The life of Queen Henrietta Maria (20 page)

highly merit that I should, and this life, which hitherto God is pleased to lend me, cannot be better laid down than where it shall please her Majesty to command it."

His presence at court during those summer days left its trace behind it, as appears from a letter addressed to him by Lord Conway when he had returned to his duties in Ireland. " My Lady of Carnarvon," said the writer, recapitulating to him the story of his own misdoings, " came with her husband to the Court, and it was determined that she should have been all the year in London, her lodging at the Cockpit. But my Lord Wentworth had been at court, and in the Queen's with-drawing-room was a constant looker on my Lady, as if that only were his business ; for which cause, as it is thought, my Lord of Carnarvon went home and my Lord Chamberlain preached of truth and honour ; one of the sermons, I and my Lady Killigrew—or my Lady Stafford, which you please—were at; it lasted from the beginning till the end of supper. . . . My Lady Carnarvon is sent down to her husband, and the night before she was with her father in her chamber till past twelve, he chiding and she weeping; and when she will return no man knows." And some think, adds Lord Wentworth's monitor, that his behaviour had been due rather to a desire to do despite to father and husband than to any great love for the lady herself—which surmise was not unlikely to be true.

In the month of August the foreign Princes were shown a different side of English life from that displayed by the entertainments of the Middle Temple. A royal visit was to be paid to Oxford and its Chancellor, Laud, and the boys accompanied the King and Queen to the university town.

The two days spent there were filled to the full. In

the first place came the state entry, when the royal party were met by the Archbishop, accompanied by the doctors in their scarlet academical gowns, at a couple of miles' distance from the town, and were escorted by them to Oxford itself. Evening service at Christchurch followed, attended by the King, Henrietta having been first deposited at her lodgings. That night the entertainment consisted of a play, given in Christchurch Hall and described by a letter of the time as " fitter for scholars than a court " ; whereas Lord Carnarvon declared it to be the worst he had ever seen, with the exception of one at Cambridge. The next day the morning was occupied by a meeting of Convocation, when the two Palatine Princes were introduced ; and Laud, determining to outdo the courtesy already shown by Cambridge to the elder of the brothers, declaring it beneath his dignity to accept a degree, requested him instead to nominate those he wished to see made doctors -and promised that the university would ratify his choice. Upon Prince Rupert a Mastership of Arts and a scarlet gown were conferred. After this, the Queen not being ready for the next item in the programme, Charles and his nephews were taken to the Bodleian, where more than an hour was passed, the King being loath to leave the place on Henrietta's arrival. Dinner—" a mighty feast "—followed at St. John's, and afterwards a play, not concluded till six o'clock, but interrupted in the middle for a short banquet. Supper at Christchurch was succeeded by a second play, Cart-wright's Royal Slave, with which the Queen was so much pleased that she had it performed some months later at Hampton Court, borrowing the costumes for the purpose from Oxford ; and at nine on the following morning the court left the university city to retire to Woodstock, and there, as one may well believe, to rest from the fatigues of

the preceding days. One circumstance, and one alone, must have marred the success of the visit. In its official utterances the 'loyalty of the university left nothing to be desired. But it was observed that, as the King passed through the streets of the city, there was an entire absence of public acclamation. That silence, to observant ears, must have suggested ominous reflections.

Speech, as well as silence, was soon to give expression to popular sentiment with regard to the course the King was pursuing. As discontent grew and waxed stronger and bolder, the general desire for a Parliament} for the French alliance then in question, and if necessary for a war, was openly manifested. Protests against the illegal levying of ship-money were no longer confined to those from whom opposition might naturally have been expected. The old Earl of Danby, a loyal servant of the Crown, wrote to warn Charles of the peril inseparable from his present policy, entreating that he would return to constitutional methods of government and would call together a Parliament. The Earl of Warwick, a month later, used still plainer language, adding that, should the King join with France in a war on behalf of the Prince Palatine, Parliament would be found ready to furnish all necessary supplies.

Charles was determined not to call a Parliament together ; but he was not unwilling to take more active measures than he had yet done with regard to the Palatinate. With this end in view he was energetic in pressing on the collection of ship-money. A fresh decision, calculated in every way to meet the King's wishes, was obtained from the judges with regard to the legality of the unpopular tax. To quote Laud's summary, sent to Wentworth, of the pronouncement of the Bench, the judges had " all declared under their hands, unanimously,

that if the kingdom be in danger, the King may call for, and ought to have, supply for ship-money through the kingdom, and that the king is sole judge when the kingdom is in danger."

Fortified by this decision, the collection of the tax was pushed vigorously forward, and a treaty with France, binding Charles to lend naval co-operation in a war, seemed well-nigh concluded. The Archbishop thought all was well. Others, of far different opinions and hopes, were rejoicing too ; for, more sagacious in this respect than the minister, they perceived that, a war once set on foot, it was impossible to assign it limits, and that, if the supplies necessary for carrying it on by land as well as by sea were to be obtained, resort must be had in the end to the representatives of the people. Wentworth perceived this too. His voice, unlike the Archbishop's, was given against a resort to arms. Had the Crown possessed a power to levy money for military operations on land corresponding to that already exerted to strengthen the fleet, it would have been a different matter. But, so far, no such system was in existence. The absolutism Wentworth himself had succeeded in establishing in Ireland was still, as Laud sorrowfully acknowledged, far from being possible in England ; and taking into consideration the spirit at present abroad, the Viceroy wisely deprecated any course of action tending to render an appeal to the country inevitable.

Meantime the chances of a war which might have had this result were visibly decreasing. It had become plain that France had not, after all, meant business. Once more Charles was falling back upon his old futile policy of carrying on negotiations with any possible allies who might assist in the restoration of the Palatinate ;

HENRIETTA MARIA

and, for the present, the most important duty entrusted to the fleet that had cost so much in money and popularity, seemed destined to be that of serving as escort to the Prince Palatine and his brother on their return to Holland.

" Both brothers," wrote a correspondent to Lord Wentworth, "went away unwilling, but Prince Rupert expressed it most ; for being a-hunting that morning with the King, he wished that he might break his neck, that so he might leave his bones in England."

Whatever else might be the result of the visit, it was clear that Rupert, at least, had profited to the full by the opportunities it had afforded him of becoming versed in the arts of a courtier.

CHAPTER IX

1637—1638

The Pope's envoy, Con—Conversions at court—Laud's proclamation— Scottish affairs—Hampden's trial—Decision of the judges—Court gossip—Rivalry of Northumberland and Holland—Wentworth on Holland—Wentworth's own aims—Relations with Henrietta—The Scottish Covenant inaugurated—Arrival in England of Marie de Medicis—Her interview with de Bellievre.

PANZANI'S departure had not had the effect of allaying the agitation consequent upon his mission, [is successor, the Scottish priest, Con, was equally adroit in making use of his position at court, and perhaps lore active in carrying on the work of propaganda. r alter Montagu had likewise returned to England, red by the zeal of a convert, and religious parties irere more sharply divided than before. Laud, keenly live to the suspicions entertained as to his own pro-livities, would have liked to rehabilitate himself in le eyes of the nation, and to clear himself from the iputation of Romanism, by dealing out equal justice Catholic and Puritan. But there were obstacles in way. Charles, who had no particular objections to irge against the placing of Puritans in the pillory, d have probably disapproved of a similar severity ised against those with many of whom he was himself ipon friendly terms ; and the opposition of the Queen, )used to unusual energy by her present advisers, and iking besides a special interest in a fight in which the

Archbishop was her opponent, could be reckoned upon to counterbalance his influence. Nor does it appear to have occurred to the King that his intercourse with his wife's co-religionists might lay him open to misconstruction ; or that, for example, the prominent place given to the Pope's envoy on so public an occasion as the leave-taking of the French ambassador, when, Laud being on the King's right hand, Con stood at the Queen's left, could give rise to unfavourable comment. Secure in his absolute loyalty to the English Church, he was, perhaps, less cautious than might have been the case with a man conscious of a divided allegiance.

The work of conversion was going rapidly forward and might well cause uneasiness to spectators in the Protestant camp. Now it is Lord Andover, who is married by a priest to a daughter of Lord Savage without consent of parents, an offence which the King could not forgive, even the Queen being reported to be heartily sorry for the young lord's mother. Again, two nieces of the late Duke of Buckingham, following the example of his widow, are numbered amongst those reconciled to Rome. In this case, the manner in which the conversion of one of the two, Lady Newport, had been effected produced additional disturbance. The story was a singular one. Returning home one night, after attending a performance in Drury Lane, she called at Somerset House, and was then and there received by one of the Queen's Capuchins into the Catholic Church. It is scarcely surprising that such a mode of procedure should have moved her husband to indignation ; whilst Henrietta herself "hath since sent for the Rector, hath chid him, and admonished him from doing the like again, especially to women of quality."

The Queen, as well as Con, at this period her counsellor, may have been moved to unusual prudence by the perception that trouble was likely to ensue. Lord Newport was not disposed to let the matter rest, and called upon Laud to proceed against those to whom his wife's defection was due. The Archbishop would have liked nothing better than to comply with the demand, desiring in particular that young Montagu should be banished the court. Once more, however, Henrietta barred the way. She had by this time entered so fully into the spirit of the fight that Con himself advised moderation. She was hot against Laud. Language used by him in the council-chamber had not failed to find its way to her ears, and she complained to the King of his insolence. Charles found himself in a difficulty. His sympathies were on the side of the Archbishop, but he loved his wife. He took the course of recommending Laud to confer with Henrietta. " You will find my wife reasonable," he told him. Laud may be pardoned for doubting it.

Action of some kind was, nevertheless, clearly necessary, and the Archbishop, in one fashion or another, must be allowed to vindicate his Protestantism. A proclamation directed against the recent development of religious zeal was accordingly prepared ; and Charles, in reply to Con's remonstrances upon the subject, answered with spirit and determination. He desired, he said, that his own position, as well as that of the Catholics, should be understood. "It is necessary," he added, " to remind them that they live in England, not in Rome." His conduct was marked with less decision than his words. The proclamation was issued ; but, having been first submitted to Henrietta's censorship, the Government was committed

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to little more than a vague threat that those who made converts or gave rise to scandal should be punished according to their offences.

Even to this mild warning Henrietta's retort was prompt. On Christmas Day the new converts, assembled at Somerset House, made their communion in a body. The corporate act was a demonstration and an open defiance : " You have now seen," Henrietta told Con, " what has come of the proclamation." The Archbishop's measure was neutralised, and things went on as before. " Our great women fall away every day," wrote the Master of the Charterhouse sadly to Wentworth some months later ; a farther result of Con's labours being described by Lady Arundel in a conversation with the papal envoy. "Before you came," she told him, "I would not for a million have entertained a priest at my table, and now you see how common a thing it is."

Whilst Henrietta was thus contributing her share to the work of arousing against the monarchy the religious sentiment of the English nation, Charles was producing a like spirit of animosity in the north. In the year 1637 his ill-advised attempt to force the English liturgy upon the Scottish people took place. Whatever may have been the evil effect of Henrietta's influence and counsels upon her husband's fortunes, for the proximate causes of the disturbances in Scotland, where the discontent smouldering throughout the kingdom first burst into flame, she was in no wise responsible. It is more than possible that, had it been a question of compelling a nation to accept Catholic faith and Catholic ceremonial, she would have considered no price unduly high ; but the exchange of one form of Protestantism for another would have appeared to her of too little importance to justify imperilling the peace of the kingdom in order to