Agnes Strickland's Queens of England (43 page)

The next morning, when Bentinck entered the room, the king was speechless but conscious. He took his old friend's hand and pressed it to his heart for several min«

utes, and then expired. After his death a bracelet of Queen Mary's hair, tied with black ribbon, was found on his left arm.

William III. was fifty-one years old, and had reigned thirteen years.

CHAPTER XIII,

Bishop Burnet had watched at Kensington with a host of other clergymen and lords for the king's last gasp, and then hastened to St. James's Palace to be the first to prostrate himself before the new queen. But he was disappointed ; for the Earl of Essex, lord of the bedchamber, whose duty it really was to communicate the news, had forestalled him. Burnet had never been popular with Anne, and on her accession he was treated with marked indifference, and turned out of his lodgings at court.

[A.D. 1702.] All was business and bustle on that Sunday that witnessed the death of William III. The queen was receiving the crowd of politicians that filled her antechamber, anxious for a private audience before her recognition by the privy council took place

Among others, the queen's old uncle, the Earl of Clarendon, sent in his name and requested "admittance to his niece."

Her majesty's reply was, " That if he was prepared to take the oath of allegiance to her as sovereign she was willing to receive him."

Queen Anne answered thus because she remembered the nature of her uncle's former conversations with her, and knew that he had come to urge her to make way for her brother, the Prince of Wales. His reply confirmed this, for he said : " No, I come to talk to my niece; I shall take

no other oath than I have taken." He remained true to this decision to the day of his death.

But Queen Anne had another uncle, who was not quite so loyal to King James's son ; this was Lord Rochester, who had been one of Queen Mary's ministers of state, and shared with Anne the government of her kingdom likewise.

Both houses of parliament met and made speeches suitable to the occasion, then presented addresses of congratulation to the queen on her accession. She received them with much grace and dignity; and although she did not say much, everybody was impressed by the remarkable sweetness of her voice, which possessed a magic charm.

A general mourning was ordered by the privy council for the deceased king; but as Queen Anne was already wearing black for her father, she chose purple to distinguish this occasion, and appeared in that color the day after William III. died.

On the eleventh of March Queen Anne went in solemn state, attended by Lady Marlborough and two other ladies, to the House of Lords. She ascended the throne in her royal robes, and made an address that had been prepared by her ministers, concluding with a promise to do all in her power for the happiness and prosperity of England. Lord Marlborough carried the sword of state before her royal highness, who, at the close of the session, returned with Prince George to St. James's Palace.

The Scotch council was summoned, and Anne was proclaimed by Lord Lyon, king-at-arms, as Anne I. Queen of Scotland. Then her majesty appointed April 23 for her coronation; and parliament voted her the same revenue that had been granted to King William.

There were those who were delighted at the accession of Queen Anne; but the Dutch colony at Kensington were

not of the number. The body of King William had been embalmed and removed to the prince's chamber at Westminster, where it lay in state ; and the queen, with her husband, immediately took possession of the royal apartments at Kensington. There was something repulsive in this, though the room in which the king had breathed his last remained undisturbed for many years.

After a great deal of discussion it was decided that the interment of King William's body should take place privately, and April 12, at midnight, was the time appointed.

The procession started from Kensington, and was headed by an open chariot with the customary wax effigy seated as though the coffin had been beneath ; but it was only placed there when the procession reached Westminster.

During the funeral service the body was deposited in Henry VIII.'s Chapel, and afterwards it was interred in the same vault with Queen Mary II.

Among her appointments. Queen Anne made the Duke of Devonshire lord-steward of her household; the Earl of Jersey, lord-chamberlain; Sir Edward Seymour, comptroller ; and Peregrine Bertie, vice-chamberlain. Prince George was appointed to the high office of commander-in-chief of all the forces, both by sea and land. Lord Go-dolphin requested that her majesty would be pleased to reinstate Dr.- Radcliffe; but she replied, "No! Radcliffe shall never send me word again when I am ill that my ailments are only vapors." Lady Marlborough used her influence to have Bentinck expelled from his office as keeper of the park at Windsor, with the least possible delay; for he had never been friendly to either herself or the queen, and such a chance for revenge could scarcely be overlooked.

The public mind was soon occupied with the approaching coronation. Prince George was to take no part in it as

sovereign, but in the previous reign he had been created Duke of Cumberland, — a title that placed him at the head of the list of peers, and gave him precedence of them all.

At eleven o'clock on coronation morning the queen was carried in her sedan chair from St. James's to Westminster Hall, where she rested in a private room while the heralds marshalled the several classes of nobility according to their rank. Prince George of Denmark was preceded by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the lord keeper of the Great Seal, He walked just in front of the queen with her state attendants, garter-king-at-arms, the lord mayor, and the high steward of England. The queen wore on her head a gold band set with costly gems, and her train was borne by the Duchess of Somerset, assisted by four young ladies of the bed-chamber, and the lord chamberlain. But this train must in some way have been made to hang from her majesty's chair, for she was suffering so much from gout in her feet that she could not walk in the procession. These attendants and train-bearers conducted her from the waiting-room to the grand hall, where she was placed beneath the canopy near the table, on which were spread the regalia. Lord Carlisle, the Duke of Devonshire, and the lord high-constable stood in readiness to distribute the various articles on the table to the persons appointed to carry them whenever her majesty should give the order. As soon as this part of the ceremony was performed, the procession moved on to the Abbey, the path all the way to the royal platform in the church being covered with blue cloth, and strewn with evergreens and flowers. A company of guards lined the walk, consequently the cloth was not torn to bits to be distributed among the rabble, as had been the case at previous coronations. From Westminster Hall to the Abbey the train-bearers were, as before, the Duchess of Somerset, — a personal friend to the queen, and wife of

the nearest relative of the blood royal then in England, — Lady Elizabeth Seymour, Lady Mary Hyde, and Lady Mary Pierrepoint, then a girl of thirteen, who later was known in the literary world as Lady Mary Wortley Montague. The queen was escorted by Lord Jersey, supported by the Bishops of Durham and Exeter, and guarded by the late king's favorite, Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, who was still retained as captain of the royal guard. He was the only member of King William's Dutch colony who had ever shown civility to the queen, and she showed her gratitude by continuing him in office. The coronation ceremony was conducted on the same plan as all the others we have recorded, therefore it is unnecessary to repeat the details. The ring used on this occasion was a superb ruby, on which was engraved the cross of St. George, It was placed on the fourth finger of her majesty's right hand. The ceremony concluded with the peers, archbishops, and prelates, headed by the Duke of Cumberland, paying homage to the queen. This was done by kissing her left cheek, and touching her crown while her pardon was read, and medals of silver and gold were distributed among the people. A grand anthem by the choir, accompanied by instrumental music, followed; then the trumpets sounded, and all the people shouted, " God save Queen Anne ! Long live Queen Anne! May the queen live forever! "

At the banquet in the evening Pnnce George of Denmark sat at her majesty's left hand, and care was taken that tables should be provided for members of the house of commons, who had complained of being neglected at the coronation banquet of William and Mary. On the whole, the ceremony was eminently satisfactory from beginning to end, even to the thieves who stole all the plate used at her majesty's table in Westminster Hall, as well as the finest of the table linen. Shortly after her coronation Queen Anne

knighted Simon Harcourt, and appointed him solicitor-general ; and her uncle, Lord Rochester, was chosen for her prime minister. It was with the assistance and advice of this uncle that Queen Anne performed an act of benevolence that has made her name venerated in the Church of England ever since. Certain sums of money that she had a right to claim for every office she conferred in the church, she applied, instead, towards a fund for increasing the salaries of some of the inferior members of the clergy who were so poorly paid that they were scarcely able to live. Originally, the money so claimed had been for the support of crusades, but later it went to the crown, and the clergy were taxed for their whole profit of the first year, and one-tenth of the annual gain forever after. So relieved of this tax, and with their salaries increased besides, the clergy of the Church of England had reason to be grateful to their sovereign. This fund received the name of " Queen Anne's bounty," which it has borne to the present day.

Throughout Queen Anne's reign there were so many contests that it will be necessary sometimes to mention the two parties between whom they occurred, though as little as possible will be said on the subject of politics, and none of the dry details and intricacies of the various projects shall be recounted. The two powerful parties to which we refer were called Whigs and Tories, and probably no one will object to knowing how they were distinguished.

In the reign of Queen Anne the policy of the Whigs was to keep up a perpetual war against France, in order to prevent the son of James II. from claiming his right to the throne of England. They were opposed to the Church of Rome and equally so to the reformed Catholic or " High Church" of England. Though the queen was the acknowledged head of the church, they desired that her power to fill vacancies should be bestowed on the prime minister.

The Tories, on the other hand, supported the sovereign in her right to appoint church dignitaries, and were opposed to the so-called '* Low Church " party. They were generally considered Jacobites, and would gladly have been such if the Prince of Wales had not been a Roman Catholic.

Now that we have shown the distinction between these two parties, any future reference to them will be clearly understood.

With Queen Anne fairiy established on the throne. Lady Marlborough was at the very height of her glory, because she still retained unbounded influence over her majesty, and had a voice in every appointment. She even gave herself credit for many praiseworthy acts of the queen's, whether she deserved it or no. For example, she assured her friends that the command issued by the queen forbidding the sale of places in the royal household was really her own order, though it was probably no such thing. This was a French custom that had been introduced into England with the Restoration, whereby places were purchased of the former possessor without granting the sovereign any choice in the matter whatever. A man sold his position to the highest bidder, and felt not the slightest shame at pocketing the proceeds, nor was any privacy observed in the proceeding. It was a very injurious practice, and by no means insured good servants, so whether its abolition was due to the queen or Lady Marlborough, or both, it was certainly wise.

Shortly after Queen Anne's accession her husband. Prince George, was attacked with asthma, which had such a bad effect on him that change of air was recommended, and their majesties started on a tour through the west of England. Bristol was one of their stopping-places, and while there Prince George started out one morning,

incognito, with an officer for companion, to view the sights. After walking about for an hour or so, the prince went on the Exchange, and remained there until all the merchants had left excepting one John Duddlestone, a corset-maker. This good man stood off and stared at the prince, and then hestatingly approached, and with a shy, awkward manner, asked : " Are you, sir, the husband of our Queen Anne, as folks say you are ?" '* Such is, indeed, the fact," replied the prince. " Then," continuea John Duddlestone, " I have seen with great concern that none of the chief merchants on 'Change have invited 3'our highness home; but it is not for want of love or loyalty: it is merely because they are afraid to presume to address so great a man. But /think that the shame to Bristol would be great indeed if the husband of her majesty the queen were obliged, for want of hospitality, to dine at an inn ; I therefore beg your royal highness, humble though I am, to accompany me home to dinner and bring your soldier-officer along. I can offer your highness a good piece of roast beef, a plum-pudding, and some ale of my wife's own brewing, if that be good enough."

Prince George was charmed with this original style of invitation, and accepted it with gratitude, though his dinner had been ordered at the White Lion. Arriving at his house in Corn street, worthy John Duddlestone called up from the foot of the stairs, " Wife, wife ! put on a clean apron and come down, for the queen's husband and a soldier-gentleman have come to dine with us."

Dame Duddlestone soon appeared in a clean, blue check apron, neat calico frock, and snowy cap, courtseying and smiling as she entered the room, her full face all aglow with the excitement occasioned by the honor of such visitors. Her table was soon arranged, and the prince did ample justice to the meal, well knowing that he could not