It had six brothers, four remarkable for several qualifications; the
eldest, Lord Montagu, a man of plain, downright English spirit, of
steady courage and a devout heart, a son of the Church of England, yet
so devout that he was by some reckoned among the Puritans.” He was a
great benefactor to the town of Northampton, (being Lord Lieutenant of
the County), and he bore such sway there, that “the multitude of vulgars
flocked about him when he came to town, as if he had been their topical
deity.” When he was taken prisoner on his road to London, he met my Lord
Essex at Barnet, who was proceeding with the army against the King. That
nobleman stopped his coach, intending to go and salute Lord Montagu,
who presently ordered his coachman to drive on, as this was no time for
compliments. When brought before the Committee of State, where he pleaded
nobly, the verdict was that he should be detained a prisoner, but that it
might be in his own daughter’s house. This he utterly refused, saying,
that if he deserved to be a prisoner, he deserved to be sent to a prison,
and that he would not be sent to the house of the Countess of Rutland,
which would be irksome to him, that lady being busy in the Parliament’s
cause—unless the warrant named her house as his prison; “whereat the
Countess was much disgruntled.”
Lord Montagu was accordingly conveyed to the Savoy, near the Strand, in
the suburbs of London, where he departed this life on the 15th of June,
1644. He was thrice married; first to Elizabeth, daughter and heiress
of Sir John Jeffrey, of Chitingley, Sussex, Knight, Lord Chief Baron of
the Exchequer, by whom he had an only daughter; secondly, to Frances,
daughter of Thomas Cotton, of Connington, Hunts, by whom he had a son who
died unmarried, Edward his successor, William, and the aforesaid Countess
of Rutland; thirdly, to Anne Crouch, of Cornbury, Herts, by whom he had
no issue.
Lord Montagu was grandfather to Ralph, first Duke of Montagu. He was
interred in Weekly Church, Northamptonshire, where a splendid monument
commemorates his many virtues.
_Mrs. Elizabeth Cromwell_:
BY WALKER.
HALF-LENGTH.
(Green Cardinal edged with Gold, fastened in Front with a
Jewel. White Satin Hood, White Tippet, Pearl Necklace.)
Born, ——. Died, 1654.—Daughter of William Stewart, Esq., through whom
she claimed distant kinship with the King of England. Widow of William
Lynne, of Basingbourne; married Robert Cromwell, Esq., by whom she
had four sons, of whom only one, Oliver, grew up to manhood, and six
daughters. On the death of her husband she continued the Brewery, out of
the profits of which and a scanty pittance of £60 a year, she gave her
numerous daughters a good education, and dowries on their marriage, “with
which they were not ashamed to ally themselves with good families.” Mrs.
Cromwell was indeed a most exemplary and loveable woman; of an angelic
temper and disposition, yet full of self-help, she retained the simple
tastes and gentle humanity which had characterised her in the Brewery,
at Huntingdon, when transplanted, by her son’s wish, to the splendour of
the Palace at Whitehall, where her life was fretted by her anxiety for
the safety of her beloved son. Oliver’s filial duty was undeniable: he
appreciated to the utmost his mother’s excellent qualities; and on her
death he caused her to be buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey,
though her tastes would have pointed to a quiet funeral, in a country
churchyard, where her remains would have been left unmolested. At the
Restoration her body was dug up, and with many others, cast ignominiously
into a hole.
In one of the many “Lives of the Protector,” the portrait at
Hinchingbrook is alluded to as most characteristic. “The small pretty
mouth, the full large melancholy eyes, the fair hair under the modest
little hood, the simple but refined dress with the one small jewel
clasping her handkerchief.” The same writer speaking of her says: “Her
single pride was honesty, her passion love.”
_William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury_:
A Copy of Vandyck in Lambeth Palace.
BY STONE.
THREE-QUARTER LENGTH.
Born at Reading, 1573.—Beheaded, 1645. Son of a clothier. Fellow of
St. John’s College, Oxford. He afterwards took Orders, and was very
vehement against the Puritans. Had many different livings; became
Chaplain to James I., whom he accompanied to Scotland. Became Prebendary
of Westminster, and consecutively Bishop of St. Davids, Bath and Wells,
and London, and subsequently Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury.
In 1622 he held a famous conference with Fisher the Jesuit in the
presence of the Duke of Buckingham and his mother, who were wavering
in their allegiance to the Protestant faith, and were fixed therein
by the eloquence of Laud. He was more than once tempted to abjure his
own religion by the offer of a Cardinal’s hat, but each time he gave
an emphatic denial. He was very strict in requiring the revision and
licensing of published books by high ecclesiastical authority, and
concerned in several prosecutions of the Star Chamber against Bishop
Williams, the master of Westminster School, &c.
When the Parliament of 1639 was abruptly dissolved, the odium of the
measure was thrown on Laud, and he was attacked in his Palace at Lambeth
by the mob. The execution of Strafford was the forerunner of his own;
he had made himself unpopular with the Nation and with the Commons, and
on the accusation of Sir Henry Vane, he was sent to the Tower in 1641,
where he was detained for three years and treated with much severity.
In 1644 he was tried, and though nothing treasonable was proved, a bill
of attainder was passed. He made an eloquent defence, but all in vain,
and he suffered death on Tower Hill in 1645, displaying great courage.
Clarendon says: “His learning, piety, and virtue, have been attained by
few, and the greatest of his infirmities are common to all men.”
Of all the Prelates of the Anglican Church, Macaulay says that Laud
departed farthest from the principles of the Reformation and nearest to
Rome. He hated Calvinism, he had a passion for forms and ceremonies,
disapproved of the marriage of ecclesiastics; all which opinions would
have made him detested by the Puritans, even if he had used legal and
gentle means only for the attainment of his ends. His understanding was
narrow, he had but scanty knowledge of the world under his direction;
every corner of the realm, every separate congregation, even the
devotions of private families were subjected to the vigilance of his
spies. Unfortunately for himself and for the country, the King was
influenced in all public matters by the counsels of the Primate.
_Robert Cromwell_:
BY WALKER.
HALF-LENGTH.
(Black Gown, White Collar, Black Skull Cap.)
Born, ——. Died, 1617.—The second son of Sir Henry Cromwell, Knight
(surnamed the Golden Knight) of Hinchingbrook, Huntingdon, by Joan,
daughter of Sir Ralph Warren, Lord Mayor of London. A younger son with a
slender pittance, he was, by the countenance of his brother, Sir Oliver,
made Justice of the Peace. He went, on his marriage, to live in the town
of Huntingdon, at a house which had been a Brewery for many years, and
the business of which he thought it prudent to continue with the help
and good management of his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of William Stewart,
of Ely, undoubted descendant of the royal line of Stewart; a connection
on which the Protector, with the inconsistency he often evinced in such
matters, prided himself highly. Robert Cromwell’s immediate ancestors
were of a Welsh family named Williams, one of whom married the sister of
Cromwell, Earl of Essex, Prime Minister to Henry VIII., whose son having
risen into favour at Court and received the grant of several Church lands
near Huntingdon, fixed his residence in that town, and assumed the name
of Cromwell. In a tournament at Westminster, on May Day, 1540, where Sir
Richard Cromwell had stricken down challenger after challenger in honour
of his King; Henry VIII., in high good humour, called out: “Formerly thou
wast my Dick, but hereafter thou shalt be my diamond,” at the same moment
dropping a diamond ring, which the knight picked up and restored to his
Majesty. “No,” said Henry, laughing, and placing it on his favourite’s
finger: “henceforth thou shalt bear such an one in the forejamb of the
demi-lion in thy crest;” and such a ring, says one of his chroniclers,
did Oliver wear when he entered the lists against his lawful sovereign.
“Mr. Cromwell and his wife,” we are told by the same biographer, “were
persons of worth, in no way inclined to disaffection, civil or religious;
they lived on a small pittance, and brought up their children well,
through the exercise of honest frugality.” Robert Cromwell died at
Cromwell House, Huntingdon, in 1617, and was buried at All Saints Church
in that town. His widow survived him 37 years.
PORTRAIT OF A DARK YOUTH IN ARMOUR: UNNAMED.
THREE PORTRAITS UNNAMED.
_Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland_:
BY SIR PETER LELY.
THREE-QUARTER LENGTH.
(Auburn Ringlets. Orange Satin Gown with Pearls. Right Hand
holding her Dress.)
Born, 1647. Died, 1690.—Elizabeth Wriothesley was the youngest daughter
of Lord Treasurer Southampton, by Lady Elizabeth Leigh, sole daughter
and heiress of the Earl of Chichester. Her eldest sister, Lady Audrey,
was betrothed to Josceline, Lord Percy, son of the tenth Earl of
Northumberland, but dying before her fifteenth year was completed, the
name of her sister was substituted for hers (by family arrangement) in
the marriage contract. In the year 1662, Elizabeth being then about
fifteen, and Lord Percy barely 18, the marriage was solemnised. The
bride’s sister, Lady Rachel Russell, observes it was acceptance rather
than choice; yet the union proved very happy. At first the young pair
were not much together; the bridegroom remained with his tutor, and the
bride with her parents, at Titchfield, in Hampshire; but in 1664-5, her
letters to Lady Rachel are dated from Petworth, where she was living
with her husband. She had a daughter born in 1666, and a son and heir in
1668; in 1669, another daughter, who died an infant. Lord Percy succeeded
his father in 1668, and the following year their son died, which made so
sad an impression on Lady Northumberland, then just recovering from her
confinement, that change of scene was considered necessary for her, and
she left England for Paris with her husband and the celebrated Locke (as
their physician), in whose care Lord Northumberland left his wife while
he proceeded to Italy. At Turin he was attacked by fever, and died in
the flower of his age, a brilliant future lying before him, with every
prospect of happiness.
Lady Northumberland remained at Paris, where Ralph, Lord Montagu, was
then Ambassador, and he soon became attracted by the beautiful young
widow, paying her gradual and delicate attentions; but it was two years
before he ventured to pronounce himself her ardent admirer. In the
winter of 1672 she went to Aix, where Montagu followed her. Madame de la
Fayette writes: “Je vous envoie un paquet pour Madame de Northumberland;
on dit que si M. de Montagu n’a pas eu un heureux succès de son voyage,
il passera en Italie pour faire voir que ce ne’est pas pour les beaux
yeux de la Comtesse qu’il court le pays.”
But it seems he followed her back to Paris, in spite of those
predictions. In another letter from Madame de la Fayette, she writes:
“Madame de Northumberland me parait une femme qui a été fort belle,
mais qui n’a pas un seul trait de visage qui se soutienne, ni oû il
soit resté le moindre air de jeunesse; elle est avec cela mal habillée,
point de grâce, etc.” She also alludes to her understanding, what Madame
de la Fayette said to her as if her knowledge of the French language
was limited. The same writer says: “J’ai fort parlé d’elle à Montagu;
il ne fait aucun façon d’étre embarqué à son service, et parait rempli
d’espérance.” (April 15, 1673.)
There were as usual fluctuations in his hopes and fears, the lady being
at one time jealous, we are told, of the Duchesse de Brissac, a former
“flame” of the Ambassador’s; but in 1673 they came to England, and
were privately married at Titchfield, Lady Northumberland’s paternal
home. Evelyn talks of her eight, or even ten years after this, as the
“beautiful Countess,” a testimony we accept more willingly than that of
the fault-finding Madame de la Fayette. She was in England in 1675, and
was at issue for some time with the Dowager Countess of Northumberland,
her mother-in-law, respecting the care and guardianship of Lady Elizabeth
Percy, the only surviving child and heiress of the late Earl; the subject
of the girl’s marriage, and the choice of a husband being a great bone
of contention. Lady Rachel Russell says: “My sister urges that her only
child should not be disposed of without her consent, and in my judgment
it is hard, yet I fancy I am not partial.” The old lady was triumphant,
however, and contrived to get the young heiress into her power, or rather
to assert her power over her fortunes, and Elizabeth Percy had the
strange fate of being three times a wife, and twice a widow ere she was
sixteen. She married, when only thirteen, Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle,
who immediately assumed the name and arms of Percy; but he died a few
months after his marriage, in 1680. The child-widow had then among many
other suitors, Count Königsmark, the celebrated adventurer, and Thomas
Thynne, of Longleat, to whom her grandmother hastened to betroth her,
lest she should show a preference for the foreigner. But before the
marriage could be actually solemnized, he was murdered in his coach at
the instigation of his rival; and the beautiful heiress married shortly
afterwards the sixth Duke of Somerset, surnamed the Proud.
The girl’s mother does not seem to have been consulted in any of these
matchmakings; her own married life was not a happy one. Montagu was
boundlessly extravagant; he was now occupied in building Montagu House
with his wife’s money; he was involved in political intrigues which
did not redound to his honour, and in 1678 he went to Paris on his
astrological mission, and renewed his loves and quarrels with the Duchess
of Cleveland and others. He returned to England, to involve himself in
fresh plots, and in 1680, accompanied by his wife, he went to Paris in
disgrace and pecuniary difficulties; circumstances not calculated to
improve a temper naturally irritable.
Lady Rachel Russell often speaks of her sister when in Paris; of that
lady’s sympathy with the Protestants after the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes; her anxiety on account of her daughter, Anne Montagu’s, health,
etc. A year afterwards she lost her eldest son, aged 12; and it must have
been a source of regret that she was not at hand to comfort Lady Rachel
in the hour of her sorrow, Lord William Russell’s execution taking place
while his sister-in-law was still in Paris. On Lady Northumberland’s
return to England, we hear of her at Windsor with her “lovely boy,” and
little Anne. On her husband’s creation as Earl, his wife dropped her
widowed title, and called herself Countess Montagu. After the Revolution,
Lord and Lady Montagu spent most of their time at Boughton, at which
place the latter died in September, 1690, aged forty-four.
Lady Rachel Russell speaks thus of her death: “She was my last sister,
and I loved her tenderly. It pleases me to think she deserves to be
remembered by all who knew her; but after 40 years’ acquaintance with so
amiable a creature, one must needs, in reflecting, bring to remembrance
so many engaging endearments as are at present embittering and painful.”
One son and one daughter survived; John, Lord Monthermer, afterwards
second Duke of Montagu; and Anne, mother to the Lady Hinchingbrook, by
whose Will this picture was bequeathed to her son, the fourth Earl of
Sandwich.
_Edward, first Earl of Sandwich_:
BY SIR PETER LELY.
THREE-QUARTER LENGTH.
(Buff Coat and Cuirass. Lace Cravat and Ruffles. Blue Sash
over the Shoulder. Broad Red Sash round the Waist. Right Hand
holding a Truncheon, which rests on the Mouth of a Cannon; Left
Hand on his Hip.)
_Ralph, Duke of Montagu_:
BY RILEY.
THREE-QUARTER LENGTH.
(Curled Wig. Loose Gown of Orange Silk.)
Born, ——. Died, 1708. The only surviving son of Edward, second Lord
Montagu of Boughton, by Anne, daughter of Sir Ralph Winwood. He was
educated at Westminster and on the death of his elder brother succeeded
him as Master of the Horse to Queen Catherine, Consort of Charles II.
He was sent as Ambassador to Paris, in 1669, for which office, says a
contemporary, he was more indebted to the partiality of the fair sex,
than to his own merits. He told Sir William Temple he was resolved to
become Ambassador in France, and Sir William asked him on what he founded
his hopes, as neither the King nor the Duke of York were attached to him.
“They shall act” said Montagu, “as if they were;” upon which Sir William
Temple remarks that his appointment was brought about by the favour of
the ladies, who were always his best friends, for some perfection the
rest of the world did not discover.
He was famous when in France, for the state in which he lived. “He
entered Paris,” (says Collins) “with a more than common appearance,
having seventy-four pages and footmen in rich liveries, twelve led
horses with their furniture, twenty-four gentlemen on horseback, and
eighteen English noblemen and gentlemen of quality in four rich coaches
with eight horses each, and two chariots with six, made as costly as
art could contrive.” The King and the Duke of Orleans received him with
great honour, and he was entertained both at St. Cloud and Versailles,
the fountains of which played in his honour; and it was here he imbibed a
taste for building and laying out gardens, which he afterwards indulged
to a great extent. The beautiful and youthful Countess of Northumberland,
who had lately become a widow, was residing in Paris, and as we mention
in the notice of her life, Montagu became her suitor, and eventually
her husband. They were married privately in England in 1673. After his
marriage he became a Privy Councillor and Master of the Great Wardrobe,
an office he bought of the Earl of Sandwich. He busied himself in
building on a magnificent scale, and found his wife’s money most useful
to him in carrying out his plans.
Although already rather in disrepute at Court, King Charles II. did not
disdain to employ Montagu in 1678 on a new, and in every sense of the
word, extraordinary mission to Paris. At that time there resided in the
French capital, an astrologer who had gained great credit by predicting,
not only the restoration of the English Monarch, but the exact date,
May 29, 1660, of his return to England, and that some time before it
actually happened. Charles, in consequence, had the firmest belief in
the wise man’s auguries, and he despatched Montagu on an errand to ask
his advice and predictions on some subject of political importance.
The Envoy-extraordinary sounded the Necromancer, and finding the black
art did not blind its professor to self-interest, the King’s messenger
offered the wise man a large bribe to shape his predictions according
to his (Montagu’s) directions; then, with an imprudence which was
inconsistent with his previous cunning, he went off to the Duchess of
Cleveland and confided his secret to her. But Barbara was angry with her
former admirer, and jealous of his admiration for her own daughter, and
she resolved to be revenged. Accordingly she wrote to the King and told
him the whole story. “Montagu,” she says, “has neither conscience nor
honour; he has told me several times he despises you in his heart, and
that he wishes the Parliament would send you and your brother to travel,
for you are a dull, ungovernable fool, and he is a wilful fool.” This
version of the story is taken from Algernon Sidney’s correspondence.
In consequence of this letter Montagu was recalled, and found himself but
coldly received at Court, and all hopes of a place under Government were
at an end. The ex-Plenipotentiary now threw himself into all manner of
contending intrigues of a political nature. He was accused of receiving a
large bribe from Louis XIV. to compass the impeachment and ruin of Lord
Danby (Treasurer) who was very obnoxious to the French Government, and
an enemy to the Roman Catholics; yet at the same time he took a prominent
position in the popular party. He was said to have been instrumental in
bringing over Louise de la Quérouaille, afterwards Duchess of Portsmouth,
and to have endeavoured to persuade her to use her influence with the
King to exclude his brother from the succession. Finally his vote for
the exclusion bill rendered him so obnoxious at Court, that he thought
it best to depart once more to Paris with his wife and children. Hence
he was summoned by a sad catastrophe, he had lent his magnificent house
in Bloomsbury to the Earl of Devonshire, whose servant, in airing one
of the rooms, set fire to it, and the “noble mansion” was burned to the
ground. The conflagration was witnessed by Lady Rachel Russell, who says:
“I heard a great noise in the square, and sent a servant to know what
it was, and they brought me word Montagu House was in flames. My boy
awaked and said he was nearly stifled, but being told the cause, would
see it, and so was satisfied, and accepted a strange bed-fellow, for the
nurse brought Lady Devonshire’s youngest boy, wrapped up in a blanket.”
The loss was computed at £30,000; but Montagu rebuilt it on a more
magnificent scale. Collins says: “It is not exceeded in London.”
Under William III. Montagu’s star was once more in the ascendant; he
being one of the Lords who invited over the Prince of Orange. In 1689
he was created Viscount Monthermer and Earl of Montagu, and attended
their Majesties’ coronation in his new dignity. In 1690, while engaged
in beautifying and laying out Boughton, his excellent wife, who called
herself Countess Montagu, died, but he soon gave her a successor. The new
made Earl was not content with his coronet, and coveted the “strawberry
leaves.” He applied to the King for a dukedom, mentioning among many
other cogent reasons: “I am now below the younger branches of my family,
my Lord Manchester and my Lord Sandwich;” also that he had taken to his
second wife, the daughter of the Duke of Newcastle; and above all that he
had been first and last to advocate the cause of William. “I hope it will
not be to my disadvantage that I am alive, and ready to do so again,
instead of having lost my head with Lord William Russell.” The King
refused the dukedom, but showed Lord Montagu much favour, and was his
visitor at Boughton, in Northamptonshire where the Court was sumptuously
entertained.
Collins says: “My Lord was content with his fortune, and would accept
no office save the one he had bought.” Of this he had been unlawfully
deprived by James II., who bestowed it on Lord Preston. My Lord Montagu
thought himself bound in honour to bring Preston to account, and when
the office was restored to him and considerable damages awarded, he was
so considerate of Lord Preston’s ill circumstances that he generously
forgave him not only the damages, but the costs of the suit.