + +But these revels were only an interlude; Charles was not a man to fiddle +while Rome was burning, and he turned to grapple as best he could with the +problem before him. The country was rushing on to meet its fate: the topic +of the hour was that of the Parliament, to the holding of which the King +was finally persuaded by a new counsellor; Strafford[222] had crossed St. +George's Channel and had entered on the last and most remarkable stage of +his career. + +It is thought that when years later Milton drew his portrait of the great +apostate of heaven, he had in his mind this man who was to many the great +apostate of earth: that character of inevitable greatness which is in the +Miltonic Satan is also in the royalist statesman, who scorned the weaker +spirits of his time, much as the fiend despised the weaker spirits of +heaven and hell. Neither Charles nor Henrietta had ever truly loved him. +Greatness disturbs and frightens smaller minds, and the Queen had other +reasons to regard him coldly. He was not handsome (though she noted and +remembered years after his death that he had the most beautiful hands in +the world), he was unversed in the courtier-like arts which she loved, he +was the friend of Spain rather than of France, and above all his policy in +Ireland was strongly anti-Catholic. Nevertheless, experience and trouble +were opening her eyes. Lady Carlisle, Strafford's close friend, had done +something to prepare his way with the Queen, and the sense of common danger +was coming to complete her work. + +On April 13th, 1640, the Short Parliament met. Charles, for the first time +for eleven years, stood face to face with the representatives of his +people, representatives for the most part hostile, for the elections had +gone badly, and few of his or the Queen's friends had been returned. +Nevertheless, he was hopeful, for he held what he and perhaps what his +advisers believed to be a trump card. He had probably throughout his reign +been aware that France had not forgotten her ancient alliance with +Scotland. He had recently been reminded in a sufficiently startling manner +that Scotland on her side had an equally long memory. He possessed evidence +of a letter written by the rebellious Scots to the King of France, evidence +on which he acted while Parliament was sitting by sending Lord Loudon and +others of the Scotch Commissioners to the Tower. It was not yet forty years +since the union of the two Crowns. The Scotch were unpopular in England, +and the favour shown to them by the King and Queen was resented. Scotland +and France, whose alliance had more than once embarrassed England, were +both old enemies. It argues no special lack of insight in either Charles or +his wife that they thought the discovery of these practices would lead to a +great revulsion of feeling against the Scots in the minds of the English +Puritans. That it did not do so is a remarkable proof of the enlightened +self-interest of the latter, and of their power of setting a religious and +political bond of union above an antiquated national prejudice. + +Meanwhile, in this moment of crisis, what were the special interests and +influences surrounding the Queen? It is hardly too much to say that not one +of them did not contribute in some measure to the final catastrophe. +Henrietta had not desired the presence of Mary de' Medici, but when the +poor old lady arrived, wearied by troubles and journeyings, her filial +heart could not refuse her a warm welcome, and, little by little, the sense +of home and kindred, to which she had been a stranger for so many years, +overcame the reluctancy of independence and expediency. Some of her +happiest hours in these troubled days were spent in her mother's pleasant +rooms at St. James's, chatting about her children and her domestic +concerns. It would have been well had this been all, but the exiled Queen +was not a lady to content herself with the role of a devoted grandmother. +She felt that she had an opportunity of recapturing the daughter who had +escaped from her influence, and she used it to the full. Henrietta came to +her for advice in many matters, specially those which concerned religion, +and she even allowed herself to be weaned from the fascinating Madame de +Chevreuse. + +That restless lady began to feel herself less comfortable in England soon +after the arrival of the Queen-Mother, for whose coming she had wished, but +who, indeed, had never liked the confidante of Anne of Austria. She tried +her hand first at one scheme then at another, now intriguing for Montagu at +Rome, now aiming higher and attempting to render a striking service to +Spain by bringing about an alliance between Strafford and the Marquis of +Velada; but all the while she had an uncomfortable conviction that her +power over the Queen of England, which at the beginning of her visit had +been considerable, was decreasing. Perhaps Henrietta discovered the +duplicity of the woman "who said much good of Spain, and yet to the Queen +called herself a good Frenchwoman."[223] Certainly she was not very sorry +when, in May, 1640, a rumour that the Duke of Chevreuse was coming to +England frightened his wife, who had no wish to meet him, across the +Channel to Flanders. The Duchess, at her departure, still boasted of the +favour of the English Court, and assured her friends that the Queen had +pressed her to return whenever she felt inclined to do so, an invitation +which Henrietta, who had marked her attitude by giving her a costly jewel +as the pledge of a long farewell, somewhat warmly denied. With more truth +she might have boasted of the brilliancy of the escort which set out with +her from London. At her side were the Marquis of Velada, the Duke of +Valette, another victim of Richelieu, whom Charles, against his better +judgment, had been persuaded to receive at his Court, and, as might have +been expected, the faithful Montagu. These gentlemen left her when eight +miles of the road was traversed, but, by the orders of the King himself, +she was accompanied to the shores of Flanders by the Earl of Newport to +ensure her against any annoyance. + +Madame de Chevreuse was gone, and at an opportune moment; but the evil +effects of her sojourn remained, and manifested themselves specially in a +matter to which the Queen gave considerable attention, and which, like +everything else she touched at this moment, turned to her misfortune. + +When death had settled the question of Con's candidature she was not +diverted from her attempt to procure a cardinal's hat for one of her +husband's subjects. Her choice was not a happy one. Walter Montagu, since +his conversion to the Catholic Church, may, as Henrietta claimed, have +lived an exemplary life; but he could hardly be considered suitable for +high ecclesiastical preferment. He was, moreover, a man of many enemies. +Charles disliked him so much that, when Sir Robert Ayton died in 1638, he +told his wife that she might have a Catholic for her secretary provided she +did not choose Walter Montagu.[224] Richelieu's opinion of him was such +that he made him the text of his sweeping generalization: "all Englishmen +are untrustworthy." The Cardinal, indeed, wished to see no subject of the +King of England attain to the coveted honour, and he suggested that the +Bishop of Angouleme, who had the supreme merit of being a subject of the +King of France, was the only suitable candidate; but he would have +preferred almost any one to Montagu, for did he not know that that shifty +person, through the mouth of Madame Chevreuse, was promising complete +devotion to the King of Spain in return for support at Rome? The Queen's +persistence in this matter annoyed the Roman authorities. Cardinal +Barberini, in spite of his personal liking for Montagu, never entertained +for a moment the idea of acceding to her request; indeed, he instructed +Rosetti, who had replaced Con as envoy in England, to tell her frankly that +the thing was impossible. It was an unfortunate moment for the question to +have arisen, for not only was it of great importance to avoid friction with +Richelieu, but the time was coming when Henrietta would have other and more +important requests to make to Cardinal Barberini. That observant politician +had his eyes attentively fixed upon the English troubles, as to whose +progress he was kept well informed by Rosetti. The courtly young envoy--he +was barely thirty and of a noble Ferrarese family--had been charmed on his +arrival not only by the kindness of the King and Queen, but by the liberty +which the Catholics enjoyed. It seemed that permanent communications +between the Court of Rome and the Court of England had been established, +"the King approving and the heretics themselves not objecting";[225] but +stern facts soon forced him to correct his first impressions. The feeling +of the nation was rising against the Catholics, and the flame was fanned by +the injudicious conduct of the Queen-Mother, who greatly patronized Rosetti +as she had Con before him. When, in the Short Parliament, Pym voiced the +religious indignation of the people, the "divinity which hedges a King" was +still strong enough to restrain him in some measure when referring to the +Queen of England. No such scruple deterred him in speaking of a foreign +ecclesiastic and of a foreign Queen, the latter of whom was hated, not only +on religious grounds, but as the recipient of large sums of money--as much +L100 per day--which the country could ill afford. + +Henrietta was becoming more and more busy with matters of high politics. It +was evident that the Parliament was a failure, but one gleam of brightness +cheered the darkness of its last days. Strafford, exerting to the utmost +his unrivalled powers, was able to win over in some degree the Upper House, +and the Lords by a considerable majority voted that the relief of the +King's necessities should have precedence of the redress of grievances. It +seemed a great victory, and Henrietta, dazzled by this unexpected success, +recognized at last what the man was whom she had slighted. "My Lord +Strafford is the most faithful and capable of my husband's servants,"[226] +she said publicly, with the generosity of praise from which she never +shrank. Nevertheless, there were those, justified by the event, who doubted +the real value of such a service; the spirit of the Commons was not thus to +be broken, and on May 5th the King dissolved the assembly which is known, +from its twenty-three days of existence, as the Short Parliament. + +After the breaking of Parliament the deep discontent of the nation burst +forth in riots and in a flood of scandalous pamphlets directed against +unpopular characters. Henrietta, who was believed to have counselled the +dissolution, lost much of the limited popularity she had hitherto enjoyed, +and behind her again the populace saw the sinister figure of her mother +stirring up strife in England as she had in France. Rosetti, who, as the +symbol of the dreaded approximation to popery, was particularly odious, was +thought to be in such danger of personal violence that Mary de' Medici +offered him the shelter of her apartments. He refused, perhaps wisely; for +a few days later a letter was brought to the King threatening to "chase the +Pope and the Devil from St. James, where is lodged the Queene, Mother of +the Queene." Mary, when she heard of this letter, was so frightened that +she refused to go to bed at all the following night, though she was +protected by a guard, captained by the Earl of Holland and Lord Goring, +which had nothing to do, as the threat proved to be one of those empty +insults of which the times were prolific. + +Henrietta, who was not by nature easily alarmed, began to appreciate the +seriousness of the pass to which her husband's affairs had come. She was in +bad health, and she seems already to have thought of retiring to her native +land for her confinement, which was imminent;[227] but weakness of body +could not impair the activity of her brain, and at this time she definitely +entered upon that course of action which, perhaps more than any other, has +brought upon her the adverse judgment of posterity, and which, though its +details were unknown to her enemies, injured the very cause which it was +designed to aid. In an evil hour she opened negotiations with the Papacy, +with a view to obtaining money to be used against her husband's subjects. + +Since her marriage she had carried on a somewhat frequent correspondence +with the Pope and with Cardinal Barberini, whose kind letters led her to +believe that she was an object of greater importance in their eyes than was +actually the case. She was further drawn to them by the kindness they had +shown to Montagu, who himself was a little led astray by flattering words. +It is significant that he appears at this time as the Queen's chief +adviser. He executed many of the duties of the secretaryship he was not +allowed to hold, and he was delaying a long-meditated journey to Rome, +where he intended to become a Father of the Oratory, to help his royal +mistress in her troubles and perplexities. Even the fidelity of her +servants turned to the Queen's destruction, for a more injudicious adviser +than Montagu could hardly have been found. + +There is another actor whose part is more remarkable: Francis Windbank, who +began his career as a disciple of Laud and was to end it a few years later +in the bosom of the Catholic Church, was no free-lance like Montagu, but a +responsible Secretary of State. His personal relations with the Queen do +not seem to have been very close, but he was in constant communication with +her agent in Rome, Sir William Hamilton. As early as the end of 1638 the +latter wrote to one of the Secretaries of State, who may almost certainly +be identified with Windbank, assuring him that the Pope had expressed +himself anxious to contribute money for the Scotch war if there were need +of it. Charles, to whose knowledge this letter came, was exceedingly angry, +as well he may have been, and threatened to remove Hamilton from his post +if he ever lent ear again to such discourse.[228] But Windbank was no whit +abashed. A few months later he held a remarkable conversation with Con, +who, of course, at once reported it to his superiors in Rome. The +level-headed Scotchman, hardly able to believe his ears, listened to the +Secretary of State propounding his views as to the help which the Pope +ought to send to the King of England. "And what is the smallest sum which +would be accepted?" he asked jokingly, wishing to pass the matter off +lightly. "Well," replied Windbank in deadly earnest, "one hundred thousand +pounds is the least that I should call handsome."[229] + +It was not until the spring of 1640, when Con had been replaced by Rosetti, +that a further appeal was made to the Pope for assistance. Windbank again +was the intermediary, but the reply of Cardinal Barberini, which was sent +to Rosetti, was communicated not only to him but to the Queen. Henrietta +was a little out of favour in Rome. Not only had her persistence in the +matter of Montagu's promotion caused annoyance, but her intention of +sending Sir Kenelm Digby, who (not unjustly in the light of future events) +was considered an indifferent Catholic, to take the place of Sir William +Hamilton, was a further disservice both to her and to Montagu, who +supported Digby's candidature, and who had written warmly in his favour to +the Roman authorities; but of the Cardinal's feeling towards her Henrietta +was probably quite unaware. It is not known what part, if any, she took in +Windbank's application, but it is likely that she was both grieved and +surprised when she was informed that Cardinal Barberini, in spite of the +sympathy which he felt with the King and Queen of England in their +troubles, could not hold out the hope of any substantial assistance from +the Holy Father unless Charles became a Catholic. None knew better than she +the improbability of such an event. Nevertheless, she only laid aside for a +while the scheme of papal aid, to take it up again at what she considered a +more favourable moment.[230] + +She had much to occupy her mind. The summer of 1640 witnessed the +futilities of the second war against the Scots, to which, in foreboding of +spirit, she saw her husband depart. The state of public feeling was growing +worse and worse, and the King's own servants were not faithful to him, so +that one of the most acute observers then in England wrote that affairs had +come to such a pass that "if God does not lend His help we shall see great +confusion and distraction in this kingdom."[231] + +When even the captaincy of Strafford had failed to give victory to the +royal armies, there was a general conviction that another Parliament would +be necessary. Charles, following an archaic precedent, summoned a council +of peers to meet him at York, and some of these noblemen, before setting +out from London, paid a visit to Henrietta. They knew well her power, and +they begged that her influence with her husband might be used for the +calling together of the estates of the realm. Mary de' Medici was present +at this interview, and it is said that she put into her daughter's mouth +the words of conciliation which the latter used. The noble visitors +departed, and then the Queen of England went out and selecting a messenger +to whose fidelity she could trust, she bade him bear to the King her +persuasions for the holding of a Parliament. + +Her motive for what is in some respects a strange act is clear. Even now +she did not gauge the depths of the discontent of the nation, and with that +hopefulness which was part of her nature she believed that a Parliament, +without imposing intolerable conditions, would vote sufficient money to +enable the King to deal with the menacing Scots. She was mistaken, as she +so often was. If the English Puritans had not called the ancient enemy into +the land, they had at any rate no desire to see the Scotch army go thence +until it had done its part in putting pressure on a King whom they regarded +with a distrust which was becoming hatred. + +But there were those to whom Henrietta's act must have seemed, if they were +aware of it, almost an act of desertion. The Catholics, to whom her love +and honour were pledged, dreaded, and with good cause, nothing so much as a +Parliament. Already their condition was deplorable. They suffered not only +from the hatred of the Puritans, but from the terror of the Protestants, +who attempted to propitiate the people by persecution of the common enemy. +Several priests were thrown into prison, and even the courtier Sir Tobie +Matthew, who, though he posed as a layman, was generally believed to be in +holy orders,[232] was arrested on suspicion. The houses of Catholics were +searched, and on one occasion three cart-loads of Catholic books were +publicly burned. "Nevertheless," wrote Montreuil, the French agent in +London, with an acumen revealed by the event, "it is thought that all the +advantage which the Archbishop will get from this is to set the Catholics +against him without improving his position with the Puritans."[233] + +In October Charles returned to London, leaving the Scotch army still in the +land, and with a pledge that its expenses should be paid. On November 3rd +he opened at Westminster that historic assembly which is known as the Long +Parliament. + +[Footnote 202: Mme de Motteville records how Henrietta told her that +Charles brought the new Scotch liturgy to her, asking her to read it, that +she might see how similar were their religious beliefs.] + +[Footnote 203: Among the archives of the Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres +is a document dated 1629 enumerating the reasons why it was desirable to +have an agent in Scotland; one reason given is "to keep the Scotch nobility +in their devotion towards the cause of France."--Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 43. +The great importance the French attached to preserving the good-will of the +Scotch is apparent in the French diplomatic literature concerning the Civil +War.] + +[Footnote 204: "L'annee ne se passera pas que le roi et la reine +d'Angleterre ne se repentent d'avoir refuse les offres que vous leur aves +faites de la part du roy."--Richelieu to Estrades, December, 1637. +Estrades: _Ambassades et Negotiations_ (1718), p. 13.] + +[Footnote 205: Digby to Montagu, March 5th, 1638. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.] + +[Footnote 206: _Ibid._, March 19th, 1638.] + +[Footnote 207: Montagu to Chavigny, February 14th, 1638. Aff. Etran. Ang., +t. 4.] + +[Footnote 208: The Duke of Chevreuse had been made a Knight of the Garter +at the time of the marriage of Charles and Henrietta.] + +[Footnote 209: Avenel: _Lettres de Richelieu_, VI, p. 122.] + +[Footnote 210: _Histoire de l'entree de la reyne mere du roy tres-chrestien +dans la Grande Bretaigne._ Par le S^r de la Serre, Historiographe de France +(1639).] + +[Footnote 211: Montagu to Digby, June, 1638. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.] + +[Footnote 212: Con gives the details, Add. MS., 15,391: Salvetti (Add. MS., +27,962) says that the King asked for the money, but did not formally +authorize the contribution.] + +[Footnote 213: Add. MS., 15,392, f. 75.] + +[Footnote 214: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 25.] + +[Footnote 215: Except for Herefordshire, the Isle of Wight, Anglesea, and +Merionethshire, among the collectors' names appear those of members of such +well-known Catholic families as the Englefields, the Howards, and the +Chichesters.] + +[Footnote 216: The sum is given as L40,000 in _The Life and Death of that +matchless mirror of Magnanimity and Heroick Vertue, Henrietta Maria de +Bourbon_ (1669).] + +[Footnote 217: Mme de Motteville says that Henrietta was averse from making +peace with the Scotch, but whether now or after the second Bishops' War +does not appear.] + +[Footnote 218: "Salmacida Spolia, a Masque, Presented by the King and +Queenes Majesties, at Whitehall, on Tuesday, January 21st, 1639."] + +[Footnote 219: The names of the masquers:-- + + The King's Majesty + Duke of Lennox + Earle of Carlisle + Earle of Newport + Earle of Leimricke + Lord Russell + Lord Herbert + Lord Paget + Lord Feilding + Master Russell + Master Thomas Howard + The Queenes Majesty + Dutchesse of Lennox + Countesse of Carnarvon + Countesse of Newport + Countesse of Portland + Lady Andrew + Lady Margaret Howard + Lady Kellymekin + Lady Francis Howard + Mistress Carig + Mistress Nevill] + +[Footnote 220: Hist. MSS. Con. Rep. III, p. 79.] + +[Footnote 221: Cf. an extract from a letter of M. de Balzac to "M. de +Corznet, gentleman-in-ordinary to the most illustrious Queen of Great +Britain": "If the tempests which threaten the frontiers of Bayou arrive at +us we must think of another way of safetie and resolve (in any case) to +passe the sea and go and dwell in that region of peace and that happie +climate where your divine Princesse reigns."--September 20th, 1636. +_Letters of M. de Balzac_, translated into English by Sir Richard Bahn and +others (1654): a collection of some modern epistles of M. de Balzac, p. +16.] + +[Footnote 222: He was made Earl of Strafford January 12th, 1640.] + +[Footnote 223: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.] + +[Footnote 224: The name of Sir Kenelm Digby was mentioned in connection +with the post, but the Queen's choice fell upon Sir John Winter, a Catholic +gentleman, who was cousin to the Marquis of Worcester.] + +[Footnote 225: Father Philip to Barberini: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 226: MS. Francais, 15,995, f. 85.] + +[Footnote 227: Her son Henry was born July 6th, 1640.] + +[Footnote 228: Salvetti. October 22nd, 1638. Add. MS., 27,962.] + +[Footnote 229: Add. MS., 15,392, f. 162.] + +[Footnote 230: See Rosetti correspondence, P.R.O. Roman Transcripts, +specially Barberini to Rosetti, June 30th, 1640, and Rosetti's answer, +August l0th, 1640. "... de pero quando S. M^{ta} dichiaresse tale +[Catholic] di qua non si guaderebbe a mandarli denari."--Barberini to +Rosetti, June 30th 1640.] + +[Footnote 231: Salvetti. September, 1640. Add. MS., 27,962, I, f. 109.] + +[Footnote 232: Perhaps justly; among the archives of the See of Westminster +is a certificate of his saying Mass 1630-1; he was thought to be a Jesuit.] + +[Footnote 233: Bib. Nat., MS. Francais, 15,995.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EVE OF THE WAR + +II + + My eyes with tears did uncommanded flow, + And on my soul hung the dull weight + Of some intolerable fate. + + ABRAHAM COWLEY + + +When the Long Parliament met the eyes of Europe were fixed upon England; +the foreign agents who were resident in London had recognized, almost +before the English themselves, the gravity of the crisis.[234] Such a +crisis could not fail to be of European consequence, for though England had +decayed from the great glory of Elizabeth's reign, and during the last few +years particularly had lost much esteem, yet she was of great importance in +the struggle between France and Spain, each party of which had striven for +so long, and neither quite successfully, to win her as an ally. + +It was confidently believed at the time, and on both sides of the Channel, +that the troubles of England and Scotland were fomented by Richelieu. "The +Cardinal de Richelieu," wrote Madame de Motteville, whose account, no +doubt, owed something to Henrietta herself, "had great fear of a +neighbouring King who was powerful and at peace in his dominions, and +following the maxims of a policy which consults self-interest rather than +justice and charity to one's neighbour, he thought it necessary that this +Prince [the King of England] should have trouble in his kingdom."[235] + +It is now known that if Richelieu stirred up Charles' rebellious subjects, +it was only in the most secret and indirect way; but certainly he was not +sorry for the Scotch troubles, and his attitude both now and later was a +serious addition to the difficulties of the King of England and his wife, +who were reaping the results of their long and reckless defiance of the +all-powerful Cardinal. As early as 1638 Windbank believed that French +influence was working in Scotland, where, on account of the old alliance +between the two countries, it would have a specially favourable field; but +when he wrote for information to the Earl of Leicester, at that time +ambassador in Paris, he received an indecisive and somewhat petulant reply. +"It would be very difficult to give you my opinion about the Scotch +affair," so ran the letter; "for I am as ignorant about it as if I lived in +Tartary. If it is fomented by France it is by means so secret that it will +only be discovered, with difficulty, by the results."[236] + +[Illustration: CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU + +FROM A PORTRAIT BY PHILLIPPE DE CHAMPAIGNE] + +As time went on, and the troubles developed, these suspicions became more +widespread and vivid, until just before the opening of the Long Parliament +there were imaginative people who believed that an army of thirty thousand +Frenchmen was ready to land in England in favour of the Scotch, while the +more sober-minded contented themselves with the old story of help secretly +given to the rebels. Montreuil saw in all this only machinations of the +Spaniards industriously sowing false reports, that thereby they might +render their enemy odious in the eyes of the English Court.[237] + +Henrietta's own relations with Richelieu had not improved,[238] though she +still continued to talk of a journey to France, as, after the birth of +Prince Henry, her health continued very delicate. The residence of the +Queen-Mother in England annoyed the Cardinal as much as had that of Madame +de Chevreuse, and Mary de' Medici's conduct was not such as to propitiate +him. Once, for instance, she allowed a priest connected with the Spanish +Embassy to preach before her, and he improved the occasion by comparing her +sufferings to those of Christ, and by eulogizing Cardinal Berulle, whose +praise was not likely to be agreeable to Richelieu. Moreover, at this time +Charles was more than usually inclined to the Spanish alliance. He had +thoughts of a Spanish marriage both for his son and his daughter, and +rumours were abroad that if France was supplying money to the rebels, Spain +was doing the same by the Court. It was remarked that when the news came of +the taking of Arras by the armies of France, the King could not bring +himself to receive it warmly, though his wife, who was always a good +Frenchwoman, in spite of Richelieu, expressed lively joy. + +She had little in England to cheer her. Not only were her husband's affairs +becoming a nightmare to her, but the looks of hatred which she encountered +as she went abroad in her capital, and the vile calumnies which her enemies +were not ashamed to publish and to scatter broadcast among her people were +the beginning of a martyrdom such as only a woman can know. Added to all +this was the growing conviction that her power was insufficient to protect +those who had no other protection. It must have wrung her heart (though she +knew it to be necessary) to see her mother, who had come to England to be +at peace, deprived of half her allowance, and later reduced to such poverty +as forced her to lessen her establishment and to sell her jewels. She +feared increasingly that she would be obliged to send Rosetti away, and she +felt bitterly the scant respect shown to him when, in the cold of the small +hours of a November morning, he was roused to witness the searching of his +house for proofs of his diplomatic status. It did not make it easier to her +that the leading spirit in this matter, as in a general search of the +houses of Catholics which took place about this time, was Sir Henry Vane, +who owed to her favour his promotion to the position of Secretary of State. +She was learning some early lessons in the world's ingratitude. She knew +that even her personal servants, such as the Capuchin Fathers, were +threatened, and that the English Catholics, who had long looked to her "as +the eyes of a handmaiden look to her mistress," were finding her help of no +avail. Most poignant of all was the knowledge that the strong arm which had +upheld her for so long was failing, and that her husband, with all his +love, was obliged to leave her naked to her enemies. She was yet +unpractised in suffering, and it is no wonder that, despite her high +spirit, her misery was apparent to all. + +Parliament had hardly met before Windbank was called up before the House of +Commons, and questioned as to the number of priests and Jesuits in London. +That assembly further brought pressure to bear upon the King, which +resulted in a proclamation banishing Catholics to a certain distance from +London. It was even suggested that new and stricter laws should be made +against the recusants, and thorough-going people recommended that all +Catholics found in a chapel, either that of the Queen or anybody else, +should be immediately seized and hanged. The hatred of the country, and +particularly of the city of London, for anything savouring of Popery was +further shown by the presentation of the Root and Branch petition, which +asked for nothing less than the abolition of Episcopacy in the National +Church. But these vexations, distressing as they were, sank into +insignificance before the new blow which threatened the royal power. On +November 11th Strafford was impeached by Pym of high treason and committed +to the Tower, whence he was only to come out to his death. It was a poor +consolation to the Queen that her old enemy, Laud, the persecutor of the +Catholics, was also thrown into prison, for she had learned to see in him, +if not a friend, at least a political ally. + +No blow could have been more crushing than that which at this critical +moment deprived the King and Queen of the services and counsels of their +best friend; but Henrietta was to find herself attacked in more personal +matters, matters which a few months earlier would have seemed to her of +more consequence than any misfortune which could happen to the Viceroy of +Ireland. Experience, however, was teaching her to measure men and things by +another standard than that of personal feeling, though to the end the +lesson would be imperfectly learned. Indeed, in the very next trial she +failed again. + +The contribution of the Catholics in 1639 was a matter of common knowledge. +Parliament, which was already exasperated by the Queen's intervention on +behalf of a priest named Goodman who had been condemned to die, and who was +particularly odious to the Puritans as the brother of the Romanizing Bishop +of Gloucester, determined to strike at those through whom it knew that it +could wound Henrietta. No one at this time was nearer to the Queen than +Walter Montagu, who was her confidant and helper in the correspondence +which she was carrying on with the Court of Rome on the subject of +communications between herself and the Pope. Closely associated with him +was Sir Kenelm Digby, whose departure for Rome was rendered impossible +owing to the rancour of the Puritans. Sir John Winter was the Queen's own +private secretary. These three gentlemen were called to the bar of the +House of Commons to answer for their share in the contribution of 1639, and +it was significantly remarked that the two latter were the sons of "Powder +Plotters," who had lost their lives for complicity in that famous treason. + +On Montagu and Digby fell the brunt of the attack;[239] the former appeared +rather frightened and said little, but Sir Kenelm, who was gifted with an +amazing flow of speech on every occasion, answered copiously and apparently +candidly. The scene, though in one respect it was tragical enough, was not +without humour. The eloquent knight began by eulogizing his audience, with +some irony, perhaps, as "the gravest and wisest assembly in the whole +world, whose Majesty is so great that it might well disorder his thoughts +and impede his expressions"; nothing of this awe appears, however, in his +speech. He assured the House that the contribution had a very simple +origin, namely, the wish of the Catholics to follow the example of other +loyal subjects who were helping the King in his necessity, that Con was the +chief agent in the matter, on account of his unrivalled acquaintance among +the English Catholics, persons of whom it was a mistake to suppose that he, +Sir Kenelm, had any particular knowledge, and that the chief motive +appealed to was that of gratitude for the partial suspension of the penal +laws. As to the amount collected, he had no precise information. Sir Basil +Brook was the treasurer, and L10,000 had been paid in at one time and L2000 +at another. + +Sir Kenelm had played his part well. He had said a very little in a great +many words, and he had kept the real originator of the scheme, the King +himself (who must have been a little nervous of the possible revelations of +the garrulous knight), well hidden. Indeed, the principal point upon which +the Commons fixed was the status of Con, as to whom they may well have been +curious, since their imagination had endowed him with alarming powers, and +with three wives all living at the same time. Montagu was closely +cross-questioned on the matter, but all that he would say was that he +believed Con to be a private envoy to the Queen, in spite of the fact that +he was sometimes called a nuncio. Digby airily asserted that he had no +accurate knowledge of the question under discussion, as he had taken pains +to remain ignorant of these dangerous matters. He added, almost as an +afterthought, that once at Whitehall he had heard Rosetti say that he +renounced any jurisdiction of which he might be possessed. + +The Queen was in great anxiety. Not only had her name been brought forward +in this affair, but she was being attacked in other ways. It was suggested +that her beautiful chapel at Somerset House should be closed, and that she +should only be permitted the little chapel at Whitehall, which was more +like a private oratory. Wild stories were abroad as to a great design among +the Roman Catholics of the three kingdoms to subvert the Protestant +religion by force, and the terror was so great that some fanatical spirits +proposed that Catholics should be forced to wear a distinctive badge +whenever they left their houses. This absurd proposition was rejected by +the good sense of the many, but even so it was an ominous token of hatred. + +The Queen was new to danger, either for herself or for her friends. She +cared a great deal more to avert the wrath of the House of Commons from +herself and from Montagu than for the welfare of the English Catholics, or +even of Rosetti, who, at this time, was not on good terms with Montagu. She +could think of nothing better to do than to send a message to her enemies, +humble in tone and dwelling on the great desire which she had "to employ +her own power to unite the King and the people"; she apologized for the +"great resort to her Chappell at Denmark House," and promised that in the +future she would "be carefull not to exceed that which is convenient and +necessary for the exercise of her religion." She took upon herself the +responsibility of the Catholic contribution, justifying and explaining it +by "her dear and tender affection to the King and the example of other of +His Majesty's subjects," and pleading her ignorance of the law if +inadvertently anything illegal had been done. She completed her submission +by promising to remove Rosetti out of the kingdom "within convenient +time."[240] + +The wrath of the English Catholics, who already looked upon the Queen's +proposed journey to France as a threat of desertion, blazed forth at this +surrender. They remembered, no doubt, that their mistress was a princess of +France, the daughter of the heretic Henry of Navarre. Had she merely +permitted the Parliament to wreak its evil will upon the Church of God, it +would have been bad enough; but had she not gone far beyond this, showing +herself ready to execute its persecuting edicts even before they were +promulgated? The House of Commons, on the other hand, was greatly pleased +at the Queen's submission, and her gracious message was "very well taken." +But had that assembly known the hopes with which the discomfited lady was +consoling herself, its satisfaction would hardly have been greater than +that of the Catholics. + +One day some weeks earlier Henrietta, in the quiet of her own apartments, +had taken up her pen and, without the knowledge of husband or friend, had +written one of the most remarkable letters ever indited by a Queen of +England. + +It was addressed to Cardinal Barberini, and it bore neither date nor name +of the place whence it was written. In it Henrietta poured out her whole +heart. She dwelt upon the sad state of the Catholics, their banishment, the +peril of the priests, the fear lest the harshness of the penal laws, "which +reach even to blood," should be put in force against them. She emphasized +the desperate condition of her husband, which obliged him, who since his +accession had shown his goodwill to the Catholics, and who, indeed, was now +suffering on account of his tenderness to them, to consent to persecution. +After this introduction she came to the gist of her letter, which was +nothing less than a request for a sum of 500,000 crowns, to be used in +winning over the chiefs of the Puritan faction. It was, she said, the only +hope of salvation, "for when the Catholics have once escaped from the +present Parliament, there is everything to hope and nothing to fear in the +future, and the only means to bring this about is that which I +propose."[241] But the greatest secrecy and the greatest promptitude were +necessary. "I ask you very humbly to communicate this to His Holiness, whom +I entreat to consult with you alone; for if the matter became known I +should be lost. I pray him also to send me a reply as quickly as +possible."[242] She did not doubt, she added, that if the response were +favourable the King, her husband, would show his gratitude by favouring the +Catholics even more than he had done in the past. At any rate, whatever the +upshot of the affair, she would have shown her zeal for the good of her +religion. + +The letter was finished; but Henrietta, who knew to some extent with what +edged tools she was playing, took up her pen again to add a brief +postscript. "There is no one knows of this yet but His Holiness, you, and +I." After writing this final warning she sealed up the missive and sent it +to the Papal Nuncio in Paris, through whom it reached Rome. + +Cardinal Barberini was surprised and somewhat annoyed when he received this +letter. He was already a little displeased with Henrietta, and the simple +arguments which she used had not the influence which she imagined over the +mind of the Protector of England. Moreover, the method of her request was +unfortunate. The Cardinal thought it strange that she should have written +on her own responsibility, without consulting either the accredited agent +of the Papacy, who was at her side, or her own confessor. At first he was +almost inclined to consider the letter a forgery, but he dismissed this +idea in favour of the supposition that the Queen had been persuaded to this +action by some person who sought perhaps to deceive her. He seems to have +suspected that Richelieu had some hand in the matter,[243] and he remarked +significantly in writing to Rosetti that the Queen's letter had been +carried to Paris "by one Forster," an English Catholic believed to be in +the pay of the French Government, who, he doubted not, had given his +employers an opportunity of reading it. Henrietta meanwhile was awaiting in +great anxiety the reply of Barberini, which, when it came at last, was a +disappointment. Again it was intimated that only the conversion of the King +of England would loosen the purse-strings of the Pope and justify the Holy +Father in breaking in on the treasure of the Church stored up in the Castle +of S. Angelo. The promise of toleration for the Catholics which would, it +seems, have been given,[244] was not enough, for, as the Cardinal justly +remarked to Rosetti, that promise had already been made in the secret +articles of the Queen's marriage treaty. Moreover, what security could be +offered that toleration, even if granted, would be permanent in the face of +Parliamentary opposition? Barberini, however, did not wish to be unkind, +and he hoped to soften the hard refusal by instructing Rosetti to tell the +Queen of England that if matters came to the worst he would be willing to +help her to the extent of 15,000 crowns.[245] But neither this promise nor +the many pleasing words which accompanied it availed to save Henrietta from +bitter disappointment, only less bitter, perhaps, than that which she would +have felt had she received the money for which she asked, and had attempted +therewith to bribe John Pym. + +But this was not the only negotiation which she was carrying on with the +Holy See. It will be remembered that in her message to the Commons she +promised to remove Rosetti, understanding that his presence was +"distasteful to the kingdom." She was afraid that most unwillingly she +would be obliged to keep her promise. "I cannot sufficiently lament the +pass to which we are come," she wrote to Cardinal Barberini. "I have long +hoped to be able to keep Count Rosetti here, and I have used all sorts of +artifice to do so ... but, at last, there was such an outburst of violence +that there was no means of keeping up our communications except by +promising to remove him."[246] She referred her correspondent to an +accompanying letter written by Montagu to learn the details of a scheme by +which she hoped to make of no effect her promises of submission, and in +spite of her enemies to keep open the communications between England and +Rome.[247] Montagu's letter, which is long and interesting, is less +melancholy in tone than that of the Queen, and shows less of the gnawing +anxiety which was invading her spirit. He even explained cheerfully that +the anti-Catholic promises of the King and Queen had had so good an effect +that affairs seemed in train for "an accommodation to get rid of the Scots, +which is the principal thing that the King ought to regard."[248] As to the +method to be employed for assuring communications, it was similar to that +already practised in Rome, where, in place of Sir Kenelm Digby, a private +Scotchman, by name Robert Pendrick, formerly Hamilton's secretary and a +friend of Con, had been installed as agent. Montagu, however, hoped that, +pending the arrival of an humble substitute, the Queen might be able to +keep Rosetti in England, and, indeed, that the Count might stay "until the +time of her journey to France." + +For on this journey she was at last resolved. Her health had not improved, +and it was thought that she was suffering from the common English +complaint, and was going into a decline. Probably she did not fear a rebuff +from France, but she knew that she would have to fight for her departure +with the House of Commons. Another, and perhaps an unexpected, obstacle +presented itself. Mayerne vindicated his Puritanism by certifying that his +royal patient was in no need of change of air, and that her malady was as +much of the mind as of the body--a diagnosis which was probably correct but +highly inconvenient. In this moment of almost universal reprobation, when +even her co-religionists for whom she had done so much looked coldly on +her, Henrietta may have found some consolation in the kindness of a number +of women of London and Westminster, who, in a petition to Parliament +against the proposed journey, not only dwelt upon the loss to commerce +which would follow the removal of the Queen's Court, but added kind words +of her, praising the encouragement she had given to the calling of +Parliament, and saying, with much truth, that since her coming to England +"she hath been an instrument of many acts of mercy and grace to multitudes +of distressed people." + +Richelieu's answer to Henrietta's request for the hospitality of France was +another grave disappointment. Never for one moment had the French +Cardinal's vigilant eye been turned from England or its Queen. Madame de +Chevreuse, Mary de' Medici, the Duke of Valette, the inclinations towards a +Spanish alliance, all he had noted, and now was the day of reckoning. Not +even in these closing years of triumph would he admit into France one who +might scheme against his interests. The refusal was absolute, and in vain +did Henrietta send a special agent to press her claims. The Cardinal was +inexorable, and the excellent reasons which he gave for his decision--such +as the certain ruin of the Catholics by the Queen's absence, and the danger +in such desperate circumstances of leaving the country--failed to convince +his correspondent that her request was refused solely for her own sake. So +great was her mortification that she was unable to hide from her servants +the chagrin which she felt that she, a daughter of France, the child of the +great Henry, was refused in her sickness and sorrow the shelter of her +native land. + +But there was no time to grieve long over any single annoyance, for trouble +succeeded trouble, one treading fast on the heels of another. Moreover, as +the spring wore on lesser sorrows tended to become swallowed up in the +terrible anxiety as to Strafford's fate. On March 16th it was decided that +he should be tried for high treason; and it struck like an evil omen on the +Queen's heart that on that very day the Lords and Commons agreed to +petition the King for the removal from Court of all Papists, and +particularly of her four chief friends, Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir Tobie +Matthew, Walter Montagu, and Sir John Winter. A few days later the trial +began. It dragged along while, day after day, its course was watched by the +King and Queen of England, who sat in a gallery, closely screened from +curious eyes, looking down on the stern faces below them, and on the +majestic figure of the man who was there to answer for his life. Not all +the persuasions of the Commons could keep the royal couple away. It was the +only thing they could do to encourage their faithful servant. With them sat +their eldest son, the boy of whom it was said that he had been found +weeping because the father who had received three kingdoms as his heritage +would leave him never an one. + +It is needless to repeat the story of Strafford's trial: how all turned +upon an alleged plot to bring over Irish troops to subdue England; how it +was found to be impossible to convict him of conduct which could be brought +within the scope of the Treason Act; how his enemies, determined that he +should not escape, turned the impeachment into an attainder. All that is +necessary is to indicate the Queen's action through these weeks of terror +and struggle. + +Everything that she could she did to save the man whom once she had +regarded almost as an enemy. Day after day she found opportunity for secret +interviews with the Puritan leaders, in which she offered all (and perhaps +more than all) that it was in her power to give in exchange for Strafford's +life. Evening after evening, when the dusk had fallen, she sallied forth +alone, lighting her steps with a single taper, to seek her foes in their +own quarters.[249] Such efforts deserved success, and she at least believed +that to them was due the remarkable conversion of Lord Denbigh, the husband +of her dear and faithful lady-in-waiting, who, after being one of +Strafford's bitterest opponents, turned round and defended him with all his +ability in the House of Lords. + +Nor were these exertions the sum of Henrietta's activities. The marriage +between little Princess Mary and the Prince of Orange, which took place in +the middle of May, bringing as it did the hope of help in money and perhaps +in soldiers, cheered her spirits and roused her to fresh efforts. It was +now that the army plot was formed, the main object of which was to bring up +to London the army which had been raised against the Scots, and by means of +it to overpower Parliament and to release Strafford. + +The plot seems to have originated with two soldiers, the younger Goring and +an officer named Wilmot. These two separately conceived the idea of turning +the discontent of the army, whose wages had not been paid, to the profit of +the King. Charles and Henrietta, who were consulted, thought that the best +plan would be to endeavour to bring about an understanding between the two +officers, each of whom wished to be commander-in-chief. The difficult task +was assigned to Henry Jermyn, whose gentle manners made him specially +suited to such a mission. But then the Queen's heart began to fail her. She +knew only too well the danger of meddling with such matters, and she was +greatly attached to Jermyn, who was, besides, one of the last of her +faithful servants left to her; for Windbank, Montagu, and many another had +been forced to find safety in flight. "If Jermyn too is lost, we shall be +left without friends," she said piteously to her husband. Charles +considered deeply for some time, for he was struck by this argument; but in +the end he said that he thought the risk worth running, and Jermyn, whose +fidelity was unimpeachable, was asked to undertake the dangerous mission. + +Henrietta's courage was indeed giving way. The insults of the mob, the +undisguised hatred of the Puritans whom she believed about to impeach her +of high treason, the wild rumours afloat which culminated in the report of +an imminent French invasion (this time in the royal interest), terrified +her so much that, in spite of her proud boasts of a few days earlier that +she was the daughter of a father who had never learned to run away, she +determined to leave London for Portsmouth. She was only stayed by the +entreaties of the French agent in London, of the Bishop of Angouleme, and +of Father Philip. At Portsmouth was not only the governor, the younger +Goring, but Henry Jermyn, and the Queen's precipitate flight would have +given colour to the scandals which her enemies were industriously +spreading, and to gain evidence for which they did not scruple to +cross-question even her ladies of the bedchamber. + +In London, therefore, Henrietta remained to hear that same day that the +army plot, which was already suspected by Pym, had been betrayed by Goring, +whom she trusted almost beyond any of her servants.[250] Neither he nor +Wilmot could reconcile himself to giving up the first place, and the +former, goaded by ambition, opened the whole matter to Parliament. Henry +Percy, who was also concerned in the affair, fled, leaving a letter for his +brother, the Earl of Northumberland, which was read before Parliament. In +spite of the closure of the ports, he managed, after considerable +difficulty, to reach France, while others of the conspirators, among whom +were two poets, D'Avenant and Suckling, made good their escape. Henry +Jermyn ran perhaps the greatest risk. He had set off for Portsmouth at the +Queen's request, knowing that the plot was betrayed, but unwitting that +Goring was the traitor. When he reached his destination he was asked +wonderingly why he had come. + +"In obedience to His Majesty's commands," he replied. Goring looked sadly +at his friend. "You have nothing to fear," he said at last, "either for +yourself or for me, for I have sufficient credit to save you. I am sorry to +have done wrong, but I will atone for it with regard to you, and I will die +rather than fail you." + +Jermyn perhaps distrusted the man who had already betrayed so grave a +trust; but in this case Goring was as good as his word. He put the orders +sent down by Parliament into his pocket, and helped his friend to escape in +a small boat which took him to join the other exiles in France. + +That which the Queen had feared had come upon her, and she was left almost +without friends. Besides, she winced as at the lash of a whip when she +heard the vile attacks upon her honour.[251] But again bad griefs were to +be swallowed up by worse. + +For the army plot sealed Strafford's fate. The misgivings of the Puritans +were becoming terror as they appreciated that the King of England would +shrink from no means which might make him supreme. The more well-informed +among them knew that Richelieu wished them well, but there were those who +saw in the welcome which the Cardinal extended to the English exiles an +indication that the influence of France would be thrown on the side of the +King, and there were rumours abroad that Strafford, once rescued from +prison, would find a refuge across the Channel. The Earl's position was +rendered still worse when the Lieutenant of the Tower declared that he had +been offered a large bribe to favour his prisoner's escape. There was now +no room for compromise. Strafford had to pay the penalty of the greatness +which made him feared, and on May 8th, the very day on which the army plot +became known, the Bill of Attainder passed both Houses of Parliament. + +Then followed four agonizing days. The King, who had given Strafford a +solemn promise that he should not be harmed, became more and more terrified +(not so much for himself as for those whom he loved, for he was no coward) +as he realized the implacability of those who sought his faithful servant's +life. On the other hand, he felt the shame of the descendant of a long line +of kings at the very thought of breaking his royal pledge. In his struggle +he knew not where to turn for help or comfort. Strafford himself, imitating +the heroic conduct of the simple priest John Goodman, wrote to Charles, +begging to die rather than that his safety should prejudice the King's +interests. As for Henrietta, at this crisis she had no strength to +supplement her husband's weakness. She sat shivering at Whitehall, feeling +around her the atmosphere of hatred, and hearing at last that most terrible +of all sounds, the howling of an infuriated mob. Long Charles hesitated, +but at last he dared do so no longer, for he believed that his wife and his +children would pay the ransom of Strafford. Impelled by fear, justified by +subtle counsellors, he seized his pen and signed the fatal death-warrant; +"and in signing it he signed his own,"[252] commented a Frenchman many +years later. + +Strafford did not fear death. His state of health was such that probably in +any case his remaining days would have been few. With one bitter comment, +"Put not your trust in princes," he turned resolutely to the regulation of +his temporal affairs and to preparation for death. His last day on earth +was troubled by the well-meant solicitude of certain Catholics who, by some +means, gained access to him, but when they found their efforts unavailing +they departed, and he was left in peace. The fatal twelfth of May dawned. +He was led out to meet first the blessing of his fellow-prisoner, +Archbishop Laud, and then the angry faces of the populace, which he +despised to the end, but to which was passing the power he was unable to +hold. There were a few moments of tension, of waiting for death; then the +axe fell, and the one man who might have saved Charles' throne was for ever +beyond the reach of warring factions. "They have committed murder with the +sword of justice,"[253] cried out one Englishman, expressing the silent +thoughts of others less courageous than himself. + +"The people," commented Salvetti, who was not unworthy to be the countryman +of Machiavelli, "now that it knows its own strength, and that nothing is +denied to it, will not stop here, but will claim more."[254] Indeed, the +revolution came on apace. The power was in the hands of Pym and his +friends, and behind them were the London mob and the Scotch army. The +abolition of the Star Chamber and High Commission Courts was only one among +the many blows which were shattering Charles' throne. + +These were some of the darkest days of Henrietta's life. She was fully +aroused from the levity of her youth, but at this first touch of adversity +she had not learned the courage and resignation of later times. Strafford +had no truer mourner than she, unless, indeed, it were her husband. Then +there were griefs more personal to herself. Some of those whom she had most +trusted, such as Lady Carlisle and the Earl of Holland, turned against her, +and she still believed that her enemies meant to humiliate her by an +impeachment. She had to see the Catholics hated and persecuted as they had +not been since the days of the Powder Plot, finding only a sorry +consolation in the heroism which kept most of the priests at their post of +danger. It added to her misery that she had to bear it alone. Even the +Bishop of Angouleme left his royal mistress, for somewhat +characteristically he discovered the urgent need of his presence in Paris. +One of a braver spirit remained as ever faithful, but Father Philip, who +was specially obnoxious to the Puritans, because being a subject of the +King of England he came within the scope of the recusancy laws, found his +constancy rewarded by a severe interrogation before the House of Commons +and a short sojourn in the Tower. It was, however, no doubt a satisfaction, +both to him and to the Queen, that Richelieu, whose name had been freely +mentioned in the examination, expressed himself much annoyed at the liberty +which the leaders of Parliament had taken.[255] + +And in July Henrietta lost another friend. Rosetti had stayed, with +admirable courage and almost beyond the limit of safety, but now the +condition of affairs was such that the Queen would not even permit +Piombini, the humble agent who had been sent to replace him, to remain in +England. She and her husband, with desperation in their hearts, held a last +interview with the papal envoy. Charles, who in Rosetti's words spoke of +the injuries which religion was receiving, "not as a heretic king, but as a +Catholic,"[256] was by this time ready to promise, in return for help from +the Pope, even liberty of conscience in the three kingdoms, together with +the extirpation of Puritanism, thus leaving the field to the Catholics and +the Protestants. He was, moreover, willing to forgo any help from Rome +until the free exercise of the Catholic religion had been granted in +Ireland. These terms, countersigned by his own royal hand, were to be +carried across the sea by Mary de' Medici, who was on the point of leaving +England, and delivered to Rosetti, who, by that time, would be on the way +to Rome. + +But the King of England humiliated himself in vain. Rosetti and those who +directed him were aware of both the circumstances and the character of the +man with whom they had to deal. They knew that only one thing could +irrevocably bind Charles to the Catholic cause, and to the performance of +his difficult promise. "The true way of getting help from the Holy See," +said Rosetti severely, "is the conversion of the King." It was of no avail +that Henrietta hastily asserted that such a step was impossible, not from +any dislike on her husband's part to their holy religion, but because it +would cost him his crown. The King's acts, and not his motives, were the +envoy's concern, and he offered no comment on this wifely explanation, but +hastened to bid the Queen farewell. He left England immediately, and +Henrietta never saw him again. + +A month later, in the August of this sad summer, Henrietta wrote a letter +to her sister Christine, which is the best description of the despair which +was taking possession of her. "I swear to you," so it runs, "that I am +almost mad with the sudden change in my fortunes. From the highest pitch of +contentment I am fallen into every kind of misery which affects not only me +but others. The sufferings of the poor Catholics and of others who are the +servants of my lord the King touch me as sensibly as can any personal +sorrow. Imagine what I feel to see the King's power taken from him, the +Catholics persecuted, the priests hanged, the persons devoted to us removed +and pursued for their lives because they served the King. As for myself, I +am kept as a prisoner, so that they will not even permit me to follow the +King, who is going to Scotland." She goes on to speak of one of the chief +aggravations of her misery, the utter helplessness which she felt. "You +have had troubles enough," she exclaims to her sister, "but at least you +were able to do something to escape them; while we, we have to sit with our +arms folded, quite unable to help ourselves. I know well," she adds sadly, +commenting on her little daughter's marriage, which might have seemed +rather beneath the dignity of the eldest daughter of England, "I know well +that it is not kingdoms that give contentment, and that kings are as +unhappy and sometimes more so than other people."[257] + +During the King's absence in Scotland Henrietta retired to her country +house at Oatlands, to find what consolation she could in the society of her +children. Even there she was not at peace. The leaders of the Parliamentary +party, wishing to gain possession of the young Princes, requested that they +might be placed in their hands, for the benefit of their education, and +because they feared that the Queen, their mother, would make them Papists. +"You are mistaken," replied Henrietta proudly. "The Princes have their +tutors and governors to teach them all that is proper, and I shall not make +them Papists, for I know that that is not the wish of the King." +Nevertheless she was so alarmed at this request that she sent the children +to another country house, whence they came to visit her but occasionally. +She believed that she herself was in some danger of being carried off by +her enemies; at least, that they wished her to think so, in order to drive +her from the kingdom. After a while she left Oatlands and went to Hampton +Court, where she was in greater safety, and where she was able to work for +her husband by winning over some doubtful spirits, of whom the chief was +the Lord Mayor of London. + +Thus the summer wore on, and with the autumn came another blow. In the +early days of November, while Charles was still in Scotland, London was +startled by the news of the sudden and horrible rebellion of the +long-oppressed Irish Catholics, who rose to avenge upon their Protestant +neighbours the wrongs of generations. Stories, not unfounded, of the +reckless barbarity of the rebels were in the mouth of every Englishman, and +the victorious Puritans found in them an easy means of fanning the popular +hatred of the Catholics, which was already at white heat. "This is what +they have done in Ireland, this is what they would do, if they had the +chance, in England," was a ready and convincing argument. This rebellion +added another difficulty to those which were overwhelming the King and +Queen; for not only did it thus give a handle to their enemies, but there +were those who did not scruple to insinuate that the Queen was concerned in +it. + +Later in the same month Charles came home, and he had one day of pleasure +and triumph, for the city of London, partly through the exertions of the +Queen, gave him a royal welcome, which seemed like the beginning of better +things. It was, however, but a passing gleam of hope. The presentation on +December 1st of the Grand Remonstrance, with its sombre catalogue of +grievances, with its acrid religious and political tone, marked another act +of the tragedy. Then at the beginning of the New Year (1642) came the +King's fatal attempt to arrest five members[258] of the House of Commons +and one member of the House of Lords, whom he knew to have been in +communication with the Scots, and whom on this ground he wished to impeach +for the crime of high treason. + +The House of Commons showed a disposition to resist, and on January 4th +Charles went down himself to seize the offending members. He had concerted +his plan overnight with his wife and with George Digby,[259] a cousin of +Sir Kenelm, one of those who had rallied to the royal cause at the time of +Strafford's trial, and who henceforward appears among the Queen's special +friends. With morning the King's spirit quailed before the task he had +undertaken, but Henrietta, whose anger was roused because she believed that +these ringleaders of the Commons intended to impeach her, would allow no +shrinking. "Go, poltroon, pull the ears of these rogues, or never see me +again," she cried, with that touch of insolent scorn into which her +husband's weakness or scruples sometimes betrayed her. As ever, Charles was +unable to stand against her stronger will. He took her in his arms, +assuring her that in an hour's time he would come back master of his foes; +and so he left her and went to his destruction. She awaited his return in +the highest spirits, thinking that now, at last, by one brilliant _coup_ +her troubles would be ended. She continually consulted her watch, as she +listened eagerly for the footsteps of a messenger. At last she could +contain herself no longer. Lady Carlisle, who probably gathered that some +great matter was stirring, came into the Queen's private room to be greeted +with an excited exclamation, "Rejoice, for now I hope the King is master in +his kingdom," and to be told the very names of the intended victims. Lady +Carlisle showed no surprise or annoyance. She quietly left the room and +wrote a note to Pym, with the consequence that Charles, who had been +delayed, entered the House of Commons to find, in his own words, "the birds +flown." Henrietta, when she discovered the Countess' treachery, reproached +herself most bitterly for her failure to keep silence, and confessed her +fault freely to her husband, who as freely forgave it. But, culpable as she +was, it is probable that her indiscretion did little harm. Her real fault +she could not appreciate. It was Charles' attempt to seize the leaders of +Parliament, not his failure in so doing, which precipitated the revolution. + +Henceforward there was no hope of averting the revolution. Charles and +Henrietta had to face the wrath of their people, and they knew that they +were alone. The Pope, from whom they had hoped so much, left them to their +fate, and Richelieu, though his attitude had been sometimes a little +ambiguous, was the friend of their foes, and felt towards them an hostility +the result of the history of the last fifteen years, which was a continual +encouragement to those who were arrayed against them. It is true that many +Englishmen, terrified at the extremes to which the Puritans were rushing, +rallied round the King,[260] seeing in him, as he ever saw in himself, the +defender of the ancient constitution; but even so the horizon was dark, and +it was to grow darker to the end. "A northern King shall reign," ran the +prophecy of Paul Grebner, who was in England in the great days of +Elizabeth, "Charles by name, who shall take to wife Mary of the Popish +religion, whereupon he shall be a most unfortunate Prince."[261] + +[Footnote 234: See particularly the dispatches of Montreuil (MS. Francais, +15,995) and Salvetti (Add. MS., 27,962), and Rosetti's remark in a letter +to Cardinal Barberini (August 10th, 1640) that if something were not done +the Puritans would so increase "che metteranno un giorno in pericolo di +distruggere la monarchia di Inghilterra!"--Roman Transcripts P.R.O.] + +[Footnote 235: Mme de Motteville: _Memoires_ (1783), I, 244. Cf. Montglas: +_Memoires_ (1727), t. II, p. 67. "Il [Richelieu] avoit toujours des sommes +d'argent entre les mains pour distribuer a l'insu de tout le monde a gens +inconnus qui faisoient ensuite des effets mervellieux qui surprenoient tout +le monde: comme depuis par la guerre civile d'Angleterre dont il etoit +auteur et qu'il fomentoit pour empecher les Anglois jaloux de la prosperite +de la France de traverser ses desseins."] + +[Footnote 236: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.] + +[Footnote 237: MS. Francais, 15,995.] + +[Footnote 238: Bellievre, the French ambassador in England, wrote, in +August, 1639, of a _femme de chambre_ of the Queen who was going to France, +that she was "tres bien sans l'esprit de la Reine sa maitresse."--Aff. +Etran. Ang., t. 47.] + +[Footnote 239: The following account is from a private letter written by a +Catholic: "Mr. Montague and Sir Kenelme appeared, the former said little +but what was barely necessary to answer their interrogations which were +about superiours of orders engaged in that business and his answers were +soe sparing and wary that they told him he squiborated with them and +co[~m]anded him next day to attend again. The latter spake soe home and soe +frankly as he left them little to saye against him but to co[~m]and his +attendance the next daye: the su[~m]e of what he said was being the Scotts +were declared rebells by the Kinge and Counsell his Ma^{tie} actively in +the field against them, that all the Nobility, Counsell, Bishops, Judges +and Innes of Court having contributed voluntarily to the warre, he could +make noe doubt but hee and all Catholickes were obliged to followe their +examples, and this the rather because her Ma^{tie} was pleased to aske +parte of all that his Ma^{tie} might have taken without askinge such being +the condition of Catholickes in England whereof he confessed himselfe to be +one."--Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 240: The Queen's message to the House of Commons is printed in +Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 36.] + +[Footnote 241: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. See Appendix, No. II.] + +[Footnote 242: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. See Appendix No. II.] + +[Footnote 243: Barberini also refers to the reports which were about +concerning the complicity of France in the Scotch rebellion.] + +[Footnote 244: It is probable that the offer was made by the Queen alone at +this time, as Barberini says that security from the Parliament or in some +other way would be necessary. "Non parendo bastante la promessa della +Regina."--Barberini to Rosetti, February l6th, 1641. P.R.O. Roman +Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 245: The tenor of the Cardinal's answer is gathered from his +letter to Rosetti. P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 246: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. Henrietta Maria to Barberini, +February 6th, 1641.] + +[Footnote 247: "Je vous remest a Montagu pour faire savoir le particulier +de tout et les moyens que je propose pour continuer l'intelligence ce que +je desire passionement."--Henrietta Maria to Barberini, February 6th, 1641. +P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 248: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts. Walter Montagu to Barberini, +February 6th, 1641.] + +[Footnote 249: This statement rests on the authority of Mme de Motteville. +It seems incredible that the Queen went out alone into the street; it is +probable that she went to the apartments of noblemen living in the palace.] + +[Footnote 250: "Cette princesse dict a plusieurs personnes qu'elle n'avoit +que Mr. Goring et son fils en qui elle se put asseurer si les Escossais +continuent leur manche en Angleterre." April 18th, 1641. MS. Francais, +15,995, f. 226.] + +[Footnote 251: "Che la ferisce al vivo."--Salvetti. Add. MS., 27,962, I, f. +232.] + +[Footnote 252: Francois Faure, in his funeral sermon on Henrietta Maria. +Mme de Motteville in her memoirs makes almost the same remark (ed. 1783). +I, 261.] + +[Footnote 253: Diurnall Occurrences, May, 1641.] + +[Footnote 254: Add. MS., 27,962, I, f. 233. Cf. the remark of Giustiani, +May 24th, 1641: "Li piu savii pero pronosticano a piena bocca che l'habbi +ben tosto a reduirsi questa monarchia a governo interamente +democratica."--P.R.O. Venetian Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 255: A little later (October 30th, 1641) the French ambassador in +England, remembering that Father Philip belonged to the anti-Richelieu +party, wrote asking if he should work for his "l'esloignement." Aff. Etran. +Ang., t. 48.] + +[Footnote 256: Charles left the room after a few words with Rosetti, +leaving his wife to make the offers described above, but there is no reason +to doubt that she had his authority.] + +[Footnote 257: _Lettres de Henriette Marie a sa soeur Christine_, August +8th, 1641, pp. 57-9.] + +[Footnote 258: Pym, Hampden, Haselrig, Holles, Strode, in the Commons; in +the Lords, Lord Kimbolton, the brother of Walter Montagu, who had been the +King's personal friend and had accompanied him to Spain in 1624.] + +[Footnote 259: George Lord Digby, eldest son of the Earl of Bristol.] + +[Footnote 260: The narrow majority by which the Grand Remonstrance passed +the House of Commons marked the formation of the constitutional Royalist +party.] + +[Footnote 261: This version is a corruption of the real prophecy of +Grebner, which was contained in a book given by him to Elizabeth and by +Elizabeth to Trinity College, Cambridge. See "Monarchy or no Monarchy in +England: Grebner his prophecy by William Lilly, student in Astrology" +(1651).] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE QUEEN AND THE WAR + +I + + 'Tis time to leave the books in dust, + And oil the unused armour's rust, + Removing from the wall + The corselet of the hall. + + ANDREW MARVELL + + +It would be impossible, within the limits of these studies, to give even a +brief outline of the events of that momentous period of our history known +as the Civil War. All that can be attempted is to indicate the various +activities of Henrietta Maria in connection with it. + +With the knowledge that a struggle was inevitable a change came over the +Queen's spirit. As long as an accommodation seemed possible she had shown, +certainly from time to time, some moderation and some desire to propitiate +her enemies, but it seemed to her that the demands of Parliament were +unreasonable, and that, in fact, when she spoke of peace her foes made them +ready for battle. There was no way through the impasse, for they, on their +side, were of just the same opinion. Thenceforward her tactics were +different. As she had opposed an ignominious peace with the Scotch rebels, +so now she was an advocate of no compromise. Throwing herself with all the +energy of her nature--she could never do anything by halves, said one who +knew her well[262]--into her husband's cause, she took her place among the +most active members of the royalist party. Gone was the Queen of love and +beauty, the gentle lady whose interests were those of the drawing-room, the +nursery, and the chapel. Gone even was the Queen of tears, who sat cowering +in London on the eve of the war. Instead is seen a woman stern and +determined, brushing aside concessions and half-measures with undisguised +scorn, leaving without a sigh the luxuries in which from her cradle she had +been lapped, and in which she had shown an artistic and sensuous delight, +posting over land and sea, regardless of comfort, of health, of life +itself, to bring succour to her husband. The daughter of Henry IV had risen +to the measure of her likeness to her great father. + +Henrietta set out for Holland in February, 1642. The ostensible reason of +her journey was to escort her daughter Mary, who was only ten years old, to +her husband, the Prince of Orange. The real reason was to raise such sums +of money and to collect such quantities of arms and ammunition as she could +obtain on the security of the treasures which she took with her, her own +jewels and those of the Crown of England. + +After a stormy crossing, which resulted in the loss of the chapel vessels +and of the servants' clothes, Henrietta was able to gather round her on the +soil of Holland her small household. It included Lord Goring, Lady Denbigh, +Lady Roxburgh, who had been the little princesses' governess, and Father +Philip, who was accompanied by one of his old rivals of the Capuchin Order. +The storm-tossed exiles were met at the coast by Henry, Prince of Orange, +who, anxious to give due honour to his son's bride and mother-in-law, +welcomed the sorrowful Queen with a "brief and succinct speech," running to +a length of three and a half closely printed quarto pages, and couched in a +style of inflated flattery[263] which, sad as she was, must have taxed +Henrietta's gravity to listen to. She replied, however, with great decorum +that the Prince appeared to her "the god of eloquence," after which she and +her little daughter were royally feasted in the palace at The Hague. + +Nevertheless, a welcome which savoured of absurdity was better than +"greetings where no kindness is." In the Dutch capital Henrietta found her +husband's sister, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, who was living there in +exile. This lady, who had taken an accurate measure of her sister-in-law's +influence over her brother, held her in the cool esteem with which +relatives by marriage are frequently regarded, and had no real cordiality +to show to the woman who was beginning to tread the Via Dolorosa her own +feet had trodden so long. It happened, besides, that just at this time +parties in Holland reproduced in miniature those of England. The House of +Orange clung to the alliance with the House of Stuart, but the wealthy +burgesses of Amsterdam and The Hague, who were democratic and republican in +their views, had more sympathy with those who were fighting the battle of +liberty across the waters of the North Sea. They showed Henrietta little +kindness and scant courtesy. They gave her hints, which she refused to +take, that they would be glad to see the last of her. They treated her with +none of the deference due to her rank. A sturdy Dutch burgher would stride +into her presence without removing his hat, sit down beside her and enter +into conversation with her as if she were a fellow-townsman whom he had met +in the street; or, perhaps, if he could not think of anything to say, would +turn on his heel and go away without stopping to salute the Queen of +England, all which amazing manners Henrietta, whose sense of humour never +deserted her, carefully noted and described years afterward to Madame de +Motteville.[264] + +But in spite of hostility the Queen's work prospered. She kept her daughter +with her, while the boy-husband pursued the studies suitable to his age and +rank; but she devoted her chief energies to raising money, a task in which +she experienced some difficulty, as reports were circulated that she had +carried off the crown jewels without the King's consent. She was, moreover, +carefully watched, both by her unwilling hosts and by spies of the +Parliament; but, nevertheless, she managed to sell or pawn some of her +store, though at exorbitant rates, for, as she wrote to her husband, no +sooner was it known that the King of England was in need of money than the +usurers and merchants "keep their foot on our throat." Parliament issued a +proclamation forbidding any of the "traitors" to approach the person of the +Queen; but, nevertheless, her friends came not without the connivance of +the Prince of Orange, who allowed two of them to lie at his own lodgings. +George Digby and Henry Jermyn hastened to her side, and she was cheered by +the arrival from France of another old friend from whom she had parted the +year before in fear and distress. + +Walter Montagu, after his hasty flight from England, had been received with +rather unexpected kindness by Richelieu. He spent, however, most of his +exile at Pontoise, where he made friends with Mother Jeanne Seguier,[265] a +lady who combined the professions of a Carmelite nun and of a political +intriguer, and to whom he probably owed an acquaintance with the rising +Mazarin, which was rapidly ripening into friendship. But, in spite of the +seduction of French affairs, he did not forget the lady to whom his +allegiance was pledged; and in the late spring of 1642 he hurried to +Holland to give advice in matters where his intimate knowledge of the +French Court was invaluable. + +For Henrietta's eyes were turning to her native land as a possible refuge +in case of the worst. She had wished to go to Cologne, where her poor old +mother lay sick to death; but her masters in Holland forbade her. Ireland, +which had been suggested, seemed "a strange place"; so sometimes she +thought she would go to her beloved nuns in the Faubourg S. Jacques, and +there, where she had been so happy, hide her humiliated head in case of her +husband's discomfiture. She knew that Richelieu hated her, and she deeply +resented the attitude taken up by the French ambassador in London; but she +thought, and thought justly, that Louis XIII, or rather the Cardinal, would +not, for very shame, refuse her, a daughter of France, an asylum in the +extremity to which her affairs had come. Her Grand Almoner, Du Perron, who +had not felt it necessary to risk himself in England again, wrote from +Paris that she would be given entertainment in France in case of need. He +also gave the welcome news that he was coming to see her on behalf of her +brother the King, on receiving which intelligence her elastic spirits rose +high with hope, so that she wrote friendly letters both to the great +Cardinal himself and to Mazarin, with whom Montagu had smoothed her way. + +It was a comfort to feel that she had an assured retreat, for the news from +England became more and more exciting. The setting up of the King's +standard at Nottingham on August 22nd, 1642, made the war a reality. The +first blood shed in civil strife since the battle of Bosworth was drawn at +Powick Bridge on September 23rd, 1642. On October 23rd the first regular +engagement between the rival armies took place at Edgehill. + +The Queen watched the course of events with painful and unremitting +anxiety. Nor was she a mere spectator. There yet exists the remarkable +series of letters[266] which she addressed from Holland, some written by +her own hand, some by that of a secretary, probably Henry Jermyn, to her +husband. In them, more clearly than anywhere else, we see the working of +Henrietta's fierce and determined mind at this crisis. How she urged +Charles on, against the advice of more moderate counsellors, to take Hull +by force, though Parliament had not begun hostilities. "Is it not beginning +to put persons into it against your will?"[267] How she wished she were in +the place of her son James, who was in that town. "I would have flung the +rascal over the walls, or he should have done the same thing to me."[268] +How she entreated and almost commanded the King to make no accommodation +which would abate by one jot or tittle his royal power,[269] and how she +threatened, in case he did not take her advice, to go to France instead of +returning to England, "for to die of consumption of royalty is a death +which I cannot endure, having found by experience the malady to be too +insupportable."[270] How she exhorted him to take good heed that their +children did not fall into the hands of the enemy, and to be faithful to +the few friends whom she really trusted. It is evident that she was no wise +guide for her unhappy husband, whose vacillations, born of a glimmering +perception of the position of a constitutional King, roused her to scorn +and almost to fury. She cannot be acquitted of having done all that lay in +her power (which was much) to widen the breach between the King and his +subjects in these early and critical days. Hers was the stronger spirit, +and she knew it. The tone of her letters to "le roy monseigneur," if always +loving is often peremptory, and sometimes even dictatorial, while she does +not hesitate to show her contempt for his lack of decision and promptitude. +She is ever exhorting him to courage, to energy, to vengeance. The day of +mercy is gone, and it is time to give place to justice. Even her +benedictions end in curses such as the Puritans excelled in heaping on the +heads of their enemies and those of the Lord.[271] She had not for nothing +sat at the feet of Richelieu. "Charles, be a King," is the burden of all +her advice. + +In these letters to her struggling husband Henrietta seldom allows herself +to give way; but the softer side of her nature, though often obscured by +sterner elements, never wholly disappeared. "Pray to God for me," she wrote +in her pain to Madame S. Georges; "for be assured there is not a more +wretched creature in this world than I, separated from the King my lord, +from my children, out of my country, and without hope of returning thence, +except at imminent peril, abandoned by all the world, unless God assist me, +and the good prayers of my friends, among whom I number you."[272] + +But such temporary despondency was drowned in work. Henrietta had too much +to do, raising money, not only in Holland but in Denmark, sending arms and +accoutrements into England, and keeping the Prince of Orange in a good +temper, to have much time for low spirits. Towards the end of 1642 she had +raised such sums of money as the amount of her resources and the caution of +her customers permitted.[273] The state of affairs in England was not very +promising, but nothing could keep her from her husband when she could be at +his side with honour to herself and advantage to him. For danger she cared +little, but various delays occurred, and it was not until the end of the +following January, when she had been almost a year in the land where she +had intended but a short stay, that she set sail for England. + +[Illustration: THE QUEEN'S DEPARTURE FROM HOLLAND + +FROM AN ENGRAVING] + +This attempted journey was one of the stormiest incidents of Henrietta's +stormy career. Hardly had she set sail, accompanied by eleven vessels, when +(by the agency of the devil, as some thought)[274] "the wind turned +contrary, and the greatest storme that hath been seene this many a +yeere"[275] arose. Nine days the Queen tossed upon the waves of the North +Sea, lashed, as were all her ladies, into a narrow berth. The misery of the +small, stuffy cabin was indescribable, and worse than bodily discomfort was +the continual fear of death, which was so menacing that the Queen and the +other Catholics on board, throwing aside their natural reticence on such +matters, confessed their sins in a loud voice, which, perhaps, in the din +of the storm, was necessary to the priest's hearing. It is said that the +horror of the scene was so great that some of the sailors threw themselves +into the sea. Henrietta believed that her last hour was come, and, as she +confessed later, "a storm of nine days is a very frightful thing."[276] But +the first alarm over, she reflected that after all there was little at +present to make her cling to life, and she rallied her courage so +effectually as to be able to derive amusement from the ridiculous incidents +which never fail to occur on a storm-tossed vessel, while she reassured her +terrified ladies by telling them that queens were never drowned. + +At last, after getting tantalizingly near to Newcastle-on-Tyne, the boat +was tossed back on to the shores of Holland, where Montagu was waiting in +great anxiety. The weary voyagers landed from a small fishing-smack in a +state of filth and exhaustion, for which their delicate lives had little +prepared them, and which shocked the Prince of Orange, who, together with +his son and daughter-in-law, came down to the seashore to meet the Queen. +Henrietta and her ladies were so feeble that they could hardly stand, while +one of the Capuchin Fathers required the support of two men to help him to +say Mass. The Queen lost in this tempest a precious ship laden with the +stuff of war, but "she gained in the opinion of all the witnesses what she +can never lose,"[277] for indeed her courage, which seemed above that of +her sex, won an admiration which was still further increased when it was +found that she meant, against the advice of her friends, to put to sea +again as soon as the weather permitted and her several ships which had been +dispersed in the storm came up. "They that are delivered from shipwrack, +bid an eternall adieu to the sea, and to the shipps; nay, they are not able +to endure the sight thereof. These are Tertullian's words. Yet within +eleauen days after, O admirable resolution! the Queen, being scarce yet +escaped from a dreadfull storme, spurred on by the desire of seeing the +King and of coming in to his ayde, adventures againe to trust herself to +the furie of the ocean and to the winters rigour."[278] So, recalling this +incident, cried her eloquent panegyrist at her funeral service a quarter of +a century later. Perhaps Henrietta felt that she feared the dangers of the +deep less than the tongues and the acts of the enemies she was leaving +behind. The Hollanders dared to detain a ship which she had caused to be +loaded with ammunition, so that she was obliged to address to them an angry +protest, while the preachers in their pulpits began to rail against the +Prince of Orange and his son's English match, affirming that he wished to +make himself King, and saying that if they must have a tyrant they would +prefer their old master the Spaniard. + +Thus Henrietta, bidding a long farewell to Montagu, who set out almost +immediately for France, embarked once more. This time the sea was kinder to +her, but the land proved her enemy. She intended landing at +Newcastle-on-Tyne, but a change in the wind, which until the English coast +was near had been very light, drove the vessel into Burlington Bay in +Yorkshire. The Queen at once sent to inform the Earl of Newcastle, who was +commanding the royalist forces in the neighbourhood. She had not long to +wait before she received his answer in the shape of a body of cavalry, +whose arrival enabled her to land. But, weary as she was, there was no rest +for her. She brought with her a thousand old soldiers from the Low +Countries, for she had heard rumours of a plot to seize her on landing. +They, as well as the escort sent by her husband, were needed, for at four +o'clock on the dark February morning she was roused by the sound of firing. +Four of the Parliament ships had arrived in the bay, and they were shelling +the village, with special attention, it appeared, to the Queen's +lodgings.[279] In a few moments Jermyn appeared and told her to flee for +her life. She jumped up, and having hastily flung on some clothing was +hurrying to a place of refuge when suddenly she stopped, remembering that +lying asleep on her bed was her pet dog, Mitte--an ugly beast, says Madame +de Motteville, who was evidently no lover of the canine race, in recounting +the story. Henrietta could not bear to leave her pet to death, or possibly +to ill-treatment;[280] so, notwithstanding the entreaties of her friends +and the rain of bullets that was falling, she insisted on retracing her +steps to the house she had just left. It was the work of a few minutes to +rush to her room and pick up Mitte. Then with all speed she sought an +uncomfortable safety in a ditch outside the village, where for two hours +the balls played over the heads of the Queen and her suite, until at last +the Admiral of Holland sent to tell the rebels that unless they desisted he +would fire on them in return. "That was done a little late,"[281] was +Henrietta's caustic and characteristic comment. + +No less characteristic was her high-spirited return to the village the next +morning, "not choosing that they should have the vanity to say they made me +quit."[282] In spite of all her spirits rose at finding herself again in +England, and she had the satisfaction of knowing that she brought with her +substantial help in the way of arms, ammunition, and money, which her +gallant soldiers had guarded through that night of battle. Her great wish +was to rejoin her husband as soon as possible, and setting herself at the +head of her army she started to march towards Oxford, where Charles was +keeping his Court. + +But five months were to elapse before the royal pair were united, and this +five months forms one of the most curious episodes of Henrietta's career. +She became for the time being a military captain, "her she majesty +generalissima," as she calls herself. She played her part right well, as if +she remembered that in her veins flowed not only the blood of her father, +but of her heroic Medici ancestor, Giovanni delle Bande Nere.[283] This +delicately nurtured woman, who was, moreover, in bad health, lived among +her soldiers, says the admiring Madame de Motteville, almost as imagination +may picture Alexander living among his. Forgetting feebleness and fatigue, +she was constantly in the saddle; setting aside all etiquette, she dined in +the open air with her followers, each of whom she treated as a brother. It +was no wonder that the Popish army of the Queen, as it was angrily called +by its enemies, adored its royal mistress. Few probably thought of +Alexander, but some--old soldiers from the Continent, perhaps--may have +remembered the stories of Henry of Navarre among his companions-in-arms. + +The military details of the campaign cannot be entered into here. The Queen +was much in the hands of military specialists, a position she did not love, +and which elicited some complaints that she could not rule the army which +bore her name. There were jealousies and differences of opinion, such as on +the question of attacking Leeds, in which matter both she and the Earl of +Newcastle, her general, followed a course which drew upon them a mild +censure from the King. Perhaps the most notable success was the gain of +Scarborough, which was delivered up by its Parliamentary governor, Sir Hugh +Cholmondley, who came to kiss the Queen's hand at York. In that ancient +city she made a considerable stay, which was further enlivened by the +reception of some of the northern loyalist nobility, among whom was the +Marquis of Montrose. + +In July Henrietta at last reached her husband. They met in Kineton Vale, +below Edgehill, and at the same time she was able to embrace her two eldest +sons, who were with their father. A few days later she entered Oxford, and +for a moment the welcome of the faithful city diverted her from her woes. +Crowds of spectators lined the streets or peeped out from the +house-windows, and as the procession went by they cheered and blessed the +Queen as the pledge and harbinger of peace.[284] At Carfax "the Major[285] +and his brethren entertained Her Majesty with an English speech, delivered +by Master Carter, the Town Clerk, in the name of the city, and presented +her with a purse of gold."[286] She went on to Christ Church, where she was +received by the Vice-Chancellor and the Heads of Houses, and thence to the +Warden's lodgings[287] at Merton, which had been prepared for her +reception, and where on her arrival she was offered by the University +authorities books of verses and pairs of gloves. This college, which was +probably chosen on account of its proximity to Christ Church, where the +King kept his Court, possessed a secret passage which led into the gardens +of the neighbouring foundation of Corpus Christi, so that Charles could +visit his wife without going into the public street. + +There was, indeed, much for the royal pair to discuss, for since their +parting neither had been idle for a moment, and each had to recount to the +other the results of their labours, while the changing circumstances of the +Continent called for careful consideration. + +In December, 1642, before Henrietta left Holland, Cardinal Richelieu died +in Paris. The passing away of this great man, who, knowing how to bend men +and circumstances to his will, had built up France as two hundred years +later Bismarck was to build up Germany, was a severe blow to the +Parliamentary party, which knew him to be their friend;[288] but to the +Queen it appeared the removal of the chief obstacle in the way of obtaining +that help from her native country of which she was already beginning to +think. It was believed that now her enemy was gone she would hasten to +Paris herself, but she judged otherwise, and contented herself with +carrying on negotiations by means of Walter Montagu, on whose friendship +with Mazarin she counted. That gentleman supplied the French Government +with a curious paper on English affairs,[289] which he probably drew up at +The Hague under the Queen's direction. It set forth the miserable plight of +Catholicism in that country, and urged the King of France to give help, +which, in the event of his brother of England's success, would be well +repaid, while his failure could bring no prejudice to an ally. These cogent +reasonings were not disregarded, but they did not make as much impression +on the minds of those to whom they were addressed as Henrietta and Montagu +perhaps expected. + +All France hoped that the death of the Cardinal would mean a reversal of +his policy, for the nobles were discontented, while the people were +overtaxed and miserable. Already the faint grumblings of discontent could +be heard, which became articulate a few years later in the rebellions of +the Fronde. Such hopes were strengthened by the fact that Louis XIII was +evidently following to the grave the minister who had made him, almost +against his will, a great and victorious monarch. But France was not to +escape so easily the influence of the mighty personality which had +dominated her for so long. + +Louis XIII died in May, 1643, and Anne of Austria, after a lifetime of +neglect, found herself at the head of affairs as regent for her little son +Louis XIV. The past career of this lady, her affection for Spain, her not +uncalled for hatred of Richelieu, pointed to a complete reversal of the +Cardinal's policy. His enemies began to come back to Court, and Madame de +Chevreuse herself left her retreat in Flanders, and was seen at the side of +the Queen-Regent. + +But Anne soon found out the difficulties of her position. She was an idle +woman who had never been accustomed to use her mind, and she craved +instinctively for a stronger arm and brain on which to lean. She found them +in the low-born Italian adventurer Jules Mazarin, whom Richelieu had +trained to be his successor. Mazarin had not his master's dislike to the +English nation or its Queen. Moreover, he owed much to Walter Montagu, +whose influence with Queen Anne was greater than ever, and who had been +instrumental in introducing the Cardinal to her favour. It is probable that +when Henrietta heard the turn which affairs had taken in France she +rejoiced. She had some cause to do so, but yet in the years that were +coming she was to learn that Mazarin, like Richelieu, only cared, in his +heart, for the interests of France, and that his desire was so to hold the +balance of power between her and her enemies that he might be able to +pursue unmolested the task of humbling the House of Austria, which had been +bequeathed to him by his great predecessor. + +In the autumn of 1643 an event occurred which caused much annoyance to +Henrietta, and resulted in the removal from the French Court of the man +most able and willing to advance her interests there. + +It is probable that the Queen-Regent was really anxious to succour the King +and Queen of England. She was grateful to them for the kindness which they +had shown to Madame de Chevreuse, and she remembered their common hatred of +Richelieu. Mazarin did not fail in polite condolences, and he thought that +it would be a good thing to send over an ambassador to England, to see at +least that Henrietta was properly treated, and that the interests of France +were duly considered. To this post the Count of Harcourt was appointed, +whose way was to be prepared by an agent of inferior rank, M. de Gressy. + +Under cover of this embassy Walter Montagu thought that he would be able to +reach Oxford unobserved. He did not travel with the ambassador, but joined +himself to Gressy's company in England in a disguised dress and a large +wig, which he hoped would be sufficient to conceal the identity of a person +better known in France than in England; but either he overdid his disguise, +or else he went about with injudicious openness in search of amusement, for +at Rochester he was recognized. The sharp eyes of a Parliamentary officer +spied him out, took him in charge and carried him off to London, where he +was put in the Tower and there kept, in spite of the remonstrances of the +French ambassador, the entreaties of the Queen-Regent of France, and the +somewhat lukewarm representations of Mazarin, who perhaps saw in him a +possible rival.[290] All that the two Houses of Parliament would do was to +deliver up to Harcourt the letters of Queen Anne, which were found on the +prisoner. They regarded him as a "grand Jesuiticall English Papist," and +they urged "that he hath been a great incendiary of this unnatural war +against the Parliament, was formerly banished by Act of Parliament, and no +letter from a foreign Prince can defend him."[291] + +Henrietta was deeply chagrined, the more so as this vexation came upon the +top of others. + +She was not unaware of the feelings with which her husband's enemies +regarded her. The comments and slanders with which she had been pursued in +Holland would have been sufficient to enlighten her, without the reception +which met her at Burlington Bay. The proposal of her enemies, couched in +specious language, to escort her to London, where she should be "lovingly +entertained," roused her to fury, for she who did not fear the bullets or +the waves shrank with a feeling of almost physical repulsion from falling +into the hands of her foes. But a further insult was to come. In May, 1643, +she was impeached of high treason as the greatest papist in the land, and +that her cup of humiliation might be full she was not allowed the title of +Queen of England, on the pretext that, as she had never been crowned, she +had no legal right to it. Truly the mistakes of her youth were returning +upon her head. "You will give a share of all these news to all our friends, +if any dare own themselves such after the House of Commons hath declared me +traitor, and carried up their charge against me to the Lords,"[292] she +wrote sadly to the Duke of Hamilton. It was indeed no advantage to be known +as her friend, specially in London, where the Puritan hatred, of which she +was the chief object, was beginning to attack the priceless memorials of +the past. Stained-glass windows were smashed in the churches, and +"Cheapside Crosse, which at her Majestie's first coming into England was +beautified in a glorious and splendid manner ... as it dazzlled a many eyes +to behold the gods, Popes, and saints thereon,"[293] and which was boasted +of by the Catholics even in Rome as one of the chief relics of the ancient +religion, was torn down, and it was decided that "the Lead about the +Crosse" should "be cast into Bullets, and bestowed on the Papists in +armes."[294] This was bad enough, but even more trying to the Queen's +feelings were the piteous accounts which came of the sufferings of her poor +Capuchins, who, after more than a year of terrified waiting, saw themselves +and their property in the hands of a ruthless mob, which was none the +better because it acted in the name of the House of Commons, and which was +led by Henry Martin, a man of unusually violent character, who was +afterwards one of the regicides. All the remonstrances of the French agent +and the House of Lords, "whose members have learned by their travels that +there are other countries besides England,"[295] were brushed aside. +Hideous orgies and blasphemous revels were witnessed, testifying to the +anti-Catholic hatred of the populace. The beautiful chapel which had been +built with such high hopes only a few years earlier was sacked, and the +ornaments, pictures, and vestments destroyed, except such of the latter as +Martin carried off for his mistress. The picture by the brush of Rubens +which adorned the High Altar was wantonly spoiled; the seat of the Queen +was broken up with peculiar violence. Outside in the garden some of the +rough soldiers played at ball with the heads of a Christ and of a St. +Francis, while others indoors trod underfoot the escutcheons of Henry IV +and his wife, which were kept for use on their anniversaries. Only one +consolation had the unhappy Fathers. Such a scene would not have been +complete without its miracle, and they had the satisfaction of tracing the +hand of Providence in the blindness of their spoilers to a small box of +consecrated hosts hidden away in a cupboard, whose contents were turned +upside down by rough hands of the mob. + +Henrietta's wrath may be imagined when she heard of this fresh insult +offered, not only to her but to her parents and to her country under whose +protection the Capuchins lived. It probably outweighed the grief she felt +for the destruction of her beautiful chapel. As for her husband, he was so +incensed that he is said to have specially excluded from pardon all those +concerned in the riot. Again, just as the Queen entered Oxford, another +trouble fell upon her, which was another proof of the remorseless hatred of +the Puritans. Edmund Waller, who in happier days had made verses to her +charms, raised a plot in London in the King's interest. It was discovered, +and among its victims was a faithful servant of Henrietta, Master Tomkins, +who, condemned by "a new counsell of war (consisting of Kimbolton, +Mainwaring, Venn, the Devill, and a few others),"[296] was executed outside +his own door in Holborn by the common hangman. + +Nor even within the walls of Oxford was there freedom from jealousy and +strife. Henrietta could not bring herself to look cordially upon +Holland[297] when he came to ask pardon of the King for his rebellion, even +though he used Jermyn as his intermediary, and there were others who, +though faithful to the cause, stood between her and that complete +ascendancy over her husband at which she aimed. Perhaps it was hardly to be +expected that she should like Rupert of the Rhine, the son of the Queen of +Bohemia, who had great influence over his uncle in military matters. Never +at any time during the war did the affairs of the King promise better than +during Henrietta's stay at Oxford. She and her advisers, among whom were +prominent the Earl of Bristol and his son, that same George Digby who had +been with her in Holland, with their usual leaning to the bold and +enterprising course, wished Charles to march on London, and end the war by +a grand _coup_. It was a sore disappointment to her when, on the advice of +Rupert, he turned aside to the siege of Gloucester. She believed (and she +kept the belief to the end of her days[298]) that had he pushed on to the +capital at this favourable moment, he would have been able to overcome his +enemies. + +But, in spite of all these accumulated worries, Henrietta's stay in Oxford +was probably the happiest time she had known since the opening of the Long +Parliament. After her long absence she was restored to "the dearest thing +in the world to her, after God, the presence of the King her husband and +the Princes her children."[299] After the troubles and dangers of her +sojourn in Holland and her campaign in the north she was in peace and +safety, though the city was strongly fortified and cannon were to be seen +both at "Newparkes and S. Giles his fields." Nor, in spite of these warlike +preparations, was the mimic Court without its diversions, for each college +and hall was turned into a dwelling for gay royalist ladies and gentlemen, +so that as Henrietta took her airing in Trinity Grove, the Hyde Park of +Oxford, she saw many of the faces she had been accustomed to see in the +real Hyde Park in London. + +Absurd reports were rife among the enemy of the condition of the city; how +it swarmed with Irish rebels, how Mass was said in every street; while the +more sober-minded descanted upon the condition of the colleges, which "look +as they did in Queen Elizabeth's daies on the street side, but if you go in +you will find Henry the 8 his reformation in the Chappell."[300] It is +probable that the Queen paid little attention to the flights of the Puritan +fancy, but she took some pains to conciliate her husband's Protestant +friends; and when a sermon which was used to be preached in Merton College +chapel on Sundays was discontinued as a compliment to her, she was much +annoyed, and gave orders that it should be resumed. + +But even Oxford could be no permanent resting-place for the Queen. Her foes +were gathering round it, and unless she wished to run the risk of seeing +the horrors of a siege, it was time to be gone. She had, moreover, to care +for another life, for she was about again to become a mother. The King +could not, of course, leave his headquarters, and the husband and wife +prepared to part once more, and this time for ever. + +Henrietta left Oxford on April 17th, 1644. The parting between her and her +husband, which took place at Abingdon, was sufficiently sad, even though +the knowledge that it was final was hidden from her. Then, escorted by +Jermyn, whose loyalty had been rewarded by a barony, and whose presence at +her side excited scurrilous comments which she scornfully ignored, she +turned to the south-west. By the 21st of April she was in Bath. She pushed +on by the great city of Bristol, which formed part of her dowry, and thence +to Exeter, where she arrived in a condition so serious that it seemed +likely her troubles would soon find their surest consolation. "Mayerne, for +the love of me, go to my wife,"[301] wrote Charles, and Henrietta herself +penned a short, piteous note to her old physician. "My disease will invite +you more strongly, I hope, than many lines would do."[302] The faithful +Swiss needed no further summons. He was at the Queen's side when, on June +16th, the child, whose short life and tragic death were to be in keeping +with the circumstances of her birth, was born at Bedford House, in the city +of Exeter. The little princess was an unusually pretty baby, and the father +she was never to see wrote expressing great pleasure at the reports of her +beauty, and requesting that she might be christened in the cathedral of her +birthplace, an injunction which aroused the wrath of the Puritans all the +more because Charles had just attempted to silence the unpleasant rumours +current on the subject of his religion by issuing a declaration of his +unalterable attachment to the Protestant faith.[303] + +Henrietta, who was always brave in illness, had hoped that the physical +miseries from which she suffered would disappear with her confinement. +Instead, she found herself rather worse than better. "The most miserable +creature in the world, who can write no more"[304]--thus she describes +herself in a letter to her husband written from her bed, and containing an +account of her ailments. To crown all, she found that it was impossible for +her to remain at Exeter. Essex was on her track, and to all the entreaties +for a safe conduct to Bath, which she addressed to him by means of a French +agent named Sabran who happened to be with her, he returned answers which +in the circumstances were brutal. The Queen was no concern of his, he said. +Henrietta, fearing above all things in her weak state the noise of firing +which a siege would involve, dragged herself from her bed a few days after +the birth of her baby, whose helpless life she confided to one of her +attendants, the Countess of Morton. Accompanied by Jermyn and by her +devoted confessor, Father Philip, she fled still farther into the western +peninsula, down to that strange land beyond Truro which was then hardly +considered a part of England, and where still lingered the accents of the +Cornish tongue. There in the castle of Pendennis, which guarded the village +of Penycomequick,[305] she found a refuge. She was indeed in a sad plight. +Mayerne himself believed "that her days would not be many," and a +compassionate Cornish gentleman wrote to his wife that "here is the +woefullest spectacle my eyes yet ever looked on, the most worne and weake +pitifull creature in ye world, the poore Queen shifting for an hour's liffe +longer."[306] + +From Pendennis Henrietta found means to put to sea; but not even when she +left English soil did the hatred of her enemies leave her. Ships of the +Parliament were on the watch, and the boat which she was aboard was not +only chased, but pursued by rounds of shot, as the Roundheads wished her to +have "no other courtesy from England, but cannon balls to convey her into +France."[307] Then at last the Queen's brave spirit, which had not faltered +in sorrow, danger, or pain, gave way. She did not fear death, but she +shuddered at the idea of falling into the hands of her foes, and it seemed +as if capture were to be her fate. In her agony she called upon the captain +to fire the powder on board, and to let her die with her friends, rather +than that those impious hands should touch her. When the danger was passed +she reproached herself for having thought of suicide, and happily so +desperate a remedy was not needed. She escaped her enemies once more, and +after a long tossing on the Channel the travellers saw with joy the rocky +coast of Brittany. At the little village of Conquest, near Brest, the +landing was effected, and the daughter of France, returning to her native +land, retired to a whitewashed cottage to rest from her fatigues. But the +news soon spread that the daughter of Henry IV had arrived, and the +nobility of the country-side, who, like all good Frenchmen, honoured the +memory of the great King, flocked to do her service, and to make up by +their generosity the deficiencies of her poverty. Her first care was to +dispatch Jermyn to announce her arrival to the Court of France and to +Mazarin, and to beg the medical assistance which her condition so urgently +required. Meanwhile she was content. The country in which she found herself +was indeed wild and rough as the Cornwall she had left, but at least she +was safe and among friends. In later days she retained no unpleasant memory +of the rocky coast, the desolate moorland, and the brave, simple-hearted +folk of La Basse Bretagne. + +[Footnote 262: Walter Montagu. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 47.] + +[Footnote 263: The following is a specimen of it: "You are the abstracted +Quintessence of artificiall Nature: your glorious countenance is crowned +with Majestie, your brow interwoven with occasionall Lenity and discreet +austerity, your eye (like mounted Phoebus in his meridian pride) shoots +such reflective beams of radiant brightnesse that it captivates the dazled +beholder; your Cupidinean cheeks are clothed with intermixed Lillies and +Roses; your purpureous lips (like a Nectarean current) do redound with +expressed Oratory; your Murcurian tongue is gilded with such admirable +Rhetorick that the Muses themselves seem to inhabit there and make it their +Helicon: your Aromatick smelling-breath is so oderiferous that it exceeds +the Arabian Odours, and seems rather celestial than breathed from a mortal +creature, your melodious voice is so harmonious that Apollo may lay down +his Harpe, and the Sphears themselves become astonished."--_The Prince of +Orange, his Royall Entertainment to the Queen of England_ (1641).] + +[Footnote 264: Mme de Motteville: _Memoires_ (1783), I, 270.] + +[Footnote 265: Sister of Seguier the Chancellor: she was a great friend of +Mazarin.] + +[Footnote 266: Printed in Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria._] + +[Footnote 267: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 60.] + +[Footnote 268: _Ibid._, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 269: "I send you this man express, hoping that you will not have +passed the militia bill. If you have, I must think about retiring for the +present, into a convent, for you are no longer capable of protecting any +one, not even yourself."--_Ibid._, p. 69.] + +[Footnote 270: _Ibid._, p. 117.] + +[Footnote 271: "May Heaven load you with as many benedictions as you have +had afflictions, and may those who are the cause of your misfortunes, and +those of your Kingdom, perish under the load of their damnable +intentions."--Henrietta Maria to Charles. _Ibid._, p. 71.] + +[Footnote 272: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 72.] + +[Footnote 273: "The Puritan imagination saw the Queen gathering in +contributions from the religious houses of the Low Countries, many of which +were English. The pamphlet which describes these contributions is marked by +just the slight inaccuracies of a forgery, and if any money came from this +source it was probably a very small sum."--_Queen's Proceedings in Holland_ +(1642). See Appendix III.] + +[Footnote 274: "... others thought that some witches were made use of to +raise these winds. But all saw that if any such villainy came from Hell it +was curb'd by Heaven in the merciful preservation of the Quene, and that +when God will help the Devill cannot hurt us."--_A true relation of the +Queens Maiesties returne out of Holland, etc. Written by me in the same +storme and ship with her Majesty._ Printed at York and reprinted at Oxford +(1643).] + +[Footnote 275: Letter of Lady Denbigh. Hist. MSS. Cam. Ap. to 4th Rep.] + +[Footnote 276: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 161.] + +[Footnote 277: Montagu to Mazarin (apparently), February 9th, 1642. Aff. +Etran. Ang., t. 49. See Appendix IV.] + +[Footnote 278: _The Funerall Sermon of the Queen of Great Britain_ +(Bossuet), translated by Thomas Carre. Paris, 1670.] + +[Footnote 279: It is said that Charles did not believe this.] + +[Footnote 280: Henrietta was always fond of animals. Evelyn records how in +August, 1662, he went to visit her, and she told him "many observable +stories of the sagacity of some dogs she formerly had."--Evelyn: _Diary_. +Under date August 22nd, 1662.] + +[Footnote 281: Green: _Letters of Henrietta Maria_, p. 167.] + +[Footnote 282: Green: _Letters of Henrietta Maria_, p. 167.] + +[Footnote 283: He was her great-great-grandfather.] + +[Footnote 284: See _l'Angleterre Paisible_ (1644).] + +[Footnote 285: A man named Dennys. See Anthony Wood's account in his Life.] + +[Footnote 286: _Mercurius Aulicus_, July 14th, 1643.] + +[Footnote 287: Now part of the general college buildings.] + +[Footnote 288: Salvetti says the Parliamentary party regretted him "come +quello che aveva sempre assicurato detto Parlamento per bocca dell' +Ambasciatore di Francia che era qui, che da quella banda haverebbe havuto +ogni assistenza per mantenimento della sua liberta e privilegii: certo e +che l'Ambasciatore fece la parte sua et causo in buona parte la divisione +et cattiva intelligenza che passa fra il re e il Parlamento!"--Add. MS., +27,962, K., f. 32_b._] + +[Footnote 289: This document, which is among the Archives of the Ministere +des Affaires Etrangeres Ang., t. 48, is unsigned and without date, but it +is in the handwriting of Montagu, and is among the documents of 1641; it +speaks of "la rebellion presente d'Angleterre," which points to its having +been drawn up after the final rupture in 1642.] + +[Footnote 290: Montagu had a good many enemies in France among the +Importants, who disliked him as a friend of Mazarin and as a foreigner who +had great influence with the Queen-Regent.] + +[Footnote 291: _Perfect Diurnall_, October, 1643.] + +[Footnote 292: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 215.] + +[Footnote 293: Kingdom's _Weekly Intelligencer_, May, 1643.] + +[Footnote 294: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 295: Sieur de Marsys: _Histoire de la Persecution Presente des +Catholiques en Angleterre_ (1646), from which the above account is chiefly +taken. The Capuchins were sent back to France by Parliament, April, 1643.] + +[Footnote 296: _Mercurius Aulicus_, July, 1643.] + +[Footnote 297: "De l'entretient que j'ay eu avec le Reyne d'Angleterre j'ay +bien compris qu'elle mesprise autant qu'elle peut hayr le Comte de +Hollande."--Brienne to Sabran, December 21st, 1644. Add. MS., 5460.] + +[Footnote 298: The opinion of Bossuet was probably derived from the Queen +through Mme de Motteville: "... si la reine en eut ete crue, si au lieu de +diviser les armees royales et de les amener contre son avis aux sieges +infortunes de Hull et de Gloucester, on eut marche a Londres, l'affaire +etait decidee, et cette campagne eut fini la guerre."--_Oraison funebra de +la reine d'Angleterre._] + +[Footnote 299: Du Perron: _Proces verbal de l'assemblie du Clerge_, 1645.] + +[Footnote 300: _The Spie_ (1643).] + +[Footnote 301: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 243.] + +[Footnote 302: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 303: "Declaratio servenissimi potentissimique principis Caroli +magnae Britanniae, etc., regis Ultramarinis Protestantium Ecclesiis +transmissa."--Dupuy MS., 642.] + +[Footnote 304: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 243.] + +[Footnote 305: Now Falmouth.] + +[Footnote 306: Francis Basset to his wife. Polwhele: _Traditions and +Recollections_, Vol. I, p. 17.] + +[Footnote 307: _Mercurius Pragmaticus_, October, 1644.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE QUEEN AND THE WAR + +II + + The darksome statesman, hung with weights and woe + Like a thick midnight fog mov'd there so slow + He did not stay, nor go; + Condemning thoughts--like sad eclipses--scowl + Upon his soul, + And clouds of crying witnesses without + Pursued him with one shout. + Yet digg'd the mole, and lest his ways be found + Work'd underground + Where he did clutch his prey. + + HENRY VAUGHAN + + +If, at the time of her departure from England, Queen Henrietta Maria had +been able to make choice of a book for her private reading and meditation, +and if in that choice she had been guided by the most enlightened +self-interest, she would perhaps have chosen a little pamphlet published in +London in 1642. It was entitled _A collection of Records of the great +Misfortunes that hath hapned unto Kings that hath joyned themselves in a +near allyance with forrein Princes with the happy successe of those that +have only held correspondency at home_. + +Henrietta landed in France in the spring of 1644, and from that time until +her husband's death her life was a continuation of that which she had led +in Holland, namely, a perpetual struggle to gather together men and +money--particularly the latter--to help on the cause of the King of +England. For this she intrigued now with one foreign Prince, now with +another, with the King of Denmark, with the Prince of Orange, with the Duke +of Lorraine, the admirer of Madame de Chevreuse, the old enemy of +Richelieu, with the Pope himself. The result was the undying hatred of a +large section of the English people towards both her and her husband, and a +growing distrust which had much to do with the King's final overthrow. + +It is idle to blame her overmuch. It cannot be denied that hers were the +mind and the will which impelled her husband along this fatal road; but he +fell in gladly with her suggestions, and he was almost as eager as she for +help from any quarter. She believed, moreover, that the Scotch rebels had +set the example by intriguing with Richelieu, and she knew that the English +Puritans had made it possible for an army of Scots, who at that time were +looked upon almost as foreigners, to enter into England and to remain upon +its soil. It would have required the brain of an Elizabeth to perceive that +a king, by following such precedents, was courting disaster. Henrietta's +brain, acute, lively, but never profound, was incapable of perceiving this. +Besides, she was a Bourbon, and her simple political creed was identical +with that of her husband: a King should be no tyrant, he should rule his +people with justice and mercy; but it was his to command and theirs to +obey, without asking questions as to matters with which they had no +concern. + +The exiled Queen spent some weeks at + + "ces admirables Fontaines + Ou par douzaines et centaines + Pluzieurs gens vont pour etre sain + Et qu'on nomme Bourbon-les-Bains."[308] + +Their healing influence, together with the care of some of the most +distinguished physicians of France,[309] restored her to such a small +measure of health as enabled her to turn her steps towards Paris. The +kindness she had received since her arrival in her native land was a +preparation for the magnificent reception which awaited her at the capital. +Her brother, the Duke of Orleans, came out as far as Bourg la Reine to meet +her, and was quickly followed by his daughter, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, +the richly dowered girl of whom Henrietta was already beginning to think as +a possible bride for her eldest son. At Montrouge, on the southern +outskirts of the city, the Queen of England received an even more +distinguished attention, for there the Queen of France, accompanied by her +two little sons, met her. Anne's kind heart was touched when she saw the +sister-in-law from whom she had parted nearly twenty years earlier as a +bride returning sad, sick almost to death, and bereft by ill-health and +sorrow of the brilliant beauty which had then been hers. Forgetting the +girlish unkindness which Henrietta had shown her in the past, remembering +nothing but their common friends and enemies--Richelieu, Madame de +Chevreuse, Jars, Montagu--the Queen of France took the Queen of England +into her arms, and the two women clung together weeping and embracing. Then +they climbed up into the royal coach, and Henrietta made the acquaintance +of the little King, whose unexpected appearance in the world six years +earlier had caused so much excitement, and of the still younger Duke of +Anjou, "the real Monsieur" (as he was called in contradistinction to his +uncle), who was one day to be her son-in-law. In such company there can +have been no tedium in the long drive through the Rue S. Jacques, over the +Pont Neuf, and through the Rue S. Honore to the Louvre, where the kindness +of Queen Anne had caused apartments to be prepared for the royal guest. +That afternoon deputations from the city of Paris and from the various +sovereign bodies waited upon Henrietta, and the ceremonies of reception +were concluded a few days later by a State visit to Notre-Dame, where the +Queen of England gave thanks to Heaven for her safe return to France +through the ministry of the young Coadjutor Bishop of Paris, the witty and +dissolute churchman who afterwards became famous as Cardinal de Retz, and +who always retained a kindness for the exiled royal family of England. + +Nothing could exceed the kindness and sympathy which were shown to the +Queen, kindness all the more welcome because she was aware of the annoyance +it would cause to her enemies. "I am so well treated everywhere that if my +lords of London saw it, I think it would make them uneasy,"[310] she had +written to her husband shortly after her landing in France. She was +assigned a pension of 10,000 crowns a month, which enabled her to keep up a +fitting establishment, and in addition to her lodgings at the Louvre she +was given the Chateau of S. Germain-en-Laye, where she had played as a +child, and where, half a century later, her son was to wear out a more +desolate exile. Her own affairs prospered. Her health improved surely if +slowly. She had the comfort of the presence of faithful servants--Jermyn, +who acted as her secretary, Henry Percy and Lady Denbigh, who herself had +tasted the full bitterness of civil strife in the death of her husband, who +fell fighting for the King, and in the defection of her eldest son to the +rebels, which sorrows bound her all the more closely to the Queen, who had +shown the tenderest sympathy with her bereavement. Moreover, in Paris +Henrietta found many friends. Familiar faces, indeed, were missed. The +Bishop of Mende had not been given time to learn wisdom by experience, but +had "made an angelical end" at the siege of Rochelle, dying in the same +year as his enemy Buckingham. Madame S. Georges, who had found an +honourable position as governess to the heiress of Montpensier, had passed +away in 1643, and Louis XIII was gone, so that all his sister could do for +him was to journey to S. Denys and to sprinkle his tomb with holy water. +But old servants, such as the Bishop of Angouleme, were there to welcome +her; and in the brilliant Paris of the day she came across not only friends +of the past--M. de Chateauneuf, the Chevalier de Jars, and others--but new +acquaintances, who soon became friends, of whom perhaps the most +interesting was the accomplished Madame de Motteville, herself one of the +band of exiles whom the death of Richelieu had brought back in triumph to +the Court of France. + +Nor did she fail to attract the exiles of England to her own Court, where +she gathered round her some of the men of wit and learning whom the evil +times had forced to quit their native land. Thither came "Master Richard +Crashaw, Master of Arts of Peterhouse, Cambridge, well known for his +excellent poems,"[311] who was introduced to the Queen's notice by a +brother poet, Abraham Cowley, at this time Jermyn's secretary. It can +hardly be supposed that Henrietta understood the highly difficult poems of +the Cambridge mystic, but perhaps she talked with him of S. Teresa,[312] +whose praise inspired some of his choicest work, and whom she herself had +learned to love as a child among the Carmelites in Paris. Moreover, Crashaw +was interesting as a recent convert to Catholicism. "Being a meer scholar +and very shiftless,"[313] he was quite destitute in the French capital when +he was found by Cowley, and he was delighted to accept Henrietta's +hospitality. He dwelt nearly a year at her Court, making many friends by +his talents and virtues, of whom the chief was Lady Denbigh. Her he +exhorted, not without success, to follow his religious example, and to her +he dedicated his book of poems, _Carmen Deo Nostro_, which was published +after he had passed on to the Court of Rome, bearing a letter of +introduction written to Innocent X by the Queen's own hand.[314] To the +exiled Court of England came also another poet, Sir William D'Avenant, +whose welcome was the warmer because he had been concerned in the army +plot. At the Louvre he wrote the dreary verses of _Gondibert_, and +dedicated them to Thomas Hobbes, that daring philosopher who had likewise +found a refuge in Paris, where, apart from the turmoils of England, he was +able to reflect upon those principles of government wherewith he startled +the world a few years later on the publication of _The Leviathan_. To these +literary refugees must be added English Catholic nobles, such as Lord +Montagu, and ladies of the same persuasion, among whom was prominent the +Dowager Countess of Banbury, a lady who, after a not irreproachable career +in England, had settled down in Paris to enjoy the reputation of a rich +_devote_. + +But no social pleasures and attentions could satisfy Henrietta, whose heart +was with her struggling husband. "There is nothing so certain as that I do +take all pains I can imaginable to procure you assistance, and am as +incapable of taking any delight or being pleased with my being here, though +I have all kinds of contentments, but as I hope it may enable me to send +you help."[315] These words, written to the King on November 18th, 1644, +were no idle sentiment; they are the truest epitome of her life in Paris. + +The royal cause was balancing between hope and fear. The defeat of Marston +Moor, on July 2nd, 1644, had been indeed a terrible blow, but new hope was +infused into the party by the surrender of Essex in Cornwall, a victory +peculiarly grateful to the Queen, who could not forget the Earl's ungallant +conduct to her. The great need was men and money, and to procure these was +the end of Henrietta's unremitting efforts. For this she carried on +negotiations with the Prince of Orange, by means of an English Catholic +named Stephen Goffe, for the marriage of Prince Charles with his daughter; +for this she attempted to mortgage the tin mines of Cornwall; for this, +above all, she carried on personally and through Jermyn long and weary +negotiations with the Court of France. + +France had not been unmindful of the difficulties of the King of England, +or of the troubles which threatened the Queen; but great caution was used, +and Gressy, who had shown too openly his partiality for the royal cause, +was replaced by Sabran, who knew better how to trim between the two +parties. It is probable that at the beginning of the struggle Mazarin +desired the victory of the King, and it is said that up to 1644 the French +Government gave as much as 300,000 crowns in money and munitions to aid +him.[316] A letter of Goring,[317] Henrietta's agent in France, dated at +the beginning of that year, which unfortunately fell into the hands of her +enemies, spoke of the dispatch of a considerable quantity of arms, and gave +a cheerful account of the kind words of the Queen-Regent and of Mazarin. +Charles himself thought that a little French money and a little French +influence would settle everything. His enemies were manifestly cast down, +not only by the death of Richelieu, but by the accounts which reached +London of the kind reception which had been given to the Queen. But, +nevertheless, Henrietta was to find disappointment here as elsewhere. +France was in no condition to give such help as would have sufficed for her +needs. The country was overtaxed, and though the new reign was brightened +by the eclat of the victory of Recroy, at which the young Duke of Enghien, +afterwards the great Conde, won his reputation, yet the war with Spain was +a terrible burden. Moreover, in spite of the assertions of the Queen-Regent +and her advisers that it was the means and not the will that was lacking, +there is little doubt that the French Government was beginning to see in +the English troubles a state of affairs highly satisfactory to itself. +Besides, Mazarin certainly inherited from Richelieu a distrust of Charles +and Henrietta. The Queen was specially distrusted. The English Catholics +had not quite forgotten her French birth, but it was believed in France +that they had inclined her to Spain, an opinion which was strengthened by +the fact that up to the time of her leaving England two of her principal +advisers were the Digbys, father and son,[318] who were well known to be +pro-Spanish in their sympathies. Mazarin was quite aware of Henrietta's +influence over her husband, and he hoped that her removal from his side +would help to turn Charles' eyes from Spain. + +And there were other and more personal reasons for Mazarin's distrust of +the Queen of England. Henrietta, who was always too prone to believe that +good diplomacy consisted in cultivating relations with all parties at once, +allowed her ambassador Goring to meddle in the intrigues which grew up +round Mazarin as they had round Richelieu, a fact of which the Cardinal, +who had inherited a perfect system of espionage, was quite aware. By the +time Henrietta reached France the power of the Importants was broken, and +Madame de Chevreuse had again left the Court. The exiled Queen desired +greatly to see her old friend, and without pausing to consider how +imprudent was the appearance of any connection between herself and that +factious lady, she asked her sister-in-law's permission to have an +interview with the Duchess, permission which with all courtesy was refused, +at the instance of Mazarin. The Cardinal, moreover, caused the Queen of +England to be warned against others of her old friends, among whom may be +mentioned M. de Chateauneuf, who had indeed escaped public disgrace, but +who was known to be as inimical to Mazarin as ever he had been to +Richelieu.[319] + +Thus it came about that, in spite of the kind words and occasional +assistance of the Queen-Regent and of Cardinal Mazarin,[320] Henrietta was +less successful than she had hoped to be, and could by no means persuade +Mazarin to an open breach with the Parliamentary party, whose strength he +was beginning to appreciate. "I have not found the means of engaging France +as forwardly in your interest as I expected," she wrote sadly to Charles. +In 1645 she was informed that all the French Government could do for her +was to permit her to make levies in the country (and she was so poor that +it was thought she would not take advantage of the permission), and to make +an appeal to the clergy of France on behalf of the necessities of the King +of England. + +Of this last grace Henrietta availed herself eagerly; but of all the many +injudicious acts which she committed at this period of her life, this +appeal to the clergy of a race and of a faith alien to those of her +subjects was one of the most injudicious. The outburst of anti-Catholic +rage which she had witnessed in England ought to have taught her prudence; +but hers was not a mind to learn by experience. Moreover, she seems from +the outbreak of the war to have looked upon the Puritans as irreconcilables +who could only be subdued by force, and whom it was useless to attempt to +propitiate. She thought also, and most erroneously, that they were but a +small minority of the nation. + +The Queen had recovered her spirits. Not only had Mazarin, in spite of his +official refusals, sent her secretly a sum of money sufficient to raise her +ever-ready hopes, but she expected great things from a growing friendship +with Emery, the Deputy Treasurer and one of the richest men in France. To +complete her satisfaction the clergy showed great sympathy with her, and +sent her, on their first assembling, a sum of money as an earnest of more +to come[321]; which money was immediately laid out in raising levies for +England. + +The assembly of the French clergy, which was presided over by the +Cardinal-Archbishop of Lyons, the brother of the great Richelieu, met in +May, 1645, but it was not until the February of the following year that the +case of the Queen of England was seriously considered. Henrietta's advocate +on this occasion was probably the best that could have been chosen. The +Bishop of Angouleme during his sojourn in England had resisted in a really +praiseworthy manner those foreign influences which had corrupted some of +his fellow-countrymen who resided there, and he was perhaps regarded in +Paris with greater favour than any other of the Queen's servants. He was, +moreover, a speaker and preacher of repute, and the oration which he +delivered before the Fathers of the Church was not only a fine piece of +oratory, but was skilfully constructed to work as much as possible upon the +feelings of his audience.[322] + +He dwelt upon the miserable condition of the Catholic Church in England, +which, before these troubles, had begun, after a century of persecution, to +raise its head under the protection of the Queen. He asserted (what was +true) that were the King forced to make terms with his foes, the Catholics +would be the scapegoat. He drew lurid word-pictures of the terrible +consequences to the Church throughout Europe should the impious rebels +succeed in their object of setting up a Puritan republic in England. Then +he turned to the even more powerful argument of self-interest. The +Huguenots, he said, who were beaten down but not destroyed, were looking +across the Channel to the Puritans of England, whose real design was the +destruction of the Catholic Church as well in France as in their own land. +To help forward this project of the Evil One large sums of money were being +dispatched by the French Protestants to aid the armies of rebellion in +England.[323] + + "Res tua tunc agitur, paries cum proximus ardet," + +cried the good Bishop, hoping, not without reason, to arouse the fears of +his audience; for it was only twenty years since the fall of Rochelle, and +the revival of the power of the Huguenots, which it had required the strong +hand of Richelieu to repress, was an ever-present terror to the French +Catholics. But Du Perron was not content with such arguments. He was able +to make a statement which he hoped would tell much in favour of the cause +he was advocating. He declared that the King of England had promised in +writing to his wife that if he were restored by Catholic help he would +repeal every law against the Catholics on the statute book,[324] and the +Bishop added that he was at liberty to make this statement, as its purport +was already known to the Puritans through the interception of the King's +letter. That Charles made this promise there is no reason to doubt; that +had cause arisen he would have broken it, as he broke others, is in the +highest degree probable.[325] Perhaps the French bishops knew the man with +whom they had to deal, perhaps they were instructed by Mazarin, whom they +were too well trained not to consult. Be this as it may, the results of the +eloquence of the Bishop of Angouleme were disappointing, even though he +enforced his arguments by descriptions of the piteous condition of +Henrietta and of her children, "the grandsons, the nephews, and the cousins +of three of our Kings." The clergy of France did not feel able to offer to +the Queen of England more than a few thousand crowns, "a somme fitter to +buy hangings for a chamber than prosecute a war,"[326] as a newswriter of +the day said. + +But disappointed as the Queen was, she quickly turned to other hopes and +schemes. + +Ever since the Irish rebellion of 1641 Puritan scandal had linked +Henrietta's name with that of the rebels. The accusation as it stood was +ridiculous, but the Confederate Catholics,[327] as the Irish in arms called +themselves, certainly hoped something from the Catholic Queen, and in 1642 +they presented to her a petition, in which they begged her "Hester-like +intercession to our most gracious Prince." They heard with sympathy of her +arrival in Paris, and again dispatched a letter to congratulate her on that +event. + +She, on her side, regarded the Confederate Catholics as rebels in arms +against their lawful King; but she had a certain sympathy with them as the +victims of Puritan intolerance, and she thought, like her husband, that it +might be possible to turn their arms against worse enemies. With this end +in view she carried on negotiations with a certain Colonel FitzWilliams, +whom she found in Paris, and for the same purpose she cultivated the +acquaintance of the agent of the Confederate Catholics in that city, Father +O'Hartegan, the Jesuit. + +This patriot, who was of a type not uncommon in his native land, was +greatly pleased at the notice of the Queen of England, whom he believed to +be on the point of starting for Ireland. He also thought, on account of +some slight attention shown to him by Mazarin,[328] that France, which up +till now had shown herself very cool to the necessities of the persecuted +Irish Catholics, and had even, by the mouth of the Cardinal, lectured them +on their lack of loyalty to their sovereign, was about to do her duty by +them. "What is needed," remarked the Jesuit modestly, "is 200,000 crowns +out of hand, with a good store of arms and ammunition, and promise of +yearly favour." + +O'Hartegan had reason for his good spirits. His glib tongue recommended him +where he was not too well known, and he was caressed by the English +Catholics in Paris and by Jermyn, who was the more entirely satisfactory to +deal with, inasmuch as he had no religious scruples of any kind. Moreover, +the affairs of the Confederate Catholics were going very well in Rome. + +When Henrietta had been but a short time in France, the news of two deaths +arrived, that of Elizabeth, Queen of Spain, and that of Maffeo Barberini, +Pope Urban VIII. + +The Queen of England had long ceased to be in close touch with her +sister,[329] but it was thought that she would be greatly distressed at the +death of the Pope, for the Barberini had always been considered her +friends. But it may be that she was not altogether displeased. Any change +in the personnel of the European Courts meant a fresh chance for her +schemes; and though Urban had been kind enough to send her 25,000 crowns, +which she, or perhaps her husband, acknowledged from Oxford in 1643,[330] +yet he had shown himself somewhat callous to her larger claims, and it was +perhaps not unknown to her that Cardinal Francesco, in spite of his +often-repeated professions of friendship, had been the first foreign prince +to contribute to the necessities of the rebellious Confederate Catholics. +The new Pope, Innocent X, was believed to favour Spain as his predecessor +had favoured France, but Henrietta had not lived for nearly twenty years +among the English Catholics without having learned to consider this an +advantage rather than otherwise in religious negotiations. She determined +to send an envoy to Rome, ostensibly to congratulate the Pope upon his +accession, and O'Hartegan learned that her choice had fallen upon her old +friend Sir Kenelm Digby. + +There are few more picturesque figures in the history of the time than that +of this gentleman: a scholar who was welcome among the learned of all +nations, a chemist who was half scientist, half charlatan, a naval +commander who had brought home stories even more remarkable than the +majority of travellers' tales, it is not surprising that he should have +attracted the attention of the Queen, who liked brilliant people. She may +perhaps also have been touched by the strange story of his love, which had +bound him in affectionate marriage to a woman who had been the acknowledged +mistress of another man. But she ought to have known better than to send +him to Rome. Not only was he a vain and undependable person--a teller of +strange tales, as even the courteous Evelyn described him--but the +religious vacillations and experiments which had made him unwelcome a few +years earlier to Urban VIII were not likely to commend him to Innocent X, +who would be less attracted by his learning and accomplishments than his +scholarly predecessor. The English Catholics in Paris who opposed the +appointment were wiser than could be understood by Henrietta; she added to +her mistake by permitting the envoy who was going to Rome on an +international mission, and who above all should have shown himself strictly +impartial between the rival factions of English Catholicism, to take upon +him before leaving Paris the charge of advancing at the Papal Court the +interests of the Chapter, which, after the banishment of the Bishop of +Chalcedon, claimed ecclesiastical authority in England, whose pretensions +were resolutely opposed by the regular and some even of the secular +clergy.[331] + +And Sir Kenelm had hardly reached Rome when the need for help became more +pressing than ever, for the 14th of June of that same year was the day of +Naseby. + +It was a crushing defeat, and after it the royal party never really +rallied. Henrietta, in her unconquerable hopefulness, thought that now, at +her extremity, France would come effectually to her aid; but Mazarin feared +to offend the Puritans more than he feared their dominance, and the old +weary round of intrigue was pursued with the same lack of result. Even an +offer from which the Queen hoped much, made to her by the Duke of Bouillon, +of raising troops for England round Cologne, came to nothing, because the +Cardinal believed that the real intention of Bouillon was to use these men +in the interests of Spain. + +[Illustration: SIR KENELM DIGBY + +FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PAINTING BY VAN DYCK] + +And Naseby was more than a military defeat. On that fatal field, through +some misfortune or negligence, fell into the enemy's hand the papers of the +King.[332] Nothing more unfortunate could have occurred. The secrecy of +these letters, which were shortly published in London with choice comments, +was worth more to Charles and Henrietta than men or money. Their +publication betrayed the schemes in which the Queen had been spending her +strength for winning back England by foreign troops or by foreign gold. It +revealed how greatly the King was under the influence of his wife, and how +deeply she was compromised with the hated Irish. Most disastrous of all, it +showed how at the very time that he was promising to support the Protestant +religion and never to permit Catholicism, he was secretly giving her +authority to pledge his word for the complete toleration of the hated +religion. He stood revealed as what he was, a shifty and untrustworthy man. +After Naseby Charles was never trusted again. + +Henrietta probably did not appreciate the magnitude of the disaster, and +she turned again cheerfully to the tortuous intrigues from which she hoped +so much. + +At first it seemed as if Sir Kenelm Digby's mission would be successful. +The smaller Italian princes to whom he appealed he found indeed "a frugal +generation," but the Pope received him with great kindness, and appeared +charmed by his flow of persuasive eloquence and by the piety and +fascination of his manners. He even gave him an order for 20,000 crowns, to +be used in arms and munitions of war, which the Queen of England gratefully +acknowledged from S. Germain in September, 1645.[333] So far so good, but +neither she nor her agent knew the odds against which they were fighting. +Henrietta always believed that her husband's leniency to the Catholics +during his years of power had given him a claim upon the gratitude of the +whole Catholic world. She also knew better than any one else what the +hatred of the Puritans to her co-religionists really was, and what their +domination might mean. But at Rome matters were looked at in another light. +A certain interest was taken in Charles, and considerable sympathy was felt +for his unhappy wife; but neither were trusted. Henrietta was believed to +be guided by heretics, and even, through their influence, to have been in +the past "a powerful instrument for the destruction of the Catholics and of +the Catholic religion";[334] while Charles was disliked as a heretic, and +his failures to keep his word--his persecution of the Catholics in 1626, +his desertion of Strafford and the like--were reckoned up against him with +pitiless accuracy. As he had been in the past so no doubt would he be in +the future. It cannot be said that it was a misreading of Charles' +character which led the Pope and his advisers to think that he would have +taken the money of the Church and then thrown over the Catholics, if by +doing so he could further his own interests. And there were other and +better claimants in the case. Hopes at Rome were rising high with regard to +Ireland. Urban VIII, in 1628, had thought it would be a nice arrangement +for all concerned if that island were handed over to the Holy See. Innocent +X's designs were not quite so far-reaching, and he recommended loyalty to +the King of England; but he thought that it might be possible to coerce a +faithless and heretic Prince by means of the Confederate Catholics. +Moreover, that body, which had agents all over Europe, was fortunate enough +to have in Rome a representative as able and effective as Sir Kenelm Digby +was the reverse, in the person of Father Luke Wadding, of the Order of St. +Francis. This friar left Ireland when he was a boy of fifteen, and he never +saw again his native land; but throughout a long life which he spent +roaming about the Continent he preserved a fervid Hibernian patriotism, of +which the effects are felt to the present day.[335] At this time he was +living in Rome, and any slight feeling of loyalty to the King of England +which he may have once possessed had long ago been lost in the desire to +see his faith and his race triumph over the hated oppressor. It was he who +had prevailed upon Cardinal Francesco Barberini to send money to Ireland, +and though he had not been able to rouse the cautious Urban VIII to any +considerable effort,[336] he prepared with undiminished hope to use all his +influence to win over Innocent X, from whose Spanish sympathies he augured +the happiest results. + +And indeed it was largely owing to the representations of this Irish friar +that, in the summer of 1645, while Sir Kenelm Digby was still feted in +Rome, an envoy on his way from the Pope to the Confederate Catholics +appeared in Paris bearing a large sum of money, which the indefatigable +Wadding had amassed for the use of the faithful in his native land. + +Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo, was a worthy ecclesiastic +of middle age. It is said that he was appointed to this delicate mission to +pleasure the Grand Duke of Tuscany, whose subject he was. He had, however, +a certain interest in the British Isles, because as a young man he had been +associated with a Scotch Capuchin, by name George Leslie, of whom he wrote +an edifying biography, which may be considered an early example of +religious romance.[337] Clarendon stigmatizes him as a "light-headed +envoy," but the epithet is hardly happy as applied to this stern, unbending +Churchman, whose unalterable determination it was that the money of the +Church should not be squandered to further the interests of a heretic +sovereign. In this respect, indeed, he followed with fidelity the +instructions given to him which dwelt upon the necessity of the strongest +guarantees of real benefit to the Catholics before money was advanced to +the King of England, and which altogether would have been instructive, if +not pleasant, reading for Charles and Henrietta. + +The Queen was indeed already beginning to repent of her overtures to the +Confederate Catholics,[338] for in the early part of the year some letters +of O'Hartegan had fallen into the hands of the Roundheads, who caused them +to be printed. These letters spoke disrespectfully of her, and showed how +cheaply the Jesuit held the advantage of the King, so that Charles, who was +wont to feel great indignation at every one's self-seeking and shiftiness +except his own, wrote to his wife that the agent was "an arrant +knave."[339] Rinuccini's arrival in Paris made matters worse. Henrietta was +a Catholic, but she was a queen also, and it was an insult to which she +could not tamely submit that the Pope should send an envoy to those who, +after all, were rebels in arms against her husband. She wrote a dignified +letter of remonstrance to Innocent, and she refused to receive Rinuccini +except as a private person, a condition which the ambassador, one of whose +strongest characteristics was his personal vanity, declined to accept. + +The poor Queen was indeed in a mesh from which there was no escape, and she +knew not how to carry out the task of so settling the affairs of Ireland +that the King might be able to draw troops therefrom. She desired to make +peace between Ormonde, her husband's Viceroy, and the Catholics, and her +difficulties were such as attend all persons who, being in authority, are +obliged to seek at one and the same time the help of representatives of +opposing interests. Rinuccini, seeing her under the influence of +Protestants, concluded, not unjustly on his own premises, that the duty of +the Holy Father was to turn a deaf ear to her entreaties for aid, and to +send such moneys as he could afford to the Confederate Catholics, whose +loyalty to the Holy See was not compromised by any inconvenient devotion to +a heretic Prince. Out in Rome Sir Kenelm was begging and praying for help, +unconscious of the fact that the envoy was warning the Pope against him, +and asserting, probably with some truth, that the rosy pictures which he +drew of the intentions of the King of England with regard to the Catholics +were greatly over-coloured. The Confederate Catholics in Ireland were +waiting eagerly for the coming of Rinuccini, and had little desire to help +the King of England, except in so far as such help would conduce to the +realization of their chief object, the emancipation of Ireland from the +hated foreigner. + +Rinuccini, after a considerable delay in Paris, whence he wrote many +letters to Rome expressing his views with great frankness upon the Queen of +England and her advisers, pushed on to Ireland, where, far from making +peace with Ormonde or with any one else, he set everybody by the ears--not +a difficult task, it is true, in that island--and ended by excommunicating +most of the Confederate Catholics themselves. Steps were taken by some of +the victims to find out the opinion of the Sorbonne as to the validity of +this sweeping ecclesiastical censure. + +Meanwhile, in Paris, Henrietta was dragging on her old life of intrigue and +disappointment. The presence at her side of Jermyn, whose great influence +over her was generally remarked,[340] was not in her favour, either with +the extreme Catholics, who disliked him as a heretic, or with the French, +who considered him, with justice, to be a man of mediocre ability, and who +were pleased to see that the Queen, in spite of her subservience, could +sometimes assert her will against his. The French Government was becoming +more and more afraid to provoke the Puritans, whom Mazarin feared to throw +into the arms of Spain. The defeat of Naseby, whose importance the Queen +and her friends vainly endeavoured to minimize, was followed by the hardly +less disastrous day of Philiphaugh, when Montrose was overwhelmed by an +army of the Covenant. Thus the year 1646 broke in gloom and despondency, +which were not lightened when a scheme of the Queen's for the invasion of +England by French troops was discovered by the interception of her +letters.[341] In the spring affairs had so far advanced that Charles, with +a confidence rendered pathetic by the event, gave himself up into the hands +of the Scots, the true compatriots of a Stuart King. + +For a moment there seemed to be hope, and it is possible that Charles might +have recovered his crown had he been able to accept unreservedly the +Covenant. His refusal to give up the Church of England, which was one of +the most respectable acts of his life, brought upon him remonstrances, +entreaties, and almost anger from his wife, to whom all Protestants were +heretics alike. She even sent D'Avenant to him to represent her wishes on +the subject; but Charles, with a violence he did not often show, drove the +hapless poet from his presence with an intimation that he was never to +enter it again. Mazarin at this time seems to have desired the King's +restoration by means of an accommodation, though, owing to the ever-present +fear of Spain, he would not openly assist him. He could not repress his +scorn for the man who could throw away his crown for such a bagatelle as +the Church of England. In fact, he frankly owned that he could not +understand Charles. The latter had granted concessions which compromised +his kingly dignity; why make a fuss about a trifle which, nevertheless, if +conceded, might restore him to power? The Cardinal urged the French +ambassador in England to do all he could to bring the King to reason; but +the latter, who was becoming very sceptical as to the friendship of the +French,[342] was not likely to listen. The chance was lost, and Charles +soon found himself a prisoner in the hands of the English Presbyterians. +His countrymen, to whom in the days of his power he had shown favour not +always in accordance with his own interests, had sold him to his enemies. + +Once again, a year later, there was a lifting of the clouds. In 1647 it +became evident that the Puritan party was growing weary of the Presbyterian +tyranny. As is commonly the case in revolutions, wilder and stronger +spirits were crowding out the more moderate reformers who had begun the +battle. The Independents, to whom in large measure the victories of Marston +Moor and Naseby were due, had control of the army, and the great figure of +Cromwell, which soon was to bestride England like a Colossus, was coming to +the front. In the late spring it seemed as if Charles and the Presbyterians +might come to terms. On June 4th a deputation from the army waited on the +King at Holmby House, where he was imprisoned, took possession of his +person, and carried him off to Newmarket. + +The Independents showed great respect for their royal prisoner, and it +seemed as if they would be willing to make an accommodation with him. +Henrietta, in Paris, whither all news was quickly carried, thought with her +usual hopefulness that at last, at the darkest hour, the day was dawning. +There happened to be at her Court two gentlemen who seemed well fitted to +act as intermediaries between Charles and the Independents; one of them, +Sir John Denham, the bearer of a name which is still remembered in English +literature, had improved a sojourn in prison by making friends with that +worthy army chaplain Hugh Peters, who was closely connected with the +Independent leaders; the other, Sir Edward Ford, was Ireton's +brother-in-law. These two slipped across the Channel, and they were +permitted to see the King; but whether the Queen did not feel much +confidence in her envoys (and, indeed, Denham was a rash and headstrong man +who died insane), or whether her restlessness would not permit her to cease +from fresh attempts to improve her husband's position, she determined to +send another emissary of higher standing to intermeddle in this delicate +negotiation. + +Just at this time Sir John Berkeley, who had distinguished himself during +the war as Governor of Exeter, was returning from Holland, whither he had +been to express the Queen's condolences on the death of the Prince of +Orange. He was almost unknown to Henrietta personally, but she was aware of +his reputation for loyalty and good sense, and she knew also perhaps that +he was regarded with respect by the enemy; he had hardly arrived at S. +Germain-en-Laye, where she was keeping her Court, when he accidentally fell +in with one of her servants, Lord Culpepper. + +"You must prepare for another journey, Sir John," said the latter; "the +Queen designs to send you into England." + +Berkeley, as is not surprising, was rather taken aback. England was the +last place to which he desired to go; he knew none of the Independent +leaders, and, as he justly remarked, it was a pity to send over too many of +the King's servants to share in the places and preferments which those +worthies hoped to keep for themselves; but Culpepper waived these +objections aside. "If you are afraid, Sir John," he said contemptuously, +"the Queen can easily find some one else to do her business." + +No man of spirit could bear such an imputation. Berkeley, against his +better judgment, set off to add another to the long list of the Queen's +diplomatic failures.[343] + +Another failure more personal and even more bitter was awaiting her. + +In the first days of 1646 Sir Kenelm Digby appeared in Paris; he was +immediately received by the Queen, and "he got three hours' conference with +her and in end she seemed to be verie well pleased."[344] It appears that +he brought with him for the Queen's consideration and the King's +confirmation a document which he had drawn up in Rome and which had been +provisionally accepted by the Pope, though a copy had been sent to +Rinuccini for such emendations as he might think fit. By these articles +Innocent agreed, in return for the abolition of the Penal Laws in England +and the public establishment of Catholicism in Ireland, to make a grant, +100,000 crowns; but in his distrust of Charles he provided that the money +should not be paid to the Queen until the King had carried out the +provisions with regard to Ireland. It was further agreed that Irish troops +under Catholic leaders should be taken into the King's service in +England.[345] + +It is hardly likely that either Charles or Henrietta relished these +articles, which showed plainly enough how deeply they were distrusted at +Rome, and which required so much before they could touch a penny of the +coveted money. Perhaps the King was indignant with Sir Kenelm for +suggesting such terms, for it was probably against his wishes that the +knight, after the failure of his negotiations, was again dispatched to Rome +in the autumn. He carried with him, however, the undiminished confidence of +the Queen,[346] and by October he was fixed at the Papal Court waiting for +the help which never came. + +And, indeed, his chances of success were even slighter than before; he was, +it is true, the most accomplished cavalier of his time--"the Magazine of +all arts," as he was called. Distinguished foreigners who visited the +Eternal City came to see him, and went away quite fascinated by his stores +of learning and by his agreeable conversation; had he been dropped from the +clouds on to any part of the world he would have made himself respected, +said his admirers. Yes, retorted the Jesuits, who did not love him, but +then he must not remain above six weeks; the trouble was that he had been +in Rome a good deal more than six weeks. The Pope was tired of his endless +talk and was beginning to think that he was mad, which perhaps was not far +from the truth; his folly in mixing up matters of high policy concerning +the King and Queen of England with an affair of purely ecclesiastical +interest, such as the recognition of the Chapter, was commented on, and the +extraordinary bitterness which both he and his friends displayed towards +their opponents, among whom were the powerful religious Orders, was not in +his favour; his position was further injured by his intimacy with Thomas +White, a learned but eccentric priest then in Rome, who, afterward the +elaborator of a theory of government which, like that of Hobbes, was +believed to be a bid for the favour of Cromwell,[347] was already regarded +with suspicion by the orthodox as unsound both in theology and philosophy; +finally, the envoy suffered by the absence of Francesco Barberini, who had +withdrawn from Rome. The Cardinal had not, it is true, been a very faithful +friend[348] to the Queen of England, but in spite of occasional lapses he +felt a certain interest in English affairs which might have counteracted in +some measure the Irish influence brought to bear upon the Pope. Nor was it +only Sir Kenelm who was out of favour; his cousin George Digby, through +whose hands passed the negotiations of the King and Queen with the Irish, +was industriously misrepresented by Rinuccini, while there were those who +did not scruple to insinuate that the Queen required money for her private +purposes, and that Jermyn, the heretic Jermyn, would have the spending of +it. So greatly was the Pope influenced by these scandals that even those +who favoured Henrietta and who would gladly have seen the Holy See unite +with France to restore the King of England thought that Digby's best policy +would be to plead for a grant of money for Ireland; but this course was +prevented by the extraordinary conduct of Rinuccini, which has been already +referred to, and which caused great wrath in the school of Catholics to +which Digby belonged. It would be well, wrote White bitterly to Sir Kenelm, +if the Pope could send into Ireland "such orders, or rather such a man, +that may conserve the peace and seek more after the substance than after +the outside of religion."[349] + +Thus affairs stood in Rome at the crisis of 1647. + +As early as 1645 it was believed that the Queen was inclined towards the +Independents through the influence of Henry Percy and of Father Philip, who +were suspected of communication with the leaders of that party;[350] in +matters of religion they were less rigid than the Presbyterians; they +possessed some glimmering of the idea of toleration, and they even showed +some disposition to favour the Catholics. When in 1647 they gained the +upper hand, Henrietta believed that the moment had come at last when the +Catholics would be able to hold the balance between the King, the +Presbyterians, and the Independents, and with the favour of the latter to +win the long-hoped-for liberty of conscience, carrying with it the repeal +of the penal laws. Never, it was thought, had the Catholics had such a +chance since the days of Mary. Charles, characteristically, wished to keep +out of sight in the negotiations. "You must know," wrote an English +Catholic to Sir Kenelm Digby in August, 1647, "at last not only the +Independents, but the King himself do give us solid hopes of a liberty of +conscience for Catholics in England in case we can but gain security that +our subjection to the Pope shall bring no prejudice to our allegiance +towards his Majesty or that state; it is true the King will not appear in +it, but would have the army make it their request unto him; and so I +understand he hath advised the Catholics to treat with the army about it, +and the business will be to frame an oath of allegiance."[351] + +The Catholics carried on negotiations with Sir Thomas Fairfax;[352] the +rationale of the penal laws had always been the suspicion that the +recusants held opinions subversive of the State and indeed of all social +life, and it was to overcome this difficulty that Three Propositions were +drawn up by the Catholics "importing that the Pope and Church had no power +to absolve from obedience to civil government or dispense with word or oath +made to heretics or authorize to injure other men upon pretence of them +being excommunicated."[353] It was intimated that if the Catholics, by +subscribing these opinions, could "vindicate these principles from +inconsistency with civil government,"[354] the penal laws would be repealed +and liberty of conscience granted.[355] + +It is no wonder that the English Catholics were in high spirits. The more +moderate of them who were weary of being considered bad subjects for +principles which they did not hold were glad to testify their loyalty not +only to the Independents, but to the King, who had always been suspicious +of it; a large number of Catholics came forward to sign the negative of the +Three Propositions,[356] among whom were members of the religious Orders, +even of the Society of Jesus, and well-known laymen, such as the Marquis of +Winchester, whose defence of Basing House had won the admiration of the +whole Royalist party, and Walter Montagu, who, though he was still in +prison, was allowed to intermix in the negotiation. + +Out in Paris the Queen, who had spent her life trying to persuade her +husband of the unimpeachable loyalty of her co-religionists, was doing her +part. In July, even before the Three Propositions were drawn up, she put +further pressure upon Rome for aid; there were men, there were munitions, +all that was needed was money; surely in such a crisis to gain all that was +at stake the Holy Father would supply it. She sent her instructions to +Digby and waited in hope. + +Sir Kenelm pressed with all his eloquence the needs of the Catholics and +their great opportunity. Perhaps the Pope was a little overwhelmed by his +flow of words, for he requested him to put his arguments on paper; Digby, +nothing loath, drew up memorials, of which the burden was always the need +of money to enable the Catholics to take an influential part in the +settlement which was believed to be pending. He descanted upon the hopes +raised by the unexpected revolt of the Independents, who wished to destroy +the Presbyterians and to favour the Catholics. The latter were exhausted by +years of war and persecution, but if the Holy Father would only show a +timely liberality they could so intervene as to bring about not only their +own salvation, but that of their co-religionists in Ireland, thus saving +the Pope the great expenses he was incurring on behalf of the Confederate +Catholics. Moreover, by such conduct he would give proof that by sending +Rinuccini to Ireland he had had no desire but the good of religion; if he +refused the Queen's request, added Digby impressively, it would mean the +ruin of religion, both in England and Ireland. + +Innocent may have given some attention to Digby's arguments, but probably +at no time did he think of acting upon them. The reputation of the envoy, +which was not improved by his disrespectful, if just, criticisms of the +methods of the Papal Court, told heavily against his requests. Moreover, +the Queen herself was little trusted, particularly in Irish affairs, for +she was believed to put the interests of her husband above those of +religion, and to favour unduly Lord Ormonde, to whom (in the vain hope of +bringing about an accommodation between him and the Confederates) she had +recently sent an agent, by name George Leybourn,[357] who, though a +Catholic priest, belonged to a very different school of thought from that +of the fierce Rinuccini. Besides, the recent events in England were +prejudicial to Henrietta's interests in Rome. + +The negotiation of the Three Propositions was considered a private matter, +but it came to the ears of the Pope. Innocent probably was aware that it +was to a great extent managed by a section of the secular clergy, who, +perhaps from their close connection with the intellectual society of Paris, +held Gallican views of so extreme a type that they would gladly have +settled the matter without reference to Rome, and who saw in the whole +affair a nice opportunity of getting rid of their enemies the Jesuits, whom +they thoughtfully suggested should be excluded from the general toleration; +indeed, one of the chief supporters of the scheme was a priest named +Holden, who was a great friend of Sir Kenelm Digby and Thomas White, and +who had long been noted for the extravagance of his opinions.[358] This +gentleman, now resident in Paris, wrote encouraging letters to his +co-religionists in England, assuring them that their attitude on the +questions raised by the Three Propositions was that of all the learned and +judicious men of France. It is true that some of the more timid English +Catholics, notwithstanding such encouragement, became alarmed, and wrote an +exculpatory letter to the Holy Father, in which they informed him that the +denial they had given to the Three Propositions was "in, the negative to +theyr affirmative who presented them unto us, not absolutely in theyr +negative, for that had indeed intruded further upon the Pope's authority +than the subscribers were willing to doe."[359] But even such refinements +could not save the conduct of the English Catholics from condemnation at +Rome, where the deposing power was not so lightly to be parted with. Thus +it is not surprising that Henrietta waited for a reply from the Pope with +the heart-sickness of hope deferred. She did not know, what had long been +confessed among the initiated, that the Holy Father's chief object was the +success of the Confederate Catholics,[360] to whom in the spring of that +same year he had sent, together with his paternal benediction, the sum of +50,000 crowns. In September she took up her ever-ready pen and wrote +herself to Innocent, a sad letter, in which she speaks of her devotion to +the Catholic faith, and of the good intentions which had not been seconded +as they should have been. It is not known whether the Pope replied to these +reproaches, but a month later he received Sir Kenelm Digby once again, +though he was probably aware of the fact that that gentleman was +hand-in-glove with those whom he had censured in England. + +That gentleman's temper had not been improved by his long trials; the last +memorial[361] which he drew up, which was to a great length, is extremely +acrid in tone. It dwells with justice upon the services which the Queen had +rendered to the Catholic Church, upon the fair hopes which had been +blighted by the war. It speaks of the ill reception accorded to her +friends--among whom are mentioned Richard Crashaw and Patrick Cary, the +brother of Lord Falkland--at the Papal Court. Finally, it dwells with +particular and not unmerited bitterness upon the conduct of Rinuccini, who, +it was believed, had a secret commission to separate Ireland from England. +It happened that just about the time of the presentation of this memorial +the hopes of toleration for the Catholics in England disappeared as +suddenly as they had arisen, for the two Houses of Parliament voted that +religious liberty should not extend to the toleration of Papists;[362] but +even had this untoward incident not occurred, Digby can hardly have +expected much from the Pope. The answer came at last in March, 1648, and it +was cold and decisive. The Holy Father would have liked to help the Queen +of England, but seeing no hope of the success of the Catholics, he felt +that he could not indulge his inclination.[363] Sir Kenelm shook the dust +of Rome off his feet and left it more convinced than ever of what he had +written a year previously, that no one could succeed at the Papal Court +without money and influence, and that "piety, honour, generosity, devotion, +zeal for the Catholic faith and for the service of God, with all other +vertues, heroic and theological,"[364] were banished thence. Henrietta +would perhaps hardly have endorsed this comprehensive indictment; but she +was bitterly disappointed, and she was incapable of perceiving that from +his own point of view Innocent was right in refusing money, of which such +Catholics as Sir Kenelm Digby[365] and his friends would have had the +spending. On larger principles also the papal policy was justified. The +idea of founding a solid toleration for Catholics upon the basis of a union +of the King and the Independents was chimerical, for those among the +Puritans who favoured the scheme were but a small minority of advanced +views, and even they, it seems, soon repented of their liberality. Even had +Charles been trustworthy (and in this, as in other cases, he paid the +penalty of his incurable shiftiness), the anti-Catholic feeling of the +nation, which had been one of the chief causes of the war, would never have +permitted the antedating by more than a century of the repeal of the penal +laws, and had the guarantees been given they would assuredly have been +broken. With regard to Ireland, the Queen is perhaps less to be blamed. She +knew that the Confederate Catholics hoped much from her, and she could not +know that Rinuccini, the envoy of the Holy Father, was using all his +influence against her, or fathom the depth of the malice which led him to +write that "from the Queen of England we must hope nothing except +propositions hurtful to religion, since she is entirely in the hands of +Jermyn, Digby, and other heretics."[366] + + * * * * * + +"He perished for lack of knowing the truth," said Henrietta once of her +husband, with a flash of insight not often given to her. That which was +true of Charles was true of her also; she was her father's daughter, and +she desired to know the truth, and she was accustomed to say that the chief +need of princes was faithful counsellors who would declare it to them; but +to such knowledge she could not reach. Her schemes, with all their +ingenuity, failed one after another because she was unable to grasp the +conditions in which she worked, or to read the motives and characters of +the people with whom she had to deal. She lived in a world of unreality +built up of the love which she bore to her husband, which made her as +unable to understand that the restoration of Charles Stuart to the throne +he had lost was not the main object of the diplomacy of Europe, as she was +to appreciate the fact that such negotiations as those which she, the Queen +of a Protestant country, carried on with the Pope and the Catholics of +Europe were more fatal to him than the swords or the malice of his enemies. + +[Footnote 308: Loret: _La Muse Historique_ (1859), t. II, p. 393.] + +[Footnote 309: One of them was Rene Chartier, an elderly man, who had +attended several members of the royal family; he was the translator of +Galen and Hippocrates. G. Patin: _Lettres._] + +[Footnote 310: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 253.] + +[Footnote 311: Birchley: _Christian Moderator_ (1652), p. 20.] + +[Footnote 312: In 1642 the Queen accepted the dedication of _The Flaming +Heart, or the Life of the Glorious S. Teresa_, published at Antwerp; it is +a translation of the saint's autobiography.] + +[Footnote 313: A. a Wood: _Fasti Oxonienses_ (1691), II, p. 688.] + +[Footnote 314: See Appendix VII.] + +[Footnote 315: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 264.] + +[Footnote 316: Sabran Negotiations, Add. MS., 5460.] + +[Footnote 317: This letter is found _in extenso_. MS. Dupuy, 642.] + +[Footnote 318: The Earl of Bristol and George, Lord Digby.] + +[Footnote 319: The relations between Henrietta and Goring, on the one hand, +and the discontented French on the other, are mentioned in the _Carnets de +Mazarin_, published in V. Cousin: _Mme de Chevreuse._] + +[Footnote 320: Mazarin, in a letter of 1651, speaks of "plus de trois mille +livres prestees a la reyne d'Angleterre des occasions ou elle etoit reduite +en grandes necessitez."--Cheruel: _Lettres de Mazarin_, IV, p. 221.] + +[Footnote 321: 1,500,000 francs is the sum named in the letter from Paris +read in the English Parliament in January, 1646 (Tanner MS., LX); this +present is not mentioned in the official account of the assembly of clergy, +and it is possible that the writer of the above letter listened to a +baseless rumour and that no such gift was made at the time.] + +[Footnote 322: The official report of this speech is in the "Proces Verbal +de l'assemblee du clerge, 1645"; the only copy which the present writer has +seen is in the _Bibliotheque Magasin_ in Paris. The Roundheads printed a +translation of the speech (with comments) in pamphlet form, entitled: "A +warning to the Parliament of England. A discovery of the ends and designs +of the Popish party both abroad and at home in the raising and fomenting +our late war and still continuing troubles. In an oration made to the +general assembly of the French clergy in Paris by Mons. Jacques du Perron, +Bishop of Angoulesme and Grand Almoner to the Queen of England. Translated +out of an MS. copy obtained from a good hand in France. 1647."] + +[Footnote 323: This was denied by the Roundheads. See "A warning to the +Parliament of England," etc.; but it was apparently generally believed in +France. See Sabran Neg., Add. MS., 5460.] + +[Footnote 324: Document VI in the Appendix seems to refer to the +negotiations between the King and the Catholics at this time.] + +[Footnote 325: The King's letter to the Queen was one of those taken at +Naseby and published in _The King's Cabinet Opened_. The passage runs thus: +"I have thought of one means more to furnish thee with for my assistance +than hitherto thou hast had. It is that I give thee power to promise in my +name to whom thou thinkest most fit that I will take away all the penal +laws against the Roman Catholics in England as soon as God shall enable me +to do it, so as by their means, or in their favours, I may have so powerful +assistance as may deserve so great a favour and enable me to do it." Du +Perron's reference to this letter proves that it was not a forgery of the +Puritans. + +In a letter from Paris "presented by Mr. Speaker," January 29th, 164-5/6, +is the following passage: "For these causes and further help (iff need +shall be) the queene has obliged herselff solemnlie that the King shall +establishe frie liberty of conscience in all his three kingdomes, and shall +abolishe utterlie all penal statutes made by Queene Elizabeth and King +James of glorious memorie against Poperie and papists."--Tanner MS., LX.] + +[Footnote 326: _Moderate Intelligencer_, July, 1646. "The clergy conveaned +in favour of her Majesty of England's designs finding that there was little +hopes to bring about at present either the recovery or increase of the +Catholic religion and so to no end to advance monies unless to exasperate +and bring ruin upon those of the Roman religion there, have agreed to give +and directed to be presented unto her some few thousands of crowns, a somme +fitter to buy hangings for a chamber than prosecute a war: are risen and +have dismissed this assembly."] + +[Footnote 327: The Confederate Catholics were a body formed after the Irish +rebellion of 1641; there were at this time (1645) three parties in Ireland, +the Confederate Catholics, the Protestants--whose army was commanded by +Ormonde, the King's Viceroy--and the Puritans: the two former, though +nominally enemies, had a common ground in their hatred of the latter.] + +[Footnote 328: O'Hartegan records with great glee that while he was +received in audience by Mazarin and even invited to dine in his palace, +Jermyn, "His Holiness, His Nuntius," and other ambassadors, were unable to +obtain an audience even after many days' solicitation. Mazarin's real +object was to prevent the Confederate Catholics from "casting themselves +wholly into the armes of the King of Spain." Tanner MS., LX.] + +[Footnote 329: As early as 1635 she said that she had not corresponded with +Elizabeth for ten years, as the latter said she could not write freely. +Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 45.] + +[Footnote 330: See Appendix V.] + +[Footnote 331: It is said that Bishop Smith, who was still alive, was +opposed to Sir Kenelm Digby's undertaking this mission, but was overborne.] + +[Footnote 332: The same misfortune occurred a few months later when George +Digby was defeated at Sherborne (October, 1645) and his correspondence, +much of which concerned the intrigues of the King and Queen, fell into the +hands of the enemy, and was afterwards read in Parliament; and again at +Sligo (October, 1645), when the Glamorgan Treaty was found in the coach of +the Archbishop of Tuam.] + +[Footnote 333: In this letter the Queen thanks the Pope for "des armes et +munitions de guerre qu'elle a fourni, de la promesse qu'elle m'a donne +d'une nouvelle assistance d'argent et de la restitution des pensions a ceux +de la nation ecossaise tant a Rome qu'a Avignon."--P.R.O. Roman +Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 334: Rinuccini: _Embassy in Ireland_, p. lviii.] + +[Footnote 335: He was the founder of S. Isidore's College in Rome.] + +[Footnote 336: Nevertheless in 1642 Urban sent an agent by name Scarampi to +Ireland at the request of Cardinal Francesco Barberini.] + +[Footnote 337: _Il Cappuccino Scozzese_ (1644). Before the end of the +seventeenth century it was translated into French, Spanish, and Portuguese, +during the eighteenth century into English.] + +[Footnote 338: Her husband warned her in January, 1645, not to give "much +countenance to the Irish agents in Paris."--_King's Cabinet Opened_. She +replied, "That troubles me much, for I fear that you have no intention of +making a peace with them [the Irish] which is ruinous for you and for +me."--Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 290. February 28th, +164-4/5.] + +[Footnote 339: _King's Cabinet Opened._] + +[Footnote 340: "... D. Baro Germanus qui in maxima apud Reginam Angliae +gratia nec minore quam Cardinalis Mazarinus apud Reginam +Galliae."--Grotius: _Epistolae ineditae_ (1806), p. 71.] + +[Footnote 341: There is little doubt that Henrietta would have been willing +to cede to France the Channel Islands, the last remains of the great +heritage of the Conqueror, in return for help.] + +[Footnote 342: See _Letters of Charles I to Henrietta Maria in 1646_, ed. +Bruce. Camden Society.] + +[Footnote 343: This is Berkeley's own account taken from his memoirs. +Clarendon's is very different, and says that Berkeley was a vain man who +was delighted to undertake the mission.] + +[Footnote 344: Tanner MS., LX.] + +[Footnote 345: These articles are published among the documents at the end +of Rinuccini's _Embassy in Ireland_, p. 573; among the Roman Transcripts +P.R.O. are very similar articles endorsed "in the handwriting of Sir Kenelm +Digby." They are among the papers of 1647, and very possibly belong to the +later date.] + +[Footnote 346: In May, 1647, the Queen wrote to the Pope asking him not to +receive communications from unauthorized persons who approached him in her +name, but only from Digby. P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 347: "The grounds of obedience and government by Thomas White, +gentleman (1635), dedicated 'to my most honoured and best friend Sir Kenelm +Digby.'" White knew Hobbes, but his political theory is rather an +anticipation of that of Locke and the eighteenth-century Whigs.] + +[Footnote 348: Later it was even believed that he was favourable to the +Roundheads. An English gentleman who was in Rome in 1650 complained of his +discourtesy, "who was the English (I say rebels') Protector."--John +Bargrave: _Pope Alexander VII and the College of Cardinals_.] + +[Footnote 349: _Blacklo's Cabal Discovered_, p. 6. This curious book, which +was published in 1679, consists of a collection of letters which throws +much light upon Sir Kenelm Digby's mission and the events of 1647.] + +[Footnote 350: The writer of an unsigned letter in the Bibliotheque +Nationale in Paris says that he was charged "de representer a la serieuse +consideration de la Reyne et de Mgr. le Cardinal le trois que prennent les +Independants qui va a la ruine totale du Roy et des siens et directement a +charger le gouvernement et combien cela regarde la France; que les chefs de +cette faction sont le Comte de Northumberland My lord Saye et les deux +Vaines qui font agir aupres de notre Roy et au dela aupres de notre Reyne +par My lord Percy et autres qui ont toutes leurs confidence au Pere +Philipes; ceux la ont contre eux tous les Escossais et les meuilleurs +Anglois si bien que si notre Reyne ne veut recevoir et assister ces bons +Anglois et les Escossais il se trouvera quelle fera bien de ne penser plus +a repasser en Angleterre."--MS. Francais, 15,994.] + +[Footnote 351: _Blacklo's Cabal Discovered_, p. 21; the suggested oath is +printed, p. 49.] + +[Footnote 352: These negotiations were of the nature of a private +understanding based on the twelfth article of the Heads of the Proposals +offered by the army, which provided for "the repeal of all Acts or clauses +in any Act enjoining the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and imposing any +penalties for neglect thereof; as also of all Acts or clauses of any Act +imposing any penalty for not coming to Church or for meetings elsewhere for +prayer or other religious duties, exercises or ordinances and some other +provision to be made for discovery of Papists and Popish recusants and for +disabling of them and of all Jesuits or Priests found disturbing the +State."--Gardiner: _Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution_, p. +321.] + +[Footnote 353: "The controversial Letter on the great controversie +concerning the pretended temporal authority of Popes over the whole earth. +1673."] + +[Footnote 354: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 355: The Three Propositions were printed several times in the +latter half of the seventeenth century, among other places (together with +the suggested oath of allegiance) in _Blacklo's Cabal Discovered_. There +are several MS. copies among the archives of the See of Westminster, at the +end of one of which it is said that it was signed by fifty Catholic nobles, +but was condemned by the Congregation at Rome. See Appendix VIII.] + +[Footnote 356: The Three Propositions are statements of the opinions +objected to, and which the Catholics were required to subscribe in the +negative.] + +[Footnote 357: He travelled under the pseudonym of Winter Grant. He was an +old friend of the Queen, having been her chaplain before the war; he had +been a friend of Father Philip. His own memoirs give the best account of +his unsuccessful mission.] + +[Footnote 358: Con, years earlier, in one of his letters from England, +writes of Holden's extravagant opinions.] + +[Footnote 359: Archives of the See of Westminster. It seems that the +censure was of a private nature; it is printed in Jouvency: "Receuil de +pieces touchant l'histoire de la Compagnie de Jesus" (1713), where it is +ascribed to the influence of the Jesuits.] + +[Footnote 360: Those less sanguine than Henrietta had long known this; "the +Pope cannot doe much, all he can is promised for Ireland," occurs in a +letter of the beginning of 1646 from Robert Wright to "Mr. Jones of the +Commons." Tanner MS., LX.] + +[Footnote 361: Among the Roman Transcripts in the P.R.O. are five memorials +drawn up by Sir Kenelm Digby, dated respectively July 14th, July 26th, +August 3rd, August 12th, and October 20th, 1647. Of the latter there is a +duplicate dated 1648 among the Chigi Transcripts (P.R.O.), and there is an +old English translation among the archives of the See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 362: Whitelocke: _Memorials of English Affairs_, p. 274.] + +[Footnote 363: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 364: Digby to Barberini, April 28th, 1647. P.R.O. Roman +Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 365: Sir Kenelm Digby somewhat later entered into negotiations +with Cromwell in the hope of obtaining toleration for the Catholics. +Henrietta Maria (if a story, which on the authority of Cosin found its way +into a letter written from Paris, may be believed) grew suspicious at last +of the man she had trusted so long; one of his friends was telling her of +his arrival in Paris, "but she suddenly interrupted him as he was +commending the knight and said openly in the hall, 'Mr. K. Digby, c'est un +grand cochin [knave].'" Tanner MS., 149. George Davenport to W. Sancroft, +Paris, January 15th, 165-6/7. Sir Kenelm died in 1665.] + +[Footnote 366: Rinuccini: _Embassy in Ireland_, p. 367. Digby is George +Digby, afterwards the second Earl of Bristol; he became a Catholic in later +days, but Rinuccini seems to have disliked him rather more after his +conversion than before.] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE QUEEN OF THE EXILES + + Rememberance sat as portress of this gate. + + WILLIAM BROWNE + + +It was the beginning of the year 1649. France, which four years earlier had +seemed so secure a refuge, was itself torn by civil war. The day of +Barricades had come and gone; Paris was in the hands of the Frondeurs, +deserted by Queen Anne and by the little King who had retired for safety to +S. Germain-en-Laye: Mazarin seemed to the full as unpopular as even +Strafford had been. + +Within the city, in the palace of the Louvre, the Queen of England yet +lingered; she would gladly have escaped to her relatives at S. Germain, but +when she attempted to do so she was stopped at the end of the Tuileries +Gardens. However, she had little fear; she knew that she was popular with +the people, who preferred her sprightly ways to those of the _devote_ +Spanish Queen, who thought of nothing but convents and monks, and she was +content to wait upon events. It is true she was exceedingly uncomfortable; +little by little the seemly establishment she had kept up in the early days +of the exile had dwindled as she strained every nerve to send supplies to +her husband, but she had never known need until now, when for six months +her allowance from the King of France had not been paid. However, one day, +when in the bitter cold of January she could not even afford a fire, she +received a visit from the Coadjutor Bishop, who was a man of great +importance among the Frondeurs. Little Princess Henrietta, who had been +smuggled over to France in 1646 and who was now about four years old, was +lying in bed. "You see," said the Queen, indicating the little girl and +speaking with her usual cheerfulness, "the poor child cannot get up, as I +have no means of keeping her warm." De Retz, in spite of his leanings to +liberalism, was so shocked that a daughter of England and still more a +granddaughter of Henry the Great should be in such a plight, that he +prevailed upon the Parliament to send a considerable sum of money to the +Queen of England. + +It was never the physical accidents of life that weighed upon +Henrietta--these she could bear so lightly as to shame her attendants into +a like courage; but there was worse than cold or privation, worse even than +the fear lest her native land might be rushing to the same fate as had +overwhelmed the land of her adoption.[367] The real misery was the anxiety +which was gnawing at her heart for her children, and above all for her +husband. During the day she was able in some degree to divert her mind from +it, but in the silent watches of the night it overwhelmed her. + +She had begged and entreated the French Government to intervene between +Charles and the foes in whose hands he was; but after her long experience +of Mazarin she was not surprised at the ineffectual character of such +intervention as the French ambassador gave. In Paris people were too much +taken up with their own troubles "to take much notice" or to "care much of +what may happen to the King of England."[368] Lower and lower sank the +Queen's hopes, until at last all that she desired was to be at her +husband's side to uphold him in his trouble. Laying aside in her great love +the pride which prompted her to ask nothing from her enemies, she wrote to +both Houses of Parliament asking for a safe conduct to England. Even this +sorry comfort was denied her: her letters, the purport of which was known, +were left unopened, to be found in that condition more than thirty years +later among the State Papers. + +In Paris the days dragged on. The city was so blockaded it was almost +impossible for letters to enter it. There was great uncertainty as to the +fate of the King of England, but sinister rumours, which probably came by +way of Holland, began to be rife. One day Lord Jermyn presented himself +before Henrietta and told her that her husband had been condemned to death +and taken out to execution, but that the people had risen and saved him. +Thus did the faithful servant attempt to prepare the Queen; and even over +this shadow of the merciless truth she wept in recounting it to her +friends. + +But at last concealment was impossible. Father Cyprien was at this time in +attendance on the Queen, and one evening as he was leaving her dining-room +at the supper hour he was stopped at the door and asked to remain, as she +would have need of his consolation and support. His wondering looks were +answered by a brief statement of the fate of the King of England, at which +the old man shuddered all over as the messenger passed on. Henrietta was +talking cheerfully with such friends as the state of Paris permitted to +gather round her, but she was awaiting anxiously the return of a gentleman +whom she had sent to S. Germain-en-Laye. Jermyn (for it was he who had +taken upon himself the task of breaking the hard news) said a few words +intended to prepare her; she, with her usual quickness of perception, soon +saw that something was wrong, and preferring certainty to suspense begged +him to tell her plainly what had happened. With many circumlocutions he +replied, until at last the fatal news was told. + +"Curae leves loquuntur, graves stupent," is the comment of Father Cyprien, +the spectator of this scene. Henrietta was utterly crushed by so awful a +blow, which deprived her, by no ordinary visitation, but in so unheard-of +and terrible manner, of him who had been at once "a husband, a friend, and +a king"; she sank down in what was not so much a faint as a paralysis of +all power and of all sensation except that of grief; she neither moved nor +spoke nor wept, and so long did this unnatural state continue that her +attendants became alarmed, and, in their fear, sent for the Duchess of +Vendome,[369] a sweet and charitable lady whose whole life was devoted to +doing good and of whom the Queen was particularly fond; she, by her tears +and her gentle sympathy, was able to bring Henrietta to a more normal +condition in which tears relieved her overcharged heart. All the next day +she remained invisible, weeping over the horror which to her at least was +unexpected, for she had never believed until the last that the English +people would permit such an outrage, and recalling, with bursts of +uncontrollable grief, the happy days she had spent with the husband who had +been her lover to the end. "I wonder I did not die of grief," she said +afterwards, and indeed, at first, death seemed the only thing left to be +desired, but + + "Jamas muere un triste + Quando convienne que muera."[370] + +On the following day, however, she was sufficiently recovered to receive +Madame de Motteville, who was setting out for S. Germain-en-Laye. The Queen +asked her friend to come and kneel beside the bed on which she was lying, +and then taking her hand she begged of her to carry a message to the +Queen-Regent. "Tell my sister," said Henrietta, "to beware of irritating +her people, unless" (with a flash of the Bourbon spirit) "she has the means +of crushing them utterly." Then she turned her face to the wall and gave +way once more to her uncontrollable sorrow. Only one thing could have +increased her grief, and that was the knowledge, mercifully hidden from +her, of the part which she had played in bringing her husband to his +terrible doom. + +It was but a few days later that she roused herself to go for a short visit +to her friends, the Carmelite nuns in the Faubourg S. Jacques;[371] but +there fresh agitation awaited her, for thither was brought the last tender +letter which her husband had written for her consolation when he knew that +he must die. As she read it grief once more overcame her and she sank +fainting into the arms of two of the nuns who stood near; but she was +stronger now than when she had met the first shock. Flinging herself on her +knees before the crucifix which hung on the wall and raising her eyes and +hands to heaven, she cried, "Lord, I will not complain, for it is Thou who +hast permitted it." A similar courage upheld her in receiving indifferent +acquaintance and uncongenial relatives who came to pay visits of +condolence. Mademoiselle de Montpensier, indeed, considered that her aunt +was less affected by her husband's death than she should have been, though +she had the grace to add that it was probably self-respect and pride which +forbade the widow to show the depth of her sorrow; this was undoubtedly the +case. Henrietta might open her heart to dear friends such as Madame de +Motteville or the Duchess of Vendome, but she could not expose the +sacredness of grief to the curious eyes of her niece, who not only had +shown herself very indifferent to the charms of the Prince of Wales, on +which, perhaps, Henrietta had descanted rather too frequently, but was +inclined to regard the Queen of England's tales of the happiness and +prosperity of her married life as somewhat highly coloured. + +The execution of Charles I caused an unparalleled sensation throughout +Europe, and indeed the world. Kings shivered on their thrones and despotic +governments trembled. Sovereigns had indeed been murdered with a frequency +which made such tragedies almost commonplace, but it was without precedent +that a king should be put to death after a judicial trial by the hands of +his own subjects. Even in far-away India a king who heard the news from the +crew of an English ship replied that "if any man mentioned such a thing he +should be put to death, or if he could not be found out, they should all dy +for it."[372] In France the horror was specially felt, both on account of +the close ties which bound together the two royal houses and because, owing +to the unforgotten murder of Henry IV, regicide was a crime particularly +odious to all good Frenchmen, who abhorred the views held on this subject +by an advanced school of Catholicism. Moreover, the state of the country +was such as to cause apprehension of a civil war similar to that which had +caused the tragedy. "It is a blow which should make all kings tremble," +said Queen Anne. Even the rebellious Frondeurs were shocked at the news. +Many a gallant Frenchman would gladly have unsheathed the sword to avenge +the murder of Charles Stuart, and many did take up the pen to exhort +Christian princes to lay aside their differences and to turn their arms +against the English murderers, which, of course, those potentates were not +prepared to do, though they had a just appreciation of the offence offered +to all kingship in this audacious act. Even the name of the much-loved +Pucelle d'Orleans[373] was invoked in the cause, while a living lady, Dame +Isabeau Bernard de Laynes, was so overcome by her feelings that she broke +into verse, beginning-- + + "Hereux celui qui sur la terre + Vengera du roi d'Angleterre + La mort donnee injustement + Par ses subjects, chose inouye, + De lui avoir oste la vie + Quel horrible dereglement."[374] + +Zealous Catholics shook their heads and said that now the real tendencies +of the impious Reformation were appearing, which theme Bossuet developed +with great effect when he came to preach Henrietta's funeral sermon;[375] +others, more liberal-minded, contended that the two great religions of Rome +and Geneva could live together very well, as was proved in France, but that +the King of England had allowed all kinds of sects and sectaries, a course +which clearly could only lead to disaster; the Sieur de Marsys, the French +tutor of the young Princes of England, translated the story of the trial +into French that all Frenchmen might read and ponder the monstrous +document.[376] It was even said that the little Louis XIV, who was not yet +eleven years old, took to heart in a way hardly to be expected the murder +of his uncle, as if the child saw through the mists of the future another +royal scaffold and the horrors of 1793. + +Henrietta received plenty of sympathetic words and visits of condolence, +but she received little else. It was believed that the condition to which +Mazarin was reduced by the Frondeurs had emboldened the rebels in England +to commit their last desperate act, but the instructions which the Cardinal +penned to the French ambassador in London, before the fatal January 30th, +show that his fear of the Spanish was a good deal stronger than his desire +to help the King of England, and after the tragedy he only expressed polite +regrets that France had not been able to follow the good example of +Holland, which had protested against the regicide, and made a great favour +of recalling the ambassador and refusing to recognize the republican agents +in Paris. It was reserved for an old servant of Henrietta to show sympathy +in a more practical manner. Du Perron, who at the request of the Queen of +England had been translated to the See of Evreux, found himself detained by +the Frondeurs, sorely against his will, in his own cathedral city. Ill, and +wounded in his tenderest feelings by a compulsory semblance of disloyalty, +he so took to heart the news of the terrible death of King Charles, to whom +he was greatly attached, that he became rapidly worse and died in a few +days. + +The story of the heroic manner in which Charles met his terrible death +wrung tears from many an eye in Paris. Henrietta, who had lived with him +for twenty years, must have known that he would not fail in personal +courage. After all, misfortune was no novelty to the House of Stuart. +Charles' own grandmother had mounted the scaffold of Elizabeth, and of his +remoter ancestors who sat upon the throne of Scotland few had escaped a +violent death; when the moment came he was ready to fulfil the tragic +destiny of his race. To his widow his royal courage was so much a matter of +course that it brought her little consolation; but some real comfort she +might have known could she have foreseen that such ready acceptance of his +fate would not only blot out in the mind of his people the memory of his +many failings, but would throw a glory over his name and career which has +not completely faded even to the present day. + +[Illustration: HENRY JERMYN, EARL OF ST. ALBANS + +FROM AN ENGRAVING] + +No one felt more than Henrietta that the King of England's fate was a +warning to those in authority. She watched with painful interest the course +of rebellion in France, and when at last she was able to see the +Queen-Regent,[377] she gave that obstinate lady some excellent advice, +dwelling particularly on the goodwill of the Parisians to their little +King, and the general dislike which was felt for Cardinal Mazarin. In 1649 +the rebellion was repressed, but only that it might break out anew two +years later. During the second war of the Fronde, Henrietta, who thought +that English history was repeating itself in France,[378] sought Queen Anne +at S. Germain-en-Laye. There in an assembly, composed of both Frenchmen and +Englishmen, she pressed upon her sister-in-law counsels of wisdom and +moderation which it had been well had she herself followed in the past. "My +sister," said the haughty Spanish lady, who was weary of advice, specially +perhaps from one who had known so little how to manage her own concerns, +"do you wish to be Queen of France as well as of England?" + +Henrietta's reply came promptly, but with a world of sadness in it, "I am +nothing, do you be something!"[379] + + * * * * * + +Queen Henrietta Maria's position was considerably altered by her husband's +death; on the one hand she became a person of greater importance as the +adviser of her young son, who was hardly of an age to manage his own +affairs; on the other, she was deprived of Charles' powerful support, and +laid more open to the attacks of her opponents, whose fear it was to see +her two sons, Charles and James, who arrived in Paris shortly after their +father's death, fall under her influence. + +Party feeling ran high at the exiled Court, which, with the suppression of +the first rebellion of the Fronde, took shape again. Henrietta was +respected by all--"our good Queen," she was affectionately called--but her +religion and her politics were disliked by the Church of England +constitutional party, which was strongly represented in Paris. Sir Edward +Hyde, Sir Edward Nicholas, and their friends, considered with some justice +that her counsels had been fatal to the master whose death had placed him +on a pinnacle, where assuredly he had never been in his lifetime. They +particularly disliked Jermyn, whose great influence with the Queen exposed +him to jealousy, and Lord Culpepper[380] and Henry Percy, his intimate +friends, were little less obnoxious to them. "I may tell you freely," wrote +Ormonde, the late Viceroy of Ireland, who arrived in Paris at the end of +1651, "I believe all these lords go upon as ill principles as may be; for I +doubt there is few of them that would not do anything almost, or advise the +King to do anything, that may probably recover his or their estates."[381] + +Shortly after the King's death the Queen's party (or that of the Louvre, as +its enemies called it) was strengthened by the arrival of a recruit of +great importance, Henrietta's old friend Walter Montagu, whom she had never +seen since they parted in Holland in 1643. This gentleman, since his +apprehension at Rochester, had been in the hands of the Roundheads; he had +spent most of his time in the Tower of London, where he varied the monotony +of prison life by a spirited controversy with a fellow-prisoner, Dr. John +Bastwick, of pillory fame, who expressed himself greatly pleased with his +nimble-witted adversary. He also became very devout, and in proof thereof +wrote a volume of spiritual essays, which he published in 1647 with a +charming dedication to the Queen of England, wherein piety and flattery +were delicately blended. In spite of the dislike with which he was +regarded,[382] he was treated with consideration, partly no doubt through +the influence of his brother, the Earl of Manchester, with whom he was +always on good terms and who even supplied him with money, but partly also, +probably, because it was felt that the Queen of France, who pleaded over +and over again for his enlargement, must not be irritated beyond measure. +He was permitted to go to Tunbridge Wells on account of his health, which +suffered from his long confinement, and he was finally released on the +ground that he had never borne arms against the Parliament, which was true +enough, as he had been in prison almost since the beginning of the war. +Nevertheless, together with his friend Sir Kenelm Digby, who had reappeared +in England, he was banished the country under pain of death.[383] He +quickly repaired to Spa to drink the waters there, and thence passed to +Paris, where he was warmly welcomed by the Queens, both of England and +France. + +The appearance of Walter Montagu--a frail worldling, as he calls +himself--in the role of a spiritual writer probably caused much the same +sort of amusement in Parisian circles as was caused in later days in those +of London by the publication of Richard Steel's _Christian Hero_. But it +was soon found that the long years of prison and danger had wrought a real +change in the whilom courtier, who now became a _devot_ of the fashionable +Parisian type. He lost no time in putting into execution his former project +of embracing the ecclesiastical state. "Your old friend, Wat Montagu," +wrote Lord Hatton in February, 1650-1, "hath already taken upon him the +_robe longue_ and received the first orders and intends before Easter (as I +am credibly assured) to take the order of Priesthood."[384] He sang his +first Mass at Pontoise in the following April, and in the autumn of the +same year received by the favour of Queen Anne the Abbey of Nanteuil, which +gave him the title of Abbe and a sufficient income. A few years later the +same royal patroness bestowed upon him the richer and more important Abbey +of S. Martin at Pontoise,[385] whose ample revenues he expended with such +liberality and tact as to win the gratitude of his less fortunate +compatriots, Catholics and Protestants alike. + +One of the earliest questions which the Queen had to settle after her +husband's execution was that of her eldest son's plans. At first a journey +to Ireland was contemplated, but finally it was decided that the young King +should go to Scotland and try his fortune among those who had betrayed his +father. Henrietta herself was inclined to the Presbyterian alliance, in +which opinion she was encouraged by the Louvre party. English and French +Catholics alike believed that the silly Anglican compromise had met with +the fate it deserved, and that henceforward the spoils would be divided +between themselves and the Presbyterians. The remnant of Anglicans who +showed a gallant faith in their position which later events justified +distrusted these latter so deeply that they would almost have preferred the +King to remain an exile for ever to seeing him restored by their means, who +had sold the Blessed Martyr. As for the Presbyterian alliance with the +Catholics, that they considered the most natural thing in the world;[386] +for in their opinion both schools of thought aimed at an undue +subordination of the civil to the religious power, or as a Royalist +rhymester put it:-- + + "A Scot and Jesuit, join'd in hand, + First taught the world to say + That subjects ought to have command + And princes to obey."[387] + +Nevertheless, in spite of opposition, Charles went off to Scotland, and +there, to the deep disgust of his Anglican friends, who had to learn that +he was a very different man from his father, he was persuaded to take the +Covenant, a step which they believed would not only alienate his best +friends, but prejudice his chances with Providence.[388] Even the Queen was +annoyed, unless, as her opponents hinted, she feigned her chagrin. But +annoyance soon gave place to anxiety. First came the news of the defeat of +Dunbar, then of the "crowning mercy" of Worcester; at last, after weeks of +suspense, Henrietta was able to welcome her son once more, safe indeed, but +worn out by almost incredible adventures and escapes, and cured for life by +his sojourn among them of any liking for the Presbyterians. It was no +wonder that the lad was depressed and irritable and unwilling to talk to +his mother or any one else, though she had still considerable influence +over him, so that it was complained that the King's secret council were his +mother, "Lord Jermyn, and Watt. Montagu, for that of greatest business he +consults with them only, without the knowledge of Marquis of Ormonde or Sir +Ed. Hyde."[389] She was able to persuade him (the more easily, no doubt, +from his Scotch experiences) to refrain from attending the Huguenot worship +at Charenton, which she thought might compromise him with his relatives of +France. + +And, indeed, under the pressure of her many misfortunes, Henrietta was +becoming more of a bigot than she had ever been before.[390] In 1647 Father +Philip died.[391] The loss of this worthy old man, who was well aware of +the caution necessary to a Catholic queen living among heretics, exposed +her to the influence of other and less judicious counsellors, specially +after the death of her Grand Almoner,[392] which deprived her of another +moderating influence. When in 1650 the Anglican service, which had been +held at the Louvre since the first days of the exile, was suppressed, +Protestant gossip pointed out Walter Montagu as the author of this deed; +but that gentleman would reply nothing, even to so weighty an interrogator +as Sir Edward Hyde, except that the Queen of France was at liberty to give +what orders she pleased in her own house. Henrietta may have regretted this +sudden outburst of zeal on the part of her sister-in-law, but she found no +answer to make when that lady came to visit her and told her, with the +solemnity of a Spaniard and a _devote_, that she thought the recent +troubles of her son the King of France must have been due to his mother's +weak toleration of heretical worship at the Louvre. History does not record +whether she changed her mind when this act of reparation was not followed +by an abatement of the rebellion; but henceforth the Anglican service was +held nowhere but in the chapel of Sir Richard Browne, the father-in-law of +John Evelyn, whose house was protected by his position as resident of the +King of England. There John Cosin, the exiled Dean of Durham, who still +kept up his impartial warfare against Rome on the one side and Geneva on +the other, struck heavy blows in the cause of the Church of England, not, +it was reported, without success. Religious feeling ran as high as ever it +had years before in London,[393] and the good Dean's controversial acerbity +was not sweetened when his only son went over to the enemy, by the +instrumentality, it was said, of Walter Montagu. Nor did the alert Abbe's +victories end there. Thomas Hobbes was still living among his learned +friends in the French capital. His religion, or lack of it, made him +suspect to Catholics and Protestants alike, and the Anglicans were +considerably chagrined when they heard that this dangerous person, on the +recommendation of Montagu, had been removed from the English Court, where +the young King had shown an unfortunate liking for his company. They would +fain have had the credit themselves of this judicious act, though perhaps +in later days, when they saw the "father of atheists" a welcome guest at +Whitehall, some of them may have been glad to be able to say that they had +had nothing to do with the odious persecution which he had suffered from +the bigots in Paris. + +Three years after the suppression of the Anglican service at the Louvre, +other events occurred which did not tend to Henrietta's popularity with +some of her son's best friends. Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son +of Charles I, is now chiefly remembered as an actor in that most pathetic +of all farewell scenes, when he and his sister Elizabeth took leave of +their dying father. The little girl never recovered the shock of her +father's death, and died without seeing again the mother who longed for +her. Henry was too young to suffer thus, and at one time a rumour was about +which reached the ears of Sir Edward Nicholas that Cromwell intended to +make the child king; but in 1653 the authorities in England, touched by +compassion for his youth, or perhaps finding him more trouble than he was +worth, sent him over to his sister in Holland, whence, much against that +lady's will, he was fetched to Paris to his mother's side. Henrietta was +charmed with the little fellow, whom she had not seen since he was quite a +child. Though small and thin he was "beautiful as a little angel" and, +while resembling his aunt Christine in face, possessed the fascinating +manners of his father's family and was remarkably forward in book-learning. +The boy was made much of, not only by his mother, but by the whole French +Court. "You know they always like anything new,"[394] wrote the Queen of +England to her sister, and she goes on to relate with some amusement the +innumerable visits she received on account of this _petit chevalier_. She +was, no doubt, glad that he had made so good an impression upon his French +relatives, for she had schemes for his advancement which depended largely +on their favour. + +The only one of her children whom Henrietta had been able to bring up in +her own faith was the dearest of all, the youngest little daughter, whom +she was wont to call her child of benediction. It is probable that during +her husband's lifetime she felt a scruple in trying to turn his children +from the religion which their father professed, particularly as he showed a +generous confidence in her in the matter; but now that he was gone she felt +her obligation to be over, and she gave much time and attention to +influencing the minds of her two elder sons, of whom she had good hopes. +She even, unmindful of the lessons of the past, entered anew into +negotiations with the Pope and, by means of the Duchess of Aiguillon, a +niece of Richelieu, held out, in the name of her son, hopes of untold +benefits to the Catholics of the British Isles if the Holy Father would +only assist the young and importunate monarch, who would certainly repay +his paternal kindness with interest.[395] But, nevertheless, the Queen knew +well enough the grave difficulties in the way of Charles' profession of the +Catholic faith, and she turned with relief to the little Henry in whose +youth she saw an easy prey. She had other arguments than those of religion +to bring forward. All sensible people, she told the boy, were now agreed +that the King, his brother, would not regain his throne. He knew the +extreme poverty to which the revolution had reduced his family; how as a +Protestant did he propose to live in a manner suitable to his rank as a +Prince of England? Whereas, if he would become a Catholic and take orders, +his aunt, the Queen of France, would make everything easy by procuring for +him a cardinal's hat, and by bestowing upon him such rich benefices as +would afford him a fitting provision. + +Henry was a boy, little more than a child, but the circumstances of his +life had been such as early to teach him the necessity of self-interest. +His father's last counsels, given at a supreme moment, may have weighed +with him, for his well-known answer, "I will be torn to pieces ere they +make me a king while my brothers live," prove him to have been, at that +time, an unusually precocious child. Be this as it may, he showed an +unexpected reluctance to follow his mother's advice and an unaccountable +dislike of the Abbe Montagu, whom she appointed to be his governor. Perhaps +he remembered his father's distrust of that fascinating person; certainly +he knew that by following his teaching he would offend irrevocably the +brother on whom, in case of a restoration to their native land, his future +must depend. Henrietta herself was not blind to this aspect of the case, +and she tried to propitiate her eldest son, to whom she had given a promise +that she would not tamper with his brother's religion. "Henry has too many +acquaintances among the idle little boys of Paris," she wrote to Charles, +who was away from the city, "so I am sending him to Pontoise with the Abbe +Montagu, where he will have more quiet to mind his book." + +To Pontoise accordingly Henry went, where Montagu attempted in vain to win +his confidence. After a while the boy was allowed to return to Paris, but +he showed himself so obstinately indocile that at night-time he and his +page (a lad who had been in the service of the Earl of Manchester, and who +doubtless enjoyed thwarting the renegade Abbe), "like Penelope's web ... +unspun" (as well as they two little young things, some few years above +thirty between them) whatever had passed in public.[396] The poor little +Prince owned, indeed, that he was called upon to deal with matters above +his years. His relatives at the French Court assured him that his first +duty was to his mother now that his father was dead. His Anglican friends +told him that a sovereign came before a mother, and that his obedience was +due to his eldest brother. That brother, moreover, took this view strongly +and wrote to him, saying in brief and pithy terms that, should he become a +Catholic, he would never see him again. It is not surprising that between +all these conflicting opinions Henry's young head was a little confused. He +was further perplexed when to other arguments in his mother's favour was +added the curious one that his conversion would make amends to her for the +breach of her marriage contract, by which she should have had control of +her children up to the age of twelve. + +Henrietta was, indeed, steeling her heart to greater sternness than she had +ever used to any of her children, to whom she had always shown herself an +indulgent mother. It may be that, as men said, she was under the influence +of Montagu, who, however, was not wont to be very severe, and who did his +best to win over his pupil by kindness and by pointing out to him the +worldly advantages which a change of faith would bring--a lesson which the +luxuries of Pontoise, contrasting as they did with the poverty in which +many of Henry's Anglican friends were obliged to live, illustrated in a +practical manner. It may be that the Queen thought that a boy of her son's +age could not resist severity, and that she was determined to hold out +until she conquered the child for what she believed to be his good in this +world and the next; but she was to be defeated. While reports were being +industriously circulated through the city that Henry was on the point of +coming to a better mind, while in some churches thanksgivings were even +being offered for his conversion, his continued obstinacy was in reality +wearing out his mother's patience. She sent for her son, and after +receiving him with her usual affection she said that she required him to +hear the Abbe Montagu once again, and that then he must give her his final +answer. Montagu pleaded for an hour, expending upon this lad of fourteen +all those powers of persuasion and eloquence which enabled him to excel as +a popular preacher. But Henry's mind was made up, he was determined to cast +in his lot with his brother and England rather than with his mother and +France. He communicated his decision to the Queen, and at the fatal words +she turned away, saying that she wished to see his face no more. She left +the room without any sign of relenting, and her son discovered a little +later that her anger even cast his horses out of her stable. He was sobered +by the depth of her displeasure, but he reserved his chief wrath for +Montagu, to whom he attributed a harshness very far indeed from his +mother's natural character. Turning on his late tutor, he upbraided him +angrily: "Such as it is I may thank you for it, sir; and 'tis but reason +what my mother sayes to me I say to you: I pray be sure I see you no +more."[397] Then, turning on his heel, he showed his independence by +marching on to the English chapel at Sir Richard Browne's house (for it was +a Sunday morning), where he was received with such rejoicings as befitted +so signal a triumph over the rival religion. He could not, of course, +return to the Palais Royal, and he asked the hospitality of Lord Hatton, +who, both as Royalist and Anglican, was delighted to welcome his "little +great guest." His satisfaction was the greater because of the piquant +circumstance that he was himself a relative by marriage of the discomfited +Abbe. Henry, who was considered to have "most heroically runne through this +great worke beyond his yeres,"[398] made further proof of his unflinching +Protestantism by receiving a distinguished minister of Charenton, to whom +he gravely discoursed of his father's religious views. But he did not +remain long in Paris. Lord Ormonde arrived with letters and messages from +the King of England and bore the lad off to Cologne, where his eldest +brother was at that time keeping his Court. + + * * * * * + +The years of the exile wore on not too cheerfully. Little by little +Henrietta lost the influence she had had over her eldest son, who came to +distrust Jermyn, perhaps because he saw the favourite rich and prosperous, +while others of his faithful servants were almost in need. Probably the +Queen was annoyed at the ill success of Charles in her own country, for it +is remarkable that the young man who possessed the French temperament, and +who was, in many respects, like his grandfather Henry IV, was never popular +in Paris, while James was greatly liked and admired. It is true that the +latter was a singularly gallant youth, and that he spoke the French +language much better than his brother, which accomplishment was in itself +enough to win Parisian hearts. "There is nothing, in my opinion, that +disfigures a person so much as not being able to speak," said that true +Frenchwoman Mademoiselle de Montpensier. As for Princess Henrietta, she was +looked upon quite as a French girl, and she was admired, not only for her +beauty, but for her exquisite dancing, a talent which she inherited from +her mother. It was on account of this beloved child that the widowed Queen +of England, in the last years of the exile, came out again a little into +the world and held receptions at the Palais Royal, which proved so +fascinating as to be serious rivals to those of the grave Spanish Queen of +France. At them she was always pleased to welcome Englishmen, for she loved +the land of her happy married life in spite of the treatment she had +received there. "The English were led away by fanatics," she was wont to +say; "the real genius of the nation is very different." So jealous was she +of the good name of her son's subjects in critical Paris that once when an +English gentleman came to her Court in a smart dress, tied up with red and +yellow ribbons, she begged the friend who had introduced him to advise him +"to mend his fancy," lest he should be ridiculed by the French. + +But ere this another blow had fallen upon Henrietta, and this time she was +wounded, indeed, in the house of her friends. As early as 1652 France +recognized the Government of the Commonwealth, but in 1657 the Queen +learned that her nephew, acting under the advice of Cardinal Mazarin, who +was impelled by his usual dread of Spain, had even made a treaty with +Cromwell, "_ce scelerat_," as she was accustomed to call him. By the terms +of this treaty her three sons were banished from France, and she herself +was only permitted to remain with her young daughter because public opinion +would not have tolerated the expulsion of a daughter of Henry IV. The +Princes went off to Bruges, where Charles fixed his Court, and to mark +their displeasure they took service under the Spaniard. Henrietta had to +bear the insults as best she could. She had nowhere to go; for when a year +earlier she had thought of a journey to Spain, it had been intimated to her +that his Catholic Majesty would prefer her to remain on the French side of +the Pyrenees. + +The only satisfactory aspect of the matter was that now the Queen felt it +possible to press for the payment of her dowry. Her relatives of France, +particularly Queen Anne, were liberal, but Henrietta was made to feel now +and then + + "how salt his food who fares + Upon another's bread--how steep his path + Who treadeth up and down another's stairs,"[399] + +and, besides, hers was too proud a nature to relish dependence. She knew +that any scheme likely to spare the coffers of France would be grateful to +Mazarin, whose immense riches, splendid palace, and magnificent collection +of pictures and curios, the fruit of an unbounded avarice, were the talk of +Paris. The request was proffered. The reply came, and Mazarin carried it +himself to the Queen. Speaking with the Italian accent, which his long +years of residence in France had not been able to eradicate, he explained +to her that the Protector refused to give her that for which she asked, +because, as he alleged, she had never been recognized as Queen of England. +The refusal was bad enough, but the gross insult with which it was +accompanied could not fail to cut Henrietta to the heart, but she did not +love Mazarin and she had too much spirit to betray her chagrin. "This +outrage does not reflect on me," she said proudly, "but on the King, my +nephew, who ought not to permit a daughter of France to be treated _de +concubine_. I was abundantly satisfied with the late King, my lord, and +with all England; these affronts are more shameful to France than to me." + +This episode did not decrease Henrietta's hatred for Cromwell. It was even +said by one of her women, who played the part of spy, that she was +overheard plotting his murder with Lord Jermyn. But she had not long to +endure his usurpation of the seat of her husband, whose regal title she +believed him to have refused solely from fear of the army. On September +3rd, 1658, the anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester, Oliver Cromwell died +amid a tumult of storm, sympathetic with the passing of that mighty spirit. +"It is the Devil come to carry old Noll off to Hell" was the comment of the +Royalists, who kept high revel in Paris and elsewhere at the news of his +death, though the Queen, whom long sorrow was at last making slow to hope, +did not join in the jubilation. "Whether it be because my heart is so +wrapped up in melancholy as to be incapable of receiving any [joy]," she +wrote to Madame de Motteville, "or that I do not as yet perceive any good +advantages likely to accrue to us from it, I will confess to you that I +have not felt myself any very great rejoicing, my greatest being to witness +that of my friends."[400] + +It was not, indeed, until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 that there +seemed to be solid hope for the King of England. Then Charles left his +Court at Bruges, and traversing all France, had an interview with Don Louis +de Haro, the powerful minister of Spain, who received him with all ceremony +as a sovereign prince. Mazarin still obstinately refused to receive him, +but he had an interview with his uncle, the Duke of Orleans, at Blois, and +afterwards passed a few days with his mother at Colombes, on the outskirts +of Paris, where she had a small country house. Both mother and son may have +been to some extent hopeful, but neither knew how near the day was when the +prophecy of a French rhymester after Worcester would be fulfilled, and + + "la fortune + N'ayant plus pour luy de rancune + Le mettra plus haut qu'il n'est bas."[401] + +[Footnote 367: "Amyd the Arrests lately made one is for the seazure of the +King's revenue to the use of the Parliament and in other things they doe +soe imitate the late proceedings of England that it plainly appears in what +schoole some of their members have been bred who make them believe they are +able to instruct them how to make a rebellion w^{th} out breaking their +allegiance."--Dispatch of Sir R. Browne, January 22nd, 1649. Add. MS., +12,186, f. 9.] + +[Footnote 368: "Letters from Paris received January 15th, 1648," p. 6.] + +[Footnote 369: "Une sainte et la mere des pauvres."--Mme de Motteville.] + +[Footnote 370: Quoted by Mme. de Motteville with reference to this +occasion.] + +[Footnote 371: The Chaillot tradition, which is found in the MS. _Histoire +chronologique de tout l'ordre de la Visitation_, 1693 (Bib. Mazarine, MS. +2436), and in _La Vie de la tres haute et tres puissante Princesse +Henrietta Marie de France, reine de la Grande Bretagne_, of Cotolendi, who +derived much of his information from the Chaillot nuns, places the scene of +Henrietta's reception of the news of her husband's death in the Carmelite +convent, and Cotolendi represents the King's letter as delivered on that +occasion; but, Father Cyprien, in his account, says that the Queen was at +the Louvre when she heard of her husband's fate, and though he is not +always accurate, it seems probable that the scene of such an event would +remain in his mind. Moreover, Madame de Motteville says no word of the +Carmelite convent in this connection. It seems likely that the nuns of +Chaillot confused the Queen's account of the reception of the news of her +husband's death with that of his last letter. The above account has been +written on this hypothesis; the letter which Cotolendi quotes was no doubt +preserved with other memorials of the Queen among the Chaillot archives.] + +[Footnote 372: John Ward: _Diary_, 1648-79 (1839), p. 161.] + +[Footnote 373: "Exhortation de la Pucelle d'Orleans a tous les princes de +la terre de faire une Paix generale tous ensemble pour venger la mort du +roy d'Angleterre par une guerre toute particuliere. A Paris. MDCXLIX."] + +[Footnote 374: Fonds Francais MS., 12,159. _Remonstrances aux +Parlementaires de la mort ignominieuse de leur roy dediees a la Reyne +d'Angleterre._] + +[Footnote 375: The same argument is developed in a curious tract, which +shows the rather cool attitude of some of the English Catholics to Charles, +entitled, _Nuntius a Mortuis, hoc est, stupendum ... ac tremendum +colloquium inter Manes Henrici VIII et Caroli I Angliae Regum_ (1649).] + +[Footnote 376: MS. Francais, 12,159.] + +[Footnote 377: Henrietta, even before the lesson of her husband's death, +urged the Queen-Regent to show moderation. She prevailed upon her to +receive the members of the rebellious Parliament on the day of Barricades.] + +[Footnote 378: "Vous diries que Dieu veut humilier les Roys et les princes. +Il a commence par nous en Engleterre; je le prie que la France ne nous +suive pas, les affairs ysy alant tout le mesme chemin que les +nostres."--_Lettres de Henriette Marie a sa soeur Christine_, p. 100.] + +[Footnote 379: "Le veritable entretien de la Reyne d'Angleterre avec le roy +et la Reyne a S. Germain-en-Laye en presence de plusieurs Seigneurs de la +Cour et autres personnes de consideration (1652)."] + +[Footnote 380: It was this nobleman of whom Charles I said that he had no +religion at all.] + +[Footnote 381: _Nicholas Papers_, I, 293.] + +[Footnote 382: To which the following extract from a Roundhead newspaper +bears witness: "Onely one thing we have notice of that she [the Queen] hath +begged of his Holiness a Cardinalls Hat for Wat Montaue. Then (boyes) for +sixpence a peece you may see a fine sight in the Tower if the Axe prevent +not and send him after the Cardinall (would have been) of Canterbury, who +went before to take up lodging for the rest of the Queen's favourites in +Purgatory."--_Mercurius Britannicus_, February, 1645.] + +[Footnote 383: In March, 1649, he was given permission to go abroad. The +sentence of banishment is dated August 31st, 1649; he was on the Continent +considerably before the latter date.] + +[Footnote 384: _Nicholas Papers_, I, 220.] + +[Footnote 385: He was appointed Abbot Commendatory in 1654, succeeding +Gondi, the first Archbishop of Paris, but "sur certaines difficultes +survenues sur ses Bulles en leur fulmination," he did not take possession +of the Abbey until 1657. See _Histoire de l'Abbaye de S. Martin de Pontoise +Bibliotheque Mazarine_. MS. 3368. Pontoise ... Auttore, D. Roberto Racine +(1769).] + +[Footnote 386: "I do not at all marvel that any man who can side with the +Presbyterians, or that is Presbyterian cloth, turn Papist, I would as soon +be the one as the other."--Sir E. Nicholas to Lord Hatton, _Nicholas +Papers_, I, 297.] + +[Footnote 387: _Mercurius Pragmaticus_, October 12-20, 1647. This newspaper +(a feature of which was four topical verses prefixed to each number) was +written by Nedham, a journalist who had formerly written the parliamentary +newspaper _Mercurius Britannicus_, and who afterwards returned to the +Roundheads. He was pardoned after the Restoration. In 1661 he collected and +published the verses of _Mercurius Pragmaticus_ under the title of _A Short +History of the English Rebellion_.] + +[Footnote 388: "If the King ... take the covenant, God will never prosper +him nor the world value him."--_Nicholas Papers_, I, 165.] + +[Footnote 389: _Nicholas Papers_, I, p. 298.] + +[Footnote 390: In 1651 she dismissed her servants "that will not turn +papists, or cannot live of themselves without wages."--_Nicholas Papers_, +I, p. 237.] + +[Footnote 391: Henrietta was so much attached to him that she went to see +him in his sickness at the Oratorians' House in the Rue S. Honore. See +_Histoire des troubles de la Grande Bretagne_, by Robert Monteith +(Salmonet), 1659.] + +[Footnote 392: Walter Montagu became Henrietta's Grand Almoner about this +time; probably he succeeded Du Perron.] + +[Footnote 393: The Church of England party was extremely annoyed at the +publication of a book entitled _La Chaine du Hercule Gaulois_, in which it +was asserted that Charles I died a Catholic. Add. MS., 12,186.] + +[Footnote 394: _Lettres de Henriette Marie a sa soeur Christine_, p. 104.] + +[Footnote 395: The letter of the Duchess is among the Roman Transcripts +P.R.O.] + +[Footnote 396: _An exact narrative of the attempts made upon the Duke of +Gloucester_ (1654), p. 15.] + +[Footnote 397: _An exact narrative of the attempts made upon the Duke of +Gloucester_ (1654), p. 13.] + +[Footnote 398: Lord Hatton. _Nicholas Papers_, II, p. 143.] + +[Footnote 399: Dante: _Paradiso_, XVII.] + +[Footnote 400: Green: _Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria_, p. 388. Madame de +Motteville: _Memoires_ (1783), V, p. 276.] + +[Footnote 401: Lovel: _La Muse Historique_ (1857), t. I, p. 174.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE FOUNDRESS OF CHAILLOT + + No cruell guard of diligent cares, that keep + Crown'd woes awake; as things too wise for sleep. + But reverent discipline, and religious fear, + And soft obedience, find sweet biding here; + Silence, and sacred rest; peace and pure joyes; + Kind loves keep house, ly close, make no noise, + And room enough for Monarchs, where none swells + Beyond the kingdomes of contentfull Cells. + + R. CRASHAW (out of Barclay) + + +There is a portion of Henrietta's life which stands apart from its general +current, which seems, indeed, rather an acted commentary on her career than +an integral portion of it: when she retires from the schemes, the passions, +the loves, and the hates of the world, and, laying aside the trappings of +her rank, appears as a humble and sorrowful woman, striving to read, by the +light of prayer and meditation, the lesson of her stormy days. The Queen of +England is gone, and in her stead is seen the foundress of Chaillot. + +The temper which produced this fruit must long have been growing up, but it +became active and apparent when the great blow of her life came upon her. +While she was a wife, even a wife separated by evil fortune from her +husband, she continued to live, as far as her straitened means permitted, +in a manner suitable to her rank, and she did not refuse to take part in +the splendid amusements of Paris, which were congenial to her gay +disposition. She was seen at lotteries and dances; she accepted the feasts +and dinners which the French royal family offered in her honour. Her +attendance was as brilliant as her fallen fortunes would allow of, and her +faded beauty was set off to the best advantage by the beautiful dress which +was then worn by ladies of rank. + +But with the death of Charles all this was changed. She ceased to accept +invitations, and she rarely went abroad into the streets of Paris, except +to visit some religious house. In her own house the strictest simplicity +was used. Most of the maids of honour were dismissed, and the Queen +exchanged her silks and jewels for a mourning robe, which she wore to the +end of her life. + +Her love of dress had been as great as might have been expected of a woman +of her beauty, her rank, and, above all, her nationality. Once in her early +married life she expressed great pleasure in a magnificent gown studded +with jewels which she was wearing. Her confessor, the stern Berulle, who +was present, reproved her somewhat sharply for her vanity and frivolity. +"Ah, mon pere, do not be angry with me," pleaded the young Queen, half +laughing and half penitent. "I am young now, but when I am forty I will +change all this, and become quite good and serious." Her light words were +prophetic, for she was in her fortieth year when she became a widow. + +Contemporary prints show of what fashion was her widow's dress. It was of +some black stuff made quite plainly, except that the bodice was shaped to a +point in front, and it was almost high at the neck; the only relief was a +white linen collar, falling down over the shoulders, and matching the +cuffs, which turned back over the wide sleeves. From the head fell a long, +heavy black veil. + +This sorrowful garb was the outward expression of a grief which, like most +deep grief, craved the consolation of quiet and retirement. And where, in +the Paris of that day, could quiet be found, except within the protecting +walls of a religious house? + +Henrietta, since her return to Paris in 1644, had frequented the Carmelite +convent which her childhood loved, and in her first sorrow she would gladly +have forsaken the world altogether, and remained there among the nuns;[402] +but her duties were incompatible with this step. Her young sons required +her help to restore their shattered fortunes, and, above all, her youngest +daughter needed a mother's care; after her husband's death her worldly +occupations increased rather than diminished, and it was these occupations +which cost her the loss of her calm retreat among the Carmelite nuns. + +The daughters of S. Teresa are vowed to an austere separation from all +things worldly, and their rule could not brook the constant coming and +going, the noise and the disturbance which waited upon a Queen who was also +a politician. They were obliged to request the Queen of England to forgo +her visits, and she, however sorrowfully, recognized the justice of their +desire and withdrew, to seek another retirement more suited to the +conditions of her case. + +A hasty glance at a map of seventeenth-century Paris will show the great +number of religious houses which then existed, and it might be surmised +that to make a choice among them would be no easy matter; but Henrietta's +circumstances were peculiar, and she had little difficulty in selecting the +one most fitted to them. + +[Illustration: HENRIETTA MARIA + +FROM AN ENGRAVING] + +Some forty years earlier the wise and gentle spirit of S. Francis de Sales +had conceived the idea of a religious foundation in which women, delicately +nurtured and well educated, might live in greater freedom of spirit and +less austerity of body than in the older Orders. He was fortunate enough to +find a woman[403] capable of translating his ideas into fact, and the Order +of the Visitation flourished exceedingly, and by the middle of the +seventeenth century had spread all over France. + +Paris was naturally one of the first places to which the new Order came. +The community, which boasted that it had once been ruled over by Mother +Chantal herself, after some wanderings finally settled down in the Rue S. +Antoine, within a stone's-throw of the grim fortress of the Bastille. +Though the tide of fashion had set definitely westward since the final +abandonment of the Place Royal by Louis XIII, the position was still a good +one. Next door was the fine Hotel de Mayence, which still stands as a +witness of departed glories, but of the convent nothing remains except the +church, which, though but small, was considered in the seventeenth century +"one of the neatest in all Paris."[404] Madame de Motteville was the means +of introducing this convent to Henrietta's notice. Her own young sister, to +whom she was tenderly attached, had lately entered the house as a novice, +greatly against her wishes; but in her visits to the girl she had been so +won by the piety and kindness of the nuns that she begged the Queen of +England to make their acquaintance. + +Henrietta was not without solicitation to go elsewhere. "Messieurs de Port +Royal," those remarkable men whose doings were causing such a stir in the +religious world of France, were anxious that she should come to Port Royal, +thinking perhaps to strengthen their position by so direct a connection +with royalty. They offered her apartments, and, what must have been more +tempting, some much-needed money. But the invitation was not accepted, +though the reasons for its refusal are unknown. They may, however, be +conjectured, for it is difficult to imagine Henrietta, the true daughter of +Henry IV, in the repressive atmosphere of Jansenism, and it may be surmised +that had she entered Port Royal she would not have remained there long. + +The Rue S. Antoine was more attractive.[405] Henrietta retained a childish +and pleasing memory of S. Francis himself, who, at the marriage of +Christine of France, had come up to the little Princess, then aged about +ten, and, according to his wont, "blending piety and politeness," had +assured her that one day she should receive even greater honours than those +now offered to her sister, honours which perhaps his experienced eye could +see from her expression she was envying with all her childish heart. She +recalled his words when she became Queen of England, and later still she +read into them a deeper meaning when she felt herself to be the recipient +of the honours of unusual suffering. But this link with the remote past was +probably of less interest to her than the presence in the convent of a +lady, destined to become her dearest personal friend, whose romantic story +must be told if one of the strongest influences on Henrietta's later years +is to be appreciated. + +Louise de la Fayette was the daughter of one of the noblest houses of +Auvergne, and she bore a name which was to be renowned in the history of +France. She had a childish taste for the cloister, but when she was about +fourteen years of age, her uncle, who was then Bishop of Limoges, presented +her to Queen Anne, who received her as one of her maids of honour. + +Louise was a beautiful girl, and she possessed besides many charms and +accomplishments, of which a sweet singing voice was not the least. She +quickly made her mark at Court; but, if her biographers are to be believed, +she retained her simple, pious spirit, and preferred remaining quietly in +her room to direct attendance upon her royal mistress, whose jealousy, +indeed, was soon aroused by the unusual interest shown in the girl by her +husband. + +The relations between Louis XIII and his wife were, as is well known, most +unsatisfactory; but at the same time the King was a man of slow passions +and of a certain dull virtue. He liked the society of pretty women, but +while he loaded his favourites with honours and confidences, which must +have cut Anne's proud spirit to the quick, he was usually strictly Platonic +in his intercourse with them. To this position he elected Louise de la +Fayette. She danced for him, sang for him, talked to him, and every day +seemed to increase the spell which her vivacity cast over his slow spirit. +But other eyes were watching her. In the French Court of that time all +depended upon the frown or smile of Richelieu, who himself was ever on the +watch to gain valuable allies. He marked Louise de la Fayette, and +determined to enlist her in his army of spies. + +But in this case the Cardinal had reckoned without his host. Louise was +only a young girl, but she had a spirit capable even of resisting +Richelieu. "She had more courage than all the men of the Court,"[406] wrote +Madame de Motteville. She refused to pass on the secrets of the King, or to +play in any way into the hands of his minister, whose jealous anger was +aroused and who determined to part her from her royal friend. + +It is not surprising that in these circumstances the girl's mind should +have reverted to her old wishes for a conventual life, but there was +another reason, which, long after, in the safe retreat of Chaillot, she +confessed to her friend Madame de Motteville. Louis was a virtuous man, but +he was an unloved and unloving husband, and she was young and beautiful. +There were signs that the Platonic friendship was ripening into something +stronger and warmer. Louise became alarmed. That which to many women was an +honour, to her pure and upright soul was disgrace unspeakable, and she +determined to fly to the only refuge which the times and the circumstances +permitted her, and to bury her sorrows and her temptations within the walls +of the cloister. + +It was hard to persuade the King to part with her, but she had a powerful +ally. Richelieu sent for the royal confessor, Father Caussin, the Jesuit, +and in the bland tones which he knew so well how to use, he gravely +discussed with him the moral dangers of such a friendship as that which +existed between Louis and his wife's maid of honour. Not, he hastened to +add, that he believed that any harm was done, but such things were always +dangerous. The Cardinal thought that he was exactly adapting his remarks to +his audience; but Caussin, who hated and distrusted him, was too acute to +be taken in, and had events gone no farther Louise de la Fayette might have +remained in the world for Father Caussin. But the girl herself, who had +better reason than any one to know the truth of Richelieu's words, and +whose own heart was beginning to betray her, sought the Jesuit's advice. At +first he was a little rough with her. He did not believe that a girl of +seventeen, luxuriously brought up and petted like "a bird of the Indies," +could really desire to embrace the austerities and abnegations of a +conventual life. He hinted that she was piqued by the refusal of the King +to grant her some request, or that her self-love had been wounded in one of +the little contretemps of Court life. Louise answered gently and quietly. +Nothing had occurred to distress or alarm her in any way. The King's +kindness was unchanged, and so great that at any time he would enable her +to make a splendid marriage; but she had only one desire, and that was to +leave the world. Caussin then pointed out to her the hardness of the +cloister for a girl brought up as she had been, but her answer again was +ready. She was not thinking of a stern Order, for which she knew her health +to be unequal; she wished to enter among the Visitandines, or Filles de +Sainte Marie, as they were more commonly called, whose rule was expressly +framed for gently nurtured and delicate women. The only regret she would +carry away with her, she added, with an irresistible touch of human nature, +was the knowledge that her retirement from the Court would give pleasure to +Cardinal Richelieu. + +By these arguments Caussin was won over, but the King still had to be +reckoned with. Louis, however, was superstitiously religious, and pressed +at the same time by his confessor, by the Cardinal, and by Louise, he was +unable to resist. The day of departure arrived; the girl went off gay and +smiling, though her heart was sinking, so that when she thought no one was +looking she crept aside to catch a last glimpse of the man she loved; but +many of the bystanders were in tears, and even Queen Anne was grave and +sympathetic. As for the King, his voice was so broken by grief that he +could scarcely whisper the words of farewell, and afterwards his misery was +so excessive and so prolonged as to give colour to the suspicions that had +been abroad. He could not bear to remain in the place which had witnessed +his idol's departure, and he fled to Versailles, at that time a small +hunting-box, where he remained for some time plunged in the deepest +melancholy.[407] + +Louise de la Fayette's retirement from the world caused a great sensation +in Paris, and the convent in the Rue S. Antoine became a place of +fashionable resort, so that Richelieu began to fear that the nun's +influence might be as dangerous as that of the maid of honour. He remarked +with great unction that he thought it a pity that the religious life should +be thus broken in upon; and as the nuns and the young novice were of the +same opinion, the number of visitors decreased. But the King could not be +refused. He was anxious to see Louise once more before her bright beauty +was shrouded by the religious habit; and in this wish he was supported by +Caussin, who still hoped to use her as a political ally. One day Louis +arrived quite unexpectedly in the Rue S. Antoine and knocked at the door of +the convent. He refused to avail himself of an invitation to enter the +enclosure, but across the dividing grill he held a long and eager +conversation with the young girl, feasting his eyes the while upon the face +which there is reason to think he never saw again. Meanwhile, the Mother +Superior, with commendable discretion, retired to as great a distance as +conventual propriety would permit, and the King's attendants on the other +side did the like. Shortly after this visit Louise put on the religious +habit, and when the necessary interval had elapsed the irrevocable vows +were taken. The King refused to be present at the profession, but a large +company of the Court attended the ceremony, including Queen Anne, who +witnessed, doubtless with triumph in her heart, the self-immolation of her +innocent rival. + +Louise de la Fayette had spent many quiet years in her convent when +Henrietta first visited it in 1651.[408] She had won the respect of all the +community, and she had been honoured by the special notice of Mother +Chantal. "This girl will be one of the great superiors of our Order," said +the aged saint. It is not probable that she and the Queen of England had +met in the past, but her story cannot have been unknown to the sister of +Louis XIII, and when the introduction was made by Madame de Motteville, +acquaintance ripened at once into friendship. There was much in the nun's +story to arouse the Queen's sympathy, for was not Louise de la Fayette one +more of the victims of Richelieu? + +Henrietta was received in the Rue S. Antoine with the respect due to the +blood of Henry IV, and with the affectionate sympathy which her sorrows +called forth, particularly from the superior,[409] a wide-minded woman who +had been educated as a Protestant, and who perhaps in consequence had +followed with special interest the course of events in England. But though +such difficulties as had arisen among the Carmelites were not likely to +occur in a convent of the Visitation, yet, from the scantiness of the +accommodation, it was difficult to receive a royal lady for more than very +short visits, and the position of the house in the centre of Paris rendered +it rather unsuitable for such retirement as the Queen sought. Besides, her +heart yearned for something that would be more truly her own. Other royal +ladies had made religious foundations. Her mother had had her Carmelites, +her sister-in-law had her beautiful Val de Grace. Might not she also become +the foundress of a house which should shelter her while living, and cherish +her memory and pray for her soul after her death? It happened that just at +this time one of the principal nuns had the similar desire to extend the +Order by the foundation of a daughter house. Helene Angelique Lhulier was +no ordinary woman. In the heyday of her youth and beauty, "when she was the +most attached to the world, and the most sought by several persons of the +first quality," she left all at the bidding of S. Francis de Sales, who +wrote her the following short and pithy note: "My daughter, enter religion +immediately, notwithstanding all the oppositions of nature." Her force of +character was remarkable, and particularly her strength of will, which, it +was said, enabled her to do things which appeared impossible. All her +courage and tenacity were called forth by this new enterprise, to which, +learning of Henrietta's desire, she determined to devote herself. Indeed, +the obstacles in the way seemed insurmountable. The house in the Rue S. +Antoine was far from rich, and it had recently made a settlement in the +Faubourg S. Jacques, which had exhausted its resources. The Queen of +England was known to be in no position to give monetary help, and to +complete the difficulties the Archbishop of Paris looked very coldly upon +the scheme. + +But Henrietta's friends were determined that she should have the interest +and consolation on which she had set her heart. Mother Lhulier and Mother +de la Fayette, whom the Queen hoped to see the true foundation-stones of +the new edifice, were untiring in their efforts, and Queen Anne showed +herself on this, as on many other occasions, a real friend to her widowed +sister-in-law. The decision was so far made that Henrietta, though she had +no money, and no prospect of money, set about the agreeable task of finding +a home for the new community. + +The Queen went hither and thither looking at properties which were in the +market, but none pleased her so much as that which had belonged to her old +friend the Marshal de Bassompierre, who was recently dead. This beautiful +mansion, which had been built by Catherine de' Medici and honoured more +than once by the presence of Richelieu, stood in one of the best positions +in the immediate environs of the city, on rising ground overlooking the +Seine, and commanding magnificent views of the surrounding country. It was +approached by the leafy Cours la Reine, the most fashionable promenade in +Paris, where on summer evenings as many as eight hundred coaches might be +counted, and though the house and grounds were in the village of Chaillot, +the Faubourg de la Conference had crept up so that the two almost joined. +To the charms of nature were added those of art. Bassompierre was one of +the most accomplished men of his time, and he so lavished the resources of +his ample means and of his refined taste upon his favourite residence, that +it became one of the sights of Paris, and as such was visited by John +Evelyn, who came away delighted with the "gardens, terraces, and rare +prospects,"[410] which he beheld there. Since the death of the owner the +house had fallen on evil days. Bassompierre's heir, the Count de Tillieres, +was unable to take possession of the property, and it became a place of +very evil fame, the resort of lewd persons, who defiled its stately halls +and fair walks with scenes of shameless revelry. + +Henrietta was always rapid in her decisions, and she speedily made up her +mind that here and nowhere else was the dwelling-place which would at once +furnish an ideal convent for the religious and a pleasant retirement for +herself. She hurried back to the Rue S. Antoine and carried off two of the +nuns to inspect the house. They found it indeed most beautiful, and their +only scruple was that it was too fine and inconsistent with their vow of +poverty; but they waived this objection, not quite unwillingly perhaps, +when they saw how the Queen's heart was set upon Chaillot, and how she was +diverted from her sorrows by the pleasure which she took in her plans for +installing her friends and herself in this charming retreat. + +Mother Lhulier took legal steps to gain possession of the property, but +grave difficulties, which perhaps had not been foreseen, arose. Tillieres +and the other heirs of Bassompierre claimed the property, but they had +never been in possession of it, and their rights seem to have been ignored +in the transaction with the nuns, whose purchase-money was to be applied to +the liquidation of the late owner's debts. The Count, though he saved his +reputation as a courtier by behaving with great civility to Henrietta, and +assuring her that she was welcome to live in the house as long as she +pleased, provided she did not turn it into a convent, determined to fight +the matter in the law courts. He was supported by the magistrates of +Chaillot, who probably did not wish to see a profitable place of pleasure +closed, and by a large number of persons, some of high quality, who were in +the habit of frequenting it. The pious chronicler of the Order of the +Visitation[411] sees behind these human figures that of the arch-fiend +himself, who was interested in preventing a piece of territory which was +specially his from lapsing to the service of God. But good, as we know, is +stronger than evil. The judges of the case, almost against their will, and +certainly under the direct inspiration of Providence, gave the decision in +favour of the nuns, whose joy was only dashed by the hard condition that a +large sum of money must be forthcoming in twenty-four hours. + +The case appeared hopeless. Neither Henrietta nor the nuns had a tenth of +the sum required, and money was just then very scarce; but Mother Lhulier +was a woman to whom seeming impossibilities were only opportunities. She +made the need known to all whom she knew, and then waited in quiet +assurance for the result of her appeal. Her faith was rewarded. Just before +the close of the specified time of grace, a rich gentleman, who was a great +friend of hers, came to say that he was willing to guarantee the whole +amount. + +But even now the troubles were not at an end. Tillieres was determined to +fight to the last, and he enlisted on his side the ecclesiastical +authorities, who from the first had not looked very kindly upon the project +of the new foundation. The Archbishop of Paris was still that same Jean +Francois de Gondi who had been so deeply affronted by the refusal to allow +him to officiate at Henrietta's wedding. He was now a very old man, but he +was none the less willing to avenge an ancient slight. He pointed out +petulantly that there were already two houses of the Visitation in Paris +and another in the neighbourhood of S. Denys. That the charge of the new +convent would certainly come upon the public, and that a household of +fifteen persons, however pious, could not be supported for nothing. He +ended up by remarking with great acerbity that exiled queens with political +business in their hands should not choose religious houses as their place +of retirement. + +"However," we are told, "God who holds the hearts of the great in His hand, +soon changed that of the Prelate," and the instrument of this happy +conversion was Queen Anne. Attempts were made to play on her cupidity and +that of her young son by pointing out that Chaillot had originally been a +royal residence, and would make again another nice country house for the +King; but she refused to listen, and devoted herself to winning over the +Archbishop, who was far too good a courtier not to yield quickly to such +persuasion. His views changed with a wonderful rapidity, and very soon +Henrietta had the happiness of knowing that the last obstacle was removed, +and that nothing stood in the way of the realization of her wish. + +She herself undertook the work of preparing the house for the reception of +the nuns. Hers was a busy, active nature, and she was never happier than +when spending herself for those she loved. Some of the furniture she +supplied herself and some was sent from the Rue S. Antoine, where the +little band of women under the guidance of Mother Lhulier and Mother de la +Fayette was ready to set out. The removal took place upon the 21st of June, +1651. The nuns were seen off from their old home by Vincent de Paul,[412] +that strange figure of seventeenth-century Paris, whose shabby _soutane_ +was found in the _salon_ of the noble as in the hovel of the poor, and +whose advice was sought at the council table of the King as in the home of +the meanest of his subjects. He was at this time director of the mother +house, and though he is not known ever to have set foot within the convent +of Chaillot, his memory is linked with it by the blessing which he bestowed +upon its beginning. + +At Chaillot Henrietta was waiting, radiant and expectant. She greeted her +guests with delight, giving perhaps a specially warm welcome to two of the +younger members of the little band of nine or ten--one, the only novice of +the house, Eugenie Madeline Berthaud, the sister of her dear friend Madame +de Motteville; the other a Scotch girl, Mary Hamilton[413] by name, whom in +earlier days she had welcomed at her Court in London, but whose desire for +a conventual life was such that leaving home and country she had set out +for Paris, where she entered the convent in the Rue S. Antoine, without +knowing a single word of the French tongue. + +Henrietta led the nuns all over the house, discoursing upon its charms and +conveniences, and dwelling specially upon the beauties of the situation. +She had arranged that her own rooms should be in the front, overlooking the +public road, while the nuns were to take the quieter apartments which faced +the garden. She was surprised and disconcerted when these ladies, who were +less used to palaces than she was, objected to the splendour of the lodging +provided for them, and insisted upon retiring to the garrets, which they +said were more suitable to their vow of poverty, and whence they were only +induced to descend some days later, at the Queen's special request, and +when she had carefully removed from the downstairs rooms all that +savoured of worldly vanity; but neither this little difficulty nor the more +serious trouble that, owing to the continued opposition of Tillieres, it +was necessary to defend the house with a guard of archers, could damp +Henrietta's joy on such a day. She spent several hours with the nuns in +happy talk and plans, and then drove back to the Palais Royal, where she +was living at this time, happier perhaps than she had ever been since her +husband's death. + +Chaillot was honoured by letters patent from the Crown of France, which +gave it the status of a royal foundation and Henrietta the title of +foundress. When the enclosure was set up about a week after the arrival of +the nuns, a number of distinguished persons assisted at the ceremony, +though it had to be done quickly for fear of disturbance from those who had +struggled so hard to keep this fair property out of the hands of the +Church. Henrietta heard the first Mass which was sung in the chapel with a +triumph which was all the sweeter to her bold and enterprising nature from +the many difficulties which had beset the undertaking. + +Congratulations were not lacking. Among the most graceful were those which +Walter Montagu made public two years later in a dedication to the Queen of +a volume of religious essays. "Under that notion, Madam," he wrote, "of an +aspirer to a more transcendent Majestie I present your Religious Mind these +entertainments: which will be the less unmannerly the greater privacie and +retreat they intrude themselves upon; and truly, as your life stands now +dispos'd the greater part of your time is favourable for such admissions. +Since you pass the most of it in that holy retirement, whither you have +carry'd up the Cross in triumph; having set That over your Head and the +most tempting part (perhaps) of the whole world, as it were, under your +feet. + +"And, methinks, Madam, this remark may not a little indear to you the seat +of your pious retirement; viz. That you, who have been dispossess'd of so +many noble houses and pleasant scituations, by the worlds violence and +injustice, and have had many religious receptacles (by your means +consecrated) taken from you by the Prince of this world, transferring them +to his profane uses: That your vertue yet should have made so eminent a +reprizal upon the world's possessions in your retreat out of it. And what a +comfort may it be to you to think that God has made use of you, to take +from this Prince one of the chiefest holds; and convert it, as it were, +into a Religious Citadel, furnish'd with such a Garrison as professing +irreconcileable enmitie to him and all his partie, bears away as many +conquests as it has combatants, daily singing Te Deum for their continual +victories."[414] + +Henrietta, as is hinted in the above passage, was not slow to take +advantage of the retreat which she had won with so much difficulty. "Our +good Queen," wrote Sir Richard Browne in August, 1651, "spends much of her +time of late in a new monastery ... of which she is the titular +foundress."[415] The more she saw of her new friends the more she loved +them, and her affection was warmly returned. It became an understood thing +that year by year she should pass at Chaillot the seasons of the great +festivals of the Church, and her visits, which were usually for ten days or +a fortnight, sometimes extended to several months. She came to look upon +the convent as the best substitute for the home she had lost. There she +passed the happiest days of her latter years, and there, had not a sudden +death surprised her, she would have died. + +Nor was her retirement without agreeable society from outside, for Chaillot +was the resort of some who were among the ornaments of the Parisian world. +There might often have been seen the Queen-Regent, whose visits at the time +of the foundation were continued to the day when, on her dying journey to +S. Germain-en-Laye, she was carried "to see this poor convent once +more,"[416] and who in that holy retreat was able at last to forget the +jealousies of bygone days, and to hold out the hand of cordial friendship +to Louise de la Fayette. Sometimes an even greater honour was bestowed on +the religious when the lad who was afterwards "le grand Monarque" appeared +at the door, to be welcomed with all the ceremony due to the God-given hope +of France. Not infrequently the bright and gifted Madame de la Fayette, who +was winning a literary reputation, to be crowned later by the publication +of _La Princesse de Cleves_, came to chat with her husband's sister, or to +lay the foundation of that intimacy with Henrietta of England which fitted +her to be the biographer of her short life. Most constant visitor of all, +Madame de Motteville brought her wit, her accomplishments, and her long +experience of Court life to enliven the dullness of the cloister. When the +death of Queen Anne released her from the faithful attendance of years she +spent a great part of her time at Chaillot, where she was the frequent +companion of the Queen of England, who beguiled the long, quiet hours by +recounting her past experiences, particularly her adventures during the +Civil War, all of which her listener carefully wrote down and finally +incorporated in the charming memoirs which were the principal occupation of +her later days, and which contain many details of Henrietta's character and +career lost but for her in the silence of time. + +But perhaps the most romantic visitor who ever appeared at Chaillot was a +runaway Princess, who found there an asylum after her conversion from the +Protestant to the Catholic religion. Louise of the Palatine was a +connection of the Queen of England, for she was the daughter of Elizabeth +of Bohemia, the Winter Queen, whose beauty had turned so many men's heads +and hearts. Louise lived with her unfortunate family at The Hague, and she +solaced the weary days of an exiled Princess by the study of +accomplishments, especially of painting, for which she had real talent. The +attractions of the Church of Rome were represented to her by a priest, who +gained her ear and her confidence as an instructor in her favourite art. +She determined to abandon the religion of her family; and, as she knew that +her position in her mother's house would be intolerable, she sought refuge +in flight, and threw herself upon the protection of her aunt by marriage, +whose devotion to the Church of Rome was a matter of common knowledge. +Louise was not disappointed. Henrietta, to whom the conversion of any +Protestant was a matter of real interest, and who must have felt a certain +satisfaction in the secession to the enemy's camp of one of the children of +the Queen of Bohemia, whose Protestantism had often in the past been +unfavourably compared with her Catholicism, received the girl with motherly +kindness, and bestowed her at Chaillot under the care of Mother de la +Fayette. Louise soon expressed a desire to enter the religious life, and it +was thought that she would take the veil in the convent which sheltered +her; but Mother de la Fayette, with the good sense which distinguished her, +objected to the profession of a Princess, whose birth would necessitate her +election to a high office, to which perhaps her personal qualities would +not entitle her. So the royal lady went on to the Cistercians, who had no +such scruples, and who made her Abbess of Maubuisson, near Pontoise, where +she lived in much repute to a green old age, and famed perhaps as well as +her younger sister Sophia, whose steadfast Protestantism was rewarded by +the reversion of the crown of the Three Kingdoms, and whose descendants sit +to this day upon the throne which she missed by a few weeks. + +In 1654 Mother Lhulier died. She was succeeded[417] in the office of +Superior, as might have been expected, by Mother de la Fayette, whose +election was much desired by the Queens of both England and France. These +royal ladies considerately abstained, from expressing any opinion on the +subject that the nuns' choice might be free, but their wishes must have +been well known, and they no doubt fell in with those of the religious. +Louise de la Fayette fully justified the prophecy of Mother Chantal, and if +Chaillot owed much to the force of character and strength of will of the +first Superior, it owed even more to the sagacious rule of the second, who +endeared herself to all, whether religious or visitors. The house was +already sufficiently established, but the financial condition gave great +cause for anxiety, and almost justified the ungracious forebodings of the +Archbishop of Paris, though kind friends, among whom Madame de Motteville +was one of the most generous, gave considerable gifts, and some of the +religious, such as her sister, the first professed nun of the house, were +able to bring dowries. Queen Henrietta, who had no money to give, exerted +herself to procure high-born little pupils for the convent school, whose +liberal pensions were indeed for some time the chief support of the house. +She set the example by placing her own little daughter, Princess Henrietta, +under the care of Mother de la Fayette, and, as was hoped, her presence +attracted other children of equal rank, among whom was the daughter of the +Duchess of Nemours, who was afterwards Queen of Portugal. No children could +have had a more beautiful home or a more apt instructress; for the nun, in +her long years of conventual life, had lost no whit of the graces and +accomplishments of her courtly youth or of her natural kindliness of heart. +Her charity, indeed, rose superior even to the acerbities of theological +passion. To her care was confided one of the exiled nuns of Port Royal, and +it is recorded that, in honourable contrast to the Superiors of other +religious houses charged with a like burden, she treated her unwelcome +guest with constant courtesy and kindness. + +Chaillot was to Henrietta a peaceful retreat after all her sorrows, for the +world was strictly excluded, and the convent never became, like Val de +Grace, a centre of political intrigue. There, removed from the troubles of +dangerous schemes, of jarring religions, and of perpetual disappointments, +the Queen regained something of the brightness and more than the +tranquillity of her earlier years. The quiet days, passed in a round of +prayer, of conversation, and of reading, flowed on undisturbed; and as she +grew older she pleased herself by talking of the time when she should take +up her abode permanently with her dear nuns, only, she said, she feared the +damp of the river-side house a little. The kindness of the nuns, who saw in +her not only a royal foundress, but a much-tried and suffering woman, was +very great. At one time they even permitted her to join them at their +recreation; and when this was found to be undesirable, her particular +friends among the community were still ready to cheer and amuse her by +their agreeable conversation, while they in their turn were often much +diverted by her witty talk and stories of the surprising adventures which +had befallen her, and which assuredly lost nothing in the telling. She was +too clear-sighted and humorous not to appreciate that a queen was of +necessity a troublesome member of a religious household, and she set +herself to mitigate the annoyance as far as possible. She kept a very small +household, only one lady-in-waiting, two or three other attendants, and as +many girls to do the cooking, and she was careful to select only such women +as would conduct themselves with quietness and decorum. One of her chief +objects in choosing a situation on the outskirts of Paris had been to avoid +the flow of idle visitors who in the city itself were a real annoyance to +religious houses, and she refused to receive those who came on idle and +frivolous pretexts. No one, however high his rank or pressing his business, +was permitted to enter the enclosure without the leave of the Superior; and +once, when Henrietta herself was unable to walk and was carried out from +Paris in a chair, she insisted upon waiting at the gate of the convent +until permission for her bearers to enter had been obtained. On all +ordinary occasions she came down to the parlour and interviewed her +visitors through the grill, even when the matter in hand was so intimate as +that of trying on new clothes. She was equally considerate in any question +which might disturb the religious routine of the house; and this delicate +woman of over fifty, a princess by birth and a queen by marriage, whose +health had been ruined by her troubles and privations, dragged herself from +her bed at an early hour in the cold winter mornings that the community +Mass, at which she liked to assist, might not be delayed. + +Perhaps the greatest pleasure of Henrietta's life at Chaillot was the long +conversations which she held with Mother de la Fayette, whose attraction +was as great for her as years before it had been for her brother. Into the +nun's sympathizing ear she poured the tale of her sorrows, her fears, and +her aspirations, and from her she received those instructions and counsels +which made her in her latter years, in the words of Madame de Motteville, a +_devote_ without the pretensions of one. Mother de la Fayette taught her +the art of meditation, an art which must have been difficult to the Queen's +vivacious and easily distracted mind, and it was probably under her advice, +as well as that of her confessor, that she refused to interest herself in +the various theories of grace which the controversies of Port Royal were +making a fashionable subject of conversation, and confined her spiritual +reading to a perusal and reperusal of a book which has brought consolation +to thousands of weary spirits, the _De Imitatione Christi_. Her confidence +in Mother de la Fayette, which probably was due in some measure to the +isolation and independence which her position as a nun gave her, was very +great. It extended even to her worldly affairs, which she would hardly have +discussed with an ordinary friend. It was still more marked with regard to +those inner matters of the spirit in which heart speaks to heart. It was to +this chosen friend that Henrietta made the touching confession, which +Bossuet, through Madame de Motteville, was able to proclaim to the world +after her death, that every day on her knees she thanked God that He had +made her two things, a Christian and an unhappy Queen (_une reine +malheureuse_). But the pleasure of this friendship was not to be +Henrietta's to the end. In 1664 the Queen was in England. She kept up a +constant communication with the nuns at Chaillot, and she was much +gratified to receive a letter telling her of the return of Mother de la +Fayette to the convent, from which she had been absent on a reforming +mission to another religious house, and of her re-election as Superior. +Very shortly another letter followed telling of the nun's sudden and +serious illness, and hardly had the Queen grasped this intelligence when +the news came that Louise de la Fayette was dead. Though she had spent +twenty-seven years in religion she was even now only forty-six years old, +and the community mourned her as one who had been taken away in the midst +of her age. It is not likely that she ever regretted her early decision, +for the position of a highly born nun in those days, particularly if she +resided in the capital, was dignified and important, and compared +favourably with that of the worldly woman in all but variety and +excitement. A convent parlour might be, and often was, the scene of +conversations as interesting and influential as any held in a _salon_ or +boudoir; and if Louise de la Fayette did not wield a distinctly political +influence, it was rather from choice than from inability. Her early and +tragic experience had taught her a real contempt for the fleeting glitter +of Court life, and she never lost the spirit which, in her early convent +days, led her, when one of her former friends reproached her for the change +which had come over her, and hinted that she was mad, to reply gently: "No, +I think I have left you the madness in leaving you the world." + +She had no truer mourner than the Queen of England, who hastened to +associate herself with the sorrowing community. "One day you tell me," she +wrote, "of the serious condition of Mother de la Fayette, and the next you +announce to me her death, which grieves me deeply. It is a loss for the +whole Order, and particularly for our house. I cannot express to you the +grief which I feel; it is too great. I pray you to tell all our daughters +that I sympathize with their sorrow, and to assure them that they will +always find me ready to make proof of the friendship which I have for them, +and which I had for the Mother they are mourning."[418] + +The picture which is presented of Henrietta through the medium of the +Chaillot Papers, though in no sense false, is necessarily one-sided. All +persons are influenced by the surroundings in which they find themselves, +and if the Queen of England appeared to the nuns as a woman of almost +saintly piety, whose every thought was given to heaven, and whose sorrows +had completely detached her from the world, it is because thus she really +was in their gentle society within the charmed walls of their convent. They +did not see her in the outside world, where thorny problems again beset +her, and where her old faults of temper and judgment tended to reappear. +She had ever been not only a woman of strong religious and moral principle, +but one whose qualities of heart and head had gained her more affection +than often falls to the lot of a royal lady, and the effect of Chaillot was +to emphasize and develop every virtue and charm she possessed, and to throw +completely into the background all that was harsh and discordant and +unlovely. Among the many portraits which remain to show her "in her habit +as she lived" is one which represents her as the recluse of Chaillot, and +which brings strong corroboration to the loving pen-and-ink sketches of the +good nuns. A woman, still comely and showing the remains of great beauty, +looks out upon us from the canvas; the heavy mourning dress corresponds +with the deep melancholy of the face, and if there are no tears in the +eyes, it is only because the painter has caught that saddest of all +moments, when + + "The eyes are weary and give o'er, + But still the soul weeps as before."[419] + +Thus she must often have appeared as she sat in her quiet room at Chaillot, +or knelt in the convent chapel; and if in later years she was able to take +up life again with something of her old courage and cheerfulness, it was +because her wounded spirit had met healing and peace in this beloved home, +which had been founded, as the archives of the Order recorded, for the +consolation of a suffering woman, and which, after sheltering the sorrows +of one exiled Queen of England, was to extend a like welcome to another +hardly less unfortunate, Mary Beatrice d'Este, the wife of Henrietta's +second son, James II.[420] + +[Footnote 402: "Mon inclination est de me retirir dans les Carmelites ... +car apres ma perte je ne puis avoir un moment de aucune joye."--_Lettres de +Henriette Marie a sa soeur Christine_, p. 71.] + +[Footnote 403: Jeanne Chantal.] + +[Footnote 404: _A New Description of Paris_ (1887), p. 121. The chapel is +now a church of the _eglise reformee_.] + +[Footnote 405: Queen Anne of Austria was very fond of this convent. +Mazarin, in the early days of his power, believed that the nuns tried to +influence her against him.] + +[Footnote 406: Mme de Motteville: _Memoires_ (1783), I, 72.] + +[Footnote 407: This account is taken from that written by Caussin, an old +copy of which is preserved in the Bibliotheque S. Genevieve, in Paris. +Caussin's manuscript was only seen by Mother de la Fayette shortly before +her death.] + +[Footnote 408: Her profession took place in July, 1637.] + +[Footnote 409: Louise Eugenie de la Fontaine. During the second war of the +Fronde this lady received into the convent a number of religious (among +them the Chaillot nuns) who were afraid to remain outside Paris. "Il +sembloit que cette maison etoit un petit Paradis Terrestre ou une arche qui +vaguoit en assurance dans un repos admirable pendant que tout etoit dans +une confusion epouvantable et qu'on entendoit de tous cotez les canons et +les mosquets qui se tiroient a la batail de la porte S. Antoine."--_Vie de +la Ven. Mere Louise Eugenie de la Fontaine._] + +[Footnote 410: Evelyn: _Diary_. December 5th, 1643.] + +[Footnote 411: MS. 2436, Bibliotheque Mazarine, Paris. From this history +many of the details of this chapter are taken.] + +[Footnote 412: He was an old friend and disciple of Berulle.] + +[Footnote 413: She was apparently a sister of Sir William Hamilton, the +Queen's late agent in Rome.] + +[Footnote 414: _Miscellanea Spiritualia_, Pt. II (1653).] + +[Footnote 415: _Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn_ (1859), Vol. IV, +p. 352.] + +[Footnote 416: Madame de Motteville: _Memoires_, VI, p. 212 (1783).] + +[Footnote 417: The Superiors of the Order of the Visitation are chosen for +three years. Mother de la Fayette held office three times, from 1654-7, +from 1657-60, and from 1663 until her death in the following year.] + +[Footnote 418: C[arlo] C[otolendi]: _Vie de la tres haute et tres puissante +Princesse Henriette Marie de France Reyne de la Grande Bretagne_, p. 311.] + +[Footnote 419: D. G. Rossetti.] + +[Footnote 420: Of Chaillot literally not one stone remains upon another. +The convent was destroyed in the Revolution, and its site is occupied by +the Trocadero.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE END + + La mort a des rigueurs a nulle autre pareilles; + Ou a beau la prier, + La cruelle qu'elle est, se bouche les oreilles, + Et nous laisse crier. + + Le pauvre en sa cabine, ou le chaume le couvre, + Est sujet a ses lois; + Et la garde qui veille aux barrieres du Louvre, + N'en defend point nos rois. + + FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE + + +In the end the Restoration came as a joyful surprise to Queen Henrietta and +her sons. After all the struggles, after all the intrigues, after all the +schemes, Charles Stuart returned to the throne of his father by the free +choice of a people afraid of a military despotism, weary of the disorders +which had followed the death of Cromwell, and remembering that, after all, +the exiled King had had little or no complicity in the deeds which brought +his father to the scaffold. England was tired of Puritanism, and was +preparing with all eagerness to welcome the Merry Monarch. + +France, which had shown herself decidedly tepid in helping the King of +England in his adversities, and had, even at the nod of the usurper, driven +him beyond her borders, was quite ready to rejoice at his good luck. Even +Mazarin offered the most gratifying sympathy, while Queen Anne and the +common people manifested a more real gladness. The English colony in Paris +was naturally almost beside itself with joy and triumph, which burst forth +in noisy rejoicings, wherein music, drinking, and fireworks played about +equal parts. + +As for Henrietta, her joy was too deep for words. The small but pretty +house at Colombes, where she now spent much of her time, was the scene of +suitable festivity, but she was probably glad when she could retire to +Chaillot to receive the sympathy of Mother de la Fayette, and to assist at +a solemn Te Deum of thanksgiving, which was sung in the chapel of the +convent. When the news came that her son, on his landing in England, had +almost been torn to pieces in the delight of his subjects, her joy was +complete. "At last," she wrote in a happy letter to her sister Christine, +"at last the good God has looked upon us in His mercy, and has worked, so +to speak, a miracle in this re-establishment, having in an instant changed +the hearts of a people which has passed from the greatest hatred to +expressions of the greatest possible kindness and submission, marked, +moreover, by expressions of unparalleled joy."[421] The King, her son, she +added, would, she believed, be more powerful than any of his predecessors, +a forecast in which she showed her usual lack of political penetration, for +the English people, even in the delirium of loyalty of the Restoration, did +not throw away the fruits of the long struggle. + +Charles wrote most kindly to his mother, begging her to come to England to +share his triumph, and she confessed, in a letter to her sister Christine, +that she should like before she died to see her family reunited after their +long wanderings, and "vagabonds no more." But she delayed several months, +during the course of which her nephew, Louis XIV, whom she had once hoped +to see her son-in-law, married the bride of his mother's choosing, the +Infanta of Spain. The Queen of England, in company with her sister of +France, repaired to the house of Madame de Beauvais,[422] whence, from a +balcony overlooking the Rue S. Antoine, the royal ladies witnessed the +entry into Paris of the King of France and his wife, Louis riding on +horseback, and the bride sitting in a car drawn by six splendid horses. +Only a few weeks after this day of rejoicing Henrietta's joy was turned to +grief, and even her pleasure in her son's restoration was dashed by the sad +news of the death of her youngest son Henry, who had grown into a tall, +fine young man, whose gallant bearing was much admired when he rode into +London at the left hand of his brother the King, on the happy 29th of May. +The poor lad was smitten by the scourge of smallpox, and in a few days he +was laid in the grave. + +It was not until October that the Queen turned her steps towards England, +accompanied by her youngest daughter, who was now a girl of sixteen, the +beautiful + + "Princesse blanche comme albatre,"[423] + +who was soon to be the bride of her cousin Philip, the brother of Louis +XIV. In spite of the happy occasion, it was sad to Henrietta to retrace the +wedding journey of her youth, and to have to take part in festivities which +recalled those of that long-passed time. On this occasion she set sail from +Calais, but it was again at Dover that she set foot upon the soil of her +adopted country, which she had not seen for sixteen years, and which her +daughter had left as a child too young for memory. + +[Illustration: THE RUE ST. ANTOINE, PARIS (SHOWING THE CHAPEL OF THE + +VISITANDINES) + +FROM AN ENGRAVING BY IVAN MERLEN] + +Nor were the sad associations of the past the Queen's only cause for +sorrow. Her grief was still fresh for her dead son, and for her two living +ones her mind was full of anxiety. "I am going to England to marry one and +to unmarry the other," she had said on leaving Paris. She was revolving +schemes in her head for a marriage between the King and a niece of Cardinal +Mazarin, whose large dowry, it was thought, would be useful in paying off +the army of Cromwell and in settling the discontent which surely must be +still lurking in the newly converted country. But more painful thoughts +were given to her second son. This young man, whose exploits, together with +those of his younger brother, at the battle of the Dunes, had won the +admiration of the French against whom they were fighting, and whose fame +was so great that his praises were sung in the coffee-houses of distant +Constantinople, had so far forgotten his high lineage as to contract an +alliance with a young woman of low rank, of no compensating beauty and of +somewhat doubtful character. It was small consolation to Henrietta that the +lady she was called upon to welcome as Duchess of York was the daughter of +Sir Edward Hyde. At first she sternly refused to recognize the marriage, +and it was only the entreaties of her two most intimate friends and +counsellors, Lord Jermyn and the Abbe Montagu, that induced her to be +reconciled to her son and to receive his wife. Perhaps she was also +influenced by the knowledge that her eldest son, who at this time was much +under the power of Hyde, wished her to show mercy. Still, it was with an +aching heart that she saw her gallant young son mated with a woman in every +way inferior to him; and her chagrin would not have been decreased could +she have looked into the future and seen the two daughters of Anne Hyde +sitting, in succession, upon the throne from which they had thrust their +father. + +Queen Henrietta Maria was received with all kindness in England, which she +found in such a fever of loyalty as to make it quite needless to think of +the dowry of Mazarin's niece. The ever-fickle populace welcomed her with +joy which made it difficult to believe that she had even been unpopular. +Her dowry was restored to her, and her son rewarded his mother's faithful +servants. Jermyn, whose advocacy of the Duchess of York had not perhaps +been quite disinterested, received the title of Earl of St. Albans; and +Montagu no doubt might also have obtained the recompense of his fidelity +had he not by now regarded France and the Church as a truer _patria_ than +his own country. As Grand Almoner to the Queen he presided over her +ecclesiastical establishment, which was again settled at Somerset House, +whither the Capuchin Fathers had returned to carry on a vigorous religious +campaign, in which their superior, Father Cyprien,[424] who preached +sermons "to touch the heart of demons," took an active part. The palace had +been much knocked about during the war, and it was one of Henrietta's +pleasures to restore it to its former beauty, an achievement which her old +admirer, Sir William Waller, celebrated in smooth, polished verses of the +type which was rapidly ousting the literary fashions of an earlier day. The +Queen showed a surprising memory for the persons and things of the past, +and delighted her son's courtiers by the graceful tact with which she +recalled their circumstances and asked after their wives and families. But +she was not very happy. Probably she felt the loss of her former political +influence. Certainly she felt all the bitterness of returning a lonely and +widowed old woman to the scenes of her happy married life. Sometimes, when +all was bright around her, she would be found in some retired corner, +where, with eyes full of tears, she was dwelling in thought upon the happy +days of the past, and thinking of him to whom her will had been law. + +Thus by December, 1660, she had made up her mind to return to France; and +after a parting saddened by the recent death of her eldest daughter, the +Princess of Orange, who died of smallpox in London, she set out. Her +journey was delayed by the serious illness of Princess Henrietta at +Portsmouth, so that she did not reach Paris until the February of the next +year. She was welcomed with much affection by her many friends, but perhaps +the marriage of her daughter Henrietta, the daily companion of fifteen +years, which took place with great eclat at the Palais Royal, made her life +too lonely; for after the birth of the young wife's first child, a little +girl to whom she was godmother, she determined to set out again for +England, and report had it that there she meant to live and die. Her eldest +son had just married a princess of Portugal, whose acquaintance she was +anxious to make, and royal tact led her to add that she also wished to see +the little daughter who had recently been born to the Duke and Duchess of +York. + +There was no lack of heartiness in the welcome of her sons. Both Charles +and James put to sea to meet her; but, owing to stormy weather, their boat +was driven back, and the Queen's first welcome was the joyous salvos of +Dover which answered the thunder of the guns of Calais. + +None but the most formal accounts remain to tell of Henrietta's impressions +of her daughter-in-law, Catherine of Braganza. She can hardly have been +pleased with the insipid girl whose bigoted piety and dull precision of +character were not calculated to win the heart of an intellectual roue such +as Charles II, who in women preferred a sparkling wit even to beauty. His +mother, whose happy married life had made her shudder at the very name of +illicit love, was no doubt judiciously blind where her sons were concerned; +but she must have felt for this poor child whose chances of happiness were +from the beginning very small. The two queens found a common interest in +religion. Catherine was indeed _devote_ as Henrietta had never been; but +the elder woman had throughout her life given sufficient proof of zeal, and +she had recently written a letter to the Pope, informing him that the chief +reason of her return to England was her desire to advance the Catholic +religion in that land. The Court of Rome was getting weary of the +ungrateful island on which "missioners, seminaires, regulars, seculars, +archpriests, interposition of Princes, and what not,"[425] had all been +thrown away. But Henrietta, true to her sanguine nature, still hoped to be +the saviour of the English Catholics. Her chapel at Somerset House was once +more the resort of the faithful, where hundreds abjured the heresy of their +birth, some of which conversions were so amazing as to merit a place in the +memoirs of Father Cyprien. Above all, the Queen knew that her eldest son, +whose private opinions varied between the tenets of Hobbes and those of the +Church of Rome, would have liked to be tolerant. What she failed to +appreciate was that his wandering exiled life had taught him to sacrifice +any private fancy or liking rather than go on his travels again. + +Somerset House was not only a religious centre. Wherever Henrietta was +there were laughter, wit, and cheerfulness. Even in the darkest days of the +past she would dry her tears to laugh at anything which struck her as +droll, and now, in her old age, though sorrow and self-discipline had +softened the sharpness of her tongue, her conversation had the charm of +that of a witty woman who had mixed with famous people, and who had borne a +principal part in the events of the age which was just passing away. Life +had been to her what books are to more studious people; for, like the +father whose wit she had inherited, she did not care for reading, and this, +in her later life, she frankly regretted. She was now a "little, plain old +woman,"[426] always quietly dressed, and worn out by trouble and +ill-health; but the charm which was her cradle gift had not left her, and +her Court proved much more attractive than that of her daughter-in-law, to +whom nature had been less bountiful, and whose prim youth was no match for +the sprightly age of the daughter of Henry IV. + +But the rivalry was not to be a long one. It seems that the air of England +had not agreed with Henrietta, even when she was young and happy; and now +her health daily became worse, until at last her physicians told her +plainly that if she remained in England she would die. Perhaps she was not +altogether sorry for this decision. She loved her sunny native land, and +her heart yearned for her youngest and dearest child and for her nuns at +Chaillot. Moreover, the troubles of her previous visit had not passed away. +She bade a loving farewell to the two sons whose faces she knew she would +never see again, and then made for the last time the familiar journey to +Paris, where she was received with the customary kindness of the French +royal family. + + * * * * * + +The last years of Henrietta Maria's life were calm and peaceful, except for +her ill-health. "I have never had a day free from pain for twenty years," +she said shortly before her death to her friends at Chaillot. She had +little to trouble her beyond the gentle sorrow of seeing those with whom +she had been associated pass, one by one, to the silence of the grave. Her +brother, the Duke of Orleans, ended his restless life in the year of the +Restoration, leaving his title to his nephew, Henrietta's son-in-law. +Cardinal Mazarin passed away in 1661, avaricious to the last, and counting +with dying fingers the treasures to which his heart still clung. Four years +later Queen Anne of Austria followed him, after an illness the infinitely +pathetic record of which is to be found in the pages of Madame de +Motteville. She was a great loss to her sister-in-law, the more so as +Henrietta's faithful friend, the Abbe Montagu, was so high in her favour +that it was feared he would succeed to the influence and position of +Mazarin, and thus France be under a foreigner once more. The tie between +these two was of no ordinary strength. Not only had Montagu been a friend +and companion of the unforgotten Buckingham, but Anne never ceased to +remember the service which he had rendered to her in the past. When he +returned to France, after his long imprisonment, sobered by trouble, and so +far from desiring the ecclesiastical honours on which his heart had once +been set that he turned from them when offered, he became in some measure +her spiritual adviser, a role for which he was well suited, as he knew +probably better than any one else the secrets of the past. From his lips, +at her own request, the dying Queen received the solemn intimation of the +approach of death, and almost her last conscious words were addressed to +him. "M. de Montagu knows how much I have to thank God for," she said, +fixing her eyes on the Abbe as he knelt weeping beside her, words which +both Madame de Motteville, who was present, and Montagu himself interpreted +as bearing witness to Anne's innocence in the days when she compromised her +reputation by vanity and coquetting.[427] + +Henrietta's health, which had never recovered from the strain of the Civil +War and the terrible experiences of her last confinement, became worse and +worse; so that in December, 1668, she wrote to her son Charles that her +remaining days would not be many. She suffered much from sleeplessness and +fainting fits, and even the waters of Bourbon, which she had long been +accustomed to drink every year, afforded her little relief. The thought of +death had ever been to her, as to her accomplished friend Madame de +Motteville, one of terror. She did not like even to speak of it. "It is +better," she was wont to say, "to give one's attention to living well, and +to hope for God's mercy in the last hour." But now that death was drawing +near it lost something of its terror, and she said quite openly that she +was going to Chaillot to die. "I shall think no more of doctors or +medicine," she added, "but only of my soul." In this spirit she went out to +her house at Colombes to spend there the golden days of a French autumn, +until the feast of All Saints should call her to her convent. "The +Queen-Mother is extreme ill, and seems to apprehend herself +extremely,"[428] wrote Ralph Montagu, the English ambassador in Paris, on +September 7th, 1669. + +A few days later the end came. To the Queen's sleeplessness was added an +aversion from all food, and at the request of the King of France, who was +much attached to his aunt, a consultation of doctors was held, among whom +the principal place was taken by Vallot, a man of great experience, who was +first physician to the Crown of France, but who, nevertheless, was believed +by some to have been negligent in his care of Queen Anne. He, thinking that +Henrietta's great weakness came from her distressing insomnia, advised that +she should take a grain of some sedative at night. The Queen, who had +explained her symptoms with great clearness, objected the opinion of Sir +Theodore Mayerne that such remedies were dangerous to her constitution, +adding, laughing, that an old gipsy woman in England had once told her that +she would never die except of a grain. Vallot listened respectfully, but he +was unconvinced, so that his patient, feeling her reluctance to be foolish, +agreed to follow his advice. The day wore on, and after a quiet evening +with her ladies, Henrietta retired to bed as usual; but she did not feel +very well, and it was suggested that she should not take the opiate. +However, she could not sleep, and when her physician was called to her +bedside she asked with some eagerness for the drug. He administered it in +an egg, after which the Queen lay down again, to fall into a sleep which +became deeper and deeper, until it passed into the last sleep of +death.[429] + + * * * * * + +With daybreak all was confusion at Colombes. Messengers hurried off to +Paris to acquaint the King of France with the news of his aunt's death, and +to S. Cloud to break the sad tidings to the Duchess of Orleans, who would +be her mother's truest mourner. By some strange oversight or malice the +English ambassador was left to hear the intelligence by chance. Ralph +Montagu, who had a very poor opinion of the Earl of St. Albans, whose +position as Lord Chamberlain to the late Queen gave him considerable power, +believed that that nobleman had purposely kept him in ignorance, so that +there should not be "left a silver spoon in the house."[430] In the +interests of the King of England he hurried off to the King of France, who, +in spite of the protests of the Earl, caused seals to be placed upon his +aunt's property until it could be properly disposed of. + +There was great mourning for Henrietta in France, not only because she was +personally beloved, but because the King and the people saw in her not so +much the widow of the King of England as the last surviving child of the +much-loved Henry the Great. High and low vied with each other in their +desire to do her honour, and Louis XIV expressed his wish that she should +lie by her father in the royal Abbey of S. Denys, where he ordered that a +splendid funeral service, following the precedent of that of his mother, +should be celebrated at his expense. He immediately dispatched a _lettre de +cachet_[431] to the Prior and monks of the house, ordering them to receive +with all honour the body of the Queen of England. + +Meanwhile at Colombes on a bed of state lay the corpse.[432] But that same +evening, following the custom of the times, the heart was taken out, +enclosed in a silver casket, and carried to its last resting-place at +Chaillot. A sorrowful company escorted the precious relic, which was met at +the door of the convent by the religious, each of whom held in her hand a +lighted taper. Then in a set little speech the Abbe Montagu, as Grand +Almoner to the late Queen, delivered it over to the Superior, commending it +to the pious care of the community. + +Two days after this mournful little ceremony the body was carried through +the Porte S. Denys, along the road which Henrietta had traversed as a +bride, to the royal abbey, where it was to rest. There, watched by faithful +guardians, it lay in a chapel behind the choir for more than a month, until +the 20th of November, when the funeral service was celebrated. The +obsequies were a magnificent affair, comparable with the splendours of the +long-ago wedding. In the great church hung with black, on a magnificent +mausoleum supported by eight marble pillars and blazing with a quantity of +lighted tapers, Henrietta, who, living, had known what it was to lack the +necessaries of life, lay as a King's daughter in her death, and that the +contrast might be the more complete, her body, which had long laid aside +the trappings of royalty, was covered by a gorgeous pall "of gold brocade +covered by silver brocade and edged with ermine." By the will of the King +representatives of the sovereign bodies were present, while the mourners +included princes and princesses and even one of higher rank, for Casimir, +the ex-King of Poland, who had exchanged his crown for a monk's frock, had +journeyed to do honour to the Queen of England from the great Abbey of S. +Germain des Pres, where he was spending a peaceful old age, and where his +tomb may be seen to this day. The attendance of clergy indeed was not +large, but that was only because orders had been issued that the sovereign +bodies should be saluted before the prelates, an insult which the pride of +the Church could not stomach. + +After a new and delightful rendering by the choir of the _Dies Irae_, the +Bishop of Amiens ascended the pulpit. Francis Faure was probably selected +for this office partly because he had been a servant of the dead Queen in +her early married life, and partly because she had taken pleasure in +hearing him deliver the panegyric of S. Francis de Sales in the chapel of +the convent of Chaillot on the occasion of the saint's canonization. It +seems, however, that this "_cordelier mitre_", as Gui Patin calls him, was +not very popular with Parisian audiences, for the discourse which he +delivered at the funeral of Queen Anne was severely criticized, and his +sermon on the Queen of England had no better reception. Nevertheless, it +reads as the work of an honest and affectionate man earnestly striving, not +always indeed with success, to avoid that flattery of the great of which +the times were so tolerant, but which is peculiarly vain in connection with +death, the great leveller. His text was, "Watch and pray"; and he dwelt +with some sternness upon the awful suddenness of the Queen's end, of which +the Chaillot nuns said sweetly that it was the mercy of God to save her +from the apprehension of the death which she feared so much. The +discourse[433] was long, and it was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon +before the body of Henrietta Maria was lowered into the royal vault, to lie +beside that of her father. + +But the pious care of Louis did not end at S. Denys. Nearly a week later +(November 25th) another service was celebrated in Paris itself, at the +Cathedral of Notre-Dame, as an additional mark of the King's respect for +his aunt. The Duke and Duchess of Orleans were again the chief mourners, +while this time the preacher was Father Senault, Superior of that +Congregation of the Oratory from which the Queen, ever since her marriage, +had chosen her confessors.[434] He was a preacher of repute, as well as a +writer of distinction, and his discourse on this occasion met with the +"marvellous success which attends all his actions."[435] + +But before this, before even the service at S. Denys, the most famous of +Henrietta Maria's funeral sermons had been preached. The filial piety of +the Duchess of Orleans could not permit that her cousin the King of France +should be the only person to do honour to her mother's memory. Her thoughts +naturally turned to the convent at Chaillot, which her mother had loved so +dearly, and where so much of her own youth had been spent. There the Queen +had already been mourned by the good nuns; there Masses were offered for +her soul. It was but fitting that there also should be celebrated the +solemn service offered by her daughter's devotion. + +On November 12th the chapel of the convent, which the care of the religious +had caused to be hung with mourning, was crowded by those who had come at +the invitation of the Duchess of Orleans to do honour to her mother's +memory. These were no royal obsequies due to Henrietta's quality as a +daughter of France, but an offering of domestic love, and, as was +befitting, the celebrant of the Mass was the late Queen's faithful, +lifelong friend, Walter Montagu. But for the preacher was found one who has +caused this simple service to be remembered while S. Denys and Notre-Dame +are forgotten. The Abbe Bossuet was already Bishop-elect of Condom, but +when he stood in the pulpit of Chaillot he still wore the dress of a simple +priest. The discourse was pronounced "with much applause of the +audience,"[436] wrote dryly the official chronicler of these events. It +will be remembered as long as the French tongue. To one heart it spoke with +something more than the charms of oratory, for from this day Henrietta of +Orleans dated her friendship with the good Bishop. She did not know that in +less than a year the same eloquent voice would be raised over her own dead +body, and that her young life would have become, like her mother's, nothing +but a text for a sermon.[437] + + * * * * * + +There was some difficulty about the Queen's property, as she died +intestate. By the law of England everything she died possessed of passed to +her eldest son; by the law of France her property would be equally divided +among her children or their representatives. The property was not large, +and Ralph Montagu believed that when the debts were paid there would be +little left "but her two houses at Colombes, which would sell for ten or +twelve thousand pistols, and were always, if she had made a will, intended +to be given Madame." The person most inclined to dispute the claim of the +King of England was the Duke of Orleans, who, perhaps knowing his +mother-in-law's intentions, proposed that his wife should take the property +in France as her share, leaving to her two brothers their mother's +jointure, which had been granted for two further years. But another +claimant appeared in the person of Henrietta's grandson, the Prince of +Orange, who said that if Monsieur took a share he should advance a claim, +otherwise he would submit to the pleasure of the King of England. Madame +finally persuaded her husband to desist, which was esteemed a great service +to her brother, as by the terms of the late Queen's marriage contract it +would have been very difficult to parry his claims. Thus the whole of +Henrietta's slender fortune fell to her son Charles II of England. But +since he had always had a kindness for the nuns of Chaillot, he gave to +them the furniture of his mother's apartments there. Some of it was too +fine for them, and this portion they sold for the benefit of the house. +They had no use for Flanders tapestry, for state beds or arm-chairs; but +they kept, among other things, two feather beds, all the linen and pottery, +and three very beautiful pictures. The proceeds of the sale enabled the +nuns to build ten new cells, as well as to lay aside a sum of money for the +expenses of the yearly commemoration of their royal foundress.[438] + + * * * * * + +Of those who mourned for Henrietta Maria it remains to say a few words. The +future history of her two sons and of her nephew, Louis XIV, is too well +known to need remark, except that it may be mentioned that James, in the +tardy repentance of exile, found much comfort and edification among the +nuns of Chaillot. The tragic fate of her daughter has already been referred +to. Henrietta of Orleans, in the bloom of a beauty which recalled that of +her mother, died at S. Cloud in the autumn of 1670, not without suspicion +of poison. The Earl of St. Albans[439] returned to London, where he spent a +drinking and card-playing old age, of which the most notable achievement +was the foundation of St. James's Square, by which means he may almost +claim the title of founder of modern West London, where Jermyn Street yet +preserves his name. Walter Montagu, his friend of many years, had a very +different fate. After the death of his three patronesses, the Queen of +France, the Queen of England, and the Duchess of Orleans, he was made to +resign the Abbey of S. Martin's, Pontoise. He returned to Paris and entered +the Hospital of the Incurables in the Rue de Seve.[440] "My lord," said an +English priest[441] of remarkable piety, who was waiting there for death, +as he saw the Abbe enter, "you are come to teach me how to die." "No, Mr. +Clifford," replied Montagu, "I have come to learn from you how to live." + +In this calm retreat his last years flowed quietly away. He "only occupied +himself with the eternal years and with the practice of all the +vertues,"[442] said the chronicler of S. Martin's; but incidentally he was +able to render many services to the English colony in Paris, though his +cousin Ralph complained that he had grown "very ignorant and out of +fashion."[443] He died peacefully at the Incurables in February, 1677, and +his body was carried to S. Martin's, at Pontoise, of which he had been a +princely benefactor, to be buried in the chapel[444] of S. Walter, the +first Abbot of the house and his patron saint, which he had beautified at +great expense. Mother Jeanne, who still ruled over the Carmelites of +Pontoise, caused a Mass to be sung for his soul, and equal honour was paid +to his memory by the English Benedictine nuns of the same town. In Paris +another old friend was doubtless thinking of him, for in a retirement +almost monastical Madame de Chevreuse yet lived, one of the last of those +who had gathered at the brilliant Court of Charles I and Henrietta Maria. + + * * * * * + +Thus Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, + + "Left love and life and slept in endless rest."[445] + +As she was unfortunate in life, so she has been unfortunate in death; for a +people whose historical judgments were stereotyped by the revolution of +1688 has remembered her failings and forgotten her charms. It is only +within recent years that the justice of history, working on the materials +which are slowly unfolding the secrets of time, has been able to redress +the balance and to reveal the personality of the woman who, amid all her +misfortunes and all her faults, never lacked while living the devotion of +love and friendship. + +[Footnote 421: _Lettres de Henriette Marie a sa soeur Christine_, p. 121.] + +[Footnote 422: This fine old house is still standing in the Rue Francois +Mirron.] + +[Footnote 423: Loret: _La Muse Historique_, t. 3, p. 252.] + +[Footnote 424: This friar seems to have been more highly esteemed than, to +judge by his memoirs, he quite deserved. _La Muse Historique_ has a long +panegyric of him beginning-- + + Ce pere a beaucoup de science + De vertue d'esprit d'eloquence + Faizans quelque fois des Sermons + A pouvoir toucher des Demons.--T. IV, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 425: Archives of See of Westminster.] + +[Footnote 426: Pepys: _Diary_, November 22nd, 1660.] + +[Footnote 427: Mme de Motteville: _Memoires_ (1783), VI, pp. 307, 308.] + +[Footnote 428: Hist. MSS. Com. MSS. of Duke of Buccleuch at Montagu House. +Vol. I, p. 438.] + +[Footnote 429: There are several accounts of Henrietta's death differing +considerably in detail, especially as to the time when the opiate was +given. Vallot was much blamed for the advice he had given.] + +[Footnote 430: Hist. MSS. Com. MSS. of Duke of Buccleuch at Montagu House. +Vol. I, p. 440.] + +[Footnote 431: "A nos chers et bien aimez le grand Prieur et Religieux de +l'Abbaye Royalle de S. Denis en France" (September 12th, 1669).--Arch. +Nat., K. 119, No. 7.] + +[Footnote 432: The official account of the Queen's death and of the three +funeral services is contained in MS. Cinqants de Colbert, p. 142.] + +[Footnote 433: "Oraison funebre de Henriette Marie de France Reyne de la +Grande Bretagne prononcee dans l'Eglise de Saint Denys en France par +Monseigneur l'Evesque d'Amiens" (1670).] + +[Footnote 434: Her confessor at the time of her death was Father Lambert, +who succeeded Father Viette.] + +[Footnote 435: MS. Cinq cents de Colbert, p. 142.] + +[Footnote 436: Cinq cents de Colbert, p. 142.] + +[Footnote 437: On the first day of the year 1670 Walter Montagu "Voulant +temoyner sa reconnaissance envers la Reine d'Angleterre ... indiqua dans +son eglise [S. Martin's, Pontoise] un service solemnel par le repos de son +ame."--Histoire de l'Abbaye de S. Martin de Pontoise, 1769. Bibliotheque +Mazarine, MS. 3368.] + +[Footnote 438: Arch. Nat., K. 1303, No. 6. The portion sold realized +L4143.] + +[Footnote 439: It is necessary to say a few words as to the alleged +marriage between Henrietta Maria and Jermyn. It was believed by some +contemporaries (e.g. Pepys and Reresby) that they were married, but it is +very unlikely that this was the case. In a note to Smeaton's reprint (1820) +to _The Life and Death of that matchless mirror of Magnanimity and Heroick +Vertue Henrietta Maria de Bourbon_, it is asserted that a document was in +existence in which Jermyn settled property on Henrietta Maria at the time +of his marriage with her. This statement is absolutely unsupported, and +even if the document ever existed it may have been a forgery. Henrietta as +a Catholic could not have married Jermyn, a Protestant, without a +dispensation from the Pope, which it would have been very difficult to +obtain without the transaction becoming known. No trace of a dispensation +has ever been found. The Queen's closest friends, Mme de Motteville and the +Chaillot nuns, give no hint of such marriage, of which, had it existed, +they must have been aware.] + +[Footnote 440: Now the Hopital Laennec in the Rue de Sevres.] + +[Footnote 441: William Clifford, whom Henrietta Maria recommended to the +Pope in 1656 as a suitable bishop for England. P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.] + +[Footnote 442: Bib. Mazarin, MS. 3368.] + +[Footnote 443: Hist. MSS. Com. MSS. of Duke of Buccleuch at Montagu House. +Vol. I, p. 423.] + +[Footnote 444: It is usually said that he was buried at the Incurables, but +both the contemporary Gazette and Abbess Neville's Annals (of the English +Benedictines at Pontoise) say that he was buried at S. Martin's, and the +latter authority, which gives many details of his later life, adds that the +interment took place in the chapel of S. Walter, and there is no doubt that +their statement is correct. How the mistake arose is seen from a document +preserved in the Archives de l'Assistance Publique, fonds des Incurables, +carton 22, which speaks of a monument "posee, sur les entrailles de M. de +Montagu en la nef de l'eglise dud" hospital [des Incurables].] + +[Footnote 445: William Browne.] + + + + +APPENDIX + +I + +ARCHIVES OF THE SEE OF WESTMINSTER + +_The answer given by the Commissioners of the Counsell to the French +Embassadour Mareshall Bassompiere_ + + +The French were sent away as delinquents, having by their ill-carriage +troubled the affaires of the kingdome, the domesticall government of his +Ma:ties house, and the sacred union betwixt his Ma:tie and the Queene. The +French Bishop and Blainvill endeavoured to make factione betwyeen the +subiectes and the King stirring up men of ill affections in the Parliament +against that which was for the service of the King and the tranquillity of +the State. Some French officers suffered others to take houses in their +names, where priestes might retire and there they brought up young weemen +and children to be sent to the Spanish seminaries. They made the Queene's +house a Rande-vous for Jesuits and fugitives. They subtly discovered what +passed in privat betweene the K. and the Queene. They obliged her to take +their opinion and allowance upon everything wh. the K. propounded and +required of her. They endeavoured to frame a repugnance in the Queene to +all wh. the King desired and ordained and they professed to foment discord +betweene their Ma:ties as a thing importing the good of the Churche. They +endeavoured to imprint in our Queene contempt of our nation, customes, and +language. They had wrought the Qu.'s person, as it were to a kinde of rule +of monasticall obedience, so farr as to make her doe things base and +servil. They led her a foote a long waye to make her goe in devotion to the +place where they are wont to execute infamous malefactours; which acte did +turne not only to the shame of the Queene, but to the infamie of the K's +predecessours for having put innocent persons to death, whom these fellows +count martyrs, whereas not one was executed for Religion, but for crime of +treason in the highest degree.... + + +II + +P.R.O. ROMAN TRANSCRIPTS + +(_To Cardinal Barberini_) + +Le grand zele qui a tourjours paru en sa Saintete pour procurer ladvantage +de la religion catolique en ce peis et la passion que jay par tout les +moyens possibles de contribuer, moblige a communi que a sa saintete a quoy +la conjonction presante menase de la reduire; et de proposer a Sa Satete +les melieurs expedients que je puis trouuer pour y remidier a fin de voir +sette descharge de mestre aquitee de tout ce qui despandoit de moy tout le +monde a ases de congnoisance de v[~re] piete et moy ases de preuues de +v[~re] affection pour massurer que vous contribures de bon coeur a se +deseing: en quoy le secret est sy important que je nay pas trouue apropos +de vous envoyer une personne expres de peur de donner ombrage ysy qui +pouroit fort nuir aux affaires du Roy Monseigneur et des catoliques: la +Violence avec quoy le parlement a commance contre les catoliques a oblige +le Roy Monseigneur a leur accorder la demande quils ont faite de banir les +catoliques a dix milles de Londre, ils commansent a faire une riguoreuse +recherche contre touts les prestres et menasent de mestre toute les loix +les plus severes en execution contre eux qui vont jusques au sang, et moy +mesme suis menacee de avoir mon contract de marriage rompu: et +particulierement en se qui est des prestres; et la misere est que les +affaires du Roy Monseigneur ne luy permette pas de soposer a toute sette +violance a quoy il a bien paru depuis son avenemant a la couronne que son +naturel ne a pas estte porte car au contaire il soufre maintenant pour sa +bonte envers seux de [~nr]e religion; jay songe a un moyen et le seull que +se tamps sy permet pour prevenir une grande partie de ses violances qui est +pour employer de largent pour gagner les principaux de sette faction +puritaine, et je croye avoir tellemant dispoise mon deseing quil ne me +manquera que argent pour en venir about: les desordres de se peis sy +randent impossible de trouuer ysy une telle somme dargent quil faudroit a +cause _de lesclat que sela feroit_, se qui pouroit aussy frustrer le +sucses: sest pour quoy jay cru en premier lieu estre obligee davoir recours +a sa Saintete pour luy demander son assistance en une occasion sy presante +et le danger sy ineuitable sans se remede a fin quil voye quil nia rien que +je ne desire exposer en sette cause je mofre a donner telle caution qui +sera valable pour la somme de cinc cent mil escus; car les catoliques +estant une fois eschapes de se parlement present il ne oroit que a esperer +et rien a craindre dhors en avant et le seul moyent est seluy que je +propose: sest pourquoy je vous prie de communiquer sesy a Sa Saintete, a +qui je suplie tres humblement de ne le consulter quavec vous car sy sela +venoit a estre seu je serois perduee; et de me faire responce la plus +prompte que sera possible, et selon v[~re] resolution, vous pouues envoyer +les lettres de change a Paris pour me les faire tenir ysy et le plus +secretement que faire se peut. Je ne doute pas que si il plaist a sa Stete +de masister en ce deseing de remestre les catoliques en repos et de porter +le Roy Monseigneur a leur faire plus de grases que jamais. En tout cas +joray le temognage de sa Stete et le v[~re] davoir fait de mon coste tout +mon possible pour faire reusir se deseing sy bon et utille a la religion; +je nay que faire a vous presser de contribuer a sesy v[~re] piete vous +porte ases a le faire seullemant une prompte responce la queue jatans par +le mesme porteur le quel jay envoye a Paris pour vous faire tenir selle sy +par Mr. le nonce la faire demandant rien plus que la diligence et le secret +je me remest a la prudence de Sa Stete. et a la vostre et demeureray. + + Mon cousin, + V[~re] bien affectionne cousine, + + HENRIETTE MARIE R. + + Il nia personne que sa Stete. + vous et moy qui sache se sy encore. + + +III + +THOMASOM TRACTS + +The Queene's Proceedings in Holland. Being the copie of a letter from the +Staple at Middleborough to Mr. Vanrode a Dutch Marchant in London. (19 Dec. +1642.).... Colonel Goring is travelled into Ortoys and Flanders to raise +forces of Men and Armour, he having a Commission from the King of France to +take a certaine number from each Garrison, for the Queene and present +supply for England. Colonel Gage who is Colonell over the English in +Flanders, gave Colonel Goring a Challenge for presuming to beat up his +Drums to flock away his Officers and Souldiers, nevertheless the souldiers +being poore and long behind of their contribution mony agreed, and five or +600 English followed Colonel Goring to Dunkirke, Newport, Ostend, and +Graveling, where they now remaine till they be Shipt for England, there +hath bin great meanes to the States that these Souldiers might bee +permitted to passe through their Country and so take shipping for England, +but the Queene nor the Ambassador can prevaile with the States for their +consents therein. I have also here set you downe the summes of money raised +amongst the Priests, Jesuites, Seminaries, Friers, Nuns, and holy Sisters +through the land, and paid in to the Jesuites of St. Omers his Colledge +towards the maintenance of his Majesties warres. And first as in order the +English Cloyster at St. Omers,[446] the Jesuits have raised 3000 pounds, +besides the Taxes they have imposed upon every Scholler 5_l._ a man being +about 400, and that if any shall refuse the payment thereof to lose their +Degrees in the House, and be for ever discharged for having any future +benefit therein: in which Colledge the sum collected amounts about 3500_l_, +Secondly at Ayres, the summe collected amounts unto 500_l_, Thirdly, at +Beteone, the summe collected amounts unto 500_l_, Fourthly at Arras, the +some of 2000_l_, Fifthly at the University of Doway 1000_l_, Sixtly at +Gaunt, betweene the Colledge of English and Irish Priests, and the Matron +of the Nunnes there, was Collected 500_l_, Seventhly at Durmount, 50_l_, +eightly at Bruzels, from the Countesse of Westmoreland, and the Lady +Babthorpe, Matrons of the holy Nuns, and the three Cloysters English, +Irish, and Walloons, 3000_l_, Ninthly at Lovain, 1000_l_, Tenthly at +Bridges, 300_l_, Eleventhly at Casteele, 200_l_, Twelfely at Newport +200_l_, Thirteenth at Ostend 100_l_, Fourteenth at Graveling, 100_l_, +Fifteenth at Dunkerke, 500_l_, all which summes amounteth about 15000_l_, +have bin Collected and in the hands of Father Browne the Head of St. Omers +Colledges, besides 5000_l_ more gathered from the Governours of every Towne +Village or petty Dorpe, which makes the sum of 20 thousand pounds, all +which is intended to be transported to his Majesty from Dunkirke, besides +the weekely allowance the Colledges will disburse towards the maintenance +of the five hundred Souldiers under the command of Colonell Goring during +his Majesties warres with the Parliament.... + +[Footnote 446: The inaccuracies with regard to St. Omers are probably +typical of those with regard to the other places. St. Omers was at this +time very poor. The pupils numbered 60, not 400; the Superior's name was +Port, not Browne. + +There is no trace of such a collection in the records of Les Dames +Anglaises at Bruges.] + + +IV + +AFFAIRES ETRANGERES ANG., T. 49 + +_Walter Montague to Cardinal Mazarin_ (_apparently_) + +La Haye 9 February 1642 [O.S.]. + +Les mesmes tempestes qu'ont rejette la Reyne en Hollande m'ont retenu icy +car d'abord quelle fut partye le mauvais temps ne nous pouvoit rien +promestre de meilleur sur son renvoy icy ce qua este le 9 iour apres son +embarquement ayant endure le peril sept iours de tempeste continuelle +n'ayant ramene que trois de ses vaisslaux en ayant perdu un avec tout son +equipage descuyrie et les autres encore sont demeures en doute de leur +salut: le peril ou elle a este, a este si grand quelle eut bien pu +iustifier sa mort de peur mais Dieu luy a donne un soutien par sa grace: +... elle na iamais tesmoigne aprehension dans les preparatifs de la mort +que pour les affaires de Dieu et du Roy son mary: les relations que les +peres en font sont si extraordinaires quelle ont besoin dune telle +authorite pour les faire croyables. Le iour apres quelle debarqua (ce +quelle fit dans un petit bateau de pescheur trouve a la mer) elle receut +nouvelle dune trahison decouverte dans son armee pour la livrer entre les +mains des rebelles mais aussi beaucoup des instances de la part du Roy et +du pays pour sa venue avec grand apparence de surete pour sa persone et +grande aprehension de confusion dans les affaires sans l'assistance de sa +presence tellement quelle se resoult contre tous les sentiments de son sexe +et de sa sante mesme de se rambarquer au plus tost ... elle a fait grande +perte dans ce naufrage mais elle a gagne dans l'opinion de tous les temoins +ce quelle ne scauroit iamais perdre.... + + +V + +P.R.O. ROMAN TRANSCRIPTS + +(_To Cardinal Barberini_) + + Mon cousin, + +Les bons effets que vous m'aues rendu de v[~re] amitie et particulierement +en les vingt et cinque mille escus, que vous m'auez fourny par le Baron +Herbert filtz du Marquis Wostre ont bien fait voyr le sentiment que vous +auez des nos souffrances et de l'estat de nos affayres icy. Je vous supplye +de croyre que comme j'embrasse auec une singuliere affection cette v[~re] +bonne volonte envers nous, aussy vous fairray je paroystre la gratitude que +j'en ay en toute occasion qui se presentera a ce fayre estant. + + Mon cousin, + vostre affectionnee cousine, + + HENRIETTE MARIE R. + + D'Oxford ce 20^{me} de Septembre 1643. + +(The transcriber notes that the hand is like that of the King and that the +signature is "Vostre affectionnee cousine," instead of the Queen's usual +"Vostre tres affectionnee cousine"; he also notes the use of the pronoun +"nous.") + + +VI + +ARCHIVES OF THE SEE OF WESTMINSTER + +_Endorsed_ Securitus in jurando. 1645. + +Si ex una parte dignabitur regia Maiestus liberare Catholicus suos subditos +a timore legum poenalium edictarum contra Recusantes ob causam Reliquiis +eis que certo et constanter concedere liberum usum Catholicae Religionis +intra privatos parietes. + +Dicti Subditi ex altera parte exhibent se parotos ex hac hora ad fidem et +obedientiam suae maiestati perpetuo ac firmiter servandam sub solemni +juramento; quantum libet augeatur Catholicorum numerus in posterum vel +conspirent ullo tempore inter se quincunque Principes esterii ad +restituendum, sen stabiliendum vi et armis publicum usum Catholicae +religionis in hoc Regno. + +Ad maius robur (si expedire videbitur) addi potest Breve pontificum, quod +sine dubio sua S^{tas} facile concedet, pro ratificatione seu confirmatione +dicti juramenti. + + +VII + +P.R.O. ROMAN TRANSCRIPTS + +(_To Innocent X_) + + Tressaint Pere, + +Le sieur Crashau ayant este Ministre en Angleterre et nourri dans les +Universites de ce pais parmy des gens tres esloignes des sentiments de +nostre Sainte Religion sest toutes fois par sa lecture et son estude rendu +Catholique et pour en jouir plus paisiblement l'exercise, s'est transporte +en deca et vescu pres d'un an aupres de moy, ou par le bon example de sa +vie il a beaucoup edifie tous ceux qui ont, converse avec luy. Ce qui m'a +convie s'en allant presentem a Rome d'escrire ce mot a vostre Ste pour la +prier de le considerer comme une personne de qui les Catholique Anglois ont +conceu de grandes esperances, et que j'estime beaucoup, et de luy departir +ses graces, et faveurs aux occasions qui se presenteront. Ce que +j'estim[~ea]y parmy les autres obligations particulieres que jay a V.S. Et +sur ce je prie Dieu Tressaint Pere quil conserve V.S. longues annees pour +le bien et utilite de son Esglise. + +De S. Germain-en-Laye ce 7 Septembre 1646. + + V[~re] tres devotte fille + + HENRIETTE MARIE R. + + +VIII + +ARCHIVES OF THE SEE OF WESTMINSTER + +Upon the Ground given in the 12th Proposall, printed August the first 1647, +by authoritie from his Excellence Sir Thomas Fayrfax, that All the Penall +statutes in force against Roman Catholickes shall be repealed. + +And further that they shall enjoy the liberty of theyr consciences, by +Grant from the Parliament; It may bee enacted that it shall not be lawfull +for any person or persons beeinge subiects to the Crowne of England to +professe or acknowledge for truth, or perswade others to beeleive these +ensuinge Propositions. + +1 + +That the Pope or church, hath powre to absolve any person or persons +whatsoeuer, from his or theyr obedience to the Civill Government +established in this Nation. + +2 + +That it is lawfull in it selfe or by the Popes dispensation to break eyther +word or oath with any Heretickes. + +3 + +That it is lawfull by the Pope, or churches command or dispensation to +kill, destroy, or otherwise to iniure or offende any person or persons +whatsoever because hee or they are accused, or condemned, censured, or +exco[~m]unicated for Error, Schisme or Heresy. + +The premises considered wee on the other side sett our hands that every one +of these three propositions may bee lawfully answered unto in the Negative. + + + + +INDEX + + + Abercorn, James Hamilton, Earl of, 121 + + Aiguillon, Duchess of, 268 + + Alexander, Sir William, Earl of Stirling, 116 + + Andrewes, Lancelot, Bishop of Winchester, 109 + + Angus, William Douglas, Earl of, 114 + + Anne of Austria, Queen of France-- + Wife of Louis XIII, 3; + disliked by Richelieu, 15; + relations with Buckingham, 15, 16, 22-4, 66-8; + intrigues against France, 131; + falls under Mazarin's influence, 207; + receives Henrietta in Paris, 219; + death of, 309, 310; + mentioned, 12, 34, 49, 208, 220, 225, 252, 260, 266, 273, 280, 283, + 284, 286, 289, 293, 314 + + Ashburnham, John, 131 + + Aubert, Maurice, 56 _n._ + + Ayton, Sir Robert, 69, 160 + + + Banbury, Elizabeth, Countess of, 222 + + Barberini, Cardinal Francesco-- + His interest in England, 110, 118; + Henrietta's letters to, 175-7; + policy with regard to Ireland, 231; + men., 121, 122, 124, 125, 136, 160, 163, 164, 178, 231, 243 + + Bassompierre, Marshal de-- + His mission to England, 57-60; + men., 286, 287 + + Bellievre, M. de, 143 + + Berkeley, Sir John, 240, 241 + + Bernini, 111 + + Berthaud, Eugenie Madeline, 290 + + Berulle, Cardinal-- + Sent to Rome to procure dispensation, 6; + friend of Mary de' Medici, 169; + Henrietta's confessor, 23; + character of, 21-2; + death of, 81; + men., 11, 23, 34, 38, 40, 45, 60, 76, 95, 96, 98, 103, 109, 110, 112, + 169, 277 + + Blainville, Marquis de, 39-46 + + Bossuet, Jacques Benigne-- + Preaches Henrietta's funeral sermon at Chaillot, 316; + men., 31, 202 + + Bouillon, Duke of, 232 + + Bristol, John Digby, 1st Earl of, 212 + + Bristol, George Digby, 2nd Earl of, 190, 196, 212, 224, 251 + + Brook, Sir Basil, 173 + + Browne, Sir Richard, 266, 292 + + Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of-- + Relations with Anne of Austria, 15, 16, 22, 23, 66-8; + his conduct to Henrietta and her household, 35 _sqq._; + death of, 62; + men., 5, 7, 67, 130, 135, 137, 221, 310 + + Buckingham, Mary, Countess of, 25, 42, 79 + + Buckingham, Katherine, Duchess of, 139 + + + Cary, Patrick, 249 + + Carlisle, James Hay, Earl of-- + Ambassador at Henrietta's marriage, 5 _sqq._; + men., 46, 50, 51, 57, 66 + + Carlisle, Lucy, Countess of, 66-8, 152, 157, 186, 191 + + Carter, Master, 205 + + Casimir, King of Poland, 314 + + Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II, 307-9 + + Caussin, Father, 282, 283 + + Chantal, Jeanne, Mother, 279, 285 + + Charles I, King of England-- + His marriage, 4 _sqq._; + harshness of, to his wife, 28 _sqq._; + subserviency of, to Buckingham, 5, 38 _sqq._; + gentleness of, to Catholics, 107 _sqq._; + signs Strafford's death-warrant, 185; + final parting of, from his wife, 213; + takes refuge with Scotch, 238; + sold to English, 239; + in hands of Independents, 240; + execution of, 254; + men., _passim_ + + Charles II, King of England-- + Birth of, 64, 65; + men., 147, 180, 219, 257, 261, 264, 265, 268, 269, 270, 272, 275, 302, + 303, 304, 307, 308, 316, 317 + + Chateauneuf, Marquis of-- + His mission to England, 78 _sqq._; + enemy of Richelieu, 80; men., 84, 85, 89, 99, 221, 225 + + Chaulnes, Duchess of, 22 + + Chaulnes, Duke of, 19 + + Chevreuse, Mme de, 5, 16, 18, 21, 22, 30, 36, 49, 66, 80, 82, 85, 146, + 147, 152, 158-60, 218, 219, 224, 225, 319 + + Chevreuse, Duke of-- + Proxy for Charles at his marriage, 8 _sqq._; + men., 159 + + Christine, of France, Duchess of Savoy, 2, 3, 135, 188, 267, 280, 303 + + Cholmondley, Sir Hugh, 205 + + Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of, 235, 261, 265, 305 + + Clifford, William, 318 + + Con, George-- + Arrives at Court, 122; + death of, 125; + men., 114-16, 123, 124, 129, 136-8, 149, 150, 160, 161, 164, 173 + + Cosin, John, Bishop of Durham, 137, 266 + + Cowley, Abraham, 221, 222 + + Crashaw, Richard, 221, 222, 249 + + Cromwell, Oliver, 239, 273-5 + + Culpepper, John Culpepper, Lord, 240, 241, 261 + + Cyprien de Gamache, Father, 100, 107, 254, 255, 306, 308 + + + D'Avenant, Sir William, 154, 222, 238 + + Denbigh, Susan, Countess of, 68, 137, 181, 194, 200, 220, 222 + + Denbigh, William Fielding, Earl of, 181, 220 + + Denham, Sir John, 240 + + Des Anges, Mother, 133 + + D'Ewes, Sir Simonds, 74 + + Digby, Sir Kenelm-- + Goes to Rome as Henrietta's ambassador, 231; + his conduct there, 233 _sqq._; + men., 144, 145, 150, 164, 172, 173, 178, 180, 250 _n._ + + Dorset, Frances, Countess of, 65 + + Douglas, Sir Robert, 114-17 + + Du Perron, Jacques Nowell-- + Arrives in England, 100; + death of, 259; + men., 101, 128, 136, 197, 226-8, 266 + + + Elizabeth of England, daughter of Charles I, 267 + + Elizabeth of England, Queen of Bohemia, 195, 212 + + Elizabeth of France, Queen of Spain, 2, 3, 230 + + Estrades, Count of, 143 + + Evelyn, John, 132, 266, 287 + + + Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 245 + + Falkland, Lucius Cary, Viscount, 132, 249 + + Faure, Francis, Bishop of Amiens, 314 + + Fayette, Louise de la-- + Relations with Louis XIII, 280-5; + Superior of Chaillot, 295, 296; + friendship with Henrietta, 297; + death of, 299; + men., 286, 290, 293, 294, 298, 303 + + Fayette, Mme de la, 293 + + Felton, John, 62 + + FitzWilliams, Colonel, 229 + + Fontenay-Mareuil, Marquis of, 83, 84, 102 + + Ford, Sir Edward, 240 + + + Gaston of France, Duke of Orleans, 8, 12, 17, 24-6, 49, 51, 81, 82, 219, + 309 + + Goffe, Stephen, 223 + + Gondi, Jean Francois de, Archbishop of Paris, 9, 10, 286, 289, 295 + + Goodman, Godfrey, Bishop of Gloucester, 109, 171 + + Goring, George Goring, Lord, 181-3 + + Grebner, Paul, 192 + + Gressy, M. de, 208, 223 + + + Habington, William, 63 + + Hamilton, James Hamilton, Duke of, 64 + + Hamilton, Anne, Marchioness of, 137 + + Hamilton, Mary, 290 + + Hamilton, Sir William, 121, 163, 164 + + Hatton, of Kirby-- + Christopher Hatton, Baron, 263, 271 + + Harcourt, Count of, 208, 209 + + Hobbes, Thomas, 222, 267 + + Holden, Henry, 248 + + Holland, Henry Rich, Earl of, 5, 6, 9 _sqq._, 61, 73, 83, 85-7, 117, 147, + 162, 186, 212 + + Henrietta Maria, Queen of England-- + Birth and early years, 1 _sqq._; + her personal appearance, 4, 5, 74; + betrothal, 8; + marriage, 9 _sqq_; + departure for England, 17; + at Amiens, 19-23; + at Boulogne, 23-5; + sails for England, 26; + early relations with her husband, 28 _sqq._; + her household, 30-3; + conduct of Buckingham to, 35 _sqq._; + Charles' unkindness to, 41-5; + goes to Tyburn, 47; + her household expelled, 51-5; + her letter to Bishop of Mende, 53, 54; + her married happiness, 60-2, 91; + her children, 63, 65; + her friendships, 65, 66, 73; + her theatricals, 69-72; + her wardrobe, 74-6; + intrigues with Jars and Chateauneuf against Richelieu and Portland, 88; + development of her character, 88, 89; + her relations with English Catholics, 95 _sqq._; + receives Capuchins, 99; + builds chapel at Somerset House, 101-3; + pleads with Charles for Catholics, 105; + sends Douglas to Rome, 114-17; + receives Panzani, 118; + sends Hamilton to Rome, 121; + her affection for Con, 123; + writes to Christine on Montagu's behalf, 135; + scene in her chapel, 140; + procures Jars' release, 144, 145; + writes urging Catholics to contribute to expenses of Scotch war, 150; + further development of her character, 152; + acts in _Salmacida Spolia_: relations with her mother, 158; + attempts to gain Cardinal's hat for Montagu, 160; + counsels calling of Parliament, 165; + relations with Richelieu, 169; + submits to Parliament, 174; + her letter to Barberini, 175-7; + efforts to keep open communications with Rome, 178; + refused a refuge in France, 180; + efforts to save Strafford, 181; + her share in army plot, 182; + last interview with Rosetti, 187; + accused of complicity in Irish rebellion, 190; + urges Charles to arrest five members, 191; + change in her character, 193; + goes to Holland, 194; + her activity there, 196; + letters to Charles, 198, 199; + shipwrecked, 200, 201; + reception at Burlington Bay, 203; + her military career, 204; + at Oxford, 205-13; + at Exeter, 214; + escapes to France, 215; + reception of, in Paris, 219; + asks for money from French clergy, 226; + intrigues with Confederate Catholics, 229 _sqq._; + sends Digby to Rome, 231; + refuses to receive Rinuccini, 236; + weakness of her policy, 251; + grief on Charles' death, 255-7; + counsels Anne of Austria, 260; + head of "Louvre party," 261, 262; + attempts to convert Gloucester, 267-72; + claims her dowry, 273; + goes to convent in Rue S. Antoine, 279; + founds Chaillot, 286 _sqq._; + her life there, 292, 296, 297; + her letter to nuns on death of Mother de la Fayette, 299; + her joy at the Restoration, 303; + returns to England, 305; + returns again to France, 306; + her last visit to England, 307; + last journey to France, 309; + her last years, 309; + death of, 311; + funeral of, 313-16; + her estate, 316, 317; + supposed marriage with Jermyn, 317 _n._ + + Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orleans-- + Birth of, 214; + marriage of, 307; + death of, 317; + men., 215, 253, 268, 272, 293, 296, 304, 309, 312, 315, 316 + + Henry IV, King of France, 1-3, 65, 92, 96, 105, 126, 128, 142, 174, 180, + 194, 204, 211, 216, 253, 257, 272, 273, 280, 285, 308, 309, 312, 315 + + Henry of England, Duke of Gloucester-- + Henrietta's attempt to convert him, 267-72; + death of, 304; + men., 169 + + + Innocent X-- + His refusal to help Henrietta, 249, 250; + men., 222, 231, 234, 235, 241, 248 + + + James I, King of England, 6, 7, 48, 108, 127, 128 + + James, Duke of York (James II), 198, 261, 272, 301, 305, 307, 317 + + Jars, Chevalier de, 78, 83, 84, 85, 87, 89, 90, 144, 145, 219 + + Jones, Inigo, 154 + + Jonson, Ben, 69, 154 + + + Killigrew, Thomas, 132, 134 + + + Lambert, Father, 315 _n._ + + Laud, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, 69, 88, 108-10, 127, 138, 139, + 141, 166, 171 + + Leander de S. Martino, Father, 33 _n._ + + Leicester, Robert Sidney, Earl of, 168 + + Lennox, James Stuart, Duke of, 64 + + Lewknor, Sir Lewis, 34 _n._ + + Leybourn, George, 247 + + Lhulier, Mother, 286, 288, 290, 295 + + Lilly, William, 106, 192 _n._ + + Louis XIII, King of France-- + At Henrietta's wedding, 8 _sqq._; + relations with his wife, 15; + death of, 207; + relations with Louise de la Fayette, 281-5; + men., 3, 16, 17, 19, 27, 38, 45, 49, 50, 54, 55, 60, 67, 95, 102, 145, + 157, 197, 221 + + Louis XIV, King of France, 153, 219, 252, 259, 266, 274, 293, 303, 304, + 311, 312, 315-17 + + Louise of the Palatine, 294, 295 + + + Magdeleine of S. Joseph, Mother, 11 + + Manchester, Edward Montagu, Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, afterwards 2nd + Earl of, 190, 211, 262 + + Manchester, Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of, 72, 131 + + Mary of England, daughter of Charles I, 181, 194-6 + + Mary de' Medici, Queen of France-- + Satisfaction of, at Henrietta's marriage, 6; + anger at dismissal of her household, 56; + takes refuge in England, 145-8; + death of, 197; + men., 1, 2, 4, 12, 16, 17, 22, 23, 31, 40, 48, 75, 79, 80, 98, 103, + 143, 158, 161, 162 + + Mary, Queen of Scotland, 10, 26, 115, 260 + + Matthew, Sir Tobie-- + His character of Henrietta, 25; + men., 24, 138, 166, 180 + + Mayerne, Sir Theodore, 63, 104, 123, 179, 214, 215, 311 + + Mazarin, Cardinal-- + His friendship with Montagu, 197, 206; + successor of Richelieu, 207; + his policy, 208; + his distrust of Henrietta, 224, 225; + his alliance with Cromwell, 273; + death of, 309; + men., 206, 209, 216, 223, 224, 228, 230, 232, 238, 239, 252, 253, 259, + 260, 274, 275, 302, 305, 309 + + Mende, Daniel du Plessis, Bishop of, 31-4, 36, 37, 40, 41, 46-8, 50, 51, + 53, 54, 59-61, 96, 101, 220, 221 + + Montagu, Ralph Montagu, Duke of, 311, 312 + + Montagu, Viscount, Francis Brown, 222 + + Montagu, Walter-- + Friendship of, with Henrietta, 7 and _passim_; + with Anne of Austria, 49, 131, 207, 209, 262, 263, 310; + with Mazarin, 197; + conversion of, 130-6; + imprisonment of, 209; + takes orders, 263; + death of, 318; + men., 48, 71, 72, 82, 83, 85, 138, 144, 145, 148, 150, 159, 160, 163, + 164, 172, 173, 178, 180, 182, 197, 201, 219, 246, 262, 265-7, 269-72, + 291, 292, 305, 306, 313 + + Montague, Richard, Bishop of Chichester, 109 + + Montglas, Mme de, 331 + + Montpensier, Mlle de (later Duchess of Orleans), 12, 51, 221, 272 + + Montpensier, Mlle de (daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orleans), 219, 257 + + Montreuil, Jean de, 166, 169 + + Montrose, James Graham, Marquis of, 205, 238 + + Motteville, Mme de, 28, 35, 61, 196, 143, 203, 221, 279, 281, 285, 293, + 294, 298, 309, 310 + + + Newcastle, William Cavendish, Earl of (later Marquis and Duke), 202, 205 + + Newport, Anne, Countess of, 137, 138 + + Newport, Mountjoy Blount, Earl of, 138, 159 + + Nicholas, Sir Edward, 261, 238 + + Northumberland, Algernon Percy, Earl of, 154 + + Norwich, George Goring, Earl of, 13, 162, 194, 223, 224 + + + Orange, Frederick Henry, Prince of, 194, 201, 218, 223 + + Orange, William, Prince of, 181, 196 + + Orange, William, Prince of (William III), 317 + + O'Hartegan, Father, 229-31, 236 + + Ormonde, James Butler, Marquis of, 237, 247, 261, 265 + + + Panzani, Gregorio, 120, 129, 137, 188, 189 + + Patin, Gui, 314 + + Pendrick, Robert, 178 + + Percy, Henry, 73, 183, 220, 244 + + Peters, Hugh, 240 + + Philip of France, Duke of Anjou, later of Orleans, 219, 304, 315, 317 + + Philip, Father Robert-- + Henrietta's confessor, 55; + enemy of Richelieu, 82, 99; + sent to Tower, 186; + death of, 265; + men., 113, 117, 150, 182, 194, 215, 244 + + Portland, Richard Weston, Earl of, 81, 85, 87, 88, 123 + + Prynne, William, 72 + + Pym, John, 66, 161, 171, 177, 183, 186, 191 + + + Retz, Cardinal de, 9, 220, 252 + + Richelieu, Cardinal-- + Arranges Henrietta's marriage, 4 _sqq._; + his spies, 33; + intrigues against him, 80 _sqq._; + relations of, with English Catholics, 94, 95; + dislike of, to Henrietta, 142, 143; + releases Jars, 144, 145; + relations of, with England, 167, 168; + refuses to receive Henrietta in France, 179; + friend of Puritans, 191; + death of, 206; + relations of, with Louise de la Fayette, 181-3; + men., 1, 30, 33, 34, 40, 49, 56, 59, 67, 78, 80, 85, 86, 88, 89, 104, + 113, 117, 127, 134, 135, 152, 160, 169, 191, 197, 218 + + Richmond, Frances, Duchess of, 64 + + Rinuccini, Giovanni Battista-- + His embassy in Ireland, 255 _sqq._ + + Rochefoucault, Cardinal de, 9, 13 + + Rosetti, Count-- + His first impressions of England, 161; + leaves England, 187, 188; + men., 129, 162, 164, 170, 173, 174, 176-8 + + Roxburgh, Jane, Countess of, 65, 194 + + Rubens, Peter Paul, 70, 103, 111, 211 + + Rupert, Prince, 212 + + Rutland, Cecily, dowager Countess of, 151 + + + Sabran, M. de, 215, 223 + + St. Albans, Henry Jermyn, Earl of-- + His friendship with Henrietta, 73; + concerned in army plot, 182 _sqq._; + with Henrietta in France, 220; + his influence over her, 238; reported + marriage with, 317 _n._; + death of, 318; + men., 82, 86, 87, 196, 198, 203, 214-16, 230, 237, 243, 251, 254, 261, + 265, 274, 305, 306, 312 + + S. Georges, Mme, 9, 31, 38, 44, 52, 53, 54, 58, 60, 61, 65, 80, 199, 221 + + Sancta Clara, Father, 120, 124 + + Sales, S. Francis de, 280, 286, 314 + + Salvetti, 142, 185 + + Saucy, Father, 39, 58 + + Scarampi, 235 _n._ + + Seguier, Mother Jeanne, 197, 319 + + Senault, Father, 315 + + Smith, William, Bishop of Chalcedon, 95, 112-14, 117, 232 + + Soissons, Count of, 3, 12 + + Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of-- + Thrown into prison, 171; + his trial, 180; + execution, 185; + men., 66, 88, 138, 156, 157, 159, 161, 162, 184, 190, 252 + + Suckling, Sir John, 72, 183 + + Surin, Father, 133 + + + Tillieres, Count Leveneur de, 29, 30, 35, 38, 39, 51, 57, 125, 287, 288 + + Tillieres, Mme de, 31, 52 + + Tomkins, Master, 211 + + + Urban VIII, 6, 14, 33, 57, 110, 113-18, 121-4, 136, 172, 175-7, 187, 230, + 231, 235 + + + Valette, Duke of, 159, 179 + + Vane, Sir Henry, 170 + + Vantelet, Mme de, 55, 57, 82, 87 + + Van Dyck, Anthony, 25, 62, 111, 155 + + Velada, Marquis of, 159 + + Vendome, Duchess of, 255 + + Viette, Father, 55 _n._, 315 _n._ + + Ville-aux-clercs, M. de (Comte du Brienne), 6 _n._, 27, 39, 64 + + + Wadding, Father Luke, 234, 235 + + Waller, Edmund, 69, 211, 306 + + White, Thomas, 243, 244, 248 + + Williams, John, Bishop of Lincoln, later Archbishop of York, 32 + + Winchester, William Paulet, Marquis of, 97, 246 + + Windbank, Francis, 90, 120, 121, 163, 164, 168, 170, 182 + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HENRIETTA MARIA*** + + +******* This file should be named 38294.txt or 38294.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/8/2/9/38294 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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