CHAPTER IIIJAMES STUART

James, the second son of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, was born on the 15th of October 1633, being baptized by Laud on the 24th,[49]and like his elder brother was bandied about, hither and thither, during the progress of the great Civil War, in a manner and among associates unlikely to have a satisfactory effect on the character of a boy.

49.“Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of the “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby,” introduction by F. A. Gasquet, D.D.

It can scarcely be a matter for surprise that it was so. The King, more and more harassed and preoccupied as time went on, could hardly be supposed to give adequate consideration to his sons’ surroundings, although, as we have seen, he did his best for the elder in committing him to the guardianship of Edward Hyde.

In 1648 James was named Lord High Admiral of England, a barren title in the state of affairs as they then were, but before this he had passedthrough some exciting adventures. He was in Oxford when that loyal city surrendered to Fairfax in 1646, two years earlier, and with his sister Elizabeth and their little brother Henry was taken to St James’s Palace, where they were detained as wards of the Parliament. Although the children’s intercourse with their father had of late been of necessity intermittent,[50]yet they loved him very dearly, as he had been always tender and indulgent to them. On this point there is a pathetic story of James, at that time but twelve years of age. For some time he had been kept in ignorance of the King’s imprisonment, but in January 1647 “one of his attendants, a servant of the Earl of Northumberland, told him of it, to which he replied, How durst any rogues to use his Father after that manner! and then fell a-weeping. The man told him he would inform his Lord of what had been said, whereupon the Duke took a long bow then in the place to have shot him, had not another behind him held his hand. For this it is reported the Earl of Northumberland will have the Duke whipped, but whether it hath been done I know not.”[51]

50.“Anecdotal Memories of English Princes.” D. Adams.

51.Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii., Appendix.

It is easy to picture the scene. The insolent serving-man, “armed with a little brief authority,” meanly rejoicing in the opportunity to sting a fallen prince; and the boy, the passionate tears still wet on his young, flushed face, wild with indignant wrath at the bitter news and his own helplessness. One cannot bear to think that such hot, impetuous affection and grief should have been so requited.

The King, meanwhile, was very anxious to effect the escape of his second son, whose life as heir presumptive was of great importance, and he confided the attempt to Colonel Charles Bampfylde, or Bamfield, an Irishman. The latter found a willing accomplice in Anne Murray, the daughter of the King’s old tutor and secretary, Thomas Murray, who afterwards became Lady Halkett, and the two conspirators laid their plans carefully, though it was May 1648 before the adventure could be accomplished.[52]

52.“Autobiography of Anne Murray (Lady Halkett).” Charles II. thanked her for this service when they met at Dunfermline.

The three children thus under ward at St James’s were instructed to play at hide and seek in the then neglected and thickly wooded gardenof the ancient palace, and the young Duke James proved himself quite sufficiently adroit in seconding the plans of his preservers. Under cover of the spring twilight he contrived to slip through a gate purposely left open, which led to the Tilt-yard—for Bampfylde had managed to interest other sympathisers in the plot. James had remembered also to lock the balcony through which he emerged, and to throw away the key, besides taking the precaution of locking up his little dog in his room.[53]By Tilt-yard end, as it was called, Bampfylde was waiting for him with a wig and patches, and they hurried forthwith to Spring Gardens, “as if to hear the nightingales,” a favourite expedition of the London citizens at that season. Thence a coach conveyed them to the river, where they took boat at Ivy Bridge, and reached the “Old Swan.” Here Mistress Anne Murray was waiting for them, and she arrayed the boy in girl’s clothes in all haste, while he, poor child, impatiently adjured her: “Quickly, quickly, dress me!” This done, Bampfylde took his charge to the Lion Key, where a Dutch Pink, cleared the day before by Gravesend searchers, was expecting “Mr Andrews and his sister,” thelatter supposed to be on her way to join her husband in Holland.

53.Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii., Appendix.

Here the Prince, waiting in the cabin, in a moment of forgetfulness nearly wrecked the whole situation by putting his leg on the table to pull up his stocking, seeing which the barge-master suspected the sex of the pretended girl. However, Bampfylde’s threats and James’ promises of future provision prevailed, and the voyage was safely accomplished.[54]

54.Macpherson’s “Original Papers.”

The fugitives landed in due course at Middleburg, going thence to Dordrecht, and James, having despatched Bampfylde to The Hague to announce his successful escape, was met by his brother-in-law the Prince of Orange, and by him conducted to the Princess at Sluys. Bampfylde’s influence appears to have been bad from the beginning, as he tried to implicate the boy in an act of treason.[55]Six ships of the fleet then lying in the Downs deserted, and having secured Deal, Sandown and Walmer, sailed to Helvoetsluys, where James joined them, but Bampfylde worked on the sailors to declare for the young Duke without any mention of the King or the Prince of Wales. James, however, was wiseenough to answer that he would be their admiral only with his father’s consent.

55.“History of the Rebellion.” Clarendon.

At The Hague he joined his elder brother, and early in the succeeding year set out for Paris, starting on 6th January 1649, just when the war of the Fronde was beginning. On this account his mother sent letters to meet him at Cambrai, bidding him delay his journey, and the Archduke Leopold, Governor of the Netherlands, offered him quarters in the Abbey of St Amand. Here he stayed for about a month, a visit which is supposed, in spite of his youth, to have laid the foundation of his subsequent conversion to the Church of Rome. The religious of this community no doubt did their best in controversy to influence the young English prince who might one day prove a valuable asset. At some time, probably soon afterwards, a nun is said to have advised him to pray every day if he was not in the right way, that God would show it to him, and this seems to have made a deep and lasting impression on his mind, judging from his allusion to it many years later.[56]

56.Burnet’s “History of His Own Time.”

In February he was able to prosecute his deferred journey, and on the 13th he made his appearance at the Louvre where his mother thenwas. She was sitting at dinner when the boy came hastily in and knelt for her blessing.[57]What kind of reception she gave him we do not know, but when all is said and done, Henrietta, capricious as she could be, was an affectionate if injudicious mother, and there must have been a keen sense of satisfaction in receiving her young son after their long separation and his adventurous travels.

For a time James settled down among his hitherto unknown relations. The famous princess, Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, the redoubtable heroine of the Fronde, “la grande Mademoiselle,” was very kind to her new cousin at a time when she was flouting his elder brother. The Duke of York, between thirteen and fourteen years of age, was then, she says, “very pretty, well made, with good features, who spoke French well, which gave him a much better air than had the King his brother,” who was at that time completely ignorant of the language, though he was eagerly put forward by his mother as a suitor for the hand of his imperious cousin, who could bestow such a magnificent dowry on any husband on whom her choice might fall.

57.Nicholas Papers.

In the September of 1649 Charles determined to go to Jersey, the Channel Islands having remained steadily loyal to the royal cause, and he took his brother James with him, probably intending to detach him from their mother’s influence.[58]At Caen they visited Lady Ormonde, who was living there at that time in exile, and at Coutances, not far away, the bishop received the brothers with some distinction, giving a banquet in their honour at Cotainville on the following day. However, as the boats were waiting, they started at once, and reached Jersey on the 18th. Here they passed the winter, and the Duke of York won golden opinions from those who came in contact with him.

58.“History of the Rebellion.” Clarendon.

He was by this time a tall slight boy, almost as tall as his brother, lively and gracious in manner, while his bright complexion and fair hair displayed a marked difference from the swarthy young King. The two were then in mourning for their martyred father, whose tragic death had taken place in the previous January, and James is described as dressed “in an entire suit of black without any other ornament or decoration than the silver star displayed uponhis mantle, and a purple scarf across his shoulders.”[59]

59.“Charles II. in the Channel Islands.” Hoskins.

The brothers were much together in those early days of exile, and it could not be for the advantage of the younger, seeing what manner of men Charles chose to encourage about him, though after all, considering his own youth and circumstances, the latter was scarcely a free agent in this respect.

The two quarrelled at times, and indeed somewhat later Charles manifested a certain jealousy of his brother which can scarcely be a matter for surprise.[60]

60.“Travels of the King.” Eva Scott.

The Duke of York in due time took service in the army of France, under the great Turenne, and speedily distinguished himself by his courage and military genius,[61]while the unhappy King was forced to remain in obscure idleness and abject poverty, an object of more or less contempt in each country which he visited in his wanderings, especially after that disastrous attempt which ended in the crushing defeat ofWorcester—Cromwell’s “crowning mercy”—and his own hairbreadth escape. James, on the other hand, before he was twenty-one had seen three victorious campaigns under his famous leader, and was drawing pay which placed him in easy circumstances, enabling him to support his rank suitably. Nevertheless whatever differences might arise between the brothers (and these were certainly fomented by those about them, not to speak of Cromwell, who from motives of policy wished to divide them), there was strong family affection among the children of Charles I., and in later days these two were certainly linked together by an unswerving attachment which grew with advancing years, and was dissolved only by death.

61.“Memoirs of J. Evelyn,” edit. Wm. Bray, 1818. Edward Hyde (Paris) to Sir Richard Browne, 6th December 1653: “The Duke of York is returned hither, full of reputac’on and honour.”

Charles had left Jersey in February 1650, but his brother remained there, probably because of the latter’s opposition to the treaty with the Scots. Young as he was, he set himself passionately against it, and even dismissed Lord Byron and Sir John Berkeley from his bedchamber on this account.[62]However, the brothers parted affectionately at this time, and did not meet again for more than eighteen months, Charles having joined his mother atBeauvais, and then returned to Flanders. In 1650 Lord Taafe had proposed a match between the Duke of York and the little daughter of Duke Charles IV. of Lorraine, “a prince,” as James remarked afterwards, “not much accustomed to keep his word.”[63]However, the young Duke seems to have acquiesced in the plan, though the Queen was very angry with both Taafe and Lord Inchiquin for presuming to interfere, as she termed it. At this time her relations with her second son were certainly strained. She was very hard on him, and he hated Henry Jermyn, hotly resenting the latter’s powerful influence with his mother, who, he declared, “loved and valued Lord Jermyn more than all her children,” an instance of Henrietta’s headstrong disregard for appearances, which involved her in what was possibly an unmerited scandal.[64]The poor boy had also at this time the fret and strain of poverty, but just then there came a report of the King’s death, on which James set out for Brussels, where he stayed at the house of Sir Henry de Vic. He remained there for two months, frequenting, so we are told, various popular churches for the sake, he said,of the fine music he heard in them. At this time Sir George Radcliffe was controller of the Duke’s meagre household, and with Sir Edward Herbert appointed a new suite. His mother had forbidden him to join his sister Mary, but in December 1650 he was allowed to proceed to The Hague from Rheims, where he had gone from Brussels. At the christening of the baby William, born under such mournful circumstances, the Princess Dowager proposed that the young uncle should carry the child, but the mother interfered, considering such a proceeding highly insecure.[65]James was made chief mourner at the funeral of his brother-in-law, the Prince of Orange, at Delft, but soon afterwards the States General found him an inconvenient visitor, as they were anxious to establish a good understanding with the English Parliament: thus he was sent to Breda, and his mother was asked to recall him.

62.Carte’s “Letters.”

63.Nicholas Papers.

64.“The King in Exile.” Eva Scott.

65.“The King in Exile.” Eva Scott.

He was with her in France at the time of his brother’s absence in Scotland, and they went together to Moriceux, to meet the fugitive King on the accomplishment of his romantic escape after Worcester. James was soon to make his acquaintance with war on his own account, forit was at the age of nineteen,[66]and therefore in 1652, that he entered the army of his cousin Louis XIV., wherein he served four years with honour, becoming popular with all ranks. At the end of his fourth campaign, which included the sieges and taking of Landrecy, Condé and St Guislain, Turenne was sent for by Mazarin, and as all the other lieutenant-generals were on leave the young English prince was for a time in supreme command of the army of France.[67]Before this, however, and soon after he joined Turenne, the lad had received his baptism of fire at the first attack on Etampes, and it was there that Schomberg, the future famous marshal, was wounded at his side.[68]Forty years later at the Boyne Water, King James, in the desperate attempt to regain his lost crown, was defeated by the great Dutch general, who fell in the hour of victory. Time has his revenges. One wonders if the thoughts of the luckless, despairing King travelled back to that first fight, in the early flush of youth andhope, when the world was opening before him and everything seemed possible.[69]

66.“Turenne,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.”

67.“Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.”

68.“James II. and his Wives.” Allan Fea.

69.“Turenne,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.”

Soon after Turenne’s summons to attend the Cardinal the treaty which Cromwell concluded with France required the banishment of the Duke of York, and having thus perforce to leave the army, he came to Paris there to rejoin his mother. He was smarting under the treatment he had received, for Turenne was his ideal and moreover had treated him with marked kindness and consideration, giving “him a reception suitable to his birth, and endeavoured by all possible proofs of affection to soften the remembrance of his misfortunes.” This great leader had a high opinion of the Duke, saying of him that he “was the greatest prince and like to be the best general of his time.” We find Clarendon himself writing to Secretary Nicholas in 1653: “The Duke of York is this day gone towards the field, he is a gallant gentleman and hath the best general reputation of any young prince in Christendom and really will come to great matters.”

The Duke had not reached manhood without further plans on his mother’s part to negotiatea suitable alliance. We have seen that the Lorraine match fell through. In the succeeding year, when he was eighteen, Marie d’Orléans, Mademoiselle de Longueville, the daughter of the Duke de Longueville by his first wife, was suggested by Sir John Berkeley. She was ugly and deformed, though called a wise princess, but the greatest heiress in France, after Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and James made no objection.[70]Hyde, however, opposed the marriage, on the ground that the heir presumptive ought not to marry before the sovereign, in which axiom the queen-mother for once agreed with him, and Anne of Austria, Queen-regent of France, clinched the matter. The Duke of York, she decided, was too great, as the son of a king, to marry in France without the consent of his nation and brother.[71]Mademoiselle de Longueville married Henri, Duc de Nemours, in 1657. Madame de Motteville speaks of her good looks, which Hyde denies, and affirms attachment on James’ part.

70.“Life of Henrietta Maria,” I. A. Taylor.

71.“Memoirs for History of Anne of Austria,” Madame de Motteville, 1725; “James II. and his Wives,” Allan Fea.

James is reported to have been “very much displeased,” which seems a little unlikely, consideringhis youth and the unattractive appearance of the proposed bride. But four more years of strenuous life, as we know, were to pass over his head, and then at Peronne, in the train of his sister Mary, James, Duke of York, was fated to meet for the first time Anne Hyde. In his own memoirs, dictated long afterwards, he acknowledges that he learnt to love her at that time. The brilliant girl, for whom Spencer Compton and Harry Jermyn had sighed in vain, was, with her ready wit and hereditary talents, a conspicuous figure in the entourage of the Princess of Orange.[72]“Besides her person,” says the record just mentioned, “she had all the qualities proper to inflame a heart less apt to take fire than his.” “A very extraordinary woman” she is even called by Burnet (who, however, is not always to be trusted). But at any rate, clever, fearless, ready of tongue and broadly sympathetic, she stood for much that might be considered typically English at that time.[73]As for Anne’s own feelings, no one can wonder at her reciprocation of a passion which a prince like James laid at her feet. Fresh fromthe fields of his prowess, confessed by the greatest captain of the age to be of conspicuous gallantry, and surrounded with the halo of unmerited misfortune, there is no doubt that he must have seemed a very Paladin to the daughter of the loyal Cavalier to whom fealty to the exiled race was a religion, and for the rest, when one looks at the picture painted in his youth by Lely—the haughty, beautiful face, with its sensitive mouth and luminous eyes—one cannot choose but see, like poor Nan Hyde, in the Duke of York a veritable Prince Charming.

72.“Memoirs of the Court of England during Reign of Stuarts.” J. H. Jesse.

73.“Queen Anne and her Court.” P. F. Williams Ryan.

His own statement is simply made in few words,[74]and apparently if the lovers confessed their attachment to each other at that time no one else guessed their secret then nor for long afterwards.[75]

74.“Life of James II.” Rev. J. S. Clarke, from original Stuart MSS. in Carlton House, 1816.

75.“Original Papers containing Secret History of Great Britain,” arranged by James Macpherson, 1775. Extracts from writings of James II. himself.

The Princess Mary and her train remained for some months in France, as before mentioned, and it was during the stay in Paris that Frances Stanhope, one of her ladies, was converted to Rome, and Queen Henrietta was present at herprofession in the Jesuit Noviciate Church. At this time the Queen’s capricious favour seems to have veered in the direction of her second son, probably on account of his service in the French army.

During this Paris visit Sir Richard Browne, father-in-law to John Evelyn, was writing to Hyde in the month of May: “I have as yett been onely once at our Court where by misfortune I could not kisse ye hande of yrfaire daughter.” They were old friends, and the friendship lasted for years.[76]

76.Evelyn’s “Correspondence.” Sir E. Hyde to Sir R. Browne, Bruges, 18th August 1656: “We expect the Duke of York here very speedily.”

Meanwhile the Duke of York, utterly weary of inglorious ease, again took up arms, though reluctantly, at this time in the Spanish army under the exiled Condé. He had received a sort of apology from Mazarin for the treaty with Cromwell, which however he frankly acknowledged to be unavoidable. It was, as has already been said, a prime object with the Protector to foment disagreements between the royal brothers, and he persuaded the Cardinal to offer James a command of troops in Italy.[77]Charles on this summoned his brother to Breda, and bade him take an oath of service to Spain and also dismiss his governor, Sir John Berkeley, who was secretly an agent of Cromwell. The Duke of York, however, probably resenting dictation of any kind, left Flanders hurriedly, to his brother’s great wrath; on which Hyde, justly apprehensive of a breach between the two, interfered on behalf of the younger brother, begging that at any cost he should be recalled, and Ormonde was sent after the truant. James listened to his persuasions so far as to consent to return, on condition that his household was not meddled with, and the offending Berkeley was given a peerage, it is hard to see why, being created Baron Berkeley of Stratton. On this occasion the Princess Mary went to Bruges to assist in bringing about the reconciliation between her brothers, and in the month of May the Duke of York was given the command of certain regiments newly raised, and in the succeeding month finally made up his difference with Charles. At the battle of the Dunes he displayed extraordinary valour, a quality which distinguished him throughout his career as a soldier. Condé, who might certainly be considered a judge of such matters, placed it onrecord that “if there was a man without fear, it was the Duke of York.”

77.“Charles II.” Osmund Airy.

In this campaign James had now the company of his younger brother Henry, Duke of Gloucester. In that poor boy’s short and stormy life there was indeed little space for anything to be called happiness. He, contemptuously called “Master Harry” by his gaolers, had been released by the Parliament some years previously, and having landed at Dunkirk was first sent to Lady Hyde at Antwerp, but he arrived in Paris in 1653.[78]He had become—he was but ten years old—terribly spoilt by bad company, but he quickly improved in his new surroundings, and later, Morley at any rate thought highly of him.[79]No sooner, however, had he taken up his abode with his mother than she, regardless of the dying commands of his father, set to work with all her might to win him over to the Church of Rome, fancying no doubt that with a child of Gloucester’s tender years her task would prove an easy one.

78.Sandford’s “Genealogical History.”

79.Dictionary of National Biography.

Charles II., nevertheless, wrote the boy a stern letter of warning, and appealed passionately to James for aid, he being then at hand, biddinghim even leave the service of France sooner than refrain from supporting his brother. Besides this the King despatched the faithful Ormonde to enforce his command, the latter moreover on arrival finding it necessary to sell his own George, the last jewel remaining to him, to help the young Duke in his destitution.

On this Henrietta flew into one of her tempests of rage and promptly turned her youngest son out of her house, believing she could thus coerce him into surrender. After a piteous scene with his little sister Henrietta, who seemed beside herself with terror, only gasping “Oh me! my mother!” amidst her sobs, the poor young Duke, forlorn and helpless, but unshaken in his resolve, fled to his brother James, who did his best to console him, and proved indeed always kind and affectionate. On this occasion, moreover, the Duke of York attempted in vain to soften his mother’s anger, but the only result was that she refused to communicate with either son, except through Walter Montague, who was much in her confidence as a messenger and go-between on many occasions. This favour he probably owed to the fact of his being a convert from the Anglican Church. He entered the religious life, and died as Abbot of Pontoise.

The two royal brothers during their Paris sojourn attended together regularly the English service which was held at the house of Sir Richard Browne and was frequented by many of the exiled Cavaliers. If at this time James had indeed begun to entertain doubts as to the Church of his baptism, they were not yet strong enough to lead him away from her worship. He appears to have been instructed early in the doctrines of the Church, especially in that of the Real Presence, by Dr Steward, who was successively Prebendary of Worcester and Provost of Eton. During the progress of the war, the latter became (nominally) Dean of St Paul’s and of Westminster, and while Clerk of the Closet to Charles I., was one of the commissioners at the Treaty of Uxbridge. He also taught the Prince of Wales, and became one of the Duke of York’s Cabinet Council, Sir George Radcliffe spitefully calling him “the heifer the queen plowes with.”[80]The support James gave to his younger brother testifies to his loyalty, at any rate for that time, and something also may be due to the ardent veneration which the memory of their father inspired in the children of Charles I. To him the offices of his Church hadbeen his stay and consolation up to the supremest moment of the great tragedy, and his son could not but remember the fact. And moreover it must be recollected that among the many faults of James, Duke of York, dissimulation had no place. Even Burnet, though no friend to him, could not but acknowledge him to be “candid and sincere,” therefore we must conclude that whatever difficulties may have presented themselves to his mind, at the time when he and his brother Henry knelt side by side at Mattins and Evensong in Sir Richard Browne’s house, the Duke of York was still conscientiously an English churchman, and it is significant that in after years he never tried to turn his daughters from their faith.[81]

80.Burnet’s “History of My Own Time.”

81.Eva Scott, “The King in Exile.” Cosin, Dean of Peterborough, afterwards Bishop of Durham, was chaplain in Paris.

The Duke of Gloucester was afterwards for a time with his elder sister in the Low Countries, and, as we have seen, in 1657 took up arms with his brother.[82]Both were well known for their extreme and reckless courage, an attribute not, it must be confessed, shared by the leaders ofthe Spanish forces, who were their brothers in arms, for the latter for the most part took care to watch the battles in which they were engaged from the safe and distant harbourage of their coaches.[83]

82.Madame—Julia Cartwright (Mrs Ady). In June 1657 both were reported slain or prisoners, but reached Bruges safely.

83.Thurloe State Papers.

At the end of the campaign James had, as in the case of the army of France, won the confidence of his men and the respect of Condé and of the Spanish leaders in general.[84]

84.Clarendon State Papers. Marquess of Ormond to E. H. Brussels, 21st June 1657: “The Duke of York will take exceedingly in the army. He is as brave and as little troublesome as any prince can be.”

It may be that neither England nor France was in favour of the Princes taking service in the Spanish army, a circumstance which would have some force in determining James, who very probably was quite willing to fling a defiance in the teeth of Cromwell.

Nevertheless, it is strange to find Sir John Berkeley and Colonel Bampfylde, the plotter of some years back, seriously discussing about this time the question of a marriage for the Duke of York with one of the Protector’s daughters, a fact which goes to prove the despair of theRoyalists of otherwise succeeding in England.[85]Still later, in 1659, a party among the exiles, choosing to believe a rumour which pronounced the King to have consumptive tendencies and to be in a precarious state of health, actually proposed to set him aside in favour of his second brother. There is not, however, a shadow of evidence that James himself was in any way a party to such a scheme. Indeed in August of that year he followed Charles to France, and later in the autumn the unlucky truce between France and Spain put an end to the military career of the Dukes of York and Gloucester, andas a consequence deprived them of their pay in the army of the latter country, throwing them once more on their elder brother’s meagre resources.

85.Eva Scott, “Travels of the King,” “The King in Exile.”In this connection a letter from Mr Jennings (Captain Titus) to Hyde seems to point to the increasing arrogance of the Protector’s family. Writing from Antwerp on 11th February 1656-1657, he says: “There was lately a wedding of a kinswoman of Laurence’s, whither all the grandees and their wives were invited, but most of the Major-Generals and their wives came not. The feast wanting much of its grace by the absence of those ladies, it was asked by one there, where they were? Mrs Claypole answered: ‘I’ll warrant you washing their dishes at home, as they use to do.’ This hath been extremely ill taken, and now the women do all they can with their husbands to hinder Mrs Claypole from being a Princess and her Highness” (Clarendon State Papers). It will be remembered that Elizabeth Claypole, Cromwell’s favourite daughter, predeceased him by a few weeks.

85.Eva Scott, “Travels of the King,” “The King in Exile.”

In this connection a letter from Mr Jennings (Captain Titus) to Hyde seems to point to the increasing arrogance of the Protector’s family. Writing from Antwerp on 11th February 1656-1657, he says: “There was lately a wedding of a kinswoman of Laurence’s, whither all the grandees and their wives were invited, but most of the Major-Generals and their wives came not. The feast wanting much of its grace by the absence of those ladies, it was asked by one there, where they were? Mrs Claypole answered: ‘I’ll warrant you washing their dishes at home, as they use to do.’ This hath been extremely ill taken, and now the women do all they can with their husbands to hinder Mrs Claypole from being a Princess and her Highness” (Clarendon State Papers). It will be remembered that Elizabeth Claypole, Cromwell’s favourite daughter, predeceased him by a few weeks.

When Henry had been sent out of England by the Parliament, that body had promised the prince a small maintenance, provided he kept away from all and any of his relations, a proviso which obviously was unlikely to be observed. However, any such provision was forfeited, and he was in the same plight as his next brother.

Another effort at an English alliance was made during this year, Lord Mordaunt suggesting this time, as a bride to the Duke of York, Fatima Lambert, the only child of the famous Roundhead general, whose influence was for a time paramount with the army since the death of the Lord Protector in September of 1658.

James, however, now pledged secretly to Anne Hyde, at once refused the proposed match, alleging as a reason the want of the King’s consent, but still keeping his secret inviolate.

From Secretary Nicholas’ letter to Charles II., dated 8th October, it appears that in his communication with the Duke, Lord Mordaunt did not mention the name of the lady, but calledher mysteriously “a daughter of a gentleman of power and good quality in England, but he was not to tell who it was,” which seems an unmeaning precaution, as sooner or later James must have been told, and could not be expected to pledge himself in ignorance of the lady’s parentage.[86]

86.Carte’s “Letters.”

However, as we know, the negotiation, if it attained such a point, speedily fell to the ground, and events which soon followed removed it altogether out of the sphere of possibilities.

In that year, when hope and fear alternated almost daily, when events crowded on each other, Lambert’s restless figure holds the stage in one aspect or another.[87]In the autumn he is sent with a strong force to suppress the rising of Sir George Booth, who is taken in the endeavour to escape in a woman’s dress, and Lord Derby in the disguise of a servant. Lambert is to command the Parliament’s forces in the north in October. In March of the next year the pendulum has swung back, and the victorious general is committed to the Tower. He is released on parole, but once more he is stirring up strife and is made prisoner. Later, henarrowly escapes the block, to be a captive for his life in Guernsey. But now another figure dominates the arena, and it is Monk who gathers up all the threads into his strong hands, who takes the tide at the turn, who grasps the empty crown which a greater than he had longed but feared to wear, and lays it at the feet of the exile whose birthright it is.[88]

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