Several notices of Count Königsmark have lately appeared in "N. & Q.,"
Walpole's mistake having occasioned a question by MR. MARKLAND
respecting his identity. There can, however, be no doubt that the person
who was tried for being accessory to the assassination of Mr. Thynne in
1681-2, and whose trial is reported at length in the 9th volume of
Howell's _State Trials_, p. 1., was Charles John Count Königsmark, as
stated by MR. BRUCE in Vol. v., p. 115. of "N. & Q.," and whose
biography and genealogy are more fully given by J. R. J. in p. 183. of
the same volume.
In the Note on this subject by J. R. J. it is stated that "the most
mysterious episode in the life of this Count Königsmark was brought on
by his sueing for England's richest and highest heiress, Elizabeth,
daughter of Josceline, second Earl of Northumberland." This is perfectly
true; but the personal history of this lady, her connexion with
Königsmark, her imputed privity to the murder of Mr. Thynne, and the
savage allusion to these circumstances by Swift thirty years afterwards,
deserve a more particular notice.
Elizabeth, Baroness Percy, was daughter and heiress of Josceline, Earl
of Northumberland, who died in 1670. According to Collins (_Peerage_,
vol. iv. p. 185.) she was four years old at the time of her father's
death; so that she was born in 1666. In 1679 she was married to Henry
Cavendish, Earl of Ogle, who was only son and heir of the Duke of
Newcastle, and who died in 1680, before either party were of puberty to
consummate the marriage. In 1681 the Lady Ogle was married to Thomas
Thynne, of Longleat, in the county of Wilts, Esquire,--a gentleman of
great wealth, a friend of the Duke of Monmouth, and the Issachar of
Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel." Sir John Reresby, in his _Memoirs_,
p. 135., says "The lady, repenting of the match, fled from her husband
into Holland before they were bedded." Whether this elopement had any
relation to Königsmark does not appear: but a few months afterwards,
namely, in February 1681-2, Mr. Thynne was assassinated in the Haymarket
by foreigners, who were devoted friends of the Count, and who apparently
acted under his direction, or, at all events, with his acquiescence. The
Count was at that time a mere youth, and having been in London a few
months before Lady Ogle's marriage with Mr. Thynne, had then paid his
addresses to her. He returned into England about ten days before the
murder, and was in London at the time it was committed. In endeavouring
to escape beyond sea the day afterwards, he was taken in disguise at
Gravesend, brought to Westminster, and examined before King and Council.
Sir John Reresby says, "I was present upon this occasion, and observed
that he appeared before the king with all the assurance imaginable. He
was a fine person of a man, and I think his hair was the longest I ever
saw." He denied all participation in the murder, but he was committed
and tried with the principals, as an accessory before the fact; and
although acquitted by the jury, a perusal of the trial produces a strong
persuasion that he was privy to the purpose of the assassins. A fact
much pressed against him was his inquiry of the Swedish envoy, "Whether
or no, if he should kill Mr. Thynne in a duel, he could, by the laws of
England, afterwards marry the Lady Ogle?" a question which showed beyond
all doubt that he had in some form entertained a design against Mr.
Thynne's life, and also that the attainment of the lady was the motive.
But whatever may have been the intention of the Count, and whatever may
have been the nature of his intercourse with the Lady Ogle, it is quite
clear that they were not married. On the contrary, this lady of early
nuptial experience, and of romantic but somewhat suspicious
adventure,--who was married three times, and twice a widow, before she
was sixteen years old,--was married on the 30th of May, 1682, and within
four months after the murder of Mr. Thynne, to Charles Seymour, Duke of
Somerset. (Collins's _Peerage_, vol. i. p. 191.) Thus early practised in
_matrimonial_ intrigue, we find her thirty years afterwards the
accomplished organ of _political_ intrigue; the favourite and friend of
Queen Anne, and the zealous partisan of the Whig party. In that
character she became the object of Swift's pasquinade, the "Windsor
Prophecy," which, though aimed at the Duchess of Somerset, and the
destruction of her influence at court, recoiled upon the head of the
author, prevented the queen from making him a bishop, and banished him
from her favour for the remainder of her reign. The meaning of the
"Prophecy," and the keenness of its sarcasm, were of course readily
understood and appreciated by cotemporaries. Swift himself seems to have
been highly pleased with it. He says, in one of his letters to Stella,
"The Prophecy is an admirable good one, and the people are mad for it."
The above recital of the early history of the Duchess of Somerset will
render it fully intelligible at the present day. After mentioning some
incidents and characters of the time, the "Windsor Prophecy" ends thus:
"And, dear Englond, if aught I understond,
Beware of _Carrots_[3] from Northumberlond!
Carrots, sown _Thynne_, a deep root may get,
If so be they are in _Sommer set_.
Their _conyngs mark_ thou! for I have been told,
They _assassine_ when young, and _poison_ when old.
Root out these _Carrots_, O thou, whose name[4]
Is backwards and forwards always the same!
And keep close to thee always that name[5]
Which backwards or forwards is _almost_ the same.
And, Englond, would'st thou be happy still,
Bury those _Carrots_ under a _Hill_."[6]
[Footnote 3: Alluding to the Duchess of Somerset's red hair.]
[Footnote 4: Anna Regina.]
[Footnote 5: Lady Masham.]
[Footnote 6: Lady Masham's maiden name.]