Agnes Strickland's Queens of England (17 page)

presage that he comes on such a aay." Then lifting up her daughter, and holding her before the duke, she addedj " How can you find it in your heart to refuse to confer on this child the rank of a Ling's daughter ?" That wa? enough ; the father decided, though the statesman had faltered; ambition for his children won the Duke of Bra-ganza's consent, and thenceforth he would devote Ms life to the welfare of his country.

A few days later he removed with his family to Lisbon, where he was proclaimed king, under the title of Juan IV, Then began a fierce struggle, in which many battles were fought and won by the Portuguese against their powerful enemy. They were fighting for freedom, and their despe^ rate charges counterbalanced the superior numberc at Spain. In moments of discouragement and despoii(i

[A.D. 1644.] England immediately recognized Don Juan as sovereign of Portugal; but the pope refused to do so, and was imitated by all the Catholic courts of Europe, excepting France. Four years were spent in battling for the liberty which was won at last by a decisive overthrow of the Spanish forces in 1644.

Having accomplished this, Juan IV. sent Sabran as ambassador to England to negotiate a marriage between the Prince of Wales, who afterwards became Charles II., and his little daughter Catharine. The treasury of King Charles was so nearly empty at that time, that the liberal dower Juan was able to bestow upon the infanta would no doubt have been very acceptable, but there were other considerations. Catharine of Braganza was a Catholic ; and as the difference of religion had created so much imhappi-ness between himself and his own wife, Charles I. hesitated to thrust the same domestic infelicity on his son, who was,

CATHARINE OF BRAGANZA.

of course a Protestant. And so, for the time being, no decisive measures could be taken for the marriage.

[A.D. 1656.] Don Juan did not live long to enjoy the lofty position for which he had struggled so desperately; for he died towards the close of the year 1656, in the prime of life, but worn out with care and anxiety.

By her father's death Princess Catharine became an heiress of great wealth; for Don Juan left a will bequeathing to his daughter the island of Madeira, the city of Lanego, and the town of Moura, with all their territories and rents. She received other sources of income, besides, with the proviso that if she married in a foreign land, she was to relinquish all to the crown and receive the equivalent in money. .

Donna Luiza carefully studied the aspect of affairs in other countries besides the one she ruled, and her penetration enabled her to foresee that the restoration of Charles II. to the throne of England was merely a matter of time. That being the case, she made up her mind to work for an alliance between that prince and her daughter, hoping thereby to strengthen the position of her own realm. All other proposals, therefore, for the hand of the infanta were regarded with disfavor.

The elder Princess Dowager of Orange was not so keen-sighted ; for when Charles was sojourning at a village in Flanders, while he was still an exile, he fell in love with the Princess Henrietta, daughter of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, and would have married her, but the dowager declined the offer, saying, " that she saw no chance for the amendment of his fortunes."

A few months latter, when a deputation from parliament arrived with fifty thousand pounds for Prince Charles, and an invitation to return to England, the old lady could have bitten her tongue out for the blunder she had made, and endeavored to repair it.

But Charles was too indignant to listen to any of her ^)vertures, or ever to forgive the insult she had offered him in his adversity.

[A.D. 1660.] Henrietta was extremely anxious to see her eldest son united in marriage with a princess of her own faith ; so, once when she was on a visit to England, she manoeuvred until matters were brought to such a point that the Portuguese ambassador was authorized to interview the prince's lord chamberlain on the subject. The former important personage was no other than Don Francisco de Mello, the godfather of Catharine. He began by praising the virtues of the king, and added, " that it was time he should bestow himself m marriage, and that nothing ought to keep him single but the difficulty of finding a suitable consort."

The lord chamberlain, Earl of Manchester, assented. Thereupon Don Francisco continued : " There is in Portugal a princess, in her beauty, person, and age, very fit for the king, who would have a portion suitable to her birth and quality. She is a Catholic, to be sure, and would never depart from her religion; but she has none of that meddling activity which sometimes makes persons of any faith troublesome when they come into a country where another mode of worship than their own is practised. She has been bred under a wise mother, who has taught her not to interfere in state affairs, of which she is entirely ignorant." The ambassador concluded by informing the earl that he was authorized to propose the princess for a wife to the king, accompanied with offers such as no other power in Europe could make.

This conversation was duly reported to Charles, who sent to Don Francisco for further particulars. An early interview was granted the ambassador, who repeated what he had said to the lord chamberlain, and added, further-

more, " that he was authorized to offer five hundred thousand pounds sterling in cash as a portion for the Infanta Catharine, besides the possession of Tangier, on the coast of Africa, which was to be made over to the crown of England forever. Free trade in the Brazil and the East Indies was to be granted to the English nation; and the island of Bombay, with its spacious bay, towns, and castles, was likewise to belong to them."

Charles was dazzled with such a brilliant offer, and hastened to consult Lord Clarendon, his prime minister, on the subject.

Clarendon refused to offer immediate advice, and asked, " whether his majesty had given up all thought of a Protestant wife."

Charles replied, "that he could not find one, except among his own subjects, and he had seen no one of their number, who had pleased him sufficiently for that purpose."

A secret meeting was then called of several members of his council, over which the king presided in person. He stated the business for which he had requested their presence, and pointed out the importance of Tangier for the benefit of trade on the Mediterranean sea.

One of the lords suggested the advisability of a Protestant queen. Charles asked " where he should find one ? " Several German princesses were mentioned, whereupon he exclaimed, impatiently : " Odds fish! They are all dull and foggy; I cannot like one of them for a wife."

It was then unanimously agreed that a matrimonial treaty should be opened, with all possible secrecy, with Portugal.

Delighted with the success of his mission, Don Francisco de Mello offered to go back to his native land to complete the necessary arrangements.

The court of Lisbon was filled with rejoicing when the object of Don Francisco's return was announced. He was rewarded with the title of Count da Ponte, and sent back to England with full power to conclude the marriage.

[A.D. 1661.] It was late in January when the count again set foot in London. To his surprise, the whole aspect of affairs had changed, and he could not even obtain an interview with the king.

The reason for the change was this : The representatives of Spain knew well that it would redound to their disadvantage if an alliance between the royal houses of England and Portugal should be cemented; they therefore endeavored to prevent it. One of their number happened to be on terms of intimacy with Charles, and could, therefore, speak plainly on the subject of his prospective marriage.

His arguments made little impression until he dared to attack the princess herself; but when he affirmed that she was ugly, deformed, and delicate, the king began to fear that perhaps he had allowed himself to be too easily influenced. The Earl of Bristol was a particular enemy of Clarendon, and prided himself on throwing a wet blanket over every project that minister seemed to favor. The earl had just returned from a visit to Portugal, and corroborated every statement made by the Spanish envoy, merely for the sake of opposition. At the same time he drew a graphic picture of some of the Italian princesses he had met, and assured the king that if he would make his selection from their number, the Spanish government would agree to give the lady of his choice as large a portion as though she were of their royal blood.

As Charles was not in love with Catharine of Braganza, never having laid eyes on her, he was easily turned from his purpose, and broke off all negotiations with the Portuguese court.

But he did not abandon his intention to marry; and so despatched the Earl of Bristol to Parma to make minute inquiries as to the qualifications of the princesses of that court. The well-known fondness of Charles II. for handsome women obliged the earl to make his observations with great care ; so when one glance at the ladies, on their way to church, convinced him that one was too fat, and both were too ugly, to please his royal master, he dared not present a favorable report.

Meanwhile the king had taken pains to inquire of other travellers who had been to Portugal, what sort of a woman the infanta really was ; and the descriptions he got were so different from those presented by the Spaniards, that he altered his manner towards Don Francisco, and began to show him many marks of courtesy.

This enraged Vatteville, the Spanish ambassador, to such a degree, that he openly declared, *' that he was directed by the king, his master, to let his majesty know, that, if he should proceed towards a marriage with the daughter of his rebel, the Duke of Braganza, he had orders to take his leave presently, and declare war against him."

This excited the king's indignation, and he manfully replied, " that the ambassador might be gone as soon as he liked."

Then Vatteville found that he had gone too far, and resorted to the most fulsome flattery in order to conciliate the irate king.

At last a special messenger arrived from France with a private communication from Louis XIV., expressing regret that any obstruction to the Portuguese match had arisen; and assuring King Charles that Catharine was a lady of rare beauty and accomplishments.

While Charles hesitated, he received a portrait of the dark-eyed infanta, which, after all, made a deeper impression

on his heart than diplomatists, promises of wealth, or the reasoning of his lord-chancellor, could ever have accomplished. In this portrait the princess was represented as a brilliant brunette, with large, dark eyes, and a profusion of brown hair arranged in short curls on each side of the head, and falling to the waist in ringlets at the back. " This person cannot be unhandsome," said the king, gazing attentively on the face of the woman he was so soon to marry.

The ambassador was summoned, and requested to repeat to his majesty all that England was to gain in the event of his marriage with the Portuguese princess. Don Francisco assured Charles that the money he had promised in the name of the queen-regent was all sealed up in bags awaiting transportation ; and that the fleet which was to be sent for the princess might even go first and take possession of Tangiers.

It was further agreed that the marriage should take place in England, although it was not customary for any princess to join her husband in a foreign land until after the ceremony had been performed with a proxy acting as bridegroom.

Donna Luiza preferred this arrangement, because the pope had never acknowledged the independence of Portugal ; and, as it would be necessary to apply for a dispensation before a marriage could be contracted between a Catholic and a Protestant, she feared that he would mention Catharine only as the daughter of the Duke of Braganza, and not as a princess. This would have been a serious affront to the royal house of Portugal, and most injurious to their cause.

On his part, Charles avoided anything disagreeable that might arise at the coronation of a Catholic queen in England, by having himself crowned before such a person ex-