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diff --git a/old/69499-0.txt b/old/69499-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3cbff70..0000000 --- a/old/69499-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7916 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Anne Hyde Duchess of York, by J. R. -Henslowe - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Anne Hyde Duchess of York - -Author: J. R. Henslowe - -Release Date: December 8, 2022 [eBook #69499] - -Language: English - -Produced by: MWS, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANNE HYDE DUCHESS OF -YORK *** - - - - ANNE HYDE - DUCHESS OF YORK - - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - RECENT BOOKS - _Demy 8vo. Cloth. Fully Illustrated_ - - =TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED.= - By HUDSON STUCK, - Archdeacon of Yukon. 16s. net. - - =A WOMAN IN CHINA.= - By MARY GAUNT. 15s. net. - - =THROUGH UNKNOWN NIGERIA.= - By JOHN W. RAPHAEL. 15s. net. - - =THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN.= - By E. VIEBLE CHATTERTAU. 12s. 6d. net. - - =IN THE BALKAN COCKPIT.= - By W. H. CRAWFORD PRICE. 10s. 6d. net. - - =THE AMERICA’S CUP RACES.= - By H. L. STENE. 10s. 6d. net. - - =MY BOHEMIAN DAYS IN LONDON.= - By JULIUS M. PRICE. 10s. 6d. net. - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -[Illustration: - - ANNE HYDE -] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - ANNE HYDE - DUCHESS OF YORK - - - - - - BY - - J. R. HENSLOWE - AUTHOR OF “DUKE’S WINTON—A CHRONICLE OF SEDGMOOR,” ETC. - - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - LONDON - T. WERNER LAURIE LTD. - 8 ESSEX STREET, STRAND - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - -Among the records, few at best, left by time of her who was destined to -be the mother of two queens regnant of England, there is one which bears -its own pathetic significance. - -It is a very small book, only about four inches long by three wide, -bound in stamped leather from which the gilding is half worn away, with -a broken silver clasp, and thick, stiff pages.[1] - -Footnote 1: - - Additional MSS., 15,900 B. M. - -Was this little book a gift from Edward Hyde to the young daughter whom -he dearly loved? Who is to tell us now? - -It is a girl’s tiny notebook, a treasure perhaps to her, in which she -writes down occasional memoranda as they occur to her, but as we turn -the leaves it seems to bridge with a familiar touch the centuries which -lie between us and that vanished time. There is a page of figures, a -little poetry (“The Contented Marter”), a list of household matters, “3 -bras candlesticks, 4 bras kittles, driping pans,” and so on. An allusion -to a servant—“Betty came to my Mother”—is on another leaf. - -One fancies, somehow, that Anne kept this book by her bedside, jealously -clasped, along with her little store of devotional reading. She filled -it full of writing in pencil, quite easy to decipher, save that time has -made it pale and dim. - -Some of the sentences are in the French she came to know very perfectly -in later days, and speak of a long dead romance. - - - “Je n’en vey mourir d’amour, mais ce n’est pas pour un infidèle - comme vous.—ANNE HYDE.” - - - “Adieu pour jamais, mais n’oubliez pas la plus misérable - personne du monde.—ANNE HYDE.” - - -Was the “infidèle” meant for Spencer Compton or Harry Jermyn? Do the -plaintive words point to the bitterness of supposed desertion by one -higher than either? When were they written? There is no date to guide -us. - -Elsewhere there is a mention of one, her aunt Barbara Aylesbury, greatly -beloved: - - - “Je l’aime plus que moy-mesne mille fois.—ANNE HYDE.” - - -But on another page (it must have been much earlier), the girl, as girls -will, sets down gravely the short story of her young life, here -transcribed: - - - “If I live till the 22 of March 1653, I am 16 yeare old. My dear - Aunt Bab was when she died 24 yeare old and as much as from - Aprell to August.”[2] (This is the Barbara Aylesbury of the - other entry.) “I was borne the 12 day of March old stile in the - yeare of our Lord 1637 at Cranbourne Lodge neer Windsor in - Barkshire and lived in my owne country till I was 12 yeares old - haveing in that time seen the ruin both of Church and State in - the murtheringe of my Kinge. The first of May old stile 1649 I - came out of England being then 12 yeares old 1 month and 15 - days. I came to Antwerp 6 of May old stile the August following - I went to Bruxells for 3 or 4 days and returned againe to - Antwerp where I stayed 3 weekes being loged at the court of her - Highness the Princess Royall. I returned to Antwerp in May where - I have been ever since February 8 1653. I am now 15 years old.” - -Footnote 2: - - Barbara, daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, died in September - 1652. (Nicholas Papers.) - - -So abruptly the record ends. The writer has no more to say, for she is -yet only on the threshold of life. - -Turn the page. Over the leaf in another hand, large and straggling, -someone has inscribed a final memorandum. The little book would never be -wanted by its owner any more, but there was room for this. - - - “On the 3 day of March being fryday the Dutchess dyed at St - James and was buried the wednesday following 1671.” - - -Between the two dates a little span of years, not a score; and yet how -great a sum of the things which go to fill up life—of hope and love and -splendour, of pain and grief and disappointment. - - * * * * * - -It is this story that we try now to construct out of the memorials of -her time; the life story of the woman who, without any extraordinary -beauty or charm, so far as we are able to judge, to balance the -comparative obscurity from which she sprang, was fated in an age when -the claims of high birth were jealously guarded to become the wife of a -Prince of the Blood Royal of England. - -Even in the seventeenth century, gilded as it was by the slowly dying -radiance of romance, the “glory and the dream” of chivalry, the strange -tale reads like a fable, and yet the life, short as it was, of Anne -Hyde, had results for her age and country which even now can hardly be -measured accurately and dispassionately, like the ever-widening circles -on the surface of a pool into which a pebble has been cast. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I. PARENTAGE 1 - - II. YOUTH 18 - - III. JAMES STUART 73 - - IV. THE MARRIAGE 109 - - V. THE DUCHESS 159 - - VI. THE FALL OF CLARENDON 211 - - VII. THE TURNING-POINT 239 - - VIII. THE END 276 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - ANNE HYDE _Frontispiece_ - - ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA 26 - - JAMES DUKE OF YORK 102 - - HENRY DUKE OF GLOUCESTER 136 - - HENRIETTA MARIA, “MOTHER 144 - QUEEN” - - JOHN EVELYN 156 - - PRINCE RUPERT 168 - - ELIZABETH COUNTESS OF 178 - CHESTERFIELD - - FRANCES JENNINGS, DUCHESS OF 192 - TYRCONNEL - - EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON 234 - - HENRIETTA DUCHESS OF ORLEANS 286 - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - ANNE HYDE, DUCHESS - OF YORK - - - - - CHAPTER I - - PARENTAGE - - -THERE is, after all, something to be said for the birth of Anne Hyde. - -Edward Hyde, the famous Chancellor and historian of the Great Rebellion, -though the first peer of his name, could still, quite honestly, boast of -long and honourable descent. - -The Hydes of Norbury, in the county of Cheshire, celebrated by Camden in -his “Britannia,” had handed down that possession from father to son -since the far-back days before the Norman Conquest, but the first of the -race with whom we need concern ourselves is the grandfather of the -future Chancellor.[3] - -Footnote 3: - - “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, from his Birth to the Restoration - of the Royal Family,” written by himself. (1759.) - - Evelyn’s “Correspondence.” To Mr Sprat, Chaplain to the Duke of - Buckingham, afterwards Bishop of Rochester. - -Laurence, the seventh son of Robert Hyde of Norbury, could claim, -naturally, but a small provision from the paternal resources, but his -mother seems to have looked carefully to his education, as the best -chance for his future, and he was placed as a clerk in one of the -auditors’ offices of the Exchequer. - -Thence he was employed in the affairs of Sir Thomas Thynne, who under -Protector Somerset in a short time raised a great estate, and was the -first of his name to possess Longleat. - -Laurence Hyde, however, held the post little more than a year—and gained -nothing by it—but soon afterwards he married Anne, widow of Matthew -Colthurst of Claverton, near Bath, who brought him a fair fortune, and -by this marriage he had four sons and four daughters, the sons being -Robert, Laurence, Henry and Nicholas. He bought, at the time of his -marriage, the manor of West Hatch in the county of Wilts, but at his -death he left the greater part of his estate to his widow. - -Of the four sons above mentioned, the second, named also Laurence, -became eventually “a lawyer of great name and practice,” being attorney -to Queen Anne of Denmark, and obtaining knighthood in due course. His -next brother, by name Henry, was at the time of his father’s death -already entered at the Middle Temple, being a good scholar and a Master -of Arts of Oxford. He was supposed (probably by his brothers and -sisters) to be his mother’s favourite, and perhaps it was because he was -the “spoilt child,” that he stoutly announced that “he had no mind to -the law” but wished to enlarge his mind by travel. Having with some -difficulty, as may be conjectured, extracted his mother’s unwilling -consent, he went joyfully off on the Grand Tour, going through Germany -from Spa to Italy. There he visited Florence, Siena and Rome, which, by -the way, was then inhibited to the subjects of Elizabeth, and he somehow -managed to obtain the protection of Cardinal Allen, probably a very -necessary precaution. However, in due time Henry Hyde came safely back -from what was then, and for long afterwards, considered a perilous -undertaking, and was of course on his return persuaded forthwith to -marry. - -The wife who was chosen was Mary, one of the daughters and heirs of -Edward Longford of Trowbridge, and Henry Hyde appears from this time to -have settled down peaceably in his native county. He served as burgess -for some neighbouring boroughs in many parliaments, and moreover, like -his father before him, had a numerous family of four sons and five -daughters. - -Of his sons, the third, Edward, lived to be the Lord Chancellor. - -Edward Hyde was born at his father’s house of Dinton, Wilts, on 18th -February 1609, and as a child was taught by a schoolmaster to whom his -father presented the living. - -After the fashion of those days, which peopled both the universities -with mere children, the boy was sent at the age of thirteen to Magdalen -Hall, Oxford, and thereafter entered at the Middle Temple by his uncle, -Nicholas Hyde, afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.[4] - -Footnote 4: - - “Autobiography of Sir John Bramston.” - -In his early youth there came to Edward Hyde an experience which seems -to us to embody a brief and sad romance. He married in 1629 the daughter -of Sir George Ayliffe of Gretenham in his own county of Wilts, but -before six months were past, the poor young bride was smitten by -smallpox, that scourge of the seventeenth century, and died. He says of -himself that “he bore her Loss with so great Passion and Confusion of -spirit that it shook all the frame of his Resolutions.” - -However, in 1632, when he was but twenty-four, the young widower -repaired his loss by a second marriage with Frances, daughter of Sir -Thomas Aylesbury, a union which proved to be a very happy one. With -reference to this marriage Sir Bernard Burke, in his “Romance of the -Aristocracy,” gives a curious tradition respecting the descent of -Frances Aylesbury. - -Some time early in the seventeenth century, a barefooted and destitute -girl arrived one day at a roadside tavern in the village of Chelsea, and -being kindly welcomed there, told the landlord that she was tramping to -London, hoping to take service there. As it happened, the situation of -“pot-girl” was then vacant at the Blue Dragon, and “Anne” forthwith -stepped into the place. A rich brewer was in the habit of coming every -day for his evening draught, and being attracted by the girl’s manner -and appearance, married her within three months. Before long he died, -leaving “Anne” a wealthy widow, to whom came many suitors. From among -these she chose Sir Thomas Aylesbury, Master of Requests and the Mint, -who moreover possessed lands in Buckinghamshire. - -After many years there arose a dispute as to the property of the late -brewery, and Lady Aylesbury was recommended to employ a young barrister, -by name Edward Hyde, who was destined thereafter to become her -son-in-law. - -From this tale was drawn the obvious conclusion that the two queens of -England, Mary and Anne, were great-granddaughters of a beggar maid. - -Fortunately Burke merely gives the romantic story for what it is worth, -and suggests that very probably it was coined after the Restoration by -some one of Hyde’s numerous enemies, who were envious of his steady -ascent to rank and distinction, and found a theory of obscure -connections very comforting to their own souls. - -In February 1634 we find young Hyde appointed one of the managers of a -masque presented before the King by the Inns of Court, as a protest -against Prynne’s furious attack on the drama. - -Thither came King Charles, stately and gracious, forgetting perhaps for -a brief moment the heavy clouds now gathering low on his horizon to -cover the sky as with a pall: with dreaming, melancholy eyes intent for -a little space on the scene which the masquers unfolded before him; -where, a little before, Ben Jonson had brought many beautiful and dainty -fancies to such rare perfection—but on this occasion it was “The Triumph -of Peace,” by James Shirley. - -Here, on that winter evening, in that great and splendid hall, shone all -the glitter and pageantry and poetic thought so soon to be for long -years eclipsed, leaving a pathetic memory to be cherished through many -weary seasons of strife and disaster by those who had seen it.[5] - -Footnote 5: - - _Dictionary of National Biography_, E. Hyde, 1609-1674. - -Whether young Hyde at this time attracted the King’s special attention -or not, we have no record, but his progress was a steady one. - -As to what manner of man he was, we have his own words. In the curious -sententious method of introspection and self-analysis employed by the -thinkers of that age, Hyde speaks of himself as “in his nature inclined -to Pride and Passion, and to a humour between Wrangling and Disputing -very troublesome”[6]; but he certainly possessed the art of attracting -the friendship of some of the finest spirits of that stormy age, which, -like all periods of stress, produced many such to shine like lamps in -their time. There were the poets Carew and Cotton, the elder Godolphin, -Evelyn, who extols Hyde’s “great and signal merits,” and greatest and -noblest of all, Lucius Carey, Lord Falkland. - -Footnote 6: - - “Life of the Earl of Clarendon,” by himself. - -If, as has been said, a man is known by his friends, then it may surely -be counted to Edward Hyde for righteousness that he had eyes to discern -the shining of that “steadfast star” too early extinguished. There is -nothing more inspiring in English literature than the words in which he -chronicles the going out of that light, the death of his hero on the red -field which gave that pure spirit the peace it craved so earnestly. -“Thus,” says the historian, “fell that incomparable young man in the -four and thirtieth year of his age, having so much despatched the -business of life that the oldest rarely attain to that immense -knowledge, and the youngest enters not into the world with more -innocence, and whosoever leads such a life need not care upon how short -warning it be taken from him.”[7] - -Footnote 7: - - “History of the Rebellion.” Clarendon. - -Edward Hyde’s link with the great Villiers family procured for him -powerful interest, and prompted him to vindicate the detested memory of -the first Duke of Buckingham. This Villiers connection was due partly to -Hyde’s first marriage, as there seems to have been a relationship with -the Ayliffes of Gretenham, and partly to his father-in-law, Sir Thomas -Aylesbury. He, being a distinguished mathematician, had been secretary -first to the Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral of England, and then -to the latter’s successor, Buckingham. To the influence of the powerful -favourite he owed his posts of Master of Requests and of the Mint. -Anthony Wood says that Sir Thomas sat for a short time in Parliament in -the former capacity, and as a matter of form at Oxford in 1643 after the -beginning of the Rebellion. - -His Cavalier sympathies procured for him the sentence of banishment from -England, and he died at Breda at the age of eighty-one. His son, who at -the instance of Charles I. had translated Davila’s “History of the Civil -Wars in France,” was for a time tutor to the second Duke of Buckingham -and his young brother Lord Francis Villiers, who in his turn merits one -word at least. Nothing in the history of the great strife has been -chronicled more heroic nor more pathetic than the fate of that boy—for -he was no more—at Kingston-on-Thames. A true Villiers, “prodigal of his -person,” he fiercely rejected quarter, and with his back against a tree -fought valiantly till he went down under the swords of the Roundheads, -“nine wounds in his beautiful face and body.”[8] Yet it was better -so—better to die in the flush of chivalrous, unstained youth, than to -live out such a life as his brother’s, a life blackened by degrading -vice, gasped out alone, in the “worst inn’s worst room,” as Pope -declared (though this has been denied), the last male of his race. - -Footnote 8: - - Brian Fairfax. - -To return to the Aylesbury tutor of the Villiers brothers; he lived -abroad in exile for a time, and having been obliged to return to England -in 1650, he again left the country, and died six years later in Jamaica, -being then secretary to Major-General Sedgwick. - -Another of Edward Hyde’s friends was Sir Edmund Verney, “of great -courage and generally beloved,”[9] that gallant standard-bearer who was -destined to fall at Edgehill at the beginning of the war, but who as -long as he lived, with Hyde and Falkland, might be considered to -represent the moderate or constitutional loyalists. Having in 1634 been -appointed keeper of writs and rolls of Common Pleas, we find Hyde later -emerging into the arena of public life. In 1640 he organised the royal -party in the Commons, and on the eve of the outbreak drew up the state -papers for the Royalist press.[10] With Colepepper, afterwards famous as -a general, and his friend Falkland, Hyde joined the King at York. At -this time he was member for Wotton Basset in his own county of Wilts, -having been also called to serve for Shaftesbury, which however he -declined. At the dissolution of the Short Parliament in 1640 he was -again, in the constitution of the Long Parliament, returned for his own -constituency. At some time he also seems to have represented Saltash. At -any rate, from the date above referred to, he gave up his practice at -the Bar, and devoted himself to “public business.” - -Footnote 9: - - “Life of the Earl of Clarendon,” by himself. - -Footnote 10: - - “Short History of the English People.” Green. - -We have it under his hand that as late as 1639 the “three kingdoms” were -“flourishing in entire Peace and universal Plenty,” yet we cannot but -think that any one so far-seeing and sagacious as Edward Hyde must have -detected the first low mutterings of the gathering storm by that time. -His personal enmity to Cromwell began early, and at the beginning of the -Long Parliament he was attacked by the bitter Puritan Fiennes for his -steady attachment to the Church.[11] It was then that he was first sent -for by the King, who wished to thank him personally for his defence both -of himself and of the Church, and from this date begins his close -association with Charles. With Prince Rupert, loyal nephew and gallant -soldier as he showed himself to be, Hyde was never on good terms, -neither were his two colleagues,[12] and the trio before mentioned, -whether for good or evil, steadily opposed the sometimes headlong -counsels of the brilliant Prince Palatine. - -Footnote 11: - - “Life of the Earl of Clarendon,” by himself. - -Footnote 12: - - “A Royal Cavalier: The Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine,” by Mrs - Steuart Erskine. - -One of Hyde’s first actions after his election was to secure the -suppression of the Earl Marshal’s Court, while soon after his dispute -with Fiennes, the King wished to appoint him Solicitor-General, though -Hyde declined the post. The triumvirate, Colepepper, Falkland and Hyde -himself, steadfast, upright and loyal, constantly met to consult on the -King’s affairs, in the hope—a vain one as it proved—of stemming the -incoming tide of misfortune. At the beginning of 1643, Hyde was sworn of -the Privy Council, and made Chancellor of the Exchequer, but in common -with many other of the King’s most faithful and wisest servants, we find -him deploring the Queen’s unbounded influence over her husband, who, -since Buckingham’s untimely and tragic death from the dagger of Felton, -had had no supreme adviser. Before Henrietta left for Holland on her -expedition to procure supplies with the jewels she pledged there, she -exacted from the King two utterly preposterous promises: first, to -receive no one who had ever “disserved him” into favour, and secondly, -not to make peace without her consent. After the fatal loss of Falkland -at Newbury fight in this year, the King was anxious to make Hyde -Secretary of State, but the latter declined this office also, and it was -conferred on Digby.[13] But early in the succeeding year the Chancellor -received a proof of his master’s absolute confidence, as he was -entrusted with the care of the Prince of Wales. - -Footnote 13: - - “Life of the Earl of Clarendon,” by himself. - -On the 4th March 1644, though neither master nor servant was to know it, -Edward Hyde parted from King Charles for the last time on earth, and set -out for the west of England with the boy whose life for the next sixteen -years was to be one of weary and ceaseless wandering. - -From Pendennis in Cornwall they went to Scilly and on to Jersey. Here -Hyde himself stayed for two years with Sir George Carteret, remaining -after the Prince left the island for Paris in 1646, both Capel and -Hopton having gone before him. - -The Queen’s mischievous jealousy of Hyde, which had begun early, had not -abated, and she still wrote to the harassed and almost despairing King -letters calculated to prejudice him still further against the former. -Charles, in this case, does not seem to have been really influenced by -them, for he wrote to the Chancellor that he wished him to join his son -as soon as he left France, and even Henrietta herself must have been -seized with some compunction, for she sent for Hyde in 1648. As soon as -he received the summons the latter went to Caen, then to Rouen, and -hearing the Prince was to go to Holland he went to Dieppe to wait, glad -probably of an excuse to avoid the unwelcome interview with the Queen. -Thence he joined Lord Cottington in a frigate going to Dunkirk, but they -were taken by pirates, who, however, did no worse than convey them to -Ostend, whence the Chancellor was able to join the Prince of Wales at -the Hague. - -It was at this time that Hyde came into contact with one of the greatest -and noblest of his king’s servants, but one who was yet the object of -bitter jealousy at the hands of many of his own party, no less than at -those of his enemies. - -Montrose was then in Holland, after the disaster of Philiphaugh, hoping, -plotting, working, with the restless, passionate, indomitable energy -which had achieved so much in the past, yet which was destined to fail -so utterly in the future. At a village near The Hague the two met, the -grave lawyer and the hot soldier, to confer on the state of Scotland and -the prospects therein of the master whom they both served with -whole-hearted and ungrudging devotion. - -There they parted, and Montrose came back to his distracted country to -raise anew the standard, to fight his last fight, to be betrayed by the -basest of traitors, to die a dishonoured death, as his enemies called -it, which was to earn for him, nevertheless, imperishable fame; and Hyde -was to toil on steadfastly for long strenuous years, destined to bring -him fame and place and wealth, and to bring him likewise fresh exile and -bitter disillusion in his age. - -After Hyde’s mission as ambassador to Spain with his friend Lord -Cottington was accomplished, he was at last able to send for his wife -and children to join him in the Low Countries, but before he met them at -Antwerp he made a journey to Paris to see the widowed queen, for by this -time the tragedy at Whitehall had been consummated, and Hyde’s young -charge was king _de jure_ if not _de facto_. Henrietta seems to have -been still possessed with the idea that the Chancellor’s influence with -her son was adverse to her interests, but she received him civilly on -this occasion. - -After the disastrous defeat of Worcester in 1651, and his own romantic -escape, Charles II. bethought him of Hyde, and sent for him to Paris, -keeping him chiefly with him in Flanders on their return there, until -his own departure for Germany.[14] - -Footnote 14: - - They were together for three years at this time. (“Life of the Earl of - Clarendon,” by himself.) - -During this time, Mary, Princess Royal of England, and Dowager of -Orange, showed herself a firm friend to her father’s old servant, and -evinced great kindness to his family, providing them with a house rent -free at Breda some time during the autumn of 1653, Breda being then in -Spanish territory, and not under the States General.[15] - -Footnote 15: - - “Lives of Princesses of England.” M. A. Everett-Green. - -Here, then, he lived, surrounded by those dearest to him, as far as one -can judge a fairly contented life for the next few years. If, as we are -told, his three principles were “a passionate attachment to the religion -and polity of the Church of England, a determination to maintain what he -considered the true ideal of the English constitution, and a desire for -personal advancement,” this last attribute—ambition—could have had -little to feed on during those years at Breda. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - YOUTH - - -IT was at Cranborne Lodge in Windsor Park, the official home of Sir -Thomas Aylesbury, that his grandchild, Edward Hyde’s eldest daughter, -was born on the 12th March 1637, and baptized by the name of Anne, that -of her father’s first wife. It may be mentioned that there is a -tradition, though one altogether disproved, that her birthplace was the -College Farm at Purton, which is said to have belonged to her paternal -grandfather, Henry Hyde.[16] - -Footnote 16: - - “Life of Edward, Lord Clarendon,” by Sir Henry Craik. - -Of her early childhood nothing has come down to us, but in May 1649 the -mother with her five children set out for Antwerp. It was the dreary -year when, immediately following the King’s execution, many of the -broken and impoverished Cavaliers and their families saw no prospect for -the future save in leaving their distracted country, and the Hydes did -as their neighbours. - -Hyde himself, as we have seen, had been despatched hither and thither in -the service of the young King, and when at length he rejoined his -family, it was at Breda. - -The Princess of Orange was always as staunch a champion of her native -country as she was a passionately loving sister to her exiled brothers, -and she was ready at all times to extend a welcome to the forlorn and -beggared English. Hyde, moreover, had been, as she knew, an absolutely -trusted and faithful servant of the slaughtered father whose memory she -cherished so fondly, and she lavished every possible attention on him -and his family. She was upheld here by the good offices of Daniel -O’Neill of the King’s bodyguard, a great friend of Hyde’s, who threw all -his influence into the balance in his favour. Mary, we have seen, gave -tangible proof of her attachment to the exiled Chancellor, as she -generously provided a house at Breda, free of charge, for him and his -family. Here then, Hyde, as we have said, set up his household gods. So -many of the banished English were coming and going about the Princess -Mary’s Court and the person of her brother during many years, that the -Chancellor was by no means destitute of old friends. - -Among these, not the least beloved and trusted was Morley, afterwards -Bishop successively of Worcester and Winchester. He[17] had had a -brilliant record as to learning. A king’s scholar of Westminster at -fourteen, he had been elected to Christ Church at seventeen, and at -Oxford had numbered among his friends Hammond, Sanderson, Sheldon, -Chillingworth and also Falkland, who had often received him at Great -Tew, where one can fancy the two musing together over books, and -communing on all heaven and earth. He was, to some extent, tainted with -Calvinism, but nevertheless, as a royal chaplain, gave his first year’s -stipend for the help of the king in war, and later was deprived of his -canonry and the rectory of Mildenhall by the Parliament. He was present -with the chivalrous Arthur, Lord Capel, on the scaffold, aiding him with -his prayers, and soon after went into exile, first in Paris, then at -Breda where he took up his abode with the Hydes. We find his old friend -the Chancellor, who called him “the best man alive,” recommending him as -a spiritual adviser to Lady Morton, and much later we shall see how far -his influence availed with his pupil, Hyde’s daughter. - -Footnote 17: - - _Dictionary of National Biography._ - -Another of her father’s friends and advisers, destined to be in close -contact with him in later years, was Gilbert Sheldon, afterwards -Archbishop of Canterbury.[18] Belonging as he did to the school of Laud -and Andrewes, his views on certain points differed widely from those of -Morley, yet both were alike in their unswerving loyalty to the King. -Both, too, enjoyed the friendship of Falkland as of Hyde, who indeed -made Sheldon one of the trustees of his papers during his exile. Like -the bulk of his fellows, the latter suffered imprisonment, being ejected -from his College of All Souls, for his “malignancy.” After the -Restoration he was high in the King’s favour, nevertheless he did not -hesitate to refuse to admit Charles to Holy Communion, on the score of -the latter’s evil life. - -Footnote 18: - - _Dictionary of National Biography._ - -In the house at Breda, sedulously cared for by her parents, Anne, the -elder, and by her father at least the best beloved daughter, reached her -seventeenth year. She was a clever, thoughtful girl, unusually well read -for the period and circumstances of her life, a devout churchwoman under -the guidance of Morley and her father, looking out on the life unfolding -before her with a mind which then at least showed singular powers of -balance and perception. - -It may be stated in parenthesis, that the other daughter of the house -was Frances, who subsequently married Sir Thomas Keighley of -Hartingfordbury in Herts, but nothing beyond the bare fact is recorded -of her, after childhood, though Evelyn mentions her as a guest at his -house in 1673. The year 1654 was destined to bring about a change in the -life of Anne which was to prove more momentous than anyone could -foresee. - -In the household of Mary, Princess of Orange, there was a maid of -honour, one Mistress Kate Killigrew. An outbreak of smallpox at Spa -drove the Court to take refuge at Aix-la-Chapelle, but Mistress -Killigrew had already been smitten with the disease and died. - -Without loss of time the Stuart princess nominated Chancellor Hyde’s -young daughter to the vacant post. In this she was backed by her brother -Charles, for whom she had hired a house in Aix, keeping also a table for -him. - -The proposed honour was, however, by no means so welcome as might be -supposed. - -For one thing, the queen-mother, always a woman of impulse and violent -prejudice, had in no degree abated her dislike to Hyde, and everyone was -aware of the fact. O’Neill, it seems, declaring that the Princess -herself had so much kindness for the Chancellor’s daughter that she long -resolved to have her upon the first vacancy, suggested to his friend to -ask for the post for Anne, a proceeding to which Hyde strongly objected, -no doubt smarting under the knowledge of Henrietta’s attitude towards -him. He had, he said, “but one daughter, who was all the company and -comfort her mother had in her melancholic retirement,”[19] and therefore -he was resolved not to separate them, nor to dispose his daughter to a -“Court life,” “which he did in truth perfectly detest.”[20] - -Footnote 19: - - It is possible that the younger daughter, then an infant, might have - been left in England under the charge of friends there. - -Footnote 20: - - “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon,” by himself. 1827. - -In the old days when the dwindling Court had sojourned at Oxford, he had -seen enough and more than enough of the turmoil of intrigues and -jealousy, the incessant petty warfare between the rival factions of -Henrietta and her husband, which the latter at any rate had been -powerless to control, and naturally Hyde was sickened of it all, and -unwilling to venture his “Nan” into a like atmosphere. About the same -time we find him writing to Secretary Nicholas on the matter: “I presume -you think my wife a fool for being so indulgent to her girl as to send -her abroad on such a gadding journey. I am very glad she hath had the -good fortune to be graciously received by her Royal Highness, but I -think it would be too much vanity in me to take any notice of it.”[21] - -Footnote 21: - - “Life of Henrietta Maria.” J. A. Taylor. - -As before said, the King put his oar in, saying to the Chancellor “his -sister having seen his daughter several times, liked her so well that -she desired to have her about her person, and had spoken to him herself, -to move it so as to prevent displeasure from the Queen, therefore he -knew not why Hyde should neglect such an opportunity of providing for -his daughter in so honourable a way.”[22] - -Footnote 22: - - “Tudor and Stuart Princesses.” Agnes Strickland. - -To this Hyde answered: “He could not dispute the reasons with him, only -that He could not give himself Leave to deprive his Wife of her -Daughter’s Company, nor believe that She could be more advantageously -bred than under her Mother”—another shaft aimed at the influence of a -Court.[23] - -Footnote 23: - - “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon,” by himself. Ed. 1759. - -Finally Mary herself bore down all opposition. She had her full share of -the family obstinacy, and was determined to carry her point. In the end, -as might be supposed, she succeeded. Hyde himself went to her, and said -candidly that “if it had not been for her bounty in assigning them a -house where they might live rent free they could not have been able to -subsist,” and he therefore “confessed it was not in his power to make -his daughter such an allowance as would enable her to live in her Royal -Highness’ Court conformably to the position that was offered to -her.”[24] - -Footnote 24: - - “The Royal House of Stuart.” Cowan. - -The Princess promptly answered that she did not mean him to maintain his -daughter in her service, as she took that upon herself, so the father -reluctantly withdrew his opposition, saying “he left his daughter to be -disposed by her mother.” On this point Lady Hyde had consulted Morley, -and, probably to her husband’s surprise, that adviser counselled the -acceptance of the Princess’s offer, on which the latter, recognising her -triumph, remarked cheerfully: “I warrant you my Lady and I will agree on -the matter.” - -One cannot but wonder at Hyde’s backwardness, for he was then so poor -that he was forced to borrow of Nicholas small sums to pay postage for -King Charles. One member of the English royal family there was who -heartily approved and upheld the appointment. The Queen of Bohemia, -Elizabeth Stuart, that unlucky “Queen of Hearts” who attracted to -herself through so many stormy years the chivalrous devotion, among -others, of the gallant Lord Craven, was at all times accustomed to speak -and write her mind. On 7th September 1654 she wrote to Sir Edward -Nicholas: “I heare Mrs Hide is to come to my neece in Mrs Killigrew’s -place which I am verie glad of. She is verie fitt for itt, and a great -favorit of mine.” - -One advantage Hyde himself reaped from his daughter’s advancement. He -records that his wife, “when she had presented her Daughter to the -Princess, came herself to reside with her Husband to his great Comfort -and which he could not have enjoyed if the other Separation had not been -made, and possibly that Consideration had the more easily disposed him -to consent to the other.”[25] - -Footnote 25: - - “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon,” by himself. Ed. 1759. - -[Illustration: - - ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF BOHEMIA -] - -The girl’s own feeling in the matter is expressed in a letter to her -father, dated 19th October, which, under the ceremonious address then -alone admissible, breathes a spirit of strong family affection. - - - “I have received yours of the 13th and shall euer make it soe - much my business strickly to observe all your commands in it - that when euer I transgress any of them in the least degree it - shall be out of ignorance and not willfullness soe that I hope - you shall neuer have cause to repent of the good opinion you are - pleased to have of me and which I shall dayly endeuour to - increase, and since you thinke it fitt for me, shall very - cheerfully submit to a life which I have not much desired but - now looke upon not onely as the will of my Father, but of - Almighty God and therefore doubtles will prove a blessing; but - S^r. you must not wonder if being happy in soe excelent a Father - and Mother I cannot part with them without trouble, for though - as you say I have been soe unfortunate as allways to live from - you yet I looke upon myself now as still more unlikely to be - with you or see you, and though I shall often heare from my - Mother and I hope see her, yet that will be but little in - respect of being continually with her. I say not this that I - repine at goeing to the Princess for I am confident that God - that has made her soe gracious in desiring me will make me happy - in her service, but I should be the worst of chilldren if I were - not very sensible of leaving soe good a Mother and leaving her - so much alone; but I hope you will be together this winter, and - in the meane time I beseech you to perswad her to stay as long - as shee can w^{th} vs at the Hague, that shee may be as little - as is possible alone heare; I humbly beg your blessing vpon - - “S^r. - - “Your most dutifull and obedient daughter, - - “ANNE HYDE.”[26] - -Footnote 26: - - Clarendon MS., vol. xlix., folio 70 (Bodleian Library). - - -So she entered upon the duties of her new life, if with a certain shy -reluctance, yet probably with a more or less eager curiosity and -anticipation, feeling within herself a capacity to fulfil adequately the -demands of this altered sphere. - -As might be supposed, Queen Henrietta, on hearing of the appointment, -flew into a passion and quarrelled hotly with her elder daughter, her -constant appeals to whom to dismiss the obnoxious “Nan Hyde” almost -seeming as though, if such a thing were possible, she had a sort of -presentiment of the future. - -Hyde himself had reminded Mary of her mother’s probable resentment, but -the Princess answered simply: “I have always paid the duty to the Queen -my Mother which was her due, but I am mistress of my own family, and can -receive what servants I please, nay—I should wrong my Mother if I -forebore to do a good and just action lest her Majesty should be -offended at it. I know that some ill offices have been done you to my -Mother, but I doubt not that in due time she will discern that she has -been mistaken.”[27] - -Footnote 27: - - “Lives of the Queens of England.” Agnes Strickland. - -If the young maid of honour could write submissively to her father, she -was not backward in admonishing her brothers, but in reading the -following letter one must bear in mind that she was the eldest, and no -doubt quite honestly believed that she was fulfilling a duty in giving a -piece of advice. - - - “BREDA, _6 - Oct. 1654_. - - “DEARE BROTHER,—This is to shew you that I will not allways be - soe lasey as not to answer your letters, and indeed I will never - be soe without a just cause for I am never better pleased than - when I am walkeing with you as me thinks I am when I am - writteing to you. I am sory to heare you doe not goe to Collogne - with my Father for I wish you might see as much as is possible - now you are abroad but our present condition will not permit us - what we most desire but I doubt not of a happy change and then - you will have all that is fitt for you which I most earnestly - wish you and truely it is one of the things I beg dayly of - Allmighty God to see you a very good and very happy man which I - shall not doubt of if you make it your business (as I hope you - ever will) to serve him and pleas my Father and Mother. My - service to all my acquaintance with you. I will not send it to - any of the Princesses Court becaus I belieue them all gone. My - Brothers and all heare are your seruants and I am ever yours - most affectionately, - - “A. H.”[28] - -Footnote 28: - - Clarendon State Papers (Bodleian). - - -Anne once established in her new post, the Queen of Bohemia did not -forget her sentiments of friendship, for on the 16th November[29] we -find her again writing to Secretary Nicholas from the “Hagh” -(Elizabeth’s spelling was at any rate no worse than her neighbours’): “I -pray remember me to Mr Chancellor and tell him his Ladie and my favorit -his daughter came hither upon Saterday and are gone this day to Teiling. -I finde my favourit growen euerie way to her advantage.” A little later, -too, that is, on 11th January 1654-1655, she tells the same -correspondent: “We had a Royaltie though not vpon twelf night at Teiling -where my neece was a gipsie and became her dress extream well.” “Mrs -Hide was a shepherdesse and I assure you was verie handsome in it, none -but her Mistress looked better than she did. I beleeve my Lady Hide and -Mr Chancellor will not be sorie to heare it which I pray tell them from -me.” It was a kind little message from one mother to another. Elizabeth -Stuart’s roving life had perhaps taught her sympathy, grafted on to the -traditional good nature of her family. It is all the more surprising -that her own large flock of children “got on,” as one says, so badly -with their mother, though she did care more for her sons than for her -daughters.[30] However, that she took a fancy to “Nan Hyde” was certain. -Beauty, it is true, was lavishly distributed among those high-spirited, -high-handed Princes and Princesses Palatine (among whom their cousin -Charles II. so nearly found a bride), but it was probably Anne’s acute -perception and strong intellect that appealed to their brilliant mother. -Nevertheless she could, as we have seen, look with a keen and -appreciative eye on the girl’s personal appearance. Anne at eighteen was -at her best. The large frame had not yet thickened into the proportions -which so early in life discounted her claims to beauty. She had the -charm of expression, of good eyes, of vivacity, and then at least of -exuberant spirits. - -Footnote 29: - - Evelyn’s “Correspondence.” - -Footnote 30: - - “A Royal Cavalier: The Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine.” Mrs - Steuart Erskine. - -The “Royaltie” which the Queen describes was not unique. There were many -such revels at the Court of The Hague. The Princess Mary, recovered from -the shock of her early widowhood, and eager for enjoyment, loved these -occasions, and shone at them with hereditary grace, while in every -festive gathering her maids necessarily bore their part. The Queen -writes to her nephew, Charles II., during the same January of another -Royalty—she wrote to him very often, by the way: - - - “Though I believe you had more meat and drink at Hannibal - Sestade’s, yet I am sure our fiddles were better and dancers; - your sister was very well dressed like an amazon; the Princess - Tarente like a shepherdess; Mademoiselle d’Orange, a nymph. They - were all very well dressed, but I wished all the night your - Majesty had seen Vanderdons. There never was seen the like; he - was a gipsy, Nan Hyde was his wife; he had pantaloons close to - him of red and yellow striped, with ruffled sleeves; he looked - just like a Jock-a-lent. They were twenty-six in all, and came - [not?] home till five o’clock in the morning.”[31] - -Footnote 31: - - “Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia.” M. A. Green, revised by S. C. - Lomas. - - -A little before this Elizabeth had written to the same correspondent of -the amusements of his sister: - - - “My dear niece recovers her health and good looks extremely by - her exercises, she twice dancing with the maskers; it has done - her much good. We had it two nights, the first time it was - deadly cold, but the last time the weather was a little better. - The subject your Majesty will see was not extraordinary, but it - was very well danced. Our Dutch minister said nothing against - it, but a little French preacher, Carré, by his sermon set all - the church a-laughing.” - - -An early allusion to the festivities in which Anne Hyde afterwards -shared and shone. - - * * * * * - -In the year 1655, within a few months of her appointment in the Princess -Mary’s service, Anne’s young charms of mind and body brought to her feet -at least one lover worth the winning. - -At The Hague, in those days, among the many exiled Cavaliers who were -generally made welcome at the Court of their young King’s elder sister, -was Sir Spencer Compton, not the least distinguished of his gallant -race. He was the youngest son of the loyal Earl of Northampton, and when -but a child wept bitterly because he could not go forth to battle with -his chivalrous brothers, seeing his small fingers could not grasp one of -the great wheel-lock pistols of that day.[32] With characteristic -contempt of concealment, he made no secret of his passion for Mistress -Anne. Charles II. himself with his usual love of mischief wrote to Henry -Bennet, afterwards Lord Arlington: “I will try whether Sir Spencer -Compton be so much in love as you say, for I will name Mrs Hyde before -him so by chance except that he be very much smitten it shall not at all -move him.”[33] We are not told how young Compton stood the test, but it -was pretty enough, that love-idyll of youth presented among the sylvan -shades of the wooded Hague, though whether from interference or the -coldness of the young maid of honour it was destined to fade quickly and -pass into the limbo of things forgotten. One would like to know the -story, but nothing more remains to us. Another suitor was Lord Newburgh, -of whom Sir George Radcliffe wrote from Paris in the spring: “Onely one -tould me yesterday a pretty story of him y^t he must marry Mr -Chancellor’s daughter (who waites of y^e Princesse Royale) and so by ye -Chanc: meanes be engaged in all the Scots affaires. The Chanc: has much -talke of him at y^e Pallais Royale where he is thought to be a powerfull -man at y^e Court at Cologne. A person of honour would needs persuade me -that y^e Princesse Royall had provided for 3 of his children (which was -2 more than I had heard on).” Here there is a touch of the jealousy of -Hyde’s influence and prosperity which was afterwards so widely spread. - -Footnote 32: - - Sir Philip Warwick. - -Footnote 33: - - Evelyn’s “Correspondence.” - -We hear also of some sentimental passages with the conquering Harry -Jermyn, who was said, on what authority it is now difficult to decide, -to have been afterwards privately married to the Princess Mary. The same -story, by the way, was told of his uncle, the elder Jermyn, and Queen -Henrietta. - -How far, however, the heart of the maid of honour was really concerned -in these fleeting love affairs it is useless to conjecture. She was -probably ready enough to be amused, and, conscious that she was not a -beauty, to be flattered at such homage. - -She was not idle, either; she was always fond of writing and ready with -the pen, and at some time during her service—there is no date -attached—Anne bethought her to set down in writing the character of her -royal mistress. The manuscript is not in the girl’s own hand, but it is -endorsed: “Pourtrait of ye Princess Royall drawne by Mrs Anne Hyde.” - - - “Ceux qui connoissent l’admirable Princesse dont j’entreprend le - portrait trouveront bien étrange qu’une personne si peu capable - que moy, de la bien representer oze l’hazarder a un si grand - ouvrage et on m’accusera assurement de vanité ou de folie. Mais - comme j’y suis toute preparée cela ne m’exonnera pas ni ne - m’empêchera de commencer comme je ‘avois resolue, en vous disant - qu’elle a la taille la plus belle et la plus libre du monde et - qu’oy qu’Elle n’est pas des plus grandes il s’en voy beaucoup - plus au dessous qu’au dessus de la Sienne elle a les cheveux - d’un fort beau brun fort lustre et en grande quantité, les yeux - grands et si beaux et brillans qu’on a de la peine a en - supporter l’esclar. Son nes est un peu grand mais si bien fait - que cela n’otte rien de la beauté de son visage. Sa bouche est - fort belle, et les lèvres des plus vermeilles que l’on puisse - voir, les dens belles, le tour du visage parfaitement beau, et - le teint se uniet si beau qu’il ne se puisse rien voir au monde - qui l’égalle, la gorge belle, les bras et les mains de mesme. - Enfin on vois en toute sa personne quelque chose de si grande et - de si relevée que sans la connoistre on verroit combien elle est - au dessus du reste du monds. Elle a meilleure mine que personne, - et quoy qu’Elle a asses de douceur pour luy gaigner le cœur de - tous ceux qui la voyent. Elle a aussi une certaine fierte qui - luy fait craindre et respecter de tous le monde et qui sied fort - bien a une personne de sa condition. Pour son intérieur il est - tellement impossible de la connoistre, qu’il est bien difficile - pour moy d’y bien reussir; pour de l’esprit, Elle en a - infiniment mais de l’esprit vif et penetrant et qui la rend de - la meilleure humeur du monde, quand Elle veut obliger ceux avec - qui Elle se trouve; mais quand Elle ne se plait pas, Elle est - tout a fait retirée, ne pouvant se contraindre pour qui que se - soit quoy qu’Elle est generallement civile, mais Elle regarde la - contrainte comme une chose peu necessaire aux personnes de sa - qualité, les croyans plus faits pour eux mesmes, que pour les - autres; Et c’est ce qui est cause qu’Elle parle moins que - personne quand Elle est dans des Compagnies ou Elle ne veut pas - estre tout a fait familière; cela fait a croire a ceux qui ne la - connoissent pas qu’Elle est plus glorieuse qu’Elle n’est en - effet, il est vray qu’Elle l’est un peu mais il ne luy mésied - point, car il y a asseurement une espèce de gloire qui est - necessaire à toutes les femmes et sur toutes a celles de sa - naissance: Elle est tout a fait genereuse, et oblige de bonne - grace ceux pour qui Elle a de l’amitié, il est vray qu’Elle n’en - a pas pour beaucoup, mais Elle est parfaitement bonne amie où - elle en fait profession et ne change jamais, à moins que de luy - donner grand sujet, mais quand Elle a une fois mauvaise opinion - d’une personne pour qui Elle a eue de l’amitié, on ne se remet - jamais bien avec Elle, quoy qu’en apparence Elle vit fort bien - avec eux; ce qui marque qu’Elle est plus dissimulée qu’Elle ne - croit. Elle est asses colere qu’oy qu’Elle ne le temoigne guere - car en ses humeurs la Elle se renferme des apres diners entieres - sans voir qui que se soit; Elle parait plus indifferente que - personne, mais ceux qui ont l’honneur de la voir souvent, - peuvent remarquer qu’Elle n’est pas incapable des sentimens de - l’amitié et de la haine: Elle ne se mocque jamais de qui que se - soit, ni ne rompe jamais en visière, mais Elle n’est pas faschée - de faire de petites malices, qui peuvent mettre ses gens en - peine mais c’est tousjours a ceux dont Elle connoit tout a fois - les humeurs. Elle est fort constante en ses resolutions, un peu - trop quelque fois, car il y a des temps on cela va jusques à - l’opiniotreté; Elle ne se mele jamais des affaires d’autruy, si - ce ne’est qu’on luy en parle le premier, et alors Elle est tout - a fait secrete, et donne ses avis avec toute la franchise - imaginable. En fin Elle a toutes les qualites requises pour - rendre une personne parfaite; car outre ce que j’ay deja dit, - Elle danse mieux que qui se soit, mais Elle est un peu - paresseuse, ce qui est cause qu’Elle songe moins à se diverter - que personne, et qu’Elle aime mieux passer son temps toute seule - dans sa Chambre que de prendre la peine de s’ajuster pour une - assemblée, quoy qu’Elle y reusset mieux que personne n’a jamais - fait. Je n’aurois jamais fait si je voulois entreprendre à - depeindre toutes les admirables qualités de cette grande - Princesse. Je me contenteray donc de finir en la supliant tres - humblement de pardonner toutes les fautes d’une Portrait, qu’il - est impossible de rendre aussi parfait que son original, set - qu’Elle aura la bonté de se souvenir, que celle qui l’a fait est - tellement dediée à son service qu’Elle se croit seulement - heureuse parcequ’Elle est sienne, et qu’elle ne plaint son faut - d’esprit et de jugement que parcequ’ils l’empeschent de - representer comme elle doit les admirables qualites de sa - maitresse.”[34] - -Footnote 34: - - MS. 276, Egerton, 2542. - - -If the flattery contained in this portrait may be termed excessive, yet -something is due to the customs of the period, which almost enjoined -language of the kind. At the same time, Mary’s pride of demeanour is -insisted on in a way that betrays some sense of injury, though this is -carefully veiled. Later we know Anne was to suffer from the wrath and -indignation of her mistress, but there is no reason to suppose that when -she wrote these words she did not feel a very real affection for the -Princess, who had braved her own mother’s anger and surmounted various -difficulties for the sake of the writer. And moreover Mary, Princess of -Orange, was a Stuart. If she was haughty, imperious, at times wayward, -yet she had her share of the haunting, ineffable charm of her doomed -race, the charm which attracted the homage of heart and life of those -round her, and bound them to her with an imperishable chain. On the same -theme the maid of honour also ventured into poetry, at any rate into -rhyme. The effusion may possibly be ascribed to the same date. - - “Heroic nymph! in tempests the support, - In peace the glory of the British Court, - Into whose arms the Church, the State, and all - That precious is or sacred, here did fall. - Ages to come that shall your bounty hear - Shall think you mistress of the Indies were, - Though straiter bounds your fortune did confine - In your large heart was found a wealthy mine. - Like the blest oil, the widow’s lasting feast, - Your treasure as you poured it out increased. - While some your beauty, some your bounty sing - Your native isles does with your praises ring, - But above all, a nymph of your own train - Gives us your character in such a strain - As none but she who in that Court did dwell - Could know such world, or worth describe so well.”[35] - -Footnote 35: - - “Tudor and Stuart Princesses.” Agnes Strickland. - -Meanwhile Anne’s fate, all unsuspected, was advancing towards her with -swift and unfaltering steps. - -Queen Henrietta had never been able to reconcile to herself Princess -Mary’s appointment of Hyde’s daughter about her person, and since its -accomplishment had constantly appealed to her to dismiss Anne from her -service.[36] Lord Hatton, in fact, writes: “The Queen’s last sickness -was by the chamber confident said to be expressed by the Queen by reason -of some late letters from the young P^{rsse} Orange wherein she still -contests for retaining with her Sir E. H. daughter which the Queen will -not cease till she out her there. This I assure you comes from eare -witnesses.” - -Footnote 36: - - “Lives of Princesses of England.” M. A. Everett-Green. - -Mary was, however, quite as resolute as her mother, and when in 1655 she -formed the project of a visit to Paris, it was with the intention of -taking her favourite in her train. - -Hyde, who as we have seen was fully conscious of the queen-mother’s -disapproval, wished to take this opportunity of withdrawing his -daughter, but the Princess peremptorily refused, declaring that it would -be only necessary for her mother to see Anne in order to abate her -unreasonable prejudice. The Chancellor’s unwillingness in the matter can -be gleaned from a letter he wrote at the time to Lady Stanhope, who had -become the wife of John van der Kirckhove Heenvliet, the Dutch -Ambassador despatched to England in 1641 to arrange the marriage of Mary -with the late Prince of Orange. - - - “MY VERY GOOD LADY”—so wrote Hyde[37]—“Though the considerations - and objections I presumed to offer this last year against the - high grace and favour which your Royal Mistress was then - inclined to vouchsafe to my poor Girl, were not thought - reasonable or probable, yet you now see that I had too much - ground for these apprehensions, and they who came last from - Paris are not reserved in declaring that the Princess Royal’s - receiving my Daughter into her service is almost the only cause - of the Queen’s late reservation towards her Royal Highness which - I hope you believe is a very great affliction to me. I most - humbly beg your Ladyship if you find any disposition in her - Royal Highness out of her goodness to me to give the girl leave - to attend her in this journey, when it seems others who have - more title to that honour must be left behind, that you will - consider whether the preferring her to this new favour may not - be an unhappy occasion of improving her Majesty’s old dislike, - and if there be the least fear of that or appearance of any - domestic inconvenience by leaving others unsatisfied I do beg - you with all my heart, to use your credit in diverting that - Gracious purpose in your Royal Mistress towards her, and let her - instead of waiting this journey, have leave to spend a little - time in the visitation of her friends at Breda, and upon my - credit, whatsoever in your wisdom shall appear fittest in this - particular shall be abundantly obliging to - - “Madam, your Ladyship’s, etc. - - “COLOGNE, this 16th March 1655.” - -Footnote 37: - - Clarendon State Papers. - - -Whether this letter was laid before the Princess or not, the journey was -undertaken, and she and her attendants began the long projected -expedition which was to be fraught with such far-reaching results. - -Mary set out in high spirits at the prospect of the change, of seeing -her mother (in spite of their differences, which she probably considered -to be trivial) and of making the acquaintance of the little sister who -was yet a stranger to her, Henrietta Anne, the child born at Exeter -during the siege, and brought to France through many dangers, with real -heroism and devotion, by Lady Dalkeith. - -According to our ideas, the journey from The Hague must have been a very -long and tedious one, but it was no doubt full of interest to the -Princess and her train. Each day furnished incidents to engross and be -discussed as the long cavalcade of maids and men, of heavy baggage -waggons, of lumbering coaches, of numerous pack-horses, of guards armed -with dag and musket, accoutred in back and breast plate—for there was a -body of sixty horse—flaunted along the heavy, muddy roads. Here a wheel -would sink into the deep ruts, and the vehicle be released with immense -noise and bustle; there an axle-tree would break and must be mended at -the cost of an hour or two’s delay, while the shoeing smiths reaped a -goodly harvest by their task of replacing cast shoes. The minister -Heenvliet accompanied the Princess to Antwerp and Brussels, at which -place he left her. At Mons ordnance was fired, torches were lighted, and -the magistrates paid her the compliment, customary in the case of -royalty, of asking from her the watchword for the night.[38] - -Footnote 38: - - “Lives of the Princesses of England.” M. A. Everett-Green. - -So the procession passed on through the level, dyke-protected tracts of -Flanders, and came at last to the frontier and the fair land of France. - -In the splendid days of Charles the Bold, he who had been Count of -Flanders and the Netherlands had been also Duke of Burgundy, a most -unwilling vassal to the French crown. Since his time, that province of -his great inheritance had become part and parcel of the dominion of King -Louis, and when the Princess of Orange halted at the ancient city of -Peronne she was well within French territory. - -Here, at the capital of the old Burgundian Duchy, she was met by her -second brother, James, Duke of York, at this time—through no fault of -his own—reduced to a life of inaction at Paris, and here possibly began -the prologue of the romance which was to affect not only his own life, -but the future of the far-off country of his birth. Of this more later. -With the Duke, and attached to his person, were the Lord Gerard and Sir -Charles Berkeley, besides M. Sanguin, _maître d’hôtel_ to the French -king. - -So accompanied Mary pursued her journey, to be met by her mother and -sister at Bourgel, six miles from Paris. - -Of her stay in the French capital, though it extended over a period of -some months, there are but scanty records, but that she entered fully -into all the gaiety which surrounded the boy King is certain. - -Anne Hyde appears to have caught smallpox during the visit, but it was a -slight attack and she probably escaped without disfigurement.[39] She -had not been well early in the year, as appears from Sir Alexander -Hume’s letter from Teyling on 22nd February. - -Footnote 39: - - Rawlinson MS. (Bodleian). - - - “I have acquainted your neece Mrs Hide with the tendernesse you - expresse for her, who returns her humble service to you with - many thanks for your care of her. But shee hath not been in any - such euill disposition of health as it seemes you have been - informed, only one day shee took a little physick since when - shee hath euer been a great deal healthfuller and handsomer than - before, and shee is indeed a very excellent person both for body - and minde as any young gentlewoman that I know.”[40] - -Footnote 40: - - Nicholas Papers. - - -Whether she won such golden opinions at Paris does not appear, but -probably she held her own there as well as in Holland. She had always -plenty of self-possession, which carried her through many anxious -moments, and if any special admirers manifested themselves there, it -must have been only to be flouted. - -If the image of one too high in place to be acknowledged had already -been imprinted on her mind, she at least made no sign, but it is evident -that the young maid of honour was in no apparent haste to change her -condition, and was capable of determination in the management of her -affairs. She did not succeed in overcoming the prejudice of the English -queen-mother, and this was no doubt a cause of keen disappointment and -vexation to her own mistress. Mary had also other reasons for annoyance -on her own account. Besides the fact of Frances Stanhope’s conversion to -Rome, which was made as public as possible, she had to withstand her -mother’s pertinacity in this direction. Henrietta, who never left a -stone unturned to bring her children over to her own faith, insisted on -taking her elder daughter with her to her beloved convent at Chaillot, -in the hope of working on her feelings to the extent of securing her for -the fold of Rome. These efforts were useless, but they made matters more -or less uncomfortable for the Princess, who moreover strongly resented -anything in the shape of coercion. Keenly, therefore, as she appreciated -and admired the splendour and gaiety of the French Court, her visit was -not altogether free from drawbacks. Nevertheless, she might have -prolonged her stay but for the intelligence of her little son’s alarming -illness. It turned out to be only measles, and the child made a good -recovery, but his mother lost no time in starting on her journey, and it -was not long before she and her train found themselves once more at -home. It is certain that the Princess had at this time no suspicion of -any understanding between her brother and Anne Hyde, for the latter -remained in her service and high in her favour till the year before the -Restoration. One glimpse we have of the English girl at this time from -the facile and often extremely amusing pen of the Princess Palatine, -Elizabeth Charlotte, afterwards Duchesse d’Orléans, but at that time a -child. Her grandmother, the Queen of Bohemia, brought her to Mary’s -Court, a wild, unruly little person, but she records gratefully the fact -that Mistress Hyde was kind and good-natured. - - - “My aunt [Sophia, Electress of Hanover] did not visit the - Princess Royal, but the Queen of Bohemia did, and took me with - her. Before I set out, my aunt said to me: ‘Lisette, take care - not to behave as you generally do. Follow the Queen step by - step, that she may not have to wait for you.’ ‘Oh, aunt,’ I - replied, ‘you shall hear how well I behave.’ - - “When we arrived at the Princess Royal’s, whom I did not know, I - saw her son, whom I had often played with. After gazing for a - long time at his mother, without knowing who she was, I went - back to see if I could find any one who could tell me her name. - Seeing only the Prince of Orange, I said: ‘Pray can you tell me - who is that woman with so tremendous a nose?’ He laughed and - answered: ‘That is my Mother, the Princess Royal.’ - - “I was quite stupefied at the blunder I had committed. Mdlle - Hyde, perceiving my confusion, took me with the Prince into the - Princess’s bed chamber, where we played at all sorts of games. I - had told them to call me when the Queen was ready to go. We were - both rolling on a Turkey carpet when I was summoned. I arose in - great haste, and ran into the hall, but the Queen was already in - the ante-chamber. Without losing a moment I seized the robe of - the Princess Royal and, making her a courtesy at the same time, - placed myself directly before her, and followed the Queen step - by step into her coach. Every one was laughing at me, but I had - no idea what it was for. - - “When we came home, the Queen sought out my aunt, and seating - herself on the bed, burst into a loud laugh. ‘Lisette,’ said - she, ‘has made a delightful visit,’ and related all I had done, - which made the Electress laugh more than her mother. ‘Lisette,’ - said she, ‘you have done right, and revenged us well on the - haughtiness of the Princess.’” - - -This episode throws another side-light on Mary’s reputation for pride, -and her steady determination in exacting all the respect due to her -rank—a determination which we see to be more or less resented among her -German relations.[41] - -Footnote 41: - - “Tudor and Stuart Princesses.” Agnes Strickland. - -During the years that were yet to intervene before the Restoration, Hyde -himself was to know little of peace. He was constantly on the move, now -with the King at Bruges, now obeying a summons from the Princess Royal. -His wife was writing in 1657 and 1658 to John Nicholas, on various -domestic questions, yet always betraying her disappointment at her -husband’s long absences and the uncertainty that attended his return to -her. The long and steady friendship with the family of the Secretary -extended over a long term of years, and never failed until death stepped -in to close it. - -These letters were all written from Breda, at the house where the -Princess Dowager had established the Hyde family, and the first which -now follows was addressed to Bruges. - - - “_Sep. 20, - 1657._ - - “I take it for a very perticuler favour to finde myselfe - preserved in Master Secretaries and my Ladys remembrance, and - you will very much oblige your servant in returning my most - humble and most affectionat serv’ces to them, please to assure - my Lady that I will be very carefull in obeying her commands, - but I am afrade I shall not performe them, as I desire, lining - Cloth being much deerer than ever I knew it, but Roberts and I - will doe our best; the goode Company you speake of will not make - me stay much the longer here, for as soone as my Husband hath - performed his duty to the Princesse we shall make hast to you, - my Husbands business not alowing him many play days, besids he - is impatient, w^{ch} I am in my winter matter, though wee are - now like to stay a little Longer then wee once intended. I hope - our frinds will not conclude w^{th} the rest that wee will come - no more, but looke upon the trew cause w^{ch} depends upon our - Master, thay say heare that the Princesse will be heare the - later end of the weake, and my Husband in his last gives me hops - that he shall be heare Saturday next, and he thretens me that he - will stay but very few days at Breda; to tell you I wish to be - at Bruges I know you will say is a compliment but I doe assure - you from the munite I leave the place, I shall wish myselfe - w^{th} your excelent familey to every of which I am a most reall - servant and very perticulerly - - “S^r - - “most affectionatly your - - “faithfull servant - - “FRAN: HYDE. - - “Pray my serv’ces to your Brother and if it will not importune - you to much, lett the rest of my friends know I am there - servant.”[42] - -Footnote 42: - - 2536, Nicholas Papers. Egerton MS. - - -The next letter is addressed to Brussels, to which place the Nicholas -family had transferred itself. Lady Hyde here makes allusion to one of -her children, Laurence, afterwards Earl of Rochester, who seems to have -become on his own account a correspondent of John Nicholas. - - - “_16 May - 1658._ - - “I have many thankes to give you for your care to me, and though - it be longe, doe not forgitt the civilitie of your letter to me - w^{ch} the many indisposisons I have had sence my Lyeing in hath - kepte me from. Lory hath given you many a scrouble of from me of - w^{ch} I hope you will excuse w^{th} the rest. I am sure I must - relye one your goodnesse for it. Your last to Lory hath given me - great sattisfactione in Mr Secretaries perfecte recoverey. I - pray God continew his health to him, and make you and your hole - familey as happy as I wishe you. I was in hopes to have bin - w^{th} you longe before this time but the unsertainty of the - Kings being, keepes me still here, and now my Lord sends me word - that he will come hether, so that I am not like to see you a - great while, unlesse Mr Secretarey please to make his way to - Bruges whether I here he intends to goe as soon as the Kinge is - gon, pray tell him from me w^{th} my humble serv’ces that it is - but a Summers [day?] Journey and I know my Lady will dispense - w^h his absence for a few days more. If my Lady your Mother - still want a waiteing woman, I can helpe her to a prety younge - maid, I beleave you may know her mother, it is Mrs Gandye; now - if my Lady will doe an acte of Charity, I beleave she will in a - short time make her fitt for her serv’ces but she is holy to be - tought. I can only commend her for a prety civil maid, and truly - I beleave her capable to learne. She is about my haight and 16 - yeares of age. I would not write to my Lady about it, because - even you can tell better then I can, whether this is fit - proposition, all w^{ch} I refere to you and desire only this - from you, that you would not move it to my Lady, unlesse you - like it very well, for I tell you againe she is to be maid a - servant by those that take her. Excuse this trouble with the - rest.” - - -Lady Hyde seems to have been as eager to supply her friends with -servants as some of her sisters in modern life, but laudably anxious to -be quite discreet in her recommendations. - -In the next letter, dated 27th May 1658, there is an allusion to her -eldest son Henry, who was to succeed his father as second Earl of -Clarendon and who was at this time at Brussels under the care of the -Nicholas family. There is also mention of little Frances, the younger -daughter, who seems to have come back to her mother’s keeping recently -from England (if she had been left there). The remark as to her English -speaking points to this conclusion. But the chief anxiety in the -writer’s mind is the condition of her father, Sir Thomas Aylesbury, who -was an inmate of her house, and then in rapidly failing health. - - - “You are very much in the wright, I am not yet so raidy, and if - I were, should not use it to my friends and perticulerly where I - owe so much as to your familey, and w^{th} our acomplement the - blush would returne upon myselfe, if I should forgitt to returne - my thankes to you. I am againe to thanke you for delivering my - message to Mr Secretarey, and upon my word both he and you - s^{hd} be very welcome if you make Breda your way to Bruges. - M^{rs} Frances will be able to make you speaches in English, w^h - I am sure you will say is Language enough for a woman, and if - this will not bringe you, I can say no more. I am glad my - Husband hath refused to lend his House at Bruges, it Lookes, as - you say, as if it shou’d returne, but of this I know nothing, - but I assure you I should have great sattisfactione if it bringe - me to my Lady. I beleave indeed it is not possible for you to - guise at my Lord’s coming; I thinke from the first weeke of my - being brought to bed, he hath promised to come to me, but now I - will not so much as thinke of it till I see him, though he still - says it will not be long before he come. I wish I could tell you - that my Father were well but his sore mouth makes me much - afraide of him and yett to-day at present I thinke him better - than he was a week agoe; haveing latly hard from Monsieur - Charles I cannot but tell you that he is well, and his dry Nurse - assures me he grows apace. Pray present my afectionat and humble - serve’s to M^r Secretarie, and when you write to Bruges lett my - Lady know I am her most faithfull servant; though I am to make - no complaints, you may tell my Hary I have not hard from his - Father sence the 20. I wish it may prove a signe of your - removing towards Breda.” - - -The succeeding letter, which is dated 3rd June 1658, contains an -allusion to the siege of Dunkirk, which had been invested on the 25th -May by the English and French forces under Turenne. The Spanish army -marched from Brussels to relieve the town, and in this host were the -Dukes of York and Gloucester and the famous Condé, who, however, was not -allowed a free hand, for it was against his advice that the Spanish -Ambassador, Don John of Austria, persisted in giving battle. It was then -that the Prince said to the Duke of Gloucester: “Did you ever see a -battle fought?” and on the boy answering that he had not, Condé[43] -rejoined grimly, “Well, you will soon see a battle lost.” - -Footnote 43: - - Knight’s “Popular History of England.” - - - “This is to acknowledge yours of the 27. of the last Month and - to intreate you to returne my humble serv’es to my Lady w^h my - thankes for her willingness to receive a servant from me. Pray - assure her La^{sp} I am very well sattisfied with her reason in - not taking another servant at this time, and when I have the - happiness to see my Lady shall speake w^{th} her more at large - of the person I would recomend to her. I am very sorry the - plague is feared at Bruges, and much troubled for Dunquerque. I - pray God preserve them from the French. I hope you will not be - angry if I wish my Lady’s house at Breda this sumer, upon my - word I should looke upon it as a great blessing to me. What the - people w^{th} you intend, God knows, and though I must submitt - to my Lords businesse, I confesse I am troubled that he is not - now heare, my Father being not like to recover, and wishing - every day to see my Husband, this will I hope excuse my sad - impatience. Pray my humble serv’es to M^r Secretary and tell him - I doe still hope to see him here as I do our souter.” - - -The letter of 6th June makes another reference to Dunkirk. - - - “You are so great a courter that I could quarrell w^{th} you for - useing me so like a strainger, and you have forgotten my humor - if you thinke I expect it from my freinds. I am very glad that - you have some hopes of Mr Secretaries cominge hether, pray - present my humble serv’es to him and be sure you doe all good - offeces that may bringe him to Breda. If my Lady Steephens can - helpe my Lady your Mother to a good waiteing woman and it be not - inconvenent to my Lady to take her I hope nothing I have said - shall hender her from it, for the Person I proposed is to be - maid usefull to my Lady by her owne trouble in scatching and - making her fitt for her La^{ps} serv’es, and therefore is not to - keepe her from a better. I only named this in case there were - not a better to be had and so beseech you to lett my Lady know - w^{th} my most affectionat and humble serv’es to her. Thay say - Dunquerque is releeved, but being but Breda’s news I feare it, - how ever I wish my Lady a neerer neighbor and that it were in my - power to doe anything towards it that I might inioye her La^{ps} - company. Sence I tould you that I thought my Father was better, - I have bin in a great fright for him but I thanke God he is now - better and was this week tooke to take the Ayre w^{ch} I thinke - hath don him goode, but God knows he is brought very low, w^{ch} - keepes me in continual fear for him though I am very confident - my Lord will come to Breda, and beleave you thinke he will - surprise me, yett the people he hath to Leave w^{th} are so - unsertane that it is imposible for me to beleave anything of his - coming tell I see him: my Father’s illnesse makes me more - impatient of his stay then otherways I should be but I must - submitt to all.” - - -The next letter of 13th June lays further stress on Sir Thomas -Aylesbury’s failing condition, and there is an allusion which looks as -if little Frances Hyde were a special pet of the Secretary’s. - - - “You see how kind I am to myself in desiring so good a family as - yours neere me and I wish w^{th} all my heart it might be in my - power to serve my Lady if she should be put to a remove I assure - you none could w^{th} greater alacrety serve her then myselfe in - the meane time, so if my Lady have a mind to change the ayre I - will make her as good a conveniency w^{th} me as I can. I thanke - you for the share you are pleased to beare with us in our - afflictions for my Father. I am daly in great aprehensions of - him yett at present wee thinke him somthing better then he was, - pray give me your prayers for him; my Lord hath againe given me - hopes of seeing him this weeke and by w^t you say I should be - confident of it, but the King’s irresolution makes me still in - doubt. The sweete meate box w^{th} out asking any questions, is - most freely at your dispose. I will still hope to see Mr - Secretarie here, and so pray tell him with my most humble - serv’es and that his servant little Franke shall eate cold - puding with him for a wager, my humble serv’es to my Lady your - Mother when you write, if you will excuse the hast of this - scribled paper. I shall not doubt of your charity to - - “S^r your most faithfull servant.” - - -All the letters show how much the movements of the exiled King and his -sister affected the Hyde household at Breda, and Lady Hyde’s comments -betray a certain impatience and irritation at the fact. It is evident -that to some extent she resented her husband’s constant periods of -absence, and scarcely considered them necessary, though she saw nothing -for it but submission. - - - “_June 27._ - - “I am now doeing a thing I doe not love to doe w^h is to - acknowledge three of yours in owne and if I had bin alone at - Breda would not have forgiven my selfe the neclicing it so long, - my Lord’s coming alone would not have kepte me from it but in - ernest sence the Kinge and Princesse came so neere Breda, I can - safely say I have not had an houre in the day to my selfe, and - this minit I have now gott in is by stealing out of a croude - w^{ch} will not alow me tim enough to ensware every particular - of yours. I hope I am wrightly understud by you that I would not - impose anything upon my Lady your Mother in w^{ch} I writ about - the waiteing-woman, it being meerely my owne thoughts, for the - person knows nothing of it, and my businesse was only to serve - my Lady, if she were willing to undertake the trouble of her. - Sence my husband hath found out so easy a way for my Lady I hope - she will alow us some time here where I can assure her a reall - and harty welcome w^{ch} I wish might make up for w^t will be - wanting in the entertaine her according to my desire to a person - I so truly love and honoure. Hary tells me of a third designe to - borow our House at Bruges w^{ch} w^{th} your timely notes I - thinke I shall prevent. I thank you for your prayres w^{ch} I - still aske from you, though I doubt my Father will not long - inioye the benefitte of them here, he weareing every day a way, - I may calle it like a lampe. I pray God it may be of no more - paine to him then yett it hath bin; now I have tould you this I - know you will pitty my conditione that must whether I will or - now entertaine and put on a cheere looke. I would say more but - Hary calles a waye w^{ch} must w^{th} all other faults excuse - this hast.” - - -Her eldest son had returned, and his mother in a letter of 5th August -speaks as if his health had been a matter of some anxiety. - - - “By your last I was in hope you would have bin at Hoochstraet in - a very short time but Mr Secretary’s last illnesse makes me - doubt all thoughts of that journey are Laid aside and - consequently that you will not come to Breda w^{ch} in ernest I - am sory for. I hope I shall not faile in my next my Husband - haveing promised me that I shall come to Bruxelles this winter - where I promise my selfe great sattisfactione in your excelant - family. I give you many thankes for your great care and - kindnesse to Hary of home I will have all the care I can and doe - not doubt but he will have much better health now he is like to - have more liberty in order to w^{ch} his Father hath taken a - Secretary w^h I beleeve Hary hath allredy tould you, as I am - confident he did that he and Lory were to goe into Holand for a - weeke w^{th} Mr Bealing. I would not have given you the trouble - of this account, but that I know you are Hary’s friend.” - - -Three days later, on 8th August, Lady Hyde alludes to the great sorrow -which has befallen her in the death of her father, Sir Thomas Aylesbury, -who died as previously mentioned at the age of eighty-one, surrounded by -all the care and affection his daughter could lavish on him. - - - “I doe acknowledge I am two Letters in your dett the former of - w^h I had answered longe before this but you know the sad - conditione I was in at this time w^{ch} is so inst: an excuse - and to tell you the truth I am yett unfit for anything else. I - had sent you a chalinge while you were at Antwerp for not - gitting one day to come to Miss Francesse, who is now al the - merth of our house, but in ernest I was in hope then to have - seene you, for I knew you were to returne to my Lady when the - Kinge did, she being so newly come to a strange place which I - have sent Mr Secretary word hath maid his pease for the present. - From Hochstraet now is the place I looke for to see you, by - w^{ch} time I hope my Lady will thinke it fitt to take the Ayre, - I can say no more but assure you a harty wellcome.” - - -The last letter to be transcribed, written on 29th September, is a short -one. - - - “I am a gaine two Letters in your dett but Downings’ disturbance - was the cause w^{ch} hath kept me from acknowlideing my Lady’s - favour and reioycing w^{th} you for Mr Secretary’s recovery, for - all w^{ch} I hope to make my peace when I come, my husband tells - me that shall be so quickely there, that I will say no more tell - I come, but intreate you to favour me w^{th} my humble serv’es - to Mr Secretarey and my Lady and your brother.” - - -These letters give a fairly close impression of the exiled Hyde -household at the time when that expatriation was drawing to its close. -The picture of Frances Hyde, the dutiful daughter, the devoted wife, the -affectionate mother, the loyal friend, is a pleasant one, but one -singular point must be noted. There is no allusion to the eldest -daughter. And yet Anne, in attendance on the Princess, must have been in -constant communication with her parents, both in person and by letter. - -Indeed there are four letters from Anne to her father which, though -undated as to the year, may probably be placed in 1658 or 1659, towards -the end of her period of service. - - - “HOUNSLERDYKE, - - “_July 24_. - - “MY LORD,—I received yours of the 19 but yesterday, and am very - glad you weare not displeased with me. I am sure I shall never - willingly give you cause to be soe, and it would be the greatest - trouble to me in the world if euer you are it, for the business - of the play I assure you I shall never doe any such thing - without her Highness command and when that is I am confident - your Lord^p will not be displeased with me for it and in that - and all things els neuer have nor neuer will give anybody any - just cause to say anything of me. Miss Culpeper is this day gone - to her Brother’s wedding when shee returnes I hope your - Lord^{sp} will give me leave to see you somewheire in the meane - time I humbly beg yours and my Mothers blessing upon - - “My Lord, your Lord^{sps} - - “Most dutiful and obedient daughter - - “ANNE HYDE.”[44] - -Footnote 44: - - Clarendon State Papers, MS. (Bodleian). - - -This seems to refer to some acting in which she was concerned, and which -her father did not altogether approve. The following allusion in a -letter from the Queen of Bohemia to Charles may refer to something of -the sort: - - - “We have now gotten a new divertisement of little plays after - supper. It was here the last week end, and now this week at your - sister’s. I hope the godly will preach against it also.”[45] - -Footnote 45: - - “Tudor and Stuart Princesses.” Agnes Strickland. - - -Anne’s next letter to Hyde contains a covert complaint of poverty. In -the light of subsequent events it is easy to see how such a condition -must have been irritating to the writer. - - - “HAGE, - - “_August - 22_. - - “MY LORD,—I received yours of the 20 this minit when I cam - hither with her Highness in our way to Hounslerdyke from Tyling - wheire wee left my Lady Stanhope, it is true that her Highness - went incognito, but for business shee had none at least that I - could see, but to buy some thinges, it is a very fine place but - very troublesome to see when one has noe more money to lay out - then I had, but however I am very well satified to have been - theire. I pray God you may quickely heare some good news from - England, we are heare in great paine not hearing anything at - all, the Princess euery post askes me what I heare therefore - when theire is anything may be known, I shall be glad to have it - to tell her, my humble duty I beseech you to my Mother and be - pleased to give both your blessings to, my Lord, your Lord^{sps} - most dutifull and obedient daughter, - - “ANNE HYDE.” - - -The next two letters indicate that the maid of honour’s empty purse is -replenished or to be so shortly. - - - “HAGE, - - “_October 21_. - - “MY LORD,—Though I heard noething from Bruxells this last post I - hope you are by this time perfectly recouered of your cold which - I heard troubled you soe much that I was afraid my letter then - would but have been troublesome to your Lord^{sps} which was the - cause I have been soe long without writeing, but I can now give - you some account of what you spoke to Monsieur D’Heenvliet, he - told me that he has spoke to her Highness and that shee had - promised I should very quickly have some money I am sure if he - does what he can in it it may eassily be done, wee goe next - weeke to Breda but the day is not yet named, but I suppose it - will be the latter end of the weeke because her Highness is - first to carry the Prince to Leyden. My humble duty I beseech - you to my Mother, and be pleased to give both your blessings - upon my Lord your Lord^{sps} most dutifull and obedient - daughter, - - “ANNE - HYDE.”[46] - -Footnote 46: - - Clarendon State Papers, MS. (Bodleian). - - - “HAGE, - - “_November 3_. - - “MY LORD,—I have received yours of the 13th and am very glad the - King is at the Frontiers. I pray God this change in England may - worke a good one for his Majesty, and give him cause quickly to - come backe that wee might once againe hope to meett in England; - her Highness carries the Prince to-morrow to Leyden which is the - cause I write this to-day and by the Grace of God wee shall - without faile goe sometime the next weeke to Breda where I shall - expect your Lord^{sps} and my Mother’s commands since you will - have it soe, I will believe I am obliged to Monsieur d’Heenvliet - though I confess I cannot see how he could avoyd speakeing after - you desired him and the proffession he makes and I am sure he - deed but barely speake and I must beleeve that more is in his - power. I humbly beg my Mother’s and your blessing upon my Lord - your Lord^{sps} most dutifull and obedient daughter, - - “ANNE HYDE.”[47] - -Footnote 47: - - Clarendon State Papers, MS. (Bodleian). - - -The prince mentioned in these two letters is of course Mary’s only son -William, destined afterwards to be King of England, but at this time a -little boy. - -And through these years from 1656 to 1659 Anne was keeping her secret -well. Whether the Duke of York had arranged any means of communication -or not, enough had been said at Paris. Love can live on a very small -modicum of hope, and Anne’s nature may well have been of the stuff which -is “wax to receive and marble to retain.”[48] - -Footnote 48: - - It is possible that her mother had some inkling of the state of - affairs, and the uneasy consciousness of this may have prompted her - silence as to her daughter in her own correspondence. - -At this point it may be as well to see what manner of man the English -prince, fated from childhood to a life of exile, appeared to his -contemporaries at this period of his life. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - JAMES STUART - - -JAMES, the second son of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, was born on the -15th of October 1633, being baptized by Laud on the 24th,[49] and like -his elder brother was bandied about, hither and thither, during the -progress of the great Civil War, in a manner and among associates -unlikely to have a satisfactory effect on the character of a boy. - -Footnote 49: - - “Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of the “Life of Sir - Kenelm Digby,” introduction by F. A. Gasquet, D.D. - -It can scarcely be a matter for surprise that it was so. The King, more -and more harassed and preoccupied as time went on, could hardly be -supposed to give adequate consideration to his sons’ surroundings, -although, as we have seen, he did his best for the elder in committing -him to the guardianship of Edward Hyde. - -In 1648 James was named Lord High Admiral of England, a barren title in -the state of affairs as they then were, but before this he had passed -through some exciting adventures. He was in Oxford when that loyal city -surrendered to Fairfax in 1646, two years earlier, and with his sister -Elizabeth and their little brother Henry was taken to St James’s Palace, -where they were detained as wards of the Parliament. Although the -children’s intercourse with their father had of late been of necessity -intermittent,[50] yet they loved him very dearly, as he had been always -tender and indulgent to them. On this point there is a pathetic story of -James, at that time but twelve years of age. For some time he had been -kept in ignorance of the King’s imprisonment, but in January 1647 “one -of his attendants, a servant of the Earl of Northumberland, told him of -it, to which he replied, How durst any rogues to use his Father after -that manner! and then fell a-weeping. The man told him he would inform -his Lord of what had been said, whereupon the Duke took a long bow then -in the place to have shot him, had not another behind him held his hand. -For this it is reported the Earl of Northumberland will have the Duke -whipped, but whether it hath been done I know not.”[51] - -Footnote 50: - - “Anecdotal Memories of English Princes.” D. Adams. - -Footnote 51: - - Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii., Appendix. - -It is easy to picture the scene. The insolent serving-man, “armed with a -little brief authority,” meanly rejoicing in the opportunity to sting a -fallen prince; and the boy, the passionate tears still wet on his young, -flushed face, wild with indignant wrath at the bitter news and his own -helplessness. One cannot bear to think that such hot, impetuous -affection and grief should have been so requited. - -The King, meanwhile, was very anxious to effect the escape of his second -son, whose life as heir presumptive was of great importance, and he -confided the attempt to Colonel Charles Bampfylde, or Bamfield, an -Irishman. The latter found a willing accomplice in Anne Murray, the -daughter of the King’s old tutor and secretary, Thomas Murray, who -afterwards became Lady Halkett, and the two conspirators laid their -plans carefully, though it was May 1648 before the adventure could be -accomplished.[52] - -Footnote 52: - - “Autobiography of Anne Murray (Lady Halkett).” Charles II. thanked her - for this service when they met at Dunfermline. - -The three children thus under ward at St James’s were instructed to play -at hide and seek in the then neglected and thickly wooded garden of the -ancient palace, and the young Duke James proved himself quite -sufficiently adroit in seconding the plans of his preservers. Under -cover of the spring twilight he contrived to slip through a gate -purposely left open, which led to the Tilt-yard—for Bampfylde had -managed to interest other sympathisers in the plot. James had remembered -also to lock the balcony through which he emerged, and to throw away the -key, besides taking the precaution of locking up his little dog in his -room.[53] By Tilt-yard end, as it was called, Bampfylde was waiting for -him with a wig and patches, and they hurried forthwith to Spring -Gardens, “as if to hear the nightingales,” a favourite expedition of the -London citizens at that season. Thence a coach conveyed them to the -river, where they took boat at Ivy Bridge, and reached the “Old Swan.” -Here Mistress Anne Murray was waiting for them, and she arrayed the boy -in girl’s clothes in all haste, while he, poor child, impatiently -adjured her: “Quickly, quickly, dress me!” This done, Bampfylde took his -charge to the Lion Key, where a Dutch Pink, cleared the day before by -Gravesend searchers, was expecting “Mr Andrews and his sister,” the -latter supposed to be on her way to join her husband in Holland. - -Footnote 53: - - Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii., Appendix. - -Here the Prince, waiting in the cabin, in a moment of forgetfulness -nearly wrecked the whole situation by putting his leg on the table to -pull up his stocking, seeing which the barge-master suspected the sex of -the pretended girl. However, Bampfylde’s threats and James’ promises of -future provision prevailed, and the voyage was safely accomplished.[54] - -Footnote 54: - - Macpherson’s “Original Papers.” - -The fugitives landed in due course at Middleburg, going thence to -Dordrecht, and James, having despatched Bampfylde to The Hague to -announce his successful escape, was met by his brother-in-law the Prince -of Orange, and by him conducted to the Princess at Sluys. Bampfylde’s -influence appears to have been bad from the beginning, as he tried to -implicate the boy in an act of treason.[55] Six ships of the fleet then -lying in the Downs deserted, and having secured Deal, Sandown and -Walmer, sailed to Helvoetsluys, where James joined them, but Bampfylde -worked on the sailors to declare for the young Duke without any mention -of the King or the Prince of Wales. James, however, was wise enough to -answer that he would be their admiral only with his father’s consent. - -Footnote 55: - - “History of the Rebellion.” Clarendon. - -At The Hague he joined his elder brother, and early in the succeeding -year set out for Paris, starting on 6th January 1649, just when the war -of the Fronde was beginning. On this account his mother sent letters to -meet him at Cambrai, bidding him delay his journey, and the Archduke -Leopold, Governor of the Netherlands, offered him quarters in the Abbey -of St Amand. Here he stayed for about a month, a visit which is -supposed, in spite of his youth, to have laid the foundation of his -subsequent conversion to the Church of Rome. The religious of this -community no doubt did their best in controversy to influence the young -English prince who might one day prove a valuable asset. At some time, -probably soon afterwards, a nun is said to have advised him to pray -every day if he was not in the right way, that God would show it to him, -and this seems to have made a deep and lasting impression on his mind, -judging from his allusion to it many years later.[56] - -Footnote 56: - - Burnet’s “History of His Own Time.” - -In February he was able to prosecute his deferred journey, and on the -13th he made his appearance at the Louvre where his mother then was. She -was sitting at dinner when the boy came hastily in and knelt for her -blessing.[57] What kind of reception she gave him we do not know, but -when all is said and done, Henrietta, capricious as she could be, was an -affectionate if injudicious mother, and there must have been a keen -sense of satisfaction in receiving her young son after their long -separation and his adventurous travels. - -For a time James settled down among his hitherto unknown relations. The -famous princess, Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, the redoubtable heroine of -the Fronde, “la grande Mademoiselle,” was very kind to her new cousin at -a time when she was flouting his elder brother. The Duke of York, -between thirteen and fourteen years of age, was then, she says, “very -pretty, well made, with good features, who spoke French well, which gave -him a much better air than had the King his brother,” who was at that -time completely ignorant of the language, though he was eagerly put -forward by his mother as a suitor for the hand of his imperious cousin, -who could bestow such a magnificent dowry on any husband on whom her -choice might fall. - -Footnote 57: - - Nicholas Papers. - -In the September of 1649 Charles determined to go to Jersey, the Channel -Islands having remained steadily loyal to the royal cause, and he took -his brother James with him, probably intending to detach him from their -mother’s influence.[58] At Caen they visited Lady Ormonde, who was -living there at that time in exile, and at Coutances, not far away, the -bishop received the brothers with some distinction, giving a banquet in -their honour at Cotainville on the following day. However, as the boats -were waiting, they started at once, and reached Jersey on the 18th. Here -they passed the winter, and the Duke of York won golden opinions from -those who came in contact with him. - -Footnote 58: - - “History of the Rebellion.” Clarendon. - -He was by this time a tall slight boy, almost as tall as his brother, -lively and gracious in manner, while his bright complexion and fair hair -displayed a marked difference from the swarthy young King. The two were -then in mourning for their martyred father, whose tragic death had taken -place in the previous January, and James is described as dressed “in an -entire suit of black without any other ornament or decoration than the -silver star displayed upon his mantle, and a purple scarf across his -shoulders.”[59] - -Footnote 59: - - “Charles II. in the Channel Islands.” Hoskins. - -The brothers were much together in those early days of exile, and it -could not be for the advantage of the younger, seeing what manner of men -Charles chose to encourage about him, though after all, considering his -own youth and circumstances, the latter was scarcely a free agent in -this respect. - -The two quarrelled at times, and indeed somewhat later Charles -manifested a certain jealousy of his brother which can scarcely be a -matter for surprise.[60] - -Footnote 60: - - “Travels of the King.” Eva Scott. - -The Duke of York in due time took service in the army of France, under -the great Turenne, and speedily distinguished himself by his courage and -military genius,[61] while the unhappy King was forced to remain in -obscure idleness and abject poverty, an object of more or less contempt -in each country which he visited in his wanderings, especially after -that disastrous attempt which ended in the crushing defeat of -Worcester—Cromwell’s “crowning mercy”—and his own hairbreadth escape. -James, on the other hand, before he was twenty-one had seen three -victorious campaigns under his famous leader, and was drawing pay which -placed him in easy circumstances, enabling him to support his rank -suitably. Nevertheless whatever differences might arise between the -brothers (and these were certainly fomented by those about them, not to -speak of Cromwell, who from motives of policy wished to divide them), -there was strong family affection among the children of Charles I., and -in later days these two were certainly linked together by an unswerving -attachment which grew with advancing years, and was dissolved only by -death. - -Footnote 61: - - “Memoirs of J. Evelyn,” edit. Wm. Bray, 1818. Edward Hyde (Paris) to - Sir Richard Browne, 6th December 1653: “The Duke of York is returned - hither, full of reputac’on and honour.” - -Charles had left Jersey in February 1650, but his brother remained -there, probably because of the latter’s opposition to the treaty with -the Scots. Young as he was, he set himself passionately against it, and -even dismissed Lord Byron and Sir John Berkeley from his bedchamber on -this account.[62] However, the brothers parted affectionately at this -time, and did not meet again for more than eighteen months, Charles -having joined his mother at Beauvais, and then returned to Flanders. In -1650 Lord Taafe had proposed a match between the Duke of York and the -little daughter of Duke Charles IV. of Lorraine, “a prince,” as James -remarked afterwards, “not much accustomed to keep his word.”[63] -However, the young Duke seems to have acquiesced in the plan, though the -Queen was very angry with both Taafe and Lord Inchiquin for presuming to -interfere, as she termed it. At this time her relations with her second -son were certainly strained. She was very hard on him, and he hated -Henry Jermyn, hotly resenting the latter’s powerful influence with his -mother, who, he declared, “loved and valued Lord Jermyn more than all -her children,” an instance of Henrietta’s headstrong disregard for -appearances, which involved her in what was possibly an unmerited -scandal.[64] The poor boy had also at this time the fret and strain of -poverty, but just then there came a report of the King’s death, on which -James set out for Brussels, where he stayed at the house of Sir Henry de -Vic. He remained there for two months, frequenting, so we are told, -various popular churches for the sake, he said, of the fine music he -heard in them. At this time Sir George Radcliffe was controller of the -Duke’s meagre household, and with Sir Edward Herbert appointed a new -suite. His mother had forbidden him to join his sister Mary, but in -December 1650 he was allowed to proceed to The Hague from Rheims, where -he had gone from Brussels. At the christening of the baby William, born -under such mournful circumstances, the Princess Dowager proposed that -the young uncle should carry the child, but the mother interfered, -considering such a proceeding highly insecure.[65] James was made chief -mourner at the funeral of his brother-in-law, the Prince of Orange, at -Delft, but soon afterwards the States General found him an inconvenient -visitor, as they were anxious to establish a good understanding with the -English Parliament: thus he was sent to Breda, and his mother was asked -to recall him. - -Footnote 62: - - Carte’s “Letters.” - -Footnote 63: - - Nicholas Papers. - -Footnote 64: - - “The King in Exile.” Eva Scott. - -Footnote 65: - - “The King in Exile.” Eva Scott. - -He was with her in France at the time of his brother’s absence in -Scotland, and they went together to Moriceux, to meet the fugitive -King on the accomplishment of his romantic escape after Worcester. -James was soon to make his acquaintance with war on his own account, -for it was at the age of nineteen,[66] and therefore in 1652, that he -entered the army of his cousin Louis XIV., wherein he served four -years with honour, becoming popular with all ranks. At the end of his -fourth campaign, which included the sieges and taking of Landrecy, -Condé and St Guislain, Turenne was sent for by Mazarin, and as all the -other lieutenant-generals were on leave the young English prince was -for a time in supreme command of the army of France.[67] Before this, -however, and soon after he joined Turenne, the lad had received his -baptism of fire at the first attack on Etampes, and it was there that -Schomberg, the future famous marshal, was wounded at his side.[68] -Forty years later at the Boyne Water, King James, in the desperate -attempt to regain his lost crown, was defeated by the great Dutch -general, who fell in the hour of victory. Time has his revenges. One -wonders if the thoughts of the luckless, despairing King travelled -back to that first fight, in the early flush of youth and hope, when -the world was opening before him and everything seemed possible.[69] - -Footnote 66: - - “Turenne,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.” - -Footnote 67: - - “Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm - Digby.” - -Footnote 68: - - “James II. and his Wives.” Allan Fea. - -Footnote 69: - - “Turenne,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.” - -Soon after Turenne’s summons to attend the Cardinal the treaty which -Cromwell concluded with France required the banishment of the Duke of -York, and having thus perforce to leave the army, he came to Paris there -to rejoin his mother. He was smarting under the treatment he had -received, for Turenne was his ideal and moreover had treated him with -marked kindness and consideration, giving “him a reception suitable to -his birth, and endeavoured by all possible proofs of affection to soften -the remembrance of his misfortunes.” This great leader had a high -opinion of the Duke, saying of him that he “was the greatest prince and -like to be the best general of his time.” We find Clarendon himself -writing to Secretary Nicholas in 1653: “The Duke of York is this day -gone towards the field, he is a gallant gentleman and hath the best -general reputation of any young prince in Christendom and really will -come to great matters.” - -The Duke had not reached manhood without further plans on his mother’s -part to negotiate a suitable alliance. We have seen that the Lorraine -match fell through. In the succeeding year, when he was eighteen, Marie -d’Orléans, Mademoiselle de Longueville, the daughter of the Duke de -Longueville by his first wife, was suggested by Sir John Berkeley. She -was ugly and deformed, though called a wise princess, but the greatest -heiress in France, after Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and James made no -objection.[70] Hyde, however, opposed the marriage, on the ground that -the heir presumptive ought not to marry before the sovereign, in which -axiom the queen-mother for once agreed with him, and Anne of Austria, -Queen-regent of France, clinched the matter. The Duke of York, she -decided, was too great, as the son of a king, to marry in France without -the consent of his nation and brother.[71] Mademoiselle de Longueville -married Henri, Duc de Nemours, in 1657. Madame de Motteville speaks of -her good looks, which Hyde denies, and affirms attachment on James’ -part. - -Footnote 70: - - “Life of Henrietta Maria,” I. A. Taylor. - -Footnote 71: - - “Memoirs for History of Anne of Austria,” Madame de Motteville, 1725; - “James II. and his Wives,” Allan Fea. - -James is reported to have been “very much displeased,” which seems a -little unlikely, considering his youth and the unattractive appearance -of the proposed bride. But four more years of strenuous life, as we -know, were to pass over his head, and then at Peronne, in the train of -his sister Mary, James, Duke of York, was fated to meet for the first -time Anne Hyde. In his own memoirs, dictated long afterwards, he -acknowledges that he learnt to love her at that time. The brilliant -girl, for whom Spencer Compton and Harry Jermyn had sighed in vain, was, -with her ready wit and hereditary talents, a conspicuous figure in the -entourage of the Princess of Orange.[72] “Besides her person,” says the -record just mentioned, “she had all the qualities proper to inflame a -heart less apt to take fire than his.” “A very extraordinary woman” she -is even called by Burnet (who, however, is not always to be trusted). -But at any rate, clever, fearless, ready of tongue and broadly -sympathetic, she stood for much that might be considered typically -English at that time.[73] As for Anne’s own feelings, no one can wonder -at her reciprocation of a passion which a prince like James laid at her -feet. Fresh from the fields of his prowess, confessed by the greatest -captain of the age to be of conspicuous gallantry, and surrounded with -the halo of unmerited misfortune, there is no doubt that he must have -seemed a very Paladin to the daughter of the loyal Cavalier to whom -fealty to the exiled race was a religion, and for the rest, when one -looks at the picture painted in his youth by Lely—the haughty, beautiful -face, with its sensitive mouth and luminous eyes—one cannot choose but -see, like poor Nan Hyde, in the Duke of York a veritable Prince -Charming. - -Footnote 72: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England during Reign of Stuarts.” J. H. - Jesse. - -Footnote 73: - - “Queen Anne and her Court.” P. F. Williams Ryan. - -His own statement is simply made in few words,[74] and apparently if the -lovers confessed their attachment to each other at that time no one else -guessed their secret then nor for long afterwards.[75] - -Footnote 74: - - “Life of James II.” Rev. J. S. Clarke, from original Stuart MSS. in - Carlton House, 1816. - -Footnote 75: - - “Original Papers containing Secret History of Great Britain,” arranged - by James Macpherson, 1775. Extracts from writings of James II. - himself. - -The Princess Mary and her train remained for some months in France, as -before mentioned, and it was during the stay in Paris that Frances -Stanhope, one of her ladies, was converted to Rome, and Queen Henrietta -was present at her profession in the Jesuit Noviciate Church. At this -time the Queen’s capricious favour seems to have veered in the direction -of her second son, probably on account of his service in the French -army. - -During this Paris visit Sir Richard Browne, father-in-law to John -Evelyn, was writing to Hyde in the month of May: “I have as yett been -onely once at our Court where by misfortune I could not kisse ye hande -of y^r faire daughter.” They were old friends, and the friendship lasted -for years.[76] - -Footnote 76: - - Evelyn’s “Correspondence.” Sir E. Hyde to Sir R. Browne, Bruges, 18th - August 1656: “We expect the Duke of York here very speedily.” - -Meanwhile the Duke of York, utterly weary of inglorious ease, again took -up arms, though reluctantly, at this time in the Spanish army under the -exiled Condé. He had received a sort of apology from Mazarin for the -treaty with Cromwell, which however he frankly acknowledged to be -unavoidable. It was, as has already been said, a prime object with the -Protector to foment disagreements between the royal brothers, and he -persuaded the Cardinal to offer James a command of troops in Italy.[77] -Charles on this summoned his brother to Breda, and bade him take an oath -of service to Spain and also dismiss his governor, Sir John Berkeley, -who was secretly an agent of Cromwell. The Duke of York, however, -probably resenting dictation of any kind, left Flanders hurriedly, to -his brother’s great wrath; on which Hyde, justly apprehensive of a -breach between the two, interfered on behalf of the younger brother, -begging that at any cost he should be recalled, and Ormonde was sent -after the truant. James listened to his persuasions so far as to consent -to return, on condition that his household was not meddled with, and the -offending Berkeley was given a peerage, it is hard to see why, being -created Baron Berkeley of Stratton. On this occasion the Princess Mary -went to Bruges to assist in bringing about the reconciliation between -her brothers, and in the month of May the Duke of York was given the -command of certain regiments newly raised, and in the succeeding month -finally made up his difference with Charles. At the battle of the Dunes -he displayed extraordinary valour, a quality which distinguished him -throughout his career as a soldier. Condé, who might certainly be -considered a judge of such matters, placed it on record that “if there -was a man without fear, it was the Duke of York.” - -Footnote 77: - - “Charles II.” Osmund Airy. - -In this campaign James had now the company of his younger brother Henry, -Duke of Gloucester. In that poor boy’s short and stormy life there was -indeed little space for anything to be called happiness. He, -contemptuously called “Master Harry” by his gaolers, had been released -by the Parliament some years previously, and having landed at Dunkirk -was first sent to Lady Hyde at Antwerp, but he arrived in Paris in -1653.[78] He had become—he was but ten years old—terribly spoilt by bad -company, but he quickly improved in his new surroundings, and later, -Morley at any rate thought highly of him.[79] No sooner, however, had he -taken up his abode with his mother than she, regardless of the dying -commands of his father, set to work with all her might to win him over -to the Church of Rome, fancying no doubt that with a child of -Gloucester’s tender years her task would prove an easy one. - -Footnote 78: - - Sandford’s “Genealogical History.” - -Footnote 79: - - _Dictionary of National Biography._ - -Charles II., nevertheless, wrote the boy a stern letter of warning, and -appealed passionately to James for aid, he being then at hand, bidding -him even leave the service of France sooner than refrain from supporting -his brother. Besides this the King despatched the faithful Ormonde to -enforce his command, the latter moreover on arrival finding it necessary -to sell his own George, the last jewel remaining to him, to help the -young Duke in his destitution. - -On this Henrietta flew into one of her tempests of rage and promptly -turned her youngest son out of her house, believing she could thus -coerce him into surrender. After a piteous scene with his little sister -Henrietta, who seemed beside herself with terror, only gasping “Oh me! -my mother!” amidst her sobs, the poor young Duke, forlorn and helpless, -but unshaken in his resolve, fled to his brother James, who did his best -to console him, and proved indeed always kind and affectionate. On this -occasion, moreover, the Duke of York attempted in vain to soften his -mother’s anger, but the only result was that she refused to communicate -with either son, except through Walter Montague, who was much in her -confidence as a messenger and go-between on many occasions. This favour -he probably owed to the fact of his being a convert from the Anglican -Church. He entered the religious life, and died as Abbot of Pontoise. - -The two royal brothers during their Paris sojourn attended together -regularly the English service which was held at the house of Sir Richard -Browne and was frequented by many of the exiled Cavaliers. If at this -time James had indeed begun to entertain doubts as to the Church of his -baptism, they were not yet strong enough to lead him away from her -worship. He appears to have been instructed early in the doctrines of -the Church, especially in that of the Real Presence, by Dr Steward, who -was successively Prebendary of Worcester and Provost of Eton. During the -progress of the war, the latter became (nominally) Dean of St Paul’s and -of Westminster, and while Clerk of the Closet to Charles I., was one of -the commissioners at the Treaty of Uxbridge. He also taught the Prince -of Wales, and became one of the Duke of York’s Cabinet Council, Sir -George Radcliffe spitefully calling him “the heifer the queen plowes -with.”[80] The support James gave to his younger brother testifies to -his loyalty, at any rate for that time, and something also may be due to -the ardent veneration which the memory of their father inspired in the -children of Charles I. To him the offices of his Church had been his -stay and consolation up to the supremest moment of the great tragedy, -and his son could not but remember the fact. And moreover it must be -recollected that among the many faults of James, Duke of York, -dissimulation had no place. Even Burnet, though no friend to him, could -not but acknowledge him to be “candid and sincere,” therefore we must -conclude that whatever difficulties may have presented themselves to his -mind, at the time when he and his brother Henry knelt side by side at -Mattins and Evensong in Sir Richard Browne’s house, the Duke of York was -still conscientiously an English churchman, and it is significant that -in after years he never tried to turn his daughters from their -faith.[81] - -Footnote 80: - - Burnet’s “History of My Own Time.” - -Footnote 81: - - Eva Scott, “The King in Exile.” Cosin, Dean of Peterborough, - afterwards Bishop of Durham, was chaplain in Paris. - -The Duke of Gloucester was afterwards for a time with his elder sister -in the Low Countries, and, as we have seen, in 1657 took up arms with -his brother.[82] Both were well known for their extreme and reckless -courage, an attribute not, it must be confessed, shared by the leaders -of the Spanish forces, who were their brothers in arms, for the latter -for the most part took care to watch the battles in which they were -engaged from the safe and distant harbourage of their coaches.[83] - -Footnote 82: - - Madame—Julia Cartwright (Mrs Ady). In June 1657 both were reported - slain or prisoners, but reached Bruges safely. - -Footnote 83: - - Thurloe State Papers. - -At the end of the campaign James had, as in the case of the army of -France, won the confidence of his men and the respect of Condé and of -the Spanish leaders in general.[84] - -Footnote 84: - - Clarendon State Papers. Marquess of Ormond to E. H. Brussels, 21st - June 1657: “The Duke of York will take exceedingly in the army. He is - as brave and as little troublesome as any prince can be.” - -It may be that neither England nor France was in favour of the Princes -taking service in the Spanish army, a circumstance which would have some -force in determining James, who very probably was quite willing to fling -a defiance in the teeth of Cromwell. - -Nevertheless, it is strange to find Sir John Berkeley and Colonel -Bampfylde, the plotter of some years back, seriously discussing about -this time the question of a marriage for the Duke of York with one of -the Protector’s daughters, a fact which goes to prove the despair of the -Royalists of otherwise succeeding in England.[85] Still later, in 1659, -a party among the exiles, choosing to believe a rumour which pronounced -the King to have consumptive tendencies and to be in a precarious state -of health, actually proposed to set him aside in favour of his second -brother. There is not, however, a shadow of evidence that James himself -was in any way a party to such a scheme. Indeed in August of that year -he followed Charles to France, and later in the autumn the unlucky truce -between France and Spain put an end to the military career of the Dukes -of York and Gloucester, and as a consequence deprived them of their pay -in the army of the latter country, throwing them once more on their -elder brother’s meagre resources. - -Footnote 85: - - Eva Scott, “Travels of the King,” “The King in Exile.” - - In this connection a letter from Mr Jennings (Captain Titus) to Hyde - seems to point to the increasing arrogance of the Protector’s family. - Writing from Antwerp on 11th February 1656-1657, he says: “There was - lately a wedding of a kinswoman of Laurence’s, whither all the - grandees and their wives were invited, but most of the Major-Generals - and their wives came not. The feast wanting much of its grace by the - absence of those ladies, it was asked by one there, where they were? - Mrs Claypole answered: ‘I’ll warrant you washing their dishes at home, - as they use to do.’ This hath been extremely ill taken, and now the - women do all they can with their husbands to hinder Mrs Claypole from - being a Princess and her Highness” (Clarendon State Papers). It will - be remembered that Elizabeth Claypole, Cromwell’s favourite daughter, - predeceased him by a few weeks. - -When Henry had been sent out of England by the Parliament, that body had -promised the prince a small maintenance, provided he kept away from all -and any of his relations, a proviso which obviously was unlikely to be -observed. However, any such provision was forfeited, and he was in the -same plight as his next brother. - -Another effort at an English alliance was made during this year, Lord -Mordaunt suggesting this time, as a bride to the Duke of York, Fatima -Lambert, the only child of the famous Roundhead general, whose influence -was for a time paramount with the army since the death of the Lord -Protector in September of 1658. - -James, however, now pledged secretly to Anne Hyde, at once refused the -proposed match, alleging as a reason the want of the King’s consent, but -still keeping his secret inviolate. - -From Secretary Nicholas’ letter to Charles II., dated 8th October, it -appears that in his communication with the Duke, Lord Mordaunt did not -mention the name of the lady, but called her mysteriously “a daughter of -a gentleman of power and good quality in England, but he was not to tell -who it was,” which seems an unmeaning precaution, as sooner or later -James must have been told, and could not be expected to pledge himself -in ignorance of the lady’s parentage.[86] - -Footnote 86: - - Carte’s “Letters.” - -However, as we know, the negotiation, if it attained such a point, -speedily fell to the ground, and events which soon followed removed it -altogether out of the sphere of possibilities. - -In that year, when hope and fear alternated almost daily, when events -crowded on each other, Lambert’s restless figure holds the stage in one -aspect or another.[87] In the autumn he is sent with a strong force to -suppress the rising of Sir George Booth, who is taken in the endeavour -to escape in a woman’s dress, and Lord Derby in the disguise of a -servant. Lambert is to command the Parliament’s forces in the north in -October. In March of the next year the pendulum has swung back, and the -victorious general is committed to the Tower. He is released on parole, -but once more he is stirring up strife and is made prisoner. Later, he -narrowly escapes the block, to be a captive for his life in Guernsey. -But now another figure dominates the arena, and it is Monk who gathers -up all the threads into his strong hands, who takes the tide at the -turn, who grasps the empty crown which a greater than he had longed but -feared to wear, and lays it at the feet of the exile whose birthright it -is.[88] - -Footnote 87: - - Whitelocke’s “Memorials.” - -Footnote 88: - - “State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.” Copy of a letter from Brussels, - of the 13/3 of March 1660/59. - -In the early spring of 1660, the year which was to see the end of King -Charles’ dreary, aimless wanderings, the Duke of York was made -captain-general of all the Spanish forces at sea, and “admiral of his -fleets commanding his cinque-ports,”[89] but he had not time to enjoy -these dignities long, for in the month of May he came home once more -with his brothers, and was forthwith made admiral of the English fleet. -Hyde had been strongly opposed to the Spanish appointment as it was -supposed to involve the profession of the faith of Rome, but at that -moment the fortunes of the royal house were at their lowest ebb. Charles -himself had gone incognito to Calais, James to Boulogne, hoping for the -success of Booth’s attempt, but its failure already mentioned sent both -the brothers back to Brussels. - -Footnote 89: - - Whitelocke’s “Memorials.” - -Only in March, came Bailey secretly to Ormonde with the tale that the -King was toasted in the taverns of London. Only in March, and in May the -_Royal Charles_ was bringing him back to his inheritance, the Duke of -York sailing in the _London_, the Duke of Gloucester in the _Swiftsure_. - -The 29th of May—Oak-Apple Day—the day looked for through long years of -suspense, the day almost despaired of, the day welcomed with a very -agony of joy and exultation, had come at last. - -To understand the fervour of welcome that greeted the restored King, we -must consider the unhealed wounds suffered by the many, and the fact -that the religious life of a great and representative class was -inextricably bound up with the fortunes of the exiled race. In the -eighteen years which had passed since the Standard was set up at -Nottingham, castle and grange and manor—yes, and farmhouse too—had sent -forth their sons, ungrudgingly for the most part, to fight under that -banner, and the great Anglican Church, with her array of saintly -doctors, never more conspicuous than in that age, had given her blessing -on the enterprise. In either case the sacrifice had been exacted, the -soldier had laid down his life, the priest had suffered for the cause, -and above all the scaffold before Whitehall had for ever set the seal on -both. It was nothing that England had known years of strong, -heavy-handed government, that she had dictated terms to other nations. -To many who cherished sorrowful memories, those years only represented a -space of stern tyranny and repression, and the graves of the beloved -slain at Edgehill and Newbury, Marston Moor and Naseby, were green for -ever in their hearts. To such simple and devout souls, also, it was much -that through that time the Liturgy had been forbidden, that the churches -had been desecrated, that the whole land lay desolate, neither could she -“enjoy her Sabbaths.” To them it was much that the end had come, and -even with haunting memories of the past they could say it was worth -while. If there was much that was short-sighted in this position, there -was also much that was heroic. - -[Illustration: - - JAMES, DUKE OF YORK -] - -So in the sunshine of spring, an English spring with the laburnums and -lilacs ablow, with the air scented with the breath of flowers, alive -with the singing of birds, the King came “to his own again.” -Thanksgivings had been offered in the glorious cathedral of Canterbury, -Rochester had added to the welcome, and now on Restoration Day a gallant -train rode slowly over Blackheath on its triumphant way to London. Blare -of trumpet and ring of bridle-chains and a riot of colour were all -combined, while the people who lined the way could, some of them, -scarcely see, for their blinding tears, the dark-faced King, thirty -years old to-day, glancing quickly around him, the saturnine mouth -relaxed in a smile, as he bowed to right and left. No wonder that he -could remark with easy cynicism that no doubt it must be his own fault -that his coming had been so long delayed, since everyone was so glad to -see him. - -Just behind the King came his brothers, side by side. - -As James, Duke of York, reined his fretting horse with practised skill, -he looked in his costly attire a very comely prince in the eyes of his -brother’s lieges. Yellow ribbons were fluttering from his shoulders, -fleecy white plumes waved from his hat over the long brown curls which -framed the proud and handsome face. He was now twenty-six, already a -soldier of tried capacity, and as one of the Intelligencers of London -had already said of him, “cried up for the most accomplished gentleman -both in arms and courtesie that graces the French Court.”[90] So people -wrote and thought, yet this reputation was for the most part left behind -him when he crossed the Channel. - -Footnote 90: - - “Queen Anne and her Court,” P. F. Williams Ryan. “The Duke of York, - besides being an able Captain and successful administrator, was a man - of many accomplishments, acquired by association with the most - polished society of Western Europe.” - -It was the fate of James Stuart, as it has often been the fate of -obscure persons, just to miss the appreciation which in some measure he -really deserved. His elder brother’s careless good humour and the grace -of manner which concealed so much selfish indifference won for Charles -II. from his people, weary of long repression and smarting under -unwelcome conditions, an amount of real affection which was certainly -both unreasonable and undeserved, but which nevertheless lasted for his -lifetime, and made him one of the most popular sovereigns of his -country. - -James, on the other hand, because he lacked just those superficial -attributes was, to the bitter end, mistrusted and misunderstood. He was -not clever in any sense, possessing none of the brilliant gifts which -Charles misused and flung away with absolute recklessness; but as -Buckingham, with his rapid, mordant apprehension, once said of the -brothers: “The King (Charles II.) could see things if he would, and the -Duke would see things if he could.”[91] - -Footnote 91: - - Bishop Burnet’s “History of My Own Time.” - -If he could—there was the key of the whole position. When the supreme -moment of his life arrived, James proved absolutely blind to the issues -involved—he could not see. - -As to his better qualities, Bishop Burnet, as already mentioned at no -time a friend to the Duke of York, was forced to admit his personal -courage. “He was very brave in youth, and so much magnified by Marshal -Turenne, that till his marriage he really clouded the King, and passed -for the superior genius.” Also it is acknowledged that he was “a firm -friend till affairs and his religion wore out all his first principles -and inclinations.” - -That same grace of constancy in friendship is endorsed by all his -biographers, and unhappily it was in many cases to prove his undoing. He -could not withdraw his confidence once given, and he was utterly blind -to the faults of his friends, clinging to them through good and evil -report, and in this respect he must be cleared of the charge of -fickleness. - -Presently we shall see how this insensate belief in his friends, and -misapprehension of their motives, was to operate in the drama of his -marriage, which was nearly thereby shipwrecked. - -He had no gifts as a letter writer (in which capacity Charles II. -certainly excelled, judging from the correspondence which survives[92]) -and in speech he even stammered slightly, for which reason he was -habitually silent. But while Charles was incurably idle, letting life -drift by on the surface of a jest, and unutterably bored whenever he was -forced to work (though no man knew better how to apply when put to it), -James was plodding, methodical, diligent, though he got little credit -for it, then nor later. - -Footnote 92: - - Granger’s “Biographical History of England.” - -This difference, apart from diversity of temperament, may be partly -accounted for by the circumstances of the brothers’ early life. Charles -during his years of exile was for the most part condemned to inaction, -while James gained in the arena of European warfare, under the eye of -the greatest generals of his day, the habit of action and of eager -disposal of his time. - -One more contrast is to be noted. - -Charles deliberately allowed himself to sink deeper and deeper into the -mire of degrading vice, successfully stifling the voice of his -conscience, till to all appearance it ceased to trouble him. James, on -the other hand, greatly as he had shared in the prevailing sins of his -age, never lost the uneasy sense of remorse, and certainly for the last -fifteen years of his life tried to atone for his stained youth by -fervent and real penitence. Moreover it is to be reckoned in his favour -that he never tolerated any sneers at religion in his presence. - -For the rest, he loved England with even passionate fervour. To his -dying day he steadily and enthusiastically extolled his -fellow-countrymen, banished though he was from the land that was so dear -to him; nor could he refrain from sympathetic admiration of his English -sailors for their daring gallantry at La Hogue, a gallantry displayed as -it was against himself, when with the navy of France he made one more -fruitless attempt to regain his lost kingdom.[93] Grammont, gay, -careless, superficial, was yet able to sum up the character of the Duke -with unusual gravity and deliberation. He bore the “reputation of -undaunted courage, inviolable attachment for his word, great economy in -his affairs, hauteur, application, arrogance, each in their turn, a -scrupulous observer of the rules of duty and the laws of justice; he was -accounted a faithful friend and an implacable enemy.”[94] - -Footnote 93: - - Granger’s “Biographical History of England.” - -Footnote 94: - - “Memoir of the Court of Charles II.,” by Count Grammont, ed. by Sir - Walter Scott, revised ed. 1846. - -Lastly, let it be said of James Stuart that he cannot be denied the -courage of his opinions, mistaken though they were, and grievously as he -erred in enforcing them. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - THE MARRIAGE - - -IT is difficult, nay impossible, now to fix the exact date of the -secret, but definite, understanding between the Duke of York and Anne -Hyde. - -Macpherson places it in 1657. James, he says, “had fallen in love with -Anne when the Chancellor and he were on ill terms,”[95] but the -probabilities point to the Paris visit already described. This would -give a reason for the Prince’s lingering on in the French capital at -that time, for he appears then to have been treated by the Court of -France with very little consideration, a state of things which he was by -no means the person to endure meekly, proud and punctilious as he could -show himself to be.[96] - -Footnote 95: - - Macpherson’s “Original Papers: Life of James II., by himself.” - -Footnote 96: - - Thurloe Papers. - -It was, by the way, then—if at all—that his sister Mary made the secret -marriage with the younger Harry Jermyn, formerly a suitor of Nan -herself, though the fact of such a union is more than doubtful.[97] - -Footnote 97: - - “Life of Henrietta Maria.” J. A. Taylor. - -However, James himself acknowledges that it was when the Princess and -her train came to Paris that he was first attracted to the young maid of -honour. He says that she brought “his passion to such an height as -between the time he first saw her and the winter before the King’s -restoration he resolved to marry none but her, and promised to do it, -and though at first when the Duke asked the King his brother for his -leave, he refused and diswaded him from it, yet at last he opposed it no -more, and the Duke married her privately, owned it some time after, and -was ever after a true friend to the Chancellor for several years.”[98] - -Footnote 98: - - Macpherson’s “Original Papers: Life of James II., by himself.” - -We are here given a period between the summer of 1656 and the winter of -1659-1660. As we know that the Duke’s campaigning had taken him away -from Paris in the autumn of 1657, the assumption is that some sort of -pledge passed between the lovers before this time, and that they had -then parted for some years with the knowledge of their jealously guarded -secret confined to themselves alone. No one seems really to have -suspected the truth till long afterwards, though there is a despatch -dated the 7th or 17th of August 1656 which has been supposed to refer to -this love affair, though it is hard to say on what grounds the -supposition is founded. The letter is from Ross to Secretary Nicholas. - - - “In England there is much bustle about choosing Parliament men. - Some counties have chosen Bradshaw, Ludlow, Salloway, Harrison - and Rich, at which Cromwell is so incensed that he has ordered - them to give bail to the majors general of their counties. My - wife is going to Dover to get a conveyance to go to the Duke of - York. I hear from young Musgrove that Mrs Benson is become ward - to a physician who lately applied to the Princess Royal to board - with her and one Bronkard who is with her and they are to go - with her on her next journey and be spies on the King’s - deportment.”[99] - -Footnote 99: - - “Calendar of Domestic State Papers,” edit. by M. A. - Everett-Green. - - -It is said that “Benson” is cypher for the Duke of York. Query, is Mrs -Benson intended for Anne Hyde? The date makes this supposition unlikely. -Even had there been any inkling of the affair it could scarcely have -been so soon, and such a storm of wrath was evoked by the discovery of -the contract in 1660 that it is most improbable that any suspicion of it -was afloat four years earlier. - -Too many people were interested in so vital a question for the secret to -have been quite closely kept in such a case. It would have leaked out -somehow, a whisper here, a hint there, to ears only too ready to listen -to so choice a morsel of scandal, from lips equally ready and eager to -retail it. It is at least certain that for long after the Paris visit -Anne retained the affection and confidence of the Princess of Orange, -and we know that these were rudely shaken by the discovery when it was -made.[100] - -Footnote 100: - - “Lives of Princesses of England.” M. A. Everett-Green. - -How the great secret was to be a secret no more, but the property of the -world at large, has now to be told.[101] - -Footnote 101: - - “Continuation of the Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon,” by himself, - ed. 1759. - -In some respects it is fairly easy to reconstruct the London of the -earlier Stuarts. Here and there one can trace, by the help of main -thoroughfares, the sites of buildings once famous, though now either -substantially changed or altogether non-existent. The south side of the -Strand in those days was lined with large and stately houses, mansions -in the true sense, each with its façade facing the street; and to the -rear its shady garden reaching to the river, where the water-gate with -its elaborate ironwork and lofty flanking pillars gave access to a -flight of steps, where a boat was commonly moored. The Thames was then -the chief and favourite highway of the city. Its shining surface was for -the most part alive with craft of every description, from the royal -barge, gaudy with profuse gilding and silken hangings, to the small boat -darting hither and thither, and holding perhaps but a single passenger. -Heavy loads would be going slowly down to Greenwich or Gravesend, a boat -full of cheerful citizens with violins on board rowing up to Chelsey -Reach, a market woman or two with their baskets crossing over from the -fields beyond the Tabard on the south side, a Templar embarking at -Whitehall stairs to hurry down to Alsatia—it was all a feast of colour -and life, such as, in one sense, has passed away from the scene for -ever. - -One of the great houses occupying such a position was that known as -Worcester House.[102] It had been originally a residence of the bishops -of Carlisle, and it stood on the site of the present Beaufort Buildings, -between the Savoy and Durham Place. At the Reformation it became the -property of the Crown, and was granted to the founder of the Bedford -family, when it was known as Bedford House, till they removed to the -present Southampton Street and built there another Bedford House. - -Footnote 102: - - Besant, “Survey of London”; Wheatley, “London, Past and Present”; - Walford, “Old and New London.” - -The house in the Strand then passed to Edward, second Marquess of -Worcester, the loyal Cavalier who held his strong castle of Raglan so -stoutly for the King, and who is, as well, remembered for his “Century -of Inventions” and his numerous scientific experiments. He died in 1667, -and his son Henry being created Duke of Beaufort in 1682 gave that name -to the block of houses now occupying the site. During the Commonwealth, -the house had been used for committees and was furnished by the -Parliament for the Scottish Commissioners. At one time Cromwell himself -had lived there,[103] but in May 1657 a Bill was passed to settle it on -Margaret, Lady Worcester. The Somersets having regained possession of -their house, Lord Worcester, twelve days after the Restoration, offered -it rent free to Edward Hyde, who, however, agreed to a lease at five -hundred pounds a year, looking on it merely as a temporary house, -intending to build for himself; an intention to be fulfilled before much -time was past. - -Footnote 103: - - Sir Henry Craik, “Life of Edward, Lord Clarendon.” - -Here for the present, at any rate, the Chancellor, who had accompanied -his master on his triumphant return, took up his abode. - -The pageant of the Restoration was possessing fully the mind and temper -of the people. The streets were daily thronged with eager, excited, -jubilant crowds, demonstrating their noisy welcome to the long -expatriated King. London was delirious for the time being with the -revulsion, and those who had endured years of exile and poverty were not -the least happy. Among these might be numbered the Hydes. The Chancellor -might certainly be considered to deserve a season of rest and prosperity -after so many strenuous years of service, and as soon as the King was at -Whitehall, firmly established in the house of his fathers, Hyde had -leisure to turn to his own affairs, and forthwith sent off for his -daughter Anne. It has been said that the Princess Mary’s suspicions had -been already aroused with regard to her brother James and her maid of -honour, and that she had therefore dismissed the latter from her -service, but if so it does not seem that she imparted such suspicions to -any one at that time, for certainly Hyde himself was then completely -ignorant of them. He was, as we have seen, a man of strong and tenacious -family affections, and for his elder girl he had a deep and enduring -love. “She being his eldest child he had more acquaintance with her than -with any of his children.”[104] Besides, another question with regard to -her was beginning to occupy his mind. Now that public affairs were -settling down peaceably in England, he bethought him of finding an -honourable establishment for his Nan, and it seems he had “an overture -from a noble family.” - -Footnote 104: - - “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon: Continuation,” by himself. - -Since the quickly extinguished love affairs at The Hague in 1654-1655 -nothing of the kind is recorded, and the Chancellor was fully alive to -the advisability of a suitable marriage for this his elder daughter, who -was now twenty-three, a mature age according to the ideas of the time. -Back, therefore, to England and to the new home in London, came Anne -Hyde, a stranger to her native land since her childhood, to be received -by her parents with exceeding joy. - -It was, no doubt, to many of the long exiled Cavaliers a summer of hope, -destined, in many cases, to be unfulfilled. They looked forward eagerly -to the knitting together of ravelled skeins, to the renewal of old ties, -of old friendships; to the building up of home in the dear familiar -places so long laid waste and desolate. - -So Edward Hyde and Frances his wife looked forward fondly to welcoming -their Nan, and cherished happy visions of a blithe bridal, of a new -relationship, new ties; of children’s children at their knees in God’s -good time. - -They were keeping open house like their neighbours with lavish -hospitality, and perhaps Mistress Anne, in spite of the possession of -her momentous secret, and the anxiety inextricable from it, was not -averse to the intercourse now opened with the choicest spirits of that -English society which was re-forming itself around her. - -In the wainscotted rooms of Worcester House they were made welcome. -Ormonde, tried and trusted, who had watched over the boyhood and shared -the exile of his king with selfless devotion; and Southampton, whose -memory could go back to the awful night, when he was keeping his vigil -by the body of his dead king in St James’s, and the muffled figure of -Cromwell stole into the dusky room to look at the calm face of his -victim; and Edward Nicholas, the Secretary, of whom it could be said -that there was “none more industrious, none more loyal, none less -selfish than he.”[105] These with their host could talk over the days of -strife and confusion, of rebellion and anarchy, wherein they had played -their parts; days past, so all trusted, never to return. Together they -could speak with hushed and saddened voices of lost friends and of the -master whom they had served so faithfully, yet failed to save. There, -too, often came John Evelyn, a friend true and loyal through long years. -“This great person,” he says, speaking of Hyde, “had ever been my -friend.” He would come by water from his house at Deptford—that Sayes -Court near which he was afterwards to discover the young Gibbons at work -on his great carving—and so, landing at the water-gate, would pass -through the garden into Worcester House. And there likewise would be -Morley, now Dean of Christ Church (who had come back before the -Restoration, being sent by Hyde to contradict the report of the King’s -apostacy), taking up once more the threads of the close friendship of -many years. Perhaps, too, Gilbert Sheldon, who had gone joyfully to meet -the returning king at Canterbury—now Dean of the Chapel Royal, but soon -to be Bishop of London—was there also, ready for an argument or dispute -with Morley, yet both of them united in virtue of long-standing -affection for the Chancellor.[106] And among them would be other and -younger guests: gallants scented and curled, in lace and satin, playing -the courtier to the daughters of the house, Anne and even little -Frances, or laughing with their young brothers, or, one of them, singing -a dainty madrigal or so to the music of a lute or virginals. - -Footnote 105: - - “Life of Edward, Lord Clarendon.” Sir Henry Craik. - -Footnote 106: - - _Dictionary of National Biography._ - -It was to all seeming a happy, sunny time, but suddenly into the midst -of the cheerful trifling was flung an announcement which was to prove, -with a vengeance, an apple of discord to all whom it could concern. - -James, Duke of York, the King’s second brother, the heir presumptive to -the Crown, and the Chancellor’s elder daughter, Mistress Anne Hyde, were -married, and every one, whether remotely interested or no, stood aghast. - -When the Duke first spoke to his brother on the subject is -doubtful,[107] but according to his own memoir it seems to have been -before the Restoration, possibly even at the time of the projected match -with Fatima Lambert, though as we have seen he did not openly give it as -a reason for his refusal. - -Footnote 107: - - “Original Papers containing Hist. of Gt. Britain,” arranged by John - Macpherson, 1775; extracts from “James II., by himself”: “The King at - first refused the Duke of York’s marriage with Mrs Hyde.” - -Easy-going as Charles II. was on some points, he was naturally strongly -opposed to such a marriage for his brother as one with the Chancellor’s -daughter, since no possible advantage could result from it, and later, -when he did give his consent, he only reluctantly withdrew his -opposition.[108] - -Footnote 108: - - “Memoirs of the Court of Charles II.” Count Grammont, edit. Sir W. - Scott, revised ed. 1846, note 42. - -Nevertheless James disregarded the fraternal disapprobation, without at -the time confessing the fact, for the marriage on which so much was to -hang took place at Breda on 10th November 1659. - -The Princess of Orange and her three brothers were there alternately -with Brussels throughout that winter and the early part of the -succeeding spring. - -Thurloe writes in March 1659-1660: “To-morrow I am parting for Antwerp, -whither the princess royal is going, being on her return from Breda. The -King of Scots goes with her to Antwerp, and from thence returns -specially hither, but both the dukes go through with her to Breda.”[109] -It is certain that though Mary was ignorant of the marriage she -suspected the existence of some understanding between her brother and -the maid of honour before the end of 1659, and on this account made no -difficulty of the latter’s retirement from her service. - -Footnote 109: - - “State Papers of John Thurloe, Esq.” - -There is a consensus of evidence as to the date of the marriage. Among -others, Lady Fanshawe gives it.[110] She was certainly in Holland at the -time and it is possible that she was at Breda itself. - -Footnote 110: - - “Notes to the Memoirs of Ann, Lady Fanshawe” (_Chalmers’ Biographical - Dictionary_). - -Who the witnesses of this union were cannot now be ascertained, and it -may be because of this fact that we are told that James could, if he -chose, have had the contract annulled at the time when the storm -broke.[111] It has indeed by some writers been termed a contract, only, -of marriage, but we shall see later that the validity was fully -established. - -Footnote 111: - - “Royalty Restored.” J. F. Molloy. - -At any rate James now went to the King, and on his knees made a clean -breast of the affair, confessing the fact of his marriage in defiance of -the prohibition of the previous year, and entreating permission for a -public ceremony. Charles was, we are told, “greatly troubled with his -Brother’s Passion,” “which was expressed in a very wonderful manner and -with many tears, protesting that if his Majesty should not give his -consent, he would immediately leave the Kingdom, and must spend his life -in foreign parts.”[112] - -Footnote 112: - - “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon: Continuation,” by himself. - -The King, as might be expected, was greatly dismayed and perplexed, as -the situation offered serious complications. He does not appear to have -shown then, nor later, much positive anger with his brother, but he was -far-seeing enough to fear the difficulties that would probably arise -from this unwelcome alliance, which might very well prove a terrible -stumbling-block in his way. - -James meanwhile was vehement and determined. As to his threat of -self-expatriation, that was of course not to be thought of for a moment, -and the King in his perturbation sent for the Chancellor. - -Probably Charles’ first feelings with regard to Hyde were those of -strong irritation, as it might easily transpire that the latter from -motives of ambition had, if not assisted, at least countenanced the -match. - -However those old and tried friends, Ormonde, the new Lord Steward, and -Southampton, now Lord High Treasurer, were deputed to see and confer -with him first, before his interview with the King himself. - -Hyde’s outburst of wrath and bitter grief on being told the news[113] -satisfied all parties that there was no collusion on his part, and when -Charles himself came into the room, he was softened by the father’s -evident distress, and spoke gently and kindly to his old servant. - -Footnote 113: - - “The Chancellor knew nothing of the Duke of York’s marrying his - daughter” (Macpherson Papers). - - “Nobody was so surprised and confounded as the Chancellor himself, - who, being of a nature free from jealousy, and very confident of an - entire affection and obedience from all his children, and particularly - from that daughter whom he had always loved dearly, never had in the - least degree suspected any such thing, though he knew afterwards that - the Duke’s affection and kindness had been much spoken of beyond the - seas, but without the least suspicion in anybody that it could ever - tend to marriage” (“Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon: Continuation,” - by himself). - -The Duke of York himself next made his appearance, but possibly the -King, wishing to avoid a scene, or not thinking the moment a propitious -one for his brother to attempt any justification, took the latter away -with him, leaving Hyde for the present with his friends, who for their -part did their best to console him. They for one thing strenuously -upheld the fact of the marriage, of which the Chancellor, in his pain -and bewilderment, was at first doubtful, and indeed urged every ground -of comfort. For the time being, however, the angry father would listen -to no argument nor representation. Hurrying home he ordered his daughter -into close confinement, in the high-handed fashion which parents in -those days were in the habit of employing. He really seems, moreover—the -grave, sedate, well-balanced Chancellor—to have taken leave of his -senses, for he even seriously suggested sending the culprit to the -Tower, not to mention the extreme measure of cutting off her head. -Southampton, in his dismay at his old friend’s frenzy, had told the King -that it must be madness in some form,[114] saying that “His Majesty must -consult with soberer men, that He” (pointing to the Chancellor) “was -mad, and had proposed such extravagant things that he was no more to be -consulted.” However, without any question of Tower or block, Mistress -Anne was locked up in her father’s house, and apparently was destined to -remain in durance. Finding the rigorous treatment which, as it was, Hyde -chose to adopt, the King again sent for him, and taking him to task for -his harshness, interceded for the offending daughter. The Chancellor, -however subservient he could be, was not to be coerced on such a point, -and stood firm. He answered proudly, that “her not having discharged the -duty of a daughter ought not to deprive him of the Authority of a -Father, and therefore he must humbly beg His Majesty not to interpose -his commands against his doing anything that his own dignity required; -that He only expected what His Majesty would do upon the Advice He had -humbly offered to him, and when He saw that He would himself proceed as -He was sure would become him.” Charles, for his part, accepted this snub -direct with perfect docility, but the plot was destined to thicken -quickly, and neither of them could, as it turned out, prevent the march -of events, nor sever the offending pair. - -Footnote 114: - - “The behaviour of Lord Clarendon on this occasion was so extraordinary - that no credit could have been given to any other account than his - own” (Hallam’s “Constitutional History”). - -In spite of her father’s vigilance, the Duke of York found means to -visit his wife during her incarceration, by the connivance of her maid, -Ellen Stroud, who had been a confidante from the beginning.[115] -Clarendon in his own Memoir uses the words: “By the administration of -those who were not suspected by him, and who had the excuse that they -‘knew that they were married.’” One other accomplice there seems to have -been.[116] It is almost certain that the girl’s mother was in the plot, -though how far must be a matter of conjecture, but before the esclandre -Sir Astley Cooper, after dining at Worcester House, said to Lord -Southampton, who was also present, that he was certain that Mistress -Anne was the wife of either the King or the Duke of York, judging by her -mother’s demeanour. This, it seemed, displayed the scarcely veiled -consideration due to the new rank, and an eager expectation of the -moment when concealment would be no longer necessary. - -Footnote 115: - - “The Duke came unknown to him” (“Continuation of the Life of Edward, - Earl of Clarendon,” by himself, ed. 1759). - -Footnote 116: - - “Soon after the Restoration the Earl of Southampton and Sir A. A. - Cooper dined at the Chancellor’s. On the way home Sir Anthony said: - ‘Yonder Mrs Anne is certainly married to one of the brothers: a - concealed respect (however suppressed) showing itself so plainly in - the looks, voice and manner wherewith her mother carved to her or - offered her of every dish, that it is impossible but it must be so’” - (“Samuel Pepys and the World he Lived In.” Wheatley). - - “Lord Shaftesbury told Sir Richard Wharton, from whom I had it, that - some time before the match was owned, he had observed a respect from - Lord Clarendon and his lady to their daughter that was very unusual - from parents to their children, which gave him a jealousy she was - married to one of the brothers, but suspected the King most.” As far - as one can judge, Clarendon himself was ignorant. (Burnet’s “History - of His Own Time,” Lord Dartmouth’s Notes.) - -It is scarcely to be wondered at. Frances Hyde may have been prompted by -ambition, or simply by the desire to give her daughter her heart’s -desire without counting the cost or considering the consequences. In -either case it is hard to blame her, though her connivance places her on -a lower plane than her husband, with his high ideals of what was due to -the royal house, exaggerated as the feeling might be which made him say -that sooner than see her wife of the Duke, “I had much rather see her -dead, with all the infamy that is due to her presumption.” - -Yet fate was too strong for him. - -It was very likely easy enough for mother and bower-maid to arrange the -stolen meetings of the two, when we recollect the position of Worcester -House. - -It was quite simple, in the velvet darkness of a summer night, for the -prince to come down in a wherry from Whitehall stairs to the water-gate -of the Chancellor’s house, which he would find unlocked, and so pass -through the silent garden where only the whisper of the leaves stirred -in the light wind fitfully, piloted by Ellen the maid, to the room where -Mistress Nan herself was waiting to keep tryst. No one else need be the -wiser—no one else knew, save Lady Hyde, and she would keep out of the -way carefully. - -It was no doubt a halcyon time, that summer of the Restoration, for many -pairs of lovers, joined after long sundering to make reunion all the -dearer; and to Anne Hyde it was gilded twofold. Love triumphant burnt in -a clear and steady flame, and besides, there was the dazzling promise of -splendour and royalty. The moments hurried by all too swiftly in the -starlight. If his tongue was, as we are told, slow and halting, hers was -ready and swift, and there was, at any rate, the eloquence of clasped -hands, of eager eyes. - -But matters were not to arrange themselves quite happily at present, and -the threads of the puzzle would need a very careful disentangling before -the cord would straighten out quite smooth and even. - -Rumour had begun to be busy. Gossips talked of a contract. Pepys, who is -never very accurate, and who moreover constantly and unaccountably -betrays a prejudice against the lady, calls it a promise, only, of -marriage.[117] - -Footnote 117: - - “Diary of Samuel Pepys, 7th October 1660,” notes by Lord Braybrooke, - 1906. - -He gives the story that James, after the time-honoured manner of the -hero of melodrama, had signed this promise with his blood, that Anne had -carefully locked it up but that the Duke had found means to get this -important paper “out of her cabinet,” that the King wanted his brother -to marry her but that the latter “will not.” This remark about the King, -by the way, puts the account out of court. Sir John Reresby, more -good-natured but scarcely better informed, says the marriage or -betrothal probably took place either in January or February 1660, soon -after James returned to Flanders on the failure of Booth’s rising. We -have, however, much more definite evidence. In the deposition on oath of -the parties, to be noticed presently, the word contract is certainly -used, and the expression had to be defined. We shall see in what manner -this was done. - -It is clear that the King very quickly made up his mind to countenance -the marriage. He said to Hyde himself that his daughter “was a Woman of -a great Wit and excellent parts, and would have a great power with his -brother, and that he knew she had an entire obedience for him her -Father, who he knew would always give her good counsel by which he was -confident that naughty people which had too much credit with his brother -and which had so often misled him, would be no more able to corrupt him, -but that she would prevent all ill and unreasonable attempts, and -therefore he again confessed that he was glad of it.”[118] - -Footnote 118: - - “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon: Continuation,” by himself. - -This was, of course, a tribute to the Chancellor himself. Charles II. -was fully conscious of how much he had owed for many years to the -counsels and service of Hyde, and how important they were likely to -prove in the future; therefore his chief anxiety, at that time at any -rate, was to bind the latter’s interests to his own at all costs. He -also in the daily conference with the Chancellor on which he insisted, -used the common-sense argument that the latter “must behave himself -wisely, for that the thing was remediless”—in other words, that what was -done could not be undone, a highly characteristic attitude on the part -of the speaker. - -But if the King was prepared to be reconciled to the match, no other -member of the royal family could be said to tolerate the idea, certainly -not the queen-mother, who was almost beside herself with fury. Anne’s -late mistress, the Princess Royal, was also deeply incensed, resenting -the affront all the more from the favour she had lavished for so many -years on her maid of honour. The storm so evoked raged with more or less -violence through the autumn. The wrathful letters written by his mother, -on the first intelligence, James had shown to Anne, and before he set -out to meet his elder sister, who was on her way to England, he came -openly to Worcester House, and taking the Chancellor aside, said to him -in a whisper that “he knew that he had heard of the matter, that when he -came back he would give full satisfaction, and that he was not to be -offended with his daughter.” - -What answer Hyde chose to make on this occasion we do not know, nor how -much he suspected, but the “matter,” as the Duke called it, had already -been made absolutely sure. - -Worcester House had been the scene, not only of romance, of love-trysts, -of secret meetings on summer nights, but it had witnessed a union which -was to have far-reaching results for the realm of England. - -On the night of 3rd September 1660, James, Duke of York, and Anne Hyde, -did for the second time plight their faith either to other.[119] - -Footnote 119: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England under the Reign of the Stuarts,” John - Heneage Jesse; Macpherson’s “Original Papers”; “Memoirs for History of - Anne of Austria,” Madame de Motteville, 1725. - -The officiating priest was the Duke’s chaplain, Dr Crowther, Lord Ossory -(the son of Ormonde) giving away the bride, and another witness was -present in the person of the maid Ellen Stroud, who had so often -connived at the Duke’s visits, and who now, with the ease of long -practice, smuggled these persons into the house. Lady Hyde was certainly -not there, though it is quite possible that she was aware of the -transaction.[120] - -Footnote 120: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England under the Reign of the Stuarts.” John - Heneage Jesse. - -As to the ceremony itself, we have the depositions, as before mentioned, -of all present, solemnly and severally attested, which afterwards passed -into the possession of John Evelyn.[121] - -Footnote 121: - - Original Depositions formerly in the possession of John Evelyn. MS. - 18,740. B. M. - -The first of these may suffice. - - - “I, James Duke of York do testify and declare that after I had - for many months sollicited Anne my wife in the way of marriage, - I was contracted to her on the 24th November 1659, at Breda in - Brabant and after that tyme and many months before I came into - England I lived with her (though with all possible secrecy) as - my Wife and after my coming into this Kingdome, And that we - might observe all that is enjoyned by the Church of England I - married her upon the third of September last in the night - between 11 and 12 at Worcester House, my Chaplain, Dr Crowther - performing that office according as is directed by the Book of - Common Prayer the Lord Ossory being then present and giving her - in marriage of the truth of all which I do take my corporall - oath this 18 February 1660-61. JAMES.” - - -The bride followed, and each of the witnesses deposed in much the same -terms, appending their signatures with the exception of Ellen the maid, -who, as was usual in a person of her class at that time, was unable to -write, and therefore “made her marke.” - -It is very important here to notice that the depositions were further -endorsed thus: - -“James Duke of York and Anne Hyde Duchess of York having been married at -Breda.” - -The Worcester House ceremony was therefore to be regarded as simply a -re-marriage to guard against any possible doubts or difficulties that -might subsequently arise. It was by no means unheard-of for a marriage -to be repeated in form where there existed any suspicion as to complete -regularity, but this did not render the previous solemnisation less -binding on the parties. Considering the character of Anne, who showed -herself from first to last a proud, resolute, as well as ambitious -woman, the inference is that she had looked on the Breda ceremony as -much more than a mere betrothal. Putting aside the strong, even stern, -religious principles in which she, the pupil of Morley, had been -educated and which she had evinced from childhood, one can arrive at but -one conclusion as far as she was concerned. - -But an event was to happen in the same month of September, which for the -time being was to put aside the thought of everything else. - -Smallpox, the terrible scourge of the age, busy at the dangerous season -of the falling leaf, smote the youngest son of the royal house, and on -the 22nd, Henry, Duke of Gloucester, was dead in the flush of his early -youth. - -He had abundantly proved himself, in the Spanish campaign, a gallant -soldier at the side of his brother James, and if there were already -signs manifested that he was not altogether untouched by some of the -failings of his race, that question must be suffered to sleep with him. -In 1659, when he had been created by letters patent Duke of Gloucester -and Earl of Cambridge, he had also been invested with the Garter at The -Hague by Sir Edward Walker, Garter King-at-Arms, but he was never -installed.[122] - -Footnote 122: - - Sandford’s “Genealogical History.” - -In the anger and excitement consequent on the discovery of the Duke of -York’s stolen marriage, the younger brother must needs put in his word. - -He did not like Mistress Anne. He vowed with boyish petulance that he -hated “to be in the room with her, she smelt so strong of her father’s -green bag.”[123] And perhaps, who knows? the impatient words may have -rankled in the mind of the latter, though it mattered little after all. - -Footnote 123: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England under the Reign of the Stuarts.” John - Heneage Jesse. - -All too soon, alas! the grave closed over the fair young head, and one -forgets all that is best forgotten. We only think tenderly of Henry -Stuart, as the loving child who sat on his doomed father’s knee at that -last piteous interview in St James’s Palace, the day before the fatal -30th January, and promised fealty to the brother who was next to claim -it, with the unquestioning obedience of childhood. - -[Illustration: - - HENRY, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER -] - -Charles II., callous as he was steadily becoming to his better feelings, -grieved bitterly at the loss of his young brother,[124] and this -unexpected sorrow probably helped to soften him with regard to events -which were soon to follow. Over in France, too, the little sister -Henrietta, whose short intercourse with her brother had been marked by -their mother’s unjust persecution of him, wept passionately for him, as -she had been eagerly looking forward to seeing him again during the -visit she and her mother were on the point of paying to England. At the -boy’s funeral in Westminster Abbey his brother James was chief -mourner.[125] - -Footnote 124: - - Sandford’s “Genealogical History.” - -Footnote 125: - - “Royalty Restored.” J. F. Molloy. - -Meanwhile, immediately following the arrival of the Princess of Orange, -a mysterious silence fell on everything concerned with the marriage of -the Duke of York. To Anne, waiting in her seclusion at Worcester House -for both the return of her husband and for the birth of their child, now -near at hand, the suspense must have been little short of maddening. As -we have seen, the queen-mother’s bitter letter to her son on the score -of the marriage which she believed to be not yet accomplished, had been -shown to his wife. The anger of the Princess Mary, too, deep as it was, -could not account for the Duke’s non-appearance. Had he not made -assurance doubly sure by the second ceremony? What then was brewing? - -The clue to the mystery lay in the infamous conspiracy now to be -related. - -Sir Charles Berkeley, belonging at this time to the Duke of York’s -household, and certain others, were destined to prove themselves with a -vengeance, the “naughty people” whom Charles II. trenchantly denounced -as having too much weight with his brother. - -There is no evidence that the queen-mother had any knowledge whatever of -the matter. Passionate, prejudiced, and headstrong as Henrietta Maria -had often shown herself, it is impossible to attach to her any of the -guilt of this abominable plot, although it is true that it played into -her hands; but she was far too outspoken and impetuous to be concerned -in it, or to be taken into the confidence of the conspirators. - -The Berkeley above mentioned, who was nephew to John, Lord Berkeley of -Stratton, James’ former tutor and bad adviser, had, it appears, himself -fallen in love with Mistress Hyde, and his suit being rejected, made up -his mind to gain her on any terms. It is to be supposed that he was -ignorant of the Worcester House re-marriage, but at this moment he came -forward and with devilish effrontery declared that the unhappy girl had -been his mistress, succeeding, moreover, in convincing Jermyn, Arran, -and Talbot of the truth of this assertion.[126] - -Footnote 126: - - “Memoirs of the Court of Charles II.” Count Grammont, edit. Sir W. - Scott, revised ed. 1846. - -Besides his own ulterior views, Berkeley was influenced by an inveterate -spite against the Chancellor, and being entirely unscrupulous he took -this dastardly means of gratifying his enmity. - -The curious point about this transaction is the ease with which the Duke -of York fell into the trap; but we are here confronted with the most -salient point of his character, which has been noticed previously. He -possessed what might be called an obstinate fidelity to his friends, or -those whom he chose to consider as such, and a singular obtuseness as to -the nature of their motives. Long before, as we have seen, he had -quarrelled with his elder brother because Charles had discovered the -treason of the elder Berkeley in “trafficking” with Cromwell, and had -refused to dismiss him from his service: now he clung stubbornly to the -nephew, believing, in spite of his own deep anguish, the horrible -slanders which the latter had coined with regard to his wife. It was -just this trait in the character of James II. which was to prove his -undoing at the close of his stormy reign. He trusted traitor after -traitor, almost against the evidence of his senses, till the end came, -and crown and kingdom had passed from him for ever. - -On this occasion there is ample evidence of James’ misery and despair. -He was, besides, in deep grief for the death of his brother the Duke of -Gloucester, who had been so closely associated with him through the -Spanish campaign, and whom he loved with a protecting and indulgent -affection: and indeed at this time he had himself fallen ill, having -refused food in his grief. - -And now, just a month after Gloucester’s untimely death, in the midst of -this web of deceit, of false witness, of distress and unbearable -anxiety, an event occurred to which the persons most nearly concerned -looked with mingled sentiments, but which was likely to prove of -profound consequence to the kingdom. On 22nd October, Anne, Duchess of -York, gave birth to her first-born son. - -As matters then were, this child, it must be remembered, stood in the -line of succession, the King not being yet married; and he, at any rate, -fully recognised the importance of the occasion, for he despatched Lady -Ormonde and Lady Sunderland (Waller’s “Sacharissa” of other days) to -Worcester House to be present at the birth of the expected heir.[127] -Dean Morley, Anne’s spiritual adviser since her childhood, was also -summoned, and in view of the aspersions against her now current, the -poor mother was solemnly exhorted in that extreme hour to make -profession on oath of her innocence in respect of Berkeley’s hideous -accusations, which she did with a vehement earnestness and passion in a -degree which seems to have carried conviction to those present. - -Footnote 127: - - “Life of Henrietta Maria.” J. A. Taylor. - -It also appears that the King at this time laid the facts of the -contract at Breda before “some Bishops and Judges,” and that they -pronounced that “according to the doctrine of the Gospel and the law of -England it was a good marriage.”[128] The second ceremony, that at -Worcester House, which was thus rendered unnecessary, was kept for some -time a secret, but John Evelyn was one of the first persons to have any -accurate information on the subject. As early as the 7th October we find -him entertaining at a farewell dinner a French count with Sir George -Tuke, “being sent over by the Queen Mother to break the marriage of the -Duke with the daughter of Chancellor Hyde. The Queen would fain have -undone it, but it seems matters were reconciled on great offers of the -Chancellor to befriend the Queen, who was much in debt, and was now to -have the settlement of her affairs to go through his hands.”[129] - -Footnote 128: - - Bishop Burnet’s “History of His Own Time.” - -Footnote 129: - - “Diary of John Evelyn,” introduction by Austin Dobson. - -Evelyn is too weighty and dispassionate as a chronicler for his evidence -to be set aside, but this account reads a little strangely in the face -of Hyde’s anger and dismay, which no one supposed other than sincere, -when he was first made aware of the matter, even begging the King’s -permission to give up office and go far from the Court. On this point -Burnet further declares that all Clarendon’s enemies rejoiced at the -marriage, “for they reckoned it would raise envy so high against him, -and make the King jealous,” and so “end in his ruin.” One must arrive at -the conclusion that finding how far things had gone, the Chancellor had -for his own sake, his daughter’s, and indeed for that of the country, -set himself to deprecate the wrath of Henrietta in the readiest manner -possible to him. Most of her dower-lands had been parted among the -regicides, and he was probably able to adjust some sort of restitution. - -Pepys, inquisitive as he was, like all inveterate gossips, was entirely -ignorant of the real facts of the case till much later. On 24th October -he speaks of the Duke’s “amour,” though he knows of the birth of the -child. Even as late as 16th December he writes: “To my Lady’s [Lady -Sandwich] and staid with her an hour or two, talking of the Duke of York -and his lady, the Chancellor’s daughter, between whom, she tells me, all -is agreed, and he will marry her.” This, it must be remembered, is more -than three months after the Worcester House ceremony. - -But before this the principal enemy to the marriage had arrived in -England. - -On 2nd November King Charles came up by water from Gravesend,[130] -escorting, with all due respect, “Mary the Queen Mother.” Henrietta, it -must be remembered, was always known in England in her own time as Queen -Mary. - -Footnote 130: - - “Side-lights on the Stuarts.” Inderwick. - -[Illustration: - - HENRIETTA MARIA, “MOTHER QUEEN” -] - -In the grey November weather the banks of the Thames were not at their -best, neither were the feelings of the exiled Queen, who was coming home -at last. She too was changed. The short-lived beauty of expression and -grace and vivacity had long fled, and it was a “little plain old woman” -who sat on the deck of the royal barge, and gazed at scenes once -familiar through a mist of tears. So she came back, an honoured guest -indeed, but with all the wine of life drained to the lees, to a country -which had dealt her the heaviest blows a woman could endure, in the -past. She was coming, too, with a heart full of bitter wrath against the -upstart who had forced herself, so she considered, into the circle of -royalty. The Queen’s extreme anger, it may be noted, was, in her case, -in some degree inconsistent, seeing that at one time she had -contemplated a match between her elder son, the King of England (at that -time if not _de facto_ at least _de jure_), and one of Mazarin’s nieces, -that bevy of lovely Mancini sisters, whose beauty was so famous in their -day, for they, we are told, “sprang from the dregs of the people.”[131] -Otherwise no one can wonder at the indignation of the haughty Bourbon -princess, the daughter, on one side at any rate, of a line of kings (and -even of the proud Hapsburg blood, through the once despised Medici -ancestry); and she came now, as she said, “to prevent with her authority -so great a stain and dishonour to the Crown,” by hindering her son James -at all costs from publicly recognising his marriage.[132] Indeed her -anger knew no bounds, and all her old prejudices against Anne’s father -had awakened once more, adding fuel to the fire. At the moment, too, the -Duke of York played into his mother’s hands, for he was then, as it -were, reeling from the frightful blow of Berkeley’s base accusations, -and only ready in his despair to repudiate alike his wife and child. - -Footnote 131: - - “Lives of the Queens of England.” Agnes Strickland. - -Footnote 132: - - “Life of Henrietta Maria,” J. A. Taylor; “Princesses and Court - Ladies,” Arvède Barine. - -There was also, it appears, a general opinion that the whole business -spelt disaster to the Chancellor. - -On 6th November, just after the Queen’s arrival therefore, Pepys notes -that “Mr Chetwind told me that he did fear that the late business of the -Duke of York’s would prove fatal to my Lord Chancellor,”[133] and the -latter in his own History avers that he “looked upon himself as a ruined -person,” and says bitterly that previous to this the Duke’s manner to -him “had never anything of grace in it.”[134] Meanwhile Mary, Princess -of Orange, had also come to England, and was adding her voice to the -chorus of indignant reprobation. She could not for a moment think, so -she said, “of yielding precedence to one whom she had honoured over much -by admitting her into her service as maid of honour.” - -Footnote 133: - - “Diary.” 6th Nov. 1660. - -Footnote 134: - - “Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon: Continuation,” by himself. “Said - to be helped on by enemies of Hyde, to bring disgrace upon him.” - -So matters stood when suddenly a complete reversal, in one direction, -occurred. - -Whether Berkeley was touched by his master’s misery, which to say the -least of it seems unlikely, or, which is more probable, he foresaw that -his own ends were unlikely to be served as he expected by the slander he -had coined, he made at this time a full confession, and a powerful -auxiliary also came forward in the person of the King, always henceforth -a kind and steady friend to his sister-in-law. - -On escaping from the sea of intrigue which had almost fatally engulfed -her, Anne did at least display great generosity and a lofty capacity for -forgiving injuries, for she pardoned Berkeley the vile slanders with -which he had loaded her name, and even suffered him to kiss her hand in -token of amnesty, when with brazen effrontery he presented himself -before her. Perhaps the revulsion was too great at the time to admit of -anything but relief; perhaps she thought she could afford to be -magnanimous, seeing that her enemy had found himself unable to drag her -from her pride of place. - -James, on his part, at once and joyfully acknowledged the marriage in -defiance of his family, and sent an affectionate message to his wife, -“bidding her to keep up her spirits for Providence had cleared her -aspersed fame, and above all to have a care of his boy and that he -should come and see them both very shortly.” It is evident that he had -only been waiting for the chance, for Lady Ormonde, who with her husband -was always a stanch friend to the Hydes, and had been steadily convinced -of Anne’s innocence, said of the Duke that she “perceived in him a kind -of tenderness that persuaded her he did not believe anything amiss.” - -He had now to withstand anew his mother’s resentment, for when they -first met, after his reconciliation with Anne, the Queen refused to -speak to her son. She, however, adroitly turned the circumstances of the -King’s acknowledgment of the match into a means of gaining his consent -to his younger sister’s marriage, for she represented to him that he -must consent to the Princess Henrietta becoming Duchess of Orleans, for -“she could not suffer her to live at his Court to be insulted by Hyde’s -daughter.” The fact of the case was that in England the Duchess of York -would take precedence of the Princess. Whether this consideration -weighed with Charles or not, he made then no opposition to the marriage -of his favourite and “dearest sister” with the cousin for whom he -entertained, with good reason, the strongest dislike and contempt. - -On 26th November Lord Craven was writing to the Queen of Bohemia of -Anne: “She is owned in her family to be Duchess of York, but not at -Whitehall as yet, but it is very sure that the Duke has made her his -wife. Your Majesty knows it is what I have feared long although you were -not of that opinion. The Princess [Mary] is much discontented at it, as -she has reason.” - -He wrote again on the 28th: “I cannot tell what will become of your -godson’s business: the child is not yet christened, but it is -confidently reported that it shall be within a few days, and owned. The -Princess is very much troubled about it; the queen is politic and says -little of it. There is no question to be made but that they are married. -They say my lord Chancellor shall be made a duke.”[135] - -Footnote 135: - - “James II. and his Wives,” Allan Fea; “Life of Henrietta Maria,” J. A. - Taylor. - -The Duke of York was godson of his aunt Elizabeth, it must be noted -here. - -So things were, but before the year had ended death was to lay once more -effacing fingers on discord and bitterness. - -The Princess Royal, who had come, as we have seen, to rejoice with one -brother on his long delayed Restoration, to resent hotly the other’s -unwelcome marriage, was seized like Henry of Gloucester with smallpox on -the 18th December. - -It has been hinted that she was a party to Berkeley’s plot, though, in -view of her character, this is very unlikely; and it is also said that -on her uneasy deathbed in the grip of that ghastly and relentless -pestilence, she declared herself repentant of the part she had taken -against her brother’s wife and her own quondam maid of honour.[136] - -Footnote 136: - - “Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia.” M. A. Green, revised by S. C. Lomas. - -Be that as it may, Mary Stuart passed away at Somerset House on -Christmas Eve 1660, just three months after her youngest brother.[137] - -Footnote 137: - - Madame—Julia Cartwright (Mrs Ady). - -On the 29th December her body was brought by torchlight to Westminster -Abbey, and laid in the Stuart vault by that of Gloucester, her brother -James again officiating as chief mourner. On this occasion one can only -contemplate with amazement what appears the entire callousness of the -queen-mother. Whether her anger at the marriage of the Duke of York -occupied her mind to the exclusion of all natural affection, it is hard -to say, but there is no record of any great grief on her part for poor -young Gloucester’s untimely end, and she certainly showed extraordinary -indifference with regard to her elder daughter, according to most -chroniclers; though one account certainly does credit her with the wish -to remain with her till forbidden by the doctors. In terror for her -youngest, the mother fled from Somerset House when the sickness declared -itself, and betook herself with the Princess Henrietta to St James’s, -leaving Mary to her fate. But it is to be remarked, that from the time -her youngest child was restored to her by Lady Dalkeith after their -escape, the Queen concentrated all the force of her affection on her. -Possibly the fact of her being allowed to bring her up in her own -religion undisturbed may have had something to do with it, but the fact -remains that for the last few years of her life she showed comparatively -little affection for her other children. - -One of Mary’s oldest attendants was destined to make her home in -England. The minister Van der Kirckhove Heenvliet died in March of this -year, and his widow, Lady Stanhope, to whom Charles II. allowed the -title of Lady Chesterfield, to which her first husband would have -succeeded, married as her third husband the adventurous Daniel O’Neill -of whom mention has already been made.[138] - -Footnote 138: - - Lady Chesterfield was with the Princess at her death. (“Lives of the - Princesses of England,” M. A. Everett-Green.) - - “The Tower of London,” Richard Davey. Daniel O’Neill had been - imprisoned in the Tower in 1643, but escaped and reached Holland in - safety. - -Immediately on the death of the Princess Royal, the queen-mother -suddenly announced to her son James that she withdrew her opposition to -his marriage. It is just possible that the loss of her daughter may have -exercised a softening influence, but it is more probable that this -change of front was owing to a warning from Mazarin, who sent her a -peremptory message to keep on good terms alike with her sons and the -English Ministers of State, and the impoverished Queen could not afford -to disregard the powerful adviser of Anne of Austria.[139] Whatever the -motive, the result was plain. Three days after the funeral of Mary, her -mother so far did violence to her own strong and bitter prejudice as to -consent to receive not only her son, but the hated daughter-in-law. On -1st January Pepys records the fact: “Mr Moore and I went to Mr Pierce’s, -in our way seeing the Duke of York bring his lady to wait upon the -Queen, the first time that ever she did since that business, and the -Queen is said to receive her with much respect and love.” - -Footnote 139: - - “Life of Henrietta Maria.” J. A. Taylor. - - Hyde was informed of this communication by that industrious go-between - Walter Montague, who was in England at this time. - -This latter statement may be taken with a grain of salt, but Henrietta -did control her feelings sufficiently to behave with dignity and -self-restraint. As she passed to dinner, her ladies following her, -through the corridor of St James’s Palace, Anne was waiting, white and -trembling, with a thickly beating heart, and she fell on her knees as -“Mary the Queen Mother” swept by in her mourning robes. With the stately -gesture the latter could assume at will, she turned, and raising the -girl, she kissed her, and leading her to the table placed her at her -side.[140] - -Footnote 140: - - “Calendar of Domestic State Papers.” 3rd January 1661.—Secretary - Nicholas to Bennet: “The Duke and Duchess then came to Court. The - Queen received them very affectionately.” - -On the same day, the Queen made a still further concession. She -consented to see Hyde himself, receiving him graciously and speaking at -length of the matter in hand. “He could not,” she said, “wonder, much -less take it ill, that she had been offended with the Duke, and had no -inclination to give her consent to his marriage, and if she had in the -Passion that could not be condemned in her, spoke anything of him that -he had taken ill, he ought to impute it to the Provocation she had -received though not from him. She was now informed by the King, and -well-assured that he had no hand in contriving that Friendship, but was -offended with that Passion that really was worthy of him. That she could -not but confess that his Fidelity to the King her husband was very -eminent and that he had served the King her son with equal fidelity and -extraordinary success. And therefore she had received his daughter as -her Daughter and heartily forgave the Duke and her and was resolved ever -after to live with all the affection of a Mother towards them. So she -resolved to make a Friendship with him, and hereafter to expect all the -offices from him which her kindness should deserve.”[141] - -Footnote 141: - - “Continuation of the Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon,” by himself. - -Hyde, as might be expected, showed himself equal to the occasion, though -he must have felt that the Queen did him no more than justice when she -thus acknowledged his services to her husband and son. - -“She could not,” answered the courtier, “show too much anger and -aversion, and had too much forgotten her own honour and dignity if she -had been less offended.” - -But nevertheless the wounds which Henrietta’s unbridled tongue had -inflicted in time past were not so easily healed. Clarendon himself -remarks bitterly: “From that time there did never appear any want of -kindness in the Queen towards him, whilst he stood in no need of it, nor -until it might have done him some good.”[142] - -Footnote 142: - - “Life of Henrietta Maria.” J. A. Taylor. - -Yet a truce was signed as it were, and peace was in a fair way to be -established. But still the Chancellor was never entirely reconciled to -his daughter’s lofty alliance, on which he looked with doubt and -misgiving to the end. - -Some ten days before this momentous interview Evelyn speaks of the -marriage as fully acknowledged. Under the date of 22nd December he -writes: - - - “The marriage of the Chancellor’s daughter being now newly - owned, I went to see her, she being Sir Richard Browne’s - intimate acquaintance, when she waited on the Princess of - Orange. She was now at her father’s at Worcester House in the - Strand. We all kissed her hand as did also my Lord Chamberlain - Manchester, and the Countess of Northumberland. This was a - strange change. Can it succeed well?”[143] - -Footnote 143: - - “Diary of John Evelyn,” ed. Edw. Bray, 1850. - - -Strange indeed, and no one can wonder that a mind so thoughtful, -uplifted, and restrained as that of John Evelyn, who had known the -father through good and evil days, who remembered from her childhood the -girl, now a princess of England, should doubt the final issue of such a -turn of fortune. - -Two days after Anne’s reception at Court her child was baptized at -Worcester House by the name of Charles, the King and Monk, now Duke of -Albemarle, being godfathers, while the queen-mother sealed her -reconciliation by undertaking the office of godmother, the other being -Lady Ormonde, and the boy was created Duke of Cambridge. - -During this same month of January, Henrietta closed her first visit to -England after the Restoration. It had not been a happy one. It had been -clouded with heavy grief and bereavement, besides reviving poignant -recollections, and she had moreover sustained the vexation and -disappointment which her second son’s marriage had inflicted on her, -from which she had by no means recovered, in spite of her altered -attitude towards the offenders. - -[Illustration: - - JOHN EVELYN -] - -She was impatient to escape, and eager besides for the marriage of her -sole remaining daughter, the disastrous results of which it was -impossible for her to foresee. She was also anxious, on account of her -health, to visit the baths of Bourbon which then enjoyed a great -reputation. - -The King accompanied his mother and sister to Portsmouth, where they -embarked, but the Duke of York remained in London. He was still ill and -depressed. He had passed through a period of acute pain and anxiety; he -had really felt deeply the death of the sister who had always been to -him, at least, staunchly affectionate, at a time when he needed -affection, and now he “being indisposed was at Whitehall with the -Dutchess.” - -At the time of the Restoration Hyde had refused a peerage, but now, for -obvious reasons, he signified his acceptance of one, and on the 6th -November he had taken his seat as Baron Hyde of Hindon in Wilts (near -Hatch, where Laurence Hyde, his ancestor, had lived). Moreover the King -made him a grant of twenty thousand pounds out of the amount (fifty -thousand pounds) which Parliament had sent the latter at The Hague, at -which time the Duke of York, by the way, had received ten thousand -pounds and Gloucester five thousand pounds. Later, that is in April -1661, Hyde received his final honours, being created Earl of Clarendon -and Viscount Cornbury. - -A closing epilogue to the drama of the marriage comes from the pen of -Lord Craven. Writing to the Queen of Bohemia on 11th January 1661 he -says: “I have this morning been to wait upon the duchess; she lies here -and the King very kind to her: she takes upon her as if she been duchess -this seven years. She is very civil to me.”[144] And on 23rd February: -“The greatest news we have here is that upon Monday last, the duke and -duchess were called before the Council and were to declare when and -where they were married and their answer was that they were married the -3rd of September last, in a chamber at Worcester House, Mr Crowther -married them; nobody but my Lord of Ossory and her maid Nell by; but -that they had been contracted long. That is all that I can hear of the -business.”[145] - -Footnote 144: - - “Lives of Princesses of England.” M. A. Everett-Green. - -Footnote 145: - - “Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia.” M. A. Green, revised by S. C. Lomas. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE DUCHESS - - -IT is hard to survey quite dispassionately, or even thoroughly to -understand, the attitude of Anne Hyde on safely attaining her new -dignity, the dizzy height to which she had climbed by such a thorny -path. She seems, unhappily, to have had enemies from the first, but -whether they were due to her father’s steadily increasing unpopularity, -to her own behaviour, or to envy of her success, easily comprehensible, -it is difficult to determine. Probably each of these conditions had -something to do with it. - -As regards her conduct, James himself says of her: “Her want of birth -was made up by endowments, and her carriage afterwards became her -acquired dignity.”[146] Pepys, who, as has been already remarked, never -lost an opportunity of a fleer at her, says, as early as 13th April -1661, of “Edward Pickering his discourse most about the pride of the -Duchess of York.” This may or may not be true, for Pepys was nothing if -not prejudiced, and the man who could, with his eyes open, write with -foolish admiration of “my dear Lady Castlemaine,” cannot be considered -an authority to be altogether respected. It is however certain, from -other sources, that from the first, Duchess Anne was known unfavourably -for her arrogance. Even Lord Craven, as we have seen, had noticed it, -and he had no reason to be specially biassed. On this point also the -French ambassador, the Comte de Cominges, remarks with some covert -amusement: “She upholds with as much courage, cleverness and energy the -dignity to which she has been called, as if she were of the blood of the -kings or of Gusman at the least, or Mendoza.”[147] - -Footnote 146: - - Macpherson’s “Original Papers.” - -Footnote 147: - - “A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II. (Comte de Cominges).” - Jusserand. - -Bishop Burnet, who evidently held her in great respect, and usually -extols her, says: “She soon understood what belonged to a Princess, and -took state upon her rather too much.”[148] - -Footnote 148: - - Burnet’s “History of My Own Time.” - -We have to piece together these stray scraps of evidence in the best -manner possible, and in so doing come to the conclusion that Anne, on -finding herself publicly acknowledged Duchess of York, and wife of the -heir presumptive to the Crown, also found that she had set her foot on -the first steps of a difficult and stony road, and that possibly she -conceived her only chance in such a position was to assume and maintain -a defensive attitude. A perpetual uneasy consciousness of her hardly -acquired rank made her afraid of stepping for one moment off the -pedestal to which she had been raised, and this of itself would serve to -make her unpopular. It must be remembered also that the society which -surrounded her, reckless, wild, unscrupulous as it was, was yet one -which guarded jealously the traditions of high rank and lofty descent, -and in the fervour of the Restoration was inclined to resent hotly the -intrusion of a parvenue into the narrow circle of the blood royal of -England and was only too ready to find fault whenever a loophole could -be given. Poor Anne, it is to be feared, afforded many such. - -Perhaps it may be as well to discuss in this place the vexed question of -her personal appearance. On 20th April of this year 1661, Pepys writes -acidly: “Saw the King and Duke of York and his Duchess, which is a plain -woman, and like her mother my Lady Chancellor.” - -In fact, if nearly all the pictures of her which exist may be trusted, -they certainly dispose of Anne’s pretensions to beauty. They represent -for the most part a large, heavy looking woman, with an abnormally wide -mouth; and we know from contemporary evidence that she became very fat -early in life. - -It is true that Sir John Reresby, who is never ill natured, generously -calls her “a very handsome woman,”[149] but only one other chronicler, -Granger, in his Biographical History, ventures on such an opinion. -Bronconi, in his Journal, declares without circumlocution: “La Duchesse -de York est fort laide, la bouche extraordinairement fendue, et les yeux -fort craillez, mais très courtoise.” The famous Grammont, a professed -critic of beauty, alluding to the marriage, says: “The bride was no -perfect beauty,” and elsewhere sums up the case judicially: - -Footnote 149: - - “Memoirs of Sir John Reresby,” 1764. - - - “She had a majestic mien, a pretty good shape, not much beauty, - a great deal of wit [this Reresby and others endorse] and so - just a discernment of merit that whoever of either sex were - possessed of it were sure to be distinguished by her, an air of - grandeur in all her actions made her to be considered as if born - to support the rank which placed her so near the throne.”[150] - -Footnote 150: - - “Memoirs of the Court of Charles II.,” by Count Grammont, ed. - by Sir Walter Scott, revised ed. 1846. - - -Considering the passion which Anne had certainly inspired in several -men, and which in the Duke of York had now raised her to her lofty -position, one is forced to the conclusion that, in spite of her lack of -physical beauty, she must have been possessed of some conquering charm -of manner which, joined to undoubted wit and certain brilliant -endowments of mind, made up for the want of personal attractions in an -age which, perhaps of all others, most prized such an attribute. - -This too would partly account for the steady friendship which her -brother-in-law the King always testified for her. He was, it is true, a -connoisseur of beauty of all types, but he also greatly valued wit, and -keenly appreciated any one who could and would amuse him. He had the -strong sense of humour which is often allied to a saturnine disposition, -and which we know never failed him to the end. His own wife, with all -her good qualities, which were quite definite, with her adoring and -pathetic devotion to himself, was nevertheless, we fear, not amusing, -and he probably found in his plebeian sister-in-law a quickness of -apprehension which appealed to his strain of cynicism and impatience of -dullness; and which was not always allied to the radiant and undoubted -beauty which he admired in other women.[151] - -Footnote 151: - - In the year 1661 we find evidence of the King’s kind feeling towards - his sister-in-law in a present made to her. The letter is to Sir - Stephen Fox: - - - “CHARLES R. - - “Our will and pleasure is yt you forthwith pay to Sir John - Shaw ye sum of one thousand pounds in ys of a necklace of - Pearls given by us to ye Dutchesse of Yorke and for yr soe - doing this shal be yor warrt. Given at or Court at Whitehall - this 19th of July 1661” (Egerton MS.). - - -Duchess Anne had for her part “wit and agreeable manners, but without -personal charm,” and Jesse rather ponderously asserts: “In the character -of Anne Hyde there seems to have been more to admire than to love. She -was possessed rather of dignity than grace, rather of masculine sense -than feminine gentleness.”[152] And Burnet further testifies that she -was “a woman of great spirit,” “a very extraordinary woman,” who “had -great knowledge and a lively sense of things.” - -Footnote 152: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts.” - John Heneage Jesse. - -Thus equipped by nature, by education, by experience, Nan Hyde, the maid -of honour in past years of the Mary who now slept hard by among her -kindred in the Abbey, began her career as a princess, fully aware, there -can be no doubt, of the many pitfalls which menaced her. - -The arena into which she stepped was a brilliant one. The Court of -England, after the long stormy interval during which such a thing did -not exist, became “very magnificent,” and the fact is readily -comprehensible. - -Charles II. had so long lived an out-at-elbows life, from hand to mouth, -as it were, that the inheritance to which he had at last succeeded and -the fifty thousand “gold pieces” voted by Parliament must have seemed -for the time being inexhaustible, and a character like his would set no -bounds to his careless extravagance.[153] His ideas were naturally -lavish and picturesque, and there were always plenty of people about him -quite willing—and more than willing—to minister to these; many hands in -his pockets, moreover, as well as his own. - -Footnote 153: - - “Royalty Restored.” J. F. Molloy. - -This state of things was, too, for a time at any rate, not unacceptable -to the people at large. Through the grim years of the Civil War, and -during the severe rule of the Commonwealth, they had been condemned to a -lack of beauty in life, to sad-coloured raiment, to stern repression, to -an absence of all the amusement and colour which had pervaded England in -the joyous, if strenuous, Elizabethan age and the first years of the -succeeding century. - -It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the commonalty, wearied and -fretted by their Puritan taskmasters, should be dazzled by the vision of -a gracious young king, easy of access, genial of speech, surrounded -moreover by splendour, beauty and gaiety. - -We know now what underlay the vision. We know what was destined to -become a headlong race of folly—and worse, but it was all at first, at -least, very seductive. - -And in the midst of it all now moved the new Duchess of York, for a few -months, at least, the first lady in the kingdom, until the King should -find himself a bride. - -We have seen that Anne’s father participated in some of the state which -surrounded her; the dignities conferred on him, fully as his long-tried -service had merited them, being as much for his daughter’s honour as for -his own. - -Pepys gives us a glimpse, now and then, of the doings at Court during -the spring of 1661. Early in April he is in St James’s Park to watch the -Duke of York play at “Pele-mele, the first time that ever I saw the -sport.”[154] James, like all his family, was very active in body, loving -sport and games of every kind. He was passionately devoted to hunting, -and this continued to the end. Long afterwards, along the grassy rides -of the forests of Saint Germain or Marly, the banished King of England -would sweep down with his train, forgetting for a few exhilarating -moments the pain of loss and exile and the green glades of Windsor which -he would never see again. It may be remembered, moreover, that when -Prince George of Denmark testified some alarm at his own tendency to -fat, Charles II. gave him promptly the advice: “Walk with me, and hunt -with my brother.” - -Footnote 154: - - “Diary.” 1st April 1661. - -The Duke was also very fond of tennis, but here he was excelled by his -cousin Prince Rupert, the best player in England. The Prince Palatine -had not accompanied the King at the time of the Restoration, but had -arrived in England in September of the same year, after the death of the -Duke of Gloucester, when he came armed with a commission to ask for the -hand of the Princess Henrietta on behalf of the Emperor Leopold. We have -seen that this overture was useless, the queen-mother being unwilling to -consider anything which could clash with the claims of her nephew the -Duke of Orleans.[155] - -Footnote 155: - - “A Royal Cavalier: The Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine.” Mrs - Steuart Erskine. - -The coronation of Charles II. took place on St George’s Day, 23rd April, -the culmination of the Restoration rejoicings, but the month of May was -to see the withering of the first flower of the royal stem. - -[Illustration: - - PRINCE RUPERT -] - -The little Duke of Cambridge, round whose cradle such a storm of passion -had raged, died on the 5th. Pepys spitefully volunteers the opinion that -the poor baby’s death, he believes, “will please everybody, and I hear -that the Duke and his lady themselves are not much troubled at it”[156]; -a conclusion which seems, on every ground, very unlikely. James was to -prove himself a deeply affectionate father, and Anne’s strength and -tenacity of feeling were not likely to fail in this direction, though it -is quite possible that she made little demonstration outwardly of grief. - -Footnote 156: - - “Diary of Samuel Pepys,” notes by Lord Braybrooke, 1906. - - Worthington’s “Diary and Correspondence.” 14th May 1661.—S. Hartlieb - to Dr Worthington: “I know not whether I told you before that the Duke - of York’s only child is dead and buried.” - -During this year the King’s aunt Elizabeth, the “Winter Queen,” was at -last suffered to revisit her native country after so many stormy years. -She had been passionately desirous to do so, though England could have -been little more than a memory. But at one time she had been enshrined -in the hearts and imaginations of the English, some of whom would have -willingly set aside her brother’s children and accepted her son, Charles -Louis, as king. No doubt the knowledge of this lingered in the Queen’s -mind when she set sail once more for her early home, but as happens to -many in like circumstances, it meant disillusion. The radiant Queen of -Hearts, whom Christian of Anhalt and many another chivalrous warrior had -adored, was no more the same, and she came back, we fear, to find -herself forgotten.[157] Only Craven was left, to whom she had been the -one and only star, a few—very few—faithful friends, and her gallant son -Rupert. At first she stayed at Drury House, the guest of Lord Craven, -but later she removed to a house of her own in Leicester Field. Here, -only a few months after, she died, in February 1662.[158] - -Footnote 157: - - Sir Henry Wotton’s famous lyric, “Ye Meaner Beauties of the Night,” - was addressed to Elizabeth. - -Footnote 158: - - “A Royal Cavalier: The Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine.” Mrs - Steuart Erskine. - -In the old days at The Hague and Breda, as we have seen, Elizabeth had -been good to Chancellor Hyde’s young daughter, and had strenuously -backed the Princess Mary’s choice of the girl as maid of honour, little -dreaming how nearly they were destined to be related. - -Did the Duchess of York remember the many kindnesses shown to Nan Hyde, -now when it had become possible to repay them? One must hope so, for -there is no record to tell us. - -The day of the Queen of Bohemia’s funeral, on 20th February, there was a -terrible storm, a type indeed of the unquiet life now closed.[159] - -Footnote 159: - - “Merry Monarch: England under Charles II.” Davenport Adams. - -That spring of 1662 saw the expected change in the position and -prospects of the Duchess of York, for the negotiations for the King’s -marriage were now completed. One of the basest of the many slanders -current against Clarendon was that he pushed on the match with Catherine -of Bragança by every means in his power, knowing that she would never -bear children, in order to ensure the succession to the Crown to his -daughter’s offspring. - -As a matter of fact, though the Queen was destined never to become the -mother of a living child, it is yet certain that more than once she had -the hope of maternity. - -However, scandal of every sort and kind was never more rife than in the -reckless, pleasure-loving, unscrupulous Court of Charles II. Every one -seems to have said whatever he or she chose, without the slightest -reference to truth, if that was likely to spoil a piquant story, and no -one was more victimised in this respect than the Lord Chancellor, who -thus paid the penalty of success. His friend Evelyn was among the few -who never wavered in their loyal attachment, and who never said a bitter -or ill-natured thing. This friendship, by the way, brought the diarist -into closer relation with the Duke of York, for in January we find the -latter announcing that he intended to visit the garden at Sayes Court, -already famous for its rare and lovely plants, the care bestowed on it, -and the culture of its gifted owner.[160] The next month, too, Evelyn -records that he is present at a comedy acted before the Duchess at the -Cockpit. - -Footnote 160: - - Evelyn’s “Diary.” Wm. Bray. 1850. “1662, 16th January.—Having heard of - the Duke of York’s intention to visit my poor habitation and garden - this day I returned.” - -But the new queen was soon to be expected. On the 23rd April, the -anniversary of the coronation, she set sail for England, arriving at -Portsmouth on 14th May. - -The Duke of York, in virtue of his office of Lord High Admiral, was -despatched to receive her as his brother’s representative, and she -welcomed him in her cabin, sitting under a canopy on a chair of state, -but displaying frank, if shy cordiality.[161] Charles himself was in no -violent hurry to see his richly-dowered bride, for he did not leave -London till the 19th, travelling in Lord Northumberland’s coach. -However, when he did arrive, no further time was lost, for the pair were -married by Sheldon on the 22nd, in the great hall or presence-chamber in -the governor’s lodging (now swept away) at Portsmouth. The register is -in the Parish Church of St Thomas. They finally reached Hampton Court, -where the honeymoon was to be spent, on the 29th, the King professing -himself perfectly satisfied with his new wife. - -Footnote 161: - - “Royalty Restored.” J. F. Molloy. - -On the same evening the Duchess of York arrived to pay her duty to the -Queen. It must have cost her an effort, for her second child, Mary, -destined in after days to be queen, had been born barely a month -previously, on the 30th of April—Prince Rupert, by the way, being her -godfather. The Duchess came by water, in her own beautiful barge, and as -she landed at the steps the King was waiting at the garden gate near by, -and taking her by the hand, he led her along the straight, smooth alleys -into the ancient palace, and so into the new Queen’s bedroom. Anne would -have knelt to kiss her hand, but Catherine prevented the act of homage, -and raising her, kissed her affectionately.[162] - -Footnote 162: - - “Life of Catherine of Bragança.” L. C. Davidson. - -The poor little lonely bride, fresh from her convent and narrow -upbringing, much younger than her actual years, bewildered by the racket -in which she found herself, was perhaps already hungering for some one -of her own sex to whom she could venture to unbend, and saw an augury -for future friendship and confidence in the assured carriage, the fresh -face, the steady, resolute eyes of English Nan. If so, she was not -likely under present circumstances to be disappointed; even the King was -perfectly willing to sanction such advances. - -On the 15th August Evelyn mentions a visit paid to him by the Lord -Chancellor. Hyde, as we know, had a year before received the earldom of -Clarendon,[163] and though this occasion seemed to have been simply a -friendly one, yet his purse and mace were borne before him when he came -to Sayes Court. The diarist further notes: “They were likewise -collationed with us, and were very merry. They had all been our old -acquaintances in exile.”[164] - -Footnote 163: - - He was created Lord Hindon in November 1660, and Viscount Cornbury and - Earl of Clarendon in April 1661. (Kennet’s “Chronicle.”) - -Footnote 164: - - Evelyn’s “Diary.” Wm. Bray. 1850. - -Before the year was out the queen-mother came to pay her second visit, -after the Restoration, to England. This time it was to welcome the new -daughter-in-law who, besides her royal blood and rank, had brought such -a splendid dower to the needy crown of England. The first meeting took -place at the ancient palace of Greenwich, which had been little used for -many years, its day having almost passed. Here Henrietta made the gentle -Portuguese bride sit on one arm-chair on her right hand, while she -herself occupied another. The King, waiving his precedence, of which, -indeed, he was never very tenacious in such matters, took a stool, while -the Duchess of York sat on one also, and the Duke stood by them.[165] It -sounds very much as if they grouped themselves with an eye to -portraiture, but it was really a matter of some importance, and thus -Anne was, we see, accorded what in France was called the right of the -“tabouret” by the dreaded queen, who less than two years back had -declared that if the hated interloper were to enter the room by one -door, she herself would leave by another. But time has its revenges, and -on the return visit, which was paid at Hampton Court, which to the -queen-mother must indeed have been full of bitter-sweet memories, when -she, naturally, was placed on Catherine’s right hand, the Duchess of -York was even provided with a chair a little to the left.[166] - -Footnote 165: - - “Life of Catherine of Bragança.” L. C. Davidson. - -Footnote 166: - - _Ibid._ - -As far as the young Queen was concerned, the auspicious beginning with -regard to Anne was justified. She always remained on friendly terms with -her sister-in-law. Her yielding, placable nature deferred readily to one -whose qualities provided the complement of her own, and later events -knitted a closer bond of union between them. - -Meanwhile the Duke and Duchess of York took up their quarters in St -James’s Palace, the traditional residence of the heir presumptive—the -ancient manor of Henry VIII.—of whose building little remains now but -the brick gate-way.[167] It seems to have been furnished with great -splendour, and under Anne’s resolute sway her Court was more stately and -ceremonious than that at Whitehall, where the motto might have been that -of Medmenham in later days: “Fais ce que voudras.” In an idle age, -moreover, the Duchess was not idle. “She writ well,” says Burnet, “and -had begun the Duke’s life, of which she showed me a volume. It was all -drawn from his journal, and he intended to have employed me in carrying -it on.”[168] - -Footnote 167: - - “Old and New London.” Thornbury. - -Footnote 168: - - Burnet’s “History of My Own Time,” ed. 1766. “She writ very correctly” - (Appendix). - -It was on account of this piece of literary work that Horace Walpole -gave the writer a place in his catalogue of noble authors, although, it -is true, he never saw the work in question. Anne also took a more or -less intelligent interest in the art of her time and country, for it was -she who projected the Series of Beauties to be painted by Lely, whose -genius was employed for many years of this reign.[169] She could at -least appreciate beauty in others, if she had but little herself, and -for this scheme we certainly owe her a debt of gratitude. - -Footnote 169: - - “Some Beauties of the Seventeenth Century.” Allan Fea. - -The Christmas after the King’s marriage was marked by more than the -usual festivities. Secretary Pepys, always on the watch to see and -retail all that was to be seen, went eagerly to watch the royal party -dancing at Whitehall. The Queen, it seems, did not dance, but the King, -who “danced rarely,” took out the Duchess of York, and the Duke the -Duchess of Buckingham, to dance the bransle, where hands were taken in -turn. After this the King led a lady through a lively coranto, in which -dance it appears he excelled; and another of the best performers was the -little Duchess of Monmouth, Anne Scott, the greatest heiress of her day, -who in her childhood had been given to the unlucky pretender who was to -suffer so grim a fate in after days. - -But happy and triumphant as one may picture her, the personal troubles -of the Duchess had already begun. In the autumn just past there occurred -the Duke’s ephemeral passion for Elizabeth Butler, Lady Chesterfield, -the daughter of Ormonde, who on her part by no means reciprocated it, -but to put an end to the situation, which she probably found -embarrassing, promptly retired into the country from London.[170] - -Footnote 170: - - “James II. and his Wives.” Allan Fea. - - “January 19, 1663.—This day by Dr Clarke I was told the occasion of my - Lord Chesterfield’s going and taking his lady (my Lord Ormond’s - daughter) from Court. It seems he not only hath been long jealous of - the Duke of York, but did find them two talking together, though there - were others in the room, and the lady by all opinions a most good, - virtuous woman. He the next day (of which the Duke was warned by - somebody that saw the passion my Lord Chesterfield was in the night - before) went and told the Duke how much he did apprehend himself - wronged in his picking out his lady of the whole Court to be the - subject of his dishonour, which the Duke did answer with great - calmness not seeming to understand the reason of complaint; and that - was all that passed, but my Lord did presently pack his lady into the - country in Derbyshire near the Peake” (Samuel Pepys’ “Diary”). - -[Illustration: - - ELIZABETH, COUNTESS OF CHESTERFIELD -] - -Poor Duchess Anne, however, took it passionately to heart, and -complained vehemently not only to the King, who was scarcely likely to -give her much sympathy—though he did remove Lord Chesterfield from his -office of Groom of the Stole to the Queen—but to Ormonde himself, who, -it must be remembered, was her father’s old friend. It is also probable -that she and Lady Chesterfield must have had some degree of intimacy. - -Pepys, of all people, took it on himself to moralise on the subject. “At -all which I am sorry,” he writes, “but it is the effect of idleness and -having nothing else to employ their great spirits upon,” which seems an -insufficient reason. Lady Chesterfield, who never returned to London, -died two years later at Bretby, leaving a daughter who eventually -married Lord Strathmore.[171] - -Footnote 171: - - “Royalty Restored,” J. F. Molloy. Lord Chesterfield himself is said to - have been in love with Lady Castlemaine, a fact which did not - interfere with his jealousy of his wife. - -By the month of January 1663 the Duke and Duchess appear to have made up -their differences, for they appeared together at the Cockpit to see -_Claracilla_ done by the King’s players, and there scandalised the -ubiquitous Secretary by “dalliance there before the whole world, such as -kissing and leaning upon one another,” a very curious picture of the -manners of the time.[172] - -Footnote 172: - - “Diary.” 5th January 1662-1663. - -In the autumn of the same year Charles II., wishing perhaps to -familiarise the Queen with her new country, as well as to procure for -himself the change and variety for which he was always restlessly -seeking, set out on the first of his royal progresses, on which he was -accompanied by his brother and the Duchess, with a brilliant train.[173] -The party first visited Bath, which was recovering from the paralysing -effect of the Civil War, and about to enter on the era of its fame, -though its best period was not reached till the succeeding century; but -its waters had been long known and valued, and had been sought by Queen -Anne of Denmark fifty years earlier. - -Footnote 173: - - “Calendar of Domestic State Papers.” _News Letter_, 21st September - 1663: “The Duke and Duchess are leaving Portsmouth, and the Duke’s - guards are to meet him on the way.” 17th September, Portsmouth.—Thomas - Lancaster and Hugh Salisbury to the same (Navy Commissioners): - “Arrived of the Foresight at Spithead, the Duke and Duchess of York - being in Portsmouth on their way to Winchester, boats have been sent - by Mr Coventry’s order to bring the Duke down to see the Dock,” etc. - -On the 22nd September the King and his train left Bath and proceeded -first to Badminton, where they dined, their host being Lord Herbert. -They went thence to Cirencester, where they were received by Lord -Newburgh, and remained for that night. The next day they went on to -Oxford, and were met on the border of the county by Lord Cornbury -(Duchess Anne’s elder brother) with the high sheriff and two troops of -horse militia, besides volunteers. Further on they were met by Clarendon -himself as Lord-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, and he entertained them with -great splendour and hospitality at his house of Cornbury. Then on the -28th the expedition passed on to Oxford itself, near to which they were -received by the heads of houses, the vice-chancellor in a short speech -giving the usual presents to the King and Queen. - -Oxford, who had seen within her grey walls the dwindling Court of the -martyred king, who had vindicated her loyalty so stoutly, who had -suffered with such constancy, received now the recognition of her -fealty. None could express gratitude with more consummate grace than -Charles II., nor clothe appropriate sentiments with more fitting words, -and if the hearers were forced to the conviction that they were words -and nothing more, still they left their own impress behind them. - -The King and Queen, the Duke and Duchess of York, and most of the train -were on horseback, and the cavalcade as it swept up the High Street, -past University, and Queen’s and St Mary’s Church made a very goodly -show by means of colour and movement, waving plumes and fluttering -ribbons, glitter of jewels and sheen of satin and velvet. Just so had -the Cavaliers who had rallied to the royal standard twenty years back -adorned the same streets with life and colour. For them, too, the bells -had pealed out and the citizens stood to watch, and they were gone—and -some of them forgotten.[174] - -Footnote 174: - - _News Letter_, 28th September: “Entering the town, the Recorder made a - speech, and the Mayor gave a present. The City militia guarded them to - the North gate, the gownsmen to Christ Church, and the scholars of - Christ Church made them a guard in the great quadrangle to their - lodgings, where Dr Fell the Dean and the Canons received them with a - short speech. On the 24th the University went in procession to Christ - Church to know when they would visit the University, and the 28th was - fixed upon. On the 25th the King and Duke went to Cornbury to see - Woodstock Park and the places near, returning to Oxford to dinner. On - the Sunday they all attended service at Christ Church, when Dean Fell - preached a seasonable and excellent sermon” (“Calendar of Domestic - State Papers”). - -In 1665 there seems to have been another combined excursion westward. - -The ambassador Van Gogh, writing to the States General from Chelsea, on -24th July records: - - - “The King and Duke of York go on Thursday from Hampton Court for - three or four days and then to Salisbury, whither the Queen and - Duchess are already gone.”[175] - -Footnote 175: - - “Calendar of Domestic State Papers.” - - -Somewhere about this time an idea seems to have got about that the Duke -of York was completely ruled by his wife, submissive to her will in all -things. - -An opinion to this effect was openly expressed by the King, whose tongue -was never too scrupulous, and who nicknamed his brother “Tom Otter” -after the henpecked husband in Ben Jonson’s “Epicene, or Silent Woman,” -and elsewhere we are told that James “seemed in awe of his wife.”[176] -If so, this state of things did not long continue, and in any case it is -altogether foreign to the character of the Duke of York, as we know it. -He was at no time a person to be easily overawed, whether by his wife or -another. That she influenced him up to a certain point is very probable, -but there were distinct limits to that. Even the amount of influence -which Anne exercised in the early days of their marriage was destined to -decrease before long, and that for a reason which must now be given. The -grounds for this reason cannot be satisfactorily examined nor the -evidence sifted, for that is no longer possible. There are, as almost -always occurs, conflicting and contrary accounts; that is in the nature -of things. - -Footnote 176: - - “Charles II. and his Court,” A. G. A. Brett; “History of My Own Time,” - Burnet, ed. 1766. - -It is no happy nor welcome task to trace the progress of -disillusionment, estrangement, coldness, following the ill-assorted -union of the King’s brother and the Chancellor’s daughter. One can so -easily picture the eager bystanders murmuring with unctuous satisfaction -the time-honoured conclusion: “I told you so!” And yet—“The pity of it, -Iago, the pity of it!” One would gladly omit from the record of that -marriage the chapter which must now perforce be set down, if only for -the sake of all that went before, of all that was to follow. - -In the year 1640, when the Earl of Leicester—who was afterwards to be -half guardian, half jailer, of Princess Elizabeth and her youngest -brother at Penshurst—was ambassador at Paris, the youngest of his famous -sons, Henry, was born there. When he was eighteen his mother, whose -favourite he is said to have been, died, and in 1665 he was attached to -the household of the Duke of York as Groom of the Bedchamber.[177] - -Footnote 177: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts,” - John Heneage Jesse. “She is said to have proposed the Duke’s journey - to York in 1665 to be more with Sidney.” - - “Diary of the Times of Charles II.,” by Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney. - Edit. R. W. Blencowe (Introduction). - - “History of My Own Time,” Burnet. “A very graceful young man of - quality that belonged to her Court.” “The Duke took up a jealousy, put - the person out of his Court.” - -He had his full share of the hereditary beauty of his family, the beauty -which distinguished his sister Dorothy, married three years after his -birth to the gallant young Sunderland who fell at Newbury, and his -brother Robert, believed by many of his contemporaries to be the father -of Monmouth, and who was known in his day as the “handsome Sidney.” - -Conscious or not of his personal advantages, Henry Sidney fell -passionately in love with the Duchess, but that wild adoration was no -secret. Such things never were at that time, and the Court speedily rang -with the tale. Pepys licks his eager lips over the matter. “Pimm tells -me,” he writes, “how great a difference hath been between the Duke and -Duchess, he suspecting her to be naught with Mr Sidney. But some way or -other the matter is made up, but he was banished the Court, and the Duke -for many days did not speak to the Duchess at all.” Anthony Hamilton -pronounced her guilty, but Reresby, always kind and never scandalous, -says stoutly the Duchess “was kind to him and no more.” One thing is -certain, James was hotly jealous of his servant. If there really was any -truth in the aspersion on her, if Anne, in her lonely splendour, -conscious of her husband’s waning affection, resenting his infidelity, -turned to the love laid humbly and adoringly at her feet, then we can -but say: God pity her! for she was destined to drink deep of sorrow. - -But it is quite as easy and fully as reasonable to give her the benefit -of the doubt. From what we have already seen, from what we have still to -see, it can be argued that she was too resolute, too self-contained, too -guarded, to succumb at this period of her life to mere personal -attraction. She had risked too much, had won her honours too hardly, to -venture them easily. That she was accused goes for nothing. Almost every -one was accused sooner or later, and the particular accusation may very -well have been an ill-natured tale invented to blacken an unpopular -princess. The hero of the romance, Henry Sidney, “the handsomest youth -of his time,” was destined to a brilliant career in after days.[178] The -short-lived disgrace which was the immediate consequence of his passion -for the Duchess, did him no harm. Much later, it is true, he was -dismissed from office, but he was made envoy to the States of Holland, -and remained there two years, having declined the embassy in Paris. It -is said that he voted for the exclusion of the Duke of York from the -succession, in the Parliament which met in 1680, when member for -Bramber, and perhaps the recollection of that early, ill-starred love -had more than a little to do with his action then. At the coronation of -James, so the story goes, the crown nearly fell from its wearer’s head, -a sinister omen, as many people considered it. Henry Sidney standing by, -promptly averted the accident, and adjusted the diadem, remarking with -happy audacity “it was not the first time that a Sidney had supported -the crown.” He became, however, one of the stanchest upholders of the -Revolution, and took with him to The Hague, in the fateful year of 1688, -the invitation of the plotters to William of Orange. On the coronation -of the latter, Sidney received the reward of a peerage, being created -Viscount Sidney and Baron Milton, and a few years later, in 1693, he was -made Earl of Romney and also became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and -Warden of the Cinque Ports. Henry Sidney died in 1704, unmarried. It -was, possibly, a tribute to the memory of a long dead romance—at least, -one is free to think so. - -Footnote 178: - - “Memoirs of Sir John Reresby.” “His Royal Highness and his duchess - came down to York (Aug. 5) where it was observed that Mr Sydney, the - handsomest youth of his time and of the Duke’s bedchamber was greatly - in love with the duchess, and he might well be excused, for the - Duchess, daughter to Chancellor Hyde, was a very handsome personage - and a woman of Fine Wit. The Duchess on her part seemed kind to him, - but very innocently.” - -There was at one time a rumour coupling the name of the Duchess of York -with Henry Savile, another of the Duke’s grooms of the bedchamber, and -in reference to this report, Pepys piously ejaculates: “God knows what -will be the end of it!” However, as in the case of Sidney, there is no -positive evidence beyond rumour, and rumour was not likely to spare -anyone who had so many enemies as Anne Hyde. Therefore here, too, a plea -of innocence may be admitted on her behalf. - -During the ten years from 1661 to 1671 the Duke and Duchess moved, it -seems, little from London. Besides the progress already described, made -in company with the King and Queen from Bath to Oxford, the pair were -once at York in 1665, and this, according to Reresby, seems to have -marked the beginning of Henry Sidney’s passion for the Duchess.[179] -Another time they were at Oxford, and when, like the Court, they fled -from the Plague, they took refuge at Rufford in Nottinghamshire, being -there entertained by Sir George Savile.[180] In return for this piece of -hospitality his uncle, William Coventry, begged the Duke to procure a -peerage for the host. James referred the matter to his father-in-law, -the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, backing, however, the appeal by saying -that “Sir George had one of the best fortunes in England, and lived the -most like a great man, that he had been very civil to him and his wife -in the North, and treated them at his house in a very splendid manner.” -Savile afterwards became Marquess of Halifax, having married Dorothy, -eldest daughter of Henry, Earl of Sunderland (as already mentioned), who -fell at Newbury, and also, of course, of “Sacharissa.” The Duke and -Duchess were back at St James’s at the time of the Fire, when the former -did yeoman’s service in the endeavour to check the ravages of the -terrible conflagration, when old St Paul’s, with its splendid if ruined -nave, its beautiful chantries and tombs, and its lofty spire, thundered -down in a whirlwind of devouring flame, in company of eighty-nine City -churches. No one worked harder in the face of this calamity than the -King and his brother, nor showed greater contempt of danger and -readiness of resource, and to the Duke we owe the preservation of the -Temple Church by his order to blow up the neighbouring houses. To this -Evelyn bears testimony, for he says: “It is not indeed imaginable how -extraordinary the vigilance of the King and Duke was, even labouring in -person, and being present to command, order, reward or encourage -workmen.” - -Footnote 179: - - “Calendar of Domestic Papers.” 7th August 1665, York.—Sir William - Coventry to Lord Arlington: “The Lord Mayor and Aldermen on horseback, - in their habits, who besides the speeches presented the Duke with 100 - pieces, and the Duchess with 50.” - -Footnote 180: - - “Court of William III.” E. and M. S. Grew. - -A little before this we find Mrs Kate Philips, known in her own day as -the “Matchless Orinda,” writing to Lady Temple (whom we know and love as -Dorothy Osborne): “I am glad of the news of the Duchess’ recovery, and -the other victory you mention at Court.” The recovery is probably from -measles, from which Anne suffered about this time.[181] The victory is -that of Frances Stewart, afterwards Duchess of Richmond, whom Charles -II. loved so madly—for a time—over her unpopular rival, Lady -Castlemaine. It was a very well known piece of gossip with which the -Court was ringing at the moment, but one can hardly fancy it to be -particularly welcome nor interesting to Dorothy Temple, being the manner -of woman she was. A month later poor Orinda was dead of smallpox, and -her poetry, “matchless” as it was thought, was very soon forgotten.[182] - -Footnote 181: - - “Diary.” Samuel Pepys. 28th December 1663. - -Footnote 182: - - “Martha, Lady Gifford: Life and Letters, 1664-1722,” edit. by Miss J. - E. Longe. “Letter from Mrs Kate Philips under the name of Orinda to - Sir Wm. Temple’s lady (Dorothy Osborne), 22nd January, 1664.” - -As to Anne’s own household, it is significant that she was said to rule -it with decision and vigilance. One of her ladies was lovely Frances -Jennings, the elder sister of the famous Sarah, afterwards Duchess of -Marlborough, and she, having married first one of the wild -Hamiltons,[183] became Duchess of Tyrconnel, and was destined in her old -age to suffer the stings of poverty and neglect. But early in her career -there were love passages with the Marquis de Berni, son of Hugues de -Lionne, Foreign Secretary to Louis XIV., and her mistress encouraged the -affair, for it seems that “the Duchess, who is generally severe on such -things, finds the two so well suited that she is the first to favour -them.”[184] - -Footnote 183: - - Brother of Anthony, Count Hamilton, the chronicler. - -Footnote 184: - - “A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II. (Comte de Cominges).” - Jusserand. - -Another of the ladies was Miss Temple, afterwards Lady Lyttelton, and -yet another Lady Denham, whose story is a sad and dark one. She had been -a Brooke, and had already attracted the Duke of York when she married -Sir John Denham, who discovering the liaison, poisoned his wife, at -least, so it was suspected.[185] - -Footnote 185: - - Mary Kirke was another of Anne’s maids, according to Grammont. - -[Illustration: - - FRANCES JENNINGS, DUCHESS OF TYRCONNEL -] - -But attached likewise to the Duchess’ person was one who, one cannot but -think, must have been to some extent a support and comfort in a life -that became more and more lonely and difficult as time went on. -Margaret, daughter of Colonel Thomas Blagge of Horningsheath in Suffolk, -a loyal Cavalier through the Civil War, during which he was governor of -Landguard Fort, became maid of honour to Anne, when a little girl, -probably not more than twelve years of age. The story of her short life -has been told by Evelyn, who watched over her with the care of a father, -and to whom she seems to have been almost an inspiration.[186] As a -little child she had been sent to France with the Duchess of Richmond -(that wayward, beautiful Mary Villiers, so long and deeply beloved by -Prince Rupert, and whose chivalrous lord had died broken-hearted for the -loss of his master, Charles I.). The child was then confided to the care -of Lady Guildford, Groom of the Stole to the queen-mother Henrietta, yet -even then we are told that little Margaret resisted being taken to Mass. -After her return to England she was confirmed by Gunning, Bishop of Ely, -at the age of eleven, and admitted to Holy Communion at that early -period. It was not long after this that the Duchess of York asked for -her, and from that time she lived, outwardly, the beautiful, admired, -lively maid of honour; inwardly, a life “hid with Christ.” Evelyn -himself was long unwilling to know much of her, fancying her “some airy -thing that had more wit than discretion”; and Pepys with much relish -relates that he, in company with Sir John Smith, dined with her, Mrs -Ogle and Mrs Anne Howard (another maid of honour, afterwards Lady -Sylvius), and that it “did me good to have the honour to dine with them -and look upon them.” In the whirl of the Court life Margaret Blagge -moves like the “Lady” in _Comus_, with spotless garments unsmirched by -the mire through which she treads, and leaving behind her the ineffable -perfume of the “white flower of a blameless life.”[187] She was destined -to die young, in the twenty-sixth year of her age, the passionately -beloved wife of Sidney Godolphin, the best part of whose life and -character was buried in that early grave. It is hard to think that he -who was to know such a consecration could write verses to Moll Davis! - -Footnote 186: - - “Life of Mrs Godolphin,” by John Evelyn, ed. by E. W. Harcourt. - -Footnote 187: - - “Diary of John Evelyn,” introduction by Austin Dobson. “1667. June - 30th.—My wife went a journey of pleasure down the river as far as the - sea with Mrs Howard and her daughter the maid of honour (after Lady - Sylvius) and others, amongst whom that excellent creature Mrs Blagge.” - This is his first mention of her. - -To Anne Hyde, whose almost stern character could appreciate honesty, the -straightforward mind and transparent truth of Margaret Blagge must have -appealed, in spite of the divergence of faith which came before the end. -For we hear of the Duchess, that “her frankness was such that she could -as little conceal her antipathies as she could disguise her -affections.”[188] This candour was, it may very easily be seen, -dangerous in her position and must have made for unpopularity. - -Footnote 188: - - “Anecdotal Memoirs of English Princes.” Davenport Adams. - -Meanwhile the Duke of York, whatever else he was, was by no means -reconciled to a life of idleness. Pepys, in his character of Naval -Secretary, affirms early in 1664: “The Duke of York do give himself up -to business, and is likely to prove a noble prince, and so indeed I do -from my heart think he will.”[189] The former had, indeed, every -opportunity of judging, as his post brought him necessarily into -constant communication with the Lord High Admiral, communication of the -most intimate kind, for another time he remarks: “Up and carrying my -wife to Whitehall to the Duke where he first put on a periwigg to-day, -but methought his hair cut short in order did look very prettily of -itself before he put on his periwigg.”[190] This is the last we see of -James’ fair curls. King Charles was turning grey—it was said from -anxiety on account of the Queen’s dangerous illness—and so assumed a -black peruke; therefore his brother, no less than his whole Court, must -needs do likewise. Another of the honest secretary’s remarks conveys a -certain pathos: “To St James’s, and there did our business as usual with -the Duke and saw him with great pleasure play with his little girle like -an ordinary private father of a childe.”[191] If Pepys was what -Thackeray calls a snob, he was at any rate a very candid one, and -perhaps there was, besides, lurking in that commonplace mind a little -envious pang at the sight, for he, we know, was childless. Yet could he -have foreseen the future he had no need to envy James that pretty -plaything, for twenty-four years later “Mary the daughter,”[192] as the -bitter Jacobite rhyme calls her, was destined to grasp the crown torn -from the head of the father who so loved her, the father driven into -exile by his children. - -Footnote 189: - - “Calendar of Domestic State Papers.” Ambassador Van Gogh to the States - General. 1664-1665.—March: “The Duke of York is recovered, and will - soon go to Deal, it is believed he will go out with the Fleet. The - Duchess goes with him, and has taken a country house near so as to be - at hand to receive news of him during the expedition.” - -Footnote 190: - - “Diary.” 15th February 1664. - -Footnote 191: - - _Ibid._ 12th September 1664. - -Footnote 192: - - There’s Geordie the drinker, - There’s Annie the eater, - There’s Mary the “daughter,” - There’s Willie the cheater. - -The Duke of York’s work on behalf of the navy did not begin and end in -St James’s or in the Admiralty buildings near the Tower. Later we shall -see him on board his flagship at grips with the Dutch, but meanwhile he -took care to visit many ships, and Anne was often with him on these -expeditions. On 19th May 1665, Lord Peterborough, writing from Harwich, -mentions that he is “going on board to compliment the Duchess.”[193] The -ship on this occasion was the _Royal Charles_, and a few days later Sir -William Coventry seems to be suffering acutely, for, addressing -Arlington, he says: “The Duchess and her beautiful Maids are departing, -therefore long letters must not be expected from me under such a -calamity, would visit their desperation on the Dutch were not the -victuallers as cruel as the ladies.”[194] - -Footnote 193: - - “Calendar of Domestic State Papers,” ed. by M. A. Everett-Green. Earl - of Peterboro’ to Williams. - -Footnote 194: - - “Calendar of Domestic State Papers,” ed. by M. A. Everett-Green. Earl - of Peterboro’ to Williams. - -James was not the only prince of his house to supplement the laurels won -on land by achievements on the high seas. His cousins, the Princes -Palatine, Rupert and Maurice, had long ago made their names known as -valiant mariners. A mystery always hung over the fate of Prince Maurice, -who with his ship, the _Defiance_, vanished in a great storm.[195] -Rupert himself barely escaped with his life in a small boat when the -_Constant Reformation_ was lost with three hundred and thirty-three men, -and this year, 1665, he set out to attack the Dutch on the coast of -Guinea. He was accompanied down the river by the King and the Duke of -York, the latter longing to go with his cousin on this adventure, which, -however, came to nothing, for in spite of the Prince’s efforts the fleet -did not sail. The next year, however, the long smouldering rivalry with -the States General came to a head, and war was declared. A fleet to -proceed against the Dutch was assembled at Gunfleet, the Duke, as Lord -High Admiral, being in supreme command, and Prince Rupert, Admiral -Lawson and Lord Sandwich admirals under him. Charles, by the way, had -given the settlement of New Amsterdam to his brother, and it was -henceforth known as New York, the Dutch land settlement having been -originally taken by James I. - -Footnote 195: - - “A Royal Cavalier: The Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine.” Mrs - Steuart Erskine. - -In April the fleet aforesaid began the blockade of the Zuyder Zee, but -after a fortnight it was forced to return for provisions, though it had -been supposed to be victualled for five months. Prince Rupert, who came -to be known as the seaman’s friend, was highly indignant with Pepys and -other Admiralty officials on this occasion, but the debts on the fleet -had really begun under the Commonwealth and had mounted to such an -extent that it was impossible to pay the pursers.[196] Finally, after -the loss of Hamburg to the Dutch, the English fleet again set sail and -headed for Southwold Bay, meeting the enemy on 1st June. For two more -days they pursued them, till they succeeded in getting their wind-gauge, -fourteen miles from Lowestoft, and the battle actually began at -half-past three on the afternoon of 3rd June, Prince Rupert leading the -van, the Duke of York the centre, and Sandwich the rear. To James it was -probably as keen a satisfaction as it was to his cousin, to vindicate on -the sea the reckless valour which in his early youth had distinguished -him on land, and it was with the knowledge of his contempt for personal -danger, that the Duchess contrived to convey a strict injunction to all -his servants to do whatever lay in their power to restrain him on this -occasion. It was during the action that the Dutch copied the English -tactics of turning, but they found the latter ready for them, their rear -and van changing positions. However, the English sustained some disaster -by means of a mistake in the new signalling orders, and a false move on -the part of Sandwich, who allowed his squadron to become mixed with the -enemy. Nevertheless the victory remained with the English, for by seven -o’clock the Dutch were in full flight, fourteen of their ships being -taken and four thousand men slain. It was even said that they might have -been annihilated but for conflicting counsels on the part of the -English, and a mistake for which, guilty or innocent, the Duke had to -suffer. A council had been held on board his flagship, when some of the -captains asked him to discontinue the pursuit. This, however, James -refused, giving, on the contrary, the order to press on all sail, and -bidding his servants to call him when the Dutch should be sighted. He -then went below, and during the night, Brouncker, who was Gentleman of -his Bedchamber, going to the admiral, Sir William Penn, bade him shorten -sail. Penn, believing this order to come from the Duke, obeyed it, but -in the morning James came on deck, and at once questioned the admiral, -who promptly accused Brouncker. The latter held his tongue, but his -master, declaring he had given no such order, dismissed him from his -service. It was at the time considered significant that the Duke did not -further punish him, but on the other hand, it may be noticed that James’ -own account of the matter is that he intended to punish Brouncker by -martial law, but that the House of Commons took up the question, and by -impeaching the culprit made any further action on his own part -impossible. Lord Montague seems to have believed that the Duke did give -the order, but Brouncker when before the House did not even pretend that -his master had done so. Whatever were James’ faults, his character for -courage and candour make his own account the more probable. In any case -he was the ultimate victim, for he was withdrawn from the command of the -navy on the ground that it exposed _him_, the heir presumptive, to too -much danger.[197] The service thereby lost a valuable head, for he had -worked hard to establish it on a permanent footing, and had already -evolved some order out of chaos. Yet this department of duty was not, at -least at this period of his life, what he most desired, or was most -congenial to him. Again on this subject Pepys writes: “He [Mr Coventry] -tells me above all of the Duke of York that he is more himself and more -of judgment is at hand in him in the middle of a desperate service than -at other times, as appeared in the business of Dunkirke, wherein no man -ever did braver things or was in hotter service at the close of that -day, being surrounded with enemies. And though he is a man naturally -martial to the highest degree, yet a man that never in his life talks -one word of himself or service of his own, but only that he saw such and -such a thing and lays it down for a maxim that a Hector can have no -courage.”[198] - -Footnote 196: - - “A Royal Cavalier: The Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine.” Mrs - Steuart Erskine. - -Footnote 197: - - “Anecdotal Memoirs of English Princes.” Davenport Adams. - -Footnote 198: - - “Diary.” 4th June 1664. - -It is no indifferent testimony, even in an age which produced many -brilliant soldiers who left an inheritance of great names. It may be -noted that Anne’s cruel enemy, Lord Falmouth, once Sir Charles Berkeley, -fell at Southwold Bay. - -There are two letters from the Duke of York to the Prince Palatine, -which, although they are undated except as to the month, probably refer -to this year’s campaign. - - - “For my deare Cousin, - - Prince Rupert. - - “_July 17._ - - “I no sooner received yours of the 12 but that I sent for S^r G. - Downing and gave him order about River so that I hope he will - become exchanged, and in the meane tyme the Dutch Cap^{ne} is - put in chanes and told why he is so used. I hope that and your - giving them a sound bange will teach them better manners; this - bearer will tell them all the newes so that I have no more to - say but to thank you for the scrole you sent me and to wish you - a faire wind and good successe, and that God will preserve you - in the midst of those dangers you are likly shortly to be in. - - “JAMES.” - - - “For my deare Cousin, - - Prince Rupert. - - “_Nov. 7._ - - “I received yours by this bearer by the which I am very glad to - find that things are in so good a readinesse where you are. I - intend God willing to be at Portsmouth on Wensday, and to-morrow - all the ships in the hope are to fall down except the _Charles_ - whose mainemast must be changed, which will be sone done. I - shall ad no more hoping to see you so sone but that I am - entirely yours - - “JAMES.”[199] - -Footnote 199: - - Forster Collection MSS. V. and A. Museum. - - -It was in the succeeding year that Prince Rupert and the Duke of -Albemarle achieved their great victory over the Dutch off the North -Foreland on St James’s Day, 25th July.[200] In that terrible and -stubborn fight the English had eighty-one ships of the line and eighteen -fireships, while the enemy, under the command of the famous De Ruyter, -had eighty-eight ships, ten yachts, and twenty fireships. After this -engagement the Prince Palatine carried fire and sword from Scheveningen -along the coast of Holland, but he was compelled to return for want of -provisions, of which neglect he complained bitterly. Secretary Pepys, -however, a second time the scapegoat, retorted that the fleet had been -brought back in bad condition, the Prince protesting that he could have -continued the campaign six months longer if his ships had been properly -provisioned. The Dutch fleet was enabled by his evasion to refit, and -were joined by the French in the Channel. - -Footnote 200: - - “A Royal Cavalier: Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine”; Green’s “Short - History of the English People.” - -All this while the Duke of York, detained at home, was chafing with -impatience and trying to fill up his time with such matters as came to -hand, and giving his attention to each. Once Pepys writes: “I to -Whitehall to a Committee for Tangiers where the Duke of York was, and I -acquitted myself well in what I had to do” (the worthy Samuel, in spite -of occasional fits of self-accusation, had always an excellent opinion -of himself). “After the Committee up I had occasion to follow the Duke -into his lodgings into a chamber where the Duchess was sitting to have -her picture drawn by Lilly, who was there at work. But I was well -pleased to see that there was nothing near so much resemblance of her -face in his work which is now the second if not the third time as there -was of my wife’s at the very first time. Nor do I think at last it can -be like, the lines not being in proportion to those of her face.” To the -end, ill as he behaved to and by her, Pepys was proud of his wife’s -beauty and really fond of her, and this naïve expression of his -satisfaction is almost pathetic.[201] - -Footnote 201: - - “Diary.” 24th March 1666. - -Somewhere about this time Lady Fanshawe was returning from Spain, on the -death of her chivalrous and deeply mourned husband, to make at last her -home in England, and she was, as his merits entitled her, graciously -received by the King, whom he had served so long and faithfully. On this -occasion she presented two dozen “amber skins” and six dozen pairs of -gloves to the King, the Queen, the Duke and his little son the Duke of -Cambridge, who was, alas! destined soon to follow his brother.[202] The -Duke of York lent Lady Fanshawe the _Victory_ frigate to bring the rest -of her goods and people from Bilbao at the end of March 1667. - -Footnote 202: - - “Notes to the Memoirs of Anne, Lady Fanshawe.” - -It was for that period, an age which set such store by signs and -portents, a strange defiance of omens that impelled the parents to give -what would seem a fatal title to three successive children, none of whom -were fated to survive infancy. Through the ten years which succeeded her -marriage, Anne’s nursery at St James’s Palace was filling only to be -emptied. One after another of the sons so eagerly and fondly welcomed -was destined to fade quickly out of this life, “to find the taste bitter -and decline the rest”; the ducal coronets were to fall from the small -heads too weak to bear so heavy a burden. Of the eight children born to -James, Duke of York, and Anne his wife, only two daughters survived to -play their parts thereafter on the great stage of history for good or -for evil. The mother, however her heart was wrung, as it must have been, -carried an undaunted front through those years of loss and bereavement, -and held her place resolutely in the very forefront of Court and -festival, a conspicuous and dominating figure always. - -Her home throughout her married life, as before said, was St James’s -Palace, a house which must have enshrined many memories for James -himself. There he had been brought up as a child, there he had been in -his boyhood a State prisoner with the brother and sister, now both -passed away, there his father the martyr-king had spent the last night -of his life before the winter morning walk across the Park to Whitehall -and the block before the Banqueting House, and there his body had lain -that night, watched by a little band of faithful servants, before the -burial at Windsor. There also James and his wife always kept the -anniversary of that day, the 30th January, year by year, as it came -round, in sorrowful remembrance. - -It was a goodly habitation, and indeed rivalled the great rambling -palace near the river in splendour of furniture and decoration and the -treasures it contained.[203] - -Footnote 203: - - Knight’s “London.” It was long known as St James’s Manor-House. - -Yet another picture from Secretary Pepys’ busy pen is shown us -here.[204] One spring day, he tells us, he came thither to dine “with -some of the maids of honour at the Treasurer’s House,” and thereafter he -found “the Duke of York and the Dutchess with all the great ladies -sitting upon a carpet on the ground, there being no chairs, playing at -‘I love my love with an A because he is so and so, and I hate him with -an A because of this and that,’ and some of them but particularly the -Dutchess herself and my Lady Castlemaine were very witty.” A childish -game, it seems to us, yet the scene has a certain charm and grace, -invested too with piquancy by the ladies’ readiness. In other days at -The Hague and Breda, under the approving eyes of the “Winter Queen” and -her own Princess Mary, with Spencer Compton and Harry Jermyn to applaud, -Nan Hyde had learnt to hold her own in jest and repartee, and now that -she too was a princess, she had not forgotten the trick, but still shone -in swift retort and happy invention. - -Footnote 204: - - “Diary.” 4th March 1668. - -There, too, in the ancient palace, when night came the tables would be -set for basset, the favourite game; and at them Duchess Anne, eager in -her imperious way, would set down broad pieces on the hazard, staking on -the cast now a thousand pounds, now fifteen hundred. One night she even -lost twenty-five thousand pounds, and it became to her an absorbing -passion, to be inherited by her second daughter.[205] Over and over -again in later days did James II. pay the debts of the Princess Anne, -himself the reverse of extravagant, being in this the antithesis of his -elder brother. - -Footnote 205: - - “Memorials of St James’s Palace.” E. Sheppard, D.D. - -It is an unlovely side of Anne Hyde’s perplexing character, and one -displays it with reluctance. Certainly it was a strange outcome of her -narrow upbringing in her father’s careful household. Of her thirst for -gain Pepys has a word to say: “Mr Povy do tell me how he is like to lose -his £400 a year pension of the Duke of York which he took in -consideration of his place that was taken from him. He tells me that the -Duchess is a divil against him and do now come like Queen Elizabeth and -sits with the Duke of York’s council and sees what they do, and she -crosses out this man’s wages and prices as she sees fit for saving -money, but yet he tells me she reserves £5000 a year for her own -spending and my Lady Peterborough by and by tells me that the Duchess do -lay up, mightily, jewels.”[206] This was written in 1668, and it may or -may not be true. In a succeeding chapter a different and totally -contrasting aspect of Anne Hyde must be unfolded, one to be dwelt upon, -in one direction, with far greater satisfaction. - -Footnote 206: - - “Diary.” 27th January 1667-1668. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE FALL OF CLARENDON - - -WHATEVER might be the consternation of the Chancellor at his elder and -favourite daughter’s stolen match, however great his anger and -disappointment at the failure of the duty and confidence which he felt -she owed him—and there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the -feeling he manifested on the disclosure—it is nevertheless evident that -the affectionate terms on which father and daughter lived, suffered but -a very short eclipse. - -The Duke of York himself treated his father-in-law with unvarying -respect and consideration, and to Anne the latter was always a welcome -visitor. For a time, at least, it would seem that Clarendon was on the -crest of the wave. High, and deservedly so, in his King’s favour, -reconciled to his once inveterate foe, the queen-mother, his daughter -established on the steps of the throne, his position appeared altogether -unassailable. Still, as in the days before the marriage, the Chancellor -and his daughter spent much of their time together, and at some time -during those happy days, before the breaking of the storm that was to -overwhelm the wisest head in England, we find the record of a pretended -wager between them, a piece of very innocent fooling which no doubt -served its purpose of amusement for the moment: - - - “Hugh May, Esq^{re} his award of arbitration in a jocular suit - pending between Edward Earl of Clarendon and his daughter Anne - Duchess of York relative to a wager between them. - - “Where it was agreed between Anne Dutchess of York Plaintiffe - and Edward Earl of Clarendon Defendant that the value of twenty - pound lost in a wager between the parties aforesaid should be - paid by that party to whom Hew May Esquire Judge of the - Architects should adjudge it to be due. He the said Hew May - having examined both parties and heard their severall witness - doth hereby declare to all whom it may concern and doth order - and decree that the said summe of twenty pound should be forth - with paid by the right Honorable Edward Earl of Clarendon - Defendant to the said Anne Dutchesse of York Plaintiffe and that - it be paid within 8 daies after both parties shall have had a - sight of this decree. It is further ordered by the said Hew May - that forasmuch as the said Edward Earle of Clarendon Defendant - hath put off and deferred the hearing of this cause term after - term during the times of allmost 4 termes to the great dammage - and cost of the said Anne Dutchesse of Yorke Plaintiffe it is - therefore ordered that the said Earle of Clarendon Defendant - shall pay defraye and discharge all the costs and charges - whatsoever of this sute. - - “Ordered that this decree be registered.”[207] - -Footnote 207: - - Clarendon State Papers (Bodleian). - - -Before very long, however, the heart for such things was wanting, even -if the time was available. - -It is a hard task to gauge the inveterate and bitter malignity which -pursued the Chancellor to his final exile from England. Whatever were -the faults in his public service and administration, it could at least -be said of Edward Hyde that “he was in the Court of Charles II. almost -the only man who lived chastely, drank moderately, and swore not at -all,”[208] and that with his lifelong friends, Ormonde and Southampton, -he “projected into this reign” “the high-toned virtues of the old -Cavalier stock.”[209] These, and the friendship already mentioned—just -as long and steadfast—with John Evelyn, should stand the memory of -Clarendon in good stead, putting aside those brilliant gifts which he -used so unsparingly in the service of his sovereign. Of these, Horace -Walpole, no mean critic, declares that “for his comprehensive knowledge -of mankind he should be styled the Chancellor of human nature.” - -Footnote 208: - - _Encyclopædia Britannica._ “Clarendon.” - -Footnote 209: - - “Charles II.” Osmund Airy. - -The dark clouds were beginning to gather about Hyde as early as 1662, -though possibly only the few persons who were conversant with all State -secrets were cognisant of the fact. In one of de Wiquefort’s despatches -he says of the Chancellor: “He has a strong party against him who will -make the King jealous, and will be favourable to the Queen in order to -oppose the Duchess of York.” If the party against Clarendon was strong, -it must have been a small one at that time, but it is instructive to see -that already two factions were in the forming, trying to establish a -rivalry between the two ladies, though they themselves were entirely -innocent in the matter, but at any rate no one was so likely to suffer -between the contending parties as Clarendon himself. In 1663, Digby, -Earl of Bristol, whose character should not have secured any particular -confidence, attacked the Chancellor, bringing against him a charge of -high treason which, however, at that period fell to the ground.[210] But -as time went on the deep-laid prejudice against him spread and spread -like a canker. He had unhappily tried the unsuccessful experiment of -hunting with the hounds and running with the hare, for he had -endeavoured to reconcile the Presbyterian malcontents by the Act of -Indemnity and the Romanists by the Act of Uniformity, thereby satisfying -neither party. In this way he had unfortunately succeeded in making -enemies in all directions. He was “steady for the Church against -Dissenters and Papists alike,”[211] and consequently both parties hated -him. His blameless life, too, was a tacit reproof of the vices of the -Court, and his chief foe, Buckingham, took full advantage of the -fact.[212] He and his boon companions were accustomed to say to the -King, with a sneer: “There goes your school master!”[213] But it was -above all the irrepressible Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, -beautiful, unscrupulous, evil in thought and deed, who joined with -others no less guilty in hounding the Chancellor to his disgrace and so -depriving the King of a minister who, if not perfect, had at any rate -done him and the realm great and lasting service. Meanwhile, while all -their discontent and malice were seething under the surface, but not yet -openly active, Clarendon, in execution of the plan he had entertained -from the time of the Restoration, set about building his new house in -1664. We have previously seen that he established himself temporarily at -Worcester House in the Strand, and that it was there that both his -daughter’s marriage and the birth of her elder son took place, but he -had never intended to remain there, and it was not very long before he -acquired a site which suited him. At the time of the public announcement -of Anne’s marriage, York House at Twickenham, originally York Place, was -given to her father, who was accustomed to stay there when the King was -at Hampton Court, and the Duchess’ daughter Anne, afterwards queen, was -born there.[214] But it was in London itself that the Chancellor -proposed to build his new house, and he received a grant from the King -of certain Crown property. It lay west of Burlington House, on the site -of Bond Street, Stafford Street and Albemarle Street, extending -eastwards to Swallow Street, its western boundary being, however, -uncertain. There, then, was built Clarendon House,[215] facing the top -of St James’s Street, and occupying the whole site of Stafford Street. -It stood back from Piccadilly, then newly named, having projecting wings -with a turret in the centre, and Evelyn calls it, with some probable -exaggeration “the first palace in England.”[216] It is said that 74 -Piccadilly was built of a portion of the materials. - -Footnote 210: - - _Chalmers’ Biographical Dictionary._ - -Footnote 211: - - _Ibid._ - -Footnote 212: - - With reference to Lady Castlemaine it must be noted that Clarendon - would allow nothing to pass the Great Seal in which she was named. He - also opposed her appointment as Lady of the Bedchamber, and forbade - his wife to visit her. (“Samuel Pepys and the World He Lived In.” - Wheatley.) - -Footnote 213: - - _Chalmers’ Biographical Dictionary._ - -Footnote 214: - - “Reign of Queen Anne.” Justin McCarthy. - -Footnote 215: - - Watford’s “Old and New London”; “The Ghosts of Piccadilly,” G. S. - Street. - -Footnote 216: - - He also calls it “without hyperbole the best contrived, the most - useful, graceful and magnificent house in England, and I except not - Audley End, which, though larger and full of gaudy and barbarous - ornament, does not gratify judicious spectatore.” - -Rather later than the erection of Clarendon House, the City of London -gave the Chancellor a lease of the Conduit Mead, which is now covered by -New Bond Street and Brook Street, and from which Conduit Street takes -its name. - -The building of this magnificent palace, no doubt intended by Clarendon -to be a home for his children’s children, excited a positive storm of -wrath. The sale of Dunkirk had lately been completed, and the mob chose -to believe that the house was built with Dutch money, though there is no -proof that Clarendon ever received a penny. Pennant asserts boldly that -the stones used in its erection had been intended for the rebuilding of -old St Paul’s, long in a half-ruinous state, which work had been set on -foot some time before the Great Fire made all such intentions abortive -for the moment. Nicknames were freely bestowed. Holland House, in -allusion to supposed bribes from the Dutch; Dunkirk House for the same -reason; Tangier House, because the Chancellor had obtained the town of -Tangier for England, and no one wanted it. His employment, during the -Plague, of three hundred workmen on his building operations, though done -with the best intentions, only raised another outcry. - -In 1667, the unlucky year when the Dutch sailed up to Gravesend, a mob -proceeded to break the windows of Clarendon House with the usual fatuous -want of reason on such occasions, and setting up a gibbet before the -gates, inscribed on it the words: - - “Three sights to be seen: - Dunkirk, Tangier, and a barren Queen.” - -In fact the town was deluged with lampoons in the fashion of the day. -Another couplet put it: - - “God will avenge too for the stones he took - From aged Paul’s to build a nest for rooks.” - -Andrew Marvell, too, chose to take up his parable on the subject, and -dipped his mordant pen in bitterer gall than usual: - - “Here lie the sacred bones - Of Paul beguiled of his stones. - Here lie golden briberies - The price of ruined families; - The Cavaliers’ debenture wall - Fixed on an eccentric basis. - Here’s Dunkirk Town and Tangier Hall, - The Queen’s marriage and all - The Dutchman’s templum pacis.”[217] - -Footnote 217: - - “Poems and Satires of Andrew Marvell: ‘Upon his House’” [Clarendon]. - -Yet again, in his “Clarendon’s House-warming” are the words: - - “He had read of Rhodope, a lady of Thrace, - Who was digged up so often ere she did marry, - And wished that his daughter had had so much grace - To erect him a pyramid out of her quarry.” - -The stately house which from the first attracted so much unfriendly -attention had but a short life, and its ill luck dogged it to the end. -Evelyn, who saw the first stone laid, also saw the pulling down of the -whole edifice. Clarendon’s sons, Lord Cornbury and his brother Laurence, -afterwards Lord Rochester, leased it to their father’s friend the Duke -of Ormonde, who, by the way, was driving up St James’s Street on his way -to Clarendon House when the notorious Colonel Blood made his desperate -attempt to kidnap and assassinate him. Later still, after the -Chancellor’s death, the house was sold to Monk’s son, the second Duke of -Albemarle, who called it after himself, but subsequently sold it again -to a syndicate; and it was finally demolished in 1683 by a certain Sir -Thomas Bond, “to build a street of tenements to his undoing.”[218] He, -at least, vindicated his loyalty, for having been Controller of the -Household to the queen-mother, he went into exile in after years in the -train of King James II. His name, of course, survives in the present -Bond Street, which occupies part of the site of Clarendon House, as -Albemarle Street recalls the second appellation of the Chancellor’s -house. - -Footnote 218: - - Clarendon’s “Correspondence.” - -With regard to the rebuilding of St Paul’s, we find Clarendon’s name as -concerned in it in a letter from Henchman, Bishop of London, to -Sancroft, then Dean. - - - “MR DEANE,—How this evening since five a clock S^r Philip - Warwick sends me frô the Archbp of Canterburie that the Lord - Chancelour hath appointed that his Grace and I should come to - morrow to Worcester House at ten in the morning about St Paul’s - first I doubt whether you may with safety come out, next whether - Mr Webb on such a sodaine warning can be convened. If you may - without prejudice to your health come and Mr Webb can be met - with I hope J^o Tillison hath prepared all that we are to lay - before them. I intend to be there, only I seuerely charge you - that unless J^o Barwick[219] gives leave without scruple you - appeare not. - -Footnote 219: - - John Berwick was Prebendary of Durham and Chaplain to Bishop - Morton. He was successively Dean of Durham and St Paul’s. - (Walker’s “Sufferings of the Clergy.”) - - “Your very affectionate friend, - - “HUMFR: LONDON.” - - “FULHAM, _March 26, 1666_.”[220] - -Footnote 220: - - Additional MSS. Harleian, 3785. - - -It will be seen that this letter is dated just six months before the -Great Fire made all plans for restoration and repair abortive, and also -that the Chancellor was still at Worcester House, his own not being -ready for him. The Bishop wrote again a month later on the same subject. - - - “DEARE S^R,—At Worcester Howse on Thursday morning about ten the - L. Pres^t will be with some other Lords about the business of St - Paul’s. I desire you to be there and the Deane of Canterburie. - Let not Mr Tillison fayle to attend and give notice of it to Mr - Hugh May and Mr Webb: and lett him be prepared concerning - objections agaynst the Account. I shall be at K. Henry 7th - Chappell to morrow at nine to prorogue the Convocation. - - “Your affectionate friend, - - “HUMFR. LONDON.” - - “FULHAM, _Ap. 23, 1666_.”[221] - -Footnote 221: - - Additional MSS. Harleian. - - -It may be noted here that Sancroft’s appointment to the Deanery of St -Paul’s coincided with the battle of Southwold, as when Edward Savage -wrote his congratulations from the Cockpit on the 25th October 1664 he -added: “We shall certainely have warre with the false Dutch, and the -Duke of Yorke is presently going himselfe to sea with the gallantest -ffleete that ever England set forth.”[222] - -Footnote 222: - - _Ibid._ - -Sancroft, as we know, was to see many startling changes in Church and -State, and to experience in his own person many vicissitudes, but they -were no greater than such as fell on Edward Hyde.[223] - -Footnote 223: - - He had been Chaplain to Bishop Cosin, Prebendary of Durham, Master of - Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Dean of York and then of St Paul’s. He at - once began to repair the cathedral, and after the fire he set to work - to rebuild, giving £1400 for this purpose. He was Archbishop in 1677, - deprived at the Revolution. - -Several reasons, as previously stated, could be given for Clarendon’s -steadily increasing unpopularity and for his final disgrace, but in 1667 -he was for the second time impeached. Among the articles of this second -accusation of high treason were “The taking money for the King’s -marriage with Portugall,” “The marrying his daughter to the Duke of -Yorke,” “The obstructing all other marriages for the King.”[224] - -Footnote 224: - - Scudamore Papers. - -As regards the second of the indictments we know that Hyde was entirely -innocent from first to last. The third seems to point at the often -suggested plan of a divorce from Catherine. The King himself wrote -privately to Ormonde that his real reason for parting with his old -servant was “the Chancellor’s intolerable temper,”[225] but it is also -said that he deeply resented the latter’s action in counteracting a -divorce by bringing about the stolen marriage of “La Belle Stuart” to -the Duke of Richmond, seeing that he (Charles) at one time contemplated -getting rid of his wife to marry the lovely, wild, childish girl who, -for the moment, imprisoned his vagrant fancy.[226] His covert irritation -and impatience were diligently fanned by those about him, headed by -Buckingham, who used his great gifts and entire want of scruple, with -deadly effect, to compass the undoing of his foe. It is possible that -Clarendon had at first displayed his personal influence too openly, for -though Charles from sheer indolence would allow himself to be governed -with fatal facility, he was nevertheless, like many people of a like -temperament, very unwilling that the fact should be known. As to the -charge of bribery urged so often, and with such bitter pertinacity, -there is absolutely no proof of any kind of its truth. Clarendon was -accused of receiving bribes right and left, of knowing that the needy -spendthrift King received them from his astute cousin Louis XIV. Of all -this, it must be repeated, Hyde’s enemies could bring no proof, and at -any rate his fall certainly heralded the worst period of the reign of -Charles II. “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” followed fast -upon each other. Clarendon’s old friend, Lord Southampton, one of the -best and wisest of his generation, had died not long before. In August -the King sent for the Seals to be delivered up, and a few days later the -faithful Evelyn came to visit the disgraced minister, and “found him in -his bedchamber very sad.” “He was my particular kind friend on all -occasions,” adds the diarist loyally, and one can fancy that his -presence may have brought a little momentary comfort to the bruised -heart. There was a yet heavier blow to fall, and the cup of sorrow to be -filled to the brim. On 8th December, some months later, Pepys records -that he saw the Duchess of York at Whitehall “in a fine dress of second -mourning for her mother, being black edged with ermine.” To Clarendon -himself the loss of the faithful wife who had shared his poverty and -exile beyond the sea, as well as his short-lived prosperity, came as a -crushing misfortune among all the other burdens pressing upon him on -every side. A few pathetic words written in July from Clarendon House -allude to this sorrow as impending: “Being in noe good disposition the -last weeke, by reason of my Wife’s great Sicknesse.”[227] - -Footnote 225: - - _Chalmers’ Biographical Dictionary._ - -Footnote 226: - - “Royalty Restored.” E. F. Molloy. - -Footnote 227: - - Harleian MS. - -We see Evelyn again visiting his friend about this time, and finding -“him in his garden at his new-built palace, sitting in his gowt wheel -chayre and seeing the gates setting up towards the north and the fields. -He looked and spoke very disconsolately.” It was no wonder. Everything -was crumbling round him like the wall of a falling house. The fortune he -had built up through so many strenuous years was toppling over, honour -and reputation were smitten, and he sat—alone. The “new-built palace” -could yield him now but little solace, and forth from it he must go, -like Wolsey, “naked to his enemies.” Truly he must have said to himself, -as he looked round him in utter loneliness: “Vanity of vanities.” - -Meanwhile in the ancient palace at the foot of the hill, not many -hundred yards away, sorrow of another kind was brooding. - -To the Duchess of York herself, this year was especially marked by grief -and misfortune. In one direction there was the keen mortification caused -by the Duke’s short-lived passion for Lady Denham, whose tragic and -mysterious death has been already recorded; in another the blow -inflicted by the disgrace and final exile of her father—and this of -itself must have been a sore trouble, considering the close affection -between them. Sadder still came the death of her mother and of her young -children. Andrew Marvell’s unsparing pen was again busy, and surely no -crueller couplet was ever written: - - “Kendal is dead, and Cambridge riding post, - What fitter sacrifice for Denham’s ghost?”[228] - -Footnote 228: - - “Poems and Satires.” - -Among the many pictures of the time which its history unfolds before us, -there is one which stands out here in sombre relief.[229] - -Footnote 229: - - Knight’s “London.” - -Across the Park, which he has already done much to improve, having laid -out the Mall and planted avenues, comes King Charles at his usual swift -pace. He has been, according to his custom, feeding the ducks, of which -he is very fond. Two or three courtiers keep up with him as best they -may, and a crowd of little dogs run and dance round him, snapping at -each other. Now and then the King throws a careless word or two to his -attendants, who laugh dutifully, or try to cap them, as the case may be. -Down another path from the direction of Spring Gardens,[230] where he -now lives—it used to be in the Barbican[231]—advances a tall figure -carrying himself with a certain stately swing. Those keen quick eyes and -high aquiline features can only belong to Prince Rupert, fresh perhaps -from some of his experiments, the transmuting of silver, and the like. -As he takes off his wide plumed hat in a sweeping salute and bows -profoundly, the King nods cheerfully, glad of the meeting, glad of any -distraction. A few desultory words—he has shot a duck, it seems, and one -of the dogs retrieved it; then he seems suddenly to remember that his -brother’s boys are ailing. “Let’s go and see Cambridge and Kendal,” he -says with a stifled yawn, as he passes his arm through that of his -cousin. It reads callously, but Charles is a man of strange and -unexpected reserves, and he may feel more than he allows to be seen. So -the pair walk on under the spreading trees, while the King’s attendants -fall back to a more respectful distance. The Prince Palatine somehow -always inspires something like awe. It is but a little way, and they -come to the ancient grave palace, above which the standard with the -leopards and lilies, and the crescent for difference, hangs its heavy -folds in the still air. - -Footnote 230: - - “Old Royal Palace of Whitehall.” E. Sheppard, D.D. - -Footnote 231: - - “Diary of Dr Edward Lake.” (Camden Miscellany.) - -Another and greater King is entering the door unseen—for two dying -children lie under that goodly roof. Kendal and Cambridge are indeed -“riding post” to the edge of the dark river into whose waters those -small feet are already almost plunged, and over them, tearless for all -her bleeding heart, hangs the mother. Is it for sin of hers—is it a -judgment on ambition—that no living son of her blood may carry on the -line of English royalty? Can she give nothing, do nothing, to avert the -coming doom?[232] - -Footnote 232: - - The poor Duchess was in doubt which would die first. (Pepys.) - -Someone, no doubt, tells the King that his errand is vain. The frail -little lives are passing out of sight, and he turns away silent. He is -moved and sorry. He is good-natured, even kind-hearted, when he -remembers to be, but Prince Rupert’s noble face is clouded and the -luminous eyes are misty, for no sorrow appeals to him in vain. - -But worse evils are coming on England than even the loss of the -seed-royal. The Dutch fleet is in the river, and coming up to Gravesend, -intent on vengeance. - -Charles II. has been unsparingly blamed for this disaster, but he was -not altogether guilty. After the terrible visitations of the Plague and -the Fire, he greatly impoverished himself to help the many destitute -sufferers, refusing to press the Parliament to pay the sums voted for -supplies, when those disastrous years made them fall short.[233] This -led to the necessity of laying up ships which should have been kept in -commission, contrary to the advice of the Duke of York and the emphatic -warnings of Prince Rupert. No doubt the King had also yielded to the -persuasions of Louis XIV., backed by Henrietta Maria, whose advice was -always unlucky, and France was at this time but too ready to pull the -strings in the background. Meanwhile another division of the Dutch, -advancing up the Medway, had forced the boom laid across it for -protection, and had actually burnt three men-of-war. - -Footnote 233: - - Green’s “Short History of the English People.” - -In the great palace of Whitehall all is in uproar, and wild confusion is -reigning.[234] Rumours of fire and sword lose nothing by transmission -from one to another. Some of the maids of honour believe anything and -everything, even an immediate sack of London. Beautiful, brazen -Castlemaine, carefully dishevelled like a Bacchante, is bewailing -herself and hysterically protesting that she will be the first to be -torn in pieces. Probably the person most unmoved by the clamour and its -cause is the King himself, looking on cynically from the outside, as it -were, with the quality of aloofness which has always stood him in good -stead. And now, as we know, the mob, always prejudiced, always fickle, -just because the Dutch are in the Thames, streams off tumultuously to -Clarendon House and breaks the windows with great enthusiasm. To the -builder and owner of that ill-omened mansion such an incident was -probably but a slight and momentary aggravation. Clarendon himself -writes from Whitehall on 14th June: “I had writt this farr, the case is -much altred by the Dutch Fleete entring into the Ryver and tryumphing -there to our great damage and how farr it may extend farther we yett -know not; the particulars I leave to others (but upon the whole) matters -not though a peace may be bought deare and usually when an unreasonable -price asked for it it is an infallible sign that it is not to be had yet -a peace in this conjunction would be very reasonable.”[235] This letter -was originally partly written in cypher. The Chancellor’s signature is -very tremulous, testifying possibly to agitation of mind easily -conceivable. - -Footnote 234: - - “A Royal Cavalier: The Romance of Rupert, Prince Palatine.” Mrs - Steuart Erskine. - -Footnote 235: - - Harleian MS. - -Thus for the Chancellor the end had truly come. A career of singular if -varying brilliance was closing, alas! ingloriously. At his impeachment, -his son-in-law, the Duke of York, who had never failed to stand by him -since their connection, and who now wished to soften the blow, sent his -old friend Bishop Morley to the fallen minister to say that the King -wished him to leave the country. It needed only this. He over whose -youth Edward Hyde had watched so faithfully, to the utmost of his power, -had done with him. He did not want to see his face any more, and he -never did see it. Clarendon bent his head to the storm, and submitted. -Perhaps his strong heart broke then, and nothing else mattered very -much. At any rate he obeyed the royal mandate, the last he was to -receive, and before the year was out he had left England, as it proved, -for ever. - -He went first to Calais, then to Rouen, covering ground that must have -been very familiar to him in earlier days. At Evreux, where he stayed -for a time, his life was actually attempted by some English sailors, on -the grounds that he had sold his country and robbed them of their -pay.[236] This danger he escaped, and later, with the restlessness born -of despondency and lack of occupation, he wandered south to Montpellier, -proceeding thence to Moulins. Finally, however, he retraced his steps to -Rouen. It was nearer, after all, to England; and there, at no great -distance from the country he loved so well, he died in December -1673.[237] - -Footnote 236: - - _Chalmers’ Biographical Dictionary._ - -Footnote 237: - - He was buried in Westminster Abbey, on the north side of the Chapel of - Henry VII. - -[Illustration: - - EDWARD, EARL OF CLARENDON -] - -It is a pitiful story. Whether Clarendon was entirely blameless of all -the accusations against him, it is useless to speculate, but at least it -must be conceded that from the first he had set before him high ideals, -and if he fell short of these, it was no more than many—nay most—had -done. It was an age, pre-eminently, when it was said that every man had -his price. If so, then Edward Hyde’s was a very high one; but it is much -pleasanter and indeed more reasonable to believe in his innocence, as -such belief is far more consonant with his character as it is presented -to us by his contemporaries. And at least he knew heavy griefs. -Estranged more and more as time went on from the daughter he loved so -deeply, severed altogether from her and from his sons, driven in -disgrace from his country to spend in exile a lonely old age, the close -of Clarendon’s story presents a very sorrowful picture, and if one were -inclined to moralise, preaches an eloquent sermon on the vanity of human -greatness. But it is not likely that the ex-Chancellor himself needed -any such reminders. He had seen too much of the mutability of all things -here, to be quite unprepared for vicissitudes, and he had at last learnt -how to face with dignity the trials which he was destined to suffer. For -one thing we certainly owe him a debt of gratitude, namely, for his -“History of the Rebellion.” In that noble record he has painted for us, -as no other hand could have done it, the actors in that great drama, -perhaps the greatest ever presented on the stage of English history, and -has made them live for all time to his readers. - -This great and important work Clarendon wrote at a house in Swallowfield -in Berkshire, which was the home of his eldest son’s second wife, -Flower, the widow of Sir William Buckhouse. Lord Cornbury’s first wife -had been Theodosia, the daughter of the gallant and hapless Arthur, Lord -Capel, one of the most perfect heroes of a time which produced not a few -such.[238] - -Footnote 238: - - Evelyn’s “Correspondence.” To Mr Sprat, Chaplain to the Duke of - Buckingham, afterwards Bishop of Rochester. - -As before said, if Clarendon was indeed guilty of himself receiving -bribes, or of the knowledge that the King’s hands were not clean in this -respect, there exists no proof of either, and if he needed or desired -any revenge for his disgrace and broken fortunes, he might have found it -in the decadence of the government of his country which immediately -followed. He had at least one satisfaction—that his royal son-in-law had -voted against his sentence of banishment, but it was probably only an -aggravation of his trials that Bishop Morley, whom he had been wont to -call “the best man alive,” was involved in his disgrace. On this account -the bishop was removed from his post of spiritual director to the -Duchess of York, an office which he had filled with little intermission -since the Flemish days when he had found a shelter under Hyde’s -hospitable roof.[239] But such a reverse was inevitable. The great tree -in its fall was destined to drag down with it the lesser ones whose -roots were twisted with its own. “None of us liveth to himself,” are -words which hold good of more than Clarendon and his friends. - -Footnote 239: - - When Morley was translated to Winchester he took Izaak Walton and his - son with him, and the former died there in 1683. Winchester House at - Chelsea was bought by Morley, and belonged to the See until Bishop - Tomlin’s day. (Dean Plumptre’s “Life of Ken.”) - -So Edward Hyde passes out of the arena of his day and country, a -conspicuous figure through many stormy years, and his place knows him no -more. His rival, Buckingham, remains to hold the stage a little longer, -and in some eyes he may be all-sufficient, since Reresby can call him -“the finest gentleman of person and wit I think I ever saw”; and King -Louis, against whose judgment there can surely be no appeal, pronounces -him “the only English gentleman” he had ever seen. In the light of such -shining attributes, the sombre colours wherein Chancellor Hyde is -invested retire altogether into the shade; yet perhaps when the two -figures are placed side by side in the estimation of a later age, -opinions may be reversed as to which is after all the finer gentleman. -The blood of the Hydes was to the full as ancient as that of the -Villiers, and for the rest who can doubt which served with the stancher -devotion God and the king, or lived the more blameless and unstained -life? Many great names stand out from the record of the England of that -day, names of which she has reason to be proud—Falkland, Hopton, Bevil -Grenville, Southampton, Capel—yet to his honour it may be said that -Edward Hyde is not unworthy of a place among them. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - THE TURNING-POINT - - -WE come now, in the course of her story, to the most momentous epoch in -the life of Anne Hyde, the period, namely, of her conversion to the -Church of Rome. And here it must be noted that she was in no respect -ignorant, nor uninstructed in the dogmas of her own Communion. It has -been shown that in her early youth she was placed by her father under -the teaching of Morley, during the time when he lived, an honoured -guest, in Hyde’s household in the days of exile at Breda.[240] - -Footnote 240: - - Burnet’s “History of His Own Time,” ed. 1766. “She was bred to great - strictness in religion.” - -He, as we know, had been in other days a friend of such great and noble -souls as Hammond and Sanderson, Chillingworth and Falkland. He had -ministered to Charles I. in his captivity at Newmarket, and had stood on -the scaffold with Capel. At The Hague he became an honorary chaplain to -the Queen of Bohemia, who knew merit when she saw it. - -From the time when Morley assumed the spiritual directorship of the -twelve-year-old daughter of his protector Hyde, he taught her to use -regular confession, which she seems to have done unswervingly, and her -confidence in him may be gauged from the fact that as soon as her -position as Duchess of York was firmly established, she chose him to -continue her guide “in those things that concerned her spiritual and -everlasting condition.” It has been already noticed that at one time -Morley had been suspected of Calvinism, on which account he was disliked -by Laud; and the story is told of him, that when asked what Arminians -held, he answered with some acerbity that they held but bishoprics and -deaneries. But his later close friendship with the saintly Ken seems to -establish his orthodoxy, and we find him preaching against -Presbyterianism.[241] He, for his part, describes his pupil Anne as -being “as devout and charitable as ever I knew any of her age and sex.” -After her marriage she carefully kept the canonical hours of the “Public -Service of God in her Chapel with those of her family.” Besides this, -she was a regular and devout communicant. “And always,” says the -bishop,[242] “the day before she received she made a voluntary -confession of what she thought she had offended God in, either by -omission or by commission, professing her sorrow for it, and promising -amendment of it, and kneeling down she desired and received absolution -in the form and words prescribed by our Church. This for her devotion. -And as for Charity, she did every time she received the Sacrament, -besides five pounds in gold she gave at the altar, she gave me twenty -pounds to give to such as I thought had most need of it, and did best -deserve it. This was her ordinary and constant way of expressing her -charity. But that which she did at other Times and upon extraordinary -Occasions I believe was very much more, especially in the Time of the -Great Plague. To conclude I remember she told the late Archbishop of -Canterbury (Sheldon) and me when we were both together with her that if -she did not so much in point of Charity as it was fit for her to do, it -should be his fault and mine, and not hers.”[243] - -Footnote 241: - - Izaak Walton was also much with him, probably owing to his connection - with Ken. - -Footnote 242: - - “Register and Chronicle,” by Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough. (Morley.) - -Footnote 243: - - Burnet was very bitter against Sheldon, who he declared “seemed to - have no great sense of religion” (“History of His Own Times”). “He - {Sheldon} belonged to the school of Andrewes and Laud, and at one time - was almost the sole support of Jeremy Taylor. He, by the way, - fearlessly remained at Lambeth throughout the Plague” (_Dictionary of - National Biography_). - -It is strange and perplexing to read this obviously honest testimony -side by side with the dismal tales of light conduct, of avarice, of -gluttony, of reckless gambling, which were freely told; and it is -impossible to refrain from, at least, trying to discount some of these -scandals, knowing as we do the age and state of society which gave birth -to them. It may be objected that the King, whose way of life was so -unhappily notorious, steadily communicated, himself, in the Chapel Royal -on the great festivals; but from the account just quoted, it seems -evident that Duchess Anne’s reception of the Divine Mysteries was no -perfunctory act. For the rest, impossible as it is to reconcile apparent -contradictions, one can only fall back on the truism of the -contradictions of poor human nature itself. - -With regard to the change of faith presently to be traced, as late as -1667, at the time therefore of her father’s banishment, Bishop Morley -persists in describing Anne as still “a zealous Protestant,” “and -zealous to make Protestants,” though this assertion may be coloured by -the writer’s prepossessions. Her relations with Morley and also with -Sheldon brought her into contact with the mysterious adventurer -Ferdinand de Macedo.[244] Sir John Bramston, Clarendon’s old friend, had -been accused by this person, prompted by Henry Mildmay, Bramston’s -political enemy, of having changed his religion. Macedo himself (a -Portuguese), who had declared himself a convert from the Roman Church, -was recommended to the Duchess as an object of charity. She forthwith -allowed him a yearly pension of thirty pounds, and spoke for him to her -two advisers, who, in their turn, each made him an allowance of ten -pounds, the Bishop of Winchester, moreover, placing him at Christ Church -and even advancing a further sum of thirty pounds to buy necessaries. -However, the man for whom so much was done was found to be utterly -unworthy, for he drank and gambled, and even had a discreditable brawl -with a Frenchman whom he threw downstairs. The Dean of Christ Church and -Canon Lockey, at the end of their patience, very naturally appealed to -Morley to remove him, as a cause of grave scandal. The latter, as well -as Sheldon, promptly withdrew the allowance aforesaid, but out of good -nature said little or nothing of the matter to the Duchess, who, -however, hearing something of it from others, questioned the bishop -closely, and being satisfied that her bounty was misapplied, took it -away. Macedo, who probably traded on the fact that he was a Portuguese, -and thus a fellow-countryman of the Queen, was quite unabashed at being -unmasked, and with great effrontery announced that he had been turned -out of the university for testifying against Popery and the Prayer Book. -The exasperated Morley called him, with apparently only too much reason, -“a counterfeit pretended convert” whom “Maimbourg magnifies so much, -tho’ he knows he proved himself to be an arrant impostor and profligated -wretch.”[245] - -Footnote 244: - - “Autobiography of Sir John Bramston.” - -Footnote 245: - - “Register and Chronicle,” by Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough. - -A year or two earlier, a letter from Anne to the Bishop of Durham, dated -10th September 1665, expresses her attitude with regard to the Anglican -Church at that period. - - - “RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,—Though you might assure yourselfe - that you should alwaies find that reception with mee which is - due to your quality and merits yet I should have been sorry that - your respect to mee should have induced you to a journey - injurious to your health the preservation of w^h for the good of - the Church I have great reason to wish and doe desire you to be - perswaded that I should be glad of any occasion whereby I might - show you that I am - - “Your affectionate friend - - “ANNE.”[246] - -Footnote 246: - - Rawlinson MS. (Bodleian). - - -This was written from York where the writer was with her husband on one -of their “progresses,” and the prelate to whom it was addressed was no -other than the saintly Cosin. During his exile at Charenton, near Paris, -he had been much engaged in controversy, on one occasion, with the Prior -of the English Benedictines, whom he had defeated by the force of “much -learning and sound reasoning.” - -At the Restoration he had returned to his deanery of Peterborough, where -he was the first person to use the Restored Prayer Book in the -cathedral, but the same year was consecrated Bishop of Durham, where he -died in 1672,[247] in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He displayed -extraordinary munificence throughout his episcopate, and one of his -bequests recalls a very real need of that period, for he left a sum for -the redemption of Christian slaves. - -Footnote 247: - - “Sufferings of the Clergy.” Walker. - -For some time after the incident of Macedo’s exposure, the Duchess of -York seems to have been to all intents and purposes a loyal churchwoman, -and indeed to Morley himself she never owned the change in her faith, -even though she stayed at the episcopal palace at Farnham after she -wrote the letter of recantation which will be noticed later. - -Moreover Blandford, Bishop of Worcester, succeeded Bishop Morley in her -household after the latter’s resignation when involved in Clarendon’s -disgrace; therefore up to that time she had certainly not severed her -connection with the Church of her baptism. - -There now comes the difficult task of seeking the motive for so grave a -resolution. - -Burnet, who is never apt to attribute the best motives for any action, -declares that Anne took the step in the desperate hope of winning back -her husband’s affections, alienated from her by the affair with Henry -Sidney. She, so says Burnet, “lost the power she had over him so -entirely that no method she could think of was likely to recover it -except one.”[248] - -Footnote 248: - - Burnet’s “History of His Own Time.” - -But to this assertion Anne’s own avowal, which carries the stamp of -conviction, gives the lie; and besides, as the Duke of York had not -then, nor did for some time after, openly abjure the Anglican Church, -his wife’s strong common-sense must have told her that her own apostasy -could only have a disastrous effect on the future fortunes of both. That -she did not renounce her Church lightly is certain. She had read much on -the subject, and among other books she was conversant with Heylin’s -“History of the Reformation.”[249] There is no evidence that the Duke’s -sister-in-law, the Queen, influenced her in any way. Indeed, poor -Catherine was not a person to exercise such a quality, nor to bring -pressure to bear on anyone, devout and conscientious though she was from -first to last. Besides, Duchess Anne was too strong willed and resolute -to bow to any one’s ruling, least of all to that of one so yielding, -placable and self-effacing as the neglected wife of Charles II. - -Footnote 249: - - “Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm - Digby,” introduction by F. A. Gasquet, D.D. - -It is impossible to lay a finger on the precise period when Anne first -began to waver in her allegiance to the Church, but the falling off was -first suspected in 1669, and not before. When her neglect of the Holy -Eucharist was first noticed by him, Morley spoke to her plainly and -faithfully on the point, when she gave him an evasive answer, alleging -as deterrent reasons the state of her health and the claims of business, -and at the same time declared that no Roman priest had ever spoken to -her of these questions. She also voluntarily promised the bishop, that -if any scruples should occur to her, she would at once tell him of them. -This, however, so he afterwards told Burnet, she never did. It is -strange and sad that, after so many years of complete confidence, Anne -should shrink from consulting this faithful adviser, but there were -reserves in her character which were manifested to the end. Possibly a -certain pride had something to do with it, a reluctance to own herself -capable of change in any direction, and she preferred to wrestle with -her perplexities unaided and unthwarted. At last the King became -conscious of his sister-in-law’s continued abstention from Holy -Communion, and questioned his brother on the subject.[250] The Duke at -once owned the fact of his wife’s conversion, and her intention of being -received into the Roman Communion.[251] On this he was peremptorily -charged to keep the momentous secret, at all hazards, for the King, -always astute and, when he chose to be, far-seeing, was too well aware -of the temper of the English people to run the risk of making public a -matter of such importance. It was in August 1670 that Anne was formally -reconciled to the Church of Rome by Father Hunt, a Franciscan, who with -Lady Cranmer, her lady-in-waiting, and one Dupuy, a servant of the Duke, -were for a time the sole depositaries of this matter; for it does not -appear that even the Queen was at this time, at any rate, a party to the -secret. It must be borne in mind as giving weight to the King’s -prohibition, that Anne was the wife of the heir presumptive to the -Crown, and the mother of his apparent successors, and this rendered her -faith, in the eyes of the nation, of the last importance. - -Footnote 250: - - “Life of James II.” Rev. J. S. Clarke, from original MSS. in Carlton - House, 1816. “A suspicion the Duchess was inclined to be a Roman - Catholic. She that had all her life been very regular in receiving - once a month the Sacrament in the Church of England’s way, and upon - all occasions had shown herself very zealous in her profession.” - -Footnote 251: - - Macpherson’s “Original Papers,” 1775 ed. - -In that same month of August[252] the Duchess of York wrote the -confession now transcribed, which was published by James after his -accession to the throne “for his Household and Chappel” in 1686. - -Footnote 252: - - It is dated the 20th of the month. - - - “It is so reasonable to expect that a person always Bred up in - the Church of England, and as well instructed in the Doctrine of - it, as the best Divines, and her capacity could make her, should - be liable to many censures for leaving That, and making herself - a member of the Roman Catholic Church, to which, I confess, I - was one of the greatest enemies it ever had; That I chose rather - to endeavour to satisfy my friends by reading this Paper then to - have the trouble to answer all the questions that may dayly be - asked of me. And first, I do protest in the presence of Almighty - God, That no Person, Man or Woman, Directly nor Indirectly, ever - said anything to me (since I came into England) or used the - least endeavour to make me change my Religion. It is a blessing - I wholly owe to Almighty God, and I hope the hearing of a Prayer - I dayly made Him, ever since I was in France and Flanders, Where - seeing much of the Devotion of the Catholicks, (though I had - very little myself) I made it my continual request to Almighty - God: That if I were not, I might before I died be in the true - Religion: I did not in the least doubt, but that I was so, and - never had any manner of scruple till November last, when reading - a book called the History of the Reformation, by Doctor Heylin - which I had heard very much commended, and had been told, if - ever I had any doubt in my Religion, that would settle me: - Instead of which, I found it the description of the horridest - Sacriledges in the World: and could find no reason why we left - the Church, but for Three the most abominable ones that were - ever heard of amongst Christians. First, Henry the Eighth - Renounced the Pope’s Authority because he would not give him - leave to part with his Wife and marry Another in her life time: - Secondly Edward the Sixth was a Child and govern’d by his Uncle - who made his Estate out of Church Lands: and then Queen - Elizabeth, who being no Lawful Heiress to the Crown could have - no way to keep it but by renouncing a Church that could never - suffer so unlawful a thing to be done by one of Her Children. I - confess, I cannot think the Holy Ghost could ever be in such - Counsels and it is very strange that if the Bishops had no - design but (as they say) the restoring us to the Doctrines of - the Primitive Church, they should never think upon it how Henry - the Eighth made the Breach upon so unlawful a Pretence. These - scruples being raised, I began to consider of the difference - between the Catholicks and Us, and Examin’d them as well as I - could by the Holy Scriptures, which though I do not pretend to - be able to understand, yet there are some things I found so - easie that I cannot but wonder I had been so long without - finding them out. As the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, - the Infallibility of the Church, Confession, and Praying for the - Dead. After this I spoke severally to Two of the best Bishops we - have in England, who both told me, there were many things in the - Roman Church which (it were very much to be wished) we had kept. - As Confession, which was no doubt commanded by God; That Praying - for the Dead was one of the Ancient Things in Christianity. That - for their parts they did it Daily, though they would not own it; - but afterwards pressing one of them very much upon the other - Points, he told me That if he had been bred a Catholick he would - not change his Religion, but that being of another Church, - wherein he was sure were all things necessary to Salvation, he - thought it very ill to give that Scandal, as to leave that - Church, wherein he had received his Baptism. All these - Discourses did but add more to the desire I had to be a - Catholick, and gave me the most terrible Agonies in the World, - within myself. For all this, fearing to be rash in a matter of - that Weight, I did all I could to satisfie myself, made it my - Daily Prayer to God to settle me in the Right, and so went on - Christmas Day to receive in the King’s Chappel, after which I - was more troubled than ever, and could never be in quiet till I - had told my desire to a Catholick who brought a Priest to me, - and that was the First I ever did Converse with upon my Word. - The more I spoke to him, the more I was Confirm’d in my design, - and, as it is impossible for me to doubt of the words of our - Blessed Saviour, who says the Holy Sacrament is his Body and - Blood, so I cannot Believe, that He who is the author of all - truth and who has promis’d to be with His Church to the End of - the World would permit them to give that Holy Mystery to the - Laiety but in one kind, if it were not Lawful so to do. - - “I am not able, or, if I were, would I enter into Disputes with - any Body, I only in short say this for the changing of my - Religion, which I take God to Witness I would never have done if - I had thought it possible to save my Soul otherwise. I think I - need not say, it is any Interest in this World leads me to it; - it will be plain enough to every body, that I must lose all the - Friends and Credit I have here by it; and have very well weighed - which I could best part with, my share in this world or the - next; I thank God I found no difficulty in the Choice. - - “My only Prayer is, that the poor Catholicks of this Nation - may not suffer for my being of their Religion; That God would - but give me Patience to bear them, and then, send me any - affliction in this World, so I may enjoy a Blessed Eternity - hereafter.”[253] - -Footnote 253: - - Harleian MSS.; also “Copy of a paper written by the late - Dutchess of York. Published by His Majesties command. Printed - by Henry Hills, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majesty - for His Household and Chappel. 1686.” - - -The inherent weakness and insufficiency of the arguments put forward by -the writer in this paper are manifest at once, but her sincerity can -scarcely be impugned. Indeed, throughout her career this quality was -always conspicuous in Anne Hyde, to an extent which often, in her -relations with those about her, made for unpopularity. - -It must be mentioned in this place that John Evelyn disbelieved the -authorship of this letter. Writing to Bishop Morley as early as 1681, he -says: - - - “Father Maimburg has had the impudence to publish at the end of - his late Histoire du Calvinisme a pretended letter of the late - Duchess of York intimating the motives of her deserting the - Church of England, amongst other things to attribute it to the - indifference, to call it no worse, of those two bishops upon - whose advice she wholly depended as to the direction of her - conscience and points of controversy. ’Tis the universal - discourse that your Lordship is one of these bishops she - mentions, if at least the letter be not suppositious, knowing - you to have been the most domestic in the family, and one whom - her Highness resorted to in all her doubts and spiritual - concerns, not only during her former circumstances, but all the - time of her greatness to the very last. It is therefore humbly - and earnestly desired (as well as indeed expected) amongst all - that are concerned for our religion and the great and worthy - character which your Lordship bears, that your Lordship would do - right to it, and publish to all the world how far you are - concerned in this pretended charge and to vindicate yourself and - our Church from what this bold man would have the world believe - to the prejudice of both. I know your Lordship will be curious - to read the passage yourself and do what becomes you upon this - signal occasion, God having placed you in a station where you - have no great one’s frowns to fear or flatter, and given you a - zeal for the truth and for his Glory. With this assurance I - humbly beg y^r Lordship’s blessing.”[254] - -Footnote 254: - - “Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn.” - - -We have already seen that Morley distinctly stated to Burnet that his -pupil the Duchess had never asked his counsel in her difficulty, -therefore he could not have been either of the bishops whom she cited, -and a marginal note to Anne’s letter states, moreover, that the bishops -referred to were Sheldon and Blandford. Evelyn, it is true, does not -give the ground for his scepticism in the authenticity of the letter. He -may or may not be right, but the fact of James’ order for its -publication would seem to stamp it as genuine, even if the writer had -been prejudiced, or mistaken, in her references to the bishops. - -Anne’s dutiful and regular attendance on religious observances naturally -drew attention to the neglect of them which she manifested in later -years, but the secret was well kept, and though suspected in some -quarters, did not leak out to the world in general in her lifetime. - -We can, without much difficulty, picture the bitter heart-searchings, -the doubt, the reluctance, intensified by failing health, which must -have accompanied this momentous change; but we must at least give her -credit for the absolute candour of her convictions. - -There was one person who was deeply and specially affected by this -departure on her part. - -On her father, the exiled Chancellor, the news of his daughter’s change -of religion inflicted a crushing blow, stanch as he had always shown -himself to be to the Anglican Church.[255] His recollections of the -great civil strife in which he had been so deeply involved were -inextricably bound up with loyalty and devotion to that Church, as well -as to the master who had undoubtedly suffered for her, and thus by that -sacrifice secured her continuity. To Hyde, as to many others of his time -and circumstances, the scaffold at Whitehall stood as a witness to the -faith, invested with the glory of that most sacred memory. And now from -the hand that was best beloved to him, came the wound that must rankle -till the end. - -Footnote 255: - - Burnet’s “History of His Own Time,” ed. 1766. “Her father was more - troubled at her uncertainty than his own misfortunes.” - -It is quite probable that the Chancellor had already suspicions of -leanings towards Rome on the part of the Duke of York, and had to a -great extent trusted in his daughter’s strength of character and -influence as a deterrent; so that the unexpected defection on her part -would be regarded by him as a disaster for the country no less than for -herself. - -At this unhappy juncture Clarendon therefore took up the pen, which in -his hand was so trenchant a weapon, and addressed both husband and wife, -separately, in words which deserve the strongest admiration and respect. - - - “S^R,—I have not p’sumed in any matter to approach yo’ Royall - p’sence Since I have been marked with the Brand of Banishment, - and I should still with the same awe forbear the p’sumption if I - did not believe myselfe bound by all the Obligations of Duty to - make this address to you. I have been acquainted to much with - the p’sumption and impudence of the times in Raising false and - scandalous Imputations and reproaches upon Innocent and worthy - persons of all qualities to give any credit to those loud - whispers which have been long scattered abroad concerning your - Wives being shaken in her religion. But when those Whispers - break out into noise most publick Persons begin to report that - the Dutchess is become a Roman Catholick. When I heard that many - worthy Persons of unquestionable Devotion to your Royall - Highness, are not without some fear and apprehension of it, and - many Reflections are made from them to the prejudice of your - Royal Person, and even of the King’s Majesties, I hope it may - not misbecome me at what distance soever to cast myself at your - Feet, and beseech you to look to this matter, and to apply some - Antidote to expel the Poyson of it. It is not possible your - Royall Highness can be without zeal and Entire Devotion for that - Church for the Purity and Preservation whereof your blessed - Father made himself a Sacrifice and to the Restoration whereof - You have contributed so much yourself, and which highly deserves - the King’s Protection and Yours since there can be no possible - defection in the hearts of the People whilst due Reverence is - made to the Church. Your Wife is so generally believed to have - so perfect Duty and Intire Resignation to the Will of your - Highness, that any defection in Her from Her Religion will be - imputed to want of Circumspection in you and not using your - Authority, or to your connivance. I need not tell the ill - consequences that such a mistake would be attended with, in - reference to your Royale Highness, and even to the King himself - whose greatest security (under God) is in the affection and Duty - of his Protestant subjects, your Royall Highness well knows how - far I have always been from wishing that the Roman Catholicks - should be prosecuted with severity but I less wish it should - ever be in their power to be able to prosecute those who differ - from them since we well know how little moderation they would or - could use. And if this which People so much talk of (I hope - without ground) should fall out, it might very probably raise a - greater storm against the Roman Catholicks in general than - modest Men can wish, since after such a breach any Jealousies of - their presumption would seem reasonable. I have written to the - Dutchess with the freedom and affection of a troubled and - perplexed Father. I do most humbly beseech your Royall Highness - by your Authority to rescue Her from bringing a Mischief upon - You and herself that can never be repaired; and to think it - worthy your wisdom to remove and dispell those reproaches (how - false soever) by better Evidence than Contempt, and hope you do - believe that no severity I have or can undergo, shall in any - degree lessen or diminish my most profound Duty to His Majesty - or your Royall Highness, but that I do with all imaginable - Obedience submit to your good Pleasure in all things. - - “God preserve Your Royall Highness and keep me in your favour. - - “Sir, - - “Your R. H. most Humble and obedient Servant, - - “CLARENDON.”[256] - -Footnote 256: - - Lansdown MSS.; also State Tracts, 1660 to 1689. - - -So much for the letter of remonstrance to his son-in-law. Through all -the stately, measured, elaborate phraseology and studied deference the -writer’s deep anxiety may be traced quite distinctly, but in the words -addressed to Anne herself, sorrow, affection, warning, reproof speak, as -is natural, with undisguised warmth. The father is yearning over the -child who is passing beyond his ken, and from the place of his lonely -exile he gathers up his utmost powers, to lead, if it may be, the -wandering lamb home to the fold. - - - “You have much reason,” so run the words, “to believe that I - have no mind to trouble you or displease you, especially in an - argument that is so unpleasant and grievous to myself; but as no - distance of place that is between us, in respect of our - Residence or the greater distance in Respect of the high - condition you are in, can make me less your Father or absolve me - from performing those obligations which that Relation requires - from me, So when I receive any Credible Advertisement of what - reflects upon you, in point of Honour, Conscience or Discretion, - I ought not to omit the informing You of it, or administering - such advice to You as to my understanding seems reasonable, and - which I must still hope will have some Credit with You, I will - confess to You that what You wrote to me many Months since, upon - those Reproaches which I told you were generally reported - concerning your defection in Religion, gave me so much - satisfaction that I believed them to proceed from that ill - Spirit of the Times that delights in Slanders and Calumny, but I - must tell you, the same report increases of late very much, and - I myself saw a Letter the last week from Paris, from a person - who said the English Embassador assured him the day before, that - the Dutchess was become a Roman Catholick, and which makes great - Impression upon me, I am assured that many good men in England - who have great Affection for You and Me, and who have thought - nothing more impossible than that there should be such a change - in You, are at present under much affliction with the - observation of a great change in your course of Life and that - constant Exercise of the Devotion which was so notorious and do - apprehend from your frequent Discourses that you have not the - same Reverence and Devotion which You use to have for the Church - of England, the Church in which You were Baptized, and the - Church the best constituted and the most free from Errors of any - Christian Church this day in the world, and that some persons by - their insinuations have prevailed with You to have a better - Opinion of that which is most opposite to it, the Church of - Rome, than the integrity thereof deserves. It is not yet in my - power to believe that your Wit and Understanding (with God’s - blessing upon both) can suffer you to be shaken further than - with Melancholick reflections upon the Iniquity and wickedness - of the Age we live in, which discredits all Religion, and which - with equal license breaks into the Professors of all, and - prevails upon the Members of all Churches, and whose Manners - will have no benefit from the Faith of any Church. I presume You - do not intangle Yourself in the particular Controversies between - the Romanists and us, or think Yourself a competent Judge of all - difficulties which occur therein; and therefore it must be some - fallacious Argument of Antiquity and Universality confidently - urged by men who know less than many of those you are acquainted - with, and ought less to be believed by you, that can raise any - Doubts or Scruples in you, and if You will with equal temper - hear those who are well able to inform You in all such - particulars it is not possible for you to suck in that Poyson - which can only corrupt and prevail over you by stopping Your own - Ears and shutting Your own Eyes. There are but two persons in - the World who have greater authority with You than I can pretend - to, and am sure they both suffer more in the Rumour, and would - suffer much more if there were ground for it, than I can do, and - truly I am as likely to be deceived myself or to deceive you as - a man who endeavours to pervert You in Your Religion; And - therefore I beseech You to let me have so much Credit with You - as to perswade You to Communicate any Doubts or Scruples which - occur to you before You suffer them to make too deep an - Impression upon You. The common Argument that there is no - Salvation out of the Church and that the Church of Rome is the - only true Church is both irrational and untrue; there are many - Churches in which Salvation may be attained as well as in any - one of them, and were many even in the Apostles time otherwise - they would not have directed their epistles to so many Severall - Churches in which there were different Opinions received and - very different Doctrines taught. There is indeed but one Faith - in which we can be saved; the stedfast belief of the Birth, - Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour; and every Church that - receives and embraces that Faith is in a state of Salvation, if - the Apostles Preach true Doctrine, the reception and retention - of many errors do’s not destroy the Essence of a Church, if it - did, the Church of Rome would be in as ill, if not in a worse - Condition than most other Christian Churches, because its Errors - are of a greater Magnitude and more destructive to Religion. Let - not the Canting Discourse of the Universality and Extent of that - Church which has as little of Truth as the rest, prevail over - You, they who will imitate the greatest part of the World, must - turn Heathens, for it is generally believed that above half the - World is possessed by them, and that the Mahometans possess more - than half the remainder; There is as little question that of the - rest which is inhabited by Christians, one part of four is not - of the communion of the Church of Rome, and God knows that in - that very Communion there is as great discord in Opinion, and in - matters of as great moment, as is between the other Churches. I - hear you do in publick discourses dislike some things in the - Church of England, as the marriage of the Clergy, which is a - point that no Roman Catholic will pretend to be of the Essence - of Religion, and is in use in many places which are of the - Communion of the Church of Rome, as in Bohemia, in those parts - of the Greek Church which submit to the Roman; And all men know, - that in the late Council of Trent, the Sacrament of both kinds, - and liberty of the clergy to marry, was very passionately - press’d both by the Emperor and King of France for their - Dominions, and it was afterwards granted to Germany, though - under such conditions as made it ineffectual; which however - shows that it was not, nor ever can be look’d upon as matter of - Religion. Christianity was many hundred years old, before such a - restraint was ever heard of in the Church; and when it was - endeavoured, it met with great opposition, and was never - submitted to. And as the positive Inhibition seems absolutely - unlawful so the Inconveniences which result from thence will - upon a just disquisition be found superior to those which attend - the liberty which Christian Religion permits. Those Arguments - which are not strong enough to draw persons from the Roman - Communion into that of the Church of England, when Custom and - Education, and a long stupid resignation of all their faculties - to their Teachers, usually shuts out all reason to the contrary, - may yet be abundant to retain those who have been baptized, and - Bred and Instructed in the Grounds and Principles of that - Religion which are in truth not only founded upon the clear - Authority of the Scriptures, but upon the consent of Antiquity - and the practice of the Primitive Church, and men who look into - Antiquity know well by what Corruption and Violence and with - what constant and Continual Opposition, those Opinions which are - contrary to ours, crept into the World, and how unwarrantably - the Authority of the Bishop of Rome, which alone supports all - the rest, came to prevail, who hath no more pretence of - Authority and Power in England, than the Bishop of Paris and - Toledo can as reasonably lay claim to, and is so far from being - matter of Catholick Religion, that the Pope hath so much and no - more to do in France or Spain or any other Catholick Dominion, - than the Crown and Laws and Constitution of several Kingdoms - gave him leave, which makes him so little (if at all) considered - in France, and so much in Spain; And therefore the English - Catholicks which attribute so much to him make themselves very - unwarrantable of another Religion than the Catholick Church - professeth and without doubt they who desert the Church of - England, of which they are Members, and become thereby - disobedient to the Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws of their - Country and therein renounce their Subjection to the State as - well as to the Church (which are grievous sins) had need to have - a better excuse than the meeting with some doubts which they - could not answer, and less than a manifest evidence that their - Salvation is desperate in that Communion cannot serve their - turn; and they who imagine they have such an evidence, ought - rather to suspect that their Understanding hath forsaken them, - and that they are become mad, than that the Church which is - replenished with all Learning and Piety requisite, can betray - them to Perdition. I beseech you to consider (which I hope will - overrule those ordinary Doubts and Objections which may be - infus’d into you) that if you change your Religion, you renounce - all Obedience and Affection to your Father, who loves you so - tenderly that such an odious Mutation would break his heart, you - condemn your Father and your Mother (whose incomparable Virtue, - Piety and Devotion hath plac’d her in Heaven) for having - impiously Educated you; and you declare the Church and State, to - both which you owe Reverence and Subjection, to be in your - Judgment Antichristian; you bring irreparable dishonour, scandal - and prejudice to the Duke your Husband to whom you ought to pay - all imaginable Duty, and whom I presume is much more precious to - you than your own life, and all possible ruine to your Children - of whose company and conversation you must look to be depriv’d, - for God forbid that after such an Apostacie, you should have any - power in the Education of your Children. You have many Enemies, - whom you herein would abundantly gratifie, and some Friends, - whom you will thereby (at least as far as in you lies) perfectly - destroy; and afflict many others who have deserved well of you. - I know you are not inclined to any part of this mischief, and - therefore offer those Considerations, as all those particulars - would be the infallible Consequence of such a Conclusion. It is - to me the saddest Circumstance of my Banishment that I may not - be admitted in such a season as this, to confer with you, when I - am confident I could satisfie you in all your Doubts, and make - it appear to you that there are many Absurdities in the Roman - Religion inconsistent with your Judgment and Understanding, and - many Impieties inconsistent with your Conscience; so that before - you can submit to the Obligations of Faith, you must divest - yourself of your Natural Reason and Common Sense, and captivate - the distastes of your own conscience to the Impositions of an - Authority which hath not any pretence to oblige or advise you. - If you will not with freedom communicate the Doubts which occur - to you, to those near you of whose Learning and Piety you have - had much experience, let me Conjure you to impart them to me, - and to expect my answer before you suffer them to prevail over - you. God bless you and yours.”[257] - -Footnote 257: - - Lansdown MS. - - -It is a long, stilted, tedious letter, read under present-day -conditions, and the methods used by the writer in argument hardly -commend themselves, but, especially towards the end, the anxiety of the -father’s heart is made quite evident. The great lawyer marshals all the -force of controversy at his command in the vain hope of influencing his -daughter and reversing the decision so dreaded by him. He appeals to her -heart, no less than to her head.[258] Husband, children, friends—he -places before her the possible loss of all, the harm that may accrue to -them; he leaves, as far as may be, nothing unsaid, nothing untried. It -is curious and significant that one sentence reveals the fact that -Clarendon was aware of his daughter’s unpopularity in certain quarters. -“You have many enemies,” he says, as he points to the triumph which her -change of faith would afford them as one reason, if an unworthy one, -against it. The pathetic significance of this last letter is driven home -all the more forcibly for this reason—that she to whom these weighty -words were addressed, doubtless with many prayers that they might -prevail, was destined never to read them. Death stepped in, and for ever -sealed the page. - -Footnote 258: - - “It is well known that when Kings and Princesses of the Blood make an - alliance with a subject, their arms are not put into the Royal - Escutcheon, nor did ever the late Duchess of York call the Lord - Chancellor father, nor did ever the late King James call the Earls of - Clarendon and Rochester brothers, nor the Princesses Mary and Anne - term them as uncles. Indeed the late Chancellor, when he wrote letters - of advice to the late Duchess in relation to her changing her religion - made use of the style of Daughter, which indeed he ought not to have - done” (“Aylesbury Memoirs.” Roxburghe Club). - - “At Queen Anne’s accession, the second Lord Clarendon, her uncle, came - to see her, and simply said, ‘I wish to see my niece’—which meant that - her brother was now King, and she but a usurper. He had also rebuked - her for her flight to Nottingham at the time of her father’s reverses. - On her part Anne would not receive her uncle without the oath of - allegiance, and this he refused” (“Queen Anne and her Court.” P. F. - Williams Ryan.) - -As already mentioned, the fact of the Duchess of York’s conversion was -not known for some time later, though suspicion was soon busy on the -subject, and the Court, in high excitement, buzzed with the matter. - -It was probably a trial to any one so outspoken and downright as Duchess -Anne to conceal a fact of which she was certainly not ashamed, but the -commands of the King conveyed to her through his brother, were -peremptory and stringent, and she consented to hold her tongue for the -present. As things turned out there was soon no reason for silence, -except in so far as her change might have affected others. So the royal -convert practised her new faith in silence. The chaplains shook their -heads as Sunday after Sunday the Duchess turned away from “God’s Board.” -Morley was no longer at her right hand, and the others spoke only aside -to each other—not to her. Anne was never very approachable, and she had -long learned the value of her position in checking inconvenient -inquiries. Sweet-faced Margaret Blagge grieved silently, but she was -very young, and dared not speak, even if the exigencies of her post -would have allowed it. - -The Duke of York, after his exercise of authority and the message he had -transmitted from the King, said nothing. The time for confidence between -those two was long past, and though he secretly sympathised with his -wife in the step she had taken—his own subsequent action is warrant -sufficient for that—estrangement had become a habit, and the party wall -dividing husband and wife needed a stronger force still to throw it -down. Perhaps a word or two may have passed between the new convert and -Queen Catherine. It is more than likely, indeed, but the latter, timid -and shrinking, was not constituted to uphold any one, and besides, she -was far too much in awe of the King, too pathetically anxious to please -him, to be capable of running counter to any commands he might choose to -enforce. She could, and probably did, give approbation, sympathy, for -what they were worth, but of these Anne stood in no need, then nor at -any other time. Her position was one of “lonely splendour,” and she had -long learnt to stand alone and carve out her own path. No doubt the -lesson had been a bitter one, but she had learnt it once for all. During -this year, moreover—1670—the Duke was seriously ill,[259] and this fact -may have aided in the estrangement from his wife, or at any rate in the -withholding of complete confidence from him. - -Footnote 259: - - “Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm - Digby.” - -It was in other respects a momentous year for the whole royal house in -England, and that in a way to be presently described. An unexpected and -sinister development was to change in some degree the aspect of things. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE END - - -AS one writes these two simple words “The End” across the heading of -this final chapter, one is reminded to pause and reflect upon them. - -The end—of what? Of a brief but splendid pageant—of a heavy burden of -sorrow—of a life of resolute, indomitable pride? - -_Respice finem_—Consider the end. Surely, of all who have attained to -high places, or have longed after them, Anne Hyde should have taken for -her own this motto, should have read and marked and inwardly digested -it. - -And yet, would it have availed anything? Does it ever avail? - -When our eyes are dazzled by the light that for the moment seems -all-pervading, they cannot see the shadows that lie beyond, nor would -they even if they could. - -Here, then, we look on at the removal of a figure, concrete enough in -her own time and to her own contemporaries, but to us curiously elusive, -even visionary. It is strange, because for one occupying the position -she did for ten years of English history, Anne, Duchess of York, had -left personally a very slight impression on that position. The place -that knew her was so soon content to know her no more, the gap she left -was so quickly filled. - -It is not to her but to her children that we must look for any -consideration of her life as important. No doubt in the early days in -Flanders Edward Hyde watched the unfolding of his daughter’s keen -intelligence with hope and confidence as a factor in her future. It was -afterwards that her “vaulting ambition” was destined to “o’erleap -itself,” and so weigh her down under “the burthen of an honour into -which she was not born.” - -It does not need much reflection to point the moral here, it is obvious -enough and sorrowful enough. - -During the summer of the year 1670, the same year which saw the Duchess -of York’s conversion to the Church of Rome, the King’s only remaining -sister, the Duchesse d’Orléans, paid what proved to be her last and also -her most momentous visit to her native country, a visit that might have -been fraught with such disastrous consequences to England. It is not -quite apparent whether Henrietta herself fully appreciated all that her -mission entailed—the mission she accepted so light-heartedly at the -hands of her magnificent brother-in-law, the French king. She had never -displayed any great aptitude for diplomacy, nor indeed much interest in -such questions, but had been content to float on the surface of life -like an airy butterfly, a creature of sun and shower. This being so, it -was a very easy task indeed for Louis to use her as his tool and -complaisant go-between. Madame and her elder brother, we know, loved -each other very deeply; he—Louis XIV.—probably loved nobody at all, at -least this is the conclusion which seems forced upon us, therefore he -stood in the far stronger position. Madame believed, as it was easy to -make her believe, that in carrying out King Louis’ instructions she was -doing great things for France; that for her sake Charles II. must agree -to proposals of which possibly she did not fully grasp the magnitude, -but which tended to place England under the heel of her neighbour. It -must also be here borne in mind that Henrietta was to all intents and -purposes a Frenchwoman. She had been brought up from infancy in France, -and that country commanded all her sympathies and prejudices. Most -likely she regarded England as an alien country, which had slain her -father and driven her family into exile for years, and which would be -all the better for drastic treatment, if it happened to be inflicted. -Moreover, it was the excuse for a welcome excursion, a visit to her -brothers, a short respite from the society of Monsieur, which was now -always an infliction, a fact which can scarcely be wondered at. -Therefore Madame started on her journey in high spirits, in consonance -with the season of summer which was just now flinging its gifts over the -earth and shedding beauty in its path, the beauty of serene skies, of -waving grass, of radiant flowers. - -This visit of Madame’s was, it is true, to be but a flying one. She was -not even to come to London at all, and a plea was put forth for this -marked abstention which carries us back to the year of the Restoration, -and her mother’s bitter attitude towards the marriage of the Duke of -York. It seemed very evident that even now, at the distance of ten years -after that marriage, the haughty Stuart princess could not bring herself -to meet her English sister-in-law on equal terms. It was clearly -impossible, so we are told, that Madame should now come to London, “for -she will not yeild ye place to ye Dutchesse of Yorke, nor can it be -allowed that the Dutchesse of York should yeild it unto her.”[260] It -was the question fought for years before, to be revived anew, it is hard -to see why, on this occasion. However, on consideration a compromise was -finally arranged by certain wise counsellors, the method adopted being -that of transferring the place of meeting to Dover, where, fortunately, -it seemed that matters of precedence might, in a measure, be -conveniently waived, to the satisfaction of all parties therein -concerned. It was furthermore settled for the nonce by the decision that -the Duchess of York should yield the “pas” to Madame in “this Kingdome,” -because it was remembered that the Duke of Orleans had always taken care -to give it to his cousin the Duke of York when in France. - -Footnote 260: - - “Verney Memoirs.” - -So, this point being finally decided, the King and his brother set out -for Dover, there to meet their sister, and they were followed thither -later by the Queen and the Duchess of York. - -All the town proceeded there as well; that is, everybody who was -anybody. The wits and the beaux, the beauties of the Court, “the King’s -musicke” and the Duke’s players, “all the bravery that could be got on -such a sudden,”[261] grave statesmen and people who had nothing grave -about them, besides those who went frankly for amusement and no more. -The Dover road, the most famous road in the kingdom, which had known -through the far-back centuries the possessors of the most honoured names -passing in long procession to and fro, which had seen the victors and -vanquished of the hundred years’ war, was alive with travellers of all -conditions. Coaches, horsemen, pack-horses, waggons with provisions, -waggons with fine clothes, tramping beggars, itinerant musicians, broken -soldiers ready for any fray or wrangling for a groat. It was a -seventeenth-century Canterbury pilgrimage which yet lacked a Chaucer for -its worthy chronicler. - -Footnote 261: - - “Verney Memoirs.” - -Although Monsieur could not be said to display at this time any -overweening attachment to his wife, he apparently entirely disapproved -of this visit to England, the real object of which was concealed from -him, as he could not be trusted with any matter of importance, and it -was afterwards remembered that he said to some of his intimate friends -that he did not think the Duchess would live very long. Moreover an -astrologer is reported to have said that he (d’Orléans) would have -several wives, which prophecy was probably highly agreeable to him. He -accompanied Henrietta for part of her journey, however, joining her -before Dunkirk, from which port she embarked on the 24th May.[262] It is -pleasant to record that when Madame did meet the despised sister-in-law -at Dover, she was kind to her, in spite of the difficulty as to -precedence before noticed.[263] - -Footnote 262: - - Madame—Julia Cartwright (Mrs Ady). - -Footnote 263: - - _Ibid._ - -Many plans of pleasure were set on foot, possibly to divert attention -from the political business which was the real reason for Madame’s -visit. - -One day King Charles took his sister for an expedition to Canterbury, -where they saw a ballet and comedy, and were entertained at a collation -in the hall of St Augustine’s Abbey. Other diversions followed in due -course, helped by the radiant summer season which shed its own influence -on such merry meetings.[264] - -Footnote 264: - - _Ibid._ - -To many it was, no doubt, a halcyon time. The pomp and splendour, the -sparkle and gaiety of Whitehall were transferred to the ancient castle -on the beetling white cliff for the moment, and the centre and core of -everything, the chief luminary among many stars, was the fair princess -whose short life, even now drawing swiftly to its close, had known such -strange vicissitudes. Cradled in the very vortex of civil strife during -Essex’s siege of Exeter; brought up as a child, for a time, at any rate, -in grinding poverty, when she shared her mother’s dreary life of exile; -then, in early youth, the supreme jewel of the most brilliant Court in -Europe, its splendid king at her feet, she was now, though none could -have foreseen it, at the very threshold of her mysterious doom. Only a -few days in England, a few happy days to be remembered hereafter fondly -and regretfully by those who saw her then, and, her mission fulfilled, -the mission which, as has been said, she possibly did not fully -comprehend, Madame set sail on her return.[265] For the last time, if -either could have known it, she bade farewell to the brother whose -affection for her was perhaps the strongest and purest feeling of his -cynical, careless, insouciant nature. The letters he wrote to her -testify to this fact, invested as they are with a charm all their own, -and endorsed with a certain pathos, for “my deare, deare sister.” This -final parting off Dover was a sorrowful one to both. The King and the -Duke of York sailed for some distance with their sister before they -could summon resolution to tear themselves away, and when the moment of -farewell could no longer be delayed, the King held Henrietta long in his -arms, embracing her again and again, while she clung to him, weeping -passionately.[266] Alas for them! Only a week or two are to pass, and -she, the beloved princess, the English rose, as she might well be -termed, is cut down in her prime of beauty. The sombre picture of that -scene unveils itself before us, dark and portentous. Out of the agonised -death chamber at St Cloud comes the great Bossuet, who has borne the -Last Sacraments to the dying girl, and exhorted her to the very end. As -he sweeps past the shrinking, horror-struck crowd without, he surveys -them with unsparing contempt, but his funeral sermon in the Chapel Royal -rings down the centuries: “O nuit désastreuse, O nuit effroyable, où -retentit tout-à-coup comme un éclat de tonnerre, cette étonnante -nouvelle: Madame se meurt! Madame est morte!”[267] The suspicion of -poison always raised in those days on the occasion of an unexpected -death may be unfounded in this case; we cannot tell, but the attendant -circumstances were sad and ominous enough without that. The crass -stupidity of the doctors, the callous indifference of Monsieur, the -decorous sorrow of King Louis—once it would have been something more—all -make up the setting of a grim tragedy, only relieved by the courage and -resignation of Henrietta herself.[268] Over in England there was deep -and bitter grief at the news: Charles himself broke down into passionate -tears, but after a while the memory of Madame remained only as a fair -dream in the recollection of those who had known her. Nevertheless she -had performed the work which King Louis had given her to do in England, -and the secret treaty was concluded.[269] - -Footnote 265: - - “Histoire de Madame Henriette d’Angleterre,” par Marie de la Vergne, - Comtesse de la Fayette. “Madame étoit revenue d’Angleterre avec toute - la gloire et le plaisir que peut donner un voyage causé par l’amitié - et suivi d’un bon succés dans les affaires.” - -Footnote 266: - - “Charles II. and his Court.” A. G. A. Brett. - -Footnote 267: - - “Madame de Brinvilliers.” Hugh Stokes. - -Footnote 268: - - “Histoire de Madame Henriette d’Angleterre,” par Dame Marie de la - Vergne, Comtesse de la Fayette, 1742. “Dieu aveugloit les Médecins - . . . on la voyoit dans des souffrances cruelles, sans néanmoins - qu’elle parût agitée. . . . Le Roi voyant que selon les apparences il - n’y avoit rien a esperer, lui dit adieu en pleurant.” - -Footnote 269: - - “Histoire de Madame Henriette d’Angleterre,” par Marie de la Vergne, - Comtesse de la Fayette. “Elle se voyoit à vingt-six ans le lien des - deux plus grands Rois de ce siècle . . . . Le plaisir et la - considération que donnent les affaires se joignent en elle aux - agrémens que donnent la jeunesse et la beauté.” - -Charles was, when expedient, to profess the Roman Communion; he was to -join France, when so required, in a war against the United Provinces, -and for these services he would receive two million livres, and six -thousand men in case of any insurrection at home. Here, then, was the -kernel of the matter. Money was always lacking, the hunger for it -altogether unsated; even the portion of Zealand which was promised out -of the future conquest of the Dutch was little in comparison, and the -English King might have been induced to make further promises for a -corresponding amount of hard cash. - -The tragic death of the Duchess of Orleans was also destined at the time -to affect the family of her brother the Duke of York in quite another -direction. - -[Illustration: - - HENRIETTA, DUCHESS OF ORLEANS -] - -Duchess Anne has been accused, among other failings, of the unlovely -propensity of eating too much, and this habit was certainly inherited by -her younger daughter and namesake.[270] Whether from this, or from some -other cause, the Lady Anne of York very early contracted a weakness of -the eyes, a complaint, moreover, which lasted to the end of her life. -For the cure of this disorder the parents had taken the precaution of -sending the child to France, to the care of her grandmother the -queen-mother, who was then at Colombes. - -Footnote 270: - - “Lives of the Queens of England.” Agnes Strickland. - -Henrietta Maria, however, died there on 10th September 1669,[271] to the -deep grief of Madame her daughter, to whose family her young niece was -next transferred; and she remained with her for many months. Anne was -still at St Cloud at the time of her aunt’s sudden and tragic death, but -the small English princess became, on this event, a somewhat -inconvenient visitor in the disorganised household of Monsieur. She was -therefore sent back to England, after spending a considerable time in -France, a visit which was kept more or less a secret at home, on account -of the strong prejudices which existed in England against all French -influences. The experiment does not seem to have materially benefited -the child’s health, but at any rate back she came. Her parents -despatched Colonel Villiers and his wife to bring home their little -daughter, and the pair accordingly embarked at Rye for Dieppe on 2nd -July, thereafter reaching the former port on their return journey on the -23rd of the same month, but whether the weather was unfavourable or not, -the party did not land on English shore till the 28th.[272] There is a -piece of information which reads oddly in the light of subsequent -events: “Lady Anne was presented on her departure from France with a -pair of bracelets set with great diamonds, valued at ten thousand -crowns, by the French King.” One can fancy the child bridling over her -magnificent ornaments, and thinking how kind and splendid was the -stately, gracious King, with the long, dark eyes and perfect manner, who -clasped them on her chubby wrists as if she were a woman grown. - -Footnote 271: - - Madame—Julia Cartwright (Mrs Ady). Macpherson’s “Original Papers.” - -Footnote 272: - - “Calendar of Domestic State Papers.” 27th June 1670: “Their Royal - Highnesses have sent Col. Villiers and his lady to France to fetch - their daughter.” Colonel Villiers was of the Duke’s bedchamber, and - his wife governess to the children. - -Neither he nor any one else could have foreseen the fierce struggle of -forty years later, when the old feud would be revived, when the armies -of each were to be face to face on many a stricken field, when Blenheim -and Malplaquet and Ramilies were to bear a bitter significance in French -ears, and when the splendid Roi Soleil of these early days of glory -would perforce veil his lofty crest before the stubborn, invincible -troops of the little stolid English cousin. - -It was in the August following Madame’s aforesaid visit to England that -the Duchess of York wrote the paper setting forth the reasons for her -change of faith which has been previously given, but already it appears -that her health was declining. She had never really recovered from the -birth of her son Edgar,[273] as far back as 1667, and she gradually -became the victim of a complication of disorders. Probably the unwieldy -size of which her contemporaries speak was merely one symptom of failing -health, as she was only thirty-three. But the malady to which she -finally succumbed was the terrible scourge of cancer, which strangely -enough was destined many years later to carry off her successor, Mary of -Modena.[274] - -Footnote 273: - - “Lives of Queens of England,” Agnes Strickland. “Royalty Restored,” J. - F. Molloy. “She was ill for fifteen months.” - -Footnote 274: - - Burnet’s “History of My Own Time,” edit. 1766. “A long decay of health - came to a quicker crisis. All on a sudden she fell in agony of death.” - Some time during this year James himself was seriously ill. - -All through the autumn months of 1670 and the succeeding winter she was -ailing, often seriously, but her indomitable will upheld her to the very -end. She was, there is no doubt, brave and resolute, and through her -“long decay of nature” she contained herself with silent courage, for -she was never given to confide in those about her. - -Early in the winter a general suspicion of her new religious opinions -began to be circulated. She rejected the services of her chaplains[275] -without, however, giving any explanation of this conduct, further than -the state of her health “and business,” and it was in the month of -December, some months, therefore, after her actual reception into the -Roman communion, that the King spoke, as we have seen, on this subject -to the Duke of York. - -Footnote 275: - - “Life of James II.,” Rev. J. S. Clarke, from original Stuart MSS. in - Carlton House, 1816. “During all her indisposition of which she dyed - she had not prayers said to her by any of the chaplains.” - -Burnet says that the latter had by this time himself seceded, though not -formally, from the Anglican Church,[276] before his wife did so, and -that she had “entered into discourse with his priests.” But who these -could be is not apparent, and the story is improbable on that account. - -Footnote 276: - - Burnet’s “History of My Own Time.” (Supplement.) “He [the Duke of - York] was bred to believe a mysterious sort of Real Presence in the - Sacrament so that he thought he made no great step when he believed - Transubstantiation, and there was infused in him very early a great - reverence for the Church and a great submission to it; this was done - on design to possess him with prejudice against Presbytery.” - -And so we come to the last act of a brief drama, when the curtain was to -ring down for good. Much had been woven into that fabric, the warp of -sorrow and the woof of joy, but the gilded strands were parting asunder -now, and there would be no knitting together of them any more. - -The autumn after Madame’s untimely death passed over, and in the midst -of the growing rumours that the Duchess of York was tending towards -Rome, there arose another whisper to the effect that her bodily state -was daily growing more and more precarious. Margaret Blagge, as we know, -waited on her with tender and unswerving devotion, sorrowfully -recognising the lonely and forlorn condition of the proud princess who -had achieved so much—and so little.[277] Still, to their chagrin, the -chaplains were held at arm’s length by Morley’s once docile and obedient -pupil, and the Court wondered and discussed the question with growing -relish and excitement.[278] Christmas came and went, but for one at -least there could have been little question of the revelry belonging to -the season. The month of March drew on to its close, and Anne must have -been feeling at any rate somewhat better, for on the 30th we find her -dining at Lord Burlington’s house in Piccadilly and enjoying the good -cheer there provided for her (poor Anne!), for she “dined heartily,” but -after her return home she was taken suddenly and alarmingly ill. It is -possible, from the contemporary evidence, that the immediate attack was -some form of internal inflammation, but at any rate the gravity of the -situation was at once realised.[279] She had spent, as was her custom, -some three-quarters of an hour “att her own accustomed devotions,” but -in this extremity it seems that she did call for her chaplain, Dr -Turner. After a night of agony her director, Blandford, Bishop of -Worcester, to whose spiritual care Morley on his own retirement had -committed her, was also sent for, but of what really took place during -the next few hours the accounts given present many discrepancies. Over -from Whitehall came Queen Catherine, timid, gentle and compassionate, -and Burnet declares that as she arrived before the bishop, and would not -leave the sick room, the latter lacked sufficient courage and presence -of mind to begin prayers, and only “spoke little and fearfully.” - -Footnote 277: - - “Life of Mrs Godolphin.” John Evelyn, edit. by E. W. Harcourt, 1888. - -Footnote 278: - - Macpherson’s “Original Papers,” 1772. - -Footnote 279: - - Arlington, writing to the English Ambassador in Spain, said she was - afflicted with a complication of disorders. - -In the ante-room without, the Duke of York had awaited the bishop, and -there alone with him confided to his ears the secret so long concealed. -His wife, he said, had been reconciled to the Church of Rome, and had -entreated of him, that if any bishops should come to her in her -extremity, they would not disturb her with controversy.[280] - -Footnote 280: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts,” - John Heneage Jesse. “Life of James II.,” Rev. J. S. Clarke, from - original Stuart MSS. in Carlton House, 1816. “During all her great - indisposition of which she dyed, she had not prayers said to her by - either of the chaplains.” - -Blandford can scarcely have been surprised at the announcement, -considering the surmises which had for so long been afloat, and the -manner in which he himself and his colleagues had been kept at a -distance, but he collected himself to answer gravely and -compassionately. He said that he believed the Duchess, in spite of what -had occurred, to be in the fair way of salvation, seeing she had not -changed her religion for any hope of worldly gain nor advantage, but -from honest conviction. After these words, with the Duke’s permission, -the bishop passed quietly into the stately, beautiful room, where amid -the pomp of royalty, with brocaded curtains round her bed, the flicker -of wax lights in silver sconces only throwing the figures of the Gobelin -hangings on the walls into darker relief, lay Duchess Anne. By her side -sat Catherine the Queen, the golden beads of her rosary slipping one by -one through her shaking fingers, tears slowly stealing down her -cheeks.[281] Beyond stood Lady Cranmer, and leaning over the dying -woman, ready with the draught for the fevered lips, was Margaret Blagge, -her beautiful face alight with infinite love and pity. Bishop Blandford -drew near, and stood for a moment silent. Then as Anne’s dark eyes, -unclosing, met his, he said gently but distinctly: - -“I hope you continue still in truth?” - -Footnote 281: - - Burnet’s “History of His Own Time.” - -Possibly only the one word reached her failing senses, but she answered -brokenly with Pilate’s question: - -“What is truth?” - -“And then,” so the chronicle continues, “her agony increasing, she -repeated the word ‘Truth, truth, truth’ often.”[282] In that wild March -morning, when the wind beat and clamoured round the ancient palace of -the kings, those hoarse whispers fell awfully on the ears of the -watchers, though most likely she herself was unconscious of them. Of her -own kindred only her younger brother, Lord Rochester, came to bid her -his last farewell, refusing to believe in her change of faith, but the -elder, Cornbury, unable to forgive her apostasy, remained away. Of her -sister Frances there is at this time no record. - -Footnote 282: - - Burnet further says that the Queen stayed in the room of the Duchess - to prevent the prayers of the Church of England being read, but this - is improbable. - -But she who lay there was past all such things now, and the presence or -absence of kinsfolk was alike of little matter. - -Blandford “made her a short Christian exhortation suitable to the -condition she was in, and so departed.”[283] - -Footnote 283: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England under the Reign of the Stuarts.” J. - H. Jesse. - -Perhaps she received the last rites of Rome from Father Hunt, the -Franciscan, who a few months back had admitted her into that fold, but -even this is uncertain.[284] Another authority declares that there was -“noe Preest,” but that Father Howard and Father Patrick, who had come to -St James’s in attendance on the Queen,[285] were waiting in the -ante-room without, and they were probably praying for the parting soul. - -Footnote 284: - - James himself declares: “She died with great resignation, having - received all the Sacraments of the Catholic Church.” - -Footnote 285: - - “Verney Memoirs.” Sir William Denton to Sir Ralph Verney. - -Out of consideration for the King’s wishes, and in deference to public -opinion, the Duke of York, to whom it is impossible to deny some amount -of sympathy in this supreme moment, and the difficult part he had to -play, sent for the Bishop of Oxford, though by the time the latter -arrived, the Duchess was already unconscious. - -But in the interval there had been a last appeal, not indeed of -controversy, but of human affection, a spark from the fading embers of -the old, half extinguished fire, the love which had dared and risked so -much in other days. From the ante-room where throughout those dark hours -he had perforce to interview one and another, English bishop and Roman -priest, courtier and emissary of state, to answer inquiry, to dictate -fitting replies, James came quietly in once more, and mounting the dais, -stood looking down on the face which had once—yes, once—been so dear to -him, the face for which he had braved his mother’s wrath, his brother’s -arguments, the scorn of his followers. Anne’s eyes were closed, the long -dark tresses tangled over the laced pillow. The world was slipping -silently away, or rather it was she who was drifting out upon the waves -of death. The long-drawn breaths were growing fainter. A great longing -came over him, a longing for at least a final recognition—a word, a -look. He stooped over her, and spoke in hushed, unsteady accents from -dry lips. - -“Dame, doe ye knowe me?” - -There was no reply at once, and he repeated the appeal more than once -before, seemingly, it reached the deafened ears and failing -comprehension. At last she collected herself. - -With much strivings she said faintly “Aye.” After a little respite she -took a little courage, and with what vehemency and tenderness she could, -she said: “Duke, Duke, death is terrible—death is very terrible!”[286] - -Footnote 286: - - “Verney Memoirs.” Dr Denton to Sir Ralph Verney: “By ye best and - truest intelligence she did not dy a Papalina, but she made no - profession or confession either way.” _Cf._ “Sir John Reresby: - Memoirs,” ed. 1734: “This day dyed Anne, Duchess of York, with her - last breath declaring herself a Papist.” - -The voice, so greatly beloved in the past, if not in the present, had -for the moment summoned her back, but if it was only to utter those last -most pitiful words, it surely had been better speechless. The breathing -grew shorter—stopped. - -Then silence—and so vanished away Anne Hyde. - -Margaret Blagge, who as we know had nursed her “with extraordinary -sedulity” and had stood by her to the last, has set down this sorrowful, -awestruck record: “The Duchess dead, a princess honoured in power, had -much witt, much money, much esteeme. She was full of unspeakable -torture, and died (poore creature) in doubt of her religion, without the -Sacrament or divine by her side, like a poore wretch. None remembered -her after one weeke, none sorry for her; she was tost and flung about -and every one did what they would with that stately carcase.”[287] - -Footnote 287: - - “Life of Mrs Godolphin,” by John Evelyn, edit, by E. W. Harcourt, - 1888. - -This irreverent and revolting neglect must be ascribed to the ill -conduct of the servants and apothecaries, who according to custom were -responsible. Neither the Duke himself nor the ladies of the Duchess can -be blamed, for they would at once have left the room. - -The foregoing testimony, by the way, would seem to establish the fact -that Anne did not receive the consolations of religion from any priest; -and for the rest, Margaret’s words “none sorry for her” are borne out by -those of Burnet, who says she “died little beloved. Haughtiness gained -many enemies” and her “change of religion made her friends think her -death a blessing at that time.” - -It is a dreary epitaph to place on the tomb of Anne, Duchess of York. -Alas for her! The goodly fruit which her aspiring hand had plucked so -eagerly had long ago turned to ashes in her very grasp, and she had -drained to the utmost dregs the cup of disillusion. And thus we leave -her, as all must be left, to the infinite mercy of God. - -She died on Friday, 31st March 1671, in the thirty-fourth year of her -age. On the Sunday following, her body, being embalmed, was privately -buried in the vault of Mary Queen of Scots, in Henry the Seventh’s -Chapel of Westminster Abbey.[288] - -Footnote 288: - - “Memoirs of the Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts.” - John Heneage Jesse. - -Her little son Edgar, Duke of Cambridge, the last of her boys, followed -her on the 8th of June succeeding, and thus of her eight children only -Mary and Anne, both destined to be successively Queens of England, -survived their childhood. - -In the memoirs of his own life, written years subsequently, James II. -paid a full and generous tribute of respect to the memory of his first -wife, though, as we have seen, the early, passionate, imperious love had -so soon died out. - -Long afterwards, in the grey, weary days of exile at St Germain, when -there remained to him only the luckless heir to a vanished inheritance -and the winsome child Louisa, whom he called with such sad significance -his “douce consolatrice,” the thoughts of the banished King must -sometimes at least have travelled back to the storied past, to the days -of his strenuous if stormy youth, to his English wife, to the fair -little brood of children, of whom but two lived on to become the Goneril -and Regan of this later Lear. - -When his time came, and he, too, lay down to die in the hunting palace -of King Louis, the last Stuart king was laid to his rest, unburied, in -the Church of the English Benedictines in Paris, in the vain, pathetic -hope that some day he might yet repose among his kindred in the England -he loved so well. - -In the mad upheaval of the French Revolution ninety years later, his -bones, like those of the great lines of Valois and Bourbon, were cast -out in dishonour, and no man knows the place of his sepulture; but Nan -Hyde sleeps undisturbed in Westminster, among the kings to whose company -the passion of a prince had raised her. - - - THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - T. WERNER LAURIE’S 1^{s.}_{NET.} NOVELS - - --------------------------------------------------------- - -=THE METHODS OF VICTOR AMES= - - _By the Author of_ “THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN JOHNS.” - - 1s. net. - -Imbued with some of the principles of Machiavelli, possessed of enormous -wealth, distrustful of all passions that limit the pursuit of power, -courted by many women for his affluence and beauty, but courting rarely, -a legislator and controller of opinion through his organs in the Press, -ingenious, forceful, esoteric, humorous and shrewd, deserving the -venality of his contemporaries, developing a morality out of his -distaste for current conduct, helpful to those whom his _mæstria_ -defeats; Ames is a figure which is probably unique in fiction. - - -=THE KING AND ISABEL= - - _By the Author of_ “THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN JOHNS.” - - 1s. net. - -=THE WEANING= - - By JAMES BLYTH - - 1s. net. - -An exciting motor story, in which Mr Blyth presents a careful study of -the birth, development, and termination of one of those attacks of Calf -Love, or Sentimental Fever, to which every large-hearted boy of -education is subject. - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - ● Transcriber’s Notes: - ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. - ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. - ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only - when a predominant form was found in this book. - ○ Text that: - was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_); - was in bold by is enclosed by “equal” signs (=bold=). - ○ The use of a caret (^) before a letter, or letters, shows that the - following letter or letters was intended to be a superscript, as - in S^t Bartholomew or 10^{th} Century. - ○ Superscripts are used to indicate numbers raised to a power. 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