1624-1625.
THE REMARKS OF SIR HENRY WOTTON UPON BUCKINGHAM’S UNINTERRUPTED
PROSPERITY DURING THE REIGN OF JAMES--HIS MOST PERILOUS TIME YET TO
COME--THE CHARACTER OF CHARLES DIFFICULT TO MANAGE--HIS AFFECTIONS
DIVIDED--REQUEST OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL REGARDING THE LATE KING’S
FUNERAL AND THE YOUNG KING’S MARRIAGE--GOOD TASTE DISPLAYED BY
CHARLES IN HIS CONDUCT AT THE FUNERAL--THE INFLUENCE OF BUCKINGHAM
STILL PARAMOUNT--ROGER COKE’S REMARK UPON KING JAMES’S REGRET ON
OBSERVING THAT HIS SON WAS OVERRULED BY THE DUKE--THE THREE GREAT
KINGDOMS OF EUROPE AT THIS PERIOD RULED BY FAVOURITES--THE MARRIAGE
OF CHARLES AND HENRIETTA MARIA--MOTIVE ATTRIBUTED TO
BUCKINGHAM--PRELIMINARY STEPS--LETTER FROM LORD KENSINGTON TO THE
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM DETAILING HIS INTERVIEW WITH THE
QUEEN-MOTHER--DESCRIPTION OF THE YOUNG PRINCESS--THE DUKE PREPARES
FOR HIS JOURNEY INTO FRANCE TO FETCH HOME THE BRIDE--THE EXPENSE OF
HIS MISSION OBJECTED TO BY THE NATION--THE TWO AMBASSADORS
DESCRIBED--RICH--LORD KENSINGTON, FIRST EARL OF HOLLAND--HIS BEAUTY
OF PERSON, ADDRESS, AND EARLY FAVOUR AT THE COURT OF JAMES--HIS
RESTING SOLELY UPON BUCKINGHAM--HIS MARRIAGE WITH THE DAUGHTER OF
SIR WALTER COKE, THE OWNER OF THE MANOR OF KENSINGTON--THE EARL OF
HOLLAND REGARDED BY SOME AS A RIVAL TO BUCKINGHAM--JAMES RELIED MORE
ON THE EARL OF CARLISLE--CHARACTER OF THE TWO NOBLEMEN BY BISHOP
HACKET--SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEWS ON THE PART OF LORD HOLLAND WITH MARIE
DE MEDICI--HER DISPOSITION TO FAVOUR CHARLES AS A SUITOR TO HER
DAUGHTER--ANECDOTE OF HENRIETTA MARIA AND OF CHARLES’S
PORTRAIT--ENCOMIUMS ON HENRIETTA--THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE--HER
INFLUENCE OVER ANNE OF AUSTRIA--HER SPLENDOUR--RESENTMENT OF THE
COUNT DE SOISSONS ON ACCOUNT OF THE MARRIAGE TREATY WITH
ENGLAND--THE WILLINGNESS EVINCED BY HENRIETTA MARIA TO THE
MARRIAGE--LORD KENSINGTON’S FLATTERY OF THE QUEEN-MOTHER--THEIR
CONVERSATIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE SPANISH MATCH--THE MARRIAGE
FINALLY CONCLUDED--CHARLES’S CONDUCT TO THE RECUSANTS REGARDED AS A
PROOF OF HIS AVERSION TO CATHOLIC HOPES.
=CHAPTER IV.=
1624-1625.
It is remarked by Sir Henry Wotton, that “a long course of calm and
smooth prosperity” had been enjoyed by the Duke of Buckingham under the
sway of James I. “I mean,” adds that writer, “long for the ordinary life
of favour, and the more notable, because it had been without any visible
eclipse or wane in himself, amid divers variations in others.”
Villiers had witnessed the disgrace of Somerset, the degradation of
Bacon, the execution of Ralegh, the fall of Coke, without experiencing,
in his own fortunes, any symptoms of decline, or knowing more than a
temporary displeasure towards himself in the mind of his sovereign.
But the more perilous part of his career was yet to come; when he had to
deal with a young prince, whose affections were not undivided, but were
liable to an influence foreign to that of his early friend and companion
in travel. He had to contend with a character full of generous impulses,
but strongly marked by obstinacy in some points, and by weakness of
purpose in others. He had also to contend with the future bride of his
enamoured sovereign, and that bride a woman of no ordinary
determination, and of a sagacity sufficient, if not to guide her right,
fully to comprehend the assailable points in the conduct of another.
It was soon remarked that the influence which had predominated during
the last reign was hereafter to prevail; for Charles, as an historian
remarks, had been linked to the Duke of Buckingham in his father’s
life-time, “and now continued to receive him into an admired intimacy
and dearness, making him partake of all his counsels and cares, and
chief conductor of his affairs; an example rare in this country, to be
the favourite of two succeeding princes.”[172]
Footnote 172:
Rushworth, vol. i., p. 167.
According to another writer, James had perceived with sorrow the sway
obtained by Buckingham over Charles. “Before he died,” thus writes Roger
Coke, "he saw his son overruled by his favourite, against his
determinate will and pleasure, and the Prince’s own honour and interest,
which was a great mortification to him, and which he often complained
of, but had not courage to redress."[173] To this influence, Coke
attributed all the internal feuds, jealousies, and discords of the
nation, and the fatal catastrophe which closed both the career of the
Favourite and that of his royal master.
Footnote 173:
Coke’s Detection, vol i., p. 182.
It was a singular coincidence that the three great kingdoms of Europe
were governed at this time by young Kings, or rather, virtually, by
their favourites. France, in the reign of Louis the XIII., was governed
by Richelieu; Spain, in that of Philip the IV., by Olivares; England by
Buckingham; “and this,” adds the same historian, “Europe reckoned in
those times amidst its unhappy destiny.” Immediately after the funeral
of the late king, the marriage of Charles to Henrietta Maria--a union
fraught with evils eventually, and replete with early discomfort--was
eagerly anticipated both by the Monarch and his favourite. The
impatience of Charles to welcome the young Princess as his bride was
ascribed to the favourable impression which her youthful loveliness had
produced upon his imagination, when he had seen her himself, incognito,
two years previously in passing through Paris. But when it is remembered
that, after that brief interview, he had been enamoured of the loving
Infanta, it will be readily supposed that the influence of persuasion
was employed in advancing this ill-starred marriage. It was attributed,
indeed, to the rivalry and hatred between Buckingham and Olivares, which
had succeeded their professions of amity, and to the eager desire for an
alliance with France, England being during the first fifteen years of
Charles’s reign, as Coke expressed it, “perfectly French.”
“The Spanish wooing,” observes Miss Strickland, “certainly smoothed the
way for the marriage of Charles and Henrietta. It had accustomed the
English people to the idea of a Catholic Queen.”[174] The prepossessions
of the party mainly interested in the match might indeed easily be
gained over by the reputed graces and acquirements of the French
Princess. Inheriting from her mother’s family a taste for the fine arts,
Henrietta’s musical acquirements were considerable. Her voice was by
nature so sweet and powerful, that if she had not been a queen, she
might have been, as Disraeli observes, “Prima Donna of Europe.” She had
learned to dance with grace, and became, even during her childhood, a
frequent performer in the court ballets, which, with other displays and
festivities, are said to have interrupted the education of the young
Princess, and to have prevented her from receiving a solid course of
instruction.
Footnote 174:
Lives of the Queens of England, vol. viii., p. 13.
Two noblemen, one of them the peculiar favourite and creature of the
Duke of Buckingham, had been sent during the previous year to negotiate
the marriage. Of these the most able and least scrupulous was Henry
Rich, created first Baron Kensington, and afterwards Earl of Holland,
who is described as having been of a lovely and winning presence, and of
gentle conversation. The younger son of a noble house, the obloquy which
was attached to his birth, which was supposed to be illegitimate,[175]
had kept Rich, in early life, humble. He had adopted the profession of
arms, and made several campaigns in the Low Countries. Happening, as was
the custom of English volunteers, to visit England during the winter,
the youth had been introduced at the Court of James in the dawn of
Buckingham’s favour. He shortly made himself acceptable to the
Favourite, for he was subtle, discerning and artful. He soon, therefore,
laid aside all thoughts of becoming a soldier, but took every means of
endearing himself to Buckingham, carefully avoiding all suspicion that
the King had any kindness for him, but appearing to rest solely upon the
Favourite, “whose creature” he desired to be considered; “and he
prospered,” remarks Lord Clarendon, “so well in that pretence, that the
King scarcely made more haste to absolve the debt, than the Duke did to
promote the other.”[176] Under such auspices, the Earl of Holland had
risen soon to greatness.
Footnote 175:
His mother, the Countess of Warwick, lived for some time with, and
afterwards married, the Earl of Devonshire.
Footnote 176:
On the 24th of September, 1624.--Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion,
vol. i., p. 61.
A wealthy marriage with the heiress of Sir Walter Coke brought him,
among other sources of wealth, the Manor of Kensington, and made him the
owner of Holland House, built by his father-in-law in 1607, but greatly
enlarged and embellished. Through the influence of Buckingham, he had
not only been created Baron of Kensington, but placed about the person
of the Prince of Wales, a step of much hazard, as the Favourite was, at
that time, scarcely certain of the favour of Charles to himself.[177]
Holland was sent to Spain before the Prince and the Duke, so that he had
acquired an insight, not only into the politics of that court, but into
the character of those with whom he had to deal, whose foibles were, as
he conceived, to contribute some of the stepping-stones to his own
fortune.
Footnote 177:
Brydges’s Peers of James I., p. 385. Also Clarendon, vol. i., p. 62.
The Earl of Holland had had, says Bishop Hacket, “an amorous temper and
a wise head, and could court it as smoothly as any man with the French
ladies; and made so fortunate an account into England, after three
months of his introductions, that he saw no fear of denial in the suit,
nor of superiority in the articles.”[178] But James, wisely relying less
upon the crafty arts of Holland, than upon the integrity of the Earl of
Carlisle, had sent that nobleman afterwards, joining him in the same
commission with Holland. “They were,” added Bishop Hacket, “peers of the
best lustre in our court, elegant in their persons, habit, and language,
and, by their nearness to King James, apt scholars to learn the
principles of wisdom, and the fitter to improve their instructions to
honour and safety.”[179]
Footnote 178:
Life of Lord Keeper Williams, 209.
Footnote 179:
Ibid.
The Earl of Holland soon discovered that in the queen-mother, Marie de
Medici, the widow of Henry the Great, alone centred the real sway in
France at that period,[180] unhappily for the young Prince, her son, who
crouched beneath her rule and that of Richelieu. During frequent
interviews at the Louvre, he gained from her a promise of assistance;
this was even before the return of Charles and Buckingham from Spain, as
the postscript of a letter from the Earl of Holland, lately created Earl
of Kensington, dated Feb. 26, 1624, and addressed to Charles, certifies.
“The obligations you have unto this young Queen (Anne of Austria) are
strange, for with the same affections that the Queen, your sister, would
do, she asks of you, with all the expressions that are possible of joy,
for your safe return out of Spain, and told me that she durst say you
were weary of being there, and so should she, though a Spaniard; though
I find she gives over all thought of your alliance with her sister. Sir,
you have the fortune to have respects put upon you unlooked for; for, as
in Spain the Queen there did you good offices, so I find will this sweet
Queen do, who said she was sorry when you saw them practise their
masques, that madam, her sister[181] (whom she dearly loves), was seen
to so much disadvantage by you; to be seen afar off and in a dark room,
whose person and face hath most loveliness to be considered nearly. She
made me show her your picture, the which she let the ladies see, with
infinite commendations of your person, saying she hoped some good
occasion might bring you hither, that they might see you like
yourself.”[182]
Footnote 180:
Cabala.--Letter from Lord Kensington to the Duke of Buckingham, vol.
i., p. 286.
Footnote 181:
Henrietta Maria.
Footnote 182:
Cabala.--Letter from Lord Kensington to the Prince p. 287.
“The French match,” according to another eyewitness, “went on by fits;”
the Earl of Carlisle growing so weary of frivolous objections and delays
that he wished to return home. “The young lady,” adds the same
informant, “is forward, and this week sent one over with her picture to
the Prince, and where any rubb or slip comes in the way, she grows
melancholique and keeps her chamber.”[183] Nevertheless, even in this
early stage of the business, we find a letter from King James to the
Duke of Buckingham, commanding him to put the royal navy into readiness
“to bring over the Princess Henrietta.”[184]
Footnote 183:
Mr. Chamberlain to Sir D. Carleton. State Paper Office. Dated 24th
October, 1624.
Footnote 184:
State Paper Office. Dated Nov. 1, 1624.
Shortly afterwards, Lord Kensington wrote again, giving Charles, whom he
addresses as the “most complete young Prince and person in the world,”
the flattering intelligence that the fair Henrietta had expressed a
passionate desire to see his picture, “the shadow of that person so
honoured,” yet knew not “the means,” adds the ambassador, “to compass
it, it being worn about my neck; for though others, as the Queen and
Princesses, would open it and consider it, which even brought forth
admiration from them, yet durst not this poor young lady look any
otherwise on it than afar off, whose heart was nearer it than any of the
others that did most gaze upon it.” Resolved, however, to behold the
portrait of her royal suitor, Henrietta desired the gentlewoman in whose
house the ambassador was lodged, and who was a former servant of hers,
to borrow the picture secretly, assigning as an excuse that "she could
not want that curiosity, as well as others, towards a person of the
Prince’s infinite reputation." As soon as she saw her emissary enter her
room, the Princess retired into her cabinet, calling her in, “where,”
says Holland, “she opened the picture in such haste as shewed a picture
of her passion, blushing in the instant at her own guiltiness. She kept
it an hour in her hands, and when she returned it she gave it many
praises of your person.” “Sir,” continues the ambassador, well
comprehending the gallant and delicate nature of him whom he addressed,
"this is a business fit for your secrecy, as I know it shall never go
farther than unto the King your father, my Lord of Buckingham, and my
Lord of Carlisle’s knowledge. A tenderness in this is honourable; for I
would rather die a thousand times than it should be published, since I
am by this young lady trusted, that is for beauty and goodness an
angel."[185]
Footnote 185:
Cabala, vol. i., p. 288.
Amongst the most powerful advocates of Prince Charles in the French
Court was the Duchess de Chevreuse, to whose influence over Anne of
Austria has been attributed her subsequent imprudent encouragement of
Buckingham’s discreditable addresses.[186] Formerly the wife of the Duc
de Luises, the favourite of Louis the Thirteenth, but married afterwards
to the Duc de Chevreuse, a Prince of the House of Lorraine, the Duchess
de Chevreuse became the great star of the gay and dissolute scenes in
which the young Queen of France sought to bury the remembrance of a
husband from whom she recoiled, and of a Queen-Mother and Minister of
State whom she both disliked and feared. The Duchess, whose banishment
from Court, sometime afterwards, was an event never forgiven by Anne of
Austria, was one of the most splendid and lavish as well as the gayest
and most fascinating women of her day. Lord Kensington, visiting her one
evening at the Louvre, found her and the Duc de Chevreuse dressing
themselves for a masque, and covered with such a profusion of jewels as
even he never expected again to behold adorning subjects. Shortly
afterwards, there entered Anne of Austria and Henrietta, the latter full
of glee, of which, as many persons told the ambassador, “the cause might
easily be guessed.” “My Lord,” adds the Lord Kensington, addressing the
Duke of Buckingham, “I protest to God she is a lovely, sweet young
creature. Her growth is not great yet, but her shape is perfect; and
they all swear that her sister, the Princess of Piedmont (who is now
grown tall and a goodly lady), was not taller than she is at her age.”
He feared that Anne ever would be reserved towards him, not liking the
“breach and disorder of the Spanish treaty;” but she had become, it was
observed, “so truly French” as to wish for this affiance rather than
that with her own sister, the Infanta of Spain.[187]
Footnote 186:
Memoires de Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 21.
Footnote 187:
Cabala, 291.
Everything therefore proceeded favourably, and Henrietta passed hours in
the society of Lord Kensington, expatiating upon the Prince, and
touching upon English customs. Among other things, she “fell to
speaking,” says Lord Kensington, “of ladies riding on horseback, which,
she said, was rare here, but frequent in England; and then expressed her
delight in that exercise.”[188]
Footnote 188:
Ibid.
Lord Kensington continued, meantime, to ply the Queen Dowager with
incessant flattery, and to meet her inquiries ingeniously. “I find,” he
writes to the Duke of Buckingham, “the queen-mother has the only power
of governing in this state. She was willing to know upon what terms
stood our Spanish alliance. I told her that their delays had been so
tedious that they had sometimes discouraged the King, and had so wearied
the Prince and state with the dilatory proceedings in it, as that
treaty, I thought, would soon have an end.” So little expectation was,
at this time, entertained of an unfavourable termination of the Spanish
marriage, that the Queen thought that the ambassador referred to a
speedy union between Charles and the Infanta. "She strait said, ‘Of
marriage?’ taking it that way. I told her I believed the contrary, and I
did so her entreat, because the Spanish ambassador hath given it out,
since my coming, that the alliance is fully concluded, and that my
journey hath no other end than to hasten his master unto it, only to
give them jealousies of me, because he, at this time, fears their
dispositions stand too well prepared to desire and affect a conjunction
with us."[189]
Footnote 189:
Cabala, 286.
In another letter, also addressed to the Duke of Buckingham, it appears
that Lord Kensington was allowed access at all times to the young French
princess, with permission “to entertain her henceforth with a more free
and amorous kind of language from the Prince;” and these and other
favours were acknowledged by Kensington, as from the Duke of Buckingham,
with redoubled thanks, adding that "he knew his lordship would esteem it
one of the greatest happinesses that could befall him, to have any
occasion offered whereby he might witness how much he adored Her
Majesty’s royal virtues, and how infinitely he was her servant, ready to
receive law from her, whensoever, by the least syllable of her blessed
lips or pen, she should please to impose it." And then followed
encomiums in the same letter from the crafty Kensington, who, as he
said, solved everything as well as he could, upon the Cardinal de
Richelieu, magnifying to the Queen "the Cardinal’s wisdom, his courage,
his courtesy, his fidelity to the service, his affection to our
business," so as to captivate the queen-mother.[190]
Footnote 190:
Ellis’s Original Letters, 2nd series, vol. iii., p. 199.
A long conversation followed regarding the voyage into Spain, upon which
memorable event the queen-mother remarked “that two kings had committed
in it two great errors; the one, in trusting so precious a pledge in so
hazardous an enterprize; the other, in treating so brave a guest so
ill.” “Indeed, I heard,” said the Queen, “that the Prince was used ill.”
“So he was,” returned Lord Kensington, “but not in his entertainment,
for that was as splendid as their country could afford; but in their
frivolous delay, and in the unreasonable conditions which they
propounded.”
“And yet, madam,” added the wily ambassador, “you here use him far
worse.” "And how?" inquired the queen-mother; “In that you press,”
replied he, "upon that noble and worthy Prince, who hath, with so much
affection to your Majesty’s service, with so much passion to Madam,
sought this alliance, the same, nay, more unreasonable conditions than
the other, and what they traced out for the breaking of the match, you
follow, pretending to conclude it," alluding to one of the conditions of
the marriage contract. Lord Kensington then requested a personal
interview with the young Princess, in order to deliver to her a message
from Charles. After some little difficulty, his petition was granted;
the queen-mother, relying, as she said, upon his discretion not to utter
anything which it might be derogatory to her daughter’s dignity to hear.
It was, of course, the endeavour of the ambassador to put the Prince’s
addresses in the light of a passionate love-suit. “I obey,” said he,
"the Prince’s commands in presenting to your Highness his service, not
by way of compliment, but out of passion and affection, which both your
outward and inward beauties, the virtues of your mind, so kindle in him
that he was resolved to contribute the utmost he could to the alliance
in question," with some little other “such amorous language.” Then,
turning to the old ladies who stood near the Princess, he thought it fit
to let them know that his Highness had the Princess’s picture, which he
kept in his cabinet, “and fed his eyes many times with the sight and
contemplation of it, since he could not have the happiness of beholding
her person.” All which, and many other such speeches, were by the
Princess, “standing by, quickly taken up, without letting any one fall
to the ground.”[191]
Footnote 191:
Letter from Lord Kensington to the Duke of Buckingham.--Ellis’s
Original Letters, 3rd series, vol. iii., p. 169; also, Cabala, p. 294.
Such were the addresses of Charles to Henrietta. Buckingham, to whom
this account was written by Lord Kensington, must have smiled at the
repetition of the same love passages that had, it was said, fascinated
the heart of the Infanta.
In a subsequent letter to Charles himself, Kensington again exalted the
services of the queen-mother in promoting this match, and extolled the
charms of the Princess. “There is no preparation, I find, towards this
business, but by her--the queen-mother; and all persuasions of amity
made light that look not towards this errand; and, sir, if your
intentions proceed this way, as, by many reasons of state and wisdom,
there is cause now rather to press it than slacken it, you will find a
lady of as much loveliness and sweetness to deserve your affection as
any creature under heaven can do.” The “impressions he had of her,” he
adds, “were but ordinary, but the amazement extraordinary, to find her,
as I protest to God I did, the sweetest creature in France. Her growth
is very little short of her age, and her wisdom infinitely beyond it. I
heard her discourse with her mother and the ladies about her with
extraordinary discretion and quickness. She dances, which I am a witness
of, as well as ever I saw any creature. They say she sings most sweetly;
I am sure she looks so.” In conclusion, Kensington mentions to His
Highness that, in his letter to “my Lord of Buckingham,” he had written
a more large discourse upon this interesting theme.[192]
Footnote 192:
Cabala, p. 1287. This letter is dated Feb. 26, 1624.
Thus far had the treaty proceeded, when it was delayed by the death of
King James. The marriage articles had, nevertheless, been subscribed by
that Monarch on the 11th of May, and by the King of France on the 13th
of August, in the previous year; and, on the 13th of March, 1625, the
Earls of Carlisle and Kensington signed these articles on the part of
Charles I. Private arrangements received also their signature relative
to the toleration of Catholics within the British dominions.
The dispensation for the nuptials having arrived from Rome in the
beginning of May, there remained no obstacle to the ceremonial of
marriage. This, notwithstanding the claim preferred by the Archbishop of
Paris to that honour, was performed by Cardinal Richelieu. The marriage
was celebrated according to the usual rites of the Church of Rome. After
the ceremony, the whole procession, including the royal personages,
entered the church of Notre Dame, the Duke de Chevreuse and the Princess
Henrietta Maria taking precedence of the King and Queen. Then mass was
said, the English ambassadors retiring to the Bishop’s house during the
recital.[193]
Footnote 193:
Rushworth’s Collection, p. 169.
A banquet followed, and the event was commemorated by the release of
criminals, "as an earnest of the King’s love and respect for his
sister."[194] The previous arrangements for these ceremonials had been
delayed by much contention with regard to precedency.[195] But that
which gave the greatest uneasiness to the English nation was the
difficulty, and, as it seemed to many, the risk attendant upon the mode
of faith professed by the young Queen.
Footnote 194:
Ibid.
Footnote 195:
According to one account, the Duke of Anjou, the brother of Henrietta,
was proxy for the King of England.--See Mr. Mead’s Letter to Sir
Martin Stuteville, April 30; Ellis’s Letters, 1st series, p. 190.
1625.
At his accession, Charles had manifested very decisively his disfavour
of Catholics; he declared his intention to reform the Court, “as of
unnecessary charges, so of recusant Papists.” He gave an order in his
own hand-writing that no recusant Papist, of any rank whatsoever, should
be presented with mourning for the late King; and he showed his zeal
generally for the observance of the Church, by putting the High Sheriff
of Nottingham out of his commission, for accompanying the judges on the
circuit, who were attending the sermon, only to the church door, and
there leaving them.[196] Hopes were entertained that Henrietta Maria
might be converted, and several prayer-books in French were sent her by
Sir George Goring for that end; but the news that a bishop and
twenty-eight priests were to be included in her retinue, quickly
dispelled that pleasing anticipation.[197]
Footnote 196:
Ellis’s Letters, vol. iii., p. 187.
Footnote 197:
Ibid.
The part which Buckingham took in the promotion of this alliance
lessened, therefore, greatly the popularity which his abandonment of the
Spanish marriage was beginning to ensure to him; and the announcement of
the King’s intention to despatch the Favourite, in order to bring off
his royal bride, was, for many reasons, highly displeasing to the
country.
The chief ground of objection to the proposed journey was the expense.
And here the nation separated the wishes and intentions of Charles from
those of his minister. The King had, they observed, shown a disposition
to economy; nay, more, he had displayed an honourable determination to
pay his late father’s debts by disparking most of his remote parks and
chases, which were then more numerous and extensive than any royal
domains in Europe.[198] The lavish tendencies of Buckingham, therefore,
and the heavy charges on the exchequer which had been incurred by the
two ambassadors already at the French court, were not ascribed to the
extravagance of the Monarch, but to the vanity and profuseness of his
Minister.
Footnote 198:
Ellis’s Letters, vol. iii., p. 187.
The preparations, therefore, made by Buckingham for this, his last
foreign mission,--for, when he again visited the continent, it was with
different intentions, and under another aspect,--were viewed with
vexation, by the majority of those who were not bound to silence by
interest, for the great and fruitless cost of the Spanish journey was
fresh in remembrance.
The Duke had, however, begun his arrangements before King James’s death:
and the day[199] had been fixed for his departure. He did not forget
that he was to appear at the most festive and splendid of all the courts
of Christendom.[200]
Footnote 199:
The 31st of March.
Footnote 200:
Decoration at this time was carried to such an extent in France, that
Lord Kensington describes some of the masquers at a court fête as
having almost all their clothes embroidered with diamonds; embroidery
of gold and silver being at that time forbidden.--Cabala, 290.
An account, preserved in the Harleian Manuscripts, represents him as
having, “for his body, twenty-seven rich suits, embroidered and laced
with silk and silver plushes, besides one rich satten uncut velvet suit,
set all over, both suite and cloak, of diamonds, the value whereof is
thought to be about one thousand pounds.” Corresponding to this
extravagant attire, “a feather made with great diamonds, a sword girdle,
hatband, and spurs, all studded with diamonds,” completed the apparel
and decoration which the Duke intended to wear upon his entrance into
Paris. For the wedding-day he prepared another rich suit, composed of
purple satin, embroidered with rich orient pearls. Over this was worn a
cloak made after the Spanish fashion, and the dress was finished with
all things suitable.” “His other suits,” adds the narrator, “are all as
rich other suits,” adds the narrator, “are all as rich as invention can
frame, or art fashion. His colours for the entrance are white and
watchet, for the wedding, crimson and gold.”
Buckingham’s departure was preceded by the despatching of his servants
with fifty geldings and nags, and twelve coach horses. His personal
retinue was consistent with all this grandeur and display; it reminds
one of the gorgeous pomp of Wolsey in the height of his prosperity.
Twenty privy gentlemen, seven grooms of his chambers, thirty chief
women, and two master cooks constituted his own peculiar servants. Three
rich suits apiece were given to each of these attendants. The inferior
servants for the household consisted of twenty-five second cooks,
fourteen women of the second rank, seventeen grooms to attend upon those
yeomen, forty-five labourers sellerers belonging to the kitchen, twelve
pages, twenty-four footmen, six huntsmen, and twelve grooms. Most of
these functionaries were provided with three rich suits apiece, and to
complete the establishment there were six riders with one suit apiece,
and eight others to attend the stable business.
His equipages consisted of three rich coaches, velvet inside, and
covered externally with gold lace all over. Eight horses and six
coachmen were allotted to each coach; then there was a band of
musicians, eight score in number, “all richly suited.” "There were my
Lord Duke’s watermen, twenty-two in number, suited in sky-coloured
taffety, all gilded, with anchovys and My Lord’s arms." These were
appropriated to one barge only, and the whole of this regal retinue was,
says the annalist, "at his Grace’s charge."
Eight noblemen, the Marquis of Hamilton at their head, and six gentlemen
of honourable families, attended the Duke. Amongst them were his
brother-in-law, the Earl of Denbigh, and one of his brothers, designated
simply as “Mr. Villars.” When to these there were added twenty-four
knights, of great worth, all of “whom carried six or seven pages a
piece, and as many footmen,” the train amounted to six or seven hundred.
Nor were those all. “When,” says the writer of this account, “the list
is perfect, there will appear many more than I have named.”[201]
Footnote 201:
See Ellis’s Original Letters, 1st series, vol. i., p. 189.
The nuptials for which some of this grand preparation was made, had,
however, taken place before it was Buckingham’s fate to cross the
Channel.
The day after King James’s funeral was to have witnessed the departure
of Buckingham for France. This was on the eighth of May, and the future
Queen was expected to be at Dover by the eleventh.[202] But the Duke did
not arrive in Paris until the twenty-fourth; nor did Henrietta Maria
land on the shores of England until the twenty-second of June.[203]
Footnote 202:
Ellis’s Letters.
Footnote 203:
Rushworth, p. 170.
During the seven days that Buckingham remained at the French court, an
uninterrupted succession of feasting and rejoicing occupied his time;
whilst his imagination was engrossed by an object to which no man who
had not been brought to the highest point of presumption by a career of
prosperity would have ventured to aspire.
The painful and degrading position in which Anne of Austria was placed,
under the sway of her mother-in-law, destitute as the young Queen was of
all good advisers, and exposed by her youth and her attractions to the
snares of the designing, in the vitiated sphere in which she moved, has
been already referred to. Some additional traits of the appearance and
character of a Princess whose fascinations produced a powerful effect
upon Buckingham may not be deemed impertinent.
She was not then a mother; and the importance of giving birth to a
future monarch of France was not permitted to her until thirteen years
afterwards.[204] By her attendant and partizan, Madame de Motteville, a
character so beautiful has been given of the Queen Consort of Louis the
Thirteenth, as would inspire compassion for the sacrifice which bound
her at the altar to a husband wholly unworthy of a wife so graceful and
so virtuous, could an entire credence be assigned to that partial
testimony.
Footnote 204:
Louis XIV. was not born on the 5th of September, 1538.--See Memoir of
Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 71.
According to her favourite, Anne had imbibed from her mother, Margaret
of Austria, a lively piety and a love of virtue which were never
quenched, even during her passage through the manifold temptations of
her existence. She was replete, according to the same authoress, with
goodness and with justice; she was neither suspicious, nor easily led
wrong by persuasion; and where endeavours were made to prejudice her
against any one whom she esteemed, her resistance showed the strength of
her attachment. During her regency, when under the dominion of Cardinal
Mazarin, that minister was often known to say that her devotion and
rectitude of mind caused him embarrassment; “for she had,” observes
Madame de Motteville, “sufficient aptitude of mind to know well what was
right, and had she been endowed with strength of character adequate
always to defend the truth, the pen of the historian could not have
bestowed upon her any praise too high; but she distrusted herself, and
her humility induced her to consider herself as incapable of conducting
the government of the State.”[205]
Footnote 205:
Memoir of Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 428.
This combination of good intention with weakness of purpose, these
feminine requisites of piety and gentleness, added to her natural
sagacity, rendered Anne of Austria one of the most engaging of all those
lofty personages who figured in a capital of which one of its monarchs
observed, comparing it to a head, “that it was so spiritually gross and
full of disease as to require, from time to time, bleeding, in order to
secure the repose of its members.”[206]
Footnote 206:
Ibid, 199, said by Henry III. of France.
During the early years of this young Queen’s married life, she had been
addressed in the language of passion by several successive suitors.
“Notwithstanding the respect which her Majesty inspires,” writes Madame
Motteville, “her loveliness did not fail to touch the hearts of certain
individuals, who ventured to manifest their passion.”[207]
Footnote 207:
Ibid, 11.
Amongst these, first in the list was the Duc de Montmorenci,
distinguished for bravery, for a handsome person, and for his great
magnificence in his mode of living. This nobleman had been enamoured of
the Marquise de Sable, the reigning beauty at the French Court when Anne
of Austria first came to grace it; but her coldness and self-esteem
chilled the ardour of her admirer. Platonic attachments, the fashion for
which was first introduced by Catherine de Medici from Italy, were still
in vogue; to this fashion, more fatal, perhaps, to virtue than the more
direct blandishments of vice, Madame de Sable inclined. The alliance
between Spain and France had introduced many of the Spanish authors to
the lettered portion of the French community, and the gallantry of that
nation, imbibed from the Moors, appeared to correspond with the delicate
sentiments of the Italians. It did not, however, change man’s nature,
nor act as an antidote to his fickleness. The Duc de Montmorenci beheld
Anne of Austria, and the Marquise was forgotten. Proud and yet humble,
that lady, upon the first surmise of his alteration of sentiment,
withdrew from the contest with one so much more elevated than herself,
and refused to see him again. Nevertheless, Montmorenci found little
favour in the heart of Anne of Austria, who could never believe that his
passion for her was either sincere or ardent; and who regarded, in after
times, the petty gratification which it gave her as one of the symptoms
of flattered vanity.
The Duc de Bellegarde, old, and a veteran in the court, for he had been
the favourite of two preceding monarchs, was the next who sought to
occupy the heart in which there existed a void; for Anne’s indifference
to her royal consort daily increased. The love-suit which this ancient
nobleman presumed to address to the Queen was received by her as incense
to her vanity which could not, possibly, injure her reputation; and,
although she listened to his avowal of admiration at first with
resentment, she soon treated it as a jest; and even the King, although
disposed to be jealous, entered into the pleasantry which the devotion
expressed in the lisping accents of age naturally induced.
But a far more dangerous suitor lurked about the young Queen’s haunts,
who, watching her from the retired recesses of the court, at once loved
and persecuted her. This was the Cardinal de Richelieu.
This extraordinary character, acknowledged even by his enemies to have
been the greatest man of his time, had manifested the mad attachment
with which Anne of Austria inspired, in a singular manner, this astute
politician. To her confidante, Madame Motteville, the Queen had imparted
a strange incident in the life of this minister, whose thoughts,
designs, and affections appeared to be centered in public affairs, or,
as he termed it, in the good of the state.[208]
Footnote 208:
Madame de Motteville, pp. 29, 30.
One day, when, with ill-concealed disgust, Anne was listening to the
conversation of the Cardinal, she was surprised by a sudden burst of
hitherto subdued feelings from that crafty churchman; and she heard,
with what mingled consternation and anger may be conceived, expressions
of a passionate attachment. As she was about to reply in terms of
indignation and contempt, the King entered the closet in which she and
the Cardinal were conversing, and a sudden check was given to the
subject, never to be resumed; for Anne dared not to recur to it, lest
she should flatter the wishes of the Cardinal by showing her remembrance
of his addresses; she would only reply to him by showing tacitly her
hatred, and by her incessant refusal to accept either his proffered
friendship, or his offer of mediation between her and the King. It was
in vain she perceived that her conduct aggravated the bad understanding
between her and her royal partner; in vain she knew that whilst the
presumptuous love of the Cardinal preponderated in his breast, she yet
drove him to extremities by her abhorrence. He demonstrated “his
affection,” by persecutions which ceased only with his existence; for he
hoped, possibly, if he could not succeed by gentle means, to prevail
over her contempt by fear.
It was at this juncture, whilst Anne, estranged from her consort, and
pursued, watched, and loved by the Cardinal de Richelieu, most truly
required a friend and monitor, that Buckingham arrived to throw fresh
temptations and difficulties in her path. Unhappily her favourite,
Madame de Chevreuse, afterwards banished from Court by Richelieu, was
not a woman of prudence, and, perhaps, scarcely of virtue. By Madame de
Motteville, the Duchesse de Chevreuse is regarded as the true source of
all Anne’s errors and misfortunes. Anne loved her, as those to whom the
natural channels of affection are forbidden, or poisoned, love the
soothing and humble. She never forgave Richelieu the disgrace of her
favourite, nor even when she knew that it was the wish of her husband
that Madame de Chevreuse should be sent away, could she submit to his
wishes. Anne, in the commencement of her career, had shown much disgust
to those who were termed “les dames gallantes,” and had appeared, to
those who knew her best, to possess the most rigid notions of female
decorum. But the society of Madame de Chevreuse had broken down that
barrier in which the young and fascinating Queen found her best
protection. Even after sundry imprudencies, those who were cognizant of
her actions accorded to her the credit of a perfect purity of life, and
bestowed upon her all the esteem which is due to the most undoubted
virtue. In after life, the frankness and simplicity with which she spoke
of these early passages of her life showed that no evil was attached to
them, and that to vanity alone were to be attributed those rash
adventures in which her reputation incurred so severe an ordeal. How
far, on a review of the circumstances of her career, Anne may be
acquitted of a want of feminine modesty, of a prudence the
representative of virtue, must be a question for the moralist. Her
character must, however, be measured in some respects by the standard of
the age in which she lived.
Unhappily for Anne, at the time that Buckingham arrived in Paris, Madame
de Chevreuse was passionately in love with the handsome and dangerous
Earl of Holland, and made no secret of that disgraceful attachment.[209]
It was, therefore, her endeavour to promote everything that could
produce a continued intercourse between France and this country.
Footnote 209:
Madame de Motteville, p. 20.
Of the first meeting between Anne of Austria and Buckingham, during his
embassy, there is no account. We can suppose it to have occurred under
circumstances of dazzling splendour, to which many considerations, not
guessed by the public, lent a strong interest. The suppressed and
dangerous admiration of Richelieu might not be penetrated by Buckingham;
but it was notorious that whilst Louis XIII. distrusted, and apparently
neglected, his Queen, he was really disposed to respect and cherish her;
and was known to have confessed to a confidant one day, in speaking of
the Queen’s personal attractions, that “he dared not show her any
tenderness, lest he should displease the queen-mother and the Cardinal,
whose aid and counsels were much more essential to him than the
affection of his wife.”[210]
Footnote 210:
Madame de Motteville, p. 33.
Thus situated--bound to a husband of whose indifference she was by no
means certain, but who, she well knew, had not the mental strength to
cope with the Cardinal, and to avow any kindness for her--admired at a
distance by the courtiers--passionately loved and fiercely persecuted by
Richelieu, Anne must have presented a new source of interest and
curiosity to Buckingham; and the course of her destiny, hard as it might
seem, would give fuel to his presumption.
The dignity which Anne could assume on state occasions has been insisted
upon by Madame de Motteville, when, speaking of her demeanour during the
regency, she describes her then as equally fair with the fairest of the
Court. A vast quantity of brown hair, powdered and frizzed, indeed, and
worn in curls, set off a complexion not so delicate in colour as
distinguished for the softness and smoothness of the skin. She
disfigured herself, after the Spanish fashion, by wearing rouge; and one
defect was striking--her nose was thick and large. Her eyes varied in
colour from a perfect blue to green; and her glance was full of
sweetness and expression. Her mouth was small, and her lips crimson, and
the sweetest smiles played upon her countenance. The form of her face
and forehead was admirable; her arms and hands were celebrated for their
wonderful symmetry and for their whiteness, being, without exaggeration,
white as snow. The delicacy of her habits amounted almost to monomania.
“Madam,” observed Cardinal Mazarin to her, “should you incur everlasting
condemnation, your punishment would be to sleep in sheets of Holland
cloth.”[211] Her deportment in after life, during the minority of her
son, Louis XIV., and her fortitude during the agonies of her last fatal
illness, showed that the gentle and attractive Queen possessed a strong
natural capacity, which circumstances eventually called into action.
Footnote 211:
Biographie Universelle.
Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu, the all-powerful minister
of Louis XIII., was now in the height of his power; he reigned, in
short, under the name of the King. In an unbounded, and perhaps entirely
selfish ambition, and in the full fruition of their hopes, Buckingham
and Richelieu may be said to have resembled each other. In the love of
pomp and display, they were alike. The superb attire, the costly retinue
of the English peer, were puerile attempts compared with the ordinary
household of Richelieu. His magnificent palace in the Rue St. Honoré,
known, during his time, under the name of the Palais Cardinal, and,
since the year 1636, as the Palais Royal, recalled the glories of York
House at Whitehall, in the days of Wolsey, with all the added
refinements of a later period. There, in the chapel, might be seen
ornaments decorated with gold, studded with diamonds. The most splendid
tapestry, the most uncommon articles of virtu, pictures of rare value,
busts and statues, adorned the palace in which Richelieu entertained the
King and the Court in stately revels. There, on one occasion, was
enacted a play, drawn from the history of the Duke of Buckingham, when
all the French prelates were invited, and when the Bishop de Chartres,
formerly confessor to Richelieu, arranged the seats, and finally, clad
in velvet, presented himself on the stage, at the head of a train of
twenty-four pages, carrying the collation which was offered to the
company.
At the Palais Cardinal, Buckingham learned fresh lessons of an
ostentatious display, wholly inconsistent with the condition of a
subject. The Cardinal’s body-guard, assigned to him by the King,
equalled in number that of his royal master; and the horse soldiers had
a table appropriated to him in his hall; of these, the Cardinal had the
power of appointment and dismissal. His ordinary personal attendants in
his own house were composed of thirty-six pages, selected from noble
families, and reared in his house under the tutorage of able masters--a
system again recalling the household of Wolsey. When he travelled, the
Cardinal was followed by a train consisting of his secretaries, his
physicians, and his confessor; by eight carriages, with four horses
each; and by eighty baggage mules. His guard escorted him, and his
pages; his band, composed of musicians of the first eminence, and a
numerous body of domestic servants, followed the litter in which the
great Richelieu, delicate from his birth, and infirm in health, was
carried; the walls of the towns through which he passed being levelled
to receive this princely procession, when the gates happened to be too
narrow to permit its entrance. Often, indeed, it was found necessary to
widen the roads.[212]
Footnote 212:
Petilot, Notice sur Richelieu, ii., p. 112.
But, whilst Buckingham might read in the extreme expenditure of the
Cardinal a plea for his own magnificence, there was much to be learned
in that palace which Richelieu, like Wolsey, afterwards bestowed on the
monarch to whom he owed his wealth. There, the minister of Charles might
see a systematic regulation of expense; generosity without prodigality,
and almost unlimited alms-giving. Abhorring solicitation, which always
defeated its own aim, absolute and irascible, the Cardinal,
nevertheless, loved to benefit those who served him. No hasty words
escaped from him for which he was not eager to atone; and, whilst his
principle was that men are only to be maintained in their duty by
severity, his nature was placable to his inferiors, although proud and
unrelenting to his political enemies.
Another lesson might Buckingham derive in the crowded _salons_> of the
Palais Cardinal--the patronage of letters. Richelieu admitted to
intimacy the most eminent authors of the day; and so much did he enjoy
their society, that his chief physician, Monsieur Caton, used to say to
him, when prescribing for the Cardinal:--"Sir, we will do all that is in
our power; but all my remedies will be useless, if you do not add to
them a drachm of Boisrobert;"--Boisrobert being a writer whose works are
long since forgotten, but whose powers of telling well the news of the
court and city used to charm the Cardinal. In the conversation of men of
letters, Richelieu found, indeed, his greatest solace; and nothing gave
him greater satisfaction than a victory argument, or a success in
_repartée_.[213] In the Chamber of the Palais Cardinal might be heard
poets reciting their unpublished verses, or going away richly paid and
praised when their productions were approved. “Une Salle de Spectacle,”
as it was called, was erected by the Cardinal in his palace, and five
favourite authors, Corneille, Boisrobert, Colletet, D’Estoile, and
Robron, were employed to work out into a dramatic form the poetical
conceptions of their patron. Neither was this great minister content
with lavishing his individual bounty upon men of genius; he formed the
plan of the Academy of Paris, an institution which was to give laws to
literature, and the notion of which originated in a private society of
distinguished men who met together to converse, and to communicate their
works. In this extension of his powerful aid to letters, Richelieu found
an obstacle which Buckingham was not destined to encounter. Louis XIII.
hated every species of study, and despised that which he had not
intellect to appreciate. Charles, on the other hand, was intelligent and
inquiring. His education had been carefully attended to; and his taste
for the arts introduced a degree of refinement into English society such
as this country had never before beheld.
Footnote 213:
Petilot, x., 126.
It may easily be conceived with what intense curiosity, mingled,
perhaps, with a spirit of rivalry, Buckingham must have regarded his
introduction to Richelieu, and how extended a notion of the power of a
minister he must have received during his notable, though brief, sojourn
in France.
The dignity and courtesy of Richelieu, in his ordinary deportment,
might, perhaps, have supplied a hint to the haughty and uncertain
Buckingham, naturally imperious and lofty. The Cardinal knew well the
value of affability. He had a most flexible countenance, every
expression of which he could control; and even, according to Marie de
Medici, command tears at pleasure. One moment he appeared to be sinking
away in extreme pain; the next found him gay, gallant, and active. His
manners were most caressing to those whom he designed to win over; but
to all whom he met, his reception was full of apparent kindness--his
extended hand preceded words full of courtesy, and his ready smile
fascinated those who approached him.
But beneath this exterior there lay the most relentless spirit of
vengeance towards all whom he regarded as enemies, and the smile and the
ready dissimulation were fearful to many who were conscious of having
fallen under his displeasure.
Richelieu, in his morals, gave occasion to much scandal. Beneath an
assiduous exercise of some of the external forms of religion, he was
supposed to conceal latitudinarian principles, and his private life was
stained by great irregularities. The decencies of society were,
nevertheless, maintained by the Cardinal, who was sensible that nothing
lowers a man so much in public esteem as to be the slave of his
passions; yet, since there scarcely existed, in his time, a man of more
accommodating principles than the Cardinal in public life, so there were
few, it was secretly believed, who had stronger passions to curb, or to
indulge, than the most reverend celibate of the Château of Rueil--that
wonderful and splendid retreat, of which no traces are left to mark the
alleys wherein the festive throngs delighted, nor to recall the prisons
in the park, to which the all-powerful Cardinal consigned his enemies.