The life of Queen Henrietta Maria (18 page)

Not a week after, on the day following the performance of another play, Shirley's Gamester, two cases brought before the Star Chamber afforded curious proof of the variety of the offences dealt with by this tribunal, and their differing degrees of importance. The first of the charges was directed against Prynne, whose prosecution had already lasted over a year. The other, arising out of the entertainment of the previous night, was merely concerned with a brawl, drunken or other, between

two of the guests, Lord Morley and Sir George Theobalds. Morley probably escaped with a reprimand. Ten days later Prynne was sentenced to pay a fine of ,£5,000, was expelled from Lincoln's Inn, degraded from his degree, and ordered to be set in the pillory and to lose his ears. He would probably have felt that the suffering to be undergone was not too high a price for the result achieved, if, as it has been averred, dramatic productions became less openly immoral by reason of the attention he had drawn to their character.

Masques continued much in fashion so long as the King and Queen had leisure for such entertainments. Ben Jonson, though discarded at Whitehall, was employed as librettist soon afterwards by the Earl of Newcastle, on the occasion of a royal visit to Bolsover in 1634, when the expenditure incurred by the Earl, together with that of an earlier visit to Welbeck, was estimated at no less a sum than ^ 10,000. It is true that a letter addressed by Newcastle to Wentworth on the first occasion implies that other motives besides purely disinterested ones had contributed to the outlay, and that it was not without disappointment that he viewed the result. The King, he said, had seemed pleased, and had never used him better. On the other hand, he had hurt his estate, had been long put in hope, and would now labour no more, but would let nature work and expect the issue—"it is better to give over in time than to lose all." Even did he obtain his desire, it would be a more painful life, and, since he was so much plunged in debt, would help very well to undo him. After all, he knew no reason why the King should give him anything. If he had commands for him, he was ready to serve him ; if not, to pray for him.

It is easy to be philosophical on paper ; not so easy

to carry philosophy into the conduct of life. Yet, having done much, it was perhaps not unwise to do more. It is said that in consequence of the impression made upon the King and Queen by the magnificent hospitalities he again offered them in the succeeding year, the post of governor to the little heir-apparent was conferred upon the Earl. He had many qualifications for the charge. A very fine gentleman, to summarise Clarendon's account, full of courage, accomplished in the arts of horsemanship, fencing, and dancing, and " amorous in poetry and music," nothing could have tempted him out of paths of pleasure but honour and ambition to serve the King. He loved monarchy, as the foundation and support of his own greatness ; the Church, as it was constituted for the splendour and security of the Crown ; and religion, as it cherished and maintained the order and obedience necessary to both. He had a reverence for the King and an extraordinary devotion to the person of the Prince, and he was loyal and faithful in days when the love of many waxed cold. Such was the man entrusted with the education of the child upon whom many hopes centred. A curious paper of instructions, drawn up by him for the use of his pupil, illustrates the lines upon which that education was conducted. Judging by Charles II.'s future career it seems that some, at least, of his tutor's maxims had been laid to heart.

" I would not have you too studious," wrote the Earl, "for too much contemplation spoils action, and virtue consists in that." Art is to be cultivated, so far as it is of use. Then follows advice surely not endorsed by Henrietta. " Beware of too much devotion for a king ; for one may be a good man but a bad king, and how many will history represent to you that in seeking to gain the kingdom of heaven have lost their own. The

old saying is that short prayers pierce heaven's gate." What religion Charles has is nevertheless to be genuine. He is God's deputy, and owes Him as much reverence and duty as his own subjects owe a sovereign. To all he is »to be courteous and civil. " Pulling off your hat and making a leg pleases more than reward." He also is to speak well of every one. " To women you cannot be too civil." Thus the paper runs on, a curious example of worldly wisdom and shrewd common-sense.

The Queen's first letter to her son has been preserved, and is one of the few examples of her use of the English language. Belonging to a somewhat later date, it may be given here.

"Charles," she writes, "j am sore that j must begin my first letter with chiding you because j heere that you will not take phisike. I hope it was onlei for this day, and that tomorrowe you will doe it for yf you will not j must come to you, and make you take it, for it is for your healthe. I have given order to my lord Newcastell to send mi word tonight whether you will or not, therfore j hope you will not give mi the paines to goe, and so j rest your affectionat mother, Henriette Marie R. To my deare Sone the Prince."

Charles' own note to his governor, probably in reply to further pressure on the subject of medicine, gives too much evidence of humour in the eight-year-old heir to the throne to be omitted.

" My Lord," wrote the Prince in a round hand, " 1 would not have you take too much phisicke, for it doth always make me worse and I think it will do the like with you. I ride every day and am ready to follow any other directions from you. Make haste back to him that loves you, Charles P."

Henrietta was an affectionate mother, and her

From the picture by Van Dyck at Windsor Castle. Photo by Franz Hanfstaengl. CHARLES II. AS PRINCE OF WALES.

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nursery must have been full enough to give her ample occupation when the round of court entertainments afforded her leisure to attend to it. Besides her two elder sons and her daughter Mary, Elizabeth and little Anne were added to the list before the close of this period of tranquillity ; and her voice—of rare beauty, but never used in public—would be sometimes heard as she sang to her babies. Rumours of gathering and increasing discontent outside the circle of the court will have penetrated but faintly to her ears, and all have seemed to her to be going very well.

Yet there must have been times when the French Queen felt herself to be a foreigner in a strange land. Not one of her relations appear to have yet crossed the narrow seas to visit her ; whilst her correspondence with her sister, Christine, married in 1619 to the Duke of Savoy, and from whom Henrietta had finally parted as a child of ten, testifies to her clinging to ties of blood and to the warmth and tenacity of her affections. To the sister whom she would not have recognised had they met she writes with eager and overflowing sympathy, whether in the time of the Duchess's prosperity or during the sorrows by which she was overtaken. She is, as it were, at home in the nursery at Turin, and with the children she has never seen. "Je suis amoureuse de ma niepse," she says, thanking Christine for the portraits she has sent, " et pour vostre petit fils, je ne 1'oserais louer, car il resemble trop au mien." Upon another occasion a lock of the little Italian niece's curling hair had been sent to the unknown aunt, in full confidence of her interest in its beauty. When, on the death of her husband, Christine was surrounded by intrigues and conspiracies, Henrietta's sympathy was no less great. She wished it were in her power to go

in person to offer her services to her sister. The time was not far distant when Henrietta herself would be claiming the compassion she was so lavish in bestowing, and the tone of her letters at that period is evidence that she did not claim it in vain. But for the present no presage of the coming storm oppressed her.

CHAPTER VIII

1634—1637

Henrietta not concerned in Charles' foreign or home policy—Money difficulties—Puritan distrust—Panzani's mission—Panzani's relations with court and ministers—Hopeful reports sent to Rome—Conversions—Panzani and the Queen—Charles friendly—Con and Hamilton appointed agents to Urban and Henrietta—The Prince Palatine and Prince Rupert visit England—Royal visit to Oxford— Popular discontent—Departure of the Princes.

WITH many of the public events which, in England and elsewhere, were silently but not less surely preparing the way for the fall of the monarchy, Henrietta had, directly, little to do. Into the bewildering mazes of Charles' negotiations with foreign powers, still carried on with the hope of obtaining for his nephew the restoration of his lost inheritance, she probably cared to intervene only so far as she might be able to place obstacles in the way of a Spanish alliance. Neither as Calvinist nor as the son of an unknown sister-in-law would the young Prince Palatine appeal strongly to her sympathies ; and in regard to Charles' renewed hopes of obtaining his object through Spain the Queen was not in his confidence, only those members of the council employed in the negotiations being acquainted with his scheme. With these matters, therefore, Henrietta continued to have no concern.

With the nature of the efforts made by Charles and his ministers to fill the Exchequer, whilst dispensing

with the assistance and authority of Parliament, she would have concerned herself inasmuch as they appeared likely or not to prove efficacious in supplying the funds so sorely needed in the royal household. Of the urgency of its necessities there is ample proof. Debts to the amount of £2,456 and £1,026, incurred during Henrietta's first two years of marriage in connection with " the Queen's Christmas masques," were not paid till 1636. For these expenses Henrietta could not be held responsible. But other items in the royal accounts point to the fact that the charge of extravagance brought against her was'not unfounded. Thus, a sum of £2,481— even when £200 had been deducted by the King from the bill—was paid for a bed, a cradle-bed, chairs, cradle, and stools, all purchased in preparation for the birth of her second daughter, Elizabeth. Humbler creditors were clamouring for payment, and one Francis Burt, purveyor of poultry to the royal children, sending in his bill for £1,900, fears he will be undone if it be not discharged. To the inconvenience attaching to the honour of being entrusted with the responsibility of making purchases on the King's behalf, letters of Sir Thomas Roe, preserved amongst the state papers, bear witness. Roe was a disappointed man. Neither his abilities nor his services had met with the recognition they deserved ; and he had recently seen the post of Secretary, for which he might reasonably have hoped, conferred upon Winde-bank, a nominee of Laud's of no personal weight. For his more serious disappointments there was no remedy ; but he had a minor grievance to be redressed, and upon this point he wrote pressingly to Lord Goring. A sum of ,£2,500, apparently due for jewels of which he had negotiated the purchase, was still unpaid, Roe being personably liable for the debt. A former letter addressed

to Goring upon this subject had, he fears, been misunderstood, since the answer had contained, not a promise of hard cash or of the Queen's influence to obtain it, but of her prayers. Of " those six Our Father in Heaven" Roe has never heard. It is practical help he desires. He will not urge one reason why the Queen should succour him—should " show him in another glass to his Majesty"—since he will not alloy the purity of her goodness with any mixture of cause in himself. But he wants the money. Two days later he is writing again, this time to the Lord Treasurer himself, on the same subject, expressing a confidence one fears he does not feel, that the Queen is " too princely " to wear jewels and leave them unpaid for.

Whilst expenses of this nature had to be met, and difficulty was found in meeting them, interest of a certain kind must have been felt by Henrietta in her husband's financial affairs ; but provided money came in she probably cared little how it was obtained. Nor had discontent, up to this time, with regard to the methods employed to raise it, become loud enough to penetrate to any great extent the thick walls of a palace. So long as Portland was alive, selfish, interested, and inert, he had opposed an obstacle to the employment of the more energetic and drastic methods adopted by Laud and the colleagues amongst whom, at his death, the Treasury was temporarily put into commission. It was not until the second levy of ship-money that dissatisfaction had become noisy. At that time a change had taken place. Justice Berkeley had put the claims of the King into black and white. In publicly enunciating the principle that there was one rule of law and another rule of government, he had practically set the royal prerogative above legal precedent, thereby abrogating at one stroke

HENRIETTA MARIA

every man's rights, and placing his property at the mercy of the Crown. It was not strange that the pronouncement should have created a universal feeling of insecurity. " The liberty of the subject," wrote D'Ewes, " received the most deadly and fatal blow it had been sensible of in five hundred years." But a new opposing force was likewise called into existence. " The feeling that law was trodden under foot would quickly spread, and would give an imaginative force to a resistance which would be based on a higher motive than the dislike to pay a tax which had not been paid before." l