It may, possibly, be thought unnecessary to prefix to this work a
biographical sketch of the persons whose careers are faithfully
related in it; and it may be considered an act of imprudence to place
the cold and measured statements of an Editor in juxta-position with
the nervous and glowing narrative of the amiable historian of the
lives of her husband and herself. The latter objection, however true,
ought not to prevent such remarks being made as may cause her labours
to be better understood, and more highly appreciated; especially, as
information can be supplied, and in a few instances, comments
submitted, which may render that justice to the writer it was
impossible for her to do to herself.
These pages will, however, contain a statement of the chief events of
the lives of Sir Richard and Lady Fanshawe; and although most of them
are mentioned in her Memoir, they are so frequently interrupted by
anecdotes and reflections, as well as by accounts of places and
ceremonies, that it is often difficult to follow her. This article may
then be considered as the outline of a picture, which is filled up by
a far abler and more pleasing artist; or, perhaps, it bears a nearer
resemblance to the graphic references which generally accompany the
descriptions of paintings, for the purpose of illustrating them.
The genealogy of the Fanshawe family is so fully stated in the Memoir,
that it is not requisite to allude to the subject, farther than to
observe, that Sir Richard was descended from an ancient and
respectable house; that many of its members filled official situations
under the Crown, and were honoured with Knighthood; that he was the
fifth and youngest son of Sir Henry Fanshawe, of Ware Park, in
Hertfordshire, Knight, by Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Smythe, Esq.,
Farmer of the Customs to Queen Elizabeth, the younger son of an
ancient Wiltshire family, and ancestor of the Viscounts Strangford;
and that his eldest brother was raised to the peerage by the title of
Viscount Fanshawe, of Dromore, in Ireland.
Sir Richard Fanshawe was born at Ware Park, in June 1608, and was
baptized on the 12th of that month. His father having died in 1616,
when he was little more than seven years old, the care of his
education devolved upon his mother, who placed him under the
celebrated schoolmaster, Thomas Farnaby; and in November 1623 he was
admitted a Fellow-commoner of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he is
said to have prosecuted his studies with success, and to have evinced
a taste for classical literature. Being intended for the Bar, he was
entered of the Inner Temple on the 22nd of January 1626; but that
profession ill-accorded with his genius, and he appears to have
selected it in obedience to the wishes of his mother, rather than from
his own choice. It has been supposed that he continued his legal
pursuits until her death left him free to follow his inclination to
travel; but this is not the fact, as he had returned to England before
her decease. At what period he abandoned the law is not known; but
about 1627 he went abroad, with the view of acquiring foreign
languages. Lady Fanshawe says that the whole stock of money with which
he commenced his travels did not exceed eighty-five pounds; that he
proceeded first to Paris, where he remained for twelve months, and
thence went to Madrid; and that he did not return to England for some
years. In 1630 he was appointed Secretary to Lord Aston's embassy to
the Court of Spain, in consequence of the information which he
possessed of the country; but in attaining that knowledge he spent
great part of his patrimony, which amounted only to 50 pounds per
annum, and 1500 pounds in money.
When Lord Aston was recalled, Mr. Fanshawe remained as the Charge
d'Affaires until Sir Arthur Hopton was nominated Ambassador to Madrid;
and he arrived in England in 1637 or 1638. For two years after his
return, he seems to have been in constant expectation of some
appointment, but his views were frustrated by Secretary Windebank. At
the expiration of that time, his eldest brother resigned to him the
situation of Remembrancer of the Court of Exchequer, but upon terms
which prevented its being of any immediate pecuniary advantage. The
Civil War, however, then broke out and being one of the King's sworn
servants, he attended his Majesty to Oxford, where he met the fair
author of these Memoirs.
Anne, the eldest daughter of Sir John Harrison, of Balls, in the
county of Hertford, by Margaret, daughter of Robert Fanshawe, of
Fanshawe Gate Esq., great uncle of Sir Richard Fanshawe, was born in
St. Olave's, Hart Street, London, on the 25th of March 1625. Of her
education and early life she has given a pleasing description, and,
until the Civil War, her family lived in uninterrupted happiness. Her
father having warmly espoused the Royal cause, he attended the Court
to Oxford, and desired his daughters to come to him in that city,
where they endured many privations, "living in a baker's house in an
obscure street, and sleeping in a bad bed in a garret, with bad
provisions, no money, and little clothes." The picture of Oxford at
that moment is truly deplorable, and the sufferings of the royalists
appear to have been very severe, but which she describes as having
been borne "with a martyr-like cheerfulness." The offer of a Baronetcy
to her father--the only return which it was then in the power of the
Crown to bestow, for the heavy losses he had sustained--was gratefully
declined on the ground of poverty. In 1644 important changes took
place in her family, or, as she poetically expresses it, alluding to
the state of public affairs, "as the turbulence of the waves disperses
the splinters of the rock," so were they separated. Her brother
William died in consequence of a fall from his horse, which was shot
under him in a skirmish against a party of the Earl of Essex the year
before; and on the 18th of May she became the wife of Mr. Fanshawe, in
Wolvercot Church, two miles from Oxford, being then in her twentieth
year, and her husband about thirty-six. He was at that time Secretary
at War, and was promised promotion the first opportunity. The fortune
of each was in expectation: they were, she says, "truly merchant
adventurers," their whole capital being only twenty pounds; and, to
preserve the simile, that capital was laid out in the articles of his
trade--in pens, ink, and paper. What was wanting in money was amply
supplied by prudence and affection; and there is no difficulty in
believing her assurance, that they lived better than those whose
prospects were much brighter.
Whilst at Oxford, in 1644, the University conferred upon Mr. Fanshawe
the degree of Doctor of Laws. In the beginning of March 1645 he
attended the Prince to Bristol, but in consequence of his wife's
confinement, she did not accompany him; and the circumstances of their
separation are affecting. She joined him in that city in May, at which
time he was appointed Secretary to the Prince of Wales, but in
consequence of the plague they quitted Bristol, in July 1645, and
proceeded with his Royal Highness to Barnstaple, and thence to
Launceston and Truro, in Cornwall. From Truro the Court removed to
Pendennis Castle; and early in April 1646 the Prince and his suite
embarked for the Scilly Islands. Great as their privations were at
Oxford, they were much exceeded by their sufferings at Scilly; and no
one can peruse the description of their voyage to and lodgings in that
island with indifference. To illness were added cold and hunger: they
were plundered by their friends in flying from their enemies; and to
add to the misery of their situation, Mrs. Fanshawe was very near her
confinement.
After passing three weeks in that desolate place, the Prince and his
suite went to Jersey, where they were hospitably received; and where
Mrs. Fanshawe gave birth to her second child. On the Prince's quitting
Jersey in July, for Paris, Mr. Fanshawe's employment ceased; and he
remained in that island with Lord Capell, Lord Hopton, and the
Chancellor, for a fortnight after his Royal Highness's departure, when
he and his wife went to Caen, to his brother Lord Fanshawe, who was
ill, leaving their infant at Jersey, under the care of Lady Carteret,
the wife of the Governor. From Caen, Mrs. Fanshawe was sent to
England, by her husband, to raise money: she arrived in London early
in September 1646, where she succeeded in obtaining permission for him
to compound for his estates for the sum of 300 pounds, and to return.
They continued in England until October 1647, living in great
seclusion; and in July in that year, whilst the unfortunate Charles
was at Hampton Court, Mr. Fanshawe waited upon him, and received his
instructions to proceed to Madrid. Mrs. Fanshawe states that she had
three audiences of his Majesty at Hampton Court, and her description
of the last interview with which she and her husband were honoured,
exhibits the injured monarch as a husband, a father, a master, a
sovereign, and a Christian, in the most pleasing light, and is ample
evidence of the natural goodness of his heart. "The last time I ever
saw him," she says, "was on taking my leave. I could not refrain from
weeping, and when he saluted me, I prayed to God to preserve his
Majesty with long life and happy years. He stroked me on the cheek,
and said, 'Child, if God pleaseth it shall be so; but both you and I
must submit to God's will, and you know in what hands I am.' Turning
to Mr. Fanshawe, he said, 'Be sure, Dick, [Footnote: That the Royal
family were accustomed to address Mr. Fanshawe in so familiar a
manner, appears from a letter from the Duke of York, afterwards James
the Second, dated at Paris, 18th November, 1651, to Sir Edward
Nicholas: "I have received yours of the 8th of November from the
Hague, and with it that from DICK FANSHAWE."--Evelyn's Correspondence,
vol. v. p. 188.] to tell my son all that I have said, and deliver
those letters to my wife. Pray God bless her! I hope I shall do well;'
and taking him in his arms, observed, 'Thou hast ever been an honest
man, and I hope God will bless thee, and make thee a happy servant to
my son, whom I have charged in my letter to continue his love and
trust to you;' adding, 'I do promise you, that if ever I am restored
to my dignity, I will bountifully reward you both for your services
and sufferings.'"
In the few days they passed at Portsmouth, previous to their quitting
England in October 1647, they narrowly escaped being killed by a shot
fired into the town by the Dutch fleet. From that place they embarked
for France, but returned to England, in April 1648, by Jersey, whence
they brought with them their daughter, whom they had left under the
care of Lady Carteret. In September Mr. Fanshawe attended the Prince
of Wales on board the fleet in the Downs, in which a division existed,
part being for the King and part for the Parliament. The Prince
resolved to reduce the latter to obedience by force, but a storm
separated the ships, and prevented an engagement. Three months
afterwards, Mr. Fanshawe went to Paris on the Prince's affairs,
whither he was followed by his wife; and they passed six weeks there
in the society of the Queen-Mother and the Princess Royal and their
suite, amongst whom was the poet Waller and his wife. From Paris they
went to Calais, where they met Sir Kenelm Digby, who related some of
his extraordinary stories: from that town she again went to England
with the hope of raising money for her husband's subsistence abroad
and her own at home. Mr. Fanshawe was sent to Flanders; and thence, in
the February following, into Ireland, to receive whatever money Prince
Rupert could raise by the fleet under his command, but that effort
proved unsuccessful. At her husband's desire, Mrs. Fanshawe proceeded
with her family to join him, and landed at Youghal after a hazardous
voyage. They took up their residence at Red Abbey, a house belonging
to Dean Boyle, near Cork, and passed six months in comparative
tranquillity, receiving great kindness from the nobility and gentry of
the neighbourhood.
Their happiness, however, was but transitory. On the 2nd of September
in that year Mr. Fanshawe was created a Baronet; and it is singular
that no other allusion should occur to the circumstance in the Memoir
than a notice of his having left the patent in Scotland before the
battle of Worcester.
The Queen received them at Paris with great attention; and after many
acts of favour, she despatched Sir Richard to the King, who was then
on his way to Scotland. Lady Fanshawe and her husband proceeded to
Calais, it being necessary that she should go to England to procure
money for his journey, and in the mean time he intended to reside in
Holland; but circumstances caused him to be immediately sent into
Scotland, where he was received with marked kindness by the King and
by the York party, who gave him the custody of the Great Seal and
Privy Signet. No persuasions could induce him to take the Covenant;
but he performed the duties of his office with a zeal and temper
which, we are told, obtained for him the esteem of all parties.
Lady Fanshawe continued in London, in a state of great uneasiness
about Sir Richard, having two young children to maintain, with very
limited resources; and to add to her discomfort, she was again very
near her confinement. She observes, that she seldom went out of her
lodgings, and spent her time chiefly in prayer for the deliverance of
the King and her husband. A daughter, Elizabeth, was born on the 24th
of June, and on her recovery she went to her brother-in-law's, at Ware
Park, where the news reached her of the battle of Worcester, on the
3rd of September; and after some days' suspense, she learned that Sir
Richard was taken prisoner.
She then hastened to town, intending to seek him wherever he might be;
but on her arrival she learned from him that he would shortly be
brought to London, and he appointed a place near Charing Cross where
she should meet him. Their interview lasted only a few hours; after
which he was conveyed to Whitehall, and was closely confined there for
ten weeks, expecting daily to be put to death. The manner in which she
went secretly to his prison at four o'clock every morning, and her
unwearied zeal to alleviate his sufferings, afford a beautiful example
of female devotion; and it was owing to her exertions alone that he
was ultimately released on bail.
Illness induced Sir Richard to go to Bath, in August 1652, the greater
part of the winter of which year they passed at Benford, in
Hertfordshire; but having occasion to wait on the Earl of Strafford,
in Yorkshire, his Lordship offered him a house in Tankersley Park,
which he accepted. His family removed thither in March 1652, and
during his residence there he amused himself in literary pursuits, and
translated Luis de Camoens. The death of their favourite daughter
Anne, on the 23rd of July 1654, at the age of between nine and ten,
made them quit Tankersley, and they proceeded to Homerton, in
Huntingdonshire, the seat of Sir Richard Fanshawe's sister, Lady
Bedell, where they resided six months; when he being sent for to
London, and forbidden to go beyond five miles of it, his wife and
children removed to the metropolis. Excepting a visit to Frog Pool, in
Kent, the residence of Sir Philip Warwick, they remained in London
until July 1656, during which time Lady Fanshawe had two children, and
her husband suffered severely from illness.
Tired of living in town, Sir Richard obtained permission to go to
Bengy, in Hertfordshire, where he and his wife were attacked with an
ague, which confined her to her bed for many months, and did not
finally leave her for nearly two years, when a visit to Bath perfectly
restored them both. The news of Cromwell's death, in September 1658,
which reached them whilst in that city, caused them to go to London,
with the hope of Sir Richard's getting released from his bail; and
under the pretence of becoming tutor to the son of the Earl of
Pembroke, whilst on his travels, he was permitted to leave England. On
his arrival at Paris, he wrote to Lord Clarendon, acquainting him with
his escape, and desiring him to inform his Majesty of the
circumstance. About April 1659, his Lordship replied that the King was
then going into Spain, but that on his return, which would be in the
beginning of the winter, he should come to his Majesty, who in the
meantime gave him the situations of one of the Masters of Requests,
and Latin Secretary.
Sir Richard Fanshawe then requested his wife to come to Paris with
part of his children, but her application for a passport was refused;
and she relates the ingenious manner in which she imposed upon the
Government, by obtaining a pass in the name of Anne Harrison; the
pretended wife of a young merchant, and altering the word to Fanshawe,
by which means she escaped to Calais, and joined her husband at Paris.
Charles the Second came to Combes, near Paris, on a visit to his
mother, in November 1659, where Sir Richard and Lady Fanshawe had an
interview with him, and were received most graciously, with promises
of future protection. Sir Richard being desired to follow his Majesty
to Flanders, he went thither in December, having previously sent his
wife to London for money, where she arrived with her children in
January 1660. Soon afterwards she followed him to Newport, Bruges,
Ghent, and Brussels, where the Royal family of England were residing,
by all of whom they were treated with kindness. After staying three
weeks at Brussels, Sir Richard and Lady Fanshawe went to Breda, where
they heard of the Restoration, at which place, in April, his Majesty
is said to have conferred on him the honour of Knighthood, [Footnote:
Biographia Britannica.] though the fact is not mentioned in the
Memoir.
On joining the King at the Hague, he promised to reward Sir Richard's
fidelity and sufferings, by appointing him Secretary of State; but
through the machinations of "that false man," as Lady Fanshawe calls
Lord Clarendon, the royal word was not fulfilled. When his Majesty
embarked for England, Sir Richard was ordered to attend him in his own
ship; and a frigate was appointed to convey his family. The morning
after Charles's arrival at Whitehall, Lady Fanshawe, with some other
ladies, waited upon him to offer their congratulations, on which
occasion he assured her of his favour, and presented Sir Richard with
his portrait set in diamonds. To the Parliament summoned immediately
after the restoration he was returned for the University of Cambridge;
and "had the good fortune," his affectionate biographer says, "to be
the first chosen, and the first returned member of the Commons House
in Parliament, after the King came home; and this cost him no more
than a letter of thanks, and two brace of bucks, and twenty broad
pieces of gold to buy them wine." To the jealousy of Lord Clarendon,
who was anxious to remove Sir Richard from about the King's person,
Lady Fanshawe imputes the circumstance of his being sent to Portugal
to negotiate the marriage with the Princess Katharine, to whom he was
charged to present his Majesty's picture; but this appointment is
strong proof of the confidence which was reposed in his discretion and
abilities. He returned to England in December, and during his absence
Lady Fanshawe remained in London, where she gave birth to a daughter
in January 1662. On the arrival of the Queen at Portsmouth, Sir
Richard Fanshawe was sent to receive her, and was present at her
marriage, the description of which ceremony is historically valuable.
Early in 1662 he was nominated a Privy Counsellor of Ireland: in
August he was again sent on an embassy to Lisbon, and was accompanied
by his wife and children. Their journey to Plymouth, their voyage,
their arrival at Lisbon, their reception at Court, and the city, are
minutely described. After a year's residence in Portugal, Sir Richard
was recalled: he returned to London in September 1663, and proceeded
to wait on the King at Bath, who was pleased to raise him to the rank
of a Privy Counsellor. In January 1664, he was appointed Ambassador to
the Court of Madrid, and having embarked at Portsmouth, with a
numerous retinue, on board a squadron on the 31st of that month, they
arrived at Cadiz on the 23rd of February.
Nearly the whole of the remainder of the Memoir is filled with an
account of their journey to Madrid, of their splendid reception, of
the manners of the Spaniards, of various places, and of public events
and ceremonies. These descriptions display considerable judgment and
quickness of observation, and contain some valuable information. Many
of the anecdotes which occur are interesting, and like every other
part of the narrative, they are told with a simplicity which renders
it impossible to doubt their accuracy.
At Madrid, Lady Fanshawe gave birth to her son Richard; and the prayer
which she breathes for his prosperity exhibits her piety and affection
in lively colours. Sir Richard Fanshawe went on a mission to Lisbon in
January 1664, and returned to Madrid early in March following. On the
17th of December 1665, he signed a treaty with the Spanish minister,
but the King refused to ratify it, and he was recalled, when the Earl
of Sandwich was sent to replace him, who arrived at Corunna in March
following. Previous to this circumstance, Lady Fanshawe intended to
return to England to see her father, who was on the verge of the
grave; but she then resolved to wait for Sir Richard's departure.
She was now, however, destined to experience the severest of all her
trials, in the death of her husband, who, after introducing Lord
Sandwich at Court on the 15th of June, was seized with an ague, and
expired on the 26th of the same month. [Footnote: According to the
inscription on his monument, he died on the SIXTEENTH of June; the
discrepancy arose from the difference in the style.]
No other language could convey an adequate idea of Lady Fanshawe's
feelings under her loss, than that in which she has expressed them;
and her address to the Almighty on her sufferings merits every
possible praise.
Some of Sir Richard Fanshawe's biographers have imputed his death to a
broken heart, in consequence of his being recalled; but this is a
gratuitous assertion, for nothing of the kind is hinted in the Memoir,
though the conduct of Lord Clarendon and others towards him is
severely commented upon. His letter to the King on the occasion is
preserved, from which it is evident that he felt his recall deeply,
but the gracious communication by which it was accompanied lessened
the severity of the act, and he seems anxiously to have looked forward
to his arrival in England to defend his conduct.
Lady Fanshawe resolved on accompanying her husband's corpse to
England; but, previous to her quitting Madrid, the Queen-Regent of
Spain offered her a pension, and promised to provide for her children,
if she and they would embrace the Roman Catholic faith; an offer,
which it would be an insult to her memory to attribute any merit to
her for refusing. Having disposed of her plate, furniture, and horses,
she left the Siete Chimeneas, in a private manner, on the 8th of July,
and observes, "Never did any ambassador's family come into Spain so
gloriously, or went out so sad." She reached Bilboa on the 21st of
July, where Sir Richard's corpse awaited her arrival, and remained
there until the 3rd of October. The mournful train then proceeded
towards England, by Bayonne and Paris, where they arrived on the 30th
of October. After an audience of the Queen-Mother, Lady Fanshawe set
out for Calais; and on the 2nd of November was conveyed to the Tower
Wharf in a French vessel-of-war. On the 26th, the body of Sir Richard,
attended by seven of the gentlemen of his suite, was interred in
Allhallows Church, in Hertford, whence it was removed, in May 1671, to
a vault in St. Mary's Chapel in Ware Church, where his widow erected a
handsome monument, with the following inscription to his memory:--