258.“It is well known that when Kings and Princesses of the Blood make an alliance with a subject, their arms are not put into the Royal Escutcheon, nor did ever the late Duchess of York call the Lord Chancellor father, nor did ever the late King James call the Earls of Clarendon and Rochester brothers, nor the Princesses Mary and Anne term them as uncles. Indeed the late Chancellor, when he wrote letters of advice to the late Duchess in relation to her changing her religion made use of the style of Daughter, which indeed he ought not to have done” (“Aylesbury Memoirs.” Roxburghe Club).“At Queen Anne’s accession, the second Lord Clarendon, her uncle, came to see her, and simply said, ‘I wish to see my niece’—which meant that her brother was now King, and she but a usurper. He had also rebuked her for her flight to Nottingham at the time of her father’s reverses. On her part Anne would not receive her uncle without the oath of allegiance, and this he refused” (“Queen Anne and her Court.” P. F. Williams Ryan.)
258.“It is well known that when Kings and Princesses of the Blood make an alliance with a subject, their arms are not put into the Royal Escutcheon, nor did ever the late Duchess of York call the Lord Chancellor father, nor did ever the late King James call the Earls of Clarendon and Rochester brothers, nor the Princesses Mary and Anne term them as uncles. Indeed the late Chancellor, when he wrote letters of advice to the late Duchess in relation to her changing her religion made use of the style of Daughter, which indeed he ought not to have done” (“Aylesbury Memoirs.” Roxburghe Club).“At Queen Anne’s accession, the second Lord Clarendon, her uncle, came to see her, and simply said, ‘I wish to see my niece’—which meant that her brother was now King, and she but a usurper. He had also rebuked her for her flight to Nottingham at the time of her father’s reverses. On her part Anne would not receive her uncle without the oath of allegiance, and this he refused” (“Queen Anne and her Court.” P. F. Williams Ryan.)
258.“It is well known that when Kings and Princesses of the Blood make an alliance with a subject, their arms are not put into the Royal Escutcheon, nor did ever the late Duchess of York call the Lord Chancellor father, nor did ever the late King James call the Earls of Clarendon and Rochester brothers, nor the Princesses Mary and Anne term them as uncles. Indeed the late Chancellor, when he wrote letters of advice to the late Duchess in relation to her changing her religion made use of the style of Daughter, which indeed he ought not to have done” (“Aylesbury Memoirs.” Roxburghe Club).
“At Queen Anne’s accession, the second Lord Clarendon, her uncle, came to see her, and simply said, ‘I wish to see my niece’—which meant that her brother was now King, and she but a usurper. He had also rebuked her for her flight to Nottingham at the time of her father’s reverses. On her part Anne would not receive her uncle without the oath of allegiance, and this he refused” (“Queen Anne and her Court.” P. F. Williams Ryan.)
As already mentioned, the fact of the Duchess of York’s conversion was not known for some time later, though suspicion was soon busy on the subject, and the Court, in high excitement, buzzed with the matter.
It was probably a trial to any one so outspoken and downright as Duchess Anne to conceal a fact of which she was certainly not ashamed, but the commands of the King conveyed to her through his brother, were peremptory and stringent, and she consented to hold her tongue for the present. As things turned out there was soon no reason for silence, except in so far as her change might have affected others. So the royal convert practised her new faith in silence. The chaplains shook their heads as Sunday after Sunday the Duchess turned away from “God’s Board.” Morley was no longer at her right hand, and the others spoke only aside to each other—not to her. Anne was never very approachable, and she had long learned the value of her position in checking inconvenient inquiries. Sweet-faced Margaret Blagge grieved silently, but she was very young, and dared not speak, evenif the exigencies of her post would have allowed it.
The Duke of York, after his exercise of authority and the message he had transmitted from the King, said nothing. The time for confidence between those two was long past, and though he secretly sympathised with his wife in the step she had taken—his own subsequent action is warrant sufficient for that—estrangement had become a habit, and the party wall dividing husband and wife needed a stronger force still to throw it down. Perhaps a word or two may have passed between the new convert and Queen Catherine. It is more than likely, indeed, but the latter, timid and shrinking, was not constituted to uphold any one, and besides, she was far too much in awe of the King, too pathetically anxious to please him, to be capable of running counter to any commands he might choose to enforce. She could, and probably did, give approbation, sympathy, for what they were worth, but of these Anne stood in no need, then nor at any other time. Her position was one of “lonely splendour,” and she had long learnt to stand alone and carve out her own path. No doubt the lesson had been a bitter one, but she had learnt it once for all. Duringthis year, moreover—1670—the Duke was seriously ill,[259]and this fact may have aided in the estrangement from his wife, or at any rate in the withholding of complete confidence from him.
259.“Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.”
259.“Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.”
259.“Adventures of King James II.,” by the author of “Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.”
It was in other respects a momentous year for the whole royal house in England, and that in a way to be presently described. An unexpected and sinister development was to change in some degree the aspect of things.