The picturesque old brick gateway of St. James's Palace still looks up St.
James's Street, one of the most precious relics of the past in London, and
enshrining the memory of a greater succession of historical events than
any other domestic building in England, Windsor Castle not excepted. The
site of the palace was occupied, even before the Conquest, by a hospital
dedicated to St. James, for "fourteen maidens that were leprous." Henry
VIII. obtained it by exchange, pensioned off the sisters, and converted
the hospital into "a fair mansion and park," in the same year in which he
was married to Anne Boleyn, who was commemorated here with him in
love-knots, now almost obliterated, upon the side doors of the gateway,
and in the letters "H.A." on the chimney-piece of the presence-chamber or
tapestry room. Holbein is sometimes said to have been the king's architect
here, as he was at Whitehall. Henry can seldom have lived here, but hither
his daughter, Mary I., retired, after her husband Philip left England for
Spain, and here she died, November 17, 1558.
James I., in 1610, settled St. James's on his eldest son, Prince Henry,
who kept his court here for two years with great magnificence, having a
salaried household of no less than two hundred and ninety-seven persons.
Here he died in his nineteenth year, November 6, 1612. Upon his death, St.
James's was given to his brother Charles, who frequently resided here
after his accession to the throne, and here Henrietta Maria gave birth to
Charles II., James II., and the Princess Elizabeth. In 1638 the palace was
given as a refuge to the queen's mother, Marie de Medici, who lived here
for three years, with a pension of £3,000 a month! Hither Charles I. was
brought from Windsor as the prisoner of the Parliament, his usual
attendants, with one exception, being debarred access to him, and being
replaced by common soldiers, who sat smoking and drinking even in the
royal bedchamber, never allowing him a moment's privacy, and hence he was
taken in a sedan chair to his trial at Whitehall.
On the following day the king was led away from St. James's to the
scaffold. His faithful friends, Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, the Duke of
Hamilton, and Lord Capel were afterward imprisoned in the palace and
suffered like their master.
Charles II., who was born at St. James's (May 29, 1630), resided at
Whitehall, giving up the palace to his brother, the Duke of York (also
born here, October 25, 1633), but reserving apartments for his mistress,
the Duchess of Mazarin, who at one time resided there with a pension of
£4,000 a year. Here Mary II. was born, April 30, 1662; and here she was
married to William of Orange, at eleven at night, November 4, 1677. Here
for many years the Duke and Duchess of York secluded themselves with their
children, in mourning and sorrow, on the anniversary of his father's
murder. Here also Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, died, March 31, 1671,
asking, "What is truth?" of Blandford, Bishop of Worcester, who came to
visit her.
In St. James's Palace also, James's second wife, Mary of Modena, gave
birth to her fifth child, Prince James Edward ("the Old Pretender") on
June 10, 1688.
It was to St. James's that William III. came on his first arrival in
England, and he frequently resided there afterward, dining in public, with
the Duke of Schomberg seated at his right hand and a number of Dutch
guests, but on no occasion was any English gentleman invited. In the
latter part of William's reign the palace was given up to the Princess
Anne, who had been born there February 6, 1665, and married there to
Prince George of Denmark July 28, 1683. She was residing here when Bishop
Burnet brought her the news of William's death and her own accession.
George I., on his arrival in England, came at once to St. James's. "This
is a strange country," he remarked afterward; "the first morning after my
arrival at St. James's I looked out of the window, and saw a park with
walks, and a canal, which they told me were mine. The next day Lord
Chetwynd, the ranger of my park, sent me a fine brace of carp out of my
canal; and I was told I must give five guineas to Lord Chetwynd's servant
for bringing me my own carp, out of my own canal, in my own park."
The Duchess of Kendal, the king's mistress, had rooms in the palace, and,
toward the close of his reign, George I. assigned apartments there on the
ground floor to a fresh favorite, Miss Anne Brett. When the king left for
Hanover, Miss Brett had a door opened from her rooms to the royal gardens,
which the king's granddaughter, Princess Anne, who was residing in the
palace, indignantly ordered to be walled up. Miss Brett had it opened a
second time, and the quarrel was at its height when the news of the king's
death put an end to the power of his mistress. With the accession of
George II. the Countesses of Yarmouth and Suffolk took possession of the
apartments of the Duchess of Kendal. As Prince of Wales, George II. had
resided in the palace till a smoldering quarrel with his father came to a
crisis over the christening of one of the royal children, and the next day
he was put under arrest, and ordered to leave St. James's with his family
the same evening. Wilhelmina Caroline of Anspach, the beloved queen of
George II., died in the palace, November 20, 1737, after an agonizing
illness, endured with the utmost fortitude and consideration for all
around her.
Of the daughters of George II. and Queen Caroline, Anne, the eldest, was
married at St. James's to the Prince of Orange, November, 1733, urged to
the alliance by her desire for power, and answering to her parents, when
they reminded her of the hideous and ungainly appearance of the
bridegroom, "I would marry him, even if he were a baboon!" The marriage,
however, was a happy one, and a pleasant contrast to that of her younger
sister Mary, the king's fourth daughter, who was married here to the
brutal Frederick of Hesse Cassel, June 14, 1771. The third daughter,
Caroline, died at St. James's, December 28, 1757, after a long seclusion
consequent upon the death of John, Lord Harvey, to whom she was
passionately attached.
George I. and George II. used, on certain days to play at Hazard at the
grooms' postern at St. James's, and the name "Hells," as applied to modern
gaming-houses is derived from that given to the gloomy room used by the
royal gamblers.
The northern part of the palace, beyond the gateway (inhabited in the
reign of Victoria by the Duchess of Cambridge), was built for the marriage
of Frederick Prince of Wales.
The State Apartments (which those who frequent levees and drawing-rooms
have abundant opportunities of surveying) are handsome, and contain a
number of good royal portraits.
The Chapel Royal, on the right on entering the "Color Court," has a carved
and painted ceiling of 1540. Madame d'Arblay describes the pertinacity of
George III. in attending service here in bitter November weather, when the
queen and court at length left the king, his chaplain, and equerry "to
freeze it out together."...
When Queen Caroline (wife of George II.) asked Mr. Whiston what fault
people had to find with her conduct, he replied that the fault they most
complained of was her habit of talking in chapel. She promised amendment,
but proceeding to ask what other faults were objected to her, he replied,
"When your Majesty has amended this I'll tell you of the next."
It was in this chapel that the colors taken from James II. at the Battle
of the Boyne were hung up by his daughter Mary, an unnatural exhibition of
triumph which shocked the Londoners. Besides that of Queen Anne, a number
of royal marriages have been solemnized here; those of the daughters of
George II., of Frederick Prince of Wales to Augusta of Saxe Cobourg, of
George IV. to Caroline of Brunswick, and of Queen Victoria to Prince
Albert.
The Garden at the back of St. James's Palace has a private entrance to the
Park. It was as he was alighting from his carriage here, August 2, 1786,
that George III. was attacked with a knife by the insane Margaret
Nicholson. "The bystanders were proceeding to wreak summary vengeance on
the (would-be) assassin, when the King generously interfered in her
behalf. 'The poor creature,' he exclaimed, 'is mad: do not hurt her; she
has not hurt me.' He then stept forward and showed himself to the
populace, assuring them that he was safe and uninjured."
LITERARY SHRINES OF LONDON [Footnote: From "Shakespeare's England." By
arrangement with the publishers, Moffat, Yard & Co. Copyright by William
Winter, 1878-1910.]