Full text of "Queen Mary of Modena, her life and letters"

IOJ

\co

ICO

All rights resei*ved

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

HER LIFE AND LETTERS

MARTIN HAILE

WITH

PHOTOGRAVURE
ILLUSTRATIONS

1 905

J. M. DENT 6c CO.

29 & 30, BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C
NEW YORK : E. P. BUTTON & CO.

RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,

BREAD STREET HILL, B.C., AND

BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

Oft

PREFACE

So great is the wealth of material at command in dealing with
the life of Queen Mary of Modena that its compression within the
limits of a single volume has necessitated a task of selection which has
not always been an easy one. Especially has this been the case with
the correspondence of the Queen and that of Rizzini and Terriesi, the
envoys of Modena and Florence ; but I have, I hope, retained sufficient
to give an adequate picture of Mary Beatrice, of the development of
her character, and the circumstances of her life. I have drawn
sparingly upon the Chaillot MSS., which were published in extenso in
the original French by the Roxburgh Club some years ago, and transla-
tions of which may be found in " A Queen and her Friends," by the
Countess Rogen de Courson.

My grateful acknowledgments are due for much kind assistance to

Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, K.C.B., D.C.L., Chief Librarian,

and Henry Jenner, Esq., F.S.A., of the British Museum.
Rev. Father Ehrle, S.J., Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library.
Monsignor Pietro Wenzel, sub-Prefect of the Vatican Archives.
Dottor Cav. Giovanni Ognibene, Director of the State Archives,

Modena.

Conte Luigi A. Gandini, Director of the Museo Civico, Modena.
Mrs. Alfred Morrison, for permission to publish letters from the

Morrison Collection.
Rev. Canon H. B. Mackey, O.S.B.
Signer Aw. Francesco S. Benucci, for access to the Campana de

Cavelli papers in his possession.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

James, Duke of York. Marriage Negotiations. Princess Mary Beatrice
d'Este. Religious Vocation. Biief of Pope Clement X. The
Marriage by Proxy. ........

CHAPTER II

The Bride's Journey. Meeting of Parliament. Arrival in London.
The Duke of York's Court. Edward Coleman. Birth of a
Daughter. .......... 30

CHAPTER III

Marriage of Princess Mary. The Prince of Orange. Birth and death
of the Duke of Cambridge. Peace of Nimeguen. Visit to the
Hague. Titus Gates. The First Exile 59

CHAPTER IV

The Duke of Monmouth. Departure for Scotland. Return to London.
The Duke of York presented for a Recusant. Second Visit to
Scotland. Loss of the Gloucester. Rye House Plot. Duchess
of Modena retires to Rome. Death of Charles II. . .90

CHAPTER V

Accession of James II. Evelyn's Opinion of the Queen. The Corona-
tion. The Queen's Household. Sunderland. Landing of Mon-
mouth. Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester. . . .120

vii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VI

PAGE

Health of the Queen. The Dispensing Power. Promotion of Prince
Rinaldo d'Este. The Queen's Love of Art. Dismissal of
Rochester. Death of the Duchess of Modena. The Queen at
Bath. Declaration of Indulgence. The Queen and Sunderland. . 149

CHAPTER VII

Public Discontent. Calumnies against the Queen. Prosecution of Seven
Bishops. Birth of the Prince of Wales. Conduct of the Princess
of Orange and Princess Anne. The King's Optimism. Alarm at
Court. Lord Clarendon. . . . . . . . .176

CHAPTER VIII

Landing of William of Orange. Defections. Departure of Princess
Anne. Flight of the Queen. Louis XIV's Orders. Arrival at
St. Germains. , 206

CHAPTER IX

Impression in Paris. Rizzini. James II starts for Ireland. The Queen
as Peacemaker. Pope Innocent XI and the Queen. Eusebe
Renaudot. The Montgomery Plot. Battle of the Boyne. . .229

CHAPTER X

Chaillot Convent. The Court of St. Germains. Death of Tyrconnel.
James II at La Hogue. Birth of Princess Louise Marie.
Jacobite Plots. Lord Melfort. . . . . . . .270

CHAPTER XI

La Trappe. Death of the Duke of Modena. Siege of Namur.
James II at Calais. Execution of Jacobites. The Crown of
Poland. Sir John Fenwick. The Queen's Chanty. The Peace
of Ryswick. Nuncio Gualterio. ...... 307

CHAPTER XII

Last Illness and Death of James II. Affliction of the Queen. Her
Regency. Scotch Jacobite Proposals. Bill of Attainder. Death
of William III. Rinaldo, Duke of Modena. Lord Lovat. . 347

viii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIII

Renaudot's Reports. The Interests of France. Arrest of Lovat.
Financial Difficulties. Life at St. Gerrnains. Carnival Festivities.
Expedition to Scotland. Battle of Malplaquet. Gallantry of
Chevalier of St. George. . . . . . . . .381

The Duke of Marlborough. Excitement in Scotland. Letter to Queen
Anne. The Chaillot Journal. Rising Hopes. The Queen's
Pension. Death of Princess Louise Marie. The Treaty of
Utrecht. Departure of James Stuart for Lorraine. Earl of
Middleton. . . . . . . . . . .412

CHAPTER XV

Serious Illness of the Queen. Letter of Queen Anne to Duke of
Lorraine : Her Death. Proclamation of James Stuart. The
Queen at Bar-le-Duc. Bolingbroke. Death of Louis XIV.
The Regent Orleans A Narrow Escape. James Stuart in
Scotland. Return to St Germains ...... 450

CHAPTER XVI

James Stuart at Avignon. Death of the Duke of Marlborough.
Marriage Proposals. Princess Clementina Sobieska. Serious
Illness of James Stuart : His Removal from Avignon. Peter the
Great and Charles XII. Sanctity of James II. Jacobite
Jealousies. Last Illness and Death of the Queen . . . .481

PEDIGREE OF THE HOUSE OF ESTE (II) . . To face 510

APPENDICES ..... .....511

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mary Beatrice, Duchess of York ..... Frontispiece.

From the Painting by W. Wissing in the National Portrait
Gallery.

Pope Clement X ........ To face page 6 1

From the Engraving by Giiarnacci.

The Duchess of Modena . . . . . . . 113

From a Miniature in the possession qf Visitation Convent,
Modena.

The Prince of Wales ....... 1 86

From the Engraving by Largilliere in the British Museum.

Pope Innocent XI . . . . . . . . 255

From the Engraving by Guarnacci.
King James II ......... 289

From the painting by Largilliere in the British Museum.

Francesco II, Duke of Modena ...... 308

From an Engraving in the Musetim, Modena.

Prince of Wales and Princess Louise Marie . . . . ,, 351

From the Painting by Largilliere in the National Portrait
Gallery.

William III and Mary II ....... 363

From the Engraving in the British Museum.

James (III) ......... ,,411

From the Engraving in the British Museum.

Coronation Medal of Queen Mary Beatrice

429
Medal of James (III) and Princess Louise Marie

From the Casts by Roettier in the British Museum.
James II, Queen Mary Beatrice, the Prince of Wales, and

Princess Louise Marie . . . . . . ,,458

From the Engraving in the British Museum.

Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara and Modena ... 495

From the picture by Dosso Dossi in the Picture Gallery, Modena.
(Photograph by Anderson, Rome.}

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

HER LIFE AND LETTERS

CHAPTER I

"Des qu'on a gout une fois des correspondances, on ne croit plus, on ne se fie plus
qu'a cela en fait de temoignage historique. Tout autre parait artificiel et suspect ; mais,
en revanche, pourvu qu'il soil original et authentique, le moindre billet a son prix."

Due DE BROGUE.

NOTHING can so make the dry bones of History live, or
make us realise any given epoch of the past, as the perusal of
the letters and despatches of the actors in its scenes. When
the epoch is of such entrancing interest as that of one who
bore the fatal and romantic name of Stuart, or was allied to
it, the study becomes fascinating indeed ; and, as the frail
sheets stir in our hands and the faded ink reveals the hopes and
fears, the struggles and intrigues, the restless passions, the
cupidity and treachery, or a faint thread of gold among the
meshes of the web proofs of whole-hearted devotion and self-
abnegation, the writers seem to come to life, to move and have
their being as they unfold their story page by page before our
eyes. We seem to see them in their very habit, as they tell
of trivial details of dress and custom, revealing at once the
differences between then and now, and the undeviating simili-
tudes which make all men kin. As the plots thicken and the
supreme moments draw near, a communicative heat of hope or
dread invades the student, and, if it holds him strongly, stirs an
impotent regret that he can throw no warning cry back across

I B

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 the centuries to those who have become so familiar to him ;
he, alas, knows what they ignored the full fatality of their
blunders, the irrevocable nature of their mistakes. Now and
again, indeed, generally among the minor characters of the
great play, we come across a man who stands out as if born
out of his time, looking upon the events which pass around
him as we now look back upon them in the light of our
acquired knowledge, and whose clear-sighted appreciations,
unheeded or despised by his contemporaries, might have changed
the course of history had he been able to impress them upon
his fellows.

In the following pages an attempt is made to give the
biography of the fascinating princess, the only Italian Queen
who ever shared the English throne, as it appears in her own
letters and the despatches and letters of her contemporaries.
The great majority of these original documents were unknown
to Miss Strickland and have never before appeared in English ;
the rich mine was first worked by the Marchesa Campana de
Cavelli, who gave in her Derniers Stuarts a St-. Germain-en-Laye
the result of several years' patient research in the different
archives of Europe. This monumental work reproduces the
documents in their original Latin, Italian, French, and Ger-
man, and is therefore inaccessible to the general reader ; it
moreover remains unfinished, breaking off suddenly while
recounting the stirring events of 1690.

The thick vapours with which calumny and misrepresentation
had for a century and a half enveloped the memory of Queen
Mary of Modena have long since faded away, but the more
closely her character is examined, the more it gains upon our
admiration and esteem.

In the month of August 1673, James, Duke of York, had
been a widower more than two years, his first wife, Anne Hyde,
preceded to the grave by six of her eight children, having
died in March 1671 ; and negotiations for his re-marriage
had been for some time afoot.

He was forty years of age, and as a youthful soldier under

JAMES, DUKE OF YORK

Turenne and Conde in the days of his exile, and then as Lord 1665
High Admiral of England, had established his fame as one of
the most intrepid princes in Europe. " If any man in the
world was born without fear, it was the Duke of York," was
Turenne's tribute to his valour.

During the naval war of 1665 with the Dutch under Opdam,
he had introduced the system of fighting in a line and regular
form of battle, which was to rule the naval warfare of England
for more than a hundred years.

But by that strange fatality which ever dogged his steps,
even in the rare moments of good fortune, the victory of Sole
Bay where he "gave example of the greatest courage and
conduct," and saw three of his officers killed by one shot,
covering him with their blood as they fell by his side aboard
the Royal Charles was robbed of its crown of triumph, the
complete destruction of the defeated fleet after the death of
Opdam, by the cowardice or treachery of a servant, as the Duke
snatched a few hours' sleep after the day's fatigues and perils.
And although he earned the thanks of Parliament, a " Present
of a Month's Tax of the Royal Aid," and medals struck in
his honour, bearing the inscriptions, " Nee Minor in Terris "
and " Genus Antiquum," the news of that glorious day,
June 3, 1665, reached London in the second month of the
Great Plague, when men's minds were wholly unprepared to
heed or rejoice in a victory which at any other time would
have raised them to the highest pitch of pride and exultation.

Deprived of his command by the King at the Queen Mother's
solicitations not to expose the life of the heir-presumptive to
the uncertain chances of battle, his advice and expostulations
against the reduction of the fleet in 1667 disregarded, and a
measure passed which brought more lasting disgrace upon his
brother's reign than perhaps any other act of his Government,
and to England the humiliation of seeing the Dutch fleet
ride proudly up the Thames, James was to know one more
brief hour of triumph and unquestioned popularity before the
passing of the Test Act (devised, according to some, for the

3 B 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

[672 very purpose of catching his conscience) caused him to relinquish
his office. The victory of Southwell Bay (1672) over de
Ruyter, perhaps one of the most stubborn battles in our naval
annals, was mainly due to him. "The Duke of York himself,"
writes Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, who was present, " had
the noblest share in this day's action ; for when his ship was
so maimed as to be made incapable of action, he made her lye
by to refit, and went on board another that was hotly engaged,
where he kept up his standard until she was disabled, and then
left her for a third, in order to renew the fight, which lasted
from break of day till sunset." From the Prince to the St.
Michael^ from the St. Michael to the London, as they gave way
beneath his feet, James's last naval battle was worthy of his
fame.

In laying down his staff, he may have reflected somewhat
bitterly upon the contrast with the days when he, a Protestant,
fought unquestioned in the service of his kinsman the King of
France under Turenne, himself a Protestant, into whose strong
hands the destinies of his country and his king had been placed
by the enlightened policy of a Mazarin. Echard, who published
his history of England but a few years after James's death,
speaking of the period between 1665 and 1673 mentions
" Great joy and felicity . . . and what added to the happiness
was that the King was never the least jealous of him or his
Actions, a thing very rare between two Brothers of that Rank.
In this State of Felicity the Duke continued for some years,
wanting neither the Favour of the Prince, nor the Respect of
the People ; till first the Suspicion, and then the Discovery of
his Religion which happen'd about six Years after, did very
much withdraw the Love and Affections of Men from him,
and gave the first Schock to all his great Prosperity."

Under these circumstances the re-marriage of the Duke of
York was a matter of capital importance both to his friends
and his foes ; the latter not hesitating to urge upon the King
the advisability of divorcing Catherine of Braganza, or even of
marrying a second wife ; Burnet, afterwards Bishop of Sarum,

MARRIAGE NEGOTIATIONS

in an elaborate judgment deciding that barrenness in the woman 167;
furnished in certain cases a lawful cause for polygamy or
divorce, the paper concluding : " I see nothing so strong
against polygamy as to balance the great and visible imminent
hazards that hang over so many thousands, if it be not allowed."
The Bill passed the House of Lords by a majority of two, and
then the native sense of honour of the King, never entirely
stifled under the weight of his frivolities and weaknesses, his
respect for his wife and his affection for his brother came to his
aid, and he refused to avail himself of the proffered benefit.
His hesitation in furthering James's marriage also disappeared,
and the negotiations to find a suitable bride were pushed forward.

In the latter part of the seventeenth century the importance
of royal matrimonial alliances was still such as we may have
some difficulty in realising ; the reigning families represented
the nations over which they ruled in a very literal fashion,
and a marriageable daughter was an instrument of possible
aggrandizement and power which made her a valuable posses-
sion to her House and her country. Irrespective of the
religious difficulty which added its own intensity to the debates,
the marriage of the presumptive heir to the Crown of England
let loose a flood of intrigue, speculation, treaties, and negotia-
tions, the recital of which in their entirety would fill a volume.
But, as they have been preserved to us, they are so characteristic
of their time, so representative of the various personages and
parties engaged in them, that we produce sufficient to make
our picture of this particular alliance complete and clear.

A list of eleven princesses had been drawn up, of whom five
were for various reasons promptly eliminated, leaving the
choice among the following six : the beautiful Archduchess
Claudia Felicitas of Innspruck, the Princess Eleonore Magdalen
of Neubourg, the Princess Mary Ann of Wiirtemberg, the
Princess Mary Beatrice of Modena, the Duchess of Guise, and
Mademoiselle de Retz. Already in the month of February,
after protracted negotiations, Henry Mordaunt, second Earl of
Peterborough, the Duke of York's Groom of the Stole, and

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 his ever faithful and -devoted servant, had been appointed
Ambassador Extraordinary to arrange the terms of a proposed
marriage with the first-named princess. The Emperor Leopold,
it was rumoured, had hindered the progress of the negotiations
with a view of securing this famous beauty for himself, in case
the illness of the Empress terminated fatally ; and here we take
up Lord Peterborough's own account contained in his Succinct
Genealogies, published under the pseudonym of Halsted, in
1685-1690, premising only that the Duke of York entirely
objected to marry any but a beautiful princess ; good looks
were an essential qualification for his future wife : " March
1 6 (1673). Did depart to fetch Duchess of Innspruck, with
jewels for her of 20,000 value of the Duke's particular
Cabinet." At Calais he receives the news that the Empress is
dead, and " the long treaty of Innspruck broken off by reason
the Emperor is now determined to have that Princess for
himself." Peterborough then goes to Paris, and hears from
the Duke of York that four wives have been proposed. He
is to try and see them or their pictures, and make " most
impartial relations of their Manners and Dispositions." He
sees the Duchess of Guise, the youngest daughter of Gaston
de Bourbon, Duke of Orleans, " for whom he knew his Master
had no inclination." Low in stature, ill-shaped, etc., etc., " all
the favour of France (a share whereof he might have tasted
from the merit of a recommendation to this Alliance) could
not induce him to promote a matter contrary to the ends of
his trust and the Duke's service. . . .

"The Princess of Modena, Mary of Este, His Lordship
could not see ; but by means of a Scotch gentleman that had
been conversant in the House of Conti, one Mr. Conn, he was
introduced into the palace of that Prince, whose wife had been
one of the young Princess of Modena's nearest relations, and
there he saw her picture, that had been lately sent thither from
that Court. It bore the appearance of a young Creature
about Fourteen years of Age ; but such a light of Beauty,
such Characters of Ingenuity and Goodness as it surprised the

PRINCESS MARY BEATRICE D'ESTE

Earl, and fixt upon his Phancy that he had found his Mistress, 1673
and the Fortune of England.

" An ill picture he saw of Mademoiselle de Rais [sic] but
being at such a distance 1 (100 miles) as he could not know
herself, or have any perfect relation of her circumstances, he
sought no further encouragement in that matter."

His whole thoughts were turned upon the young Princess of
Modena, with whose character that he might be the better
acquainted, by the means of the same Mr. Conn, he got a
meeting " such as might seem accidental with the Abbe Ricchini
[Rizzini], a man that was employed at Paris in negociating the
interests of the House of Este." Rizzini attributes many
excellencies to Mary of Modena, " yet he endeavoured to
make them useless to us, by saying the Dutchess her Mother's
but more strongly her own Inclinations did design her to a
Religious life, and that she did seem resolv'd not to Marry.

" This Affirmation was an extream blow to the hopes and
desires of the Earl of Peterborough, and of which he was
forced to give an account, together with the esteem and great
value he had for the Character, that from all hands he had
received of this young Princess."

The Princess Mary Ann of Wurtemberg, whose father had
lately been slain in the war, was living in a monastery of ladies
in Paris, in company of several others of great quality, and
Lord Peterborough is introduced to a sight of her by Father
Gilbert Talbot, an acquaintance of her confessor. She receives
him at the grate of a parlour, and he describes her as of
" Middle stature, fair complexion, with brown Hair, the figure
of her Face turned very agreeably, her Eyes Gray, her Looks
Grave, but sweet, and in her Person, she had the motions of
a Woman of Quality, and well-bred ; But above all, she had
the appearance of a Maid in the ripeness of her Youth, of a
Sanguine and Healthful Constitution, fit to bring Strong
Children, and such as might be like to live and prosper.

1 Words in ordinary brackets ( ) are in the original documents, those in square
brackets [ ] are the writer's to elucidate the text.

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 Although there was much Modesty in all her behaviour, yet
she was not scarce of her discourse, and spoke well and
pertinently to every thing."

For some reason both Charles II and Louis XIV were
averse to this match, and the Envoy receives a sudden order to
proceed incognito to Diisseldorf to see the daughter of the
Duke of Neubourg. He goes first to the English Embassy
at Cologne, and from there with one gentleman, Signer
Varasini, and two servants to Diisseldorf. The next day as
" Two Gentlemen of the English Ambassador's Train from
Cullen " they are received by the Duke. Our Envoy thus
describes him : " Nearly 40 years of Age, of competent
Stature, well-shaped, well-dress'd, and of a most obliging
behaviour. He had a Suit, after the French fashion of a Grey
Stuff, with Diamond Buttons, a Diamond Hatband, and a
Diamond Sword ; and about his Neck, in a Black Ribbon,
hung the Order of the Golden Fleece. He did receive their
Compliments with much Courtesie which they paid with all
Respect."

Their host speaks of the Duke of York and his marriage,
asks where is M. de Peterborough ? Is he remaining in Paris
after the failure of the treaty of Innspruck ? He says he hears
the Duke of York is to marry an English lady. They assure
him they have heard of no such thing. They then see the
Duchess of Neubourg and the young Princess, her eldest
daughter. Either from some point of etiquette or from
masculine disregard of ladies' dress, Lord Peterborough, who
has so minutely described the costume of the Duke of Neu-
bourg, has no word to say of that of his wife and daughter
an omission which we shall often remark in the case of other
writers of the period. He thinks they suspect his errand, and
the Duchess, not speaking French, makes the princess interpret.
She approaches and helps to carry on the conversation " and
with much intention, as he thought, to shew her capacity in
that Language." She is eighteen years old, of middle stature,
fair complexion, face more round than oval a that part of her

PRINCESS ELEA1STORE OF NEUBOURG

neck he saw as white as Snow, but upon the whole, at those 1673
Years, she was inclined to be fat."

The young princess fails to make a good impression, and
the Envoy is impatient to be gone. He closes his description
of her with these words, of greater import to his master than
he could suppose "The great genius did not appear, of
Business or Conversation (though she spoke aptly enough) for
which she has been praised since she came to sit upon the
greatest Throne of Europe." He alludes to the untimely death
of the newly-wedded Empress, the beautiful Claudia Felicitas,
and to the filling of her place, as Leopold's third wife, by this
Princess of Neubourg. He could not foresee that sixteen years
later some of his contemporaries would believe that she never
forgot the Duke of York's slight of her charms, and that she
fostered in her husband those feelings of animosity which led
him, in James's hour of need, to turn a deaf ear to his appeals
for aid.

An express is sent to the Duke of York, with a report of
the journey and of the Princess, and a prompt order to go back
to Paris is the result. Yet another bride had been proposed,
by the Duchess of Portsmouth and her party, in the person of
a niece of Turenne, Mademoiselle d'Elbceuf, daughter of the
Prince of that name, cadet of the House of Lorraine, but she
is only thirteen years of age, and Peterborough dismisses her
also as ineligible.

For more than a year the Duke's marriage had been a
subject of keen interest to the French Court. The old Cardinal
d'Este, great-uncle of Mary Beatrice, had suggested her as a
bride a few months before his death in 1672 ; and in the
archives of Este-Modena are preserved letters from M. de
Pomponne, Louis XIV's Minister to Cardinal d'Estrees, brother
of the French Ambassador at Rome, saying how readily the
King would further a marriage with her or with her aunt, the
Princess Eleanore d'Este, and urging that descriptions of the
two princesses might at once be sent to the Duke of York
"qui se piquant d'etre bon mari, veut epouser une belle

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1673 femme." A few months later the Grand Monarque himself
enters the field, and in two letters of 18 and 25 July 1673 to
Colbert de Croissy, his Ambassador in London, gives him his
secret instructions on the subject:

Affaires " Of all the Princesses to whom the Duke of York might

Etran- incline, you are aware that the Princess of Wiirtemberg is the one in

Pads' whom I take the least interest, and that not having been able to bring

himself to marry my Cousin, the Duchess of Guise, I would with
pleasure have seen him enter into the design of taking the Princess of
Neubourg or even of Modena ; but as I see him determined upon
this marriage and upon concluding it before the meeting of Parlia-
ment, and that by all you hear it would be a vain effort to turn him
from it, I desire that you give him some marks of my friendship in
this conjuncture. But this shall only be arter a precise demand has
been made to you by the King of England and the Duke of York
that I should give a portion to this Princess, or that you have reason
to fear my refusal were likely to make him accept a subject or the
King of Spain, and dowered by that Prince. . . ."

In the second letter the King confirms the first, and puts
his veto upon the Duchess of Portsmouth's scheme. After
repeating that his inclinations and interest are for the Princess ot
Neubourg " I think it for my service that you deter, as much
as in you lies, the Duke of York, or the King, his brother,
from making choice of one of the first named Princesses "
[the two daughters of the Duke d'Elbceuf]. . . . He recom-
mends the Princess Mary Beatrice, or her aunt, whose age,
thirty years, accords better with that of the bridegroom, and
urges the practicability of getting the negociations completed,
and the Princess to England, by the month of October, adding
" As the dowry may be a cause of delay, you may give the
assurance from me of 400,000 crowns which she would h-ave
at her marriage. ..."

From this point the Duke of York shows signs of a certain
amount of vacillation of will, which, combined with his native
stubbornness, added their own complications to the situation.
His last letter to Lord Peterborough at Cologne informed him
that he would find orders in Paris to demand the Princess of

THE PRINCESS OF WURTEMBERG

Wiirtemberg in marriage and bring her home. The Earl 1673
therefore hastens direct to the monastery as soon as he arrives,
before going to his house, and acquaints her " with the orders
he had reason to believe did attend him at his House, after the
receipt of which he should have but to call her (as he said) his
Mistress, and pay her the respects due to the Quality that did
attend it. ... The moderation, which in other things did
appear in her temper, was not gn;at enough to conceal her joy
on this occasion ; and she was not to be blamed, considering
the provision it would have been for an Orphan Maid to
Marry a Prince so great, both in the Circumstances of Fortune
and Merit ; but after he had taken his leave and was return'd
Home, with what a reverse of Fortune did he meet ! "

The agent who at that time negotiated in absence of the
Ambassador had orders to watch the Earl's approach to Paris,
and give him his new orders before he arrived. By neglect
or a wrong turning, he missed him, so he had seen the Princess
before receiving letters totally forbidding this alliance, and
ordering him at once to Modena. " This accorded with his
opinion and inclination, so comforted him against dissatisfaction
at so uncertain and changeable a proceeding. He found a way
to acquaint the Princess Mary Anne of the unexpected change
in her fortunes, throwing the blame on the Ministers of State.
. . . Much ado there was to appease a mind disappointed to
that degree . . . and though the Earl durst see her no more,
yet he wish'd her much happiness, as she did deserve in any
other proceeding."

The French Ambassador, Colbert de Croissy, writing to
Pomponne on July 31 to acquaint him with the Duke of
York's decision to demand Mary Beatrice, concludes : " I
must however tell you that the greater part of this Court is
very hostile to the marriage, and that nothing is spared to make
it known that this alliance with a house so closely allied with
the Court of Rome will cause trouble with the Parliament."

Thus, by the month of August 1673, the Duke ot
York's choice of Mary Beatrice had been made, the elaborate

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 instructions and credentials, in Latin and in English, had been
drawn up and despatched to the Earl of Peterborough in Paris,
appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to the Court of Modena.
The adversaries of the match still persevered, however, and
tried to frighten the Duke with reports of the Princess of
Modena's ill-looks. Thus Colbert de Croissy writes to the
French Minister of Foreign Affairs, August 10 :

"... They make the Duke apprehend that he will find the same
subject of distaste as in the Duchess of Neubourg . . ." and again to
Louis himself that on the iyth '*. . . Mylord Arlington assured me
two days ago, he had heard it reported the Princess of Modena is
very ugly, -fort laide and red-haired. . . . All this, joined to the
coldness with which I have lately been spoken to of the Princess of
Modena, lead me to fear that however openly the Duke had declared
his resolution to marry this Princess, the design might yet receive
some hindrance. . . ."

The real hindrance lay in another direction. So far the
youthful bride had been regarded in all these negotiations and
intrigues as a merely passive agent, and although the Modenese
Agent in Paris, Abbe Rizzini, had given Lord Peterborough
an " extream blow " in the month of March, by informing him
of Mary Beatrice's intention to take the veil, he had evidently
soon come to look upon the obstacle as non-existent. Now,
however, it was to make itself prominent, even formidable, and
two letters on the subject and on her tender age, from Rizzini
which have not been preserved to M. de Pomponne, were
considered sufficiently serious by Louis XIV to make him
send them enclosed in one of his own to his Ambassador in
London. The same day, August 18, Mr. Conn, the Scotch
gentleman who had been instrumental in showing the portrait
of Mary Beatrice to Lord Peterborough, writes an interesting
letter to Cardinal Barberini, protector of the English at Rome.
The Italian copy has softened the signature into Coneo. . . ,
" As to the person of the Duke, there is no reason to doubt
of his good-will and resolution towards the Catholic Religion,
since he preferred to lay down all his charges in the State than

PRINCESS LEONORE D'ESTE

to perform a simple act of religion contrary to that which he 1673
had already resolved upon in his own mind. Certain Protestant
Bishops have also tried to tempt him with the offer of a
present of 700,000 livres if His Royal Highness would marry
a princess or a lady of their religion ; notwithstanding all
these and other assaults of riches and greatness in the State,
he stands firm in his resolution."

Abbe Rizzini's two letters, handed by Colbert de Croissy to
Lord Arlington, are by him sent on to Lord Peterborough with
the following instructions, which only reach him at Turin :

"WHITEHALL, Aug. if, 1673.

"... The said letters are sent to you by His Royal Highness, by Rawlinson
which your Lordship will see the Abbot is persuaded the Dutchesse ^,ji e ; an
may not soe easily consent to the giving her daughter (as might well Library
have been supposed) for her tender age and (as the Abbot expresses A z5 7
it) other considerations.

Now since there is therein an agreable character given of the
Princess Leonore, Aunt to the present Duke of Modena, and that
His Royal Highness still persists in the opinion that he should
despatch his marriage without any more delay, he has thought fitt
by the express to send you letters of Credence for the Duke and
Dutchesse and Princess Leonore, the like you will also receive by
this occasion from the King but without any variation in your
instructions, because they are only for yourself and mutatis mutandis
will serve for one occasion as well as the other."

The Ambassador Extraordinary, with a train of six persons,
has set forth, in the cumbrous fashion which passed for haste
in those days, from Paris to Lyons (Louis XIV, in his anxiety
for the match having despatched Philippe de Courcelles,
Marquis de Dangeau, as a special envoy to the Duchess of
Modena), and the following letter from Lord Arlington is sent
after him :

"WHITEHALL f August 1673.
" MY LORD,

In such an important affair as marriage, your Lordship will ibid.
not wonder if minds alter upon every respect, when the parties are A *S 6f -7 2
not neare enough to contract them by their eyes, and a strong

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 engagement of affection. On the I3th His Royal Highness being
informed he could not have the younger Princess for reasons not
explained, he sent your LdP. despatches to address yourself to the
elder. On the 1 4th being informed again to the prejudice of this
elder, he wrote to you to hold your hand and keepe yourself incognito,
till you could inform him what the person of this elder Princess was.
This day, conferring with His Majesty upon the whole matter, they
are come to this conclusion : that your Lordship bee directed to goe
to the Court of Modena, where it is supposed the Marquis of D'Anjoe
[Dangeau] will be arrived before you, but accompanied with so few of
your traine and under a false name, that it may not be knowne by
anybody but him that you are there ; that by him you cause the mind
of the Dutchess Regent to be sounded, whether she will consent, to
give her daughter in marriage to the Duke. . . .

If your own liking of the young Princess concurre with the
Dutchess's consent, then you are to fall into the first road of your
instructions ... if otherwise you are to withdraw yourself as
privately as you went thither, and return with what speed you can
to Paris where you will meete new instructions. . . ."

This despatch was crossed on the road by the following
letter of the same date, from the bewildered Ambassador :

" LIONS |4 August 1673.
Pub. Rec. " MY LORD

France To my extreame amazement an hour after I had writtene my

N 287 last, a man comes to my servants and tells them there were too

Gentlemen did desire to speake with me from Her Highness the
Duchess of Modena. I desired they would come in, which haveing
donne, the first whoe calls himselfe Signior Paulo Antonio Nardi,
produc'd a letter from his brother whoe, he saies is Chancelor of
Modena, which was brought him by an express not too houres before,
the coppy wheareof I have heare sent your LdP. He said that either
that same express had letters for me of the same tenure, or that there
were such in the hands of the French Ambassader at Turin, I told
him I did beleve it a mistake and there was noe intimation of that
private nature I could take notice of, but should proceede upon my
jorney.

But, my Lord, though I make this appearance and that I know I
ought not to desist from following my instructions, yett my thinkes
it were of too great consequence to the King's honor to have me
make such a jorney and His Majesty be soe us'd in the face of the

PETERBOROUGH'S EMBASSY

world. Therefore I will now slaken my pace for three or four dayes 1673
to see if the King of France will send to desire or advise any farther
stopp or delay in this affaire, to whom it seemes by this express the
Duchess of Modena has sent the reasons of the impossibility of her
complyance in this affaire.

If I heare nothing in three or four days I shall certainly precede,
and I thinke such a proportion of time had better be lost in a jorney
than for me to make a precipitate advance which possibly might
produce a repentance instead of a juccess. . .

This proceeding is according to the best of my judgement which I
hope will be accepted from my Lord

Your LdP' s most humble and most obedient servant

PETERBOROW."

After the few days' delay, the Ambassador proceeds to Turin
where he receives Lord Arlington's letter of the \% August.

"This sudden change in the Affair did infinitely mortify the Earl, Peter-

whose head turn'd round under this variety of uncertainties. But he b rou gl 1>s

' Memoirs

had but to obey and be patient. And now some days after came

Nardi again with new Compliments from the Dutchess, and expres-
sions how glad that Court would be if the Honour was supposed
to be intended for the Daughter might be transferred to any other
Princess of that family."

Happily he keeps on his guard, pretends to be only travelling
for pleasure and contents himself with returning humble thanks
for the " Honour of her Civilities," for a week later arrives
Lord Arlington's second despatch, bidding him adhere to the
proposal for the younger princess and, failing her, to return
to Paris. He has meanwhile met the Marquis de Dangeau,
and halts at " Plaisance on the Po " whilst the other goes on
alone to see what he can do for him. Subsequently a carriage
and six meets him a mile from Modena and he is sumptuously
lodged in a palace, nobly furnished " three tables, one for
himself, one for his Steward and superior attendants, one for
his Livery-men and others, nobly provided with plenty and
magnificence."

The Duchess Laura of Modena, daughter of Count
Martinozzi and Margaret Mazarini, cousin of the great

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 Cardinal Mazarin and married, under his auspices, at the
Chapel Royal of Compiegne May 27, 1655 by proxy to
Alfonso d'Este hereditary Prince and afterwards Duke Alfonso
IV of Modena, was one of the most brilliant and remarkable
princesses of her day. Pope Innocent XI cited her as a model
of her sex, and we shall see Lord Peterborough describe her
as " an extraordinary woman." By the untimely death of her
husband, July 6, 1662, she became Regent of Modena during
the minority of her son, and ruled her estates and her family
with rare sagacity and intelligence. That she should have
allowed her daughter's inclinations to weigh in the balance
against an alliance so great as that with the heir to the Crown
of England, alone sets her apart among the rulers of her day,
and exposed to the somewhat angry incredulity of those, even
among the highest dignitaries of the Church, who were seeking
to bring about the marriage.

Of these, one of the chief was Cardinal d'Estrees, brother of
the Duke d'Estrees, French ambassador at Rome, and who
held the almost unique position in the diplomatic order, of a
kind of dual embassy with his brother. In answer to a letter
from the Duchess announcing that both princesses, her daughter
and her sister-in-law, had decided to take the veil, he writes
from Rome 26 August, 1673, expressing his distress and
surprise at the news, and at seeing the affair which he had
promoted with so much zeal and affection l " about to miscarry,
by a kind of miracle, at the very moment of accomplishment.
... In a matter wherein Your Highness, in twice twenty-four
hours, has judged that difficulties which you did not know of
before, are insurmountable and leave no ground for hope, it
would seem useless to insist further." He tells her, however,
that she ought to have asked the King of France for a little
more time " in order to penetrate further into the motives
which bring these two Princesses, by a somewhat strange
coincidence, to the same design." If God has called them by

1 Letters to the Princes of Modena or their subjects, except when otherwise noted
are drawn from the Este archives at Modena.

RELIGIOUS VOCATIONS

an absolute vocation to a religious life, he admits that the 1673
Duchess can do nothing but submit, at the same time suggest-
ing that she need not have given way so promptly " before
vocations apparently very strong, but nevertheless so sudden
and unforeseen," especially in the case of her daughter not yet
fifteen years old, and who must of necessity wait a year before
being able to engage herself in the 1 condition she desires.

Meanwhile the Duchess's reluctance is attributed in London
and Paris to Spanish intrigue, and to a hope held out of a
marriage with the King of Spain, not yet thirteen years of age.
Louis XIV writes two letters to her, and the Abbe Rizzini is
charged to convey her answers. Gaspard Rizzini, a Venetian
by birth but long attached to the House of Modena as one of
its most trusty and devoted servants, for thirty years its agent
in Paris, starts in pursuit of the King, then in Holland, but
falls sick of a fever at Nancy, and forwards the letter enclosed
in one of his own to M. de Pomponne, in attendance on Louis.
He tells him the truth of the matter is that the Duchess of
Modena four or five years ago built a Convent for the Nuns of
the Visitation contiguous to her palace at Modena, and com-
municating with it ; " the young Princess (naturally inclined
to devotion and chiefly through the pious example of the
Duchess her mother) by the continual frequentation of these
religious, became penetrated with the desire to join them, and
this with so much firmness and constancy as to render useless
all the efforts made to turn her from it."

Whilst these explanations are going on, the Duchess Regent
receives Lord Peterborough incognito the day after his arrival.
He thus describes the meeting : " She received him standing
against a table, with much courtesie." She objects her daughter's
youth and aversion to marriage and desire for a religious life,
also marriage with a Prince " not declared of the same Church,
let the Opinion of his true Faith be what it would." In the
end she promises to let him see Mary Beatrice the next
evening.

The young Princess Mary Beatrice Anne Margaret Isabel,

17 c

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 was at tn i s time not quite fifteen years old, having been born
October 5, 1658, and although, in the words of her future
husband, " she had been bred so simple " that she had never
heard of England or of him, she ranked nevertheless among the
accomplished princesses of her day. With a good knowledge
of Latin, great fluency in writing both French and Italian, she
was quickly able to write English which would compare favour-
ably with that of her future step-daughters, and her mother
had early trained her to habits of courage and self-control
which, in time to come, would stand her in good stead. In-
telligent, high-spirited and ready of wit, she was prepared to
defend herself and her cause with a firm frankness remarkable
for her years, and the period in which she lived.
Peter- After the first compliments Lord Peterborough tells her that

borough s . iiri -11-1

Memoirs her picture and much more herself have convinced him that
marriage with her " was the only way to make happy a Prince,
whose Love and Application, when she came to know him,
would be well able to make amends for what she might now in
a measure esteem a sufferance. She answered with a little
fierceness, That she was obliged to the King of England and
the Duke for their good opinion ; but she could not but
wonder why from so many Princes (sic) of more merit, who
would esteem that Honor and be ready to embrace it, they
should persist in endeavouring to force the Inclinations of
another, for whom it was impossible to agree to a proposition
of that nature, and that had vow'd herself, as much as was in
her power, to another sort of life, out of which she could never
think she should be happy. She desired His Excellency, and
even as he thought, with Tears in her Eyes, That if he had
interests in his Masters, he would oblige her, by endeavouring
yet to divert any further persecution of a Maid, who had an
invincible aversion for marriage. There were Princesses enough,
she said, in Italy, and even in that House, that would not be
unworthy so great an Honor, and that from the esteem they
might have thereof, would deserve it much better than she
could do.

" The Earl began to be a little peek'd, at expressions he 1673
thought something too earnest in opposition of what he did
desire. He told her then, he begg'd her pardon, if he could
not obey her ; he might have been induc'd to it before he saw
her, but it was now impossible. He could not believe, from
what he perceived of her, That she was made for other end
than to give Princes to the World, which should honor it with
Characters of high Virtue and Merit ; that his Country had need
of such, and he would now hazard the offending her by per-
sisting in his demand ; since if he did incur her indignation, he
was sure at last she would not own it, because it would prove
to be, for making her one of the most happy Princesses in
Europe.

" The Princess Mary of Este appear'd to be at this time about
Fourteen years of Age ; she was tall, and admirably shaped, her
Complexion was of the last fairness, her Hair black as Jet, so
were her Eyebrows and her Eyes ; but the latter so full of light
and sweetness so they did dazzle and charm too. There seemed
given unto them from Nature, Sovereign Power ; power to kill
and power to save ; and in the whole turn of her Face, which
was of the most graceful oval could be framed, there was all the
Features, all the Beauty, and all that could be great and charm-
ing in any humane Creature. . . . This Princess seem'd un-
satisfied for all he could say."

The next day he complained to Nardi, who assured him " the
Ladies of Italy, when it came to be in earnest, were to have no
will, but that of their Friends, and her mother satisfied, she
would soon be brought to a more difficult matter if she
thought fit."

The Duchess Laura was not so ready to coerce her daughter
as her Chancellor implied, and the autocratic Louis XIV was
more ready to give way than were his ambassadors and agents.
In a long letter for he was in truth his own Prime Minister
to Colbert de Croissy, his Ambassador in London, while send- Affaires
ing him the Duchess's letter to be shown to Charles II and the
Duke of York, he accepts and examines the new situation

19 c 2

QUEEN MAKY OF MODENA

1673 created by Mary Beatrice's refusal, and returns to his old
suggestions of the Princesses of Neubourg and Wiirtemberg,
while Pomponne, by his order, writes to the Marquis de
Dangeau, September 7, 1673, to recall him, courteously re-
gretting the unnecessary trouble he has been at.

No efforts, however, are left untried by the French agents ;
Cardinal d'Estree's hints at the anger of the King of France if the
negotiations come to nothing, and another Cardinal Altieri
nephew of Pope Clement X, enters the field and writes to Father
Galimberti, confessor of the Duchess Laura, to tell him with
what satisfaction the Holy Father had heard of the departure
from Paris of the Ambassador Extraordinary. " It has been
notified here that all the prerogatives of liberty conceded to the
late Queen Mother, and to the reigning Queen, will be accorded
to the Princess. With the other singular proofs the Duke of
York has given of his convictions, all difficulties upon this
point should be at an end, and, on the other hand, it is to be
hoped that the piety of Her Highness the Duchess will enable
her to subordinate her own tenderness to the service of God,
and of the faithful of that country, for it would be of the
gravest prejudice to them if the Duke of York were obliged to
marry a non-Catholic." He ends by conveying the Pope's
request that the Duchess will take no steps with regard to her
daughter, contrary to the marriage, without first informing His
Holiness.

Another voice, the most august of all, was now to break
silence. The arguments of Kings, Cardinals, Ambassadors,
and of her own family had failed to shake the purpose or con-
vince the mind of the young Princess. Moved by a desire to
benefit the Catholics of England, and as much perhaps by the
solicitations of the Courts of England and France as by the
prompting of his own conviction, Clement X writes a brief to
Mary Beatrice, the only instance, we believe, of a Sovereign
Pontiff directly addressing a Princess of fifteen years of age.
It is, of course, in Latin, but that, as we know, presented no
difficulty to her. It is addressed :

A PAPAL BKIEF

Dilectas in Christo filiae Nobili Puellae Mariae Principesse 167;
Estensi. Clemens P.P.X.

" Dear daughter in Christ, noble Damsel, greeting etc. Since
the design of the Duke of York to contract alliance with your
Nobility reached our ears, We return thanks to the Father of
Mercies who, knowing our solicitude for His Glory, is pre-
paring for us, in the Kingdom of England an ample harvest of
joy. Considering, in effect, the influence of your virtues, We
easily conceived a firm hope that an ead might come to the
persecution still smouldering in that kingdom and that the
orthodox faith, reinstated by you in a place of honour might
recover the splendour and security of former days, an effect
which no exterior power could accomplish and which might
become due to the victory of your piety, the inheritance of
your eminently religious family. You can therefore easily
understand, dear daughter in Christ, the anxiety which filled
Us when We were informed of your repugnance for marriage.
For although we understood that it arose from a desire, most
laudable in itself, to embrace religious discipline, reflecting that
in the present occasion it opposes itself to the progress of
religion, we were nevertheless sincerely grieved. We therefore,
fulfilling the duties of Our charge, earnestly exhort you by
these presents to place before your eyes the great profit which
may accrue to the Catholic faith in the above-named kingdom
through your marriage, and that inflamed with zeal for the
good which may result, you may open to yourself a vaster field
of merit than that of the virginal cloister. In order that the
special customs and manner of praying, contrary to our ritual, of
the populations among whom you are going may be no impedi-
ment to your decision, We shall take care that so great an affair
be treated in such manner that no obstacle may arise to hinder the
exercise of your illustrious piety. Expecting, from the truly filial
observance you owe Us, this great consolation, We send your
Nobility, from the depth of our heart, our Apostolic Benediction.

" Given at Rome XIX September MDCLXXIII the fourth
year of Our Pontificate."

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 There is a certain pathos in Pope and Cardinals thus con-
spiring to send of their best, the child of a race so illustrious
that our Kings are glad to claim a share in its blood, of more
than common beauty, intelligence, and goodness, like a new
Esther to try and obtain relief for the fellow-members of
her faith ; but a measure which may succeed with a single
Ahasuerus may be doomed to failure where he is multiplied
by hundreds in a Parliament, and by thousands in the ranks of
party factions.

Upon Mary Beatrice, the effect of Clement X's words was
instant and complete. The proud little head bowed in submis-
sion, her surrender was as prompt as her resistance had been stead-
fast, and she was to carry to the married state those virtues of
obedience, devotion, and self-abnegation which would have
adorned the quiet haven she had chosen for herself.

The passage in the Papal Brief referring to the care the
Pope meant to take that Mary Beatrice's religion should be
safeguarded in England, is amplified in a covering letter from
Cardinal Altieri to Father Galimberti, and expresses the Pope's
desire to have the articles in the marriage contract respecting
religious prerogatives submitted to himself. This request
spread consternation at Modena, for there were to be no such
articles. Galimberti hastens to explain the difficulty in a letter
to Monsignor Rangoni, a Modenese ecclesiastic in Rome, a
letter which disproves the suspicion expressed in Lord Peter-
borough's Memoirs that Galimberti, being a subject of the
Duke of Parma and devoted to him (and therefore to the
Spanish interests), was opposed to the marriage.

" MODENA, 22 Sept. 1673.

" . . . . You cannot easily picture to yourself the emotion caused
by the letter arrived last evening, showing the delay in an affair,
which Rome had not only approved, but counselled .... I must
inform you in all confidence it is reported here that Cardinal Altieri's
letter to me having got known in Rome, certain persons of the
Spanish faction, in order to hinder the affair for political reasons, have
employed some official at the Palace, if not to break off, at least to

THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

prolong the negotiations (which, owing to the coming assembly of 1673
Parliament would be equivalent to destroying the whole thing). . . .
Our Bishop has shown me a letter from Cardinal Altieri in which
His Eminence desires that the articles touching religion should be
sent to Rome, and although his Lordship has written in reply, I
think it as well to submit two points for consideration, on which all
the good to be hoped for in England depends ist on the marriage
taking place before the meeting of Parliament, so that there may be
no chance of preventing it ; and to do nothing which may breed
umbrage in the Parliament, which in matters of religion has a
hundred open eyes. The first motive compels extreme haste in
celebrating the marriage and getting the bride to England before the
opening of Parliament . . . the 23rd October ; the second obliges
Milord Peterborough to do nothing which may cause jealousy in
the said Parliament, and therefore he dares not introduce any clauses
concerning religion. But verbally, and in the name of his King,
from whom he holds the most ample powers, he swears that the
Princess shall have all the liberty in the exercise of her religion
enjoyed by the present Queen, not only for herself, but for all her
household. The good which may accrue to the Catholic religion
must also appear great at Rome ; it does not appertain to me to
esteem it."

The ways of Rome are proverbially slow, and it was only
natural that for the very reason that he had urged this marriage
upon Mary Beatrice the Pope should insist upon the insertion
of clauses safeguarding her religious liberty in the marriage
contract. This is explained to the Duchess Laura in a letter
of congratulation from Cardinal d'Estrees, in which he adds that
the Pope and Cardinal Altieri, knowing the importance of haste,
recommend that the Princess should start upon her journey,
and the necessary papers would be sent after her to some town
in France. And the Secret Archives of the Vatican possess a
brief from Clement X to the Duchess, favourable to the
marriage, but adjourning the concession of the dispensations.
It is dated September 30.

At Modena, however, the contracting parties determined not
to wait, and the marriage contract, written in Latin, is signed
by the Earl of Peterborough, by the French Ambassador

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 Philippe de Courcelles, Marquis de Dangeau, and Girolamo
Graziani. There is a minute and interesting account, written
by Guglielmo Codebo, Gentleman of the Chamber and Secretary
to the Duchess of Modena, saying how after the difficulties had
been overcome, Lord Peterborough left the house of Count
Ugo Molza, where he had lived incognito, and was publicly
conducted, in his quality of British Ambassador, by no less
a person than Prince Rinaldo, uncle of the reigning Duke, to
the Ducal Palace escorted by a numerous company of horse-
men and chariots, to the sound of cannon from the fort and
from the city. He makes his state visit to the Duchess
Regent, who with her son and the future bride receives him a
few paces in front of the ducal throne. " The Ambassador on
this occasion displayed a fine and rich livery of English scarlet
cloth and blue and white silk, laced with silver, worn by his
six equerries and two pages. On entering the throne-room,
and in saluting Their Highnesses and presenting his letters of
Credit he removed his hat, instantly replacing it again." The
Ambassador makes his formal demand for the hand of the
Princess in the name of the King of England " and the affair
being already discussed, it was immediately consented to."
Codebo describes the procession to the gilded stucco halls of
the upper story, where a temporary altar had been erected, and
the Court Chaplain, Dom Andrea Roncagli, performed the
ceremony, Lord Peterborough acting as proxy for the Duke of
York, in the presence of a large company of nobility, who
filled three large halls and two rooms, September 30, 1673.

Thus after six months' indefatigable labours Lord Peter-
borough has brought his master's business to the end he so
ardently desired, and he gives an account of it the same day to
King Charles.

" MODENA 30 September 1673.
" SIR,

Pub. Rec. I did not think it fitt to trouble your Majestie with those

it IN difficulties which made me doubt of being able to obey your last

commands. But since I have had the good fortune to prove more

successful than I did expect, I may hope it will not be disagreeable to

2 4

THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY

Your Majestic to know that you have now a sister-in-law that I 1673
thinke will be worthy of all the honors you have done her and
her family, of which her relations express all the resentment can
be expected from Princes, that are really very full of honor and
understanding.

Sir, I thinke you will find this young princess to have beauty in
her person and in her minde, to be faire tall, well-shap'd and very
healthfull. And truly the Duchess her mother has concluded this
matter with soe many circumstances of respect to your Majestic
and the Duke, as in my poore opinion they will deserve all the good
reception your royall and generous nature will thinke fitt to give
them. We could not hinder the Duchess accompanying her
daughter, but her stay will be very short, of which notwithstanding I
thought it my duty to acquaint your Majestic, and when you come to
know all the particulars of this negociation if I shall prove to have
donne what may be agreeable to your Majestic, it will be the greatest
satisfaction of which can be capable, Sir, your Majestie's most
faithful and most obedient servant

PETERBOROW."
The same day he informs Lord Arlington :

" I have been wearied out of my life by the delaye or these cir- Pub. Rec.
cumstances of briefs and dispensations, without which they pretended ?* ce '

..... f ,. r Italy, N 37

an impossibility or proceeding. . . .

But at last for the sake of this match, which upon consideration is
become deare to her, the Duchess did venture upon frank dis-
obedience, and has caused the marriage to be solemnised without
giveing the Court of Rome any further satisfaction. For the part of
business it stands thus [here follows an account of the arrangements
for the dowry, which is reduced to 300,000 crowns, the payment
guaranteed by the King of France, King Charles undertaking on
behalf of his brother to provide a jointure of ^15,000 a year].
Now my Lord, I hold myselfe obliged to doe the Duchess of
Modena that right as to acquaint your Lordship that she has ended
this matter with soe much respect to the King and the Duke and
given testimony of it by soe many circumstances of magnificent
entertainment as since we cannot hinder her comeing, and that her
stay will be soe short, she will deserve to be very well received, for the
King's honor, and her own meritt, for she is really an extraordinary
woman, has a great deale of witt, and sperritt, and I believe wants
not good humor if she were in a place where it was the custome to
make use of it."

2 5

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 The news of what Lord Peterborough called her " frank
disobedience " was conveyed by the Duchess Regent herself to
Cardinal Altieri in the diplomatic letter of a clever woman.
The most benign counsels of the Holy Father and the courteous
exhortations of his Eminence have induced her to proceed with-
out further delay " considering the notable prejudice such delay
would have caused, and the pressing instances which came to
me from Rome/' and she announces that her daughter's mar-
riage with the Duke of York has been celebrated that morning
" with the free consent of the said Princess. Your Eminence
knows with what tender affection I love my daughter, and can
freely believe that I have obtained the fullest security for her
liberty of conscience and the free exercise of her religion." She
then requests him to impart the news to the Pope, hoping it
may be a source of satisfaction to him. She concludes with the
hope that he will recognise in her action the effects of her
obedience to the Pope and singular respect for the Cardinal.

An expression of astonished displeasure was the only possible
reply, and the Cardinal makes it in dignified terms, laying
stress upon the unprecedented departure from established usage
in the case of such marriages, which the Pope could neither
approve nor sanction, but only deeply regret, as he had con-
sidered the special articles in the marriage contract an indispens-
able condition for granting the necessary dispensations.

Meanwhile the marriage was an accomplished fact ; Lord Peter-
borough presented the bride with rich jewels from the Duke of
York, and especially a diamond ring which she ever cherished
and which forty-six years later her son was to give to his
bride, the Princess Sobieska. In Lord Peterborough's Memoirs
he says that owing to the non-arrival of the dispensation the
Bishop of Modena did not deem it advisable to perform the
marriage ceremony himself, u so a poor English Jacobine was
found, Brother to Jerome White," and pressed into the service.
This statement, improbable in itself, is in direct contradiction
to Codebo's assertion that the Court Chaplain, Dom Andrea
Roncagli, officiated, a statement confirmed in Muratori's

PUBLIC REJOICINGS

" Antichita Estensi." It is difficult to reconcile the two accounts, 1673
or to think that either was deliberately false ; a possible expla-
nation may be found in the fact that Codebo's account is a
contemporaneous one, bearing the date of October, 1673,
whereas Lord Peterborough wrote some twelve years later.
The abstention of the Bishop of Modena is certain, and Peter-
borough must have had cognizance of the different solutions
contemplated in consequence of it, without remembering which
had finally been adopted.

The chorus of congratulation which had followed Mary
Beatrice's consent was led off, as was natural, by Louis XIV
himself in his letters to the Duchess Regent and to England.
He tells her, and also the English Court through Colbert de
Croissy, that in the bride's voyage through France " il n'y a
point d'honneur que je n'aye donne ordre de rendre a la
Duchesse d'York," but he has been informed of her wish to
travel incognito and without ceremony, and there is in the
Archives of the Affaires fctrangeres a circular from the King
to all the Governors and great officers of the provinces through
which the travellers would pass, addressed " Nos Ames et
Feaux" bidding them do all that lies in them to pay her
respect, and punctually to execute the Marquis de Dangeau's
behests.

Codebo tells us that immediately after the marriage ceremony,
and the reading aloud by one of the notaries of the Ducal
Court of the marriage contract, " the Princess Mary was
declared Duchess of York, then H.S.H. the Duchess Regent
and Madama (the dowager Duchess, step-mother of the late
Duke of Modena) taking her between them gave her pre-
cedence, and all the honours due to the royal blood of Stuart."
Then the public rejoicings broke forth, the masquerades and
comedies which were to last throughout the stay of the young
Duchess. We can picture to ourselves the masqueraders
passing and repassing under the Italian sky, through the old
streets of Modena, each unit of the gay crowd a picture in
itself, making up a feast of colour, light, and movement. Lord

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 Peterborough spent the rest of the day in visits, and Codebo
notes that he never wore his hat in the presence of Her Royal
Highness.

"At break of day, October ist, which happened to be
Sunday, began the preparations for the Cavalcade. An hour
after mid-day, the royal bride started in a superb coach for the
Cathedral, accompanied by the Duchess Regent, Madama and
the Princess Leonore. H.S.H. the Duke, riding a generous
steed, wore a suit of brocade, embroidered with pearls and gold,
his hat-band and sword-hilt all diamonds. At his right rode
the English Ambassador, representing the Duke of York.
Then came Prince Rinaldo and the Marquis de Dangeau, envoy
of His Most Christian Majesty, and their suites to the number
of a hundred cavaliers, who by the richness of their dress, of
their liveries and the pomp of their accoutrements raised
wonder and delight in the beholders." The writer gives the
route of the procession passing by the magnificent Convent of
the Nuns of the Visitation, which one of the two Princesses in
that " superb coach " may have passed with mixed feelings of
tenderness and regret, while the other was to retire in a few
days to the stricter seclusion of the Carmelite order.

Of the banquet which followed, of the order and number of
the guests, the bride and bridegroom by proxy sitting at the
head of the table, we have the most particular relation, and
even of the dishes set before them " in that magnificence
with which the most Serene house of Este has been wont from
the most ancient times to entertain in its palaces princes and
crowned kings." The chief ornaments of the tables seem to
have been the Trionfi, or Triumphs, elaborate monuments in
paste, sugar and marchpane, no doubt very artistically executed,
and all emblematic of the marriage an Atlas resting the weight
of the globe upon an eagle ; a Diana taming a leopard ; a
Neptune in his car drawn by sea-horses, his trident bearing the
inscription mihi soli obtemperat ut cequor ; two Jeopards
drawing a lady in a golden car, etc., etc. "The last- course
consisted of comfits and confectionery, but these were hardly

BALL AND MASQUEKADE

touched by the guests, and as soon as removed, were speedily 1673
seized with (I do not know if I should say eagerness or
indiscretion) by the bass a gente whom the inadvertence of the
guards had allowed to enter, but which the generosity of the
Duchess allowed. A horse-race, for the victor of which a
splendid banner had been prepared, was postponed to the next
day owing to the lateness of the hour, (and then won by a barb
called Mahasia), the guests for a little while went down into
the Corso, still full of carriages, and cavaliers, and masqueraders,
who, dressed in various guise according to their humour, gave
and received no ordinary amusement. The night closed with a
ball at the Palace, where the presence of the Princes, the jewels
of the ladies, and the splendour of the gentlemen made the
night as resplendent as the day."

CHAPTER II

1673 ON October 5, which happened to be her fifteenth
birthday, the young Duchess of York set out from Modena
on her journey towards the thorny paths from which her feet
were never again to stray. The boy Duke, her brother,
accompanied her the first two days, and was then persuaded
to go back. The Princess was dissolved in tears, and Lord
Peterborough writes : " She left her loving and hopeful
Brother, her happy and delicious Country, with the kind com-
panions of her youth, among whom she had been bred, and all
these perhaps for ever ; her Youth and Innocence permitted her
not to know whither she was to go, to what kind of port, nor
among whom. So compassion was to be allow'd to her tears,
as well as her inclinations, and it was enough we could procure
her to proceed and to be comforted." The Duchess Regent
and Prince Rinaldo d'Este, the bride's uncle, went with her to
England, and the travelling party numbered sixty, the Marquis
de Dangeau having started three days earlier to await them at
Lyons.

The travellers had not been a week on the road when a
warning note of coming trouble is sounded by the faithful
Abb Rizzini, Modenese agent in Paris, in a letter to Count
Graziani, State Secretary of Modena. He writes on October
n, and, after offering his congratulations upon the marriage,
successfully concluded in spite of the Pope's delays, " attributed
here to Spanish intrigue " he announces that the Catholic
Archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, has been for the last

A WARNING NOTE

few days incognito in Paris ; that it is supposed he has been 1673
appointed Chief Almoner to the Duchess of York, but not to
fill his charge until he can return to England, whence he has
been banished by Parliament as one of those who had induced
the Duke of York to change his religion. His brother, Colonel
Richard Talbot ("Dick" Talbot, reputed the handsomest man
in England, afterwards Lord Tyrconnel) is expected every day,
having been appointed Chief Equerry to the Duchess, and the
two brothers will then start at once to meet her. All this
Rizzini says he has written to the Duchess Regent, and con-
tinues that he has learned other things from the Archbishop, of
which he has not dared acquaint her as yet, " for fear of
increasing her uneasiness." These are the attempts of the
Parliamentarians to induce the Duke of York to marry a
Protestant, and the machinations of the Spaniards to make him
take an Austrian princess, " having even proposed to make
him Sovereign Prince of Flanders, as the Archduke Albrecht
had been." Besides these two projects " the malcontents have
plotted another and more feasible scheme in view of the suc-
cession ; viz., that admitting the King will not hear of re-
pudiating his wife, they will show (by means of forged
documents, as may well be believed) that the Mother of the
Duke of Monmouth, now dead, was the true and legitimate
wife of the King, and that therefore the said Duke is the true
and legitimate heir to the throne ; and these turbulent men
say they are all the more sure of success that the King tenderly
loves the Duke, (which is true) and that, as His Majesty
allowed all that was done by the last Parliament, they flatter
themselves he will listen to similar proposals in the next one,
in view of his great affection, as I have said, for the Duke of
Monmouth.

" All these ridiculous and most odious projects, . . . may
be expected to vanish like a fire of straw after the storm of this
Parliament is passed, and things return to a state of quietness ;
nevertheless it is certain that they exist, . . . and that history
furnishes examples of similar contests of legitimacy in England

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 between the houses of York and Lancaster. It is also certain
that the present King, indolent and entirely given to pleasure
is not much esteemed, that the Duke of York, as more reso-
lute, courageous and intrepid, makes himself feared and there-
fore hated, and that the Duke of Monmouth alone is beloved.

" I deeply regret that at a moment when I should only speak
to your Excellency of pleasant things, I am obliged to hold
such discourse as this."

Meanwhile, the bride and her companions were wending
their way to England. Codebo, the Duchess Regent's private
secretary, kept a journal, in which each day's events and pro-
gress are recorded. Only on one occasion from Fiorenzuola to
Piacenza do we find as many as thirty-five miles covered in
one day, except on the river Loire, when the distance recorded
is forty-five ; and the roads of Italy, France and England
must have been much alike, as the rate of progress is identical
in all three countries from twenty to thirty miles a day.

At the very outset there is a little contretemps at Parma ; the
Duke and Duchess do not see the illustrious travellers "by
reason of a slight misunderstanding between the two Serene
Houses on account of the title of ' Highness ' denied to the
former by the Duke of York, . . . however all was set right
by the courteous conduct of our most Serene Duchess on her
return journey."

The daily noted incidents are full of a life and movement
long past and gone, of walled cities and their governors stand-
ing at the gates to receive their Highnesses. " Who wish to
keep the incognito of English Ladies" says Codebo, and there-
fore beg for no display of troops, salutes, etc. At Broncio they
stay to pay their respects at the shrine of a Saint of their House,
" the Holy St. Contardo, son of the valorous Azzo IX, and of
Elisa, Princess of Antioch." Here had he died in the habit of
a poor pilgrim on his way to Compostella many centuries before,
and yet " his head still looks as if it lived." At Rivoli, the
favourite country seat of the Duke of Savoy, there is a pretty
incident ; the gallant Duke comes incognito from Turin to see

THE BRIDE'S JOURNEY

the royal bride, and serves as her cicerone in the quality of one 1673
of his own gentlemen, through the palace and the gardens,
shows her his pictures, his horses and his hounds, then mounts
and rides away. The Mont-Cenis is happily crossed, the ladies
carried in chairs, the gentlemen riding, and when at Beau-Voisin
after nine days' travel through his dominions, the Duchess
Regent wishes to reward the officers and men, the vetturini and
the porters of the Duke, " they all refused by order of His Royal
Highness whom they dared not disobey." Here the Marquis
de Dangeau is waiting to greet them in the name of the King
of France, at whose expense the rest of the journey is to be
performed, and Dangeau figures as custodian of the young
Duchess until her arrival in London.

At Lyons are spent two quiet days, 22 and 23 October, and
the archives of the Convent of the Visitation at Modena still
preserve the letters written from there by Mary Beatrice to the
nuns. The following is the first, simple and child-like, but
remarkable for the time in which it was written, in not contain-
ing one mis-spelt word of its graceful Italian.

To SISTER MARY, NUN OF THE VISITATION, AT MODENA.

" LYONS, 22 October 1673.
"VERY REVEREND MOTHER,

I give you the news that we have arrived here in perfect health,
God be praised j . . . Mama and I are not only well, but very well,
and I am most impatient to have news of you, which will be so dear
to me, and which, I hope to God, may be good. On Thursday we
went to see the Sisters of the Visitation at Chambery, and I cannot
express the consolation it was to me to be there. I asked for your
dear nieces, whom, to confess the truth, I caressed more than the
others, and embraced more tenderly, for it seemed to me as if I were
kissing your own hands, my most dear Mother. Those good Sisters
willingly gave me their portrait, and I promised them mine, and told
them I would have written to them, if I had known their names. I
must end by embracing your Reverence with all my heart.

MARIA D'ESTE.

P.S. I add, this evening, 23rd This morning we went to Com-
munion at the Sisters of the Visitation, where is preserved the heart

33 D

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 f m y c ' ear f atner > St Francis of Sales, which I saw with the greatest
pleasure and kissed the case which contains it. We saw the
mattrass on which he died, his cassock, his cushion, his writing-table.

The good Mother gave me a hand-kerchief of his, which pleased
me greatly ; we visited the room where he died, an altar with his
portrait above it now stands in the place where stood his bed ... If
I followed my inclination I would never cease writing to you, my
dearest Mother, but as it is time to go to supper, I embrace you and
all my sisters with all my heart."

A few days later the Duchess Laura writes to the Superior of
the same Convent, asking for prayers " that all may happen for
the comfort of the Duchess, my daughter, for her comfort will
ever be my own." Codebo's journal speaks of contrary winds,
detaining the travellers at Roanne on the Loire, but they
embark on the 2yth. The navigation on the Loire took five
days, and must have been the pleasantest part of the long
voyage, especially to the young princess, who writes from on
board to the Superior of the Convent.

"29 October 1673.
" VERY REV D . MOTHER,

This is our third day on this boat, and Mama, I, and all the
company are very well, the weather could not be better for sailing ;
God be praised for all ! My dear Mother, remember your daughter,
although she is far away ; I assure you my heart ever remains close
to yours, . . . and nothing will ever be able to separate them. Pray
to God for me, and make your daughters, my dear Sisters, pray for
me. I have many distractions, dear Mother, though I certainly do
not desire them ; but without great help from God, I cannot always
be recollected, though I should wish to be so.

Mama, I, and all the company enjoy ourselves very well on board
this boat, where everything goes on, reading, writing, playing, eating,
sleeping, laughing, and also saying our Office ; thus all is well, thanks
be to God. Dear Mama, (and I say the words with the voice of my
heart) be pleased to embrace all my dear Sisters for me, and more
particularly my dear Sister Mary Beatrice.

MARIA D'ESTE, DUCHESS OF YORK."

Codebo notes " November I. In the evening at Fontainebleau the
country palace of the King of France, where, to tell the truth, except
the Princes, we were ill lodged."

REMONSTRANCE OF PARLIAMENT

The plan of bringing the bride to England before the 1673
opening of Parliament had failed, and that Assembly, meeting
on the |g October, lost no time in making known its
sentiments. Colbert de Croissy reports its proceedings the
same day to Louis XIV.

"LONDON, 30 October 1673.
" The Duke of York is much troubled at having received no Affaires

Etran
geres

news of the voyage of the Duchess ; it is true that this is the Etran -

third post we have missed owing to the storm having thrown a
great deal of sand into Dover harbour ; all the packets are
delayed. . . . Although Parliament has been prorogued for a
week, and only met this morning for prayers, nevertheless,
before saying these, some members of the House of Commons
proposed to make a humble remonstrance to the King of
England, that it may please him to prevent the completion of
the marriage of the Duke of York, and that in future no prince
of the blood likely to succeed to the throne, may marry any
lady not of the English religion ; the motion was carried
almost unanimously. Although the Prorogation makes this
vote of no effect, nevertheless the intention of Parliament
having been manifested, I do not know whether the King will
consent to the consummation of the marriage. . . . ' With
this despatch the Ambassador sends the following precis of the
petition. " That divers misfortunes and inconveniences have
arisen from such marriages. That they are a powerful means
of disturbing the minds of His Majesty's Protestant subjects,
and may engage us in such alliances abroad as may cause the
destruction of the Protestant religion. Experience has shown
that such marriages have increased the number of Papists in
this kingdom, and encouraged them.

" That the affections of the people may be estranged from
His Royal Highness, who stands very near the Crown.

" That since the opening of these negotiations these people
have taken fresh life and boldness.

" That for another generation, and perhaps longer, this

35 D 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 kingdom will have to fight for the supremacy of the Protestant
religion against the encroachments of Popery, which may result
in dangerous and fatal consequences.

" That the Princess of Modena, by reason of her relationship
to several eminent persons at the Court of Rome, might further
Papistical intrigues among us, or be the means of divulging
our councils and the state of this kingdom.

" That it is generally admitted that contracts by proxy are
capable of being dissolved, and that there are several examples
of such.

" We represent this to Your Majesty with all the more
earnestness that we have not yet the happiness of seeing any
issue of Your Majesty to succeed to the throne, which with all
our hearts we pray God to send us in due season for the
comfort of us all."

Before this serious news reached Paris, the travellers had
arrived there November 2 and been lodged at the Arsenal,
welcomed by three Dukes, says Codebo, Richelieu in the name
of the King, Vivielle for the Queen, and Plessis for the Duke
of Orleans. The King came in royal state from Versailles to
visit them on the 4th, and almost every footstep is recorded,
how their Highnesses met him at the foot of the stairs and how
he led the bride by the hand in remounting them, and some-
times whispered in her ear during the conversation in her
apartment. "His Majesty then withdrew with the Duchess
Regent into another room for private conference, leading her by
the hand in going and coming." The rest of the Royal family,
the Court, the Parliament in a body, the Provost of the
Merchants and his colleagues with an address, presenting the
usual offering of wax and sweetmeats, all flocked to the Arsenal
and are duly chronicled by the secretary's pen. At Versailles,
the next day : " Taking the Royal bride by the hand His
Majesty conducted her through that superb palace, so richly
furnished and especially so rich in silver plate that there are
some 3,000 pieces, without counting the cabinets full of jewels.
They went through the gardens in a gilt chariot, the King

VERSAILLES

himself acting as coachman, perhaps in order to give the second 1673
place to the Duchess of York, who thus sat beside the Queen.
His Majesty showed them the fountains . . . and all the
other rare and costly beauties of the place. . . . After a
delightful promenade they were led to an apartment where a
splendid collation was spread. . . . The supper ended, they
returned to Paris in the royal carriages arriving at 5 o'clock
in the evening by torchlight." Supper must have been served
at an early hour to permit of the return to Paris by 5 o'clock,
but it must be remembered that Louis XIV's dinner hour was
10 A.M.

Codebo says he omits the names of many grandees for
brevity, "but I must not omit the royal gifts of his Majesty,
to the Duchess of York ... a large jewelled stomacher of
the value of 8,000 doubloons ... a crowned cross, valued at
6,000 doubloons to the Duchess Regent on her return from
London, and a jewel of 3,000 to Prince Rinaldo."

A livelier pen than that of the Duchess Laura's secretary
also chronicled the bride's arrival in Paris. Madame de
Sevigne writes to her daughter : " The Duchess of York is
at the Arsenal, and all the world is running there. The King
has been to see her; she has been to Versailles where the
Queen gave her a fauteuil, the Queen comes to her to-morrow
and on Thursday she will decamp."

In the midst of these honours the news of the Parliamentary
vote came as a shock. We have no record of the impression
it made on the bride herself, whether it raised a momentary
gleam of hope, and a vision of a possible return to her beloved
Modena, whilst to the Duchess Laura it must have brought
a marked increase to her uneasiness regarding her young
daughter's future. The Duke of York with what feelings
of mortification we can imagine had immediately despatched
a trusty messenger, Father Sheldon, to Paris with a letter to
his bride, which has a special interest as being the only
fragment which time and Revolution have spared of his
correspondence with her :

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

"LONDON 20 October 1673.

" I am sending the bearer, Father Sheldon, whom I have appointed
your first chaplain, to settle the affairs of your chapel with you ; I
have also charged him to inform you of what has happened here
to-day, in order that you may not be alarmed thereat ; he will at the
same time assure you that I have all imaginable impatience to have
the happiness to see you, and to be able to assure you myself that so
long as I shall live, I shall have all the love and true friendship for you
that you can expect from me.

JAMES."

He sent by the same bearer a letter to the Duchess of
Modena :

" to inform you of what has happened here to-day ; and as it is a
matter which has made a noise, and is too long for a letter, I leave it
to the bearer to acquaint you with at length, to whom you may be
pleased to accord full credence, and you may do me the justice to
believe that I am with much truth

Your very affectionate cousin

JAMES."

Affaires Colbert de Croissy on the 2nd November reports to Louis
XIV a conversation with Charles II about the Duke of York's
marriage. ..." I represented to him, that having been con-
cluded by his Ambassador with all the solemnity required by
human and divine law, it is an accomplished fact, and that his
honour and reputation are involved in its maintenance. He
told me he hoped that the tumultuous proceeding of the Lower
House against the marriage being nullified by the Prorogation,
would have no ill consequences, but I see many persons who
think otherwise, and who do not believe the Princess would be
safe here against the insolence and insults of the people during
the Session of Parliament, and although the Duke of York deems
it important that she should lose no time in coming to England
... I do not know whether it would not be better for Her
Royal Highness to await the end of this Session. . . ." l

1 " Should she arrive to-night [Nov. 5] she would certainly be martyred, the common
people here, and even those of quality in the country, believe she is the Pope's eldest
daughter! " Sir J. Williamson's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 63. Camden Society, 1874.

ILLNESS OF THE DUCHESS OF YORK

The question of immediate departure was settled in an 1673
unexpected manner. The fatigues of the journey and of her
reception, the change of climate and of food had disordered
the health of the young Princess, and she fell ill. Louis XIV
sends his two chief physicians to consult with her Modenese
doctor, and she herself despatches Count Antonio Nigrelli
with letters to King Charles and to her husband to inform
them of her illness. On the nth November, Pomponne writes
to Colbert de Croissy that the indisposition is slight, but
sufficient to retard departure. He hopes she may leave next
day, but on the i yth we find Madame de Sevign6 writing to
her daughter " this Princess is still very ill with dysentery.
English affairs are not going well ; the Parliament will not
have the match, and wants to disunite England and France ;
this is at present the grand petoffe of Europe." [Petoffe in
the Langue d'Oc means vexation, worry.] Meanwhile the
House of Commons had met, November 4, and received the
King's answer to their petition, " that His Majesty could not
in honour break a contract of marriage, which had been
solemnly executed." It was nevertheless resolved that a second
petition, of the same import as the first, should be drawn up,
that no supply should be granted unless the obstinacy of the
Dutch made it necessary till the country was secured from
the danger of popery and popish counsellors, that existing
grievances be redressed, a new test imposed to render the
Papists not only incapable of office, but of sitting in either
house of Parliament, that the standing army was a grievance,
and that (as had been done by the Long Parliament in the
time of Charles I) the King should be petitioned to appoint
a day of general fasting, that God might avert the dangers
with which the nation was threatened. These votes alarmed
the Court party, and Charles unexpectedly appeared in the
House of Lords in his robes and crown, and prorogued Parlia-
ment to the yth of January. This decisive measure took the
opposition by surprise, and Shaftesbury, who had calculated
upon the easy irresolute character of the King, and probably

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 expected to retain his high office while his colleagues should be
excluded from the royal counsels, was ordered to give up the
great Seal, while a full pardon was granted him for all offences
against the Crown.

This turn of affairs caused Colbert de Croissy to let the
French Minister of Foreign Affairs know that " the Duke of
York awaits the Duchess with impatience, and the King and
Queen have expressed their desire to me that she should
come soon ; I also think she could not come with too great
diligence."

The moment she was able to travel, the young Duchess set
out for Calais, November 23rd, and safely arrived there in a
week's time, with one day's rest at Abbeville. December ist
the yacht Catherine escorted by four men-of-war and two other
yachts left Calais bearing the bride and her relations to Dover,
a passage which lasted from 7 o'clock in the morning till 5 in
the evening. " The Duke, attended by only four gentlemen,
awaited her, and greeted her (and then the Duchess of Modena)
and she, with her beauty and manners so natural and appro-
priate, captivated the heart of the Duke and of the English
nation, as she had captivated the French." Lord Peter-
borough's account is almost identical : " On the sands of
Dover, the Duke her husband awaited her, and upon her
landing she took possession of his Heart as well as his
Arms and was thence conducted to her Lodging."

There was nothing in the appearance of the Prince thus
awaiting her to touch a young maid's fancy. Twenty-five
years her senior, pitted with small-pox, tall and angular, fair-
haired, and with a hesitation in his speech which at moments
of excitement made him difficult to understand yet, in virtue
of his race and name, and the qualities his friends found in him,
capable of securing their undying fidelity and affection. And
first among his friends, in the course of time, was to stand in
passionate devotion his now reluctant bride.

Codebo tells us that in the chief room of a private gentleman's
house at Dover, in the presence of a large number of nobility

ARRIVAL IN LONDON

and gentry, Dr. Nathaniel Crewe, Bishop of Oxford (afterwards 167;
Bishop of Durham) read aloud the marriage contract which
had passed at Modena on the 3oth of September " then the
Company broke out in cheers and loud hurrahs." Lord Peter-
borough's account confirms the fact that the Bishop merely
declared the bride and bridegroom already married, and that
there was no re-marriage as some historians have supposed. 1
The King had shrewdly ordered the formality to avoid con-
troversy as to the validity of the marriage, and James himself
and Sir William Temple give the same account. Lord Peter-
borough concludes" And here the Earl of Peterborough ended
this great service which through so many difficulties brought to
the Duke the fairest Lady in the World, and to England a
Princess of the greatest Example and Virtue."

Three days are spent at Dover " to rest and recover from
the effects of the crossing," says Codebo, and three days more,
by Canterbury and Rochester, bring the travellers to Gravesend,
where King Charles awaits them, on December 6, two months
and a day after the departure from Modena. They embark in
the royal barges for Whitehall Stairs, and on landing the King
takes his young sister-in-law by the hand and conducts her,
the Duke of York following with the Duchess of Modena, by
a secret door " to avoid the great concourse of people " into
the palace, where Queen Catherine stands at the top of the
stairs to receive them.

Before the news of the arrival in London has reached Paris,
Rizzini, in a letter to Count Graziani, gives an instance of the
different methods of the two royal brothers of England in their
dealings with men. " The Lord Mayor of London when he
had made his compliments to the Duke of York on his marriage,
begged him to do him the honour to bring his royal bride to a
banquet at the great hall of the City, as is the custom there,
and His Royal Highness having refused on the plea of the

1 "The Bishop of Oxford declared the marriage in the same form as was practised
... at the marriage of His Ma'esty." Williamson's Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 82.
Camden Society.

4 1

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1673 Duchess's indisposition (but really for other reasons) he was
much dissatisfied, and betook him to the King ; his Majesty
said that he would take the royal bride to the Banquet himself,
to the great contentment of the Lord Mayor."

We again turn to Codebo's journal to see what struck him
as worthy of note in London, and his pen first describes the
mounted Guard at Whitehall. " There, at the outer Gate,
stand continually two soldiers on horseback with drawn
swords in their hands. ... At the inner gate another guard of
about 150 men . . . here the King habitually resides. The
Palace of the Queen is called * Somerset ' and is a good mile
distant from Whitehall. There Queen Catherine, Infanta of
Portugal, attends to her devotions, spending the greater part
of the day in prayer. . . . The singing at Mass and Vespers
in her chapel is better than in Italy. . . . The Duchess of
York has her chapel at St. James's, but it is a private one. . . .
When Her Royal Highness goes out with the Queen or alone,
she has two Companies of her Guard, one Infantry which
attends at the place to which she is going, the other light
Cavalry with red tunics, which escorts her carriage. . . .
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess are saluted
in royal fashion, on bended knees, while giving their hands to
be kissed." Prince Rinaldo also sends his impressions to his
young nephew, the Duke of Modena, relating how they were
saluted by the great number of vessels in the Thames. " One
can nowhere see the power of so great a king so well as by
coming up this river, for the land is not yielding such ready
obedience to his authority as does the water. ... I can assure
your Highness that the Duke of York is a most able
prince ; experience shows it, and I hope in God may show it
more and more. The Duchess of York has wonderful success,
she is loved with extraordinary affection by her husband,
praised by the Court and respected by that evil party of
Parliamentarians although they hate the marriage. ... I
think we shall soon be moving hence, because I see the Parlia-
ment is furious and determined to meet in January.

THE DUCHESS OF MODENA DEPARTS

Duke is not afraid. Nevertheless it would not be well that 1674
we should be found here. Other matters are going well, but
might go better."

The Duchess of Modena was about to leave London and
her daughter. She had seen the Court of Charles II, and
something of the difficulties which were to beset the young
Duchess's path ; but she had also witnessed the affection of the
Duke of York for her, and the deep impression her youth,
innocence, and radiant beauty had made not only on the Court,
but upon the people. 1 Yet it must have been with no light
heart, and with no diminution of her original uneasiness, that
she bade her farewell in the first week of January i6y4- 2 The
Duchess and Prince Rinaldo took with them their train of
some fifty persons including one maitre de Ballet, Monsieur La
Motte, and there remained with the Duchess of York, the
Countess Lucretia Pretonari Vezzani, lady in waiting ; Dr.
James Ronchi, chaplain ; Father Antonio Giudici, confessor,
four women of the bedchamber, one page, one footman, one
maitre d? hotel, and two cooks. Her English household is given
in the Angliae Notitia (published in London 1676) :

OFFICERS AND SERVANTS BELONGING TO H.R.H.
THE DUCHESS OF YORK.

Groom of the Stole, Countess of Peterborough, 400.
Ladies of the Bedchamber, Countess Lucretia, an Italian

lady, and Lady Bellasis, 200.
Four Maids of Honour, Mrs. Jennings, 20 ; Mrs. Trevor,

20 ; Mrs. Clarke, 20 ; Mrs. . . .
Mother of the Maids, Mrs. Lucy Wise.
Six Bedchamber Women, Mrs. Katherine Elliot, 200 ;

Mrs. Margaret Dawson, 150; Mrs. Bromley, 150;

Mrs. Cornwallis, 150 ; Lady Apsley, 150 ; Italian

lady (Pellegrina Turini ?)

1 " It was hoped her swecte carriage would have abated her enemies ; but there is
again most horrid ill verses made of all the Court."

2 " The Duchess of Modena is gone from us much unsatisfied, because all things that
Mylord Peterborough promised are not performed (as a free chappell for her daughter
and the like)." Williamson's Correspondence, pp. 104., 106. Camden Society, 1874,

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1674 Starcher, Mrs. Mary Roche, 50.

Seamstress, Mrs. Pierce, 50.
Laundress, Mrs. Le Bodrey, 50.
Lace Mender,

Secretary, Mr. Coleman, 100.
Two Gentlemen Ushers, each j8o.
Four Gentlemen Waiters, four Pages of the Backstairs,

each 40.
Master Cook, ^40.
Necessary Woman, 40.
Eighteen Watermen, each 2.
Master of the Horse to the Duchess is the Earl of Ros-

common, 266 13^. 4^.
Two Escuyries, 100 each.
Eight Footmen, 39 each.
Four Coachmen, each 78 for themselves.
Postillions and Helpers, five Grooms, each 32 $s.
Two Chairmen, each 39.

Immediately after her mother's departure, the young Duchess
writes to her old friend the Superior of the Visitation at

Modena.

" LONDON .8 January 1674.
" MOST REVEREND MOTHER,

Archives I am in very good health, dear Mother, thank God, but I

Visitation cannot yet accustom myself to this state of life, to which, as you

Modena' know, I have always been averse ; therefore I cry a good deal and am

much afflicted, not being able to rid myself of melancholy ; however,

God be praised, this is my cross !

May it be a consolation to you, dear Mother, to know (and I say
it to the glory of God) that the Duke is a very good man and wishes
me well [she uses the pretty Italian mi vuole un gran bene\ and
would do anything to prove it to me ; he is so firm and steady in our
holy religion (which as a good Catholic he professes) that he would
not leave it for any thing in the world and in my affliction (which is
increased by the departure of my dear Mama) this is my consola-
tion. . . .

I remain, for ever, your true and affectionate daughter,

MARIA D'STE, DUCHESS OF YORK."

A PAPAL BENEDICTION

The same day she wrote a letter to Pope Clement X. It 1674
will be remembered that in their haste to get the marriage
solemnised before the meeting of Parliament the Duchess of
Modena and the Earl of Peterborough had dispensed with the
Pope's Dispensation, which he had refused to accord until satis-
fied that the bride's religion would be free and untrammelled.
He had asked that the stipulations regarding this freedom
in the marriage-contract might be submitted to him, but as we
have also seen, out of fear of Parliament no such stipulations
were inserted. As regarded the Duke of York, the fact of
his being of the same religion as his wife, though not openly
so, made them in reality unnecessary, but the Pope was too
well informed of the state of things in England not to feel an
uneasiness, which his own share in urging the Princess into the
marriage no doubt accentuated, and after the accomplishment
of the marriage he applied to the Duchess of Modena and to
the King of France for a guarantee that the young Duchess
enjoyed full liberty for herself and her household in the
exercise of her religion. The Duke of York had therefore
written to Louis XIV, 18 December, 1673, assuring him that
his wife did actually enjoy the same privileges as the Queen,
and that the King, his brother, " would have the same
care of her and her servants as he had of the Queen and
hers;" though we have seen that instead of the stipu-
lated public chapel, Charles only allowed her a private one,
and it is said that he persuaded the Queen to claim the
Chapel of St. James as hers, so as to get out of the difficulty,
a measure which caused some little friction between the two
royal ladies.

Although no dispensation as for a mixed marriage was
necessary, the Duchess of York was too faithful a subject of the
Pope not to desire that the usual Apostolic Benediction on her
union should no longer be withheld " now that in virtue of copy in
my obedience to the counsels and command of Your Holiness, ^ lve8
I am united to the Duke of York, my lord and consort, I come, Modena
as a devout daughter of the Church, to pray for the Apostolic

QUEEN MAKY OF MODENA

1674 Benediction on my marriage, as upon a work accomplished at
the hands of Your Holiness. . . "

Louis XIV wrote a stately letter to the Pope to the same
effect, and the Papal Benediction was conferred in a Brief still
preserved in the Archives of the Vatican, dated 16 March,
1675, after more than a year's delay.

King Charles gave his testimony to his young sister-in-law's
success in a gallant letter to the Duchess of Modena in answer
to her announcement of her safe return to her own country.
" As for your reception here, of which you assure me you still
Bodleian' ^ ear remembrance, be assured that for a climate as cold as ours,
Library \t y e t wanted none of the warmth of a sincere affection. And as
for the Duchess of York, besides being your daughter, and now
my sister-in-law, her rare virtues and conversation engage me
to give her greater and greater marks of affection and esteem,
which I shall ever continue to her, as to you all my wishes for
the increase of your prosperity."

A silver medal was struck in honour of the marriage. Mary
Beatrice was sung by the poets. Old Waller, in presenting her
with a copy of his verses, thus addressed her :

" Thus we writ then, your brighter eyes inspire
A nobler flame, and raise our genius higher ;
While we your wit and early knowledge fear,
To our productions we become severe ;
Your matchless beauty gives our fancy wing ;
Your judgement makes us careful how we sing ;
Lines not composed, as heretofore in haste,
Polish like marble, shall like marble last.
And make you through as many ages shine,
As Tasso has the heroes of your line ;
Though other names our wary writers use,
You are the subject of the British Muse ;
Dilating mischief to yourself unknown,
They write, and die of wounds they dare not own ! "

The Duchess ordered him to write some lines in her own
copy of Tasso, and he is said by Fenton to have kept them a
whole summer under correction, obeying his own injunction to
make them " polished like marble."

THE DUKE OF YORK'S COURT

" Tasso knew how the fairer sex to grace ; 1674

But in no one durst all perfection place :
In her alone that owns this book, is seen
Clorinda's spirit, and her lofty mien,
Sophronia's piety, Erminia's truth,
Armida's charms, her beauty and her youth.
Our Princess here, as in a glass, does dress
Her well-taught mind, and every grace express.
More to our wonder than Rinaldo fought,
The hero's race excels the poet's thought."

When Parliament met after the Prorogation 7 Jan. 1674
it was in no tenderer mood towards the marriage of the Duke
of York, and if the young Duchess ever entertained any hopes
that her presence in England might bring some alleviation to
her co-religionists, they must have been quickly dispelled. The
removal from office of all counsellors " popishly affected or
otherwise obnoxious or dangerous " was voted at once, and
enquiry to be made, among other things, as to who had advised
the marriage and the prorogation of last November ? " Let
them be incapacitated from inflicting new injuries on the
nation." There was but one way, and that second to none, in
which Mary Beatrice could uphold the credit and dispel the
ignorant contempt and fear of her religion, by being in herself
the example and charming embodiment of every virtue in a
Court where vice seems to have reigned almost supreme and
not in her closet, immersed in perpetual prayer like the dis-
heartened and neglected Queen but strong in the support of
her husband's affection, (which, if even then, unknown to her, it
was shared by baser objects, at least gave her no open cause of
jealousy or doubt,) in the intelligent high-spirited pursuit of all
good things. The satisfaction was hers for the present of
procuring to her own immediate household the exercise of their
religion, and we shall see her exerting herself to get protection
and asylum abroad for English maidens with a vocation to a
religious life, and to obtain advantages for her own country and
her kin.

The Court of the Duke of York, as indeed it had been in the

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1674 time of his first wife, was smaller but more choice than that
of the King, a fact which Charles himself was the first to
acknowledge without a particle of jealousy. In the Comte de
Gramont's Memoirs, we see London described as the most
beautiful town in the world, and accustomed as he was to the
grandeur of the Court of France, he declares himself surprised
at " la politesse et la pompe " of that of England. He, St.
Evremond and other distinguished foreigners and exiles were
habitues of the young Duchess's palace, and the words he uses
of Anne Hyde may equally apply to her. " Elk avail tant de
discernemenl pour le merite, que tout ce qui en avail dans Pun ou
dans Tautre sexe elail distingue chez elle" She set herself to
learn English, and to make friends with her step-daughters
the Princess Mary being exactly her own age a task which she
carried out so judiciously and lovingly, that neither ingratitude
nor enmity could ever defend themselves by blaming her. She
patronised the arts, and the best Italian artists came to England.
Italian opera was first given in England in 1674 as noted by
Mr. Evelyn in his Journal, who also rejoices over " the
stupendous violin, Signor Nicolao (with other rare musicians)
whom I never heard mortal man exceed on that instrument "
and Signor Francisco on the harpsichord " esteemed one of the
most excellent masters in Europe." All these rare musicians
must often have made music for the Duchess, who no doubt
played herself, whilst we know from de Gramont that" James
played the guitar. Play of another kind went on in her Court,
and " hombre at the Duchess's " is one of the inducements
held out in a letter from St. Evremond to Henry Jermyn, Earl
of St. Alban's, to persuade him to come and settle in London.

The letters of Mary Beatrice to her mother have been lost ;
those to her brother were placed in the Archives of Modena
and there remain. She writes to him, 21 March, 1674.
" Fratello mio caro " to give news of her health which is
excellent, and the bearer of her letter, Count Cincinelli, the
Duchess Laura's envoy to Charles II, can tell him " how well
treated and well-regarded I am here." She impatiently expects

SECRETARY COLEMAN

the gentleman he has promised to send with his portrait and 1674
gives rendez-vous " if not for this year, at least for next year "
to the brother whom she was never to see again. The absence
of the Duchess Regent had given the young Duke not yet
fourteen the opportunity of exercising his authority, and in
April, 1674, he announces that he has taken upon himself the
government of his Duchy under the title of Francis II, and
there is an autograph letter from the Duke of York wishing
him success and that he may emulate the glory of his
ancestors. 1

In the list of her household we found " Secretary Mr. Cole-
man, 100" a name which brings the element of tragedy at
once into the history of the young Duchess of York. Edward
Coleman, the son of a Suffolk clergyman, of good education,
had become a Catholic some time previously. Somewhat of a
busybody, vain of his abilities, expensive in his habits, he was,
it is said, anxious to acquire the reputation of a person of con-
sequence. Five of his letters, addressed on the Duchess's ser-
vice to the Abbe Rizzini at Paris, are preserved in the Archives
of Modena. The greatest enemy of Mary Beatrice's marriage
and of her husband was the Earl of Shaftesbury ; by his con-
nivance the Commons had been able to vote the petition of
November before being prorogued, and the Duke of York pointed
lim out to the Duke of Lauderdale as the chief fomenter of
disorder. It is therefore not surprising that Coleman's first
letter should give a short sketch of him to the Agent or
Modena " There is a rumour, (and such rumours are often
precursors of the truth) that our King is about to dismiss from
his Privy Council the Earls of Shaftesbury and Carlisle, and
Viscounts Falconbridge and Halifax. . . . The first was for-
merly Chancellor . . . and is undoubtedly a very able man,
but neither, according to what is said, as faithful or as honest
as he is able ; he has turned his coat six or seven times. First
he was on the side of the late King, then Colonel for the Par-

1 According to Muratori the young Duke's act was instigated and supported by
his cousins, the brother Princes Luigi, Foresto, and Cesare d'Este, especially by the
latter.

49 E

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1674 liament against him ; afterwards for the Lower House against
the Lords, then for Cromwell, then for Monk, after that for
the King's prerogative and liberty of conscience, at the present
hour he is a furious opponent of the King and of the Duke of
York, and the most zealous defender of the Protestant religion."
Equally terse are his accounts of the other three noblemen and
their tergiversations, saying of the last (Halifax) : " He was
raised to his honours only a few years ago at the special instance
of His Royal Highness, and has received many and great favours
from him and from the King . . . and nevertheless he cannot
keep himself from joining with the other three to counteract
all the affairs of the King and the Duke, and in proposing many
things too base and villainous to be named."

A week later he tells Rizzini that the King " has given the
reversion of a charge worth ^4,000 a year to a Mr. Powel, a
member of Parliament who, besides a thousand affronts offered
to His Majesty, made the first harangue in the Commons
against Their Royal Highness's marriage."

The next letter, after mentioning that the Queen, the
Duchess of York and the Princess Mary are all ill with bad
colds, concludes : " Our Parliamentarians are forming great
designs for concertation with the Dutch Ambassadors (shortly
expected) against the French, the Papists and the Duke himself
in favour of the States and of the Prince of Orange, to whom
they have already destined the eldest daughter of His Royal
Highness."

Whilst her adversaries were thus being catalogued, the
Duchess of York continued to gather golden opinions where
she passed, in a short country tour with her husband, and later
in the year at Windsor, where she assisted, August 2ist, at a
representation of the siege of Maestricht given before the King
and some thousand spectators in a meadow at the foot of the
long terrace. " Bastions, pallisadoes, horn works, counterscarps
were attacked by the Duke of Monmouth (newly come from
the real siege) and the Duke of York with a little army," says
Evelyn, who was present. Another entertainment, to which;

BIRTH OF PRINCESS CATHERINE LAURA

needless to say, the Duchess had not been invited, is described 1675
about the same time by the Marquis Cattaneo, new Modenese
Agent in London as " a most singular bull and bear-fight given
by the King to prove the courage of his dogs. His Majesty
was in a box with his favourite actress Melguina [Nell Gwyn ?]
by his side."

Until disturbed and led astray by the fanatics of political or
religious factions, the public mind generally makes right judg-
ment of the persons presented to its view. So it was with
Mary Beatrice. Not her beauty alone, but the candour, grace
and goodness which accompanied it captivated the people, and
when she had been a year in England Dryden could say to her
in his dedication of his 4< State of Innocence " " You reign
absolute over the hearts of a stubborn and free-born people,
tenacious almost to madness of their rights. . . . Your conjugal
virtues have deserved to be set as an example to a less-degene-
rate, less-tainted age. 'They approach so near to singularity in
ours that I can scarce make a panegyrick on Your Royal High-
ness without a satire on many others," and Macpherson tells
us : " As for the people, their prejudices were gradually
removed by her behaviour. The uneasiness conceived on
account of her religion was soon forgot ; she was universally
esteemed and by many beloved. Her beauty rendered her
the favourite of the populace."

All this did not stay the intrigues of her opponents. Rizzini
reports, December 26, that the proposals for the King's divorce
are renewed, that the Bishops and theologians declare against it,
and that the Duke's partizans are spreading a rumour that the
Queen is enceinte.

In January, 1675, began for the Duchess of York the series
of short maternal joys, followed by disappointment and mourn-
ing, which was to continue for fifteen years. The Marquis
Cattaneo writes to the Duke of Modena, 20 January :
" Last night H.R.H the Duchess of York played ombre with
the Duchess of Monmouth until 12 o'clock, supped and slept
well, received Communion and heard two Masses this morning,

51 E 2

1675 dined with the Princesses, and shortly afterwards gave birth to
a fine little Princess, in the presence of the Queen and many
ladies of quality. . . . The King, on leaving, embraced the
Duke of York with great affection." The child was privately
baptised by the Duchess's chaplain a few hours after its birth,
and, notwithstanding Mary Beatrice's remonstrances to the
King, who explained that her children belonged to the State,
was christened in the Anglican Church with the names of
Catherine Laura.

The second year of Mary of Modena's married life opened
peacefully. Her infant throve and her early aversion for the
Duke of York was giving place to dutiful and devoted affection.
The King went to Newmarket in March, taking the Duke
with him, and there is a quaint letter to Prince Rinaldo d'Este
from Countess Lucrezia Vezzani, the Italian Lady of the Bed-
chamber, giving news of the mother and child and saying " the
Duke's absence causes Her Royal Highness a little melancholy :
she diverts herself, however, with the Princesses, whose conver-
sation is much to her taste and satisfaction. ... I think we
shall soon see the Duchess of Mazarin in England, which
greatly displeases Her Royal Highness, and the Duke also, I
believe, but it is not to be prevented ; some efforts have been
made to hinder her, but she will come." In June, the Countess
writes again announcing the arrival of the wondrous beauty :
" The Duchess of Mazarin has arrived, and now nothing is
talked of in the Queen's and the Duchess's apartments but the
beauty of that lady. The night she went to the Queen there
was such a crowd, that it was a marvel to see the quantity of
people crazy to behold her."

Hortense Mancini was the most beautiful, the most reckless
and the most eccentric of the five nieces of Cardinal Mazarin,
who had refused her hand to Charles II, when he was a crown-
less exile, and had united her to Armand de La Porte, Due de
la Meilleraye, bestowing on him at the same time the name of
Mazarin and the heirship to his great wealth. Hortense soon
left her husband, and in reply to all entreaties and exhortations

THE DUCHESS OF MAZARIN

to go back to him " she did nothing but laugh," says Madame 1675
de Scud6ry, " and repeat the cry of the Civil War ' point de
Mazarin ! point de Mazarin ! * " and Madame de Sevigne can
find no words for her but the " o la folle ! 6 la folk ! " of
Sganarelle in Moliere's^woar Medecin. The errant lady had filled
Europe with her adventures, and now announced that she was
going to England to visit her cousin, the Duchess of York.
" This was only a pretext," writes St. Evremond. As the
Duke of Buckingham and his party had brought Louise de
Kerouaille to England in order to supplant the Duchess of
Cleveland in the King's affection, " so now the enemies of the
French Alliance thought there could be no surer means of
ensuring the disgrace of the Duchess of Portsmouth than by
putting in her place a person upon whom they could count.
They fixed their choice upon the Duchess of Mazarin. She
surpassed the Duchess of Portsmouth in beauty and in esprit.
. . . She infinitely pleased the King, who gave her a pension
of 4,000 a year, and she would soon have defeated Madame
de Portsmouth, had she been able to rise above the weaknesses
of her sex, and keep a stricter guard over the caprices of her
heart." The Prince of Monaco came to England, she fell in
love with him, and the intrigues of her supporters had failed
to dislodge Louise de Kerouaille from her empire over the
King.

The arrival of such a cousin was a grave embarrassment to
the Duchess of York, and led to further annoyance. Obliged
by the ties of relationship to visit her, whilst she had never so
honoured the Duchess of Portsmouth, the latter took occasion
to complain to the Duke " that his consort paid her no
attention, to which she considered herself as much entitled
as the Duchess of Mazarin." To avoid the inference that
they patronised the new mistress, James gave way, and took
his young wife to call upon the Duchess of Portsmouth.

Meanwhile Mary Beatrice had been employed in the more
congenial task of trying to obtain a Cardinal's hat for her
uncle, Prince Rinaldo d'Este, a purpose she pursued for years

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1675 with untiring assiduity. The Marquis of Montecuccoli, a
relation of the celebrated Marshal Montecuccoli, had been sent
to England on a special mission from the Duke of Modena, and
it must have gratified the young Duchess of York's warm-
hearted affection for her family to find that her marriage had
obtained certain definite advantages for them. Montecuccoli
informs his Government that " the King of England is about
to write to his Ministers at all the European Courts to protect
on all occasions the interests of the Duke of Modena as those
of a Prince closely united to him and most highly esteemed ;
henceforward no Minister will leave this Court without bearing
the same in his instructions. Her Royal Highness the Duchess
is esteemed and revered by all, and it would be impossible to
express with what spirit she has conquered universal applause.
. . . She speaks the language like a native of the country. . . .
The Duke her husband loves her tenderly, and does nothing
without informing her. The King recognises her great spirit,
and esteems it highly." In another despatch he adds : " There
can be no doubt that she will be able to take a great part in
affairs when she so chooses. Up to the present those about her
have not recognised this fact.

" For her personal service, dress, pocket money, play, etc.,
Her Royal Highness receives 5,000 a year, paid quarterly.
Moreover, there is a fixed sum for the maintenance of her
chapel.

" The Prince of Orange does not inspire implicit confidence
in this royal house ; apart from what is due to the ties of
consanguinity, I am told that they do not trust him."

The Marquis, on another occasion, refers with regret to the
coolness existing between the Queen and the Duchess of York.
" Nothing but ordinary civilities pass between them, thanks to
the efforts of those who are working for their own ends. The
first discord arose concerning the Duchess's Almoner ; the story
is long, and I shall relate it on my return. It is certain there
were those who knew how to seize the occasion, and from hand
to hand sowed zizanie [tares] between two Princesses who for

MARQUIS DE RUVIGNY

every reason of justice and mutual interest should be more 1675
closely united in affection than they are."

One of the reasons of coolness was the unfortunate visit of
the Duchess of York to the Duchess of Portsmouth, highly
resented by the Queen. About the same time we find the first
hints of jealousies in high places in a letter from Cattaneo, just
returned from Bath, to the State Secretary of Modena : " Our
royal Mistress is hated by some because she is a Catholic,
others hate her whilst professing the exact contrary, because they
aspire to the throne, while others, women these, because they
imagine she has taken the morsel out of their mouths, that
they might have become Duchess of York people without
faith or conscience ! . . ."

On the ^ October the little Princess Catherine Laura died
of convulsions. " You were a witness of the joy of my
marriage," writes the Duke of York to Prince Rinaldo d'Este,
" and you can judge of my sorrow at the loss of its first-fruit
by the death of my youngest daughter, the Princess Catherine
Laura, which happened last Sunday. I should be inconsolable,
were it not that one must submit to the Divine Will . . . and
for the near hope that the loss of this child may be compensated
. . ." The hope was doomed to disappointment ; the baby
Princess had hardly been laid in the grave of her ancestress
Mary, Queen of Scots, when the Duchess was seized with illness,
attributed to the shock of this misfortune.

The French Ambassador in London, Colbert de Croissy,
had been succeeded by the Marquis de Ruvigny some months
previously. The fact that at a moment when the Government,
with Sir Thomas Osborne, now Earl of Danby, at its head was,
in imitation of its predecessors, actively trying to get up a
" No Popery " cry, one of the staunchest of Huguenots should
have been chosen to represent Louis XIV in England, is
interesting in itself ; it also raises the surmise whether there
was any latent thought that such an act of liberal-mindedness
might serve v.s a much needed example of reason and toleration.
" This simple gentleman," says St. Simon, " was full of esprit,

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

[675 wisdom and honesty, he knew how to unite great uprightness
with acuteness and subtlety of judgment and of resource. . . .
He served the King well, and was esteemed and distinguished
by him."

The Duchess of York had applied to the Pope direct in the
matter of the Cardinal's hat for her uncle Prince Rinaldo, and
had also written to Louis XIV to beg his influence. Ruvigny
conveys the vague and general answer of his Sovereign " that
he will always have great consideration for that Prince," and
the letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, reporting this
answer, gives us an intimation that the Duchess's secretary,
Mr. Coleman, received money from him a fact which need
not surprise us at a time when, from King Charles downwards,
every public man, with hardly an exception, seems to have been
ready to accept presents from France, when they did not also
receive them from Spain and Holland as well. " Mr. Coleman
... is well in my acquaintance, and has reason to be in His
Majesty's interest ; I shall give him the advice you recommend,
and I can assure you he will profit by it. . . ."

The year 1675 was not to close without bringing fresh
trouble to Mary Beatrice in the Luzancy affair, when, for the
first time, a direct attack was made upon one of her own
household. The French Ambassador writes 17 November :
" About six months ago, a Frenchman calling himself Luzancy,
and licencie of the Sorbonne came here, and made a public
recantation of his creed. He preached several sermons, which
made him much esteemed, but within the last three days a
paper has appeared, written and signed by him, and placed in
the hands of Father St Germains, preacher to the Duchess of
York, in which he makes full recantation of all he has said and
done since he came to England, and protests he desires nothing
so much as to return to the Catholic religion. The Jesuit

D >

Father, who is a man of good repute, asserts that Luzancy
sought him out, and voluntarily, after several interviews, gave
him the paper. The other protests that the Father went to
his house with five men, and forced him, a poignard at his

LUZANCY BEAUCHATEAU

throat, to copy and sign the document. The affair makes a
great noise ... a reward of 200 Jacobus has been offered to
whoever produces Father St Germains, alive or dead. . . .
This is how he has been sacrificed to the people." Later he
writes " The Duke of York going to the King, where there
were many people, a certain Malet, a Member of Parliament
said to him, in French, these very words : ' Monsieur le Due
de York, leave your idolatry, and put your trust in God rather
than in the King of France.' He repeated them two or three
times ; these gentry, although mad, are held in such con-
sideration that the man only left the room at the entreaty of
the Duke of Monmouth."

The name of the shallow precursor of Titus Gates was not
Luzancy but Beauchateau, the son of a Paris actress of that
name. A forgery committed at Montdidier induced him to
adopt the high-sounding appellation of Hippolyte du Chastelet
de Luzancy, under which he fled to England. He could bring
no witnesses of any credit to support his accusations against
St. Germains, or his wild assertions that Protestant blood would
soon flow in London, etc., and at the same time Du Maresque,
French clergyman of the reformed Church, published a
listory of Luzancy 's adventures in France. The prosecution
)f the enquiry was at first suspended, and then for obvious
reasons never again resumed. The discredited rogue was,
lowever, still considered worthy of patronage by Compton,
the new Bishop of London, whom Burnet calls " the great
itron of converts from Popery," who ordained him and sent
urn to Oxford. A swindling transaction there brought him
:fore a Court of Justice, but he nevertheless " by favour of
the Bishop of London, was made Vicar of Dover-Court in
Essex (18 December, 1678)."

Mary Beatrice was too high spirited to accept a supposed
slight even s the hands of the King of France ; she con-
sidered he had not treated her well in delaying to answer more
illy her request to use his influence on behalf of her uncle,
id also in another matter she had at heart permission to

1676

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1676 found an English Carmelite Convent on French territory for
those who could not follow a religious life in their own country.
The correspondence of the new French Ambassador, for
Ruvigny was succeeded by the Comte de Courtin in 1676,
contains many allusions to both matters. (" Courtin polished,
sensible, fort homme cThonneur" writes St. Simon, "held
several embassies with perfect success. ... In England,
through Madame de Portsmouth he made Charles II do what-
ever he wished"). Louis XIV, although warned by Courtin
that Ronquillo, the Spanish Ambassador, is making great
promises about the hat, and that the Duchess is somewhat
offended, regrets he can do nothing about the Cardinalate, but
grants permission for the Carmelites to establish themselves at
Nole, and sends a propitiatory offering of a pair of diamond
earrings to the Duchess. The instructions to Courtin ac-
companying the present tell him to cultivate her good inten-
tions, and to persuade her "to take a greater part in public
affairs, from which her extreme youth may hitherto have with-
held her."

CHAPTER III

IN April 1676 the Duke of York took an important step, 1676
which his wife announces to her brother :

" April 2nd, 1676.

"... The Duke my lord, has taken a generous resolution, that
of no longer going to the Protestant Church with the King, as he
was wont to do a resolution much praised by the prudent and
conscientious, but also much blamed by many, who say that it may
do him great prejudice : every one gives his opinion, and nothing else
is talked of in the whole town. ..."

The French Ambassador writes under the same date to Affaires
Paris tran '

geres

..." He knows there is no one in England who doubts his
religious opinions and that a longer dissimulation would be useless for
his interests and prejudicial to his reputation. He has communicated
his intention to the King who was very unwilling to agree to it.
At last he consented, when he saw the strength of the Duke's
resolution. To-morrow, Good Friday, he begins to put his purpose
into execution."

However highly the Duchess might rate her husband's con-
scientiousness, the prudence of his step does not seem to have
impressed the King of France, who cautiously writes to Courtin
that it is an important matter ; he supposes " the Duke of
York has weighed the consequences, and nothing having been
done without the King's consent, that there may be no un-
pleasant results." " This was the first time the Duke appeared
no more in chapel," notes Evelyn, " to the infinite griefe and
threatened ruin of this poor nation."

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1676 " The Duke accompanied the King his brother only as far as
the Chapel door, which is held to be a public declaration of his
religion. ... its purpose is to obtain liberty of conscience in
that kingdom," writes Rizzini to the Duke of Modena.

Instead of liberty of conscience, the Duke's act brought fresh
troubles upon his co-religionists. Cattaneo writes in May that
in various parts of England the penal laws against Papists are
being enforced with imprisonment and confiscation of property
in consequence of the Duke's action " nevertheless, he con-
tinues to be visited by the nobility in greater numbers than the
King himself. . . . The whole Court has been two or three
times to a play written by one of the Duke's gentlemen, in
which several members of the Court and the King's favourites
are covertly represented. . . . The Duchess of Mazarin is still
in London, but her visits to Her Royal Highness are not
frequent." l

In the correspondence of the various Ministers we can trace
the signs of the coming storm " I strongly advised the Duke
Affaires of York," writes Courtiii in June to Louis XIV, " to look to
himself, as I notice great agitation in the King's mind regarding
him, which evidently arises from the scruples the Lord Trea-
surer (Danby) instils into him on the question of religion. 1
do not however foresee that the Duke will retire into the
country of his own accord, as he has been urged to do by the
Lord Treasurer through the Earl of Bristol," and again in
August, on announcing that Danby has at last made him a
visit of ceremony, with three chariots and the Mace carried
before him " although the visit passed in compliments he
nevertheless spoke of the alarms caused by the conduct of the
Duke of York ; I casually asked him if the number of Catholics
was very large, he said that according to the most careful
estimate, there were about 1 2,000 ; I remarked en passant that
they were therefore not much to be feared."

1 The Duchess never again left England, and died, the pensioner of William III, at
Chelsea " a village on the Thames, three miles from London," in 1699, " at the age of
fifty-three, and beautiful to the last," says St. Evremond.

CLEMENS

PONTIFEX

CRF.ArV5.DIF. XXIX

BIRTH OF PRINCESS ISABEL

On September 7, 1676, the Duchess of York gave birth to a 1676
daughter, who was to gladden the next four years of its
mother's life that little span to be the longest vouchsafed to
any of the royal children until 1688. " All passed so quickly,"
writes Countess Vezzani to old Prince Cesare d'Este, "that the
King and Queen, though warned at once, did not arrive in
time. . . . Her Royal Highness was a little disappointed at
the sex of the child, but the Duke told her with so much
heartiness that he did not mind in the least, that she was soon
comforted." The child was christened Isabel, having the
Duchess of Monmouth and the Lord Treasurer as god-parents.
" The Duke of York presented Her Royal Highness with a
most beautiful casket of silver filagree containing ten filagree
fruit-dishes . . ." writes Cattaneo a few days later.

Mary Beatrice's courage was too high, her sense of duty too
intense, to make her regret the step her husband had taken ;
but the King's irritation and alarm were great. He inter-
rupted Courtin, who mentioned the Duke of York, with an
exclamation that " the Duke had brought a business upon him- Affaires
self and upon the King, that they would have much ado to be '
rid of particularly the Duke ; he repeated what he had told
me before, that if he died, he did not believe that prince could
remain a week in England." Courtin about this time mentions
Coleman " There is a secretary of the Duchess of York's
named Coleman, who has many acquaintances in the House
of Commons, and whom M. de Ruvigny often employed when
he was here. He can be better trusted than any other."

Clement X, whose influence in shaping the destiny of Mary
Beatrice had been so great, was now dead, and Odescalchi, that
strong reforming Pope, bred in the service of arms, had suc-
ceeded him with the title of Innocent XI ; and he, though
perhaps in a less degree than has been supposed, misled by its
enemies, will be found among the forces arrayed against the
House of York in the hour of its ruin. The Duchess of
York writes to offer her congratulations to the new Pontiff, 19
October 1676 ; a graceful letter of mere compliment, recom-

QUEEN MARY OF MODEISTA

676 mending herself and the interests ot the Catholics of England
to his paternal care.

In November, the Duke of York broke his collar-bone
while fox-hunting ; he was bled as soon as the bone was set,
according to the universal habit of the day, and the French
Ambassador finds him sitting in a chair the same after-
noon, " regretting nothing but that his hunting will be
stopped for the next six or eight weeks." The accident
did not prevent the Duchess giving a great ball on the 4th
December, where Evelyn watched " all the gallants and ladies "
dancing. While they danced, Courtin reports to Louis XIV-
The Duke of York's affairs have never been in so bad a

glres" case - There is not a town or village in the country where
the minister does not preach every week that the Protestant
religion is in the utmost peril, and that France seeks its
ruin. . . . The Lord Treasurer and the Duke of Lauderdale,
the two Ministers who have most credit, know that they will
be attacked in Parliament, so they are ready to put themselves
at the head of the party against the Duke of York to conjure
the storm they see rising against themselves ; " and again on
December 3 ist, almost with exasperation, and rather superfluously
to the grandson of Henri IV u Up to now Princes have been
known to change their religion for that of the country whose
crown they wished to secure ; but there is hardly an example
of the heir-presumptive to the throne quitting the religion
of the country to embrace another which is not even tolerated
there."

Each fresh actor who henceforward comes upon the scene
may almost surely be held to be more or Jess an enemy to the
Duke and Duchess of York ; thus Compton, the new Bishop
of London, whose aspirations to the See of Canterbury had,
he believed, been thwarted by the Duke, and who was to have
no insignificant share in the future troubles, is mentioned by
Courtin, Jan. 21, 1677 "The Bishop of London has per-
suaded the King to oblige the Duke of York to dismiss Mr.
Coleman, the Duchess's secretary. It is true he showed a little

ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE

too much ardour in his conduct, but as he could be convicted of 1677
nothing against the laws [he had been examined during the
Luzancy affair] it seems to me it would have been the Duke's
interest to protect him. If he is obliged to leave the town
during the sitting of Parliament, I shall be deprived of a
great help, as he is a man of much spirit, and with many
friends in the House of Commons."

The health of the Duchess of York was uncertain at this
time, and Courtin condemns as mechants remedes the constant
bleedings to which the English doctors subjected her ; the
little Princess Isabel " who is only five months old, is constantly
ill, and it is not expected she will live."

All the cabals seem to have made private promises to the
Duke of York at this time not to attack him, and Charles II
has positively promised not to abandon him, " being convinced Affaires
that if he separated himself from him and from Your Majesty,
his affairs would soon be in a very bad state. . . . The Duke's
opinion is that the King should regulate his expenditure and
think of living with greater economy. In this the Duke sets
him a very good example. His house is excellently regulated,
all his people punctually paid. He owes nothing, and his
affairs are in a good state." The young Duchess might claim a
share in this compliment to the good order of the royal house-
hold, which could hardly have been so well maintained without
her acquiescence and assistance.

In September 1677 Mary Beatrice lost her great-uncle, old
Prince Cesare d'Este. In writing to condole with her brother,
and also to congratulate him on the fact that their relative had
left his fortune to the young Duke and to Prince Rinaldo,
" which was the best thing he could do," she gives news of her-
self and of her child, who had been very ill, but is now better,
and ends her letter with the news " the Prince of Orange
arrived two days ago to treat of some affair with the King. I
have not yet seen him, as he went direct to His Majesty, who
is at Newmarket." Thus simply and unconsciously does Mary
Beatrice record the entry upon the scene of the chief actor in

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1677 the great drama of her life. A few days later she writes
again, 1 1 November " The chief news we have here is the
marriage of the Princess Mary with the Prince of Orange,
which the King publicly made known last week, and which
will take place, I believe, in two or three days ; they will then
leave immediately. I am much grieved to lose her, because
"I hold her in much affection, and she is really a Princess of
great merit.

" This marriage is the reason we have not yet gone into
mourning for Prince Cesare, it not being the custom to wear
black at times of rejoicing and marriage."

This marriage of one of his chief enemies with the niece and
possible heiress of his subsidised ally for Charles was at this
time the regular pensioner, at 100,000 a year, of Louis XIV
could not be regarded with a favourable eye by that monarch,
and there is an interesting account given by Charles II himself
of his motives for the alliance reported in one of the first
despatches of the new Ambassador Barillon, who had succeeded
Affaires Courtin at the Court of St. James " I consider this alliance as

* **

gills' verv use f u l to m y interests, and I expect to draw considerable
present advantages therefrom, and still greater in the future.
It will put an end to the suspicions of my subjects that my
friendship with France is based on an intention to make a change
of religion. The conduct of my brother, the Duke of York,
has given rise to all these suspicions . . . since his declaration
of the Catholic faith all England has been moved to appre-
hension that I should take measures for a change of government
and of religion. . . . This is the ground on which I must
defend myself, and I assure you that I have need of every help
to resist the perpetual efforts of all the English ; for in fact I
am alone of my party, at least with none other but my brother.
I am assured that this marriage of the Prince of Orange with
my niece will dissipate a part of these suspicions and make it
apparent that I have no designs contrary to the laws of England
and the established religion. It will destroy the cabals that
might arise and places my nephew in my interest. . . .1 thereby

MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS MARY

confound the hopes of those who might seek a pretext to rise 1677
against me, and who would try to gain the Prince of Orange to
their party, by giving him hopes of pretensions which now he
can only found upon my friendship and a sincere attachment to
my interests."

The statement that he and his brother stood alone against
both Parliament and people had already been made more than
once. As early as February 17 and May 15, Courtin had
reported that he had doubts " whether the King can resist Affaires
alone against a whole nation, and the Duke of York defend % an -

srcrcs

himself against so many enemies whom he has armed by
furnishing them with the most specious of all pretexts, that of
religion," and " The Duke of York admitted to me that there
is no one in England in whom the King and he can have con-
fidence ; that the Lord Treasurer has views which do not
coincide with the true interests of His Majesty, still less with his
own."

Danby was in fact already deeply pledged to the Prince of
Orange, and we have seen that the Duke and Duchess of York
were not inclined to accord their confidence to that astute prince,
their nephew. In the King's explanation to Barillon, he made
no allusion to their views or interests, probably considering the
latter identical with his own. Still less was the opinion sought
of the Princess Mary herself. Her preceptor, Dr. Edward
Lake, Canon of Exeter, gives an account of the transaction in
his journal " October |^ 1677. The Duke of York dined camden
at Whitehall ; after dinner return'd to St James's, took Lady Miscll.
Mary into her closet, and told her of the marriage design'd lan y
between her and the Prince of Orange ; whereupon Her
Highness wept all that afternoon and the following day."
" November ^. At 9 o'clock at night the marriage was
solemnized in Her Highness's bed-chamber. The King, who
gave her away, was very pleasant all the while, for he desired
that the Bishop of London (Dr. Henry Compton) would
make haste, lest his sister should be deliver'd of a son, and so
the marriage be disappointed."

65 F

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1677 Three days later, November ^, the little prince thus
jokingly announced by the merry monarch did in fact make his
appearance " to the great joy of the whole Court (but the
Clarendon party)," says Dr. Lake. . . . "The child is but
little, but sprightly and likely to live. ... It was christened
the next day by the Bishop of Durham (Lord Crewe) ; the
King and Prince of Orange were godfathers, and the Lady
Frances Villars (in the room of Her Highness the Lady
Isabella) godmother." He was called Charles, and created
Duke of Cambridge, a title which had been borne in succession
by the four dead infant sons of the Duke of York by his first
wife. The Duke joyfully announces the good news to the
Duke of Modena, but Barillon reports 2 1 November " The
people of London show no pleasure at the birth of the Duke
of York's son, and it has damped the joy that they had at the
marriage of the Prince of Orange."

Both pleasure and disappointment were to be short-lived.
Princess Anne had sickened with small-pox two days after
the infant prince's birth the governess of the royal children,
Lady Frances Villars, taking it at the same time, and dying at
St. James's November |$. The Princess made a good recovery,
and with a disregard of ordinary precaution which seems
incredible at the present day, her first visit on leaving her sick-
room was to her young stepmother in her lying-in chamber.
According to the strict etiquette of those days, she would of
necessity pay some attention to the infant in its cradle, and with
a touch, or perhaps a kiss, in all ignorance and innocence swept
away the little life which had come between her sister and her-
self and the crown of England. An eruption broke out upon
the child, and he died December -|~|, " not without suspicion of
having been ill-managed," says Dr. Lake, by his nurses, Mrs.
Chambers and Mrs. Manning, " by striking in the humour
which broke forth . . . wherefor the whole Court was con-
cern'd at it ; and the Duke was never known to grieve so much
at the death of any of his other children." The poor nurses
were blamed, whispers of poison began to arise at Modena, old

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE

Waller alludes to the immature age of the royal mother as the 1677
cause of the early death of her offspring :

" The failing blossoms which a young plant bears
Engage our hopes for the succeeding years ;

Heaven, as a first-fruit, claimed that lovely boy
The next shall live to be the Nation's joy."

but no one seems to have blamed the admission of a convales-
cent small-pox patient into contact with a new-born child.

Great was the grief of the young mother, expressed with
touching simplicity and resignation in a letter to her brother,
December 23, 1677 :

" With my eyes full of tears I write to give you the ill news of
the loss of my dear son, whom it pleased God to take unto Himself
yesterday at mid-day. You can imagine in what affliction I am,
and great as was my joy when he was born, so much the greater is
my anguish at his loss, but we must have patience, God knows what
He does ; may His holy will be done. I should have been too happy
if this child had escaped. I am well in health, and should be very
well if this affliction had not befallen me. This is the first day I am
capable of writing, not having written even to our lady mother
before to-day.

Dear brother, I do not tell you how, nor of what my son has died,
not to afflict you more, and because I dare not write further this
first time, but you will hear it from others . . .

Your affectionate sister

MARIA."

Just at this time of weakness and ot sorrow it is perhaps not
surprising that the Duchess of York should have had a terrify-
ing dream, in which the dead Lady Frances Villars appeared to
her, declaring herself among the lost, and in answer to the
affrighted u How can this be ? I cannot believe it ! '* laid a
hand upon her wrist " so extremely hot that it was impossible
for the Duchess to bear it," says Dr. Lake, who relates the
incident at length. He adds that the Earl of Suffolk, the Lady
Frances's father, and her other relations were much concerned at
the Duchess's repeating it, "and indeed it occasioned a great

67 F 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1677 deal of discourse both at Court and in the City." A few years
later Mary Beatrice might have judged it more prudent to have
held her peace in an atmosphere so charged with electricity, but
diplomacy is not a characteristic of nineteen, nor the power to
keep such terrors to oneself.

The Brief of congratulation from Pope Innocent XI on
the birth of her son is dated December 20, and only reached
the Duchess of York some time after his death. Barillon, in
announcing the event to Louis XIV, says " Many people
believe that the Duke of York will never have children that
will live. This death can only be advantageous to the Prince
of Orange, strongly raising his hopes for the future, and
strengthening his party in England at the present con-
juncture."

During the year 1677 public affairs had taken an important
turn ; the French successes in Flanders had profoundly
incensed the English Parliament and people, and the Prince of
Orange had done his utmost to persuade his new father-in-law
to help him and the United Provinces. By the end of the year
war with France seemed imminent, and the Duke of York saw
a hope of re-conquering by successful warfare abroad something
of his popularity at home. It was an anxious time for the
French Ambassador, who reports to Louis XIV, December 27,
a conversation with Lord Bellasys " much in the Duke's
confidence." He is to try and convince him how injurious to
Affaires himself a war would be. " Mr. Coleman has also been to see
Etran- m e, and is greatly desirous that affairs should be arranged.
The rumour in London is that in case of war the Duke of
York would take the command in Flanders. I know people
make him hope that he would be restored to his charge of High
Admiral. They also promise him not to harass the Catholics,
but the more well-informed do not believe these promises would
be kept." A few days later he announces the elevation of
Bancroft to the Archbishopric of Canterbury " a man of mean
birth, but esteemed wise and moderate and of much good
sense ; it is thought the Duke of York had a great share in his

BARILLON'S DESPATCHES

promotion, and in the exclusion of the Bishop of London, a 1678
declared enemy of the Catholics."

"The Duke of York," he writes, January 10, 1678, "seems
less inclined to temporise than does the King, and speaks openly
of the impossibility of peace without the places on the Escaut
being restored to the Spaniards. . . . This Prince is rather
secret, and may have other sentiments at heart, but he has
shown a degree of warmth the last few days that was not
expected of him." January 13 The Duke of York makes
protestations of friendship for France " which cannot prevent
him from adhering to his brother's interests, who could not
without his own ruin allow the rest of Flanders to be taken by
Your Majesty."

These despatches of Barillon are well described by Fox as
being worth their weight in gold, and in their clear-sighted
conciseness .guide us safely through the maze of politics in
which he took part. " Everybody, even those most friendly
to the Duke of York, think he hopes to gain by the war what
his profession of the Catholic religion has made him lose. But
his true servants have no doubt that he is being deceived . . .
he is led to hope that he will be restored to his charges and
given the command of the troops that might be sent to
Flanders . . . but Parliament will not so easily retract what
has been done against the Catholics, and many of those most
attached to the Duke of York believe that if he were once out
of England it would not be impossible to find pretexts to
prevent his return."

These proceedings deeply interested the Duchess of York,
and rather alarmed her. She writes to her brother March 10,
1678 "We are all melancholy with the fear of war, which
although not yet declared is almost certain, the King, having
sent a quantity of troops to Flanders under the command of
the Duke of Monmouth, to help the Spaniards, who are very
few, and have lost almost the whole of Flanders, letting the
King of France take all the towns he went near. Here,
nothing else is spoken of ; for my part, I am in constant fear

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1678 of the Duke's departure, which will certainly follow the
declaration of war."

In reporting the proceedings in the House of Commons in
rejecting the Fund for General Officers " a thing reasonable in
itself, and nearly touching the Duke of York," Barillon
remarks that it " ought to make him open his eyes, were he
not as obstinate as he is about a war, in which it is very
possible he would find his ruin." The diplomacy of Louis
XIV, the gold he poured into England, the tergiversations of
Parliament which was as reluctant to grant supplies when the
King declared his readiness to go to war, as it had been loud in
clamouring for it before resulted in the peace of Nimeguen,
and the Duke of York was deprived of what he believed, and
which possibly might have proved to be a successful turning-
point in his career.

Meanwhile a smaller affair had occupied the affectionate
labour of the Duchess of York. The Duke of Mantua had
made some encroachments upon territory belonging to the
Duke of Modena, who had sent the Marquis Montecuccoli to
London to obtain the help of Charles II, and the Duchess had
the satisfaction of writing 24 April 1678: "The King has
really been most ready to do what he could for your service,
but has had so much to do with his own affairs, that he could
not attend to yours until now. His Majesty has done all you
desired, as you will hear from the Marquis Montecuccoli, and
I devoutly hope his words may have the desired effect. You
cannot 'imagine how vexed I am to see you in this imbroglio,
but I hope you will soon be clear of it and with peace, for to
tell the truth I am no friend of war.

I pray God the Duke of Mantua may prove reasonable and
agree to your just pretensions, for if he does not, I know very well
that you will have recourse to arms ; I hope it may not come to
that, but if it should I undertake to speak for you to the King
and to the Duke that they may take your part, for I am ready to
serve my dear brother, not only in this but in much more. . . . l

1 See Appendix A.
70

THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN

We are all well, thank God, but have many troubles ; we do 1678
not yet know if we shall have peace or war ; the King and my
lord Duke are almost always in council and in continual
occupation, so that they have not an hour to themselves . . . ."

In July she writes to thank him for his portrait, u which
is very dear to me, for Ronchi tells me it is like you ; if so,
you are much changed, and certainly I should not have recog-
nised you. If only I could see the original ! As soon as my
portrait is finished I shall send it you .... We are still uncer-
tain as to war or peace ; I fear the former, but if the latter
I shall not fail to sustain your interests as much as is possible
to me ... ."

DUCHESS OF YORK TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"WINDSOR 14 September 1678.

" .... In yours or August 7 you said you had heard that peace was
more doubtful than ever ; I believe there never was an affair of such
consequence left so long in doubt, one week we think we have peace,
the next there come tidings of war, and thus we have remained for
several months. At present there is a five weeks truce, of which four
have already expired. Here it is generally believed the articles of
peace will be signed next week, but we are by no means sure ; in case
of war (which is not expected) the season is so advanced that the
armies would retire to their winter quarters until next year. If we
had declared war this summer, my lord Duke would undoubtedly have
taken part in it, and I should have done my utmost to follow him, at
least as far as Holland, where I should have had the satisfaction of
seeing the Princess of Orange, and he had granted me this ....

This is all the news I have ; for the rest, we are at Windsor, a most
beautiful place, and finer than ever now, as the King has built magni-
ficent apartments, where I think we shall remain until the beginning
of October, Parliament meeting again on the 4th . . ."

On the 22 September she announces that peace is signed
" it is quite certain, there is no doubt about it, please God it
may last ! "

The Court returned to London and the Duchess writes to

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1678 give her brother further assurances that his interests are looked
after.

"6 October 1678.

" The King has recommended your business to his ambassadors at
Nimeguen, where the peace negociations are treated, but as the
Emperor has not yet entered into them, I do not know how it will
go. I shall procure a fresh parley between the King and the Imperial
Ambassador here .... but to tell the truth the King is rather slow,
and he has been all this time in the country, where he does not care
to be spoken to on business ; therefore I cannot go as fast as I should
wish. I shall also ask His Majesty for a letter to the King of Spain,
respecting the credit you have with him ; this is the most propitious
time, the Marquis d'Este being Ambassador at the Court of Spain,
who I am sure will help on your business as much as he can ....

The King has prorogued Parliament again until the end of this
month, wishing to go to Newmarket on Tuesday next for three
weeks, my lord Duke will go too, as he never leaves the King's side.
I also am going a journey to Holland to see the Princess of Orange
who is with child and has been ill, she is better now and very anxious
to see me and her sister ; we have as great a wish to see her, for
certainly I love her as if she were my own daughter, and also I have
a wish to see that country. My lord Duke is pleased that I should
visit his daughter and divert myself, and the King has given me per-
mission, so I shall start Monday or Tuesday next, the day the Duke
goes to Newmarket, and I shall return when he does. If the wind is
favourable, in twenty-four hours after leaving this house we should
reach that of the Princess of Orange. Wherever I may be I shall
always remember to write to my dear brother . . . ."

Affaires Barilloii announces this journey to his government " While
there is so much public excitement here, the Duchess of York
is off to Holland with the Princess Anne and the Duchesses of
Richmond, Buckingham and Monmouth to see the Princess of
Orange ; the Earl of Ossory attends her. This voyage seems
rather extraordinary. Many persons make an affair of state of
it, and say the purpose is to take further promises of all kinds
of union between England and the Prince of Orange. Others
say it is a mere party of pleasure and I think they are right."
It was an act of pure kindness to her whom she loved as her

THE "SHAFTESBURY PLOT'

own daughter and a party of pleasure, the last she made from 1678
England, for on her return from Holland Mary Beatrice found
a business afoot so serious to the house of York that it may
almost be considered the beginning of the end which was to
come eleven years later the foul imposture of Titus Gates, or
the " Shaftesbury Plot " as it was known to his contemporaries.
Lord Shaftesbury had not been idle while in opposition ; Lord
Peterborough, in his Memoirs, describes him as the deadliest
enemy of the Duke of York, as taking " all men by the Hands
that he thought bore him secret unkindness ; and if there were

>rejudicial whispers and insinuations to be apply'd unto the
King, no man knew to do it with more dexterity than this Lord,
for he could kill with Courtesie and so ruine a man's reputation

rith Praise." Peterborough places him at the head of the
faction " which design 'd the ruine of the Crown, and the
establishment of a Commonwealth ; against the prevalency
whereof there was but the Duke's fidelity to the King his
Brother, his valor and vigilancy that did oppose. It was he
that stood up in every Parliament for the King's just Power
and Prerogative against popular invasion ; it was he encouraged
the King's faithful Friends and his fainting ministers ; and it
was in him alone the Enemies of the Crown found resistance.
He made them desperate at last, and to accomplish their
designs they saw it was impossible without his ruine. This did
seem a great undertaking, to destroy a Prince such as he, such
in his Birth, such in his Merit and Virtues, and such in th&
esteem of all just and reasonable Men. . . . theyknew that against
a man so qualified, no Truth could prevail, they were then
resolved to have recourse to falsehood and to the Devil, the
Father of Lyers, one of whose chief Favourites was become Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper, the late Earl of Shaftesbury . . .
Having try'd various successes in his Fortune [he had spent
some months in the Tower in 1677] anc ^ finding the Duke's
Genious in opposition to his establishment began to enter upon
the undertaking of that famous contrivance of the pretended
Popish Plot, whereto he had for assistant another Great Earle

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1678 whose name I shall omit for the sake of some that went before
him, and of others that may come after ; His chief Instru-
ments were Dr Tongue and the memorable Titus Gates."

It is interesting to compare the Duke of York's own account
of this affair in his Memoirs. After saying that it was " the
constant practice of Ministers that when they were afraid of the
House of Commons for themselves they presently exposed the
Papists to be worried" and that the House in 1678 " made it
plainly appear that they were really more jealous of the King's
power than of the Power of France " by voting the disbandment
of the Army, " the Factious party there prevalent made it their
only business to be rid of the Duke, to pull down the Ministers,
and to weaken the Crown. . . . This unsettled temper of the
Factious party, which one while was for attacking the Duke and
atothertimes called for his assistance to attack others, would easily
have been crush'd, or faded of itself, had not a certain malicious
contrivance of an indigent wretch, . . . furnished them with an
opportunity for executing their designs . . . and gained them a
fairer occasion than ever they hoped for, not only of compassing
their ends against the Duke, but of bringing the King to their
termes, and of shaking the foundation of the Government
itself. And as the greatest events oft-times derive their origin
from the slightest accidents, 'tis certain there never was so great
a flame raised from one so trivial as this, which not only
occasioned the spilling of much innocent blood, but had like to
have sown the seeds of another Civil War. . . . Never was
anything of that nature worse concerted in itself, nor more
improbable in all its circumstances ; but meeting with a pro-
digious credulity in the people in relation to anything which
asperses Catholics, and an implacable malice of some managers
of it against the Duke, it rais'd such a storm as had like to
have overwhelmed both him and them."

The Duke of York does not mention Shaftesbury by name,
but Echard, Archdeacon of Stowe, whose history was pub-
lished in 1718, openly calls the Plot by his name " And if, as
probably, he was not the Original Contriver, he was the grand

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT

Refiner and Improver of all the Materials. And so much he 1678
seem'd to acknowledge to a Nobleman of his Acquaintance,
when he said, / will not say who started the Game, but I am sure
I had the full Hunting of it"

Lord Peterborough blames Charles II for going to New-
market in October " without stifling and putting an end " to
the imposture. " For all the endeavours could be used, would
not prevail towards stopping a Journey of Recreation, for a
matter so important, as the discovery of this imposture might
have been, when otherwise there had been time enough to have
perform 'd it, between that and the sitting of the Parliament."

Barillon, October 13, 1678, reports that he found the Duke Affaires
of York " very anxious and very sad. I know that his servants
are in great consternation. . . . The Catholic Lords are in
great apprehensions. . . . They believe Parliament will re-
vive all the severest laws against them, and put them into
execution. . . . The general discourse of those who best know
the state of affairs is that the Duke of York is lost, or that he
will overthrow the Lord Treasurer."

On her return from Holland the Duchess of York writes to
the Duke of Modena, November 3, 1678. . . . "Parliament
met last Monday, and there are so many intrigues, supposed
plots, and accusations that I could not describe the hundredth
part of them. Dom Giacomo [Ronchi, her chaplain] will have
written something about them, so I shall say no more than that
the Catholics here are in very ill case, and if God does not
come to our aid I do not know how it will end." On the 24th
she writes again thanking her brother for his sympathy, and
saying " Affairs here are getting rather worse than better,
every day they invent new stories and new plots, which are too
long and too confused to write, also all the couriers are stopped,
and all letters opened, so that one can write nothing. You can
imagine how afflicted I am, principally for the danger in which
I see my lord Duke, for he has many enemies who do him all
the harm they can with his brother. I hope however that the
number of his friends may prove the greater, and that the

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1678 affection his brother bears him will prevent him from believing
the evil which is said of him.

" I am much afflicted also for the misery of the poor Catholics,
which is really extreme ; they are all banished from London,
and may not come within ten miles of it, and many poor people
are dying of hunger and privation. May it please God to grant
us patience and an end to these persecutions, if it be for His
greater glory. I must stop, for I can speak of nothing else, and
dare say no more of this."

Lord Shaftesbury's motion to include the Duke of York in
the Bill of Exclusion of the Catholic Peers failed in the House
of Lords, and was rejected by two votes in the House of
Commons. Barillon informs Louis XIV of the important fact
Affaires 8 December 1678, calling it "a coup of much consequence
an ^ one which may be decisive for him. It must not be
believed however that it saves him altogether, the question
will be agitated again more than once."

The first innocent blood to flow under the accusations of
Titus Gates was that of the Duchess of York's secretary,
Edward Coleman. The Duchess had bidden Dom Giacomo
Ronchi, her chaplain, write an account of Oates's Plot to the
Duke of Modena. From this narrative, written almost from
day to day, and impressive in the passionless exactitude with
which it unfolds the succession of events, we shall transcribe
what relates to this first victim of the Plot.

" LONDON 13 October 1678.

" A plot has been contrived here against the Catholics, calumniously
imputing to them that they meant to assassinate the King ; many are
in prison, among them some of quality such as Mr Coleman, our
Royal Mistress's secretary, although secretly so, Her Royal Highness
having appointed another some time ago in order not to run counter
to the Parliament, which has always hated him, and desired to per-
secute him as the chief agent of the Jesuit Fathers. He has been
examined twice in the King's Council, together with Mr George
Wakeman, the Queen's Physician, and they both answered with great
intrepidity, for they are indeed most innocent . . . The accuser is a

TITUS GATES

Protestant Minister [Gates] who, many years ago, became a Catholic 1678
and contrived to get himself received by the Benedictines, the
Dominicans and the Jesuits, but he was everywhere dismissed for his
evil conduct .... This man has been examined in public council
and has mixed up in his plot Don John of Austria, the Duke of
Villahermosa and Pere La Chaise, confessor of the Most Christian
King. . . In Mr Coleman's house three sacks of letters have been
found and are now being examined ; many are in cypher, and he is in
prison. It was certainly imprudent to keep them in his house after
he had been accused."

Coleman had consulted the Duke of York, who had told
him if there was anything illegal or even suspicious in his
papers he had better conceal himself. As the documents when
produced at his trial contained no tittle of evidence of conni-
vance with any plot for assassination or rebellion, and as he
had come safely out of the Luzancy affair, he not unnaturally
expected to do so now. Money he had certainly received from
three successive French Ambassadors, the bulk of which went
to Members of Parliament, but only for the purpose of
strengthening the French interest, and that of the Catholics in
the two Houses.

"22 October 1678. Although this Plot is plainly known to be
a mere invention nevertheless many innocent persons are left to
languish in prison, especially priests and friars, which induces other
Catholics to fly or to conceal themselves .... The Ambassadors
of Spain and France have applied to the King to execute prompt justice
on this pretended conspiracy, because of the accusations against Don
John of Austria and the King's confessor. His Majesty laughed, and
said he did not believe in it.

3 November. The accuser has not scrupled to accuse the Duke
of York of complicity in the Plot, at the same time denouncing his
confessor, Mr Bedingfield. . . .

12 November. Oates has made fresh depositions, affirming that
the Duke of York was not in the plot, but that Coleman had forged
his handwriting and used his seal. He has also accused the Duchess
of Mazarin, Mylord Bellasys, Mylord Petre, Mylord Arundel, Mylord
Powis and Mr Lambert all of whom, except the Duchess of Mazarin,
are in prison. Among the papers seized at Mr Coleman's house are

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1678 said to be copies of letters from the Duchess of York to the Pope.
She however is perfectly tranquil, knowing that she has never written
any but letters of compliment to His Holiness. . . .

(December 1 6.) Coleman was hanged, drawn and quartered last
Tuesday. He denied to his last breath that he had taken part in any
conspiracy against the King, and declared that he died in the Catholic
faith."

At his trial, his life was sworn away by Gates' and Bedloe's
unsupported and contradictory testimony. The Duchess of
York also announced her secretary's death to the Duke of
Modena, adding " Certainty the state of all Catholics in this
country moves one to pity, and what is worse, some poor
miserable beings, constrained by necessity, are abandoning our
holy faith. . . . To my great sorrow, I have been forced to
dismiss all my English Catholic servants, as Parliament has
forbidden them to appear at Court." Her preacher, de La
Colombiere, was also arrested and expelled at the instigation of
Luzancy, who again appeared on the scene.

"22 December 1678.

" . . . . Since my return from Holland little comfort have I had,
for here there is nothing but plotting and intrigue such as had never
been heard of before, those men having accused the Queen herself j
but I hope to God that they will be found out and the innocent spared."

The hope was a vain one, the blood of Ireland, Grove and
Pickering, of Hill, Green and Berry was to flow in obedience
to the denunciations of the .perjurers, whose boldness increased
with their success, culminating in the " I, Titus Gates, accuse
Catherine, Queen of England, of high treason," and the year
1679 opened in a popular panic in which the voice of reason
and the claims of justice were alike set at nought.

u The madness which had seized the nation," wrote Mac-
pherson, "raged with redoubled fury in Parliament," for
" popular assemblies are truly the representatives of the people
in their violence and fears," but we can find no trace of personal
timidity in the young Duchess of York. Full of commiseration
for the persecuted, for whose assistance, Ronchi reports to

DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT

Modena, she and the Duke make great sacrifices, anxious for 1679
her husband's safety, no thought of her own ever seems to
occupy her mind. This indifference to danger alarms her
chaplain, who complains : " Their Royal Highnesses are sur-
rounded by treacherous servants of both sexes who betray their
closest secrets, and yet they continue to trust them blindly, to
their own grave peril."

She writes rather sadly to her brother, 12 January 1679,
that the many letters of good wishes for the New Year she has
received have palled upon her. "Last Monday the King
prorogued Parliament to I4th February, please God it may be
for the best, for certainly at present this country has need of
great amendment. I am impatient to hear from you . . . and
I hope you are having a merrier Carnival than we ; for here no
one is in good humour, and there are no diversions ; although
Parliament is not sitting, nobody knows how things will go,
the populace being still much heated over this Plot, which is
made the pretext for greater and greater wrong."

The Prorogation of Parliament was followed by its dis-
solution on 24 January. " It had sat seventeen years, and had Memoir*
been assembled to heal those National wounds which had bled of Jame8 n
neare 20 years before ; and though it had then concurred
with inexpressible joy to re-establish injured Monarchy, it was
broaken for endeavouring with as much ardour and earnestness
to pull it downe again." The King at the same time summoned
a new Parliament to meet in forty days, and the Court Party
spared neither money nor pains to secure a majority : but the
returns soon showed that its influence was no match for the
frenzy of the people. Danby, over whose head an impeach-
ment was hanging, now determined to propitiate and disarm
his opponents by sending the Duke of York out of the
country. A great effort was made to induce him to retire
voluntarily " into any country save France," and upon his
refusal Danby advised the King to send him an order to quit
England and take up his abode in Brussels. Before taking a
step so grave, and so repugnant to his feelings of affection for

QUEEN MARY OF MODEISTA

1679 his brother, Charles made one more attempt to persuade him to
return to the Church of England.

By the King's order Archbishop Sancroft and the Bishop of
Winchester waited upon the Duke of York, and in terms of
concern, almost of affection, the Archbishop bewailed his
having withdrawn himself from the communion of the Church
of England, " for which his father of blessed memory had
suffered so glorious a martyrdom," and which still flourished in
spite of persecutions " like a lily among thorns." The dis-
course lasted half-an-hour, and was listened to in silence ; then
the Duke replied that " tho' they two meant well by it, he
could not but believe that those who had put them upon it in-
tended his prejudice. ... It would be a presumption in him, an
illiterate man, to enter into controversial disputes with persons
so learned as they ; ... he assured them that he had taken
all the pains he could to inform himself in matters of religion
before he changed, that he did not doe it hastely nor without a
previous foresight of the inconveniences which have already
happened and which were likely to follow on that account."

Two days later the King asked his brother what had passed
between him and the Bishops ? and finding their project had
been ineffectual, " told him he was convinc'd it was absolutely
necessary to yield to this torrent, and desired he would with-
draw for some time out of England." James asked for an
order in writing " to show the world what was the motive of
his complyance . . . which on 28 February the King writ
accordingly." The order took the form of a letter couched in
affectionate terms, and concluded : " You may easily believe
with what trouble I write this to you, there being nothing I
am more sensible of than the constant kindness you have ever
had for me, and I hope you are so just to me as to be assured
that no absence or anything else can ever change me from
being truly and kindly yours. C. R."

The fiat had gone forth, and the Duke of York and his
young wife were for the first time to taste of the bread of exile.
The order given on February 28 was so promptly obeyed,

THE FIKST EXILE

that by the 4th of March they were ready to start. Permission 1679
to take their daughters with them was refused ; in the case of
the Princess Anne, who was fifteen years of age, the reason
alleged was the fear of her father's influence on her religious
opinions ; as for the little Princess Isabel, aged three, no reason
seems to have been given.

The King accompanied his brother and sister-in-law to
Greenwich, and bade them farewell with every, mark of sorrow
and affection. A few days later, drawing Barillon aside he
charged him to explain to the King of France " the necessity Affaires
in which he had found himself, for the good of his service to
do himself la violence extreme of sending away a person so near
to him, and whose conduct had always been such as he could
desire ; that I could see what was going on, and the general
animosity of the nation towards the Catholics, that he hoped
the step the Duke had taken might bring a present remedy to
the suspicions of all the Protestants, or at least would deprive
the evil-minded of the most plausible pretext they could
have."

On the 2yth March the royal exiles with their small retinue
reached Brussels, and the English Resident there, Sir Richard
Bulstrode, reports their arrival to Sir Joseph Williamson,
Secretary of State to Charles II.

" Their Royal Highnesses arrived here with three of the Pub. Rec.
Prince of Orange's yachts. I had notice the night before of Flanders,
their coming, and had 20 coaches ready to receive them, No - IX 9
wherein they were conducted incognito to their lodgings at the
Prince de Lignes. . . . Her Highness was much indisposed
with her coming by sea, and is not yet recovered of it. Im-
mediately after their arrival here they were visited and
welcomed in his Excellency's name [Duke of Villahermosa,
Governor of the Spanish Netherlands] . . . and by several
persons of the greatest quality . . . Her Highness being still
something indisposed received the visits in her bed, the better
to avoid all exceptions as to matters of ceremony, which is
much stood upon in this Court, especially among the Grandees

81 c

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1679 of Spain, who pretend a privilege much greater than others,
but by this means all disputes will be avoided."

Her own cares did not cause Mary Beatrice to abate her
kindness to her relations and her friends. The question of the
Cardinal's hat for her uncle, Prince Rinaldo d'Este, had never
ceased to occupy her, and one of her first letters from Brussels
is addressed to Pope Innocent XI on the subject, 8 April 1679.
She presumes he has heard of their arrival in Brussels, and of
the causes of their peregrination. She excuses herself for not
Vatican having written as often as filial obedience required, but hopes
His Holiness has considered the times and the instability of
English affairs, and goes on to make " fresh instances on behalf
of my uncle Prince Rinaldo d'Este, that Your Holiness may
deign to confer upon him the Cardinal's hat . . . and as for
many years past there has always been a member of the house
of Este in the Sacred College, it would be the greatest satis-
faction to me to have my uncle at the Court of Rome, as I
could thus, with greater security more frequently receive the
commands of Your Holiness, assuring you that on every
occasion that presents itself, I shall contribute as far as I can to
the propagation of the holy Catholic faith in England. . . ."
Innocent XI sent kind letters of sympathy and condolence to
the Duke and Duchess, but did not grant the latter's request.

The young Duke of Modena's affairs also continued to
make calls upon his sister, to which she responds with
readiness :

"BRUSSELS, 15 April 1679.

" I have already sent your letter to His Majesty, and the Duke and
I have warmly recommended the affair to him ; though from what I
hear ... I fear you have come too late, the peace being already
ratified and signed by all the Powers. . . To-morrow I leave for
Holland to see the Princess who is ill with fever and pains, but with
no further hope of a child . . . which is very displeasing to us all. I
shall stay with her several days, until she recovers, she having as great
a desire to see me as I have to see her, and then we shall return here
until it pleases the King and Parliament to let us go home again. We
shall live in hope for two or three weeks, but if in that time we are

VISIT TO THE HAGUE

not recalled, I fear it may not be for some little while per un pezzetto. 1679
You can imagine how passionately I desire our return. But if we
have to remain here, I mean to write to our lady mother to beseech
her to come and see me, which would be the greatest consolation I
could have, and I hope you will help me to persuade her to grant it
me. As to you, I dare not ask it, for I fear your affairs would not
allow of your coming, although I desire to see you above all things.
We are treated with the greatest civility by every one in this
country. . . ."

Her next letter is from the Hague, April 25th, and after
allusions to her brother's affairs, she says :

*' I am here solely to see the Princess of Orange, whose fever is no
longer as violent as it was, and I hope she will be free from it in two
or three days. If so, or if she does not get worse, we shall certainly
leave for Brussels next week and remain there until we have fresh
orders from the King whose affairs are going badly, and as you may
believe, cut me to the heart. I hope in God things may change now
that the Lord Treasurer is gone (and from what we hear is to be
banished for ever from England) and that we may soon have the
happiness to go home . . . We, thank God, are well ; I heartily
commend the Sisters of the Visitation to you, that you may protect
them on all occasions, and if you can- serve them in a lawsuit they
are at present engaged in, do so for the love of me . . ."

The disgrace of Lord Danby, alluded to in the above letter,
had in fact quickly followed his success in banishing the Duke
of York from England. He was sent to the Tower on the
1 5th of April, and "had the Duke been capable," says his
biographer Clarke, " of delighting in revenge, this furnish'd
him with a fit occasion ; he was perswaded he owed his banish-
ment to the Treasurer's advice, and one of the first things he
heard after his arrival at Brussels, was the fall of that great
man, and that it was in a measure unpittyed."

Danby 's fall naturally raised the hopes of the Duke and
Duchess of York, but only to be dispelled by the news that the
King had called their chief enemy, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and
made him President of the Council, a choice which caused
universal surprise, but which James in his Memoirs explains by

83 G 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1679 supposing that Charles " thought to keep Shaftesbury from
doing him hurt by keeping him in his service (a method which
seldom succeeds)."

While the greatest court continued to be made to the Duke

and Duchess at Brussels, and all the nobility of both sexes,

Pub. Rec. reports Sir Richard Bulstrode, " fayle not every day to pay

Fbnders, their respects to them in a very particular manner, it being

NO. 119 impossible to show more to them," and " the town is crowded

with the Nobility and Gentry who flock hither from all parts,"

the action of their enemies in the new Parliament is thus

described by Mary Beatrice to the Duke of Modena :

"BRUSSELS, i3th May y 1679.

" . . . . Instead of improving, our state continues to go from bad
to worse. Yesterday we received worse news from England than
ever ; Parliament is resolved to ruin the Duke by accusing him of
being in the Plot and therefore guilty of high treason, incapable as a
Catholic of succeeding to the Crown, and in a word of every crime,
if there can be worse than those I have named, and if their malice
against him can invent them. You can imagine our affliction, having
lost every hope of going home, at least for some time."

Two days later, in fact, the House of Commons brought in a
Bill for the Exclusion of the Duke of York from the English
Throne, and " that if the Duke of York, who was then in foreign
parts, should ever return into these dominions, he should be, and
was thereby attainted of high treason." James was not the man,
at this period of his life at least, to sit still under so grave a
menace. His letters to his friends in England, and especially to
the King, are as very trumpet-calls to action. He warns his
brother against Monmouth, bids him not suffer Ireland or Scot-
land to be put in other hands, " as they are at present you may
count upon their assistance," and it is curious at the very
moment when Barillon, writing to Louis XIV of the different
cabals, says "There is always one secretly working for the Prince
of Orange. It will meet with great obstacles, and people are
already preparing to ask for the same precautions against a

of James II

THE EXCLUSION BILL

foreign king as against a Catholic one," to find the Duke of 1679
York entirely trusting that personage : " The Prince of
Orange, too, has given me all imaginable assurance that he will
stand and fall by you ; wherefor I beg of Your Majesty to
make use of those partes and courage God has given you, and
not rely upon concessions already made, or to make any more ;
be pleased to use all possible diligence in providing your fortes
and garrisons ; and certainly the speedyest way of breaking
their measures, is to breake the Parliament itself, and propor-
tion your way of living to your revenue, rather than to ly any
longer at the Mercy of those men." He ends another letter :
" Remember Edward II, Richard II, and the King our father."

Charles was to the full as resolute to allow no tampering
with the succession, " for their interests were as much united
in this case as their inclinations," says James. " The King Memoirs
was sensible his own preservation depended upon it, and that
his chief security lay in having a successor they [his enemies]
liked worse than himself, otherwise in such turbulent times no
one could answer what might be attempted upon his person."
Charles's letters were so kind and full of good promise, that
the Duchess of York writes of them with delight to the Duke
of Modena, adding " after the feast of Corpus Christi we
are going for a while into Holland, having received notice
from England that it would be better for us, and more satis-
factory if we did not stay all the time in one town. To me it
is the same, when I am out of England and cannot go to Italy,
in which of these countries I am.

" Dear brother, by your last letter I am pleased to see that
you are diverting yourself with horse-racing, and if you succeed
I should like to have an account of it. ... I assure you, your
affection for me is returned, for I Jove you better than sister
ever loved brother, and not for a little while but for as long as
I may live."

Charles's resolution to stand by his brother and by his own
prerogative was soon put to the test. On June I, the Bill of
Exclusion passed the House of Commons by 207 votes to

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1679 128, the King's prerogative of pardon in cases of impeachment
by the Commons was contested, and the right of the Bishops
to sit and vote in trials of peers in capital cases was denied.
Charles acted with promptitude ; he unexpectedly sent for the
Commons and prorogued Parliament for the term of ten weeks.
" He never spoke better nor with greater energie, tho' his
speech was extempore as well as his resolution," writes his
brother, " this was so little expected, it struck them like
thunder and left them all at a gaze, not knowing what way to
turn nor what measures to take."

The news of this event again raised the hopes ot the exiles.
The Duchess of York sends it to the Duke of Modena,
saying " It is believed this change will cause the King to
recall us at once ; but we are not sure, not having received
letters from His Majesty, which we impatiently expect to-day
or to-morrow, for we cannot endure so many uncertainties.
The Duke my lord is resolved to start at the King's first
summons, which seems to me a great hazard, but I hope God
will protect us.

I fear our lady mother is not for the voyage, and that I
shall not have the great consolation of seeing her . . . but I
must have patience, for I have known nothing but affliction for
some time past. I should accustom myself to it, but the task
is hard. If I return to England it will certainly be a great
happiness, but not only shall I be in constant anxiety for the
Duke, who is hated to death by those men, but I shall certainly
be deprived of seeing my dear lady mother. . . ."

The hoped-for letters had not arrived when she writes
June 13 to an English lady, probably Lady Hawley. After
Brit. MUS. promising to write as often as she can : " Tho' i doubt it will
i not be so often as i could wish, for if you knew the quantity
of letters i have to writt in England, besides Italy and Holland,
i am sure you would pitty me ... I am very glad you chose
a day to go to the Queene when she was in so good humour, i
believe she does hope that this prorogation will be good, i pray
God it may, but as to our owne particular, wee cannot yett think

VISIT OF THE DUCHESS OF MODENA

so for wee have no comand to go home, tho everybody did 1679
hope wee should ... I have been, God be thanked, of late
very well in my health, but my mind and my heart as sick as
ever, for i have no hops yett of going to my deare England
again ; if you love me continue to give me all the news you
know of all kynds, and without ceremony ; pray remember me
very kyndly to my lord Hawley, and tell him that i was very
glad of his letter. . .

The bold act of proroguing Parliament seemed to have
exhausted the courage of the King, and yielding to the
counsels of Shaftesbury, the Duchess of Portsmouth and other
advisers adverse to the Duke, he wrote to him : " I am sorry
to tell you, that the temper of the people is such in all places,
especially in London, that the [Catholic] Lords in the Tower
being not yet tryd (by which men's minds [are] as full as ever
with the apprehension of the Plot and Popery) that if you
should come over at this time, it would be of the last ill-
consequence both to you and to me." This positive answer
obliged the Duke to submit " out of obedience rather than
conviction," and he sends to England for more coaches, and for
his hounds, that he may have some diversion, " the wood of
Loignee being very proper for hunting," writes Sir Richard
Bulstrode, " Mylord Peterborough and his Lady are coming
over with Mylord Bellasis and many others which will make a
full court here." And to the joy of her daughter, the
Duchess of Modena resolves to come to Brussels.

DUCHESS OF YORK TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"BRUSSELS July i, 1679.

" Your letter of the ist June gave me both pleasure and displeasure.
I was happy to see the respect with which you speak of our lady
mother, and what you desire me to say to her, but it vexes me greatly
to have no hope of soon seeing you. ... I must have patience ;
certainly it would have been too much happiness to see our lady
mother and you at the same time ; I shall hope to see you before I die,
for if not, I shall not die content. . . Letters from England always
announce something new ; there has been the beginning of a rebellion

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1679 in Scotland, but minds are pacified again. The King has no wish
that the Duke should go home, because he thinks it would be the ruin
of them both, being so persuaded by the Duke's enemies, who are now
the chief of the Council and all powerful, and who therefore fear
greatly that he should return. He wishes it above all things, as you
can imagine, and I also, and we think it would be better for the King,
His Majesty being surrounded by none but men who betray him, and
advise him according to their own interest. . . . Many priests and
others have been condemned for that Plot, and I believe yesterday six
were to be executed, one layman, [Langhorne, a barrister] and five
Jesuits [Whitebread, Harcourt, Fenwick, Gaven and Turner], all of
whom, I would swear, are no more guilty than I am ; others are
imprisoned and condemned solely for being priests, which is bar-
barous. . . . The King always expresses great tenderness for his
brother, and I really believe he wishes him well, but he allows himself
to be persuaded by every-body. . . ."

A few days later the Duchess of Modena arrived in
Brussels, she and her daughter meeting again with indescribable
joy after a separation of five eventful years. The Duchess
Laura had left Mary Beatrice little more than a lovely -child ;
she found her a beautiful woman, fulfilling the fairest promises
of her youth, and Having passed unscathed through many
perils. In announcing her arrival to Prince Rinaldo d'Este,
she writes : " Certainly if I had to say whose delight was the
greatest, mine or that of the Duchess of York, I should find
it impossible to do so ; her tenderness is no new thing, but
what it has always been, showing great affection and respect
towards me. She is very tall, but rather thin, full of goodness
and grace. Your Highness must not wonder that I should speak
in such terms of my own daughter ; they are gifts from Heaven,
in which I have had no part. The Duke adores her, and
thanked me again for having bestowed her upon him. He
certainly is a most excellent and amiable gentleman. There is
nothing new from England, nor any appearance of returning
there."

All hope of present return to England did in fact seem vain,
and the Duke of York expresses himself with some irritation

LETTER TO COLONEL LEGGE

in a letter to his trusted friend and servant, Colonel Legge, 1679
afterwards Earl of Dartmouth : " I am sorry to find that all I **'* MU.

i r c - j T T- Add - MSS '

wrote, or that you and the rest or my friends could say to His 1 8,447 f.n
Majesty did not work on him, but I do not wonder at it, since
I see he is resolved to stick to the measures he has taken with
his new Privy Council, who have already begun and will
absolutely make him a Duke of Venice. . . . No wonder he
fears to stick to me when he will not stick to himself, but lets
all go as it will, so he may have a little present quiet, which
will not last long. . .

CHAPTER IV

1679 THE Duke and Duchess of York had now been separated
from their children in England for five months, and again, and
this time successfully, petitioned to have them with them. The
two Princesses arrived in Brussels in August, on the under-
standing that they were to be sent back before the opening of
Parliament, and the young Duchess had the happiness of seeing
her child again, and of showing it to its grandmother. Almost
immediately afterwards an unexpected event took the Duke of
York suddenly to England. Charles II fell ill at Windsor on
August 22, and sent an express to the Duke to come to him im-
mediately, leaving the Duchess behind, and to give out " that he
did it upon his own motion, so fearful His Majesty was of
giving the least disgust," writes James, " and that if any fault
were found, it might fall upon the Duke's shoulders, which
were more accustomed to such burthens, and this he knew
would make no great addition to what they already bore." No
one but the Duchess of York knew the truth when James,
taking Lord Peterborough and John Churchill with him,
started for London, and so faithfully was the secret kept, that
the Pope wrote to the Duke, and subsequently to his wife,
blaming his rashness in exposing himself and his hopes " to the
hatred and snares of his enemies."

The Duke was received with joy by the King, to whom " he
apologised out loud for coming without leave " ; the courtiers
pressed around him with welcome and congratulations, and
there is a significant passage of Barillon's to Louis XIV, show-

geres

THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH

ing that despite the frenzy or the times, there still existed a 1679
deep-rooted bond of loyalty between the heir to the throne and
the English people a bond which all the machinations of his
enemies, aided by the agonising religious difficulty, might have
failed to destroy, had not his own tactless blunderings at a later
time served them all too well : " The excitement in London Affaires
was less than might have been expected ; My lord Sunderland E 5 ra
told me the Lord Mayor and Aldermen had resolved to pro-
claim the Duke of York if the King had died. The same has
been confirmed to me by others. Nevertheless, 1 have difficulty
in believing that things would have passed as quietly as they

ly. I had a long interview with the Duke ... he does not
yet know if he will be allowed to stay. . . ."

The doubt was soon solved ; Lord Sunderland brought a
message from the King the next day, desiring the Duke of

r ork to leave England at once, but the blow was softened by
the choice of Scotland instead of Brussels for his place of
sojourn.

DUCHESS OF YORK TO DUKE OF MODENA.

" BRUSSELS, Sept. 30.

"... The Duke comes back next week. ... I believe until the
closing of Parliament unless things change ; but there are so many
changes in that country, especially of late, that from one day to
another it is impossible to know what may happen. There was one
great event last week, the King ordered the Duke of Monmouth to
leave his dominions, a thing which has surprised every one, he having
been the greatest favourite a month ago. The King has given no
particular reason, only that he has not been satisfied with his conduct
for some time past. It seems to me a thousand years until I learn the
reason of so great a change. . . ."

The conduct of the Duke of Monmouth had, in fact, ex-
hausted the patience of the most indulgent of fathers. A few
days before the first exile of the Duke of York the King had
deemed it necessary to make a solemn declaration, countersigned
by his Privy Council, as a King and a Christian, that he had
never married any other woman than Queen Catherine, then

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1679 living ; but this action failed to put a stop to the pretensions of
the son of Lucy Waters, and as misfortunes thickened round
the heir to the crown, the audacity and openness of Monmouth's
and his party's schemes waxed exceedingly. Witnesses were
ready to prove the marriage of Charles and Lucy, a mysterious
black box was declared to be in safe keeping, containing docu-
mentary evidence of the contract, and the young man, whom
Lord Peterborough summarily dismisses as " that young viper,"
daily took upon himself greater airs of royalty, his very foot-
men styling him " Prince of Wales." The Duke of York's
remonstrances when he returned to England were not without
effect, and when Lord Sunderland brought him the King's
order for his withdrawal into Scotland, it was accompanied with
the news of Monmouth's dismissal from England.

The Duke of York was directed, under pretence of taking
the Princesses Anne and Isabel to see their sister, to proceed
from Brussels to the Hague, where vessels would be sent to
take them direct to Scotland. The weather, however, was so
boisterous, and made the Duchess of York so ill, that leave was
obtained from the King, when they were in the Downs, to come
to London, and make the rest of the journey by land. Mary
Beatrice writes to her brother from London, November 3,
1679 : " . . . What changes in our affairs since my last
letter ! We go no more to Holland, but have His Majesty's
leave to go to Scotland. . . . We have been here ten days,
and were received by His Majesty and by all in general with
all the courtesy and marks of affection imaginable. Neverthe-
less we are to leave for Scotland next Monday, to stay there
as long as the King pleases. . . . We left our lady mother in
Holland, whence she was going to Brussels and then home."

Moved to compassion by her late illness and the fatigues
and hardships she had undergone, the King pressed his young
sister-in-law to remain in London, but she refused, and James,
in his Memoirs, pays tribute to her devotion " who chose
rather with the hazard of her life, to be a constant companion
of her husband's misfortunes and hardshipps, than to enjoy her

DEPARTURE FOR EDINBURGH

ease in any part of the world without him. But it was a 1679
sensible trouble to His Royal Highness to see the Duchess
thus obliged to undergo a sort of martirdom for her affection
to him."

Leaving the two young Princesses at St. James's, they left
London on November 6 for Edinburgh, and Ronchi announces
their departure to Prince Rinaldo d'Este : " . . . The King
embraced the Duchess with indescribable affection and attended
her to her carriage, and there stood waiting for the Duke, who
could not free himself from the multitude of noblemen who
had hastened to compliment him, and who in numerous coaches
and six followed him for several miles, as did also the Princess
Anne. . . . The first night they lay at Hatfield, the second at
Biggleswade, and the third they were to stay at Huntingdon.
They will make the journey in short stages, spending a few
days at York. . . . '

At York the Duke and Duchess were ill-received by the
Governor and people, who, " to cover their ill-disposition
found for excuse that formerly upon the like occasion they had
directions sent them, how to behave." Elsewhere the travellers,
on their cold northward journey " as hard a frost last night
as ever I knew," the Duke writes from Durham to Colonel
Legge were hailed with great expressions of loyalty and good-
will. Edinburgh was reached the 4th December, and amid
salvos of artillery an immense cortege of notabilities welcomed
them with all imaginable expressions of joy and gratitude for
the honour the King and His Royal Highness did the country
in his coming to reside among them. The Duke began well
in Scotland, relaxing considerably the rigour of the Govern-
ment :

" He does not press the levy of troops which he had pro- Affaires
posed," writes Barillon to Louis XIV. "He has put a stop
to the persecution of the Presbyterians and strives hard to
make himself popular ; but his enemies here abate none of
their efforts, and hope in the end to exclude him from the
succession."

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1679 The Duchess writes on Christmas Day, 1679, to the Duke
of Modena, congratulating him on his recovery from illness,
and adds : " You do well to divert yourself and not yield
yourself a prey to melancholy, who is a sorry friend. 1 You
tell me you hear that my lord Duke has been made Vice Roy

of Scotland but it is not so, for there is no such office.

The King sent him here to settle His Majesty's affairs in this
country, which I hope may soon be done that we may return
home, for although we are treated here by all with so much
civility and respect that I should be most happy, I can never
be completely so away from London. .... You will have
heard from Ronchi of the fine doings of the Duke of Mon-

mouth, so I shall not repeat them "

There was, in fact, a striking contrast between the prompt
obedience of the Duke and Duchess of York to all the King's
commands, and the way the Duke of Monmouth disregarded
them. His exile to Holland, where he was coolly received by
the Prince of Orange, was of short duration, for he returned to
London the very day after the Duke of York had set out for
Edinburgh, his party receiving him with bonfires and much
ringing of bells. The King, " hugely surprised," writes James,
"at his venturing to return without leave, sent to him to
begone immediately out of the kingdom." No heed being paid
to this command, His Majesty " put out of alt patience sent
him word that if he went not next day out of his kingdom he
must never expect to see his face again," and emphasised the
order by depriving him of his Captaincy of the Guards. Even
then, relying on his father's indulgent fondness, Monmouth
only left his lodgings in the Cockpit for his house in Hedge
Lane, where Charles permitted him to remain, though he still
refused to see him.

The summons home came to the Duke of York more quickly
than was expected. Lord Shaftesbury had outwitted himself

i In a letter to an aunt at Modena who had complained of great depression of spirits,
Mary Beatrice bids her not to give way to sadness, " Which is the most cowardly and
stupid or, to speak less injuriously, the weakest and laziest of all the passions."

RETURN TO LONDON

by his expedient of getting up petitions to the King in favour 1680
of Parliament and against Popery and despotism. Petitions
to this effect for the art of procuring them sprang to perfec-
tion in its infancy at first rained upon the King, to his no
small alarm and annoyance ; but presently a strong reaction set
in. The Cavaliers and Church party, the majority of the
gentry and merchants, remembering the results of the similar
proceedings of 1641, suddenly came forward with addresses to
the King, full of reliance on his wisdom, affection for his
person, and abhorrence of the practices of the petitioners, to
whom the new term of Whig was applied, and who retaliated
with that of 'Tory bestowed upon the loyalist Abhorrers. The
King's delight at this new turn of affairs gave him courage to
recall his brother. He told his Council " he found no such
effect from his absence as could persuade him to continue it
longer .... he thought it agreeable both to reason and
justice the Duke should be present at the next Session to make
his own defence," and accordingly the Duke and Duchess of
York, leaving Edinburgh with every mark of good will and
protestations of service from the Scots Privy Council, reached
London by sea, February 24.

DUCHESS OF YORK. TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"LONDON, 8 March 1680.

" I am at last arrived safe and sound in this place, where I hope to
remain a long time, if God pleases. I would have written yesterday,
but was still too much fatigued by the long sea voyage of eight days,
and the number of people about me left me not an ounce of time."

A man now arrived in London who was to prove himself
one of the most faithful friends of the house of York, and a
fresh and independent witness of its fortunes Count Terriesi,
envoy of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. 1 In a despatch, dated
1 1 March, to the Secretary of State, he describes the great
rejoicings of the Court on the return of the Duke and Duchess,
the ringing of bells and the bonfires lasting till night-fall, the
only disturbance arising in the vicinity of the Temple, where

1 Terriesi's despatches are from the Medici Archives, Florence.

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1680 some of the disaffected tried to put out the fires, but were dis-
persed by the guard. He thinks this " public and triumphant
entry, which was so little expected, will have shut many people's
mouths," and tells how the Lord Mayor and the whole court
of Aldermen, with a great number of citizens have paid their
respects with every mark of affection to Their Royal High-
nesses. " The Duchess of Monmouth also came and was most
kindly received by them ; it seems she took the opportunity of
begging the Duke to intercede with His Majesty for the pardon
of the Duke her consort, and His Royal Highness has under-
taken the affair. All these facts should mollify the prejudice
the general public has conceived against His Royal Highness
on account of his religion ; such marks of generous and
Christian goodness must dispel the suspicions that he cherishes
purposes of revenge."

Differences had at this time arisen between the Duchess of
Modena and her son, and instead of going home from Brussels
she arrived in London at the end of March. The Duchess of
York rather deprecated this step, and as the visit prolonged
itself she did all that was possible, writes Ronchi, to persuade
her mother to return to Modena, " even to the point of
displeasing her."

The burst of loyalty displayed in the addresses to the King
" put a necessity," writes James, " upon those furious zealots
to redouble their endeavours of keeping up the jealousies and
ferments of the people." A fresh plot was announced in
Ireland, which Shaftesbury took up with enthusiasm, and which
was to cost the venerable Catholic Prelate, Archbishop Plunket,
his life. Barillon writes to Louis XIV in May that he finds
the Duke of York sadder and more anxious than he has ever
Affaires se en him. " He has cause for being so, for, as far as I can
judge, Parliament will no sooner meet, than he will run great
danger of being entirely abandoned," and again : ** Many
persons believe that the power of the Prince of Orange in

England will augment as that of the King decreases I

do not however see that the Duke of York is as persuaded of

DUKE OF YORK A RECUSANT

this as he ought to be," and from Windsor on the ist July : 1680
" The Duke of York flatters himself that no attempt will be
made against the succession, nor the odious question of exclud-
ing the legitimate heir agitated. Should this be true his
enemies have another mode of attack which they mean to use.
It is to accuse him of High Treason ; he is subject to the law
of England, and the best thing that could then happen to him
would be to leave the country ; for if he enters the Tower, he
may never again leave it. The King omits nothing to reassure
him, and promises to protect him to the end, but if things
come to extremity, there is no appearance that that Prince
would hazard all rather than abandon his brother."

A few days later, Lord Shaftesbury, accompanied by the
Earl of Huntingdon, Lords Grey de Werke, Gerard of Brandon,
Russell and Cavendish, nine commoners and the arch-informer
Titus Gates, proceeded to Westminster Hall. Admitted before
the Grand Jury, he presented the Duke of York for a recusant,
asking for the forfeiture of two-thirds of his estate according to
the popery laws, and offering six reasons why he should be
looked upon as a papist. The judges adroitly defeated the
attempt by the sudden discharge of the jury while some of
their number were closeted with Shaftesbury, and Barillon,
commenting upon the act writes : " Although the attempt Affaires
has been eluded for a time, the intentions of the malcontents ^ a "~
remain unshaken, and their boldness can only be based on the

hope of being supported by the people The Duke of

York is much cast down, and knows the peril in which he
stands. In truth it is not likely his foes would have raised the
mask if they had not only felt they could rely upon the popu-
lace, but hoped they would make the King of England abandon
him .... The Duke of York is pressed by his friends to
change his religion. I know the King has spoken strongly to
him on the point. He does not seem shaken as yet, but he
listens, and he knows there is no other way of saving himself.
It has been conveyed to me that the Duchess of York desires
at any cost to prevent the Duke from leaving the Kingdom."

97 H

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1680 And the clear-sighted Ambassador concludes " Nothing could
be more difficult than to judge what would happen if the Duke
of York changed his religion. The malcontents would have to
change their plans and their measures, and look about for
other pretexts, their fears would redouble and they would think
themselves in greater danger of being overcome."

The rumour that she could desire her husband to change his
religion might have amused Mary Beatrice, had she not been
under the shadow of a fresh bereavement. On the 5th August
Barillon reports : " Madame Isabel, the only daughter of the
Duchess of York has convulsions and fever ; " and from
Windsor, September 1 6 : " The Duke of York is resolved
not to go away, and will try what the Session of Parliament
may bring forth. He said a word while hunting the other day
which has got abroad and is doing him no good. A stag had
turned at bay and killed and wounded several hounds. When
the Duke came up, he exclaimed : ' That is exactly what the
English will drive me to.' '

Parliament met in October, and the enemies of the Duke of
York, and his friends also, who believed his life was no longer
safe in London, did their utmost to induce him to leave the
country. Chief in power of persuasion over the King was the
Duchess of Portsmouth, who had been frightened into close
alliance with Shaftesbury by his adroit move of indicting her as
a common nuisance when he presented the Duke of York for
a recusant. She again gave as an excuse for her ill-offices that
" the Duchess of York had not shown her so much respect or
marks of kindness as she thought her due." At last Charles
gave way, in spite of his brother's spirited and repeated protests,
and the return of the Duke and Duchess to Scotland was
decided upon. Barillon writes to Louis XIV, October 28 :
Affaire " At a Council held the night before last the King raised the
fitran. question of the dissolution of Parliament or the withdrawal of

gere*

the Duke of York. No man dared propose a dissolution, it
would have been perilous to do so, as it was plainly not in His
Majesty's intentions., So it was decided the Duke should

SECOND VISIT TO EDINBURGH

withdraw. ..." 31 October: "The Duke and Duchess 1680
embarked yesterday in the river for Scotland. The King
conducted them to Leigh. I had a long interview with the
Duke, who expressed great grief. He considers himself quite
forsaken, and does not believe he will remain long in Scotland.
The King, his brother, has nevertheless given him many fair
words, telling him that he could not protect him from the
House of Commons, and that it would be better to break the
Parliament on some other question, such as that of the Bishops,
than upon the accusations against him, and that he could not
have prevented him from being sent to the Tower. . . . The
Duke of York believes the Prince of Orange will soon come
here to profit by what has been done against him. . . . He
added, in terms of anger and resentment, that if they pushed
him too far, and he found himself being entirely ruined by his
enemies, he would find a way to make them repent of it ...
this may mean that he hopes to excite troubles in Scotland and
in Ireland, and even that he may have a stronger party in
England than is supposed."

DUCHESS OF YORK TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"EDINBURGH, 5 Nov. 1680.

*. . . By the help of God I am at last recovered from my
journey, and the illness I had before undertaking it. We have no
good news from England. Parliament began merrily (alia gagliarda)
and my lord Duke is accused of all the evils that have happened in
England for the last two years, even to having attempted to procure
the murder of the King, a thing which it horrifies me to think of, no
less than to speak of! God grant us patience ; I hope He will pro-
tect the innocent and reward them, if not in this life, in the other,
which is a better one. . . . Here, however, we are well treated by
all, and may content ourselves to remain, as they will not have us in
England ; but I am afraid they will consider us too well off, and send
us farther away. God's holy will be done ; we are prepared for the
worst. These, dear brother, are all the tidings I can give you, we
have nothing but uncertainties, but I believe things may change for
the better in a little while."

99 H 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1680 A few days later she writes to her uncle, Prince Rinaldo
d'Este :

<c . . . . We had only. two days given us to prepare for such a
journey : I had just risen from illness, and was weak to the last
degree, but being free from fever I took courage and found strength
for the voyage by sea, where I suffered much, but with God's help we
made land in six days ; I recovered as soon as I arrived and am now
perfectly well.

I will not stay to tell you my affliction at leaving the children, my
friends, and the country, because you can imagine it ; what made it
worse was that we had had a thousand promises .that such a thing
should never happen to us again, but the King was persuaded that it
would be better for his service, and so ordered his brother to depart,
saying it would be better for him also, who immediately obeyed. We
have less hope than ever of returning home, as the Duke my lord is
accused in Parliament of all the crimes imaginable, even of attempting
the life of the King. . . ."

The Bill of Exclusion passed the House of Commons, and
was carried by Lord Russell to the House of Lords on the
25th November, where it was rejected by sixty-three votes
against thirty ; the thirteen Bishops present all voting against
it.

Terriesi, the Tuscan envoy, in his account of the pro-
ceedings, says : " The speeches were the boldest and most dis-
respectful that ever were heard ; so that any who heard them
need not read the most rabid libels, which, under favour of such
procedure, appear every day. The public rage against the
Duke has so increased, that when the Pope, the Jesuits and the
priests were solemnly burned in effigy on Queen Elizabeth's
birthday, there was public talk of burning him also."

DUCHESS OF YORK TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" EDINBURGH. 3 December 1680.

" . . . . O Dio ! how things have changed ! The House of
Commons passed that Exclusion Bill against the Duke, but the
House of Lords rejected it, so it means nothing ; it is true that now

IOO

EXECUTION OF LOUD STAFFORD

they are trying to do worse, even in the Lords ; to make laws limit- 1681
ing the Duke's authority, if ever he becomes King, and in a word to
make of him a king of cards, which would be worse than the
exclusion. God knows what effect these proposals will have. It is
always in the King's power to save his brother, if he will ; others
speak of banishing him ; as yet we know not what will be resolved
upon, we are only certain that it will be nothing good for us."

Before the end of the year the news reached Edinburgh that
Lord Stafford, the last and the most illustrious of the direct
victims of Titus Gates, had been condemned to death. The
Duke of York tried to save the life of his old friend, writing
to Colonel Legge, 24 December, that he is surprised at the con-
demnation, " tho' I knew the malice of some against him would Brit - Mus

. T _. Add.MSS.

make them press it to the utmost. ... 1 am very sorry His 18,447,^7
Majesty will be so hard put to it, for I hope he will remember
the continual trouble it was to the King his father, he having
consented to the death of the Earl of Straffbrd, and not have
such a hurt on his conscience. I here enclosed send you a
letter to His Majesty : in which I say something upon the
subject, which in case he be not yet executed I would have you
deliver, but if it has been done, I would have you burn it."

DUCHESS OF YORK TO THE DUKE OF MODEM A.

"EDINBURGH. 14 January 1681.

" We are in a thousand uncertainties until Parliament either gets
the upper hand or is dissolved ; please God the latter may happen
soon, for things have become intolerable. That Lord [Stafford] who
was condemned for the plot against the King, was beheaded on
Wednesday last, and died with great constancy, declaring his innocence,
upon his soul, of all he was accused of, and making a most beautiful
discourse before his death."

To Prince Rinaldo d'Este, a few days later, she is able to
announce the wished-for dissolution of Parliament, which took
place on the 1 8th January : ..." So, for two months we
shall have peace, as the King has summoned a new one to
meet on the i April, not in London but at Oxford, so as to

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1 68 1 avoid tumults and cabals ; please God it may be better than
the last ; I doubt it, however, as I cannot believe that in so
short a time those people will change their opinions. We are
not spoken of, and we desire most ardently to go home ;
we have petitioned the King to let us return, but have no
answer yet."

Exile was to be made doubly cruel to the Duke and Duchess
of York by the death of the little Princess Isabel at St. James's
Palace on the 2nd February at the age of five, and the Duchess
turns once more in her sorrow to her old friends in the quiet
cloister at Modena.

To SISTER MARY LAURA.

"EDINBURGH. 31 March, 1681.

Archives " At this hour you will have heard of the great affliction it has

Visitation pleased God to send me, in taking from me one of the dearest things
Modena' I had in the world, and which I hoped He would have left me in His
goodness to be a comfort in my afflictions, but Dominus dedit y Dominus
abstulit^ sit nomen Domini benedlctum : I think I have said this from my
heart with the help of God ; and when I think that now my child is
happy, and that if she had lived she might have run great dangers,
when I think of all this, I comfort myself, and if I could keep other
thoughts away, I should not be afflicted; but the senses and the lower
part of nature cannot help giving way, yet God be praised for all ...
Parliament will soon assemble at Oxford ; what it may do God
knows.

There is a new accuser in the field, who not only accuses the
Duke, but also my dear mamma for plotting to kill the King ; and he
says the Marquis Felice Montecuculi offered him jio,ooo to kill His
Majesty, but that he would not do it. See what wickedness and
falsehood are in the world ! But God will at last prove the
innocence of the just. The accuser is in prison for having written
libels against the King ; he is to be tried, and the penalty is death.
I believe he makes these accusations, hoping to obtain a general
pardon from the King as his fellows did ; but His Majesty has
refused and declares that, if the law allows it, he will have him
hanged .... God knows when we shall go home. It costs me
less now to be away, as my child is no longer there."

IO2

FITZHARRIS

The informer of whom the Duchess writes was Fitzharris, 1681
one of the numerous imitators of Gates and Bedloe, who had
arisen during the past two years. He was noteworthy chiefly
for a burlesque improvement upon the usual tale of assassina-
tion of the King, burning, and massacre : viz., that several
Members of Parliament were to be boiled down to make a
Salnte Ampoule, to be used at future coronations. Even the
credulity of panic seemed staggered, for from this time the
fabric of lies began to totter to its fall, and Fitzharris was tried
and hanged in spite of the strenuous efforts of the House of
Commons to wrest him from the hands of the law. It is a
curious fact that, although the accusers spared neither her
mother, her secretary, nor her chaplain, nor even the Queen
Consort, they never made any direct attack upon Mary Beatrice
herself. This immunity may possibly have been partly due to the
affection which had undoubtedly sprung up between the people
and her, and which, as we have seen, Macpherson declared
subsisted until the end.

In March, 1681, the Duchess gave birth to a child, which
did not live. She writes to a nun at Modena, telling of her
illness and sorrow : " But I console myself with the thought Archives
that I have more angels to pray for me, and I ought to esteem convent,"
myself honoured that, while other women give their children to Modena
the world, I have given all mine to God, in whose mercy I still
hope that He may some day comfort me by giving me a male
child who shall live, and yet in the end gain Heaven. . . ."

Writing to congratulate her brother on his birthday, she
says : " You are now twenty years old, and do not yet think
of marrying ; pray do not defer it too long, and remember that
you are alone."

The Parliament which met at Oxford at the end of March
fulfilled Mary Beatrice's fear that the majority of its members
would be found in the same hostility against the Duke of
York. The Exclusion Bill was immediately read a first time,
and ordered a second reading, when the King, seizing the
pretence of the discord between the two Houses on the

103

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1681 impeachment of Fitzharris, suddenly summoned the Commons
to the chamber of Peers, and with the unexpected words : " My
Lords and Gentlemen : That all the world may see to what a
point we are come, that we are not like to have a good end
when the divisions at the beginning are such, therefore, my
Lord Chancellor, do as I have commanded you," dissolved the
Parliament, which had only sat seven days, and which was to
prbve the last of his reign. This high-handed act, as Lingard
observes, no doubt saved England from the horrors of a civil war.
Meanwhile the struggle over the exclusion of the Duke of
York continued, the Dutch and even the Spanish envoys doing
their best, writes James, to persuade the King to consent to it.
" His Majesty was battered on all hands, though the only
bulwark the Duke had in this extremity . . . nevertheless he
was so true to his own and the Duke's interest as not to
abandon him in the main point at least."

Brit, MUS. Into these troubled waters the Prince of Orange now thought
18,447, fit to descend, and arrived at Windsor, 24 July ; his father-in-
f- 39- b l aw> on receipt of the news, writing to Colonel Legge : " I was
indeed surprised with the news of the Prince of Orange coming
into England as well as you were, and am of your mind as to
the reason of his coming at this time ; it must be your parts
that are upon the place to look well that no harm be done.
Pray be very much with His Majesty, when he is there, to
observe what passes, and I think if the Prince be spoken
homely to, if his head be not" quite wrong turned, his eyes will
be opened, and he (will) see how he has been abused by those
who gave him measure of affairs in England."

" He carried fair at first," writes James, " but soon showed
that tho' his pretence was succours for Flanders and Holland,
yet it was easily understood that succours could not be obtained
but by a Parliament, and to be sure the Duke would be
sacrificed as a preliminary before a penny could be hoped for."
The King, according to Ronchi, upbraided him severely for his
intrigues against the Duke of York, and " he departed ill-
satisfied from England."

104

THE COURT OF EDINBURGH

The Scotch Parliament now opened, and the Duchess of 1681
York writes to the Marchioness of Huntley :

" EDINBURGH T 5 T August 1681.

" . . . . The ceremonie of the Parliament was extremely fine.
Most people were plaised with the Duke's speech ; and the major
part seemes resolved to do thyre duty ; I pray God they may, and
that all this may be well over. ..."

DUCHESS OF YORK TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" EDINBURGH 2 September,

" Parliament is doing very well, which is a comfort to all good Spalding
people ... I hope it may soon be over, and then we hope to return vo J SC jjj
home ; that the King will not refuse permission to the Duke to give
him a personal account of his mission here. ..."

Barillon, reporting to Louis XIV the important fact that the
Scottish Parliament had passed an Act continuing the right of
Excise five years beyond the life of the present King, says :
" This has been done in favour of the Duke of York, and to give
him the means to maintain troops and the charges of Govern-
ment if he comes to the throne. It is certain that the Duke has
obtained all he wanted from the Scotch Parliament, and has
carried himself with prudence and firmness ; but that will avail
him nothing with regard to English affairs."

James's conduct in Scotland, aspersed as it has been by
Burnet and his followers, who made history " an engine for
faction more than the vehicle of truth," seems to have deserved
Barillon's meed of praise. His Court was magnificent, he,
"spending of his own," reports Ronchi to the Duke of
Modena, and "Their Royal Highnesses are daily more beloved
here in Scotland for the sincerity and justice with which the
Duke proceeds in public affairs." Princess Anne had arrived
at Edinburgh in July, and many were the gay doings at Holy-
rood music and dancing in its ancient halls and Ronchi
makes mention of a tragedy, " Mithridates," acted by the
Duke's courtiers ; "all went well and with the utmost magni-
ficence." The Duchess of York, supreme in stature an4

I0 5

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1682 beauty among the ladies of her Court, reigned in it with
youthful dignity and grace. Her chaplain complains, indeed,
that she spends herself too much on her devotions to the dis-
approval of her doctor, but in another report tells of her new
and keen delight in riding, " which greatly pleases the Duke,
who admires her in that habit and carrying herself in so
masterly a fashion." Then October 2 : " The Duchess fell
from her horse, and injured her left side."

DUCHESS OF YORK. TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"EDINBURGH, 21 April 1682

" . . . . My lord the Duke is still in England, and receives a
thousand favours and kindnesses from the King. They went from
Newmarket to London, where His Majesty wishes me to come, and
in three weeks the Duke will come and fetch me in a big vessel,
which will be safer and have less motion than the yachts. I hope
God will protect me and that I may safely get home after an
absence of a year and a half. I am sorry you disapprove of my
going, for it is certainly the best thing for our interests, for now the
Duke is so popular and well thought of by all that they would never
allow him to leave the country, and if he remain there, I certainly
cannot remain here. He has only been away a month and it seems
already more than I can bear. ..."

A few days later she writes to Lady Bellasys : " I have
really been so ill for these many months that i have hardly been
able to writ at all ; my falls did hinder me for some time, 1 and
since, my being with child has done it. ... I hope i shall be
at London, for the Duke has promised to com for me the
beginning of next month, by the end of which i hope wee shall
meet at St. James's . . . . '

It was the Duchess of Portsmouth, without intending it, who
had put an end to the Duke of York's exile. Desirous of
securing a safe income in case of the King's death " knowing
that His Majesty's necessities were too great," writes James,
"to comply with her expectations .... the only shift she
could think of, was to prevail upon him to propose to
the Duke to settle upon her a rent charge of 5,000 a

* She had had a second and more serious fall from her horse.
I O6

LOSS OF THE "GLOUCESTER"

year out of the Post Office for 50 years, and to promise 1682
His Royal Highness an equivalent out of the hereditary
Excise. . . . The Duke was always too complyant to
refuse anything the King desired, and too sensible of the
Duchess of Portsmouth's power to think he could purchase
her favour too dear. . . . He answered that all he had in
the world was from His Majesty and was at his disposal,"
but that he must be allowed to come to town " both to consult
the manner, and performe what was necessary for such a
conveyance, which he knew if the Duchess of Portsmouth were
once convinced of, she would move heaven and earth to bring
it about." The bait took, the Duke was summoned to New-
market, and then to London, where the lawyers discovered,
what James, indeed, knew all the time, that nothing but an Act
of Parliament could make the conveyance valid, or empower
him to alienate any part of his revenue. " Having thus turn'd
the Duchess of Portsmouth's avarice to so signal an advantage
without any damage to his estate," writes James with not
unnatural satisfaction, " and yet warded himself from her anger,
he had the less to apprehend from her mighty credit with the
King."

" The 3rd of May, 1682, the Duke of York left Windsor to
fetch the Duchess. He sailed in the " Gloucester " frigate,
with several smaller vessels in attendance, and through the
unskilfulness or treachery of Captain Ayres the pilot (who was
afterwards tried and condemned), the vessel was lost on the
Lemmon sands. Mr. Samuel Pepys, who was with the Duke,
sent a lively account of the disaster to his friend, Mr. W.
Hewen, ascribing it to the "obstinate over-winning of the
pilot in opposition to all the contrary opinions," including that
of the Duke himself. Many lives were lost, though most of
the persons of quality and the Duke's servants were saved, and
James himself carried the news of the wreck and his own escape
to his wife. The voyage was safely accomplished, and on 27 May
the travellers arrived at Whitehall, where Charles had come from
Windsor to receive them, " to the unspeakable joy of them all."

107

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1682 The Duke and Duchess of York were well received by the
people, as well as by the Court, although Terriesi does not fail
to notify to the Court of Tuscany that amid the general
rejoicings on the evening of their arrival, the Whigs in divers
parts of the city attempted to put out the bonfires lighted in
their honour ; also that when, the day after, the King was
seized with sudden illness while in Church, the said Whigs
busied themselves greatly, " holding meetings, and writing,
saying, printing with increasing malice all they can to render
the person of the Duke odious to the populace." Nevertheless,
Dryden's Epistle to the Duchess may have fairly represented
the feelings of the majority of the people, and certainly welcome
has seldom been expressed in more charming verse :

" When factious rage to cruel exile drove
The Queen of beauty and the Court of love,
The Muses droop'd, with their forsaken arts,
And the sad Cupids broke their useless darts.

* * *
Love was no more, when loyalty was gone,
The great supporter of his awful throne,
Love could no longer after beauty stay,

But wandered northward to the verge of day,
As if the sun and he had lost their way.

* * *
Pleasing, yet cold, like Cynthia's silver beam,
The people's wonder, and the poet's theme
Distemper'd Zeal, Sedition, canker'd Hate

No more shall vex the Church, and tear the State ;
No more shall Faction civil discords move,
Or only discords of too tender love ;

* * -it-
Discord, that only this dispute shall bring,

Who best shall love the Duke, and serve the King."

The knowledge she had by now acquired of the conjugal
infidelity of the Duke was the cause of passionate grief to the
Duchess of York. Too high-spirited and too proud to bear
this injury with silent resignation, there occurred more than
once what a writer of the previous century called " shorte

108

CATHERINE SEDLEY

tragedies " between husband and wife on account of Catherine 1682
Sedley, the ill-favoured but witty daughter of Sir Charles
Sedley by his wife Catherine, daughter of John Savage, Earl
Rivers. Catherine was maid of honour to the Duchess, and as
early as 1673, when she was sixteen, John Evelyn had described
her as " none of the most virtuous, but a wit." Writing of
this period of Mary Beatrice's life, her husband's biographer,
Clarke, remarks that King Charles, in his u mighty love and
esteem " for her personal merit, " compassionated in some
measure her sufferings more than the Duke's, because she
went a whole sharer with him in all his misfortunes, and had
over and above some private grievances of her own. . . . her
passionate love for her husband made their joint affliction easy
to her, but rendered the other more insupportable. . . . but she
lived not much longer before she had the satisfaction of seeing
him not only become a perfect rival of her vertue, but a most
exemplar and fervent penitent for the Sinns of his former life."
On the morning of August ^-f, 1682, the Duchess of York
gave birth to a daughter, " all passing so quickly," writes
Terriesi to the Florentine Secretary of State, " that not only the
King and the Duke, but even the nurse did not arrive in time.
" The friends of the Court had counted upon a Prince, and are
the more disappointed, and the Duke is full of melancholy."
The child was baptised by the name of Charlotte Mary, and
the next day James returned to Windsor. Barillon informs
Louis XIV : " The Duke's enemies rejoice that he has not got Affaires
a son. They think it would have rendered the project of his E
exclusion impossible. The hopes of the Prince of Orange
would have been deferred, and the Duke of Monmouth's
dreams somewhat dispelled. Madame de Portsmouth
told me the King greatly hoped the Duke of York would
have had a son, that it would have helped to dissipate the
factions of the malcontents." Three weeks later the child
. died of convulsions, and the French Ambassador reports the
great affliction of the Duke, " who has lost the hope that any
child of his can live."

109

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1683 With the end of the year 1682 there passed from the scene
the oldest and most inveterate enemy of the house of York.
Lord Shaftesbury had fallen into disgrace after his failure to
pass the Exclusion Bill, and the judicial murder of Archbishop
Plunket, justly laid at his door, had been immediately followed
by his own indictment and imprisonment, the very witnesses
against Plunket accusing him of having suborned them to give
false witness against the Queen, the Duke of York, the Lord
Lieutenant, and the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the mob, which
had been his pliant instrument on so many occasions, now
turning upon him in the reaction of its new-found loyalty, and
hooting him on his way to the Tower. The Grand Jury threw
out the bill, but his credit and his influence were gone ; his signal
political blunder in espousing the cause of the King's illegitimate
son disgusted all moderate men, and the wildness of his present
schemes alarmed his own supporters. He formed plans of
insurrection in different parts of the country with Walcot,
Rumsey, and Ferguson, men of desperate fortunes and equally
desperate councils, and at the same time sued for pardon from
the Duke of York, who returned the cautious answer :
" Though the Earl of Shaftesbury has been my worst enemy, all
offences shall be forgiven whenever he becomes a dutiful subject
of the King." Hearing that a fresh warrant was to be issued
against him, he lay for some days concealed in obscure houses
in the City and Wapping, and finally fled to Holland in the
disguise of a Presbyterian minister, dying about two months
after his departure from England.

Barillon writes to Louis XIV, 8 February, 1683 : "The
death of Lord Shaftesbury is held for certain here. It will
make no great difference to the party of which he was reputed
the chief. Nevertheless, the King and the Duke of York
believe they are rid of a very dangerous enemy. . . . '

That Shaftesbury's death made no great difference in the
aims and workings of his party was soon to be abundantly
proved, and the Duchess of York sends news of an important
event to her brother :

RYE HOUSE PLOT

"WINDSOR, 25 June 1683. 1683

" .... I have great news to send you not of a false, but of a real
plot devised by the Presbyterians against the persons of the King and
the Duke. It has been revealed by one of the conspirators, and
others have been arrested who confess the same thing, namely, that
when the King and Duke returned from Newmarket, they were to
be met by a number of horsemen drawn up at a certain spot to kill
them both, and at the same time there was to be a rising in London,
and different parts of the country ; this would certainly have
succeeded had not the fire which happened at Newmarket hastened
the King's return to London by a few days, so the plotters were not
ready in time admirable effect of Divine Providence, ever to be
praised ! Some are in prison, and their confessions agree ; it is said
that Shaftesbury, who is dead, knew it all, but it is believed that many
(living) men of quality were cognisant of it, and it is hoped they
will be discovered. The King goes to London to-morrow because
of all this, and I leave within half-an-hour, so finish in haste ....

MARIA."

The conspiracy of which the Duchess writes is known to
history as the Rye House Plot, and she refers to it again in a
letter to the Superior of the Visitation at Modena.

" 1 8 July 1683.

" .... I do not know if you have heard from my lady mother
of the horrid conspiracy here against the King and the Duke, my
lord, and which would certainly have succeeded, if God had not
miraculously preserved them. Now all is discovered ; there are
thirty-six persons in prison, among them several men of quality ;
many have confessed everything, and the greater number will be
condemned to death.

I beg you to help me to thank God for our preservation ; and
certainly I hope this may be of great benefit to the Catholics, for
now they will be fully justified of the plot of which they were
accused, and which was most false."

Rewards of 100 each had been offered for the apprehension
of Lord Grey, Sir Thomas Armstrong, and Robert Ferguson,
while 500 was offered for the Duke of Monmouth, *' the
King desiring to have him dead or alive," writes Codebo, the

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1683 Duchess Laura's secretary, from Brussels to Prince Rinaldo
d'Este, " as being the prime artificer of this conjuration, which,
had it succeeded, would have established a Republic and made
him Protector and head, just like the late Cromwell."
Monmouth and the other four made good their escape, but
Lord Howard of Escrick was taken and became one of the
chief witnesses against Lord Russell, who was executed 2 1 July,
1683, the trial and execution of Algernon Sydney following
shortly after, while Monmouth, casting himself once again on
his father's mercy, was forgiven not only by the King, but also
..by the Duke of York, to whom he promised, that if James
should survive the King, he himself would be the first to draw
the sword in defence of his right whenever occasion might
require .

The discovery of the Rye House Plot undoubtedly gave the
King the undisputed superiority over his opponents for the rest
of his reign, and the Duke and Duchess of York enjoyed in
consequence a grateful period of tranquillity and prosperity,
culminating in the restoration of the Duke to his old office of
Lord High Admiral, and his readmission to the Privy Council.
He had already, at the end of 1682, put a check upon the
boldness of his calumniators by bringing an action of Scandalum
Magnatum against Pilkington, the Whig ex-Sheriff of London,
for having said before witnesses that the Duke of York, after
burning the city fourteen years before, " has now come back to
cut our throats." Pilkington was found guilty, and condemned
to pay a fine of 100,000.

On July 28, the Princess Anne was married to Prince George
of Denmark, and her young step-mother writes a graceful letter
of satisfaction " at this new alliance between our two Houses "
to the King of Denmark, and a few months later domestic
concerns, interesting her more nearly, claimed her attention.
For some time the Duchess Laura of Modena had not been on
good terms with her son, and was practically an exile from
his Court, dividing her time between Brussels and London,
the chief cause of disagreement being the young Duke's

112

V)0ntfn: tslt&GUma. .

THE DUCHESS OF MODENA IN ROME

matrimonial affairs, and the laxity of morals at Modena 1683
attributed to the influence of his cousin, Prince Cesare d'Este.
The Duchess of York writes to her brother, 22 November, 1683,
telling him of the Duke of Monmouth's readmission to the
Royal favour " which surprises everybody, although no one
dares say so, seeing the King so well inclined towards him. . . .
and as to me, I can hardly write of it for fear my pen should
run into saying what is in my heart, so I will not speak of it,
and beg you not to write or speak of it with passion, for fear
letters might be opened." She goes on to say : " I have also
heard another piece of news which I cannot believe, because on
many accounts it is so improbable ; it is that you are for marry-
ing that cousin of yours who is at Modena, sister of the three
Princes. I hope to God you will never think of so dis-
advantageous a marriage, and what is more, that you will make
a far better choice, but never this one, according to my
judgment, for it would be ridiculous, she (that cousin) being
older than you, without a farthing, and not even of equal con-
dition. Forgive me, dear brother, if I speak too plainly, the
zeal I have for your good and your honour, and my affection
for you carrying me away. For pity's sake answer me soon on
this particular, and pacify me with the assurance that you do
not think of it. Forgive the anxiety of a sister who loves you
from her heart, and who desires your good and your advantage
as dearly as her own."

In April, 1684, tne Duchess Laura was in Paris, and there
her son's envoy, Count Nigrelli, on his way to England with
congratulations on the discovery of the Rye House Plot, had
orders to " make all humiliations and respects to her " from the
Duke, reports Terriesi, to persuade her to return to Modena.
This she declines to do, and having obtained leave from
Innocent XI. to choose four Ursuline nuns from a monastery in
Flanders, took them with her to Rome, and founded a convent
which exists to the present day.

Several prosecutions were at this time brought against some
ot the chief enemies of the King and the Duke, and Terriesi,

113 i

QUEEN MARY OF MODEISTA

1684 reporting the condemnation of " that scoundrel Gates " to pay
a fine of ^ 100,000 for Scandalum Magnum against the Duke of
York, adds : " When the news was carried to him in prison, I
am told he put his hand in his pocket, and said he had not the
money about him, but Parliament would take care to pay all
his debts."

The Duchess of York, who had been suddenly and alarmingly
ill in May, went to Tunbridge in June, and a letter from the
Duke to the Prince of Orange shows the good intelligence
which still existed between her and her step-daughter, the
Princess Anne, who had now been married nearly a year to
Dal. Prince George of Denmark. " The Duchess intends to
Tunbridge on Monday. My daughter the Princess of Den-
mark designs to go there to keep her company, but not to
take the waters."

Later in the year the Duke and Duchess of York visited
Winchester and Salisbury, and Ronchi, in his report to Modena,
2 October, 1684, is full of the magnificence of the entertain-
ment given by the Bishop of Salisbury, in whose palace the
royal visitors and their suite of a hundred persons were
lodged ; of the visit to Stonehenge and to the Cathedral, and
the dinner at Wilton : " The house of Mylord Pembroke, a
studious youth of twenty-five, who succeeded his brother a year
or two ago. . . . After the dinner, which was most splendid,
Their Royal Highnesses hunted with Lord Pembroke's harriers
in his vast park, and then visited the gardens and the very
curious fountains. . . . Our Duchess rides on horseback ten
miles every day during this voyage, and is perfectly well. She
is hunting again to-day."

A grand review on Putney Heath took place after their
return, Mary Beatrice assisting at it in company with the Queen
and the Princess of Denmark, but her present tranquillity was
soon to be disturbed by no less an event than a rupture between
the Court of France and the Duke of Modena, Prince Cesare
d'Este being again the cause of trouble. He had allowed his
sister, Angelica Catherine, to marry Amedee, Prince of

114

PRINCE CESARE D'ESTE

Carignan, without asking the permission of the King of France, 1684
who intended the Prince, one of his feudatories, to marry a
French subject of his own choosing. The Duke of Savoy, in
writing to inform Louis XIV of the marriage, said it had taken
place without his knowledge or consent, and Rizzini writes
dejectedly from Paris, 22 November : " In this rupture
between the Courts of France and Modena, on account of the
marriage of the Prince of Carignan, the Court of St. James is
the only one that can have any influence in the solution of this
important affair. . . ." And again, a few days later, reporting
that Cardinal Bouillon had offered his good offices on his
(Rizzini's) behalf with the King, Louis XIV had "flown
into a fury. His Majesty has written to the Duke of Savoy
to break the marriage, if any cause of nullity can be found."

As the bridegroom seems to have been over fifty years of
age, and, although born deaf and dumb, a gallant and studious
prince, it is satisfactory to know that Louis failed in his auto-
cratic attempt to break the marriage. He dismissed Rizzini
from France, who took refuge in London, throwing himself
upon the kindness and protection of the Duchess of York, who
did her utmost to bring about a reconciliation between France
and Modena, as well as to persuade the French Ambassador
Barillon to see Rizzini and hear his excuses.

The matter made some stir in the Italian diplomatic circle,
Terriesi writing to Florence : " Here it is not doubted but
that Prince Cesare of Modena will be banished. The Duchess
of York replied to the French Ambassador that the King of
France was quite right in what he did, adding that he (Prince
Cesare) was the cause of the Duchess of Modena living in exile,
and of all the misfortunes of that state." The Venetian envoy Archives
Vignola writes to the Doge that King Charles is being urged to ol
intercede for the recall of Prince Cesare, banished by the Duke
of Modena to satisfy Louis XIV : " This is against the wish of
the Duchess of York, who is not unwilling that Prince [Cesare]
should suffer some mortification as a check upon his constant
practices against the Mother Duchess, now in Rome, keeping

115 i 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 her away from her own home, and the Duchess of York
further desires that her brother the Duke may be freed from
the oppression the other exercised on him."

The King of France now turned his attention to the choice
of a bride for the Duke of Modena, and sends orders to
Barillon to propose one of the richest heiresses in France,
Mademoiselle de Bouillon, daughter of Maurice, Due de
Bouillon, and Marie Anne Mancini. Mary Beatrice is delighted,
and Barillon writes 15 January, 1685, that she is sending a
special messenger at once with the proposal to Modena. He
Affaires ac jd s . u fhe Duchess of York also wished to entreat Your
Majesty to permit M. Rizzini to return to France, but he
himself judges that the time has not yet come to implore such
a favour from Your Majesty, and that it would be proper
to wait until a reply has come from Modena to the letters
written from here touching the retirement of Prince Cesare
d'Este from the States of the Duke." Three days later the
French Ambassador reports : " The Duke of York has told
me the King of England has entered upon the subject of the
marriage as on a matter which would be very agreeable to him.
His Majesty will tell the Duchess of York that she could not
do better than use all her endeavours to bring this alliance
to pass."

Upon these schemes of marriage and giving in marriage there
came a sudden interrupting shock. Barillon's despatch of
February 1 2 ends with these words : " At this point of my
letter I am informed of the King of England's seizure this
morning."

This apoplectic seizure was the beginning of the end, and for
five days the death-bed of the King, whom, with all his faults,
they loved, became, in alternation of hope and fear, the object
round which centred the affectionate interest of his subjects.
Mary Beatrice has herself described, to the nuns of Chaillot,
how she hastened to the King's chamber, and found there the
Queen and the Duke of York, and her alarm at the drastic
remedies inflicted by the doctors on the unconscious sufferer

116

LAST ILLNESS OF CHARLES II

a red-hot iron on his head, his teeth held open by force. 1685
" After I had been there some time, the Queen, who had chaiiiot
hitherto kept silence, approached me and said : * Sister, I beg Archives
you to tell the Duke, who knows as I do the sentiments of the
King towards the Catholic religion, to do what he can to profit
by any good moment.' " The Queen then retired, and nearly
an hour passed before the Duke of York looked at his wife, so
occupied was he with the King. At last he chanced to look her
way, and she signed to him that she had something to say. He
ipproached, and she gave him the Queen's message. " I know,"
ic said, " I am thinking of nothing else." But the room was
)n crowded with people five Bishops, according to Fraser,
twenty-five lords and privy-councillors, and even at night four
doctors, ten officers, an apothecary, a surgeon, and several
inferior servants, whilst the Bishops succeeded each other at the
King's bedside.

Rizzini begins his minute account to the Duke of Modena
the day of the attack " which took place at eight o'clock
this morning, as the barber was about to shave his Majesty " by
expressing the fear that if the King should die, " the con-
junction might be hazardous to the succession owing to the
present cabals and dissension in the Council," an allusion to the
fresh intrigues of Lords Sunderland and Halifax and the
Duchess of Portsmouth in favour of the Duke of Monmouth.
On the 1 5th February he reports that the King is somewhat
better : " His Royal Highness never leaves His Majesty . . .
and the Duchess of York visits him from time to time ; she is
much afflicted, noticing a state of weakness which prevents any
certain hope of recovery. Immediately upon the King's
iizure, orders were sent to close all sea-ports, and to let no
ship go out. Letters from foreign ports are allowed to enter
the kingdom, but no travellers, in case the Duke of Monmouth
or other suspected persons should arrive at this conjuncture.
However, everything is quiet. The populace was stunned by
the first news, which announced the King as dead, and the
grief is very great ; the shops are all closed, all work is stopped,

117

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 and the people are running to Whitehall, where the guard is
doubled, and no one allowed to enter but persons of the Court
or well known. . . . P.S. Before closing my letter I hear the
King is much worse. Their Royal Highnesses are with His
Majesty. The Duchess may write this evening, but I doubt if
the letter will leave."

" 1 6 February 1685.

" . . . . The King expired a few minutes after mid-day. I cannot
describe the resignation, the courage and piety displayed by His
Majesty .... which drew tears from those around him. . . . He
adjured the great officers of the Crown standing by his bed to be
loyal to his royal brother, the legitimate heir to the throne, assuring
them they would find him a better ruler than he himself had been.
To the Duke he recommended his four sons, the Dukes of Grafton,
Northumberland, St. Albans and Richmond, making no mention of
the Duke of Monmouth. With his own hand he gave the keys of
his cabinet to His Royal Highness. . . . Compassionating the
fatigue of the gentlemen who attended him day and night, he
apologised to them from time to time for being so slow in dying.
All these things he said with affectionate intrepidity, in a loud voice,
during the intervals free from violent pain, and sometimes he spoke
in a whisper to the Duke. He remained conscious until 9 o'clock,
three hours before his death. His Royal Highness then left the
bedside, to carry the sad tidings to the Duchess of York, who was
also in excessive sorrow, and almost at the same moment the Lord
Chancellor, with the Seals in his hands, accompanied by the Privy
Council, came to salute the new King and Queen. . . . The King
then went to the Council Chamber, and the Queen to the apart-
ments of the Queen Dowager to make her condolences which were
made more in sobs than in words. . . . The proclamation of the
new King in the City was received with applause, shouts and
demonstrations of joy greater than could ever have been hoped
for ... " 2O February : " I may now add, what I did not dare
write in my last letter, that the King died a Catholic. . . . The fact
is well known in the town, and has been written abroad by so many,
that I need no longer hesitate to tell it. ... It was that good
Benedictine, Huddleston, who saved the King's life after the battle ot
Worcester, who now co-operated to save his soul. From his own
lips I have it that the evening before the King's death he was
summoned to hear his confession, but as he is well known at Court

118

DEATH OF CHARLES II

he was advised to cover his baldness with a periwig, and to change
the very simple coat the good old man of seventy-seven is in
the habit of wearing. The King did not recognise him until he had
removed his wig."

Charles received the last Sacraments " with full consciousness "
said Huddleston, " and the greatest compunction that could be
wished for in a true penitent."

It had been a matter of much delicacy and danger for the
Duke of York ; he had watched the King's refusal to receive
the Sacrament from the Bishops, whilst freely disclosing his
jpentance for the sins of his life, and at last, kneeling by the
bedside, there ensued the short dialogue between the brothers
recorded by the Duke himself : " You have refused the
Protestant Communion. Shall I send for a Catholic priest ? "
" For God's sake, brother, do ! and lose no time, but will you
not expose yourself too much by doing it ? " It was an act of
high treason to reconcile any one to the Church of Rome.

Sir, though it cost me my life, I will bring one to you." The
King desired that all should withdraw before Huddleston's
arrival, but the Duke " thought fit that mylord of Bath, who
was Lord of the Bed-Chamber then in waiting, and mylord
Feversham, the Captain of his Guards, should remain in the
room, telling the King it was not fit he should be quite alone
with His Majesty, considering the weak condition he was in."
The two Lords were, of course, Protestants, but their faithful
silence could be counted upon, while their presence was a safe-
guard to the Duke himself.

Barillon and Terriesi in their despatches express their
astonishment at the quiet manner in which all is going on, and
in truth no prince ever succeeded more tranquilly to the throne,
than did the Duke of York to that of England.

119

CHAPTER V

1685 QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

U 22 February 1685.
" DEAR BROTHER,

I cannot possibly describe the state of confusion and dismay in
which we have been since the almost sudden death of our King,
who, after a frightful seizure on the T 2 , as you have heard from
Abb Rizzini I not being in a fit state to write never recovered,
but died on the T 8 F , leaving us afflicted to the last degree by so great a
loss. As for me, I have been ill ever since, and yesterday and to-day
have been in bed, but this evening I feel better, and can just write
these two lines, charging Abbe" Rizzini to acquaint you with what
concerns your own affairs, which, to tell you the truth, afflict me
greatly, seeing that you are pursuing all the paths to your own ruin.
I hope to God that it may be in my power to serve you, although I
see that you do not trust in me.

I must not omit to tell you that our own affairs are going
extremely well, and all in general seem satisfied with the Duke my
lord, who was proclaimed king immediately after his brother's death.
I shall write to you more at length by an envoy we are sending you
in a few days, and now I can only assure you that, in whatever
condition I shall find myself, I shall, ever with a true heart, be
yours.

MARIA."

The occasion of the Queen's displeasure with her brother
was that he had declined to espouse Mademoiselle de Bouillon.

There seems to have been unanimous praise of James' first
acts. The Venetian envoy writes to the Doge of the excellent
debut of the King, and the favourable impression caused by his

1 20

ACCESSION OF JAMES II

first speech : " Moreover, His Majesty caused universal edifi- 1685
cation immediately after his brother's death by dismissing, Archives

7 . , . J r _ . . of Venice

without even consenting to see her, his own mistress [Catherine
Sedley] with orders to leave Whitehall and its precincts, while
allowing her a pension for life of 600 if she remains in the
kingdom, or of ^1,000 if she will go abroad, with other
generous treatment. To the late King's mistress, the Duchess
of Portsmouth, he has signified that, as soon as she has satisfied
her creditors, she may leave Whitehall and cross the seas at her
pleasure, with all the great riches she has amassed in fifteen
years, during which time she directed, one may say, or at least
had the greatest share, in both home and foreign affairs. . . ."

Benedetto Gennari, a nephew of the famous painter
Guercino, and himself a distinguished portraitist, and one of
the founders of the Academy of Bologna, had gone to France
in 1674 with a compatriot, a Bolognese gentleman, Francesco
Riva. Gennari was well received by Louis XIV, and a few
years later both he and Riva made for London, where he
painted several fine portraits of Queen Catherine, the
Duchess of Portsmouth, and others, and was under the special
protection of the Duchess of York, who gave him many orders.
In a letter from Scotland, in 1682, Ronchi complained that the
Duchess could not send a portrait she had promised to Modena,
as there was not a single painter in Scotland, and she must
wait until she arrived in London, when Gennari would paint
her. Riva, upon her accession, was appointed Keeper of her
Wardrobe, and both he and Gennari followed her into exile.

The archives of Modena contain a letter from Gennari to
his brother ^f February, 1685, "confirming the jubilee and
rejoicing of this people in acclaiming the Duke of York as
legitimate heir to the Crown. We went yesterday to pay our
respects to His Majesty and to Queen Mary, by whom we were
received with the utmost benignity. His Majesty shows him-
self very resolute in his acts, and on Sunday allowed himself to
be publicly seen at Mass. . . . May God give him the grace
to reign peacefully ! . . ."

121

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 THE VENETIAN ENVOY TO THE REPUBLIC.

"LONDON, March 9. 1685.

Archives "The King continues with untiring application in the pursuit of

of Venice tne Government with so much measure and resolution that all are
silenced, and as to the point of religion, on which formerly there was
endless murmuring, those who used to be the most contrary and
tumultuous have changed their tone and have become indifferent,
seeing that nothing is changed in the laws, nor the liberty of the
Anglican Church in any way restricted ; every day the people
throng at all hours to pray for His Majesty according to the orders
published, the name of the late King being changed in the prayers
for that of James II. ... He is determined to keep a moderate
household, punctually paid, all the more since the outlay has ceased
with which the late King generously and splendidly maintained so
many sons and other persons."

Vignola might have added that James resolutely brought to
Herbert order the lawless manners of the Court. " On Sunday last,
Papers the King going to Mass told his attendants he had been in-
formed that since declaring against the disorder of the house-
hold, some had the impudence to appear drunk in the Queen's
presence. 'Tis thought he reflected upon the D. of A. [St.
Albans ?] but he advised them at their peril to observe his
orders, which he would see obeyed." James also objected to
duelling. " I know a man," he said, " who has fought nine
duels, and yet is a very coward, having manifestly shown him-
self so during an engagement at sea." In these reforms the
King was energetically supported by his consort too much so,
perhaps, for the taste of courtiers accustomed to so different a
sway, and, as will presently be seen, Mary Beatrice insisted
upon a reform still more striking in a Court which had been
that of Charles II.

Meanwhile, her brother's marriage, or rather his reluctance
to accept a bride at the hands of Louis XIV, greatly occupied
the new Queen. Barillon writes to the French King 22 March,
1685 :

" Abbe Rizzini came to me from the Queen of England to

122

EVELYN'S OPINION OF THE QUEEN

say that as soon as she is a little better, she means to send back 1685
the Duke of Modena's messenger, and to write to him in the Affaires
strongest terms, to oblige him either to send Prince Cesare out
of his dominions, or to decide upon concluding the marriage
with Mile, de Bouillon ; that if he does not resolve upon one
or other of these courses, Her Majesty will declare her approval
of any measures Your Majesty may take to make Prince
Cesare sensible of his fault, and that far from protecting him,
she will never employ herself to obtain any relaxation from
Your Majesty towards him. The King of England will also
write to the Duke of Modena in the same sense ; they will
both insist upon the reasons in favour of the marriage, and
will combat the objections Prince Cesare has prompted him to
make, pretending that the proposition was a violation of his
liberty."

Both the King and Queen were now much occupied in re-
ceiving compliments upon their accession. John Evelyn, who
had been one of the first to pay his homage, records the afflic-
tion, which he declares sincere, of her who " deported herself
so decently upon all occasions since she came to England, which
made her universally beloved." She received her Court, seated
under a mourning canopy of state, with a black foot cloth ;
and Terriesi notes a new departure by the King from the cere-
monial of the debonnair Charles : " The King receives all the
foreign representatives who come to compliment him on his
accession seated with his hat on his head in a special audience
chamber, and not like the late King, standing in his bed-
chamber with his hat in his hand."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO THE INTERNUNCIO AT BRUSSELS. Stuart

Papers,

"WHITEHALL. 26 March 1685 castle"^

" . . . . Your letter of the 26th of last month assures me of the
continuance of your ardent good wishes for my prosperity, and also
expresses in a very obliging manner the joy you experienced at the
share I have had in the great revolution which has lately occurred in

123

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 this kingdom. I am too well persuaded of your attachment to my
interests not to give credit to all you say thereon, and after thanking
you, I will add that you may well believe this change in my
condition will make none in the particular consideration I bear you.
And as you assure me of the cordial and paternal affection of His
Holiness for me, I hope you will avail yourself of the first ordinary
for Rome to express my feelings of respect and veneration, begging
His Holiness to accept my humble and submissive filial obedience,
of which I shall endeavour to give him sensible proofs on any
occasions which may arise for the good of our holy mother the
Church."

The above letter is in French, and the words " grande revo-
lution arrivee depuis peu" taken in connection with the words
in her next sentence, " this change in my condition will make
none, &c.," clearly refer to the great reaction which had
brought her husband and herself from a state of exile and
persecution to a quiet and undisputed possession of the throne,
and not, as some writers have supposed, that a religious revo-
lution had begun in England.

Mary Beatrice's health continued very precarious. Barillon,
who describes her illness as an inflammation of the chest, says
that she believes herself in danger, and Terriesi reports to
the Secretary of State of Tuscany ; 1$ March, 1685.

" The Queen is always afflicted with her indispositions, and
seems almost consumed by them, which causes great compassion
in all, who do not think she has long to live ; by her angelic
virtues and her most holy life and conduct she renders herself
adorable. The messenger who was to have been sent back to
Modena with new projects from this Court for the adjustment
of the differences between the Duke and the Court of France
is being detained owing to the illness of the Queen. ... It
seems that Abbe Rizzini's object is to defend himself from
Prince Cesare, by whom he declares himself offended, and to
place himself under the protection or perhaps in the service of
this Queen, without reflecting upon what may happen to the
Duke, his master. ..."

124

PRINCE CESARE'S CONDUCT

JAMES II. TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" WHITEHALL, 2 April 1685

" BROTHER, As I am sending the bearer, Mr Caryll, to Rome upon
my business, I also charge him with this letter to assure you of the
continuation of my friendship, and interesting myself as I do in all
that concerns you, I cannot prevent myself from telling you that I
think it would be for your good to follow the advice the Queen
your sister has given you as to your conduct with regard to France,
for I can assure you that no one has your interests at heart as she
has . "

1685

The young Duke was unmoved by this letter, and meanwhile
the Queen, according to Barillon, was in much indignation,
especially against Prince Cesare :

" The Duke of Modena has not written to her, nor to the
King of England since their accession ; she understands by so
unusual a procedure the great influence he has allowed Prince
Cesare to obtain over him. . . . Her Majesty will write to him
once again to point out the danger he will precipitate himself
into unless he adopts one of the two courses proposed to him
... if not, she will ask Your Majesty not to delay making
Prince Cesare feel the effects of your resentment, begging your
Majesty at the same time to let the weight of displeasure fall
as lightly as possible on the person of the Duke." April 19 :
" The moment of the Coronation is approaching. It is feared,
however, that it may have to be deferred owing to the health
of the Queen, who does not appear to be in a state to support
the fatigues of such a ceremony."

The possible demise of a Queen Consort could not leave the
diplomatists indifferent, and Terriesi informs the Grand Duke
of Tuscany in a cyphered despatch that France is trying to put
forward the daughter of the Due d'Enghien : " but the
general opinion turns in the direction of the Princess, Your
Highness's daughter, or the Princess of Neubourg; the
Spanish Ambassador, with whom I dined yesterday, said to me :
' You should write to His Highness that he should expedite

125

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 all other affairs, for this one will not fail to succeed.' ' The
same date April 1 6 Terriesi writes to the Tuscan Secretary
of State, telling him of James's care for the Duke of St.
Albans, Charles's son by Nell Gwynne, and the Duke of
Northumberland, his son by the Duchess of Cleveland, saying
he has given Northumberland a considerable sum of money :
" It is all the same incredible what economy His Majesty is
striving to introduce into the Royal Household, dismissing
superfluous officers and reducing stipends, which course, how-
ever, is sensibly felt by those concerned, and has not the
approval of the Whigs ; but all faithful subjects cannot com-
mend it too highly, knowing how necessary it is for the King
not to make himself, through indigence, the slave of his
people." ^-| April, 1685, Terriesi writes again: "On the
evening of the yth the Queen Dowager finally went to inhabit
Somerset House, leaving their present Majesties her apartment
at Whitehall ; she first went to St. James's Palace, where the
Queen Regnant is at present to visit Her Majesty (this being
the first time she has been out) in return for the many visits
paid to her during her retirement. Whilst thanking Her
Majesty for all her kindness, she made her a present of the
Chapel and Convent at St. James's, on which she had not long
ago spent ^5,000 after a fire there had been. Although the
Queen Dowager now lives at some distance from the King's
Palace, His Majesty does not fail to visit her every
evening."

Not only did the new Queen treat the Dowager with kind-
ness, but her old affection for the Princess of Orange and her
kindness to her husband remained unaltered. She wrote " To
my Sonne the Prince of Orange " from Whitehall in the
month of March :

" The lines you sent me by Mr Overke [Overquerke] and the
compliments he made me from you, were so obliging, that I know
not how to thank you half enough for it ; but I hope you believe
that all the marks you give me of your friendship are very agreeable
to me, and so must desire the continuance of it, which I am sure I

126

THE CORONATION

shall always deserve from you ; for nothing can ever alter me from 1685
being with all sincerity and without compliments

Yours truly

M.R."

Pray follow my example, and write to me without any ceremony,
for it is not to be minded between such friends as we are."

And again :

" Tho I writt to you but yesterday by Mr Overquerke, and have Alfred
charged Mr Skelton, the King's Envoye", to make my compliments to
you, yett I cannot lett him go without a letter from me to give you
new assurances of my friendship, of the sincerity of which I hope this
bearer will convince you. ..."

The King and Queen spent Holy Week at St. James's
Palace, the chapel at Whitehall having been left by James for
the use of the Princess Anne and the Protestant service. James
and Mary Beatrice exactly performed all the ceremonies of
their religion, the King, says Terriesi, " going morning and
evening to the Chapel of St. James, as the late king went to
the Protestant chapel, and in the same state. . . . declaring,
however, to those of his suite and service" that he had no wish
to force any man, and that those who did not choose to attend
him in the Chapel might wait for him outside."

In the ceremony of washing the feet of twelve poor men, the
King seems to have been assisted by the Protestant Bishops.

" Her Majesty the Queen," reports Terriesi, " is so much
recovered that she appears constantly at all public functions, to
the extreme joy of the people who have conceived for her,
because of her goodness and adorable manners, an affection
which it would be difficult to describe."

The recovery in the Queen's health was so rapid that she
was able to bear the long and fatiguing ceremonies of the

Coronation on the rr . James's exalted notions of his

3 May

kingly office caused him to go minutely into the records of the

127

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 past ; he appointed a Commission for the right ordering of the
ceremony in all its details, and to draw up a kind of code of
precedent to serve for future coronations ; ordering Francis
Sandford, Lancaster Herald, to publish the record of the
Commission's labours and a description of the ceremony
itself, a work upon which Sandford seems to have spent two
years, for it only appeared in 1687. The book, with its
quaint and valuable illustrations in which the tall and
willowy figure of the Queen overtops in stature all her ladies
Brit. MUS. is very rare, and rarer still is a document, written in
MsfiV French, and credibly supposed to have been sent by James
himself to his kinswoman, the Electress Sophia of Hanover,
giving a minute account of the event in all its magnificence
and pomp.

The King and Queen, having first been anointed and crowned
in private by Mansuete, the King's Confessor, went by water
from Whitehall to Westminster, and walked in separate
ibid. processions from Westminster Hall, through New Palace Yard
Emptiones into King Street, and so through the Great Sanctuary to the
10,1 is 1 \Vest Door of the Abbey. Two breadths of blue carpet were
spread all the way 1220 yards and the King's Herb-
Woman, Mrs. Mary Dowie, with six maidens in antique dress,
strewed flowers upon the Monarch's path. Barons, Earls and
Countesses walked four abreast, carrying their coronets in their
hands, and the chronicler tells us that Lady Halifax was the
only Marchioness present, the other, the Dowager Marchioness
of Winchester, not having been invited because she had married
a commoner. The Kings of England still called themselves
Kings of France, and the historic personages, the Dukes of
Aquitaine and Normandy, were represented by Sir Robert
Townshend and Sir Francis Lawley.

Her new Household surrounded the Queen, her Vice-
Chamberlain, Mr. Robert Strickland, who was to follow her to

1 According to the same authority Louis XIV had sent some of the " Holy Oil" of
Rheims for the private ceremony, but a marginal note says : " Some maintain ye
H. Oyle of Rheims and some doubt of it."

128

THE QUEEN'S HOUSEHOLD

the end ; her Lord Chamberlain, Lord Godolphin, who was to 1685
find in the service of her who owned

" Such beauty, that from all hearts love must flow,
Such dignity, that none durst tell her so "

the thraldom of a passion as devout as it was hopeless, and Dart- ^
which was to make him the secret but faithful ally of the Note to
Stuarts in the evil days to come. The Duke of Beaufort o^" et ' 8
carried her crown, the Earls of Dorset and Rutland the ivory Tme,
wand and sceptre. Sixteen Barons of the Cinque Ports carried Add. MS.
the rich dais of cloth of gold under which she walked, her 4 " 2 f - 6:

rain of purple velvet, seven yards in length, was carried by the

)uchess of Norfolk and four eldest daughters of Earls Lady
[ane Nool, daughter of Lord Gainsborough, Lady Anne Herbert,
)f Lord Powis, Lady Anne Spencer, of Lord Sunderland, and
idy Essex Roberts, of Lord Radnor. The Countess of

'eterborough was her Groom of the Stole, Lady Sophia

Julkeley and the Countess of Bantry, Mrs. Bromley and
Mrs. Margaret Dawson, ladies-in-waiting. The Bishops of
Winchester and London were her supporters, and the latter

rave her a little book describing the ceremony, which she
ittentively studied during James's coronation, while awaiting

ler own. 1 Mary Beatrice wore no less than three crowns that
day a circlet of gold enriched with diamonds on her way to
the Abbey ; an Imperial crown adorned with precious stones,
surrounded with fleurs-de-lys and surmounted by a cross, at
the moment of the coronation, and on leaving the Abbey
mother crown of gold, the precious metal disappearing under
the wealth of diamonds and pearls which covered it. It cost

', 1 1 9,000. Parliament had offered the Queen yet another

rown of enormous value, but the King had refused it.

Gordons of pearl held her train to her shoulders, and her dress
s covered on every seam with diamonds.
After the ceremony the Queen, departing from etiquette,

rent in her robes of state to the private box whence the

1 Unlike all other coronations, there was no Communion service.

129 K.

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 Princess Anne and Prince George of Denmark had watched the
proceedings incognito, and remained chatting with them until it
was time to join the King in Westminster Hall.

RlZZINI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

LoNDON 24^1 I6 g
4 May

" . . . . The coronation ceremonies passed with such pomp, such
order and great and universal applause that can hardly be described.
. . . The dresses and jewels were beyond what would be found
anywhere. Two things in particular I must remark j first, the
extraordinary jubilation and shouting at the moment the crown was
placed upon the King's head, almost enough to deafen those who
were in the great Church of Westminster ; those joyous cries,
accompanied by the sound of trumpets and drums, and the firing of
artillery, were taken up by the shouts of the people, gathered from
all parts of the kingdom in the streets outside, at the windows, on
the roofs, and on balconies raised on purpose all along the way. . . .
Every voice was loud in clamorous applause, somewhat to the
wonder of those who remembered the past, at this conversion into
transports of love and joy, of that frenzy of hatred without which,
but a few years ago, the very name of this august Prince could not
be heard mentioned.

The second point I would remark upon, was the vigorous strength
with which Her Majesty the Queen sustained the long fatigue of
such a great function, lasting from 10 o'clock in the morning until 7
in the evening, and the weight of her robes and jewels during the
long walk and other ceremonies, which made us fear that, still being
only convalescent, they might be a cause of suffering and prejudice
to her health. The acclamations at the moment of her crowning
were, if not greater, at least as great as the King's, and accompanied
by tears of emotion ..."

The enthusiasm caused by Mary Beatrice's grace and beauty
was heightened in the public mind by a generous act of
clemency performed by her. She took upon herself the
liabilities of all small debtors in the kingdom imprisoned for
sums under 5, thus releasing eighty from Newgate alone, and
many hundreds throughout the realm. The mind may linger
for a moment on the fair picture of the Queen, under her

130

CORONATION HONOURS

canopy of gold, moving in her youthful majesty and grace 1685
ilong the blue- carpeted, flower-strewn street, clad from head to
foot in the soft radiance of scintillating gems, and causing in
the beholders a very paroxysm of loyalty and admiration ; a
glamour which seems to have inspired the somewhat pagan
inscription : " O Dea Certe " upon the beautiful medal struck
in honour of the day. She alone seems to have been
untouched by the general intoxication. " It was the 3rd of
May," she told the nuns in after years at quiet Chaillot, " the
day of the Finding of the Holy Cross ; a presage of the
crosses which were to mark my destiny and that of the King
my husband."

At the great banquet in Westminster Hall the King and
Queen were served by lords and ladies wearing their coronets,
so that Rizzini remarks : " Their Majesties appeared to be
served at table by kings and queens." The menu of 1445
dishes is given at length by Sandford, and afterwards the public
gaily sacked the tables after the official world had retired. The
fountains ran with wine, and at nightfall fireworks on either
side the Thames were reflected in its waters.

James, among the coronation honours, bestowed the Garter
upon the Duke of Norfolk, and upon his faithful servants the
Lords Rochester and Peterborough. In the Memoirs of the
latter we read : " After the King's decease great endeavours
were used to prevent the Earl of Peterborough from succeed-
ing to the place under the new King, wherein he had served
His Majesty while he was Duke, the space of 20 years
together ; but His Majesty was too just and generous not to
stick to his old servant that had seen so many fortunes and
hazards with him ; he did then give his Lordship the Gold
Key, and therewith establish him Groom of the Stole, and First

Gentleman of his Bed-Chamber One evening when his

Lordship expected nothing less, His Majesty, with a bounty
and graciousness never to be forgotten, took him aside and
ask'd if he did not remember a promise that had once been
made him ; to which the Earl replied : He had a memory only

131 K 2

1685 for what pleased His Majesty ; who answered, He had not
forgotten the Garter he should have had after the Sole Bay
fight, and he should find he was as mindful of old Promises as
of ancient Service."

Mary Beatrice was also mindful of old promises, and within
a few days of her coronation, trusting perhaps in the prestige
of her new sovereignty, she made another attempt to get the
coveted red hat for Prince Rinaldo. Oblivious of former
refusals she writes to the Pope, 7 May 1685, trusting in his
Vatican paternal affection, and " moved by the ties of consanguinity
Archlves which unite me to my uncle, Prince Rinaldo d'Este, I come
again to entreat Your Holiness to admit him into the Sacred
College of Cardinals ; and I think I may flatter myself I shall
obtain this favour, seeing that some years ago Your Holiness
gave me good hopes of it. I have begged my mother to
present this letter to Your Holiness, and to efficaciously
demonstrate this my most ardent desire . . ."

Innocent XI was still obdurate, and in a Brief of June 7
conveying his congratulations to Mary Beatrice on her
accession, there is no allusion to her letter, although in all
probability it must have reached his hands.

At his accession James II had kept the late King's Ministers
in office, and rewarded the fidelity of his brother-in-law,
Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, by changing his appoint-
ment to the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland one of the last of
Charles's acts, and which Rochester had not had time to take
possession of into the more brilliant and lucrative post of
Lord High Treasurer.

By keeping the Earl of Sunderland in office as Secretary of
State for the Northern province, James was following the
example he had blamed in his brother in the case of
Shaftesbury in 1679 : " to keep from doing hurt by keeping
him in his service (a plan which seldom succeeds.) " Sunder-
land had been one of his bitterest foes, deeply engaged with
the Prince of Orange, whose chief adviser he was in suggesting
plans to make him popular in England, an ardent exclusionist,

132

SUNDERLAND

and in the last weeks of King Charles's life, busily intriguing 1685
for the expulsion of the Duke of York and the recall of
Monmouth. The judgment of his contemporaries is aptly
expressed in the lines :

" A proteus, ever acting in disguise ;
A finished Statesman, intricately wise ;
A second Machiavel, who soar'd above
The little tyes of gratitude and love."

And his character has come down to posterity as of one who
joined to the profligacy of Wharton and the treachery of
Marlborough a cynical cunning and deep-seated hypocrisy
which rendered him perhaps the most crafty and unprincipled
intriguer English history can show.

This was the man whom the irony of fate placed at the ear
of a king, who of all the princes of his time, stood most in
need of wise and faithful counsel. Lady Sunderland, in
intrigue an apt disciple of her lord, was appointed a Lady of
the Bedchamber to the Queen, and her close and constant
correspondence with her husband's uncle, Henry Sidney,
English Envoy at the Hague, kept William of Orange
regularly informed of the most secret events in the English
Court. Sunderland, writes James himself in the clear and
painful light of after events, " put him upon methods which
visibly led to his ruin at last . . . and would frequently by
his creatures put the King under hand upon measures of that
kind, and when His Majesty advised with him upon them,
would not only approve but applaud the King in his great
wisdom for the prudent contrivances of which he was the first
forger."

Exactly seven weeks after the coronation, June n, 1685,
the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme in Dorsetshire. The
Duke of Argyle had preceded him in raising the standard of
rebellion in Scotland a few weeks sooner, both taking their
" first flight from Holland (a country which was ever liberal to
the King in presents of that nature) " observes James in his
own account of the events. The Prince of Orange had

133

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 written to Lord Rochester some time previously to consult him
as to how he could ingratiate himself with the King. The
prompt advice had come: by sending the Duke of Monmouth
out of Holland. But this did not suit the tortuous policy of
William, who preferred keeping Monmouth by him until the
moment arrived for sending him, or at least allowing him to go
to England, in spite of the warnings and protests of the
English Minister Skelton. At the same time he proffered his
armed assistance to his father-in-law, " not," writes the latter,
Memoirs " out of good-will to him, but to keep the sweet morsel for
himself . . . but the King chose rather to trust to the force
he had, than to one who (as appear'd in the sequel) and was
then sufficiently suspected, had as impatient a thirst after the
Crown of England as he that now invaded it ... the Prince
of Orange had formerly been told by Fagel, Pensioner of
Holland, that his business was to play Monmouth against the
King, that whichever got the better would equally advantage
his pretensions ; if the Duke of Monmouth succeeded, he saw
it would be easy for him, a Protestant as well as he, and in the
right of his wife the next heir, to shove him out of the saddle ;
if on the contrary the Duke of Monmouth was worsted, he
got rid of a dangerous rival, and was sure all his party
[Monmouth's] would then have recourse to him, which proved
accordingly and was his main support when his time came to
try for it. This made him underhand doe what he could to
influence this young man's fury and ambition, and send him
out like a victim to the slaughter, playing a sure game himself
whosoever fortune gave the advantage to at present."

One of the moves in the game was the following letter
dated from Fortlandyck, June 25. After apologies for the
delay in answering the King's last letter, he continues :
" This will not, however, prevent me from serving Your
Majesty with the same ardent affection that I have ever done,
and nothing that could happen could alter my fixed inclination
and the attachment I have for your interests, and I should be
the unhappiest man in the ^ world if Your Majesty were not

LANDING OF MONMOUTH

entirely persuaded of this, and did not continue to give me a 1685
small share in your good graces, for I shall be to my latest
breath, with greater zeal and fidelity than any other man, Your
Majesty's most devoted servant. . . ."

The consternation at Court at the news brought by two men
on June i3th of Monmouth's landing which we may take as
the extreme of speed in those days is recorded by Terriesi to
the Secretary of State of Tuscany, and writing again on the
1 9th, he condemns Monmouth's assumption of legitimacy as a
base ingratitude "to the present King, who held him at the
font, and who interceded to obtain his pardon when con-
demned to death for the late regicide conspiracy." [Rye House
Plot.]

When Monmouth was brought a prisoner to London, he
wrote to Lord Rochester, to the Queen Dowager, who had
often interceded for him in former days, and to Mary Beatrice,
who replied that had his offence been against herself, she would
have forgiven him readily, but his usurpation was a matter the
King alone could deal with. One of the absurd calumnies
which her enemies never tired of fabricating from that time
forward against the Queen, accused her of being present at the
interview between the King and Monmouth. One more proof
of its baselessness lay for two centuries in the Archives of
Florence until the Marchesa Campana de Cavelli discovered
it : "^f July, 1685. The King spoke for half an hour with
Monmouth, gave him some dinner, and then sent him to the
Tower. The two Secretaries of State were alone present at
the interview."

James's consenting to see Monmouth has been much blamed,
and was criticised at the time by Ronquillo, the Spanish
Ambassador, who wrote that such a thing had seldom been
done. When he wrote he probably did not know the contents
of Monmouth's letter pleading that by one word he could
satisfy the King of his devotion and cancel his crimes. Many
of his contemporaries and James himself in later days believed
the word would have been " Sunderland " if the prisoner's

'35

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 silence had not been purchased by a false promise that his life
should be spared.

Mary Beatrice's health soon after these events again gave
way, and Terriesi who, as has been seen, was anxious that the
young Medici princess might be the first in the competition for
the hand of James which his consort's death would open,
keeps the Grand Duke of Tuscany minutely informed of the
various phases of the Queen's maladies.

"LONDON, J r Sept. 1685.

" The Queen, having recovered from the slight indisposition caused
by the cold weather, arrived here the day before yesterday, dined
at Whitehall, visited the Queen Dowager, and returned immediately
to Windsor. There are rumours that she spent the whole of last
week in great weeping and much sadness, and the reason alleged
is that the King has received his two sons by the sister of Lord
Churchill, James and Henry, at Court, and in a measure, has begun to
recognise them, giving them the name of Fitz- James, whereas, it is
said, His Majesty had quite lately promised he would not raise them
to that dignity."

And again, ^ September :

" Her Majesty seems to be well in health (although she runs great
risks in exposing herself to the cold, on horseback and in the chase,
which it pleases her often to pursue) although her pallid looks and
want of flesh make her appear very differently. . . The French
Ambassador makes a very different figure now to what he did in the
late King's time and when the Duchess of Portsmouth was the
favourite, transferring the court he used to make to her to the present
Queen, whom alone he cultivates now, although with small result,
for Her Majesty does not meddle with politics and affairs of State, as
that Duchess used to do.

There are no signs of appeasement in the Queen's aspect of
the passionate commotion aroused in her it is said by the report
that the King has retaken Madame Sedley into favour. . . . But the
true reason may be the coming to Court of Madame Churchill's two
sons, contrary to the King's promise, although it cannot be said that
His Majesty has recognised them, having given them neither arms
nor titles as is customary 1 . . . He is sending them both shortly
to France for their studies."

1 They were afterwards created Dukes of Berwick and Albemarle.

'36

THE QUEEN'S HEALTH

Terriesi's next letter gives his opinion of Lord Sunderland : 1685
" That man, who has become by his evil procedures the general
abomination, amazes everyone at the way he preserves himself
in office, having been the head of the party which strove to
exclude His Majesty from the succession, who was always
against him, and did more for France than her own Ambas-
sador. No one knows what it is which keeps such a man in
power without ability and with no other merit than that
given him by the favour of the Duchess of Portsmouth, unless
it be with the King the declaring himself a Catholic, which
moves to laughter those who know him, and who declare that
knowing neither faith nor law ne fede, ne legge he would as
easily declare himself anything else to suit his ends.

" The Queen's aspect is so languid that in the opinion of 'all
who see her, her life will not be a long one. The least
departure from the strictest regimen causes her to take to her
bed, and although she allows herself to be seen as if there were
nothing wrong, she seems to force herself to do so."

Sunderland did not go so fast as Terriesi supposed ; the part
of enquirer and neophyte suited him best for the moment, and
he deferred his pretended conversion to the Church of Rome
until May, 1687, a change which it probably cost him as little
to effect, as it did to take the oath against Transubstantiation
under William and Mary four years later. It would appear
strange that hypocrisy which was patent to all who knew
Sunderland should have escaped the penetration of the King,
were it not remembered that the artful flatterer of a favourite
passion may often blind far more clear-sighted persons than
fames II to facts obvious, even to demonstration, to the dis-
passionate observer. And zeal for religion though he was
unwilling to sacrifice his pleasures to the observance of its
precepts was the ruling passion of James, from the time when,

a Protestant stripling, he had insisted that his younger
brother, the little Duke of Gloucester, should be taken from
lis mother, for fear she should make him a Catholic, until the
present time when, according to Dalrymple : " he descended

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 from the character of a king to that of an apostle ... he
became the dupe of designing men by an uncommon species of
flattery. To pretend to be converted by his arguments was to
ensure his protection. He received the supposed converts into
his confidence. He gave them an absolute dominion over his
mind. In defiance of all remonstrance he followed their
advice, which at length terminated in his ruin."

The Queen was not so easily deceived, and looked upon
Sunderland with distrust. Unfortunately her jealous affection
for her husband was soon to furnish the wily statesman with
an occasion for worming himself into her confidence, and
making use of her influence for his own purposes.

Meanwhile Monmouth's rebellion had been suppressed with
a facility and an outburst of enthusiasm for the Crown in both
Parliament and people before that evoked by the coronation
ceremonies had had time to evaporate which misled the King
into an exaggerated notion of his real hold upon his subjects,
and of the extent to which they had adapted themselves to the
idea of a Catholic ruler. Chief Justice Jeffreys was now
September, 1685 conducting those trials of the Western
Assize which have earned for him so shocking a reputation,
but it is difficult to believe that the King should have proved
himself, belying his whole past, the blood-thirsty persecutor of
vanquished men pictured to us by Burnet and Macaulay.
Rebellion at all former times and even much later was a
crime punished with stern severity, to intimidate the disaffected,
and check further bloodshed and the horrors of Civil War.
Evelyn, writing of the authors of this insurrection says:
"Such an inundation of phanaticks and men of impious
principles must needs have caused universal disorder, cruelty,
injustice, rapine, sacrilege and confusion, an unavoidable civil
war, and misery without end."

Of the two worst cases of Jeffreys' mercilessness, that of
Alice Lisle, and of Major Holmes, it is evident that the King
knew nothing of the first execution until it was over, and that
the second was in distinct contradiction of his intentions. He

138

CALUMNY AGAINST THE QUEEN

had taken the precaution of sending four other Judges with 1685
Jeffreys and Mr. Pollexfen as his Solicitor, a known favourer of
the Presbyterian party ; " So that after all this care and fore-
sight, His Majesty had reason to acquiess to what had been
done, tho' it was a great disservice to him at the bottom." At
the same time James acknowledges his own error in making
Jeffreys Lord Chancellor : " as thinking no one better
qualify'd to execute that high office than himself, but certainly
His Majesty had acted more prudently had he refrain'd." . . .
The Barony of Wem in Shropshire, so often quoted as con-
ferred upon Jeffreys as a reward for his services on this occasion,
was in fact a coronation honour, bestowed in May Evelyn
records it in his Diary on May 24 three weeks before the
landing of Monmouth.

It was hardly to be expected that the Queen should escape
her share of calumny, and the tale invented against her
embraced worthy William Penn, the Quaker, the true friend of
King James and of herself. Certain ladies of Taunton had
been condemned for receiving the Duke of Monmouth with
royal honours. The King gave their pardon to the Queen's
Maids of Honour, who sold it to the victims through the
agency of a certain George Penn, a pardon-broker of the time,
and a man in no way related to William Penn. The Queen
had nothing to do with the matter, and Macaulay's slander or
Penn and of " the rapacity of the Queen " was further im-
proved upon by Victor Hugo nearly two centuries later into a
sale of widows and daughters of traitors by Mary Beatrice to
William Penn. 1

James, as he himself points out, " pardon'd thousands on
this occasion who had forfeited life and estate, and his desire to
make that sort of people easy, was none of the least motives
for his granting liberty of conscience afterwards, which cost him
so dear in the end. . . . My lord Brandon Gerard, tho'
tried and found guilty, yet was soon pardon'd, Mr. Hampden
. , . had the same mercy shown him. My lord Delamere

1 In his book, L'Homme qui Rit.
139

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1685 was acquitted, my lord Stamford was pardon'd without even
being tried." Terriesi remarks of these persons : " I have
not yet heard if they will be re-instated. However, His
Majesty is so indulgent that he will probably do so, having
remitted the sentence of death against that Hampden, by his
own confession guilty of enormous crimes, and a traitor by
descent from father to son for four generations. . . ."

The Queen was ill again at this time, and Terriesi, giving an
account of her recovery, says she looks " thin and emaciated.
Many persons believe her youth alone keeps her alive, she
being exactly twenty-seven years of age."

To understand the next letter it must be remembered that
during Monmouth's rebellion several Catholic officers had faith-
fully served their King and country. The Test Act made their
presence in the army illegal, but the urgency of the case sup-
plied a sufficient justification for their appointment. As time
passed, however, and the army, about 14,000 strong, was still
kept up to its former complement and the Catholic officers
retained their commissions, murmurs began to arise ; and when,
on the meeting of Parliament, November 9th, it become known
that the King hoped to accomplish the repeal of the Act and
the establishment of a standing army, the rumour spread that
he cherished designs against the liberties of the country. By a
strange fatality, Louis XIV, forgetful of his former toleration,
chose this moment for the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The Marquis de Ruvigny, who had been one of his most
trusted servants and his ambassador to England a few years
before, now returned there as a refugee with some 4,500 of his
co-religionists. In vain did James openly condemn every kind
of religious persecution, receive the Huguenots with kindness,
and promote with all his influence every measure devised for
their relief, it was perhaps inevitable even had his opponents
not done their utmost to excite the public ferment that alarm
should be wide-spread, that the pulpit and the press should vie
with each other in pouring out invectives against Popery, and
that Parliament should appear ready to refuse his proposals in

140

PUBLIC RUMOURS

favour of the Catholic officers and a standing army. As soon 1685
as the King, who daily attended the debates, had ascertained
the opinion of the two Houses, instead of yielding to it, his
resolution stiffened into obstinacy, and he suddenly prorogued
Parliament to the loth of February with the secret determina-
tion to accomplish, by his dispensing power, that which he could
not effect with the consent of the Lords and Commons.

The exaggerations of the public rumours are pourtrayed by
Terriesi to the Secretary of State of Tuscany

"27 November ,
' - 1005.
7 December

" . . . . There are prognostics of great dangers in this Kingdom,
in view of the manner in which His Majesty practices his govern-
ment, for it is believed he is resolved to promote the Catholic religion
as has been done in France by the Most Christian King.

I hold it for certain that should such a thing happen His Majesty
would stand in need of the same miraculous assistance which alone has
sustained him until now in his mode of government, for there is no
possible appearance, nor the slightest doubt but that the soldiers would
be the first to turn against him, as did the Officials in the late Parlia-
ment who frustrated his designs. . . ."

Terriesi's next letter alludes again to the Queen's ill-health,
which proceeded, in truth, more from distress of mind than
from sickness of body.

Catherine Sedley had remained in London after her dismissal
by the King, and now, by an accidental or designed meeting
at Chiffinch's l lodgings, had resumed her former ascendancy
over him. In consequence, we find the following entry by
Evelyn (lately appointed one of the Commissioners of the
Privy Seal) in his Diary, under date January 19, 1686 :
" Passed the Privie Seale, amongst others, the creation of
Mrs Sedley . . . Countess of Dorchester, which the Queen
took very grievously, so that for two dinners, standing neare
her, I observed she hardly eate one morsal, nor spoke one word
to the King, or to any about her, tho' at other times she us'd

1 Keeper of the Closet and Page of the Backstairs.

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1686 to be extreamly pleasant, full of discourse and good humour.
The Roman Catholicks were also very angry, because they had
so long valu'd the sanctity of their religion and proselytes."

BARILLON TO Louis XIV.

"31 January 1686.

Affaires " Mademoiselle Sedley has the title of Countess of Dorchester.

Etran- j t was known that the King of England met her rather frequently at

Chiffinch's but it was not expected that he would give her a title. . . .
The news has made a great noise in the town, and causes much agita-
tion at Court. The Catholics are afflicted, thinking it has been done
by some cabal, in which one of the Ministers is involved."

" 4 February : Mile Sedley 's affair has greatly changed. She has
her patent of Countess of Dorchester, but the King has declared
he will never see her again. He has given his word to send her from
London, and even from England. She has already consented to
leave the Court. The King has recognised how important it is
to him to give satisfaction on this point, not only to the Queen
his wife, but to the most zealous of his servants, both Catholic
and Protestant."

Three days later Barillon writes that he believes both Lord
and Lady Rochester supported Catherine Sedley, and adds :
ibid. " When it was made public that Mile Sedley was to be made
a Countess, and that she intended to appear at Court, the
Queen fell into unmeasured affliction. She loves her hus-
band in all sincerity ; she is Italian and very proud
Italienne et fort glorieuse. Her grief manifested itself very
plainly. I believe it is strengthened and encouraged under-
hand. She has openly declared she will not suffer the public
scandal it is intended to establish, that she will not see the new
Countess, and that if the King does not separate from her, she
will retire into a convent, in any country that may be. The
King of England was at first much surprised at this resistance,
which he attributes to the Queen's passion for him. He
thought he could appease her, but he found a resistance which
astonished him. The Catholics and Lord Sunderland at their

142

THE COUNTESS OF DORCHESTER

head, came to the Queen's assistance. Father Peters [Petre] 1686
and all who had most credit with His Majesty were made to
speak. They represented what scandal it would give at Rome
and throughout Christendom if a Prince, who had hazarded all
things for the Catholic religion, should appear in open irregu-
larity such as this would be. The King admitted the truth of
what was said. He does not really much care for Mile Sedley.
In fine, he determined to do what the Queen desired, and to
follow the advice of his most trusted servants."

" 1 6 February. I learned this evening that the Countess of
Dorchester pretends to be ill in order not to go away. She has
proposed to retire to Ireland, so as not to leave His Britannic
Majesty's dominions. She also asks that in case she goes to
Holland, she may be allowed to see the Princess of Orange,
and to be well-treated by her. This negotiation and these
delays much displease the Queen, who will have no peace until
she is gone."

It was unfortunately true that the Lord Treasurer and his
brother, the Earl of Clarendon, just appointed to the Lord
Lieutenancy of Ireland, had intrigued in favour of Catherine
Sedley, hoping that the influence of a Protestant mistress
whose caustic wit chiefly exercised itself upon the beliefs and
ceremonies of the Church of Rome might counteract that of
the Catholic Queen. And here Sunderland found his oppor-
tunity with Mary Beatrice, and a stepping stone in his ambitious
rivalry against Rochester. He not only, as Barillon recounts,
headed the Catholic party in their remonstrances with the
King, but persuaded the Queen that Rochester and Clarendon,
the relations of James's first wife, were the men the King
delighted to honour, while her own friends were coldly
regarded.

The time was now approaching when Mary Beatrice was to
attain the object of her long and patient efforts the promotion
of Prince Rinaldo to the Cardinalate. Innocent XI's long
resistance was due not only to the common maxim of the Court
of Rome not to make Princes Cardinals, but also to the ancient

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1686 pretension of the House of Este to the Dukedom of Ferrara,
and to the fact that a Cardinal d'Este had once caused great
disturbance at Rome. Soon after his accession James had sent
Mr. Gary 11, a gentleman of great ability and good estate, on a
mission to Innocent XI to notify his accession to the throne,
to ask for a Bishopric in partibus for Dr. Leyburne, auditor to
Cardinal Howard, and the red hat for Prince Rinaldo. The
first request the Pope granted at once, but still demurred as to
the second. In February 1686 the King made the great
mistake of recalling Caryll and sending Lord Castlemaine as
Ambassador to the Holy See. He says himself that he gave
way against his own judgment to Sunderland and the Jesuit
Father Petre, whom, with a reckless disregard of the prejudices
of his subjects, he was later to admit by Sunderland 's advice
into the Privy Council, while a " Secret Junto," as James calls
it, consisting of Sunderland, Petre, Castlemaine, Lord Powis
and a few others "all too weake heads to controwle him"
were used by Sunderland, President of the Council, " as instru-
ments, by their credit with the King, to work his ends by."
The chief object of Lord Castlemaine's mission was to obtain a
Bishopric for Father Petre, " contrary to his own [James's] judg-
ment and the Queen's advice . . . for as soon as the Queen heard
what was design'd, she earnestly beg'd of the King not to do it,
that it would give great scandal not only to the Protestants,
but to thinking Catholicks and even to the Societie itself,
as being against their rule ; notwithstanding which the King
was so bewitched by my Lord Sunderland and Father Petre
as to let himself be prevail'd upon to doe so indiscreet a
thing."

Sunderland and his Junto knew Caryll " to be a man of too
much judgment to give blindly in to all their measures, they
apprehended his arguments might influence the King . . . the
first step therefore was to recall him and send Lord Castlemaine
... of a hot and violent temper, and meeting with a Pope no
less fixed and positive in his determinations, they jarr'd in
almost every point they went upon."

144

THE QUEEN TO CARDINAL HOWARD. 1686

"WHITEHALL. 20, February^ 1686.
"Mv LORD CARDINAL OF NORFOLK, Stuart

I must not let this occasion pass of my lord Castlemaine's wfndsnr
embassy to Rome, without repeating to you my former instances Castle
concerning the promotion of my uncle Prince Rinaldo d'Este. I
hope shortly to see the fruits of your zeal and endeavours in this
matter, and of the many kind expressions I have often receiv'd from
His Holiness. The King has been pleased to make the effecting of
this business the principal part of his Ambassador's instructions, and I
may justly presume that His Majesty's desires and mine on behalf of
a person so well-meriting, and so likely to do honour to the Holy
See, will not prove ineffectual."

The Pope yielded to the Queen's request, but so incensed
had he become at Castlemaine's bearing and the haughty
obstinacy with which he urged the claim of Father Petre that
he was careful to explain " that it was not at the Ambassador's
request." The Pope "was mightily averse to the French
interest," and no great friend of the " Society," so he gave
nothing but a flat denial to all Castlemaine could urge,
answered his threat of leaving Rome with a curt lei e padrone,
and ordered his envoy in England, Count Ferdinando
d'Adda, to demand satisfaction from the King for the insult
offered him by the Ambassador in having published a printed
account of his reasons for being dissatisfied at his reception at
Rome. James was forced to recall his representative, but con-
tinued his solicitations, no longer for a Bishopric, but for a
Cardinal's hat for Father Petre, not through the Cardinal of
Norfolk, but through the new Cardinal d'Este, solicitations
which the Pope continued to meet with an inexorable refusal.

The Nuncio had come to England as a layman, and with a
threefold object : To congratulate the King on his accession,
to exhort him to temper his zeal with prudence and modera-
tion, and to solicit his intervention with Louis XIV in favour
of the persecuted French Protestants. Nothing would satisfy
James but that the envoy should appear in all the ecclesiastical

145 L

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1686 state of a Papal Nuncio. The astonished and perplexed d'Adda
remonstrated both with the King and with Sunderland, going
to the latter before he was out. of bed, as he writes, February
Vatican 2 2, 1686, to the Papal Secretary of State to remonstrate against
the imprudence of the measure, and to urge the impossibility of
his compliance, as he had no faculties for the public character
of Nuncio. 1 The King declared it was more consonant with
the Pope's dignity and with his own, and insisted upon the
envoy writing to Rome for the necessary faculties. It is diffi-
cult to understand how James could have so entirely forgotten
the ancient prejudices of his subjects and his own former suffer-
ings as thus to lose no opportunity, as it were, to alarm and
irritate them by needless displays of Catholicity. He some-
where observes that he did so in the hope of " familiarising "
their minds and making them " less averse to suffer the exercise
of the Catholic religion amongst them ; " and yet when he per-
ceived that such blundering attempts but served to " sour "
them the more " in a thing no ways essential to religion," he
still persisted in them.

James had not even the satisfaction of pleasing the Catholics.
They had fallen, by now, into three categories : The main
body, whom a hundred years of persecution had rendered timid
and apprehensive, and who foresaw that they would in the
end be the sufferers and not the gainers by the King's intem-
perate zeal, and deprecated his policy. The second party, at
the head of which stood the Queen and d'Adda, while desiring
to see the repeal of the sanguinary penal laws and the granting
of liberty of conscience, wished the measures to be obtained
legally and with all possible tact and prudence. The third
section to which the King himself inclined, and with which,
unfortunately, he identified his policy, consisted of Father
Petre, a " weak, plausible man," who (" had only the art by an

1 Memoirs of Thomas Earl of Auesbury. Roxburgh Club, 1890, p 153. "To my certain
knowledge the Nuncio did all he could possible to stave off his public audience, as
he represented the ill consequences insomuch that the Minister once, if not oftener,
gave him very hard words. In the character he was in before and a lay habit and
sword he might have been there zo years and not one word would have been said.''

146

THE QUEEN'S FILIAL DEVOTION

abundance of words to put a Gloss upon a weak and shallow 1686
judgment"), Lord Castlemaine and others, and was led "for
the basest purposes " by the Earl of Sunderland.

The Duchess of IV^odena, still estranged from her son,
remained at Rome, and Mary Beatrice's filial devotion to her
having called forth a letter of commendation from Monsignor
Cafrara, a Roman ecclesiastic, she writes him the following
graceful letter :

"WHITEHALL. March, 1686.

" No praise in the world could I desire more than that which you Stuart
give me, in your letter of December, on the fulfilment of my duty to wf^dsor
my very dear and honoured mother. So much so, that if I do not dare Castle
attribute to myself all the eulogies you make me since no one can be
judge in their own cause they are none the less extremely agreeable
to me, because they give a perfect idea of the person I would desire
to be. However that may be, at least you show great zeal and friend-
ship for us both, in giving us so fine and instructive a picture of the
duty of a daughter and the tenderness of a mother."

The Queen's devotion for her mother took umbrage at a
supposed slight inflicted upon the Duchess Laura by Lord
Castlemaine, who waited upon the Cardinals before paying his
respects to her on his arrival at Rome. The King, probably
at his wife's instigation, wrote to upbraid his Ambassador, but
in the following letter the Queen seems to overlook the breach
of etiquette :

"WHITEHALL, 1686.
" MY LORD CASTLEMAINE,

Your's of the I3th April confirms me in the opinion I allways Ibid.
had of your affection and diligence in my concerns, and your prudence
gives me a further assurance that you will take such just measures in
those matters under your management that in a manner, all may enjoy
a certaine prospect of good success. I doubt not that my Mother and
Cardinal Cibo will be very useful to you in the conduct of your busi-
ness, and I have reason to believe the mind of His Holiness to be so
well-disposed on our behalf that by your prudent address all those
obstacles which formerly lay in our way will be easily removed. In
the mean time, as a mark of my esteem of your person and merit, I
shall send you my picture by the next opportunity."

147 L 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1686 The Court of James and Mary had at all times, even under
the clouds of exile and persecution, been stately and brilliant,
and the time had not yet come when James was to succeed in
emptying Whitehall of his dissatisfied courtiers, so the Carnival
of 1686 seems to have been very gay.

Terriesi reports, March 4, 1686, that the masked ball given
by Lord Sunderland on Shrove Tuesday had been splendidly
successful. " Their Majesties were spectators of the ball, in
which the masqueraders, in divers costumes of brocade enriched
with gold and diamonds, alone took part. The Queen played
at cards, and there were three supper tables. The King and
Queen at the first with the ladies they invited ; the masque-
raders at the second ; the foreign representatives and others at
the third. Lent opened next day with English sermons at all
the Catholic Embassy Chapels, which were crammed, because
as many Protestants as Catholics went to them.

" At last the Countess of Dorchester has departed for Ireland,
and with her departure the countenance of the Queen has re-
gained something of its serenity. ... It is true that serenity
may not be very long-lived, for it is supposed the lady will
shortly think of returning."

148

CHAPTER VI

SUNDERLAND was made President of the Council at the 1686
end of February, 1686, and Terriesi, in a cyphered despatch
to the Florentine Secretary of State, observes :

" . . . . It is impossible to understand how he [Sunderland] can
enjoy the very highest favour at Court, since he has no other talent
than that of making himself universally hated without advancing his
master's affairs (senza far Faffare del suo Signore), on whom no
one knows him to have any other claim, than to have made himself
the chief of those who tried to exclude His Majesty from the throne."

Writing, again in cypher, to the Grand Duke a few days
later :

"The Queen remains with a complication of disorders which
the Doctors and the general public believe will not give her long
to live ; this is a conjecture which, while it pleases the Catholics and
loyal subjects on account of her childlessness, equally displeases the
fanatics and the disloyal, who see that there would be a prospect of
His Majesty having male descendants, and the general opinion already
considers the daughter of Your Most Serene Highness as the future
Queen."

And again to the Secretary of State on the * P :

10 May

" The day before yesterday the Spanish Ambassador got into
my carriage in leaving the Court and began to speak of the Queen's

149

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1686 illness as not promising Her Majesty a long duration of life ; he was
thinking of the re-marriage of the King, and concluded that this time
there would be no great cabal on the part of the French, as there are
no other Princesses to give him than those of Tuscany or the Palatine
Electorate."

His next letter recounts an act of generosity towards one or
the vassals of Tuscany on the part of the Princess upon whose
death he was speculating : "The Prince of Piombino has
succeeded in freeing himself from prison here, the Queen having
paid the greater part of the debts for which he had been
arrested."

Meanwhile the popular discontent grows apace at what

Terriesi calls, in a despatch of - - ^1686, the "discord

10 June

between the present King's government and the laws of the
land," and the apprehension caused by the troops he keeps on
foot and the way he exercises them in a time of peace. " One
good thing is that there is no one, for the present, to put
himself at the head of the malcontents, but it is none the less true
that the King has no one near him who would have credit with
them, nor who can give him the slightest help of good counsel,
he having alienated or dismissed so many. . . . And God help
him, if they [the malcontents] discover that his troops are not
faithful, but of their way of thinking, as it is much to be feared
they are, being Englishmen also ; for then His Majesty would
have to receive the law from the populace."

James did not believe he was acting illegally in keeping up
the army at his own expense in spite of the refusal of Parlia-
ment to grant supplies, or in retaining and appointing Catholic
officials in spite of the Test Act. As regarded the officers who
had fought for him against Monmouth, it was a point of
honour, upon which he was not the man to give way, and with
regard to the Test Act he was resolved to sift the point to the
bottom, on which so much depended, " and for that end
convened the 12 Judges in the Exchequer Chamber . . .
to them it was proposed whether the King might dispense with

150

THE DISPENSING POWER

any man's taking the Oaths and Tests .... who, after a 1686
solemn debate agreed unanimously, (all but one). . . that Memoirs
the Kings of England might dispense with all Laws that
regarded penaltys and punishment as often as necessity required,
and were themselves judges of the necessity when such dispensa-
tions were expedient."

Confiding in this decision, further confirmed by a test case
purposely brought against Sir Edward Hales, who was tried and
acquitted on the strength of the King's dispensation under the
Broad Seal, James went contentedly on, disregarding the
counsels of the Queen, of Rochester, and of his own confessor
Mansuete (who finally resigned his office, and was succeeded by
Warner, a Jesuit of Father Petre's choosing), braving the
alarm and anger of his people, and forgetting that the
very essence of a dispensing power resides in the rarity and
particularity of its exercise, or it ceases to be a dispensation, and
becomes a rule. Unfortunately, Sunderland's machinations
having sown suspicion between the Queen and the Lord
Treasurer, there could not be that concerted action on their
part which might possibly have influenced the King on the side
of prudence and moderation.

Whatever misgivings or sorrows Mary Beatrice may have
had, she kept a brave and confident bearing to the world. She
writes to Cardinal Mellani at Rome, 6 July, 1686, to thank
him for his congratulations on her accession : "We must all^ tuart
thank Divine Providence for having given the King, my lord, Windsor
so well-disposed a soul, and such intrepid courage with regard
to the interests of our holy faith ; for this has been, to the
present time, the only cause of his good-beginnings, and should
also be, in future, the only foundation of our hopes."

A few days later she writes to Pere Lachaise, King Louis
XIV's confessor, asking him to obtain a benefice in France for
Abbe Rizzini, who is about to return there : " For he has ibid.
faithfully served my house of Modena, and will continue to
serve it in the capacity of Envoy to your Court, and in
particular he has rendered me much good service. He is,

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1686 moreover, a man of merit, and I am fain to believe that you
would not be ill-satisfied in recommending a person, whom I
think worthy of my recommendation."

The Queen bestowed other marks of kindness upon Rizzini
before he left England, including a present of a fine diamond.
The Queen and Princess Anne were present at a grand review
by the King of the troops encamped on Hounslow at the
beginning of July. " A splendid spectacle in tremendous dust
and melting heat," reports Terriesi. " Her Majesty dined at
the Camp, and came away half-dead." About the same time,
under date of July 13, Evelyn notes that : "Standing by ye
Queene at basset, I observed that she was exceedingly concern'd
for ye losse of 80 ; her outward affability much chang'd to
statelinesse since she has been exalted." There was good reason
for this additional stateliness in the bearing of the Queen ; the
Court of Charles II was not to be reformed in a day, and
Barillon, moreover, a few weeks later reports to Louis XIV :

"September 2, 1 686.

Affaires The. Queen of England has been in much grief during the last

^ ew days, having learnt that the Countess of Dorchester has left
Ireland, and is likely soon to arrive in London. She has, however,
determined upon a meek and submissive conduct towards the King,
her husband, and contents herself with the positive promise he
has made her not to see the Countess. The principal Catholics do
not approve of her return, and will press the King to send her out of
the country."

In the summer of 1686 the Queen had hoped to receive a
visit from her mother, and the Duke of Modena had also asked
the Duchess Laura to come to Modena. Answering her son's
invitation on the 24th of August, the Duchess informed him of
her intention of going to England, a project which was never
carried out, and the mother and daughter were to meet no
more. Mary Beatrice at this time consented to intercede with
Louis XIV on behalf of Prince Cesare d'Este, who, it will be
remembered, had been exiled from Modena at that monarch's

152

PROMOTION OF PRINCE RINALDO D'ESTE

desire, for the part he had played in the marriage of the Prince 1686
of Carignan. But the chief object she had in view was the
marriage of her brother ; and, little guessing that the young
lady was looked upon by the Spanish and Tuscan envoys as her
own successor, she tried to bring about a match between the
Duke of Modena and the daughter of the Grand Duke of
Tuscany.

COUNT D'ADDA to CARDINAL CIBO at ROME.

"LONDON, 13 September , 1686.

"... Her Majesty the Queen, who greatly desires a marriage Brit. Mus.
between the Duke, her brother, and the Princess of Tuscany, has ^J, *"
charged the ' Cavalier Diram ' (sic) who is going as English Resident scripts,
to the Court of the Grand Duke, to discover precisely His Highness's 1 S>39 6{ '9
intentions, in case he is now free from the negociations he had said he
was engaged in."

The promotion of Prince Rinaldo d'Este was at last an
accomplished fact, and the Queen expresses her gratitude to the
Pope in a letter dated Windsor, 14, September.

"... Having at last received from the paternal kindness of Your Vatican
Holiness the much-desired grace of the promotion of Prince Rinaldo Archlves
d'Este, my uncle, to the sacred purple, I can do no less than cast
myself at Your Holiness's feet with filial affection and most heart-felt
thanks, and wishes for the long life and continual prosperity of Your
Holiness. ... I pray Divine Providence that this latest promotion
may serve to increase from day to day the consolation of Your
Holiness and the universal good of the Church. . . "

Mary Beatrice did not foresee that the consequences of her
uncle's elevation were to be unfavourable to herself, and would
alienate from her the sympathy of some of the most powerful
Catholics in England.

Terriesi was not slow to discover the Queen's matrimonial
projects for her brother. In a long cyphered despatch to the
Grand Duke Cosimo he recounts the attempts he has made to
discover from the Italian Bed Chamber Woman, Countess
Pellegrini Turini, whom he describes as the best old gentle-

'53

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1686 woman in the world, " having served Her Majesty from her
birth and passionately devoted to her," the true state of the
Queen's health, and concludes :

" It seems that Her Majesty, now that there is a Cardinal in
her family in the person of Prince Rinaldo, has no other desire
than to see the Duke her brother married to the most Serene
Princess, Your Highness's daughter."

Prince Cesare d'JEste had evidently written to the Queen to
thank her for her intervention on his behalf with Louis XIV,
and the following letter, written in French, and not like those
to the rest of her family, in Italian, is Mary Beatrice's reply.
She looked upon the Prince as having been an evil counsellor
to her brother, and the chief cause of the estrangement between
him and his mother ; and if she considered he had been suffi-
ciently punished, and had consented to plead for him with
Louis, she evidently still regarded him with apprehension.

"WHITEHALL, 8 October^ 1686.

" Cousin, I was gratified to learn that you were enjoying the fruits
of my mediation with the King of France for your return to Modena.
I hope that you will have re-entered into my brother's favour only to
render him those good offices which will give you the credit of being
a very faithful servant. This would always be a motive to me
to continue the consideration I have for your person and for your
interests, and to assure you of the affection with which I am, etc."

October -|-|- was the King's birthday, and Terriesi's graphic
pen sends full details to Florence of the Review of the Horse
Guards and Dragoons in Hyde Park, every well-mounted
trooper as smart as a Captain would be anywhere else, and the
officers looking like Generals. The King, surrounded by a
brilliant staff of noblemen and officers, vieing with each other
in richness and splendour, going to meet the Queen at the Park
gates, and riding at her carriage door in front of all the troops,
her presence lending enchantment to the scene, " Their
Majesties went to Mass attended by a certain number of
Knights of the Garter wearing the Collar of the Order, and

THE QUEEN'S LOVE OF ART

then dined in public, surrounded by numberless spectators. In 1686
the evening, Her Majesty the Queen, in the Presence Chamber,
dressed in cloth of gold and diamonds and pearls, was but little
more splendid than the cavaliers and ladies of the Court. . . .
Their Majesties then proceeded to the theatre, converted into
a ball-room, and the festivities closed with dancing, while with-
out, the whole town was bright with bonfires and the taverns
overflowed with people drinking health unto His Majesty.
Next day there was another review in Hyde Park, of a regi-
ment of infantry, and after Mass, His Majesty touched a
number of persons for the King's Evil, and then went fox-
hunting, for which he has a passion."

In his next letter, Terriesi notes the growing favour or
Father Petre, now lodged at Whitehall in the very apartments
used by the King when Duke of York ; " and moreover served
morning and evening with great and sumptuous repasts so that
he can entertain a large number of friends and acquaintances.
If he has life, that Father Peter will be a Cardinal ." In making
this prophecy the diplomatist counted without Innocent XI,
who to all the entreaties, and even veiled threats of James,
continued to oppose an inflexible denial.

Mary Beatrice's love of art had not abated with her exalta-
tion to the throne, and she sent to Rome for the best singers
of the day. The King, careful, as he says, " to keep rigorously
to his engagement not to seize upon anything which the Church
of England could lay claim to," had left the Chapel Royal at
Whitehall for Princess Anne and the Protestants, and built a new
one " from the ground " for himself which was finished by the
end of the year, and of which Evelyn describes the beauties
with enthusiasm : " 29 December, 1686. Went to heare the
musiq of the Italians at the new Chapel now first open'd at
Whitehall for the Popish services. Nothing can be finer
than the marble work and architecture at the end, where are
four statues, representing St. John, St. Peter, St. Paul and the
Church, in white marble, the work of Mr. Gibbons, with all
the carving and pillars of exquisite art and greate coste. The

'55

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1687 Altar-piece of the Salutation, the volto \nfresco, the Assump-
tion of the Blessed Virgin according to their tradition, with our
Blessed Saviour, and a world of figures painted by Verrio.
The throne where the King and Queen sit is very glorious, in
a closet above, just opposite the altar. . . ." (The crimson
velvet hangings, richly embroidered and fringed with gold,
were saved by Mary Beatrice after the Revolution, and given
by her to the Convent of the Dames Anglaises in Paris, where
they adorned the Chapel of the Rue des Fosses St. Victor until
another Revolution, that of 1789, swept them definitely away.)
Evelyn also goes to see the " Queene's new apartment with
her new bed, the embroidery of which cost ^3,000. The
carving above the chimney-piece by Gibbons, is incomparable."
The Queen's singers again delight him, especially Cifaccio,
"esteemed one of the best voices in Italy. . . . His holding
out and delicateness in extending and looseing a note with
incomparable softnesse and sweetnesse was admirable."

On January i, 1687, Gibbons' fine statue of the King in a
Roman habit was set up in the great Court of Whitehall, and
on the 5th, James took the step which perhaps as much as any
other contributed to shorten the duration of his living presence
in that palace, the dismissal of Lord Rochester from office.

Of Rochester's fidelity up to this period there can be no
question. " His zeal for the King's true interest," James him-
self acknowledged, "ran directly counter" to Sunderland's
aims. " He saw the danger and inconvenience of the King's
straining points of law, and therefore as well for the King's
security as for the advantage of the Established Church. ... he
opposed all methods which were lyable to the least cavil or
objection on that score. . . . His ruin was so necessary to my
lord Sunderland's establishment ... it had been all along the
first article in his scheme." As he had captured the confidence
of the Queen and embroiled Rochester and his wife with her
by playing upon her jealous affection for her husband, so now
Sunderland attacked Rochester's favour with the King through
the question of religious controversy. There is a passage in a

letter of James when Duke of York to Colonel Legge, written 1687
from Brussels in 1679, which throws light upon the attitude of
his mind towards this subject. After exhorting Legge never
again to urge him to change his own religion, he continues :
" Did others inquire into that religion as I have done, without
prejudice, prepossession, or partial affection, they would be of
the same mind in point of religion as I am." When kingly
authority came to the aid of this fixed idea, lodged in a some-
what narrow mind, it is easy to conceive the offence it would
give to some, and the worse effect of hypocritical adhesion it
called forth in men such as Lord Sunderland.

Telling the King he had noticed signs of a yielding mood
and of religious trouble in that stout Protestant, Sunderland
persuaded James to confer on religious matters with Lord
Rochester. The King fell readily into the trap, " upon occa-
sions pressed him on the point," and proposed a controversy of
divines of the two religions, when, as might have been foreseen,
Lord Rochester, almost before the battle had begun, expressed
himself perfectly satisfied with his own religion, and haughtily
withdrew from the conference. James declares that Rochester's
staunchness was not the real reason of his dismissal from- office,
but his opinion that it was much " properer to have the Trea-
sury managed by Commissions than as it was, and from that
time took a resolution accordingly never to trust it in the
hands of a single person again." That the measure in itself
was a wise and prudent one seems proved by the fact that the
office of Lord High Treasurer definitely ceased to exist in 1714,
but, like too many of James II's acts, a determination good in
itself was so vitiated in its form as to fill his people with
apprehension and to act fatally against himself.

Rochester's dismissal was softened by a pension ot 4,000 a
year out of the Post Office for two lives, and of forfeited Irish
lands, 2,000, "which made his exit rather a profitable ex-
change than a dishonourable dismission." It is, however, no
injustice to James to suppose that had the Treasurer yielded, or
pretended, to yield to his arguments, the abolition of his office

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1687 would not have followed as immediately as it did, amid the
excitement and anger of the Court and the people. There is
no record of the Queen's attitude on this occasion, but it is
probable she made an unavailing protest as in other cases. We
know that she preserved no ill-will against the two brothers for
their share in the Catherine Sedley intrigue, for Lord Clarendon
appealed to her friendship in several letters from Ireland during
his quarrels with Richard Talbot, Lord Tyrconnel, who had
been sent there as Lieutenant-General of the forces. And
when the latter came to England to urge the recall of
Clarendon the Queen, at the request of Lady Rochester,
strongly, but again unavailingly, opposed it. During the last
illness of Lady Rochester, she sent for Mary Beatrice, who
spent two hours with her shortly before her death.

Sunderland had the pleasure of sending letters of recall to
Lord Clarendon immediately after Rochester's dismissal the
King granting him a pension of 2,000 a year and the
Crown was thus bereft of its two most valuable servants ; for
if, among those who retained the confidence of the King, there
were several faithful and devoted men, the incapacity of some,
and the mere fact of their religion in the case of the Catholics,
deprived them of all influence and credit in the country. The
treacherous Sunderland thus remained master of the situation,
though he had the disappointment of not succeeding Rochester ;
to all his entreaties, backed by the influence of Father Petre,
for the vacant post, James gave an invariable and resolute
refusal.

The Queen meanwhile was using her best endeavours to
obtain the hand of the Medici Princess for her brother.
Through Barillon she obtained the intervention of Louis XIV,
and James II's envoy Sir William Trumbull went to Florence
with the mission of conveying to Cosimo the satisfaction with
which the English Court would welcome the alliance ; but
whether because the Grand Duke was tempted by the prospect
of eventually seeing a Medici Queen of England, or for other
reasons, the negotiations went no further. Barillon writes in

158

DEATH OF THE DUCHESS OF MODENA

July that the Queen has quite given up the idea "She seems 1687
to suspect that Your Majesty may propose some Princess
among your subjects for the Duke of Modena, to which he
would greatly demur, because of the difference of manners
between France and Italy. She added laughingly that Italians
are naturally jealous : " I admit that I am myself a little too
much so."

The shadow of one of the greatest sorrows of her life was
now approaching the Queen. The Duchess Laura's health had
not permitted her to pay her promised visit to England in the
spring, and in June she wrote from Frascati to her son, with
whom she seems to have been perfectly reconciled and who had
entreated her to come to Modena, that she was in no state to
travel either to England or to Modena. In July she died, and
Pope Innocent XI was one of the first to condole with Mary
Beatrice on the loss of the mother whom he described as a
pattern to her sex.

BARILLON TO THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

" WINDSOR, 4 August^ 1687.

" The Queen of England is much afflicted at the death of the Affaires
Duchess of Modena, the news of which was brought by a special E x tran -
messenger. There is some difficulty about the mourning. It is
doubtful whether all the Peers will be willing to put their carriages
and servants into black. It would, however, be incongruous if
the chief Officers of the Household only wore mourning on their own
persons while the King and Queen take mourning for a mother . . .
The Duchess of Modena has left all she could to the Queen of
England ....

The question of mourning has been settled. The Peers, the
officers of State and the Ambassadors will put their carriages and
people into mourning, many of the Lords will avoid doing so, and no
notice will be taken ; they maintain they need take such deep
mourning for none but the Royal Family : the King of England
wished to show this mark of consideration to the Queen his wife who
is in great sorrow. The apartments at Windsor will not be hung
with black, it is put off" until the Court comes to London."

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

I68 7 "August u, 1687.

" I have heard from the Marquis Cattaneo that the Duchess
of Modena has left the Queen 40,000 frs. a year she had in France,
and 40,000 frs. more which she had at Rome, her jewels, which are
very fine, and a considerable sum in cash." 1

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO POPE INNOCENT XL

" WINDSOR, August 15, 1687.

Archives " ^ ne Brief by which Your Holiness has had the goodness to

console me for the cruel loss of the best mother there was in the
world, is the only remedy that can mitigate the pain of such a
wound, which otherwise would be incurable. I know that it is
my duty to obey the paternal counsel of Your Holiness and to submit
myself to the will of God, suffering with Christian patience the
decrees however painful, of His divine providence. I try my best to
do so, but an anguish still remains in my heart which I cannot
overcome.

It is true that the sorrow of Your Holiness uniting itself, so
to speak, with mine, is a consolation which, if it cannot heal, at least
allays my grief, for my mother could receive no greater honour, in
life or in death, than she receives in the esteem and regrets of so great
a Pontiff

John Caryll, who had been English Agent in Rome until
recalled to make way for Lord Castlemaine's unfortunate
embassy, was appointed secretary to the Queen immediately
upon his return to England, and remained in her service and
that of her son until his death in 1711. He was an ac-
complished gentleman, a poet, and a diplomatist of great tact
and clear-sightedness. The following letter, written in Italian
by him in the name of the Queen, is among the Caryll Papers
at the British Museum.

1 In a letter of July 2, 1687, from Claude Estrennot, Curator of the Maurists at
Rome to Dom Bultear he says the Duchess of Modena " has left her beautiful pearl
necklace, one of the finest in Europe, to the Queen of England, reversible to the
Duke if she leaves no children." Correspondence of Mabillon and Montfaucon. by M. Valery,
vol. ii. p. 52.

I 6O

LORD SPENCER'S MISSION TO MODENA

To COUNT ALLESANDRO CAPRARA AT ROME. 1687

"August 1687.

"... I am quite content with all you have done in my business,
which you have conducted with equal prudence and affection. The
way the Falconiera house was regulated was perfectly right . . As to
the Ursuline Nuns I rely entirely upon your discretion to do that which
appears reasonable, and conformable to my dear mother's wishes.
Also for the Blue Nuns I should wish all to be done which my
mother, had God given her time and opportunity, would have done.
... I recognize, as a gift to you from my mother, the great silver
bowl newly restored, but I do not wish it to go unaccompanied ; do
me the pleasure therefore, of accepting the other three large bowls to
match as a small acknowledgement of the great debt which your
affectionate services have made due to you from me. The rest of the
silver plate I should wish to be sold.

As to the alimony and dowry for Martinozzi's daughter who
is taking the veil, I rely, as before, upon your judgment and the
testimony of Father Belhuome to execute the wishes of the deceased.

I desire that the great red damask bed and its furniture be given to
Countess Lucia Molza.

I have no thought, at present, of selling the Monti estates, but
to hold them in reserve according to the desire of my good mother . . .
Nothing remains for me now but to thank you from my heart for all
the good offices so cordially rendered . . ."

The English Court sent Lord Spencer, eldest son of the
Earl of Sunderland, on a mission of condolence to the Duke of
Modena. Sunderland was now at the zenith of his power, and
the following letter from Mary Beatrice to her brother not
only shows that she looked upon him as a friend, but proves
in her commendations of young Spencer how little royal per-
sonages often know of the true character of the persons they
recommend. The letter is specially touching in its longing to
see her brother and its gentle reproach at his delay.

"WINDSOR, 25 August, 1687.

"... The bearer of this is mylord Spencer, the King's Envoy
to condole with you on the great loss of our dear lady mother. How
sensible a loss it has been to me, and how my poor heart aches,

l6l M

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1687 you, more than any one else can imagine, since you are a sharer in my
grief and know how well justified it is. I feel sure that you com-
passionate me as I in turn feel for you, and would I could comfort
you and receive comfort from you ; but, oh God, how difficult it is
in the painful distance which divides us, and which it is in your
power alone to remedy. If it were in mine as it is in yours, I should
have availed myself of it long ago, but I will hope that at last
you may do so, and once again I beg it of you with all my heart's
affection.

The gentleman who will give you this letter is the son of the
Earl of Sunderland, Secretary of State, Premier Minister and favourite,
above all others, of the King ; therefore I beg of you to receive him
with extraordinary courtesy and to distinguish him in every possible
way. His father is my great friend, and takes great interest in your
affairs. I think this is sufficient to make you understand the esteem
in which the King holds you in sending you such a personage, and to
induce you to receive him with the greatest demonstrations ot
affection.

I have spoken at some length with mylord Castlemaine of your
affairs, and he agrees with me that nothing can be done to further
them until we have seen each other ; therefore I will hope that you
delay no later than this autumn.

Prince Cesare is sufficiently fortunate, in my opinion, in being
loved by you, and has no need of my protection ; I have always
treated him civilly and will continue to do so ; I do not think he can
ask more of me ; as for friendship, it requires sympathy. Continue
your affection for me and rest assured that you are in possession of all
mine."

Rizzini, who was now Modenese Resident at Paris, writes
hurriedly at the request of Shelton, English Ambassador there,
to prepare the Court of Modena for Lord Spencer's arrival, and
to bespeak the Duke's indulgence and compassion for the young
man, u of twenty-two to twenty-four years of age, of singularly
handsome appearance, but addicted to drink. . . . The King
[of France] received him most courteously, but he never
opened his mouth, and it was the same when he was received
by the Dauphiness. When Lord Spencer was not drunk he
was tolerably reasonable, but such lucid intervals were rare. 1

1 Lord Spencer became a Catholic and died in Paris, September 5, 1688.

162

QUEEN'S LETTER TO PRINCE OF ORANGE

The intrigues of Dyckvelt, Dutch Ambassador to England, 1687
and the proceedings of William of Orange, had produced an
ominous coolness between James and his son-in-law. It was
probably in order to bring about a better understanding that
the Queen, departing from the usual etiquette, wrote herself to
announce her mother's death to the Prince.

" The friendship you have shown me on all occasions, and the Dal-
part that I have always flattered myself you took in my concerns, *7 nd*
make me hope I may have a share in your compassion in the great
grief I now lie under for the death of the Duchess of Modena,
my mother ; in which nothing can comfort me but the hopes I have
of her happiness in the other world. Next to this, I find it ease in
my affliction to have the pity of one's friends, which makes me hope
for yours at this time, assuring you that in what condition soever
I am, I shall always be, with all sincerity,

Truly yours,
M. R."

William's response was to send Count Zuyleistein, an illegiti-
mate brother of his father, on a mission of condolence to Mary
Beatrice, and at the same time of intrigue for which Zuylei-
stein was well fitted, being one of the most astute of William's
agents with the disaffected English nobility. After William's
death irrefragable proofs were found among his letters of this
double mission of condolence and betrayal. The Queen sus-
pected nothing, and expressed her gratitude in a letter dated
Bath, August 21, 1687 :

"I have so many thanks to return to you for the part which
M. Zulestein has assured me you take in my great grief for the loss of
my mother and for sending him to assure me of it, that I know not
where to. begin, nor how to express to you the sense I have of it. I
hope you are so just to me as to believe it much greater than I
can make it appear on this paper. I "have desired this bearer to help
me to persuade you of this, and to assure you that I do desire above
all things the continuation of your friendship, which I cannot
but think I do deserve a little by being, with all the sincerity and
affection imaginable, Truly yours,

M. R."

163 M 2

1687 The dismissal from office of Clarendon and Rochester had
been followed April 4, 1687 by the no less momentous
Declaration of Indulgence, whereby King James, in virtue of
his dispensing power, granted liberty of conscience to his sub-
jects. Liberty of conscience, one of the stipulations of the
Treaty of Breda and systematically violated ever since was
the great object of James's passionate desire. The potent
motive of self-interest strengthened the desire, for his position
as a monarch of an alien faith might justly be deemed pre-
carious so Jong as the Test Act and the penal laws against that
faith remained in force ; but there is no reason to believe, if
the solemn reiterated assurances of an honest man have any
claim to be accepted, that he harboured the nefarious ulterior
purposes so liberally attributed to him by his enemies. The
observant men who so closely watched him give no hint in
their reports to their respective Governments, of such suspicion ;
they often blame his policy and point out his blunders, but no
question of his sincerity can be found. This is especially
interesting in the case of Hoffmann, the Austrian Ambassador,
in his letters to the Emperor Leopold II, commencing with the
year 1688, as he may be regarded almost as a hostile wit-
ness, owing to the open antagonism between Austria and
France, to whose interests James was held to be too much
attached.

The very reasonableness of his proposals led the King to
hope for the assent of his people to them as a preliminary to
obtaining their ratification by the new Parliament he meant
Memoirs to summon : " He hoped his people would have so much
confidence in him as not to imagine he would make any un-
reasonable use of his power and trust, which the Law vested in
the Kings of England, being well assured that never any of his
Ancestors had a greater affection for his Country and zeal for
the People's good." Had that confidence existed, or had he
been gifted with some portion of the charm of manner, the
jestful regal tact with which his brother had known how to win
his subjects' affectionate indulgence, even when his actions

164

THE KING'S METHODS

called most loudly for their reprobation, James might have 1687
gained his object, even with the people Dryden had described
as "tenacious, even to madness, of their rights." Unfor-
tunately, his manner was awkward and cold, and his methods
may be described as consistently opposed to the end he had in
view, sowing distrust where he needed credit, and fear and dis-
like where he counted upon obedience such as, ever since they
had been boys together at Brussels, his exalted sense of the
rights of kings had constrained him, at whatever cost to him-
self, to yield unquestioningly to his brother Charles. In his
quarrels with the two Universities, after making every allow-
ance for Sunderland's double-dealing and treachery and the
influence of other evil and foolish counsellors, it is difficult to
understand how he could reconcile his actions with his Corona-
tion Oath and his repeated promises to make no encroachments
upon the rights and possessions of the Church of England.
What Lingard calls these " freaks of arbitrary power " resulted
in converting the Universities, the two centres of the doctrines
of non-resistance, into his open and determined foes, while the
wholesale removals from office of those who would not agree
with the royal intentions, roused feelings of uncertainty and
anger which were rapidly to grow into the storm which swept
him and his to ruin. In a MS. note to Burnet's History of
James //, Cole observes : " He fell by the knavery of false
and treacherous servants " ; but it would have been no less true
to add that he was himself one of their most useful, though
unconscious allies.

The influence of the Queen, had James suffered it to guide
him, would have been all on the side of prudence and concilia-
tion ; but if he disregarded her advice, he treated her at this
period with much more personal devotion. The Ellis corre-
spondence tells us that when he went to the camp at Hounds-
lowe he now always took her from Whitehall or Windsor to
Richmond, and that when she wished to spend a few days
quietly at the latter place, the mild air of which suited her, he
arranged his hunting-parties in that neighbourhood.

165

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1687 Terries! writes to the Grand Duke of Tuscany :

"jSj- August, 1687.

"... Her Majesty has fixed her departure for Bath [which he
calls the baths of Bristol] for the i6th inst., it having been resolved at
a consultation of her extraordinary physicians that she should take
them in moderation and drink the waters, which cannot but do her
good. And perhaps during her voyage, she will pass by the waters
of St. Winifride, having still greater confidence in them. Mean-
while the King will visit Portsmouth and other sea-ports."

Writing a week later, he notes the beginning of the exodus
from Court of the discontented nobility an exodus which we
know from the Diary of Lord Clarendon Mary Beatrice did
her best to check, begging him and probably many others
to resume attendance, and assuring him that he will be well
received.

8 August 1687.

" His Majesty is at the worst with his principal subjects, who will
not agree with his government. Therefore, such of the nobility as
have any credit, standing, or power in the kingdom, are rarely
to be seen at Court ; they remain alienated and are constantly in
conference, consulting how to prevent the abolition of the Test, and
the Catholics from gaining ground . . . They do all they can
to counteract the King's projects, and to keep the people and the
greater part of the soldiery devoted to the malcontent party ..."

The Queen's health is described in his despatch of the I9th
to the Secretary of State :

" The Queen, by reason of her affliction at the death of her
mother is in such a state that all those unaccustomed to see her
daily, or who had not seen her for some time, give her but little likeli-
hood ,of a prolonged life. It is true the Catholics and the King's
friends do not desire it, though she is a saintly queen, on account of
her childlessness, His Majesty's affairs being so involved at present by
reason of the Prince of Orange making himself the chief of those who
embroil them, that unless God grants a male heir to the King, the
Catholics and their religion will be utterly ruined ..."

1 66

THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO BATH

The King conducted the Queen to Bath before starting on 1687
a progress through the most populous towns of the West and
North-west of England (paying his devotions at Holy well on
the way) in the hope of preparing the public mind for the
convocation of a new Parliament ; the last one which, by
successive prorogations, had been prevented from meeting for
two years, having just been dissolved.

TERRIESI TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

"5T September 1687.

"... They who come from those baths say that Her Majesty is
taking them very conscientiously, and has the company of other
ladies, who bathe with her, the music of the Italians which constantly
diverts her, and the sight of all the people who crowd around to pay
their court, or to witness a hitherto unseen spectacle. In the after-
noon Her Majesty drives through the valleys to the sound of the
warlike instruments of the band of her Guards, and of an evening
until supper-time she gives audience to all who desire it, who are not
a few, the greater part of the gentry of the town and neighbourhood
desiring the honour of kissing Her Majesty's hand. Last week the
King went to Bristol and the Queen . . . curious to see the town
(reputed, after London, the first in the kingdom) accompanied him.
Both their Majesties were received and treated with every demonstra-
tion of esteem, the town giving them and their suite, at five great
tables, a luxurious banquet and presenting both the Sovereigns with a
purse of money."

Mary Beatrice sojourned on at Bath until October 6, gain-
ing health and strength from its salutary waters, diverted by
her Italian music, and in her lumbering coach and six driving
daily among the vales and combes, by the Kennet and the Avon,
her military band awaking new echoes in the Somersetshire hills
and calling the villagers and their children, the harvestmen
from their wheat-fields, to see the passing of their beautiful
Queen. It was her last visit to any part of her " deare Eng-
land." Miss Strickland tells us that on the bath used by the
Queen the Earl of Melfort erected a richly sculptured marble
cross to commemorate the re-union of the royal pair on that

167

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1687 spot. The inscription on the cross was erased at the Revolu-
tion, and the cross itself removed in later times, but its celebrity
remained, and Mary Beatrice's bath was much resorted to by
married ladies desirous of children. James had rejoined the
Queen on the 6th of September, and during his stay at Bath
he received Bonrepas, the special envoy of Louis XIV, who
came to inform him of William of Orange's intrigues with his
subjects, and to urge a secret alliance with the French King,
but James paid little heed to his message, and declared he
meant to keep the treaty of Nimeguen inviolate.

TERRIESI TO THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY.

" October 1687.

"... To what I have written this day to the Secretary of State
concerning the critical state of this kingdom ... I must add that
all is in great measure due to the Prince of Orange, who, as is known
to the King, has proposed, either before or after the death of His
Majesty to enter this country armata manu to seize the succession for
his wife, for fear it should be contested by the Catholics or others.
And having gained those of Amsterdam whose consent was still
wanting to him, he seems to have prevailed upon them that, whether
in peace or in war, the States General shall keep at least twenty-five
vessels in readiness so that he may throw himself suddenly upon
these coasts when he finds it opportune. Meanwhile he continues to
disaffect the English troops out there [there were six regiments in the
service of the United Provinces] turning out the Catholics and filling
their places with Huguenots fled thither from France.

His Majesty persists in his desire to have Father Pitter a Cardinal,
and in order better to deserve it, undertakes to soften the asperity of
France in the pretensions with which her ambassador Lavardin
is going to Rome, and finally, if with all this he cannot overcome
the Pope's obstinacy, he hopes, owing to his great age, to obtain it
from his successor. ..."

The quarrel here alluded to between France and the Holy
See arose from Innocent XI's act in reforming a great abuse in
Rome that of the right of sanctuary exercised in their whole
quarter by the different Embassies, making those quarters

168

THE QUEEN DOWAGER'S DISPLEASURE

veritable dens of thieves. All the powers agreed to the Pope's 1687
wishes except Louis XIV, who pompously refused, and sent
a considerable force of troops to protect his embassy. Innocent
replied by excommunicating the Ambassador. With regard to
the Cardinalate, the Pope wrote to the Provincial of the Jesuits,
advising him to curb Father Petre's ambition.

On Mary Beatrice's return to London she found the Queen
Dowager with ruffled feelings on account of the depth of the
mourning which had been ordered for the Duchess of Modena,
" when her own mother was not so honoured although she was
a Queen," reports Terriesi, who adds that she has refused to put
her carriage in black, and declared she will go back to Portugal,
but he does not think she will do so, " being so exceedingly
well treated by both the reigning soverigns." The Queen
found means to pacify the dowager, and the project of departure
was given up to be resumed a few months later.

On the 1 1 th November James appointed Father Petre
Clerk of the Closet and Privy Councillor. The impolicy of
the act was glaring, and was opposed not only by the Queen
and all the moderate Catholics, but Petre himself said he
accepted it with the greatest reluctance. He was probably
over-persuaded by Sunderland, whom he regarded as an un-
feigned friend, but to whom his presence in the Council was
useful as a screen ; all obnoxious measures were sure to be
attributed to the Jesuit, who was " both an instrument and a
cloke to all his dark designs."

TERRIESI TO THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY.

"M November 1687.

"... The appointment of the Jesuit Father Peter (sic) to
the Privy Council makes more noise among the Protestants and also
among the Catholics than any other of His Majesty's most resolute
acts, no one being more alarmed than Monsignor Nuncio
himself . . .

May it please God to put an end to these disorders by giving
an heir to the crown, which the reported pregnancy of the Queen
gives hopes of; this would be the best antidote against the fire

169

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1687 the Prince of Orange has kindled and is feeding in these realms, and
would abate the pride of so many, who in the expectation of a
Protestant succession, permit themselves an open opposition to all the
royal transactions ..."

The report about the Queen was true, and if it was hailed
with joy by the King and his friends, it spread dismay among
his adversaries, who had assumed, rather gratuitously with
respect to a woman not yet thirty years of age, that she would
have no more children now that four years had elapsed since
the birth of the little Princess Charlotte, and that she had
lately suffered from ill-health. Dismay and anger were soon
to become open-eared credulity to the worst of calumnies and
slanders.

Terriesi had informed his Government that the King, in
appointing Cardinal d'Este to be protector of the English at
Rome with a salary of 5,000, in the place of Cardinal
Howard, had done so at the request of the Queen. It is
possible that Mary Beatrice did not actually solicit the im-
politic act, which was to set against her and her husband the
powerful family of Howard, but there can be little doubt but
that James made the appointment for her sake. She writes
of it herself to her uncle in the following letter :

11 WHITEHALL, 28 November 1687.

" It pains me to have remained so long without writing to you,
especially as I had your letters which required answers, but I have
been ill so often since I came back from Bath, that I had no heart to
do so. Not being able to write myself, I desired Marquis Cattaneo
to inform you of the King's resolution to declare you Protector of
this Kingdom and to give you the charge of all his affairs in Rome
with the pension he usually gives his Ambassadors, but not the title,
for reasons I omit for the present. I feel the greatest satisfaction, and
it will seem a thousand years to me before I see you actually employed
in the King's service ; therefore I hope you will instantly leave for
Rome, where it will be necessary at once to remove the Arms of
France from the palace, and replace them with those of the King, that
there may not be the slightest suspicion that you could depend upon
other crown but this ; and I take it upon myself to pacify France

I7O

THE DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE

should it be necessary, but I will not anticipate it as that would be to 1687
suppose the King of France unreasonable, which I do not believe him
to be, and consequently he cannot take in bad part a thing which as
they say, goes of itself (vd co suoi pledi). In this I give you my
opinion with all freedom thinking that by so doing I shall meet your
wishes . . . praying you with all my heart to do the same by me,
and when my reasons do not satisfy you, to answer them and give me
your own with equal freedom. . . .

As to the red hat for Don Livio (Odescalchi) it is impossible to
obtain it through the King, as he is already pledged to another in this
kingdom, whom he greatly desires to promote, and cannot obtain the
favour, which he will ask for no other, until he has obtained it for this
person."

The palace of the Este family at Rome must have hitherto
been under the protection of France, and we have no record as
to the consequences of the advice given to the Cardinal by his
niece.

The Declaration of Indulgence had at first been received by
the Nonconformists with enthusiasm, and addresses rained upon
the King, who accepted them at more than their true value.
There is a note in Evelyn's Diary in June of his going to
Hampton Court to thank the King for some favour bestowed
on himself, and while he was in the Council Chamber a deputa-
tion was introduced from Coventry, " with expressions of
great loyalty and submission. To which the King, pulling off
his hat, sayd, that what he had don in giving liberty of con-
science ; was what was ever his judgment ought to be don ;
and that as he would preserve them in their enjoyment of it
during his reigne, so he would endeavour to settle it by law,
that it should never be alter 'd by his successors." On October
29, he notes again : " An Anabaptist, a very odd ignorant
person was Lord Mayor (Sir John Peake) The King and
Queene, and Dadi [d'Adda] the Pope's Nuncio, invited to a
feast at Guildhall. A very strange turn of affairs ! "

By the autumn the tide had turned and the Nonconformists
were ready to repudiate a gift in which the hated Papists were
to have a share, and Terriesi, who had before expressed his

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1687 surprise at the King throwing himself into the arms of fanatics
who had done their utmost to deprive him of the succession and
even of his life, writes to the Secretary of State :

"21 November ,
I December

"... And the fanatics themselves, (though so vastly indebted to
His Majesty) affirm that they understand what his acts of favour to
them really mean, and that His Majesty must not persuade himself
that they will gratify him by giving their votes in Parliament for the
abolition of the penal laws and the Test ... for they will never
consent to it. ... The Catholics, who are terrified at such procedures,
show themselves more than ever averse to the ardour with which His
Majesty is promoting their interests, and the more ready he shows
himself, the slower are they in giving him their support ; it is they
who more than any others regret the appointment of Father Piter (sic)
to the Privy Council and they fear His Majesty may also promote
Bishop Leyburne to it. ... The fanatics whom His Majesty placed
in the government of the City, immediately began to act against him,
and there has been a grave contest between the Lord Mayor and the
Aldermen because Monsignor Nuncio was invited to the banquet at
the Guildhall on Lord Mayor's day, pretending it was a crime which
every one wishes to lay on his neighbour. . . .

Several Peers of the realm, by the King's order, went to their
estates to enquire whether their people would vote for the abolition of
the Test, etc., and all met with an open refusal. . . ."

Terries! refers to the King's unfortunate attempts to " pack "
the coming Parliament and he continues a few days later :

" His Majesty's enterprise in favour of the Catholic religion con-
tinually takes a worse aspect, and even the Catholics daily show them-
selves more averse to it. Unless God brings it to pass by a super-
natural effect of His omnipotence, Your Excellency may rest assured
that it will never succeed ; it is the general belief that His Majesty
intends to make himself despotic as the King of France has done, and
that is a thing as little desired by the Catholics as by the others. . . .
There is a strong hope that the reported pregnancy of the Queen will
soon be confirmed, but it would be impossible to describe the passion
of those who do not desire it, nor the schemes and reflections of both

172

THE QUEEN AND SUNDERLAND

parties, in case it should be true. ... It suffices to say that the 1688
rumour has caused general confusion, as of an affair likely to destroy
many concerted plans. . . ."

27 December fft 'j

-^ 1684.

2 January 5

"... No words can express the rage of the Princess of Denmark
at the Queen's condition, she can dissimulate it to no one ; and seeing
that the Catholic religion has a prospect of advancement, she affects
more than ever, both in public and in private to show herself hostile
to it, and the most zealous of Protestants, with whom she is gaining
the greatest power and credit at this conjuncture."

The Queen meanwhile was continuing her efforts to obtain Affaire*
the hand of the Medici princess for her brother, and there is a JJ"""
letter from Louis XIV to Barillon, in December 1687 saying
he has done all he can in favour of the marriage : " and if time
disabuses that Princess and the Grand Duke her father of the
hopes they may have conceived of a more advantageous alliance,
I should be very glad to further the wishes of the Queen of
England." Mary Beatrice also did her part in thwarting the
ambitious schemes of Lord Sunderland. He applied to her
intercession at this time to obtain the white staff of Lord High
Treasurer, which James had repeatedly refused him. The King
himself describes the wily minister going to the Queen and
telling her that Father Petre and Sir Nicholas Butler (one of
the Commissioners of the Treasury, and a pretended convert of
Father Petre's) " had press'd him for several months to think
of being Treasurer . . . He assured Her Majesty it was not of Memoirs
his seeking, being very well contented as he was ; upon which of James
the Queen took him at his word, and said she was glad to find
him of that mind, for that after the King's declaration in
Council, and settled resolution in the matter, there was no pro-
babilitie of persuading him to alter it, especially since it was so
agreeable to reason as it manifestly appear'd to be."

The impolicy of the supersession of Cardinal Howard by
Prince Rinaldo d'Este as protector of the English at Rome, had
by this time become apparent to the Queen, and woman-like

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 she attempts to soften the blow by a letter, almost of excuse,
to the Cardinal. In spite of the kindness of its terms, the
letter was not likely to make a deep impression upon its re-
cipient, who probably accorded no more than an official credence
to its fair words. It is written by the Queen's secretary Caryll,
and is undated.

Caryll " My Lord, I have a particular command from the Queen to

Papers acquaint your Eminence how much Her Majesty is concerned least

you should attribute to her any unkindness upon your account of
transferring ye Protectorship of England to Cardinal d'Este. As it
did not proceed originally from her, so when they would have made
a compliment of it to her, she would not take it as such, because it
was a trouble to her, that your Eminence should be dispossessed of a
charge which you had performed so well. Although she yielded to it
for other reasons, I suppose not unknown to your Eminence, and
which I believe have no lesse weight with you, than they have with
her, I can assure your eminence that her M y has at present no lesse
kindnes for your person, than ever formerly she had, and that she is as
ready to give you marks of upon any fitt occasion that shall offer
itself. . . ."

TERRIESI TO THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY.

"LONDON, January T 9 T , 1688.

"This royal Court has appointed the I5th inst. in this city, and the
29th in the rest of the kingdom as days of public prayer for the
Queen. . . . The King directed the protestant form to be drawn
up by the Bishops of Duresme [Durham] Rochester and Peter-
borough. . . . This pregnancy of the Queen, at a time when utterly
different expectations were prevalent concerning her, has caused great
surprise, and especially among those who, in their measures, had little
calculated upon such an accident ; the Orangists, therefore, refuse to
believe it ... or impudently declare it to be a fiction. . . ."

A few days later, Terriesi writes again :

"The Queen's condition continues to make good progress. Her
Majesty is however greatly afflicted at hearing of the satires (which
are already being published) against her ; and indeed, most innocent
in all her actions, she has never given cause to any one save to worship
her."

174

DR. BURNET

What Macpherson calls " the unmanly tale " was not entirely 1688
new ; the exclusionists had whispered it before the birth of the
little Princess Charlotte, and now the stale artifice was to be
used again with deadly effect by skilful and unscrupulous men,
among whom Dr. Burnet may be considered one of the chief,
the first public doubt being printed in Holland, where he had
taken refuge. The States General had refused to deliver him
up in conformity with the Treaty of Breda, and there is a letter
from Louis XIV to Barillon, dated Versailles, 9 January, in
which he says :

" As to Dr. Burnet, it has been notified to me that nothing could Affaires
surpass the insolence with which he has written against the King his ****'
master, and I have therefore ordered the Sieur de Croissy to assure the
Sieur Skelton [English Ambassador at the Hague] that any one who
would undertake to seize him in Holland would find not only an
assured retreat, and entire protection in my dominions, but all the
assistance necessary to conduct that scoundrel to England."

Lord Clarendon's diary reflects the indifference or disappoint-
ment with which the news of the royal hopes was received by
the public. As uncle to the Princesses Mary and Anne, his
attitude of honest belief and fidelity before and after the Prince
of Wales's birth is doubly interesting.

"January 15, 1688. Sunday. In the morning to St. James's
Church. There were not above two or three who brought the form-
of prayer with them." He goes on to say that < it is strange to see "
how the Queen's condition " is everywhere ridiculed, as if scarce any
body believes it to be true. Good God help us."

One of the oft-repeated calumnies against the King asserts
that in the proclamation for the prayer in thanksgiving for the
Queen's condition, it was intimated that the child was to be a
son, and especially so in the Catholic form. The words are
actually these : " His Majesty has apparent hope and good
assurance of having issue by his royal consort the Queen," and
the Catholic prayer, which had been in use for centuries on such
occasions : " Concede propitius ut famula tua, regina nostra
Maria, partu felici prolem edat tibi fideliter servituram."

CHAPTER VII

1688 THE despatches of Philip John Hoffmann, Imperial envoy
to the English Court, give an interesting picture of the policy
of James II during the last year of his inauspicious reign, and
have not hitherto been published in English. He held a high
rank among foreign diplomatists, and seems to have understood
the trend of English affairs better than the King himself, who,
often duped and betrayed, and blinded by his own illusions,
steadily pursued the path which led to ruin.

The lords-lieutenant of almost all the counties of England
had been ordered at the close of 1687 to call together their
deputy-lieutenants and justices of the peace, and to ask them
the three following questions : ( I ) In case the King should
call a Parliament, and they should be chosen members of it,
would they vote against the Test and penal laws ? (2) If they
would vote for such members as they believed would be for the
repeal of the same ? (3) Whether they would live peaceably,
and as Christians ought to live, with such as differed from them
in religion ? " This certainly," wrote Sir John Reresby in his
Memoirs under the date December 7, 1687, " was pushing the
point much too far .... It was striking at the very founda-
tion of Parliament thus to pre-engage the members, who . . .
are by the laws of the land allowed freedom of speech and
freedom of judgment."

Hoffmann writes to the Emperor Leopold, January 16, 1688,
that all the envoys have come back from their respective
provinces : " and all their reports agree on the point that

PHILIP JOHN HOFFMANN

there is neither appearance nor hope of things being carried out 1688
in the form and manner the court had imagined ; the aversion Im P-
of -, the people for the revocation of the penal laws is not so Vienna
great as for the abolition of the Test, to which no one, so to
speak, would consent." He then gives the chief arguments
used in support of this refusal, concluding : " It is easy to
foresee how difficult it will be for the King, whatever obstinacy
he may bring to bear upon it, to succeed in this affair . . .
January 19. I informed Your Majesty in my last letter of the
sentiments of the Protestants against the abolition of the Test ;
these ideas have now been scattered abroad many thousand
times in the shape of an answer from Pensionary Fagel, sent by
order of the Prince of Orange, to the letter of some preacher
here, much to the prejudice of the King's designs, and to his
great displeasure. ..." Hoffmann here refers to a skilful move
on the part of the Prince, the occasion of which had been
furnished by the King himself in two long letters asking for his
cooperation in the abolition of the penal laws and the Test.
William answered that, although he would sooner lose his life
than be a persecutor, neither he nor the Princess would ever
consent to the repeal of laws which were necessary for the
support of the Protestant religion. Fagel's letter, which was
published in Dutch, French, English, and Latin, 45,000 copies
being distributed in England, emphasised this view, and was so
cleverly constructed as to impress upon the Catholic Princes of
Europe that William bore no real hostility to the Catholic
religion, and was willing to grant the Catholics of England the
liberties enjoyed by the Catholics in Holland, while it amply
assured the British Protestants that they might look upon him
as the uncompromising champion of their cause.

In a despatch of February 2nd, after acquainting the Emperor
with the recall of the British regiments from Holland, and the
demand for Burnet's extradition " a seditious man . . . who
continually publishes new pamphlets against this government,"
the Ambassador writes : " but the real grievance (pietra di
scandolo) is that the Prince, the States General and the very

177 N

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 burgesses meddle in an unheard of manner in the Government of
England, especially in matters of religion, thwarting the King
in all his measures ; in a word, they talk, write, print and act
more than the English themselves against the abolition of the
Test, which is particularly disagreeable to the King, a proud
and sensitive man, at a moment when the Queen is supporting
the fatigues of her condition so well, and may, to the
disappointment of all the presumptive heirs, give birth to a
prince."

At this moment of anxiety and unrest, the King and Queen
had a fresh annoyance in the renewed project of departure of
imp. the Queen Dowager to Portugal. "She breathed no word of
Vienna ' her design to the King," writes Hoffmann, "until everything had
been arranged with the King of Portugal." This was looked
upon as an ill return for all the kindness the King and Queen
had always shown her : " The King having increased her
income by 600, and going to see her five or six times a
week." To mark his displeasure, James asked her no question
as to her motives, but merely expressed his regret and requested
to be informed of the date of her departure, that he might have
vessels in readiness to convey her. " She replied that there was
no hurry as she would wait for an Ambassador from her
brother ; having come to England accompanied by an
Ambassador, she thought it fitting she should have one to take
her away. This conduct and especially the great mystery used
(which is here called Portuguese fines si) .... has greatly
astonished the Court and diminishes the affection and esteem
she had won from the nation by her goodness and affability."

The same despatch describes one of King James's blundering
attempts to familiarise his subjects with the sight of persons
and things appertaining to his own religion. His former
attempts, instead of making for toleration, had brought him
annoyance and disaffection, such as the Duke of Somerset's
refusal to introduce the Papal Nuncio at Court ; but each
rebuff seemed only to strengthen his persistent obstinacy in
defying the prejudices of his people.

178

PUBLIC DISCONTENT

Hoffmann writes, February 13 : 1688

" After the Elector of Cologne's Resident here, Gloxcin, had been
recalled, he was replaced by an English Benedictine of the name of
Corkaer 1 who was received in public audience yesterday. By the
King's command, he appeared in his habit, and preceded by four
other monks ; it was assuredly a remarkable spectacle for the Court,
who looked astonished and bewildered, and if the day of audience
had been known, it cannot be doubted but that half London would
have been there."

The tide of public discontent was rising, and the vulgarest
murder could not be committed in London without furnishing
matter for accusation against the Papists. Terriesi gives a long
account at this time of the murder of a man by his wife, who
happened to be a Frenchwoman and a midwife. The story
immediately flew abroad that she was to have been employed in
bringing a supposititious prince to the Queen at the proper
time, that her husband, a butcher by trade, had discovered the
secret and had consequently been made away with.

By the King and his party the hope that the Queen might
give a male heir to the Crown appeared as the solution of diffi-
culties and the discomfiture of the malcontents and Orangists.
Hoffmann, more clear-sighted, thinks differently. Writing to
the Emperor, April 2, 168 8, after alluding to the disagreements
between the King and the States General, he remarks :

" Many of the most judicious here are of opinion that if the Queen Im P-
gives birth to a Prince, far from destroying the aspirations of other Vienna"'
persons to the Crown and putting an end to all their anticipations,
interferences, and enterprises, such an event would only consolidate
the union among these religionists, increase their aversion for the King,
and make them use every effort to prevent the Catholic succession to
the Crown. . . . But as the King is well on his guard and very
resolute, one may have so much confidence in him ... as to believe
he will be able to avert such a misfortune at the proper time.

Contrary to her usual habit, the Queen is keeping so well in her

1 Corker had been tried for his life during Oates's plot.

179 N 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 present condition, that there is every hope of her fortunate deliverance
in the middle of July, and, as the residence here would not be
commodious, she means to lie-in at Windsor. . . ."

NUNCIO D'ADDA TO THE CARDINAL SECRETARY OF STATE.

" WINDSOR, 23 April 1688.

Vatican "... It appears that the removal to Windsor remains fixed for the

Archives enc j o f next mon th, and meanwhile the Queen is in prosperous health
and in the good continuance of her pregnancy, concerning which the
King told me, satirical caricatures are being published in Holland,
which is not to be wondered at as even here the more obstinate
heretics publish that Her Majesty's condition is a fiction, and that she
wears a cushion."

A few days later the hopes of the royalists and the fears and
disgust of their adversaries nearly came to a sudden and calami-
tous end. The Queen had been in much anxiety concerning
her brother, who had had a sharp attack of illness, from which
he was recovering.

"On Wednesday night," writes Terriesi to the Florentine
Secretary of State, May ^ :

" Her Majesty the Queen gave great alarm lest she should mis-
carry, owing to the carelessness or the malice of a lady of her bed-
chamber, Mrs. Bromley, who, immediately after the arrival of the
Italian post the previous day, had brought her the news of the death
of the Duke of Modena, saying the town was full of it, and the
tradesmen enquiring how Her Majesty desired the mourning to be
worn. The Queen knew her brother had been ill of the stone, the
malady of which his father had died when 28 years old, the age the
Duke has just attained ; so that, although the news she had received
was quite contrary, Her Majesty received a terrible shock. Un-
fortunately, her chaplain, Ronchi, a few minutes later, sent her a
letter he had just received from Cardinal d'Este, giving an account of
the Duke's recovery, but commencing with expressions of so much
grief at his illness as to appear a preparation for the worst ; the
Queen, unable to read further, dropped the paper, and swooned.
None of those present being able to read Italian, could understand
what had happened, so sent for the Nuncio, who was in the palace,
and was able to reassure her. . . . The following night she was

180

THE QUEEN'S ILLNESS

seized with such violent illness, that the doctors thought a miscarriage 1688
inevitable; a special messenger was sent to the King, who was at
Chatham, and who returned in utmost haste to find that the danger

was over."

The Queen writes of this accident to the Princess of Orange Henry
on the 1 5th May, saying she has been " soundly frightened. Pa pe rs ,
... I am now within six weeks . . ." In February she had ."5 Serie ;>

. '" P- 34

also written to her of her condition, and with the same
miscalculation of four weeks.

The Duke of Modena seems really to have intended to pay
his long-promised visit to England at this time if his illness
had not intervened, though Barillon had written in January
that Prince Cesare would probably prevent it if he could.

d'Adda writes to the Cardinal Secretary of State of the
projected visit " accompanied by Prince Cesare, and that he
(the Duke of Modena) deemed it necessary Cardinal d'Este
should defer his departure for Rome, in order to attend to
the Government during his absence." The Nuncio further
expresses the opinion that the Cardinal is afraid of Prince
Cesare trying to seize the succession, and that as he has the
State jewels and money in his possession, he requires to be
kept under careful supervision.

Although Mary of Modena treated the calumnies poured
forth against her with scorn, and was anxious to go to Windsor
before the heat of summer, especially as there were building
alterations going on at Whitehall, it was considered advisable
that her child should be born in London.

Terriesi writes, May ^f, that in spite of the Queen's
passionate desire, the departure for Windsor will probably be
abandoned " to confound the malicious invention which, chief
among all the satires and calumnies concerning her, insists that
the going to Windsor was meant to screen Her Majesty from
the eyes of those who would have detected her. It looks as if
the enemy of mankind himself had plotted against this birth,
for it is difficult to see how ... in the present state of the
royal palace, Her Majesty can possibly remain there."

181

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 Almost on the eve of his son's birth, King James took the
most disastrous steps of his short reign, the order to read
a new Declaration concerning liberty of conscience in the
churches, and the prosecution of the seven Bishops, by which
he arrayed the whole Church of England against the authority
of the Crown. Hoffmann writes to the Emperor 31 May,
1688:

Imp. "... Of 96 ministers composing the clergy of this town, 80 have

Archives, roundly pronounced themselves against reading the Declaration ; a
petition has been signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and six
other Bishops and was presented to the King on Friday evening. . . .
This petition contains certain seditious and scandalous expressions
such as. ... * This declaration, which is based upon a dispensing
power . . . appears to us illegal . . . etc. etc.' The King was
much offended and allowed the lively expression to escape him : 1 1
see you are trying to excite a sedition, but I shall know how to
prevent it.' The next day he said to another Bishop: 'Your
brethren yesterday presented me with the most seditious writing I
ever saw in my life.' It remains to be seen what steps the Court will
take with respect to this scandalous disobedience. . . . Yesterday the
Declaration was read only in the royal chapels and in one or two
churches.

It may be judged by this act on the part of the clergy, how the
religious question now stands, even if there were not a hundred other
melancholy signs, and its consequences will be all the more unfortunate
that, up to the present, with the exception of sundry Bishops and
preachers, the clergy has shown itself more moderate than the
laity. . . . The anxiety and annoyance of the King may be
imagined. . . . Things are daily advancing towards a catastrophe,
and many people begin to doubt the calling of Parliament for
December because, under the circumstances, instead of being useful,
it would assuredly do great harm. In spite of all, the King in no
way departs from his habitual confidence, and although from time to
time he shows himself much troubled, he gives no signs whatever of
renouncing his intentions. . . ."

" Never," writes Terriesi the next day in a cyphered
despatch to Duke Cosimo,

" before or since he was King, has His Majesty found himself in
such embarrassment as at present, brought on by his own act in

182

THE MARCHIONESS OF POWIS

ordering the reading of the Declaration in the churches . . . and 1688
the great question in the Council is whether to persevere, or to let
the matter drop, the Catholics themselves being divided upon it. ...
The whole Kingdom is alarmed . . . and what is worse, the greater
part of the army and its principal chiefs take part with the Bishops.
So there is no appearance (even if worse does not happen them) of the
Catholics participating in liberty of conscience. There seems no
hope for them but in a Catholic successor whom His Majesty might
leave behind him after a reign of many years. . . . The populace is
enraged with the belief that the King's conduct is influenced by the
Queen, and by the advice of the Jesuits and friars. . . . The Pope
never having consented, to the great sorrow of His Majesty, to
remove from Father Fitter's (sic) shoulders the (in this country) hated
character of Jesuit, and the King, owing to the feebleness or ill-will
of the rest of his Council, being obliged to employ him in many great
negotiations ... by so doing, rather makes him the instrument of
His Majesty's own ruin."

NUNCIO D'ADDA TO THE CARDINAL SECRETARY OF STATE.

"June n, 1688.

"... The removal to Windsor has been deferred until after the Brit. Mus
Queen's lying-in, and orders have been given to prepare St. James's Vatican
palace, the apartments Her Majesty occupies at present being too scripts,
small and exposed to the sun. J5.397

Among the many chief ladies of the realm who have applied for the
post, the Marchioness of Powis has been chosen as Governess to the
coming infant ; she is a most pious lady and in the opinion of all, well
fitted for so great an employment. . . . The misfortune of the death
of the little Duke of Cambridge (who, had he lived would now be
Prince of Wales) being attributed by many to the negligence of those
who had charge of him, the election has been made with the utmost
care of a person of more than ordinary prudence and vigilance. . . .
At the same time Milady Strickland has been named sub-
Governess . . . and these appointments seem really to have been
decided . . . solely by merit."

(Winifride, daughter of Sir Charles Trentham, and married
to Sir Charles Strickland, followed Mary Beatrice into exile
and remained with her until the Queen's death.)

183

QUEEN MARY OF MODEISTA

1688 Lord Thomas Howard was sent on a special mission to
Rome at this time, and the Queen charged him with a letter
to Pope Innocent XI, in which she made no allusion to the
difficulties of the time, but merely assured him of her inviolable
devotion and begged his prayers and blessings for herself and
for the child she hoped soon to bring forth.

Mary Beatrice's own inclinations were always towards
prudence and moderation ; she looked upon Father Petre with
coldness if not aversion, but was ready to co-operate with him
whenever he strove to moderate the King's imprudence. "The
Queen, as well as myself," wrote Petre on the occasion of one
of James's ill-advised letters to the Prince of Orange regarding
the Penal Laws, " was of opinion against sending any such
letter to the Hague upon this subject, but rather some person
able to discourse and persuade should have been sent thither.
For all such letters, when they are not grateful, produce bad
effects. That which is spoken face to face is not so easily
divulged, nor anything discovered to the vulgar, but what we
have a mind the people should know."

In the question of the prosecution of the seven bishops it
seems clear, despite the reports circulated at the time, that
Petre was against so severe a measure and that he absented
himself from the Council when it was agreed upon. Sunder-
land, on the other hand, according to Sir John Dalrymple,
promoted the prosecution, " while underhand he exhorted the
Bishopps to stand firm." James's own subsequent opinion is
Memoirs interesting : " It was the King's misfortune to give too much
ear to the pernicious advice of those who put him upon such
dangerous councells . . . but his prepossession against that
yielding temper, which had proved so dangerous to the King
his brother, and so fatal to the King his father, fixed him too
obstinately (words interlined by his son) in a contrary method."
Lord Clarendon's Journal reports a conversation with Jeffreys
a few days later, when Jeffreys tells him the King was disposed
to overlook the affront, but allowed himself to be dissuaded by
men who pushed him on to his ruin.

184

THE SEVEN BISHOPS

To Hoffmann, the technical offence contained in the Bishops' 1688
petition does not admit of doubt. He calls it, in a despatch
to the Emperor of the A- Tune : " . . . the crime they have imp.

, r . : j 1-1 Archives,

committed in contesting and attacking the royal prerogative Vienna
in such scandalous terms." But the gravity and impolicy of
the prosecution seem equally plain to the Ambassador. "This
is generally regarded," he goes on, " as the beginning of a
Revolution . . . for the Court has not only these seven
Bishops to deal with, but the whole clergy (for only to speak
of the Bishops, out of twenty-three only three or four have
declared for the King). The King's firmness and obstinacy
make them fear extreme measures, but they will not recognise
that their own obstinacy in refusing to comply with his wish,
supplies the motive and prepares the way for this extremity.
. . . The fact which has resulted, viz.: this refusal of the
Protestant clergy, concerted, one may say, with the Presby-
terians, who prefer not to enjoy liberty of conscience than to
share it with the Catholics . . . has disconcerted the Court,
and has thrown it into the labyrinth in which it now finds
itself."

That Mary Beatrice deprecated the prosecution seems certain,
although she bitterly felt, as we know by Clarendon's reports
of his later conversations with her, how much her husband
" was misunderstood by his people," and could see nothing but
good in his desire to establish liberty of conscience. At this
time the Queen experienced little comfort from the relations to
whom she was so devotedly attached; her brother in ill health
and under the dominion of Prince Cesare, whom she regarded
as the evil genius of her family, Cardinal d'Este showing no
haste to take up the post which had cost her the friendship of
the Howards, and her step-daughters about to prove them-
selves examples of filial ingratitude to all time. Catherine of
Braganza, on the other hand, gave up her project of departure,
which would have appeared almost like an abandonment of her
sister-in-law at this conjuncture, and elected to remain in
England. One faithful and devoted old servant now returned

185

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 to the Queen the Abb Rizzini, who succeeded Marquis
Cattaneo as Modenese envoy in London. He arrived from
Paris in June, and writing on the T 7 T to the Duke of Modena
reports his first audience with the Queen and all her gracious
expressions of satisfaction at seeing him again, " and that my
services will be as useful and as welcome to her here as they
were in Paris, and she hopes they may be equally so to Your
Serene Highness."

The Bishops were sent to the Tower, and Hoffmann
writes ^ June :

" . . . It is as yet impossible to tell what impression the unexpected
imprisonment of these men will make, as it took place at six o'clock
in the evening. . . . Time will show us what will follow upon it,
but this business must be considered as unavoidably leading to great
revolutions."

Two days later the child was born, the longed-for heir,
whose advent was to seal his parents' doom. No longer could
James and Mary Beatrice's adversaries "wait for better days"
and a Protestant succession, and baffled ambitions and thwarted
expectations were soon to burst forth in a double cry of denial
of the fact which disconcerted them, and of fury against its
innocent cause.

THE PRIVY COUNCIL TO THE EARL OF ROCHESTER.

"WHITEHALL, & June 1688.

Brit. Mus. " After our very hearty Commendacions to yo r Lo p It having pleased

Almighty God, about Ten of the Clock this morning to blesse His
Maj y and his Royall Consort the Queene with the Birth of a hopefull
son, and His Maj ty ' 8 Kingdomes and Dominions with a Prince Wee
doe by His Maj ty 8 Command, hereby signify the same unto yo r
Lordship Desiring That it be Likewise forthwith communicated by
you to your Deputy Lieutenants, the Justices of Peace, and the
severall Corporations within your lieutenancy to the end they may all
joyne, at such time as His Maj y shall please to appoint by his Royall
Proclamation for that purpose, as well in solemn Thanksgiving to
Almighty God, for so inestimable a Blessing as in such other expres-
sions of Publicque Rejoycing, as are suitable and accustomed on so

186

BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES

great an occasion. And so Wee do bid y r LoP very heartily farewell. 1688
From the Council Chamber in Whitehall the io th of June 1688

Yo r Lo ps very Loving Friends
Bathe Jeffreys C.

Craven Sunderland P.

Middleton Powis

Castlemaine

Dover
Dartmouth
J. Ernie.

Earle of Rochester
L d L* of Hertford"

The King wrote the joyful news the same day to the Duke
of Modena, and all the Ambassadors communicated it, some
by special messengers, to their respective Courts, with notes of
gratification at the child's strong and healthy appearance.
Rizzini writes :

"... For the past three or four days Her Majesty the Queen felt
extremely well ; last night she played at basset and went tranquilly
to bed, and this morning about eight o'clock was suddenly seized
with pain, and at ten o'clock gave birth to a little prince, admirably
formed, who promises to live, and appears as prosperous as possible. . . .
The joy is great here, and will be so in all Christendom. The
King expressed his own by embracing me in a transport of joy and
benignity."

No account is more graphic than that of Terriesi :

"... I cannot express the joy in the King's aspect, when, after
giving thanks to God, he went to the Council Chamber. ... I saw
the new-born Prince, and that he was- beautiful, and as big and
vigorous as a creature of his age could be. ... The Queen's
chamber was public at the time of the birth to all ladies who chose to
enter, and the ante-room to all men, almost indiscriminately ; so there
is no fear but that both were filled with curious spectators ; the
Queen Dowager was present the whole time, and besides the well-
affected, many of the malcontents of both sexes, so all the mischievous
deceits invented by the malicious respecting a fictitious pregnancy
must now be dispelled.

So far, nothing has been uttered but that the child will not live

I8 7

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 having been born at eight months, but there again they deceive them-
selves as it is full nine months counting from Bath, and not from Her
Majesty's return here, as they wish to count. . . ."

The Queen had in fact two reckonings, and expected to go
to the later date, July, which explains her removal to St. James's
Palace on the very eve of the birth, a circumstance imputed
almost as a crime to her.

Terriesi underestimated the audacity and the inventive
powers of the " malicious," as well as the credulity of the
vulgar, when he concluded that the great numbers of
witnesses of the birth must of necessity put an end to the
calumnies against the Queen. From that crowd which
filled her chamber, to the wounding of her modesty, as we
know from one of the ladies present, there were in fact three
notable absences those of Princess Anne, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and Lord Clarendon, the nearest maternal relative
of the two Princesses. The Princess Anne, with her husband
Prince George of Denmark, had left London for Bath a few
days previously, meeting her father's earnest entreaty that she
would defer her journey until after the Queen's delivery, with
the plea that delay would endanger her health. The King
Memoirs answered " If her health was concern'd, all other considerations
must yield to that, and indeed, the Queen having two reckonings,
it was believed she would go to the latter, and the King
calculated the Princess would be back in time, which made him
easilyer satisfyd with her reasons."

The Archbishop was in the Tower, purposely sent there,
according to the malcontents, to be out of the way whilst
James's own subsequent opinion was that his hand had been
forced " seeing that an imprisonment would not only inflame
the more, but prevent the Archbishop of Canterbury's being a
Witness to the Queen's delivery, which they knew the Kingdom
had already resolved to question and Cavil with."

Lord Clarendon was at church it was Trinity Sunday
and on his way home, his page met him with the news. " I
went to Court," he writes in his journal, " and found the King

188

BAPTISM OF THE PRINCE

shaving. I kissed his hand, and wished him joy. He said the
Queen was so quick in her labour, and he had so much company
that he had not time to dress himself till now. He bid me go
and see the Prince, he was asleep in his cradle and was a very
fine child to look upon. June 1 1 : In the morning there was a
strong rumour that the young Prince was dead. He had been
ill in the night and the King was called up ; but on giving him
remedies, God be thanked, he grew better."

1688

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPER.OR.

1688.

"... Without losing a moment he [the King] sent an autograph
letter by Col. Ogledorf [Oglethorpe] to the Prince and Princess ot
Denmark who are at Bath. . . . The King told him he was not
only to remit the letter but to give testimony de visu and therefore
led him by the hand to the Queen's bedroom, which he has done
jokingly with others . . . and not without reason, for the wickedness
of some people goes so far as to make them capable of accepting the
idea of an imposture . . . their malice inclining them to believe that
which suits their interests. . . .

The King at once honoured the midwife with a purse ot
500 guineas, for her breakfast, as he said. This happy event causes
the seven Bishops in the Tower to be forgotten for the moment, and
other matters also."

The Ambassadors took a lively interest in the new-born
heir, Barillon visited him daily, reporting his lusty cries,
and that he is to be brought up by hand, all the Queen's
former children having died of convulsions, attributed by
the doctors to their having been wet-nursed. "-It is to be Affaires
hoped," the Ambassador writes to Louis XIV, "this extra- '
ordinary method may succeed ; there are wet nurses in
readiness should their services be required." The little
Prince's establishment is given in the Ellis Correspondence :
" two day nurses, four rockers, a laundress and seamstress
and two pages of the back stairs." He was baptized the
day after his birth in the presence of the Nuncio, in the

189

i688 Queen's bed-chamber, the full ceremonies of christening and
naming him James Francis Edward taking place later.
The Pope, represented by the Nuncio, was god-father and the
Queen Dowager god-mother.

Dryden celebrated the event in his Britannia Rediviva
beginning with the well-known lines :

" Our vows are heard betimes, and heaven takes care
To grant, before we can conclude the prayer :
Preventing angels met it half the way
And sent us back to praise who came to pray."

and its graceful homage to the Queen :

" You, who your native climate have bereft
Of all the virtues, and the vices left ;
Whom piety and beauty make their boast
Tho' beautiful is well in pious lost."

If Dryden represented the opinion of Mary of Modena's
friends, the Orange party at first appeared consternated. " They
flattered themselves at first that the child would not live,"
writes Barillon, " but now they see they cannot count upon the
death of an infant who has every appearance of living." So
the flood-gates of calumny were let loose, and various were
the rumours set afloat the Queen had miscarried at three,
at five, at seven months, she had given birth to a daughter,
for whom a male child had been substituted, her child was
born dead there was no child at all and a base-born im-
postor had been introduced into her bed. The trivial fact
that a warming-pan had been used to air the sheets was
seized upon with avidity, and a credulous public was soon
taught to believe that in it had the little Pretender been
conveyed. Worse still, another rumour attacked the paternity
of the child, and in lampoons and caricatures of the most
offensive kind, the fair fame as well as the motherly dignity
of the chastest princess in Europe was impugned.

The envoys tell their respective governments of these things,
of the meagre display of bonfires in the City and of the public
indifference, but they did not know that on the 3Oth June

190

CONDUCT OF THE TWO PRINCESSES

William of Orange's adherents in England, represented by the 1688
Lords Devonshire, Danby, Shrewsbury, and Lumley, Compton,
Bishop of London, Admiral Russell and Henry Sidney, signed
the famous letter, promising to join him if he would invade their
King's dominions. " Immortal seven ! " exclaims Dalrymple,
"whose memories Britain can never sufficiently revere."

If there were two women in the world who should have been
slow to suspect the Queen, they were surely the step-daughters
who for fifteen years had received nothing but kindness at her
hands, and yet there is no sadder reading on this sordid page of
our history than the correspondence as given in Dalrymple's
Appendix, between the Princess of Orange and the Princess
Anne. The former seemed to have a scruple at first in
following her sister's lead, some lingering touch of affection or
remorse, for Anne in a letter of June 22 complains that though
they agree in matters of religion, " yet I can't help fearing that
you are not of my opinion in other things, because you never
answered me to anything that I had said of Rogers and of
Mansell's wife " [the Queen]. All scruples must, however, have
vanished when the Princess of Orange penned the extraordinary
letter with the eighteen questions, each in itself an insult to the
Queen, respecting the Prince of Wales's birth. The questions
were only fit for a jury of matrons, and the answers, in all
material points, were a vindication of the Queen.

Happily ignorant, as yet, of these intrigues, the first time
Mary Beatrice could use her pen she wrote to the Princess of
Orange :

"Sr. JAMES'S, 'July 6.

"The first moment that I have taken a pen in my hand since I
was brought to bed, is this, to write to my dear LEMON."

" WHITEHALL, July i3th. I did not hope two months ago to have
had all well over by this time ; for I came a month sooner than I
reckoned, which mistake I thought I could not make, counting as I
used to do. If my child had not been bigger and stronger than any
that ever I had, I should have thought I had come before my time."

Slow as she was to suspect those she loved, the Queen could

191

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 not but be pained by the Princess of Orange's attitude. Her next
letter, dated Windsor, July 3ist, is pathetic. She tells her step-
daughter she fears she is not so kind to her as she used to be :

" And the reason I have to think so is (for since I have begun I
must tell you all the truth) that since I have been brought to bed, you
have never once in your Letters to me taken the least notice of
my son, no more than if he had never been born, only in that which
M. Zuilystein brought, that I look upon as a compliment that you
could not avoid, though I should not have taken it so, if ever you
had named him afterwards."

Zuyleistein, sent a second time on a double errand of compli-
ment and betrayal, had been received in audience by the Queen
on the 28th of June. His "careless air" was made use of,
says Dalrymple, the real object of his journey being " to concert
with the Prince's friends, his intended expedition to England."

Once more the Queen writes to the Princess of Orange,
Windsor, August 17 :

" Even in this last letter, by the way you speak of my son ; and
the formal name you call him by, I am further confirmed in the
thought I had before, that you have for him the last Indifference.
The King has often told me, with a great deal of trouble, that often
as he has mentioned his son in his letters to you, you never once
answered anything concerning him."

The letter is endorsed by the Princess :

"Answered that all the King's children shall ever find as much
affection and kindness from me as can be expected from children
of the same father."

The birth of the Prince of Wales furnished King James with
a golden opportunity for escaping from a dangerous dilemma:

imp. "... Many well-intentioned persons, even among the Catholics,"

writes Hoffmann to the Emperor the day after the trial and acquittal
of the seven Bishops (July 12, 1688) "had foreseen the evil issue of
this affair and, at the birth of the Prince of Wales, prayed the King
to profit by the occasion to set the Bishops at liberty, for not only
would he have honourably retrieved a false step, but, if he did not win
over the Bishops, at least he would leave them, by their release, in the
posture of delinquents ; but following the natural inclination which

192

ATTITUDE OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE

makes him more prone to seize upon violent methods than upon 1688
gentle ones, and which inspires the Catholics with serious fears for
the future, he would lend no ear to this proposition. . . ."

"16 July, 1688.

" . . . . Saturday, for the first time the Queen appeared publicly at
table, and in the Chapel."

M. Lente, Danish Envoy in Holland^ to Terriesi, Tuscan
Envoy in London.

"THE HAGUE. f Juiy. 1688.

" . . . . The Prince or Orange holds no measure ne tunt aucune
mesure with the King of England, and this goes so far that yesterday
when the Marquis of Albeville [English Ambassador at the Hague]
gave a grand fete for the birth of the young English Prince, no
members of the Court attended . . . although everybody had been
invited and many had promised to come before the Prince of Orange
had made it known, underhand, that they would please him by not
going to the English Ambassador's. All this is done to throw doubt
upon the birth of the Prince, and it is said the Prince of Orange
repents himself of having sent an envoy to England to congratulate
the King. Of the foreign Ministers, those of Spain and Hanover did
not go. . . .

Anyhow, everything was very fine, well-ordered and magnificent,
but nobody was there, and every kind of slight was shown to the
Marquis of Albeville, so that he was even unable to have the Prince
of Orange's trumpeters . . . cite vergogna ! "

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPERok.

"23 July 1688.

"... Hardly a day passes but these refractory people cause the Imp.
King some fresh annoyance j . . . Vice Admiral Herbert (whom the
King lately dismissed from his service because he would not declare
himself for His Majesty) [in the matter of the abolition of the Test]
has entered the Dutch service, and been appointed Admiral for North
Holland ; as he passes here for the best, if not the only naval com-
mander, this being the opinion of the King himself . . . and as he
has taken this step in defiance of the King's formal command not to
enter the Dutch service, it is difficult to describe the pain felt by the
King at seeing his orders thus despised, and so experienced an officer
go over, it may be said, to his declared enemies. . . .

193 o

i688 If this caused the King lively displeasure, he experienced no less

when the Army in camp, from the first man to the last, shouted
* Hurrah ! ' at the news of the acquittal of the seven Bishops. If
those who eat the King's bread act thus, it is easy to judge of the
conduct of those who are out of favour or not in his service."

Admiral Herbert's was a typical case, proving the danger of
trying to exact pledges which would hamper freedom of vote
in the promised Parliament, and there is a significant passage
in Sir John Reresby's Memoirs, as to the alarm James was
arousing even in his most faithful subjects : " Designing for
York, I took leave of His Majesty, but with terrible ap-
prehensions that he would put the same question to me he had
to others, concerning the repeal ; but he said nothing at all of
it .... so that I could not but think I had a lucky escape."

The men were few, at this agitated time, who, like thelearned
and pious Humphrey Prideaux, Prebendary of Norwich,
retained sufficient calmness of judgment to recognise, as he
does in a letter to his friend Ellis : " At present we are only
hurt in our imagination, and our greatest torment is our fear
of what may after happen ; but I hope they will prove to be
only fears and nothing else."

As for the Queen, the very name of Parliament had been too
significant to her of anxiety and danger, ever since her first
arrival in England, to permit her to judge with her usual
clear sightedness of the present crisis : " Her Majesty con-
versed very freely with me of public affairs," writes Lord
Clarendon about this time, " saying how much the King was
misunderstood by his people ; that he intended nothing but a
general liberty of conscience which she wondered could be op-
posed ; that he always intended to support the religion
established, being well-satisfied of the loyalty of the Church
of England. I took the liberty to tell Her Majesty that
liberty of conscience could never be granted but by Act of
Parliament ; the Queen did not like what I said and so
interrupted me,"

194

ILLNESS OF THE PRINCE OF WALES

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR.

"3 August. 1688.

" Yesterday I found the Court not only exasperated against the
Prince of Orange, but greatly afflicted, because he has suddenly for-
bidden the prayer which has been said in his Chapel for the Prince
of Wales, thus throwing suspicion on his birth, which in this kingdom
(where already two-thirds of the people are of various opinions, some
out of wickedness, and others from established concert or credulity)
must have very pernicious consequences. . . ."

All other anxieties were soon lost, for the Queen especially,
in alarm for the life of her child. The plan of bringing him
up on water gruel and boiled bread was, as might have been
expected, a signal failure. He had been removed to Richmond
by his governess, Lady Powis, for the sake of the purer air
" Each day," writes Hoffmann, " the Queen goes to see him,
and never returns until one o'clock in the morning ; after great
anxiety about him yesterday, the King and Queen, who was
weeping abundantly, went to Richmond this morning ; on their
return we shall know how he is. The illness is attributed to
the application of cauteries and to the medicines, also to his
being spoon-fed instead of nursed at the breast." On the 6th
Terriesi writes to the Grand Duke of Tuscany that his death
had been hourly expected all the previous week " from colics
and other disorders occasioned by that sort of paste made of
oat and barley-meal with which the doctors obstinately insisted
upon feeding him. Up to yesterday they had given him all
the remedies to be found in the apothecaries' jars and drawers
(except milk, which is not to be found there) declaring they
would not give him half an hour to live if he were suckled.
... At last the King ordered the trial to be made, and the
wife of a tile-maker, considered a proper person for the
purpose, was called in. ... P.S. I have news from Rich-
mond that the Prince continues to do well, on a natural diet."
The Ellis correspondence supplies the detail that the nurse was
fetched in so great a hurry that she came " in her cloth petti-
coat and waistcoat and old shoes and no stockings ; but she is

195 o 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 now rigged by degrees (that the surprise may not alter her in
her duty and care), 100 per annum is already settled upon her,
and two or three hundred guineas already given, which she
saith she knows not what to do with."

TERRIESI TO THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY.

"M Jug*" 1688.

" I went three times to Court last week . . . and tound the
Marchioness of Powis well pleased that the Prince, thanks to a
natural diet, for which she was always in favour, is so well restored.
Their Majesties the King and Queen were equally content, but the
chief physician, when I complimented him on the Prince's restoration,
replied : * Tour Lordship should not say restored to healthy but somewhat
improved in appearance' I hear they are storming their Majesties to
send away the nurse and to return to the former diet, on the pretence
that milk will be a sure viaticum to another world. It is incredible
the quantity and the quality of stuffs the doctors have poured into that
little body, thirty were counted at one time on the table in his room,
among them Canary wine which he was made to drink and * Dr.
Goddard's Drops' (nothing less than liquid fire, for if one falls on a
piece of cloth, it burns a hole through it in half an hour) and other
violent remedies which are now the greatest danger to be feared."

Little Prince James must have had a strong constitution to
survive such treatment, which throws a curious light upon the
medical science of his day.

Most people, except the King himself, were now expecting
the Prince of Orange. Evelyn notes in his Diary, August 10,
1688, "Dr. Tenison now told me there would suddenly be
some greate thing discover'd. This was the Prince of Orange
intending to come over." D'Avaux, the French Ambassador
at the Hague, kept Louis XIV fully informed of the Prince's
preparations, and Louis, in his turn, failed not to warn King
James, and to offer him assistance. Skelton, the English
Ambassador, was equally emphatic in his warnings, but the King,
in what Seigneley, the French Minister, called a state of
lethargic surprenante, turned a deaf ear, refused the offer of a

196

OPTIMISM OF THE KING

French fleet, which Louis sent Bonrepas on a special mission to 1688
propose to him, accepted the assurances of William and of Van
Citters, the Dutch Ambassador, that the Dutch armament was
intended against the King of Denmark, and refused to believe
that a daughter, whom he tenderly loved, could conspire with
her husband to dethrone her own father. His own account is
interesting to remember : " The Spanish Ambassador and the Memoirs
Earl of Sunderland found means to work the King rather into a
displeasure at the proposal ; they remonstrated . . . that the
French King's magnifying the Dutch preparations was but a
contrivance to fright his Majesty into an Allyance with him ;
so M. Bonrepas finding his master's kindness so ill accepted,
return 'd home again, no less astonished than the Court of
France at His Majesty's surprizing security. . . . Besides the
repeated assurances he had from the States by their Ambassador
and others and even by the Prince of Orange himself that those
preparations were not design'd against him, the Earl of Sunder-
land and some others, whom he trusted most, used all imaginable
arguments to persuade the King it was impossible the Prince of
Orange could go through with such an undertaking ; and
particularly mylord Sunderland turn'd anyone into ridicule that
did but seem to believe it. ... No one, except mylord
Dartmouth seem'd to give any credit to the report, and he, ever
since the Duke of Monmouth's invasion always tould the King
that sooner or later he was confident the Prince of Orange
would attempt it."

Towards the middle of September the King's optimism
began to be shaken by the continued news from abroad, and
the defection at home. The Queen touchingly expresses her
own bewilderment in a letter to the Princess of Orange :

"WHITEHALL. September 28. 1688.

"I am much put to it what to say, at a time when nothing is
talked of here but the Prince of Orange coming over with an army.
This has been said a long time and believed by a great many, but I do
protest to you I never did believe it till now very lately, that I have

197

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 no possibility left of doubting it. The second part of this news I will
never believe, that is that you are to come over with him ; for I know
you to be too good, that I don't believe you could have such a thought
against the worst of Fathers, much less perform it against the best,
that has always been kind to you, and I believe has loved you better
than all the rest of his children."

The persistent rumours of the Dutch invasion brought the

Court back from Windsor to London sooner than had been

intended, and Hoffmann describes the King's preparations for

strengthening the army and navy and at the same time the

' m P; . dangerous state of both services : " His soldiers are his most

Archives,

Vienna dangerous enemies. ... A few weeks ago orders were given
to the Duke of Berwick's regiment to admit three or four
Irish recruits into each company, which the Lieutenant Colonel
and five Captains absolutely refused . . . upon this they were
imprisoned at Windsor and cashiered by Court Martial (after
pardon had been offered if they would retract and they had
refused it) ; almost immediately afterwards three lieutenants
and four ensigns of the same regiment resigned their com-
missions and a large number of soldiers deserted. ... If the
King cannot depend upon these, still less can he count upon
his seamen . . . who unblushingly declare they will not
serve against Holland. ... It is, therefore, allowable to say
that the King has against him all the clergy, all the nobility,
all the people and all the army and navy, with a few excep-
tions, which must necessarily keep him on the alert on every
side."

" Their Majesties show great intrepidity of soul," writes
Ronchi, the Queen's chaplain, to the Duke of Modena, " and
are cheerfully acting for the best in such an emergency. To-
morrow the Queen's birthday will be kept with the usual
festivities and there will be a Court Ball in the evening."
This was Mary Beatrice's thirtieth birthday and was solem-
nised, says the Ellis correspondence, " with great joy, ringing
of bells, etc.," but the same day the Queen writes the following
short note to the Princess of Orange :

198

ALARM OF THE COURT

" WHITEHALL. October 5th. 1688

" I don't well know what to say. Dissemble I cannot ; and if I
enter upon the subject that fills everybody's mind, I am afraid of
saying too much ; and therefore I think the best way is to say
nothing."

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR.

"Octobers. 1688.

"... The King is labouring night and day to prepare for this Imp.
invasion j he holds Council upon Council, in one of them he exposed
the great danger which threatens the Crown, it being no question of
a Duke of Monmouth coming without troops, money or experience,
but of a valiant and prudent prince commanding a brave army,
wanting for nothing. . . . He prayed his Council to give him their
advice and co-operation. . . . The sailors are flying and hiding them-
selves, so as not to be employed against their friends, as they call
them, the Dutch. . . .

A declaration was published yesterday, revoking the dismissal of all
those who had been deprived of office for refusing to agree to the
abolition of the Test Act. . . . To-day the King has sent for the
Bishops who were lately in the Tower, in order to conciliate them.
God grant he is not making these efforts in vain, in which he goes
from one extreme to the other, and loses reputation with his people
(who attribute such a change not to repentance but to necessity) and
that all may not end by increasing their arrogance and making the
evil greater. . . .

What scandalises everybody, and especially the foreigners, is that
not one of the great nobles is to be seen at Court, except those who
are forced to it by their charges ; all are in .the country which is
considered a very bad sign ; there is no doubt that the Prince of Orange
would not have embarked upon such an enterprise without being
assured of the aid of some strong conspiracy here, and yet no signs of
one have yet been discovered."

The Queen's birthday was the last to be kept with public
rejoicings, and on the King's, October 14, there were, notes
Evelyn, " no guns from the Tower as usual," and he con-
tinues : " The sun eclips'd at its rising. This day signal for
the victory of William the Conqueror against Harold. . . .
The wind, which had been hitherto west, was east all this day.

199

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 Wonderful expectation of the Dutch fleet. Public Prayers
were order'd to be read in the Churches against invasion."

The next day the infant prince, who had been privately bap-
tised immediately after his birth, received the full ceremonies
of christening and naming James Francis Edward with
much solemnity in the King's chapel, the Pope, represented by
the Nuncio, being his godfather, and the Queen-Dowager his
godmother. At a Drawing Room the following day the King
ciaren- tells Lord Clarendon " he had nothing by this post from the
Diary Princess of Orange, which was the first time he had missed
hearing from her for a great while : he further said ' You will
find the Prince of Orange a worse man than Cromwell.' In
the evening I waited upon the Princess (Anne), told her rr\ost
of what the King had said to me, and earnestly pressed her to
speak to him, and to be a means of prevailing with him to hear
some of his faithful old friends ; but she would do nothing."

It was a delicate matter, in the seventeenth century, when
religious differences were still so acute, for a Protestant prince
to secure the benevolent neutrality of Austria and Spain and
the quiescence of the Pope himself, while he made ?n armed
attempt to coerce, if nothing more, a Catholic King at odds
with his Protestant subjects, and who was not only at peace
with those great Powers, but had repeatedly proved that he
held himself bound to them by the terms of the Treaty of
Nimeguen. William of Orange carried it through with con-
summately cool and mendacious dexterity. To the Pope he
sent a Catholic gentleman of good repute, the Prince of
Vaudemont, natural son of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, with
a solemn assurance that he was going to England in peace and
amity, and with no designs against the succession. His letter
to the Emperor, which that monarch no doubt compared with
Hoffmann's despatches, is still extant.

"THE HAGUE. 26 October, 1688.

"SlRE,

Im P- "... 7 have not the least intention of doing any hurt to his Britannic

Vienna. ' Majesty^ nor to those who have the right to pretend to the succession of his

2QQ

PUBLIC HOSTILITY AGAINST THE QUEEN

kingdoms ; and still less to encroach upon the Crown y or lay claim to it 1688
myself (encore moins d'empicter moy-meme sur la couronne, ou de
vouloir me 1'appropricr) / have no design to extirpate the Roman
Catholics, but only to employ my efforts to put an end to the disorders
and irregularities which the evil counsels of the badly disposed have
brought about against the laws of those kingdoms."

The King, among the daily concessions he was now hastily
making, gave back the old Charter to the City of London, but
the effect was not what he hoped : " Besides the sinister inter-
pretations given to these gracious concessions," writes Rizzini,
"there is much murmuring against the Ministers and especially
against Father Peter {sic} ; but the King remains constant to
him, against the counsel of the Queen who has contributed to
all that has been done so far in favour of the City, and who
wishes to satisfy the people with respect to Father Peter (never
protected by her) but without going further ; but the point
will be difficult to obtain.

" I represented to the Queen that in view of the King's
departure, it would be indispensable that Her Majesty and her
child should be placed in safety. Her Majesty deigned to tell
me the King had cast his eyes upon Portsmouth, where there
are some faithful [Irish] troops . . . but he had decided with
the advice of his Council that they should not leave London
until it was seen what turn events would take after the landing
of the enemy. I insisted that they should not wait for such an
extremity . . . the matter was discussed at length, and finally
the Queen said we must believe the King thought of it more
than any one else, and would judge for the best. ... In case
of departure, I shall follow in Her Majesty's suite."

The same day he writes to Prince Cesare d'Este, of the
increasing hostility fomented amongst the people against the
Queen : " Inventing fresh calumnies daily, so extravagant and
insane as only a madman would be capable of imagining. . . .
One of the King's yachts has brought news from Holland that
the Prince of Orange and the Princess his wife talk as if this
crown were already on their heads, distributing places

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 offices, hinting that the greatest grace to be accorded the
King will be to confine him to Ireland, the Queen to be sent
back to Modena, but on condition that she restores the
child to the woman from whom he was taken, and such
like."

A memorial, said to have been written by Dr. Burnet and
purporting to come from the English Protestants, was now
presented to the Prince of Orange, and one of the chief
grievances it complained of was the putting of a supposed
prince upon the people. To meet this odious charge the King,
inadvisedly according to some (" as below His Majesty to
condescend to, on the talk of the people," writes Evelyn),
determined to have a solemn declaration of the Prince's birth
sworn to by the chief persons who had been present. The
Queen was with difficulty persuaded to consent to such a pro-
ceeding, " till one day," writes her husband in his Memoirs,
" at a visit she made the Princess Anne, speaking of those
reports, the Queen said she wonder'd how such rideculous
falsetys could gain the least credit, to which the Princess
answer'd very coldly it was not so much to be wondered at,
since such persons were not present as ought to have been
there ; the Queen was hugely surprised at this and began as
well as the King to suspect the worst, when his own Daughter,
who knew so well the realitie of the Queen's being with child,
fomented the contrary opinion."

An extraordinary Council was held October 22nd, and
forty-two persons, including the Queen Dowager, the Lord
Chancellor, etc., deposed on oath to having been present at the
birth of the Prince of Wales. Lord Clarendon relates in
his Diary his interviews with his niece, Princess Anne, after the
Council : u . . . She made herself very merry with the whole
affair. She was dressing and all her women about her, many of
whom put in their jests. I was amazed at this behaviour and
whispered to her Royal Highness that she would give me leave
to speak with her in private. She said it grew late and she
must make haste to be ready for prayers."

202

CLARENDON AND PRINCESS ANNE

Lord Clarendon makes one or two ineffectual attempts to see
her, and finally on October 3ist, she asks him what he has to
say. '* I told her I was extremely surprised and troubled the
other day to find Her Royal Highness speak so slightingly of
the Prince of Wales's affairs and to suffer her women to make
their jests upon it ; she replied, surely I could not but hear the
common rumours concerning him. I said that I did hear very
strange rumours indeed, but that to me there seemed no colour
for them. The Princess then said she could not say she believed
them ; but, she must needs say, the Queen's behaviour during
her being with child was very odd, especially considering the
reports that went abroad. . . . Possibly, said I, she did not
mind the reports. * I am sure,' she said, * the King knew of
them ... he would speak of the idle stories of the Queen's
not being with child, laughing at them. . . .' I begged her to
consider what miseries these suppositions might entail upon the
kingdom, even in case God should bless the King with other
sons. I therefore humbly besought her to consider and do
something that the world might see Her Royal Highness was
satisfied. To all this she made no answer, but as I went away,
she desired I would see her often. Strange ! "

Copies of the depositions were brought to the Princess by the
whole Privy Council, who made an answer to this effect :
" My Lords, this was not necessary, for I have so much duty
for the King that his word must be more . to me than these
depositions." " I was in the next room," writes Clarendon,
" and when the Lords came out, I went in. The Princess was
pleased to tell me the answer she gave as above ; upon which
I said I hope there remained no suspicion with Her Royal
Highness. She made no answer. ..." A few days later he
returns to the charge. " I told her that endeavours were using
for the Lords spiritual and temporal to join in an address to
the King ; that now it would be seasonable for Her Royal
Highness to say something to the King, whereby he might see
her concern for him ; but she said the King did not care she
should meddle with anything, and that the Papists would let

203

1688

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 him do nothing. I told her the King was her father ; that she
knew her duty to him ; that he had been very kind and tender
towards her, and had never given her any trouble about religion,
as she had several times owned to me : to which she replied that
was true ; but she grew uneasy at the discourse and said she
must dress herself."

The Prince of Orange heralded his departure for England
by publishing two Declarations to the English and Scottish
people, in which he described the despotism under which they
groaned, the injuries offered to the Protestant Church and his
suspicion of imposture in the birth of the young Prince.

" Ce qui est le plus fort," writes Hoffmann on the -fy
November, " is that he treats the Prince of Wales as a
supposititious child. The moment approaches, as the wind
still holds, when we shall see the beginning of this dangerous,
and hitherto unheard-of enterprise. According to appearances,
the King is stronger than the Prince of Orange, as he has an
army of 25,000 men, all well seasoned troops, with which he is
ready to march, and a fleet, I will not say equal to the enemy's,
but strong and well conditioned, whilst the Prince of Orange
has sick and tired troops and badly damaged cavalry [a great
storm had driven the Dutch fleet back into port] especially if it
be considered that the King will be on the defensive, and that
all the fortresses worth garrisoning are in his hands. But it is
doubtful whether the King's soldiers are as faithful as the
Prince of Orange's, for all that the King has done so far, to be
agreeable to his subjects and to overcome their aversion, has
succeeded neither with the nobility nor with the people, the
noblemen are all in the country persisting in their discontent,
and the people desire the Prince of Orange more than they
fear him.

" The King has so lost credit, that were he to do a great deal
more than he has done to please the people, it would only
aggravate the evil (it would have been different had he acted
of his own accord, before the fear of invasion). Those who, at
the King's accession, witnessed the docility, obedience and good-

204

A DANGEROUS CRISIS

will of this nation, especially at the time of Monmouth's 1688
Rebellion although the King was of a different religion, cannot
hold it to blame for this dangerous crisis, but rather the feeble-
ness of the Royal Council and the indiscreet zeal of those
ecclesiastics who availed themselves of the King's religious
fervour, and have brought him to this extremity."

205

CHAPTER VIII

1688 EVENTS were now hurrying fast. On the I5th November
Louis XIV sends word he has certain knowledge that the Prince
of Orange is on his way to the Channel, and Terriesi writes
the same day to the Grand Duke of Tuscany that the Dutch
Fleet, some 300 sail, has passed by Dover " in the direc-
tion of the southern part of the island." Hoffmann also
describes the passing of the Dutch Fleet before Dover
" which lasted, owing to the great number of vessels, from
10 till 5 o'clock, and appeared to the spectators like a mighty
forest. It passed by the Royal Fleet during a fog. No one
knows yet where it will put in, but yesterday it was signalled
off the Isle of Wight. Its destination may be Portland, Ply-
mouth or Exeter (the King strongly inclines to believe it will
be the latter port). On the other hand, news has arrived that
a change of wind has allowed the Royal Fleet to come out, and
at 2 o'clock yesterday it was seen off Deal in hot pursuit of the
enemy ; as it is not hampered with transports like the Dutch
Fleet (which can only move slowly in consequence) the King
hopes it may catch and engage the enemy before he can land,
although he is some thirty leagues ahead. The King presumes
the battle may take place to-day, the more so that the * Pescatore
di Milano ' [an almanack] announces a naval battle for this
date."

206

WILLIAM OF ORANGE LANDS AT TORE AY

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO POPE INNOCENT XI. 1688

"15 November 1688.

"... With most humble thanks, I acknowledge the paternal ^ atl , c . an
goodness of Your Holiness in willing that my son should be admitted
to the sacred font ot Baptism under your paternal and holy auspices.
. . . [Ronchi has sent an account of the ceremony] And I place
him once more at the 'feet of Your Holiness, already made yours by
the recent title of spiritual adoption, that he may be protected by the
Apostolic Benediction against the incursions of so many and so cruel
enemies who at this very moment, arms in hand, are making public
manifestation of destroying the Catholic religion in this kingdom and
wresting the succession from this our heir.

In this conspiracy of almost all the heretical world to whom can
we more justly have recourse than to the refuge of the Holy See, to
be defended with spiritual weapons at least, against so many infernal
machinations and to obtain from the Divine Mercy a continuance of
the good providence which has hitherto manifestly protected this
Crown. And to this end I cast myself and my royal infant at the
feet of Your Holiness."

The day this letter was written William of Orange landed
at Torbay. " The Prince of Orange's actions," observes Sir
Roger North, " through his whole life, if closely observed, will
disclose a notable connection of his thoughts with the affairs of
England, so early as the memorable and never-to-be-forgotten
overthrow which the King, when Duke of York, gave the
Dutch. They were, from that time, determined to ruin the
Royal Family." And now began the grim tale of defection :

My lord Lovelace, a malcontent," writes Hoffmann, November
26, " seeking to join the Prince with forty horse was attacked on
his way by the Militia and taken prisoner after a skirmish in
which some men fell on both sides ; this news is all the more
important that doubts were felt as to the fidelity of the
Militia."

The joy of the Court was soon destroyed by the news of
Lord Cornbury's desertion with two regiments of cavalry and
one of dragoons at Salisbury. " This news . . . has destroyed

207

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 all hope of the King's success, and thrown his interests over-
board. . . . All the regiments and artillery on march towards
Salisbury have been recalled and the King's departure is deferred
until next Monday."

When Lord Clarendon heard of the defection of his son,
Lord Cornbucy, he hastened to the King and Queen. " I said
what I was able on so melancholy a subject and my son's
desertion. God knows I was in confusion enough. The King
was very gracious to me, and said he pitied me with all his
heart. ... I waited on the Queen. I expressed myself as
well as I could upon the misfortune of my son's desertion, she
was pleased to make me very gracious answers." The Queen,
however, expressed her displeasure that he and his brother,
Lord Rochester, had signed the petition presented to the King
the day before his departure for Salisbury, praying that a free
Parliament might be summoned at once (the writs summoning
Parliament for the 2yth November having been recalled on
account of the Dutch invasion). James's reply, made with
strong emotion, is worth remembering : " What you ask is
what I passionately desire. I promise on the word of a
king, to call a legal and free Parliament the moment the
Prince of Orange shall depart. But how can you have a
free Parliament now that a foreign Prince at the head of a
foreign force has it in his power to return one hundred
members ? "

The alternations of hope and despair were rapid at Court.
The news that the greater part of the three regiments had
returned to their colours on discovering that Lord Cornbury
was taking them to join and not to attack the enemy, " filled
the Court, which yesterday was in despair, with joy," writes
Hoffmann.

Ronchi writes less hopefully to the Duke of Modena the
same day : " The peril is still most grave for his Majesty and
for the Queen and Prince who are to remain at Whitehall under
a guard of 6,000 of the newly-levied troops. There are riots
in London against the Catholic chapels."

208

FRANCE AND THE HOLY SEE

"THE NUNCIO D'ADDA TO THE CARD. SECRETARY OF STATE. 1688

"LONDON. 26 Nov. 1688.
" Mr. Caryll has informed me the Queen has sent orders that her Brit -

*^/ A JJ

lands at Monti [left to her by her mother] should be sold to help the i5 )3 '
King with the money . . . and Her Majesty lately told me (reflecting f -43
with much sense on the necessity in which the King may soon find
himself) that she is giving him all she has.

This evening the resolution has been taken by their Majesties to
send the P of W to Ports th for his greater security, the Queen to
remain here ; she will be much afflicted at this double separation.
The Prince starts to-morrow morning, and will be at Portsmouth in
four days."

The mediation of England had been offered in the differ-
ences between France and the Holy See, and through her
Secretary, John Caryll, the Queen writes to her uncle Cardinal
d'Este on the subject.

November, 1688.

" Uncle, I can give you the good news or the Pope's consent to the
mediation of the King my lord in the differences between France and
the Holy See, and I hope you will have the opportunity of distinguish-
ing yourself by promoting a settlement so necessary for the good or
Christendom. You may see by the extract from the letter of my-
lord Thomas Howard which I enclose, the procedure of the affair up
to the present, and a copy of the Pope's brief will be sent to you as
soon as it arrives.

We hope the Most Christian King, who desired" it in the beginning,
will not be contrary to this mediation now that, after long resistance
His Holiness has consented to it, though, to tell the truth, the
various incidents which have occurred since its first proposal, have
made great changes in the state of affairs. But, in the first place,
God must bless the arms of the King to resist this invasion of the
Prince of Orange, who has encamped himself with 14 to 15,000 men
in a corner of the Kingdom waiting for some rising ot the factious
to strengthen his forces and enable him to give battle to the
King.

When by the Grace of god this war, which cannot apparently last
long, shall be happily ended, we can more freely apply ourselves to
this mediation."

209 P

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 Autograph postscript, in Italian, by the Queen. After tell-
ing him that Lord Thomas Howard has returned from Italy,
and has seen her, she continues :

" But, dear Uncle, we have too many affairs of our own at present,
to think of others ; if you only knew the grief of my poor heart, I
think you would weep with compassion. The King left the day
before yesterday for the army, and my son for Portsmouth, a fortress
sixty miles from here, the King not venturing to leave him in this
town j think of what a separation for me ! In charity remember me
in your prayers, and ask God to give me strength to suffer what seems
insufferable to human nature, but which Divine grace can make bear-
able.

I caused this letter to be written by my Catholic secretary fearing
I might not be able to write myself, he has my entire confidence, and
when I cannot write, I shall make him do so."

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR.

".29 November 1688.

Im P. "... The King has left the government in the hands of five

Vienna"' Councillors of State under the presidency of the Queen the
Chancellor, the Lord Keeper Arundel, the Secretary of State, Lord
Preston, the Lords Bellasys and Godolphin." [The King satisfied at
last of Sunderland's bad faith had dismissed him from office at the end of
October] " Many persons blame the King for not lending himself to
some amicable arrangement, instead of risking all on the chances of a
battle, which, should he win it, will not prevent him from having to
satisfy a discontented country, and the loss of which, if it does not
cost him his throne, may exclude the Prince of Wales entirely from
the succession. But he always has the misfortune to choose the
worst of two evils, to which he is urged by the advice of France . . .
who does not wish to have to fight the united forces of England and
Holland, and is averse to all conciliation."

It must not be forgotten that Austria and France were now
at war, and if it might suit the policy of the latter country,
that the Dutch forces and James should be occupied upon
English soil, it might be equally desirable for the Emperor
Leopold that James should be incapable of throwing the weight

210

MORE DEFECTIONS

of his sword into the struggle now going on between himself 1688
and Louis XIV.

Hoffmann concludes by asking for an equipment to follow
the King to camp so as to get reliable news : ' for each party
here will be informed of what is favourable to itself, which will
give rise to a thousand fables ; moreover if the Queen remains
here, nothing disagreeable will be allowed to reach her ears, but
only what will be considered expedient.

" The Prince of Orange is still at Exeter, where many persons
are joining him , . . mylord Abingdon, one of the wealthiest
of the nobility and other men of quality. It is difficult to
understand how the King and the Prince are to come to blows
with this frost and snow, as their general quarters, Salisbury
and Exeter, are eighty miles apart ... It is to the Prince's
interest to temporise, in order to give his partisans time to
assemble. . . . Mylord Delamere is said to be raising the
county of Chester (j/V)."

"LONDON. 3 December 1688.

"... The King arrived at Salisbury last Monday ... he learned Imp.
with pleasure that the officers showed great eagerness to be led against Vienna**'
the enemy. On Tuesday he intended to go to Warmynster, about
15 miles from Salisbury to visit one of the furthest outposts, but a violent
bleeding of the nose, attributed to the great fatigues he has imposed upon
himself, seized him, and could only be stopped by bleeding His Majesty.
. . . The King is coming back from Salisbury and will go backwards
and forwards until it is seen what the Prince of Orange means to do.

Mylord Delamere is not alone, the Lords Devonshire, Lumley,
Scarsdale, Cholmondeley, Stamford and others, have assembled and
called upon the people to join them, under the pretence of saving the
Protestant religion and their liberties, and for a free Parliament, which
is nothing less than collusion with the Prince of Orange.

It is nevertheless true that they declare themselves against all those
who would attack the Crown or alter the succession, which proves
that they are with the Prince in all that concerns their religion and
liberties, but that if his ambition directs itself against the Crown or
the succession they are resolved to oppose him. . . . This town has
not stirred yet, but lets it be clearly seen that the Prince of Orange's
success would not be displeasing to it."

211 P 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 The Queen's position was becoming one of positive danger,

2 7 Nov.

and the Nuncio in a letter of the ?c ' to tne Cardinal

3 IJec.

Secretary of State relates how a revolutionary pamphlet had
been found in the Queen's glove : " I could not refrain from
suggesting to Her Majesty the necessity of greater precaution,
and the danger arising from her excessive goodness and con-
fidence, especially in such perilous times, which may be the
result in some measure of the too great confidence of their
Majesties, who have credited every one with their own probity
and candour."

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR.

??-^

9 Dec.

Im P . " Not only is the King coming back to-night, but his whole army

Vienna ' is on the march hither since the day before yesterday. The reason ot
this prompt retreat is that all the southern counties are in revolt, the
towns being seized, as certain Lords have seized upon York ; the
governors, justices of the peace, and adherents of the King thrown
into prison ; things are so advanced that there is not, so to speak, a
single Peer of the realm who has not declared for the movement, if
not by taking up arms, at least by declaring his opinion. . .

Before leaving Salisbury the King had to hear of a still greater
treason, the evening before Mylord Churchill, one of his Lieutenant-
Generals, the Duke of Grafton, Vice-Admiral and Colonel of the
Guards, Colonel Berkeley, four captains and some others, had passed
to the Prince of Orange. The first report had it that the whole
Brigade of 6 to 7000 men under Churchill's command had gone over
to the enemy, but a letter from the King to the Queen says that the
Brigade has returned to him, and the desertion has been confined to
the above-named, less than forty in number. . . .

The treachery of that Churchill (to say nothing of the Duke or
Grafton, who pretends to have been injured by the command or the
fleet having been given to Lord Dartmouth) has been the object of
universal reprobation, for Churchill owed everything to the King,
who, raising him from the dirt, made him not only one of the four
Captains of his Guard, but Lieutenant-General, to the scandal or
everybody, as he was considered as the least worthy of such a post.
But this country is fertile in such anomalies. ... If the King hopes

212

DEPARTURE OF PRINCESS ANNE

the troops will be more faithful than their officers, he will be counting 1688
upon a people constant but in inconstancy. As to expecting succour
from France, it is too late. . . . The King will therefore, whether
he will or no, be obliged to accept the proposal of the Lords and call
a Parliament as the only, but dangerous, means of escape ; un-
fortunately he always has the air of waiting to be forced to a thing
instead of doing it with a good grace. . . .

The great difficulty will be regarding the Prince of Wales, for
the Peers contend that he shall be brought up in the Protestant
religion ... they will not yield the point, and it will be fortunate
if they do not attack the King in the exercise of his religion. And if
the King, according to the prevalent rumour, were to make the
mistake of removing the Prince of Wales from Portsmouth to France,
it might very well happen that the English nation would declare him
a supposititious child, although it knows the contrary and, to revenge
itself upon his father, drive him from the throne ; the King would do
well to reflect on this. . . .

According to all appearances this affair will be terminated in two or
three months, and equally certainly all the forces now on foot will march
conjointly against France. . . . Your Imperial Majesty may take this for
certain^ and act accordingly"

Hoffmann's prognostications were correct. William declared
war against France the following May.

"Such, most Gracious Lord, was the situation in which I left the
Court last night ; this morning on my return I heard with consterna-
tion that not only the Prince of Denmark, with the Duke of Ormonde
and several others had gone over to the Prince of Orange, but that
last night the Princess of Denmark, the King's daughter, after
receiving a letter from the Prince her husband, went away with her
lady of honour, lady Churchill and Mrs. Berkeley (whose husbands
had deserted) ; after having on pretence of going to bed dismissed her
women, she escaped from the house by a secret staircase."

It was at first rumoured that the Princess had been "violently
carried away " and her partisans tried to cast suspicion upon
the Queen, who calmly replied that the Princess would doubt-
less send word where she had gone when she thought proper to
do so.

Hoffmann ends the above letter with the grave accusation :
" Those men [Churchill and his accomplices], it has been learned,

213

i688 did not limit their treachery to defection, but sought to deliver
the King to the Prince of Orange ; that was the project Lord
Churchill had in view when, on various pretexts, he persuaded
the King to go to Warmynster, where an ambush of the enemy
awaited him ; but, a singular proof that God watches over him,
the extraordinary bleeding of the nose which seized him [lasting
three days] and which it was almost impossible to arrest, leaving
him so exhausted that he kept his room until his departure for
London, caused that treason to miscarry, and moreover, singu-
larly agrees with the prediction in the Pescatorc di Milano
for this moon : * Let the sovereign of a great island beware
of the treachery of his courtiers.'

" Father Petre, who, by his violence, contributed a good share
to all these misfortunes, retired into France seven or eight
days ago."

RlZZINI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"6 Dec. 1688.

"... The priests and friars have spoiled everything here, and
their inopportune zeal has attracted implacable hatred upon the
innocent Queen, and great accusations are being prepar'd against her
in the coming Parliament.

I am conscious of having done my duty thus far. I was one of the
first to speak out boldly, and all the more so when I saw everybody
hesitating between good and bad advice. I took the side of the
greatest prudence .... and I hope by constant perseverance to win
in the end.

P.S. (in cypher) The miserable state of affairs has forced me
to urge with tears that the Queen and the Prince of Wales be placed
in safety. The Kin,g has assured me he will see to it. It would take
too long to give all my reasons, suffice it to say that Parliament will be
full of plotters, rebels and traitors, so that unless God interferes the
King himself will have to seek safety in flight."

Rizzini was a timid man, and in his love for the Princess he
had known from a child, and his sense of duty to the house
he served, had but one idea, that of getting the Queen and her
child safely out of England. Terriesi, as we see by the follow-
ing letter to the Tuscan Secretary of State, was of a different

214

TERRIESI'S ADVICE

opinion. After expressing his compassion for the misfortunes 1688

of the King and Queen, he writes :

"Dec. 10.

"... When I went to the audience, I found the Queen's confes-
sor and the Modenese Envoy [Rizzini] in the greatest excitement,
urging that Her Majesty and the Prince of Wales should fly to
France, and as for all they could do, they failed to convince either the
King or the Queen, they tried to employ me to persuade Their
Majesties. But they were much surprised when I replied, that not
only I would not do so, but that I entreated them to refrain, as
nothing they could imagine would more conduce to the ruin of their
Majesties ; that before suggesting such a course it would be well
to be thoroughly informed of the state of the country, and of
the mind of the Prince of Orange and of the English ; that to leave
one's kingdom was never done until the last extremity, or only
by those whose cowardice did not deserve one ; that I could not see
the case to be so desperate. ... I could not believe the English
wished to change their legitimate King for a foreigner. ... I finally
begged them to consider how difficult it would be for His Majesty to
come to terms with his subjects if the Queen and the heir to the
Crown were in France, whence the people believed so many miseries
have come upon them."

The same day Hoffmann tells the Emperor :

" Parliament is convoked for the |- January, and as in the mean Imp.
time it is necessary to prevent the advance of the Prince of Orange, Vienna, 6 *'
the Lords Halifax, Nottingham and Godolphin are to be sent to him
with this object, and a trumpeter has been despatched to the prince to
ask for a safe-conduct.

It remains to be seen if the Prince will consent, or if he will seek
to profit by the occasion to seize the crown, (which, however, is not
believed by his partisans)."

The misfortunes pressing upon the King, the weakness occa-
sioned by the terrible haemorrhage at Salisbury, and above all
the conduct of his daughter (" He was so deeply afflicted when
the Princess Anne went away that it disordered him in his
understanding," one of the Court ladies present at the time told
Sir John Reresby), the fear also that his son might be forcibly
taken from him, at last induced King James to yield to the
advice of those who urged him to send the child to France,

215

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

!688 JAMES II TO LORD DARTMOUTH

" WHITEHALL T 5 7 Dec.

Brit. Mus. I think my son is not safe as things are now, where he is,

,, .'^ SS ' and therefore think it necessary to have him removed from thence as

I 3>44/> T , T , _,

f. 75 B soon as may be ; 1 have written to Lady rowis to that purpose,

if the way be open by land, he shall come that way, and I have
sent troops to meet him, and ordered Lord Dover [Governor of
Portsmouth] to command them, and come up with him. If the
Prince of Orange's Troops get between this and Portsmouth, then he
must come by Sea, and in a Yacht, and you must send what number
of Ships you judge sufficient to see him as far as Margate, after which
he may come over the flats, and so up the River without Danger ;
you must be sure to let him take the first fair wind, for then there
can be no danger of Herbert and his Dutch Ships. I must leave the
care of ordering this to you. . . . This bearer will tell you all
the news."

Of Lord Dartmouth's loyalty there can be no question, but
the " associated " officers representing to him the evils that
would befall, if the heir-apparent left the kingdom, and his own
consternation, led him to refuse in humble and affectionate
terms to obey the King's orders to send him by sea, which it
would probably have been impossible for him to carry out.

Next day Rizzini is able to announce that his prayers have
been heard, and the flight of the Queen and the Prince of
Wales decided upon. " I am in agonies, as each day of delay
increases the peril. In a word, the King of England is
abandoned by all, and near to being oppressed. . . .

" The most notable event here has been a proclamation by the
Prince of Orange, ordering all Catholics, under the severest
penalties, to lay down their arms and give up any posts they
may hold. He is acting the king entirely."

THE NUNCIO D'ADDA TO THE CARDINAL SECRETARY OF STATE.

Brit. Mus. <c . . . Her Majesty informed me that the Prince of Wales had not

Add.MSS. j e f t Portsmouth, and on my asking the reason, answered : * Because

1 5397j

f. 495 the King has not been obey'd.' . . . His Majesty has sent orders in

utmost haste to bring the Prince by land, and has sent two regiments
of Cavalry under Catholic Colonels to meet him ; it is supposed

2l6

FLIGHT DETERMINED UPON

he has left to-day and news is anxiously expected. The Queen also 1688
told me the plan concerted for her departure with Signora Vittoria
Davia, a Bolognese lately arrived here at Her Majesty's invitation,
an Italian lady in waiting, and a certain Riva, also a Bolognese,
keeper of her Wardrobe, the Comte de Lauzun, to whom the King
has confided the care of Her Majesty, will also attend her on her
journey. Her Majesty said that as soon as the Prince of Wales
arrives it will be determined if they shall go separately or together, or
even with the King, who is waiting for the answer of the Com-
missioners [sent to the Prince of Orange], which may come to-morrow,
before resolving upon what he shall do. At this moment the Queen
Dowager was announced, and Her Majesty going to receive her,
I took my leave."

The Countess Vittoria Davia was the sister of Count
Montecuccoli and one of the friends of Mary Beatrice's child-
hood. She had spent some time in Scotland with her when
Duchess of York, and now hastened to the Queen in response
to her summons and was to prove herself one of her most
faithful and devoted servants. The gallant magnificent Lauzun,
out of favour with Louis XIV through the enmity of Louvois,
had solicited and obtained permission to offer his services to the
English Queen, and had arrived in London in October, on a
feat of knight-errantry suited to his character, and by which he
hoped to recover the good graces of his own sovereign. Fran-
cesco Riva, who it may be remembered had accompanied the
painter Gennari to England in the reign of Charles II, had
been appointed Wardrobe Keeper to the Queen upon her acces-
sion, and to his pen we owe the following graphic account of
her flight from England. He wrote two copies, one in Italian,
dedicated " to his dear father and mother," preserved in the
Archives of Modena, and the other in French.

" . . . . Sunday evening, ^ December.

" Labadie, the King's valet, fetched me to His Majesty's apartment.
He was alone and did me the honour to say he had a secret to confide
to me. I asked if it was known to others ? His Majesty said c Yes,
to the Queen and the Comte de Lauzun,' so I respectfully bent
my head in token of absolute submission to his orders. Then he told

217

i688 me he intended the Queen should cross the sea the following
Tuesday . . . while the Prince of Wales would start the same day
from Portsmouth. * Come to-night, and settle matters with the
Comte de Lauzun.' . . . On Monday the bad news arrived that the
Prince of Wales could not start from Portsmouth ... so all
the plans were changed and Tuesday and Wednesday messengers
were kept going from London to Portsmouth. . . . Meanwhile
I hired two Yachts, one in the name of an Italian lady, and the other
in that of the Comte de Lauzun. . . . On Thursday the King ordered
me to take three carriages and meet the Prince of Wales, which I
did the same night, sending the carriages by different routes to avoid
suspicion. I arrived at Gifford on Friday night, where I found Lord
Salisbury's Regiment. I spent the night there and met the Prince
the next day. We immediately started to return to London, the
Prince escorted by the above-named regiment, by one of Dragoons
and another of the King's Guards. . . . We arrived on Saturday
at three o'clock in the night at Whitehall. . . . News had mean-
while arrived of the disorders at Dover, where the people had
revolted, so other measures had to be taken as follows : About
an hour after midnight, having put on a rough sailor suit, and having
stored away my furniture and effects (which were pillaged afterwards
at Whitehall) I armed myself and went by the secret stair to the
King's Chamber ; I laid down the common habit I had had made for
the Queen, and told His Majesty all was ready. Then I retired
to another room, where was the Comte de Lauzun, and waited
until the Queen was ready."

According to Terriesi, the Queen threw herself into the King's
arms, imploring him to let her stay and share his fate, " but
letting herself be persuaded of the necessity of escaping from
those rebels and traitors and of saving the Prince of Wales, she
dressed herself in the disguise."
Riva continues :

" Then the Count and I, to be prepared against accidents, secreted
some jewels about us, which their Majesties opposed at first, having
no thought but for the safety of their royal infant. At 2 o'clock we
went down to Madame Labadie's quarters, where the Prince of Wales
had been secretly conveyed. There all the persons were assembled
who were to serve the Queen and Prince, viz. : the Comte de Lauzun,
the two nurses and myself. We went by the great Gallery and the
private garden, at the door of which was waiting the carriage of

2l8

RIVA'S ACCOUNT OF THE FLIGHT

Count Terriesi, Florentine resident, and my particular friend, rrom 1688
whom I had borrowed it for my own special service. On the way
we had to pass six sentries, who all cried ' Who goes there ? ' but as I
answered * Friend,' and they saw I had the master-key, they made no
further parley. The Queen, the Prince, the two nurses and the
Count got into the carriage, and I, to make sure the coachman took
us aright, got up beside him. We passed safely through Westminster
to Horseferye, where I had engaged a boat. The boatman was
accustomed to take me out shooting at night, and I had made
him come the previous day to fetch bread, wine, roast meat and other
necessaries, also my gun, to give colour to my pretended project.
We got in, but the night was so dark we could not see each other,
although we were close together, the boat being very small. Then, I
confess, I was seized with great terror, at the thought of these royal
personages exposed to such danger, but I took courage and trusted in
God whose providence singularly watched over us, especially in
causing an infant of five months old, so delicate and lively, never
to open his mouth.

After the crossing, which a violent wind and heavy rain rendered
difficult, I called out ' M. Duforous ' [Dufour, a Page of the Back-
stairs, who was waiting with a coach and six]. He answered at once
that the carriage was at the inn, so I went forward to hasten the
coachman. . . . Meanwhile Her Majesty and her companions stood
by the wall of a church, exposed to the wind and cold, though
the rain had ceased. There was a man at the inn who, seeing me at
such an hour and somewhat in haste, came out lantern in hand
and observed the carriage. ... I watched him, and seeing he was
going in the direction of the Queen, I followed him swiftly on
the other side of the road. . . . When I saw him approach her,
I made as if to cross the road and pushed him so adroitly that we both
fell to the ground. Being both of us in the mud, we made so many
mutual apologies that he went back to the inn, without getting out
of temper, to brush himself, and I to meet the carriage. The Queen
got in, and the Page, who was to have gone back as he was not in
the secret, having recognised the Queen, our mistress, insisted upon
following her.

As we left the town we met several patrols, one of which cried :
* Let us go and see, surely that is a coach-full of Papists,' but God
willed that they changed their minds, and no one approached us.
About three miles away we met Mr. Leyburn, King's Equerry, with
a led horse and boots for me, which the King in his goodness had

219

QUEEN MARY OF MODEKA

1688 sent expressly. ... I was in rather a sorry state from my fall,
the mud and the rain. ... At Gravesend we found three Irish
Captains sent by the King, who were to serve on the Yacht . . .
they had a boat in readiness. Her Majesty entered it with her suite,
and made for the yacht, on board which were awaiting her the
Duchess [Marchioness] of Powis, governess of the Prince of Wales,
the Countess Vittoria Montecuccoli [Davia], Lady Strickland,
Madame Turini, the Duke [Marquis] of Powis, Father Giudici,
confessor, Sir William Waldegrave, chief physician to the Prince of
Wales, Mr. Sheldon, the Marquis of Montecuccoli, Dufour the Page,
M. Gutteri, a Frenchman, and myself. Sail was set at once, the wind
being favourable."

Other documents show that there were a few other persons
on board the yacht, which had been hired in the name of
the Countess Vittoria. Lauzun had brought with him from
France the Chevalier de St. Victor, who was now sent off
to the King with news of the safe embarkation of his wife
and child. To avert suspicion the Countess hailed the Queen
as sister and reproached her for arriving late, and Lauzun
kept the Captain busy, telling him the political news until the
Queen was well on board, and then gave him 200 guineas,
begging him to land his Catholic friends and their wives in

00 o

France. The Captain not only consented, but passed the
English fleet without firing the usual salute. When in sight
of the coast of France, he told Lauzun he had recognised the
Queen and was only too happy to serve her.

" The weather was so bad," continues Riva, " that the
Captain cast anchor at night, for fear of being thrown on to
the French coast, until 4 o'clock in the morning of Tuesday -|}
Dec., Feast of St. Thomas, and towards 9 o'clock we arrived
at Calais, glad to set foot on land.

" Her Majesty, who did not wish to make herself known
until the King's arrival, retired to a private house, which did
not prevent the Governor from paying her all manner of
service. The King not arriving, Her Majesty determined to
go to Boulogne, where the Due d'Aumont treated her with
great magnificence."

220

Riva's MS. is endorsed by the Nuns of Chaillot as having 1688
been given into their hands by him and approved by the Queen
as the only true account of her escape. An anonymous account
preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris says : " The
Queen asked to be lodged in the Ursuline Convent at Boulogne,
but the Due d'Aumont having prepared his wife the Duchess's
apartment for her, she could not refuse it ; the Prince of
Wales was lodged in the Duke's. Whatever mortal anxieties
this princess suffered, Her Majesty's countenance was always
calm, and if sadness appeared upon it, it was mingled with

greatness She let herself be but rarely seen ; people

went to the Prince of Wales's in her absence, but she was
there five or six times a day and desired to be alone. On
Christmas Eve she heard three Masses after midnight in the

Castle chapel On St. Stephen's Day she went to the

sermon at the Cathedral, attended by the Due d'Aumont and
the Comte de Lauzun "

Immediately upon her arrival at Calais, Mary Beatrice
addressed the following well-known letter to Louis XIV. It
is different from her usual style, and raises a doubt whether,
except the last sentence, it may not have been the composition
of some other person.

" SIRE, a poor fugitive Queen, bathed in tears, has not reared to
brave the perils of the sea, to seek consolation and refuge from the
greatest king and most generous monarch in 'the world. Her ill-
fortune has procured her a happiness which the most distant nations
have ambitioned. Necessity does not lessen it ; since she has made
the choice and with singular esteem desires to confide to him her
most precious possession in the person of her son, the Prince of
Wales, who is as yet too young to share her gratitude. It lies
entirely in my heart, and it is a pleasure to me, in the midst of all
my grief, to come under the shadow of your protection.

Sire, your very affectionate servant and sister

THE QUEEN of ENGLAND."

James had promised to follow the Queen within twenty-four
hours, and his arrest at Feversham and subsequent imprisonment

221

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1688 caused a delay which filled his wife with anguish. She writes
from Boulogne, 27 December, to the Duke of Modena :

"DEAR BROTHER,

You will be astounded to hear that I am in this country, and the
manner of my coming. Having fled by night with my child, with
a frightful but favourable wind, we arrived in little more than twenty-
four hours from London to Calais, whence I came to this place, and
I am in indescribable anxiety at hearing nothing from the King since
my departure just a week ago. He told me he would leave the day
after me, but all the Ports are closed, so I can neither see him nor
have news of him, as no letters are allowed to pass ; you can imagine
in what a state I am, and I am sure if you could see me you would
pity me ; my only consolation is that my son is well, and thrives
amid all these troubles j he alone is happy for he does not know his
misfortunes nor to what a condition he is reduced, and has reduced
his parents. Pray God for me, dear brother, that He may give me
patience, because without His signal help, I think I should lose my
senses (impazzarei).

I am entreated by all to go to Paris, and speak to the King of
France, from whom I am certainly receiving a thousand benefits ;
but I am resolved not to leave the coast until I have news of my
king. I have very few with me, and no one in my confidence
except Donna Vittoria whom I brought alone with Pellegrina
[Turinl]. M. Rangoni and Abb Rizzini must have been stopped,
otherwise I am sure they would be here ; I have no news of M.
Cattaneo, but I hope he is in Paris, and I thank you a thousand times
for having sent him back to me ; what a great consolation it would
be to have you beside me in so hard a trial, but I have desired it so
often without being able to obtain it, that I dare not hope for it
now !

Dear brother, pity me, counsel me, and with your afFection console
your poor afflicted sister, who, in whatever condition she may be will
always love you with her whole heart."

Two days later Mary Beatrice heard of the King's arrest,
" which had been kept from her," writes Riva. Three gentle-
men [one of whom was Vice-Admiral Strickland] arriving from
England, the Queen insisted so strongly to know how they had
left the King that at last they exclaimed, " Sacred Majesty, he

222

LOUIS XIV'S COMMANDS

is taken ! " "I was present," continues Riva, " and I could 1689
not tell you which touched me the most, to hear such
melancholy tidings, or to see the Queen, my mistress, in such
deep affliction."

The Queen's one desire was now to rejoin her husband, and
the Due d'Aumont, Lauzun and Beringhen, Louis XIV's
envoy, had great difficulty in persuading her to remain in
France. There are two letters from Louvois which throw a
curious light upon the French king's policy, and show that
Mary Beatrice, though happily for her she did not know it,
was practically a captive in his hands.

Louvois TO M. BERINGHEN,

"VERSAILLES, Jan. i, 1689.

" The Due d'Aumont's equerry handed me your note and a Ministere
letter from the Comte de Lauzun as I left the King's Mass, . . . Guer re
upon which His Majesty commanded me to tell you that even if the
King of England were to write to the Queen to return, either alone
or with the Prince of Wales, to England (which His Majesty sees no
assurance of), his intention would still be that you bring the Queen
and the Prince of Wales to Vincennes, giving the Queen to under-
stand that having the King's commands to conduct her thither, you
have not the liberty to delay on the road, still less to choose any other
but that to Vincennes, and that you cannot doubt but that she will
be very content to arrive there, to see the King, and concert with
him as to the necessary measures for helping the King her husband in
his present condition."

LOUVOIS TO THE CoMTE DE LAUZUN.

"VERSAILLES, I January, 1689.

" I received the letter you did me the honour to write to me, at
eight o'clock this morning. The King cannot believe that anything
could induce the King of England to write to the Queen to return
to England, either alone or with the Prince of Wales ; but if con-
trary to all appearances this should happen, His Majesty has com-
manded me to let you know that his intention is that you should
bring the Queen and the Prince of Wales to Vincennes under all the
fair pretexts you can imagine par tons les pretextes les plus honnestes
que vous pouvez vous imaginer."

223

i688 In giving the Emperor the news of the Queen's flight,
Hoffmann had written : " Will her destination be France or
Flanders ? " And had given it as his opinion that if she went
to France it might cost her son his crown, which might not be
the case if she chose Flanders.

The joy of the population at the King's return after his first
attempted escape, making his passage through London a
veritable triumph, seems to have raised doubts in his mind as
to the wisdom of evasion ; " but," as Hoffmann bluntly put
it, " whether he goes or stays, he will never be but the shadow
of a king ; to this pass have his weakness, his imprudent zeal
for religion, and his credulity brought him ; and if ever there
was a prince surrounded by foolish, inexperienced, rash, and
corrupt advisers, it has surely been he."

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR.

"LONDON 27 Dec. 1688.

Imp. "At this moment, 10 o'clock at night, I can see the regiment of

Vienna"' t ^ ie P rmce ' s foot-guards defiling in the Park to relieve the Royal
Guard at St. James's ; they will also relieve that at Whitehall, and
replace it definitely. Further, the Prince has appointed other
quarters, outside the town, for each of the royal regiments here, con-
straining them to their great regret to obey his order, without making
the slightest observation ; no troops therefore will remain in London,
except the Prince's.

If, after all this, the king is not a prisoner, at all events there is no
difference between a prisoner and he. He is displaying a calmer
spirit than before, and while attributing all his misfortune to the
nation, which has abandoned him and treated him so unworthily, he
remits all things to Almighty God."

The arrest of Lord Feversham, James's messenger, by the
Prince of Orange (stigmatised by Hoffmann as an outrage)
must have removed any doubts which may have lingered in the
King's mind as to that prince's intentions, which his own arrest
and imprisonment confirmed. His escape from Rochester was
happily effected, and to the great joy of the Queen she received
news of his arrival, January 4, at Ambleteuse, a small port

224

JAMES ITS ARRIVAL IN FRANCE

about six miles from Boulogne. " When the Queen was told the 1689
King was in France," writes the anonymous writer above
quoted, "she exclaimed, without thinking of the loss of three
kingdoms * My God, I am the happiest woman in the
world ! '

The Queen, under the pressure of Louis XIV's envoys, was
on her reluctant way to Paris when the glad news of her
husband's escape reached her at Beaumont.

THE Due D'AUMONT (Governor of Boulogne) TO Louvois.

"BOULOGNE, January 5, 1689.

" The King of England left this morning in my post-chaise after
spending the whole of yesterday here. He spoke a great deal of
the infidelity of his subjects, and especially of Lord Churchill, upon
which he enlarged with such extraordinary circumstances as can
hardly be believed. He did not forget that of the Earl of Sunderland
and several other lords whom he had loaded with benefits and
honours. . . .

The ease with which he escaped the second time leads me to think
that the Prince of Orange shut his eyes to his evasion, for it is to be
noted that of the sixty [Dutch] horse which guarded him at
Rochester, the lieutenant, quarter-master, two corporals, and forty-
five men were Catholics, and attended Mass each morning in the
King's chapel. . . .*'

If Mary Beatrice ardently desired her brother's presence in
this time of misfortune, the young Duke was none the less
anxious to fly to her, as the following letter to his uncle,
Cardinal d'Este, testifies. After announcing in terms of
dismay that the King of England has been forced to call a free
Parliament, " which as the prudence of Your Eminence will
recognise can bring him nothing but peril and disadvantage,"
and that the Queen and Prince of Wales have flown to Calais,
he continues :

" The thought that the Queen and the royal infant are in safety is
no small relief to the infinite grief and agitation of my mind.
Prompted by the impulse of the tenderest love, of obligation and

225 Q

1689 propriety, I feel compelled in such circumstances to assist and serve
the Queen in person ; I am resolved to start at once, incognito, and
with as small a suite as possible. ... As I mean to leave with all
secrecy, I pray Your Eminence to keep the news to yourself for the
present, confiding it to no one except to the Holy Father, and
begging him in my name to honour me with his commands. . . .
and to accompany me on my journey with his holy and paternal
benediction. . . .

Your Eminence's most affectionate servant and nephew,

FRANCESCO D'STE."

His uncle's remonstrances and his own state of health,
already undermined by the disease which was to end his life a
few years later, prevented the Duke from executing a project
which would have filled his sister's affectionate heart with
pleasure.

If Louis XIV had laid invisible, though none the less in-
frangible, bonds about Mary Beatrice's freedom of action, he
at the same time loaded her with honour ; her progress to Paris
was splendidly regulated, and he met her himself at Chatou
with his whole Court in a hundred carriages, waiting five hours
for her arrival there, and conducted her to St. Germains, instead
of to Vincennes, as he had first intended. An anonymous
pamphlet, preserved in the Archives of the Affaires Etrangeres,
written probably by some gentleman in the King's suite,
mentions one or two details not to be found elsewhere, notably
that on the Queen's arrival at Boulogne not only did she find
a magnificent wardrobe provided by Louis XIV, but several
presents from her old enemy, the Duchess of Portsmouth, 1 and
that the moment James II landed at Ambleteuse " he pros-
trated himself and returned thanks to God, and then asked for
. a bed that he might take a little rest."

James arrived at St. Germains the day after the Queen.
" He came late," writes Madame de Sevigne, " as he had been
first to Versailles [not knowing that Louis XIV had gone to

1 Dangeau notes in his Journal : " 6 Jan. 1689. Madame de Portsmouth wished to
go to the Queen, but M. de Lauzun sent her word, she would receive no-one until she
was at St. Germains. . . . 10 Jan. The Queen received Madame de Portsmouth and
made her sit down,"

226

THE QUEEN'S SELF-CONTROL

St. Germains to receive him] the King went to the end of the 1689
guardroom to meet him ; the King of England bowed very
low, as if to embrace his knees ; the King prevented him, and
embraced him four or five times very cordially ... he then
led him to the Queen's apartment, who had much ado to
restrain her tears. . . . The King sent 10,000 louis d'or to
the King of England. He looks old and tired ; the Queen is
thin, with eyes that have wept much, but black and beautiful ;
a fine complexion, rather pale ; a large mouth and beautiful
teeth ; a handsome figure and plenty of spirit ; une personne
composee and very pleasing."

We have seen in Mary Beatrice's letter to her brother that
but for the help of God she feared the greatness of her
afflictions might bereave her of her senses ; no stronger proof
of the valiant self-control she exerted over herself could be
furnished than by the following account from the pen of
Countess Vittoria Montecuccoli Davia, the companion of her
flight, and the only person in her confidence, as she had herself
described her. It is addressed to the Duke of Modena, and
dated Versailles, 7 January, 1689.

". . . The Queen has betrayed no regret at having left her
kingdom and all the rest ; she lamented sorely over her separation
from the King, whom she longed to see in safety ; now I fancy she
may think a little about the rest. At any rate her virtue is great,
and I hope God in his goodness will soon restore their Majesties to
their kingdom. ... I offer my congratulations to your most Serene
Highness, assuring you you have a Queen for sister who is the
admiration of everyone. . . . The King [of France] shows her the
greatest esteem, and after providing her with everything [including a
splendid silver toilette service], has sent her a casket containing 6,000
louis d'or."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"ST. GERMAINS, 12 January 1689.
"DEAR BROTHER,

If I tried to tell you all that has happened to me and to the
King since our departure, I would write a volume rather than a

227 Q 2

1689 letter j I shall content myself with telling you the most important
part, which is our safe arrival in this place. My son and I arrived on
the 6th and the King on the yth, after having caused me to shed
many tears and not without reason ; but thank God, we are in safety
and receive a thousand kindnesses from this King.

The state of our affairs in England is miserable ; may it please
God to change it, and to give us patience meanwhile.

I do not know what has become of poor Rizzini, and I have no
news of Marquis Cattaneo."

228

CHAPTER IX

THE life of Queen Mary Beatrice had but half run its course 1689
when she left England. For thirty years she was to eat of the
tearful bread of exile, the pensioner on the bounty of a foreign
king, and engaged in a perpetual state of alternating hopes and
fears, of baffled efforts to restore her husband and her son to
their inheritance. To the Stuarts and their adherents, their cause
was the cause of right against wrong, of legitimacy against
usurpation, the cause of Heaven itself, and the Queen would
have held it a kind of defection, a lack of confidence in Pro-
vidence, if she had ever faltered in the unequal struggle which
ended with her life. But the womanliness of character which
had made her declare herself the happiest woman in the world
at the news of her husband's safety, caused her to taste to the
full the domestic joys which had been embittered to her in the
days of her splendour. Her children had been born but to
die, and the King's infidelities had during the past ten years
made a passionate jealousy enter deeply into her love for him.
She was never again to be a childless woman, and henceforward
James's virtue was to be equal to her own. These were the
compensations of her exile, to which may be added the satis-
faction of finding at Chaillot, near Paris, a Convent of the
Order of the Visitation, which in her youth she had so ardently
desired to join, and which was now to offer her a haven of
peace and rest whenever she could escape from the Courts of
St. Germains and Versailles.

James II arrived in France a broken-hearted and broken

229

1689 spirited man. Hoffmann described him after the return from
Salisbury as " unrecognisable," and there seems little doubt but
that a feeling of duty to his son, and perhaps his wife's remon-
strances, alone prevented him from resignedly accepting
the loss of his kingdoms. He was a hundred and fifty
years in advance of his generation in his love of toleration
and liberty of conscience, and he would perhaps inevitably have
been thwarted, betrayed, and misunderstood, even if his
methods had been as intelligent and statesmanlike as they were
the reverse. He loved his people, he had fought by his
father's side in civil war, he knew, as only a man trained from
his earliest youth in the craft of war could know, how hope-
less his case had become from the military point of view
when his army, the weapon he had fashioned with so much
diligence and care, crumbled to pieces in his hand, and the
words of his letter to Lord Feversham ordering the disband-
ment of the faithful remnant of his troops, that he no longer
desired to expose them to the danger of " resistance to a
foreign army and a poisoned nation" were no doubt written
with a sincere horror of replunging his country into a civil
war.

There seems to have been a pause, almost of consternation,
among the great Powers of Europe at the downfall of the
English King. " The Pope says he has been deceived," wrote
Melani, Tuscan attache at Paris, but Innocent XI's regrets did
not prevent the general opinion which found expression two
months later in the words chalked on the doors of St. James's
Palace : " Cromwell II, by the Grace of God and favour of
the Apostolic See, Protector of England." Spain, whose
Ambassador at the Hague had had a votive Mass said in his
chapel the day William sailed for England, had the mortifica-
tion of hearing of the attack and pillage of Ronquillo's palace
in London, containing besides his own goods and effects property
worth some 500,000, which the English Catholics had placed
there for safety. Louis XIV, caught in the meshes of his own
intricate policy, hampered by his war with the Emperor

IMPRESSION IN PARIS

which he had declared at the moment most opportune for the 1689
purposes of the Prince of Orange, had served the interests of
his bitterest enemy, whom he was to encounter a few months
later with the force of England at his back, in the first of a
series of battles which were to inflict as many reverses upon his
arms as they had been uniformly glorious heretofore. Vainly
did he blame Barillon (who, there is little doubt, had played
more or less voluntarily into Sunderland's hands), and refuse
to receive the Nuncio d'Adda on his way through France ;
and in vain did he generously come to the aid of his fallen
kinsman. The succours which he had thought himself obliged
to refuse when James, at last realising his own danger, had
asked for them in the previous October and when a French
fleet might possibly have stopped William on his way to
Torbay were now to be lavished again and again, and always
in vain. To neither friend nor foe had it appeared conceivable
that matters in England would have moved so quickly, that
the collapse could have been so sudden and so complete.

The stir caused in Paris by the advent of the English Royal
family finds expression in Madame de Sevigne's letters :

" Let us talk of the King and Queen ot England : it is such an
extraordinary thing to have this Court here, that nothing else is
spoken of. Precedence is being settled, and a manner of life for
people so far from being restored. The King was saying so the
other day, and that this king is the best man in the world, that
he should hunt with him, should come to Marly and to Trianon,
and that the courtiers must get accustomed to it. ... The Queen
did not kiss Monsieur, at which he is sulking ; she said to the
king : * Tell me what you wish me to do, if you wish me to follow
the French fashion, I will salute whomsoever you please ; in English
fashion I should kiss no one.' "

Thus did Mary Beatrice guide herself skilfully through the
all-important intricacies of French Court etiquette and win the
admiration expressed by Madame de Sevigne a few days later :

" Every one is pleased with this Queen ; she has a great deal of
spirit .... everything she says is just and full of good sense ; it is not
the same with her husband : he certainly has courage, but a common

231

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 mind (un esprit commun] and talks of everything which has happened
in England with a degree of insensibility which inspires insensibility
towards him. He is good-natured, and takes his share in all the diver-
sions of Versailles, ij January, 1689. The English Court is now
quite established at St. Germains. The Queen pleases greatly. . . .
She went to see the Dauphiness three days ago, dressed to perfection ;
a black velvet dress, a beautiful skirt, her head well dressed, a figure
like the Princess of Conti's, and a great deal of majesty, . . . the
King led her to her carriage, and when he came upstairs again he
praised her highly ; he said : * That is how a Queen should be in
body and mind, holding her court with dignity.' He admired her
courage in her misfortunes and her affection for her husband, for it is
true that she loves him. . . . Some of our ladies who wished to
play the princess, had not kissed the Queen's skirt . . . the king
took it ill ; now they kiss her feet. ... I agree with you that the
King and Queen of England are much better off at St. Germains
than in their own perfidious country. . . . They have refused to
accept more than 50,000 francs a month, of all the king offered them
and do not wish to live as royalties ; many English have come to
them : otherwise they would have contented themselves with still
less."

The same day Ronchi, the Queen's chaplain, writes to the
Duke of Modena from Versailles a full account of all the state
regulations and orders of precedence, some of which are not
yet settled, as, for instance, whether the Duke of Orleans is to
have the distinction he claims between himself and the other
princes of the blood, and if the duchesses who are to have
tabourets may also be kissed by the Queen.

" The King of England has raised the Marquis of Powis to the
rank of Duke, so that his wife may have the tabouret like the French
duchesses. The representatives of foreign powers are waiting for
instructions from their Governments before paying their court, but
have written letters. . . . l

1 The Dukes of Modena, besides their accredited envoys, had secret agents at the chiel
Courts of Europe, who sent regular letters awisi which are very interesting as they
were often used by the Ministers to convey items of intelligence which they did not con-
sider it expedient to put into their official despatches. Modena claims to have been the
first to introduce the system, which was followed by most of the other Chancelleries of
Europe. The A-wiso of Jan. 17 says: ." . . . Mylord Feversham has been set at
liberty at the request of the Queen Dowager of England .... Count Rangoni was
mistaken for Father Peters (sic) and nearly beaten to death by the mob "

232

A DISSENTIENT NOTE

Count Rangoni, Modenesc envoy in London, who with difficulty 1689
escaped from prison, where he had been thrown by order of the
Prince of Orange, says that the prisons are full . . . that Orange
goes about in fear, and well guarded, that a Modenese gentleman
having gone to see him dine, noticed mylord Churchill enter, and
that the Prince never looked at him, so the said mylord retired to a
window where he leaned very thoughtfully (molto pensieroso). The
Modenese gentleman was astonished that the Prince of Orange,
whom he considered a great politician, should take so little trouble to
conciliate the inconstant and turbulent spirit of the English people."

In the chorus of praise of the Queen we find a dissentient
note in the Medici Archives. Melani writes to the Abbe
Gondi, secretary to the Grand Duke of Tuscany :

" The King of England is a very good man, and the Queen his
wife has ruined him ; having great empire over him, she led him to
make no account of the English nobility, and she made still less of
the ladies of that country, which did her great harm, and will render
it difficult for them ever to trust in her ; they say they could rely
upon the King, but not on the Queen, as she is an Italian, and
devout, as if the devout were slow to forgive injuries. . . . The
King [Louis XIV] is displeased with the conduct of Monsieur de
Barillon in England, . . . All who come from there are agreed that
the excessive goodness (la troppa bontti] of the King, and the excessive
devotion of the Queen have ruined them, as their antechambers
were always full of religious, who governed the whole court. The
King of England passes here for a very good Prince, but without
that elevation of character which fame had attributed to him."

Rizzini had escaped with difficulty from England, having
been arrested at Gravesend. He writes to the Duke of Modena
from Calais of the cool courage of the Queen before her flight,
holding her court as usual, and supping with an appearance of
appetite.

" The King passed through Gravesend while I was there, and spent
the night." [on his second flight] " He asked to see me .... and
after supper when we were alone spoke over an hour, confiding most
secret and important affairs, that I might communicate them to the
Queen and to the most Christian King in case His Majesty did not
succeed in escaping. ... As the King showed some ambiguity of

233

QUEEN MARY OF MODEISTA

1689 mind, whether he should withdraw himself from the power and the
hands of the usurper or adventure his fortune after seeing the great
joy of the people, extraordinarily delighted at His Majesty's return to
London after his first flight, I ventured to insist, with the most efficacious
reasons, that he should not trust to the deceptive acclamations of a
people interiorly seduced and naturally inconstant, nor to the hoped-
for moderation of a usurper who was proceeding in all things as a
parricide and tyrant . . .

The Spanish Ambassador publicly gave out that it was I alone
who had persuaded the Queen to take refuge in France with the
Prince of Wales ... It is true I laboured more than any one to
induce her to escape, but not to one place more than to another,
conforming myself to the intention of Your Serene Highness to get
her to Modena . . . Mylords Peterborough and Salisbury are
prisoners, and closely guarded. ..."

According to Hoffmann, Rizzini had long been sold to
France, and he suggests in one of his despatches that both he
and Donna Vittoria Montecuccoli had received a large sum from
Louis XIV, but he seems to have had little or no authority
for the statement. Rizzini writes again from Paris, January 25,
1689, of his kind reception by Louis, who was loud in the
praises of the Queen :

"In this state of affairs the dispossessed King enjoys tranquillity in
this kingdom and a secure haven offered with truly fraternal affection
by this ever-glorious and invincible monarch. . . . The indifference
(la poca curanza) or even insensibility he displays concerning his
misfortunes is noticed and variously interpreted ; but those who
know his undaunted nature are well aware that he is never
accustomed to betray his distress, not that he feels the less deeply,
for wounds are often the most painful which are the most carefully
concealed."

Donna Vittoria Montecuccoli Davia was created Countess of
Almond by James II as a recognition of her services to the
Queen. She kept up a correspondence with the Duke of
Modena, sending him news of the exiled Court.

"ST. GERMAINS. Jan. 27. 1689

" . . . . The Queen enjoys splendid health and supports every-
thing with a good heart, only complaining that she can do so little

234

A MESSENGER TO ROME

now for those who serve her. [This regret was to be increasingly 1689
present to the Queen for the rest of her life.] Until now she has been
served by French officials ; but I believe they will soon leave as
there are already many English to replace them, and more are
arriving every day, including many Protestants who have declared
for the King, who is in very good humour, hunts and goes often to
Versailles, as he will do to-day. ..."

u QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO CARDINAL RINALDO D'STE, AT ROME.

" ST. GERMAINS. i February^ 1689

" . . . . The King arrived three weeks ago, and immediately
resolved to send a messenger to the Pope . . . and has appointed
M. Porter [Colonel James Porter, co. Wexrord] an honourable man of
great spirit and a zealous Catholic, by whom you will be informed of
everything as he has orders to take no step without you. God grant
good may come of it, and put an end to whatever bad intelligence
there is among Catholic Princes, that they may all unite in defence
of our holy faith, because in truth it would be shameful (sarebbe
vergogna] that all the Protestant Princes should labour and be united
to advance their false religion, and that the Catholics, instead of
uniting to defend the faith, should be at variance with each other. I
am sure, when His Holiness is plainly informed of the miserable state
in which we, and all the Catholics of our kingdoms find ourselves,
he will be moved with compassion, and will do all he can to help us.

The chief point therefore is to make His Holiness sensible of our
misfortunes, which I think will be easy by telling him the simple
truth, which M. Porter will first relate to you, and then, with you,
to the Holy Father. ... I know your zeal for religion and for the
King's service needs no spur, and therefore I shall not labour in this
particular, feeling assured that you will do your utmost to induce His
Holiness to consent to what is desired, which seems to us the only
remedy to so many ills.

I hope you may have the honour of bringing this important
negociation to a good end, upon which depends the quiet and
welfare of three kingdoms, the King's, my son's and my own, for
which alone I flatter myself you would do much. . . ."

To obtain peace between Austria and France l and to get
subsidies from the Pope were the objects the Queen refers to, but

1 The Awiis of Feb. 18 says ; " . . . The King of England having received letters
from Rom^, went to Versailles to confer with the most Christian King and the Pope ha,s

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 the Papal exchequer was being drained in defence of a nearer
and more important cause, the defence of Christendom against
the Turks, who but a few years before had been hammering at
the very gates of Vienna, and to whom Louis XIV (whose zeal
for moral unity at home had led to the wretched Revocation of
the Edict of Nantes) did not scruple to send money to help them
against the Emperor Leopold, with whom he was himself at
war. Meanwhile important events were happening in England,
and Evelyn notes them succinctly as they occur. The revulsion
of feeling in many men's minds is noticeable in his Diary :
often condemnatory of James's acts during his short reign, and
having noted almost with indifference the reports of the Prince
of Orange's projected arrival, there is now a different tone in
the short entries.

"29 January, 1689. Grand Committee or the whole House,
51 fora Regency, 54 against; the minority alleging the danger of
dethroning kings, and scruples. . . . Some were for sending to His
Majesty with conditions ; others that the King can do no wrong
and the mal-administration chargeable to his Ministers. Only two
Bishops out of eight or nine against Regency. ... In short, things
tended to dissatisfaction on both sides ; add to this the morose temper
of the Prince of Orange, who shew'd little countenance to the noble-
men and others. . . . The English army also was not so in order
and firme to his interest, nor so weaken'd but that it might give
interruptions. . . . 3Oth. The Anniversary of King Charles I
martyrdom ; but in all the publicq offices and pulpit prayers the
litany for the King and Queen was curtail'd and mutilated.
6 February. The Convention of the Lords and Commons now
declare the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen or
England, France and Ireland (Scotland being an independent
kingdom). There was much contest about the King's abdication,
and whether he had vacated the Government. The Earl of Not-
tingham and about twenty Lords, and many Bishops enter'd their

sent briefs to the King of France and to the Emperor exhorting them to make peace. . . .
21 Feb. It is published here that the Court of Rome was scandalised si sia tcandalizztito
that the King of England had retired to France and that for that reason he must expect no
help from the Holy See ; but the re-establishment of the British King is reserved for the
glory of this King, who is applying himself to it with as much ardour as if it were his
own, although almost the whole of Europe appears united against him. , ."

236

WILLIAM AND MARY

protests, but the concurrence was against them. 2ist. I saw the 1689
new Queen and King proclaimed the very next day after her coming
to Whitehall, with great acclamations and generall good reception.
Bonfires, bells, guns, etc. It was believ'd that both, especially the
Princess, would have shew'd some (seeming) reluctance at least, of
assuming her father's crown, and made some apology. . . . Which
would have shew'd very handsomely to the world and according to
the character given of her piety, consonant also to her husband's first
declaration that there was no intention of deposing the King, but of
succouring the Nation ; but nothing of all this appear'd, she came
into Whitehall laughing and jolly as to a wedding, so as to seem
quite transported. She rose early the next morning, and in her
undresse, as it was reported, before her women were up, went about
from roome to roome to see the convenience of Whitehall ; lay in
the same bed and apartment where the late Oueen lay, and within a
night or two sate downe to play at basset as the Oueen her prede-
cessor used to do. She smil'd upon and talked to everybody. . . .
This carriage was censured by many.

Divers Bishops and Noblemen are not at all satisfied with this so
sudden assumption of the Crown, without any previous sending and
offering some conditions to the absent King or, on his not returning
or not assenting to those conditions, to have proclaimed him [the
Prince of Orange] Regent ; but the major part of both Houses
prevail'd to make them King and Queen immediately, and a Crowne
was tempting. This was oppos'd and spoken against so vehemently
by Lord Clarendon (her owne uncle) that it put him by all prefer-
ment, which must doubtlesse have been as great as could have been
given him. My lord of Rochester, his brother, overshot himselfe by
the same carriage and stiffnesse."

The following letter from Mary Beatrice to the General of stuart
the Jesuits is undated, but evidently written about this time. wE
It is the strongest in its terms of any we have from her pen. Castle

"Rev. Father. I see by the letter you have had the charity to
write to condole with me in the misfortunes which have befallen
our Crown, that you feel them as a good friend and a very good
religious. I think I may say without vanity that the friendship I
have always shown your Society deserved no less from you, and
moreover I leave the whole world to judge if the hatred of religion
has not been the cause of the treason and revolt of our subjects ; if

1689 we have not lost our own kingdoms for having sought to further
Christ's.

This is why I cannot overcome my astonishment at the strange
policy of those Princes, even Catholics, who allowed themselves to be
surprised into such strange and unchristian imaginations, as to attempt
to say that religion had no part in our sufferings, and then spared not
to treat us as enemies with insolent outrage from the moment the
heretic usurper had seized upon our throne. In truth it was a little
too much (un peu trap fort) to add calumnies and insults to the mis-
fortunes it had pleased Divine Providence to inflict on us ; but I
hope God will not delay to open the eyes and touch the hearts of
those Princes, that they may not permit the sacrifice of the interests
of the faith by the evil policy suggested to them by certain interested
Ministers, who have but the semblance of true religion. . . .

Begging the help of your prayers that God may give me the
grace of entire submission to His Holy Will, I subscribe myselr

Your affectionate friend,

MARIA R."

The day William and Mary were proclaimed King and
Queen of England, James II wrote a long letter in Latin to the
Emperor Leopold, asking his assistance to recover his throne.
The answer, also in Latin, came two months later, and, with
incomprehensible rudeness, the Emperor addresses the fallen
monarch by the title of " Most Serene Highness." The letter
contains some unpleasant home-truths, regretting his downfall
which was what might have been expected, attributing his
misfortunes to the French alliance, and not forgetting to point
out that Louis XIV was actually helping the Turks in their
warfare against the Empire. The letter concludes with the
assurance that under the circumstances it was impossible to
help the cause of the English King.

The shrewd pen of Madame de Sevigne has some character-
istic remarks at this time : " The Queen of England looks as
if, God willing, she would rather be reigning in England than
at St. Germains, although overwhelmed with the heroic
bounties of the King. As for the King of England, he
appears content, and that is the reason he finds himself here.
. . . All Ireland is for him ; he would have done better

238

THE QUEEN'S CARRIAGES

to have taken refuge there. He is not liked as well as the 1689
Queen. . . . Some one has said, with respect to the King
of England's coldness, that when one listened to him, one
understood why he was here ... 25 February. It is said the
King of England is going to Ireland ; the rumour is abroad,
but 1 answer for nothing this year, as people do nothing
but lie. He has dined with M. de Lauzun." l

Soon after his arrival in France, James II had written to
Lord Dartmouth :

" However the Prince of Orange uses me in other things, sure he
will not refuse me the common civility of letting all my coaches and
horses come over to me ; 'tis but what I did to Prince George [of
Denmark] when he went from me. I send this bearer Rol
[Rodolph ?] Sheldon to you to bring them away as soon as a pass can
be got from the Prince of Orange. Speak for the pass yourself, or to
Ld Middleton to have it solicited ; give directions to De la Trie to
send the best of my guns and pistols over with Sheldon, this bearer,
to whom I refer what else I have to say.

JAMES R."

The pass was obtained, but William revoked it upon hearing
that James was starting for Ireland. The Queen's carriages
and horses were, however, already shipped and got away before
they could be stopped, so that Mary Beatrice had her own
equipage at St. Germains, driven by her old coachman, who
had been Oliver Cromwell's.

There was no more gallant figure in the small Court now
forming at St. Germains than that of the young, pious and
valiant soldier, James's son, the Duke of Berwick. Engaged
at the age of fifteen in the service of the Emperor against the
Turks and wounded at the battle of Buda, he was recalled to
England in 1688. Churchill in vain tried to gain him to the
Orange cause ; he obeyed the King's summons to . Rochester,
and helped him to escape, attending him in the disguise of a

1 Mary Beatrice did not fail to prove her gratitude to Lauzun. The a-wiso of Feb.
7 says : "The Queen of England has asked the King (Louis Xlf) for the order of the
Holy Ghost made vacant by the death of Vieuville, and it is believed it is for the Comte de
Lauzun. . ." The Dukedom conferred upon him some two years later was also obtained
by the Queen.

239

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 servant. " He never left the King's side," writes his biographer.
Early in February 1689 he was set to form regiments out of
the scattered officers and soldiers who had come over to
France, for the purpose of taking them to the aid of Tyrconnel
in Ireland, for James II had now determined, with the help of
France, to attempt the recovery of his lost dominions. Abbe
Melani writes to the Tuscan Secretary of State, 7 February,
1689 :

"... Each day more English arrive at St Germains, and a Captain
of Dragoons succeeded in bringing his company and all their horses
across the water. . . . There are now over 4,000, all splendid men
(bellimma gente] and it is concluded that if the King, after sending
the Oueen and the Prince of Wales into safety, had put himself at
the head of his troops, he would have had a considerable party,
because the soldiers and inferior officers loved him and served him
faithfully, and the rebellion took place solely among the superior
officers, even of these and among the greater part of the Bishops
there were many who wished to see their laws maintained and the
Jesuits banished, but not the overthrow of the King ; he has not
known his own advantage and still less how to take a resolution
worthy of a magnanimous king ; if, when the Prince of Orange
landed, he had gone against him at once as Lord Feversham advised,
he would have broken the measures of the rebels and would most
probably have gained a complete victory.

He lives entirely surrounded by religious and speaks of his downfall
with as much indifference as if it did not concern him, and as if he
had never been a king, so much so that the French are quite out of
conceit with him, and those who knew him in Flanders when he
was Duke of York, declare he is not the same man, so great a
change do they find in His Majesty, who, however, is so affable
and courteous that he leaves nothing to be desired oh that
score."

The poor Queen was now to suffer for her former efforts
for the aggrandisement of her uncle. Rizzini writes to the
Duke of Modena, Feb. 1 6 :

" . . . . The opinion of this Court concerning the most Serene
Prince Cardinal [d'Este] is unfavourable, but out of consideration for
their Britannic Majesties no alienation is expressed. At Versailles

240

DEATH OF THE QUEEN OF SPAIN

and at St Germains however they declaim against Cardinal Howard, 1689
who has shown himself hostile to the interests of their Majesties and
the declared enemy of France, and it is held by several that his bad
feeling against their Majesties proceeds from his having been deprived
of the Protection of England in favour of the Prince Cardinal. In
truth, according to the prudent, it was not a wise measure ; but those
who promoted it in London, had no thought of future consequences ;
it did great harm, especially to the Queen, giving occasion for in-
iquitous imputations, and setting against her Majesty not only the
house of Arundel, part Catholic and part Protestant, but all connected
with it and the English in general. ... 21 February. . . The King
of England proclaims loudly that he was betrayed by the Catholic
Ambassador [Don Pedro Ronquillo] and what is worse, that the latter
was supported by Nuncio d'Adda. Nevertheless the latter has had so
little judgment as to come to the Court. . . . '

Louis XIV refused to see d'Adda despite the good offices ot
King James. Rizzini continues :

" Their Majesties were much afflicted at the news of the sudden
death of the Catholic Queen, their niece [daughter of the Duke of
Orleans and Henrietta of England] which has caused great surprise
and grief at Court. . . She had lately written long letters of all she
hoped might be effected in favour of His Britannic Majesty. . . . and
had not failed to incite her Royal Consort to moderate his animosity
against France, and to facilitate some accommodation between this
Court and the Emperor ; but all the fruits of her efforts is destroyed
by her premature death (she was 26 years of age)- . . . .

Dangeau in his Memoirs gives an instance of the magnificent
courtesy of Louis XIV to the fallen king : " The Court has
taken mourning for the Queen of Spain. The two Kings were
in violet to-day : the King of England wears violet as King of
France, which title he still bears." Louis suffered James to
quarter the Lilies of France with the Lions of England, and
Mary Beatrice's chair was raised a degree higher than his
own.

James wrote to Cardinal d'Este, February 24, to announce
his departure for Ireland, giving as one of his reasons for
haste : " Half the English army have deserted and the

241 R

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 diversity of interests and confusion of tongues in that new
Babel is as great as we could desire. . . ."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO CARDINAL D'STE.

" ST. GERMAINS. Feb. 26. 1689.

" . . . It is a great consolation to the King and to me to hear of
His Holiness's affectionate tenderness towards us. I hope we are not
unworthy of it, and that the Pope will have the goodness to let the
world see that his actions on our behalf correspond with his words,
which in the present conjuncture would not be sufficient for us. ...

This King certainly gives us great succours, and I hope His Holiness
will do likewise, for without money we can hope for nothing good.

As for me, I am in great anguish, tormented in mind and body ;
for several days I have had terrible sufferings from the stone, which
have left me so prostrate that I cannot write this letter without
fatigue. At the same time the King has determined to go to Ireland,
which is certainly praiseworthy, that being the only refuge left to
him ; pray very hard for me. . . . but I do not wish to enlarge upon
my distresses. . . .

.... My son is perfectly well, and I remain with unchangeable
cordiality,

Your affectionate niece,

MARIA R."

James II sent his former Ambassador, Skelton, on a mission
to the various Courts of Europe which had little success.
The Emperor refused to see him, and the other Powers
gave him nothing but fair words. As for Louis XIV, the
plan which suited his own policy was to send James, who
would have preferred to go direct to Scotland, to Ireland.
" The best thing King James could do," he wrote, " would be
to forget he had ever reigned in Great Britain, and to think
only of establishing himself solidly in Ireland." The French
Ministers drew up and presented to James a " resume of the
reasons which should oblige the King of England to pass into
Ireland."

Abbe Melani sends an account to Grand Duke Cosimo of
the preparation for James II's expedition :

"It is now public that His Majesty will sail for Ireland from
Brest. The King [Louis XIV] wished to send 6,000 troops with

242

JAMES II STARTS FOR IRELAND

him, but it being feared that the Catholics of Ireland might think he 1689
intended to put the French in possession of that country, it was
decided to give him only 2,000 [the rest followed later with Lauzun]
under the command of M. Rosa [Conrad, Marquis of Rosen] nephew
of the ramous Colonel Rosa who served under the Regency, and one
of the best officers in France, with the title of Lieutenant General.

The King is also sending, as his Ambassador to the English King,
Count d'Avaux, who will act as his first Minister of State, so that
nothing may be done in those parts without his participation. It is
said that besides these troops, the English king is taking with him
500,000 crowns in gold, supplied by the King. M. d'Avaux started
for Brest on Saturday. . . . this choice clearly shows that M. de
Barillon has lost credit at the French Court, and not without reason,
having discovered nothing of what was plotted in England, and then
having acted weakly and basely (con viltd dl cuore.'). . . . His Majesty
was to have started yesterday at day-break, so all the Princes of the
blood, and the whole Court, came the day before to bid him farewell,
and wish him better fortune than he had in England. The Queen
thinks or retiring into some convent near St. Germains. . . .

Besides the money, the Most Christian King has already given the
King of England, he is allowing him a fund of 200,000 frs. a month
to pay his troops. . .

The King of England found he could not do without Jesuits in
Ireland, so he is taking half-a-dozen, much to the displeasure of the
Englishmen who are with him. The most Christian King has given
him six General Officers, twenty captains, thirty lieutenants, and
forty cadets, several artillery officers, cannons, ammunition, and arms
for 20,000 men . . . twelve saddle horses splendidly accoutred, three
carriages ... a silver service for when His Majesty dines with
several persons, and another in silver-gilt ... a bed, linen, a toilette,
and in fact everything necessary for a king upon a campaign. His
Majesty also gave him his own travelling chariot and the pistols he
wore in his holsters, begging him to use them, and finally 600,000
crowns in specie. . . . When the two kings separated, after em-
bracing several times, he of France told the other, he would perhaps
be surprised at the compliment he was about to make him that for
his glory and welfare he trusted he might never see him in this
kingdom again. The other responded that his obligations to His
Majesty were such, that he hoped to re-enter into possession of his
kingdoms for no greater reason than to be able to testify his
gratitude. . . .

243 R 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 It W "H be impossible for him to recover the throne he has lost

through his own fault (sua mala condotta] without gaining a battle
over the Prince of Orange. However, His Majesty is so tranquil
and indifferent that it appears certain he would be content to stay in
France employed solely in exercises of devotion and the chase, were
it not for the stimulus given him no less by the Vice-Roy of Ireland
than by the King of France.

M. Skelton has gone to Turin, Venice and Vienna, Colonel Porter
has also left for Modena, P'lorence and Rome."

Madame de Sevigne writes February 28, 1689 :

"The King of England has given the Order of the Garter to
M. de Lauzun. He really started this morning for Ireland, where he
is awaited with impatience ; he will be better there than here ! In
taking leave of the King he said, laughing, that he had only forgotten
one thing personal arms for himself, upon which the King gave
him his own ; our romancers never invented a gallanter act. What
may not this brave unfortunate prince accomplish with these ever-
victorious arms ? . . . 8 p.m. I have just returned from M. de
Pomponne's. I made him talk of the present affairs ; he thinks all
these great mountains will be levelled. This Irish business is
admirable and occupies the Prince of Orange so completely that
there is nothing to be feared on our coasts. ... 2 March. The
King does not wish the Queen of England to go into a convent ;
she will see few people ; but the King will take care of her, and she
will have constant news. . . . The farewell between her and the
King pierced every heart : there were tears, cries, sobs, swoons ; one
can easily understand it. He is now where he ought to be ; he has
a good cause, he defends the true religion ; he must conquer or die,
being a courageous man."

RIZZINI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"2 March, 1689.

"... The British King was not at first disposed to start so soon,
according to his usual habit, but pressing letters from Tyrconnel
imploring him to come as speedily as possible, made him take a
sudden resolution to depart. . . . The most powerful reasons were
urged here, and as His Majesty has been hitherto esteemed one of the
most valorous of princes, he might have lost credit and reputation if,
after losing one kingdom without drawing his sword, he had made no
personal eftort to preserve the other two.

244

THE QUEEN AS PEACEMAKER

The last important reason regards the advantage ot this Most 1689
Christian Court, as the passing of the King into Ireland will cause
dissensions in England, which will so occupy the Prince of Orange
that he will not be able to apply himself to anything else and least
of all to a war with France. The King departed very cheerfully,
except for the sorrow of leaving his adored Queen Consort and his
beloved child.

Yesterday Madame de Maintenon went to St. Germains, sent, as
it is supposed by the Most Christian King to comfort the Queen with
the consolations of her exalted mind ; they remained more than an
hour alone together in a small closet, and no one exactly knows what
was the subiect of their conference."

To understand the following letter from the Queen to
Cardinal d'Este it is necessary to remember that the quarrel
respecting the Ambassador's quarters in Rome was still acute
between France and the Holy See, the French Ambassador
excommunicated by Innocent XI, the Papal Nuncio at Paris
imprisoned and Avignon occupied by the French.

"Sr. GERMAINS, 14 March, 1689.

"... Now that the King is gone I had news from him yesterday
that he was leaving on the Jth and I hope in God he is now in
Dublin the management of affairs is left to me, and I have none
more at heart than these differences between Rome and the King of
France. You may believe that I do my utmost to find a remedy for
them, and as I see that you are working for the same end, I entreat
you not to pause, seeing that it concerns not only the service of the
King and myself, but that of the Church and all Christendom.

I have not yet been able to discover what is the first step sought
for by one side or the other, and without knowing that it is im-
possible to act ; I beg you, if you can penetrate the wishes of the
Court or Rome to let me know in clear terms. I know very well in
general that here it is desired that the excommunication should be
removed and the Ambassador received, but knowing it superficially
does not suffice ; it is said that if the Pope would make the first
advance, however small it might be, they would do much here, but
no one will begin, so how can we hope to finish ?

In truth this is not a matter, nor a time, for delay, nor for standing
upon punctilio, when the preservation or destruction of our religion

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 is in question. I pray the Holy Ghost may enter deeply into the
good heart of our Holy Father to make him conscious of this truth,
and inspire him to find a remedy without a moment's delay. . . .

There is another thing most necessary for the success of the King's
voyage, I mean a good sum of money ; this King has really behaved
with the greatest generosity, but he has much to do to find money
for himself to keep up 300,000 men ; so if His Holiness would help
us, it would be a meritorious act before God and man. . . . There-
fore I beg of you to obtain a good round sum, that our enemies and
the Pope's may have no occasion to say that His Holiness gives us
nothing but fair words to help us to recover our kingdoms.

I do not know if Monsignor d'Adda has yet arrived in Rome ; he
is a man of great spirit, and he can inform the Pope of what he has
seen. This King would not let him remain in France, thinking him
not well-intentioned towards himself, but he is mistaken in the man,
who seeks nothing more passionately than this much desired ac-
commodation. I have a particular esteem for Monsignor d'Adda,
which I hope will induce you to see him willingly, and treat with
him confidentially as one of my good friends. You will have many
particulars from him, and may agree together in showing the Pope
the necessity of giving money to the King, and of reconciling himselr
with this Court.

Perhaps if His Holiness sees that all his faithful servants are or one
mind he will consent more easily to our prayers.

I have been ill several times this past month, but now I am better.
My poor heart is afflicted at being so far from the King, and is filled
with a thousand apprehensions. Of your charity pray for me, for the
King, and for my son, who, thank God, is very well. . . ."

The conditions under which James II undertook the expedi-
tion to Ireland were difficult. Louis XIV, who had provided
the money and the ships, intended to control the course ot
events, and from the first, the interests of the English King as
he understood them himself, met with opposition from d'Avaux
representing those of the French Court. According to St.
Simon, d'Avaux had little chance of succeeding " with a Prince
with whom he could never agree, a Prince perpetually deceived,
and yet obstinately bent, in spite of all d'Avaux's representa-
tions, upon running into all the nets spread for him. Events
constantly proved d'Avaux to be in the right."

246

JAMES II ARRIVES AT KINSALE

COUNT D'AVAUX TO Louis XIV. 1689

" KINSALE, 23 March^ 1689.

"... The King of England arrived at Kinsale last Tuesday at Affaires
5 in the evening after a prosperous voyage. . . . We met but one &a-
vessel, an English merchantman from Bristol who told us there was
news that the King of England was to embark at Brest with fourteen
vessels, and that the English and Dutch ships in the Downs had
orders to cruise before Brest. . . .

All things seem well disposed here . . . the only thing, Sire, which
may give us trouble is the irresolution of the King of England, who
often changes his purpose and does not always determine upon the
best course. He also dwells upon small matters, spending all his time
on them, and passing lightly over essential ones. . . . He wished to
leave here without waiting to land the arms, ammunition and stores
Your Majesty had provided him with. There were not ten horses
available to take us to Dublin ... so I have persuaded him to
remain here till to-day, and to give the necessary orders. So we
shall leave nothing behind us except in the best possible condition."

"... The Earl of Tyrconnel went to Cork to receive His Bib. Nat.
Majesty, accompanied by about a hundred gentlemen on horseback, Jam ' es TI in
eager to salute the King. His Majesty paid him all the compliments Ireland
due to the inviolable firmness he had displayed in his service, and not
only made him dine at his own table, but placed him on his right,
and the Duke of Berwick on his left . . . and created him Duke.
After receiving an exact account of the state of Ireland, the King
held a Council to which the new Duke was admitted. The King
of France esteemed the Earl of Tyrconnel so highly as to send him
the Cordon Bleu and a casket containing 12,000 louis."
Louis XIV also sent him by d'Avaux a sword enriched with
diamonds and other precious stones. Tyrconnel expressed him-
self much flattered, but declared there were fifty lords in Ireland
who deserved as well. He went to fetch d'Avaux for his first
audience with the King at Dublin with twenty carriages and
six, and a large number of carriages and four.

This pleasant picture with its abundance of horses contrasts
painfully with trie General-in-Chief de Rosen's description to
Louvois of the state of affairs at Kinsale :

" KINSALE, 26 March, 1689.

" I feel obliged to let you know the confusion and disorder in this Minist^re
country ; the troops which have been raised getting no pay, pillage jjf la

247

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 and rob openly and with impunity. The English officers who came
with the fleet, to the number of 200 seized upon all the horses
within an area of two leagues, taking them to Dublin, 150 miles
away, from whence not one will be returned. ... It will be long
before we can get the arms, ammunition and treasure removed out of
the fortress here, where they are by no means safe . . . and it
is impossible to fortify it quickly as there are neither workmen nor
tools in the neighbourhood. . . . M sers de Maumont, Pusignan,
L6ry and I have been kept here until to-day, when fifty horses were
brought for our service, but without saddles or bridles, and it
is difficult even to get rope for halters, so had it not been for the
fleet, we should have been obliged to let them go again. . . . How-
ever, we hope to rejoin the King, and to take the treasure the best
way we can. ..."

William and Mary were crowned King and Queen of
England on the nth of April. 1 Evelyn records the fact with-
out comment : " Saw the Coronation Procession. Dr. Burnet,
now Bishop of Sarum, preach'd with great applause. The
Archbishop of Canterbury excus'd himself from officiating at
the Coronation, which was performed by the Bishop of London,
assisted by the Archbishop of York." Four days later, April 1 5,
Louis XIV declared war against Spain, complaining among
other things of the share taken by the Governor of the Spanish
Low Countries in the Prince of Orange's enterprise against
Prociama- England : "... His Majesty could not believe such
Louis xiv conduct had been dictated by the King, his master, who by so
many reasons of religion, kindred, and the security of kings
was bound to oppose such usurpation. His Majesty had hoped
the Catholic King would have united with him for the re-
establishment of the legitimate King of England. . . ."

Meanwhile the accounts from Ireland remained deplorable ;

1 The awiso from London of May 4th 1689, says : " The new King and Queen made
a visit to the Queen Dowager. . ." Catherine of Braganza's position must have been an
embarrassing one. A Paris a-v-viso of the previous month reports: "Thirty-three
Lords, among whom are some who had been most partial to the Prince of Orange, have
written a letter to the King (Louis XIV) brought here by an equerry of the Queen
Dowager under the pretext of arranging for her journey to the Bourbon waters, thanking
him for the reception he had given their king, and assuring him of their fidelity and
service. . .''

248

THE QUEEN SENDS HELP TO DUNDEE

d'Avaux writes to the King from Charlemont, 23 Apr.il, 1689
1689 :-

" Sire, I cannot tell Your Majesty the grief I feel at the conduct Affaires
of the King of England, and at the resolutions I see him take g ^ res
each day. What vexes me most is that Lord Melfort, either out of
subserviency, or for other reasons unknown to me, adheres to all his
notions and when I take the liberty to combat them, supports them
with all his force in the King's presence."

He describes the miserable state of the country, and James's
intention of leaving for Scotland immediately after the siege of
Londonderry. As to the King's habit of pardoning :

" Those who wished him no ill before, now say that if the King
of England regains his throne he will pardon all those who have
been against him ; whereas if the Prince of Orange retains it, he will
hang every man of the King's party, so that it is safer to adhere to
the Prince of Orange. ..."

The Queen was meanwhile doing her utmost to help the
King's cause in Scotland. By pawning some jewels she was
able, to his surprise, to send ^4,000 to Viscount Dundee for
the purchase of arms, and on May 21 she wrote to the
Duke of Gordon :

"... One of the greatest satisfactions I have had since I left Spalding
England has been to hear of the zeal and faithfulness with which c l'J b Mis "
you have served and serve the King, at a time when everybody seems
to have forgot their duty, and when the King is not only not
in a condition of rewarding those that perform it, but hardly able to
let them know he is sensible of it, or to give them any light ot
his affairs to encourage them to remain faithful. By this you show
yourself a good Christian as well as a man of honour, and being bred
up with both, I do assure myself that nothing can ever alter you.
The Queen of England, as well as the King of France admire your
conduct, and upon all occasions speak of it and of your courage in
keeping for your Master what he left in your charge [Edinburgh
Castle]. I know you need no encouragement to make you go
on as bravely as you have begun, but it will be a satisfaction to you
to hear that the King's affairs in Ireland are in a very good posture ;
there was no town against him except Londonderry, which by what
they write from Dublin is, I am confident, before this in the King's

249

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 hands, so that he is entirely master in that kingdom, and I hope will
not stop there. 1 do conjure you to have a good heart, and encour-
age all the friends the King has in your country, for I am confident
they will soon hear some good from him. Your good friend that
sends you this letter, will acquaint you with my name, which I dare
not write, nor make any superscription to this letter, for God knows
whether ever it will come to you ; but your friend will answer for
me how truly I am yours."

GENERAL DE ROSEN TO MARQUIS DE Louvois.

"DUBLIN, 20 May, 1689.

Ministere " . . . . Everything is in consternation in this country owing

Guerre to tne bad government . . . affairs are in the same state as they

were seven weeks ago. . . . The troops continue to pillage for lack
of pay. . . . M. d'Avaux is my witness that not a day passes when
the King calls us to his Council that I do not represent the bad state
of affairs and offer to go everywhere to remedy them if he will give
me a list of the troops, and the places where I can find them.
Affairs at Londonderry are still the same, as it is impossible to
furnish the necessary things for reducing the place. They have
given orders to march a few troops, but nearly all are without arms
and nearly naked j the greater part of the officers are wretches with-
out heart or honour, and a single cannon shot passing as high as a
church steeple sends all the battalion to the ground, and the only way
to make them get up is to ride over their bellies. This gives
such courage to the besieged and such scorn for our troops that they
despise them entirely ... as they prove by their frequent sorties.
. . . The King is presently occupied in giving the mornings to his
Parliament and the afternoons to long drives of twenty miles into the
country. The Duke of Tyrconnel is trying to recover his health,
and Mylord Melfort is engaged in guarding his wife with a jealousy
which is capable of making him lose the small amount of genius he
possesses and which is not unknown to you. Mr. de McCarthy
[afterwards Viscount Mountcashell] who has been placed in charge or
the Artillery is a very good subject, and the only one on whom we
can count, but unfortunately he is in the same case as myself, looked
upon askance for telling them too often and too crudely of the
wretched condition of all things. ... If the Prince of Orange is well
informed of the situation, and can bring 7 or 8,000 men with
officers to put at the head of the 50,000 Protestants who are ready to

250

run at us, we shall be not a little embarrassed, the more so that 1689
at present we should not know where to find 4,000 men to oppose
them with. . . . This is not the moment for stubbornly insisting
upon passing into Scotland, and thence into England to recover lost
kingdoms, but rather to lose four like them by the pitiable methods
generally taken. ..."

Before these bad tidings had reached the Queen, we have
one joyful letter from her to the Superior of the Nuns at

Chaillot :

"Sr. GERMAINS, Tuesday morning (May\ 1689.

" I was so pressed with business and visits all day that I had not a Chaillot
moment to tell you of my joy, having received long letters from the ^ S ?'.
King of recent date, assuring me that he is in perfect health, and National
expecting every moment to hear of the taking of the town now being
besieged. God be praised, who has heard your prayers. ..."
The letter is endorsed : u Not to be shown, as things did not
go well in Ireland."

The Pope's answer to her earnest supplications reached the
Queen in May.

RlZZINI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"... The Cardinal Nuncio went to Chaillot last week ... he
exposed the reasons for which neither the Pope nor the Catholic
Princes could assist the British King, being obliged to look to their
own preservation against the preponderance of France, making no
little amplification to justify them, and especially His Holiness. The
Oueen was much surprised and answered in terms- so grave, so warm
and so sensible that he appeared astounded. Her Majesty understood
the Cardinal meant to infer that the depression of France might
be desirable, but she pointed out that that would be the destruction or
religion, the most Christian King being the only bulwark against the
formidable designs of the Protestants. . . .

Finally, the Cardinal pointed out that France had so many affairs
on hand, that the succour she could give the King of England would
inevitably become weaker, or unreliable; but Her Majesty with
modest reticence and the great respect she has always shown towards
the Holy See, replied that she prayed God to inspire His Holiness to
help a King unjustly despoiled for his zeal for the true faith, when it
was made clear to him that the Christian King was resolved to lose
all rather than abandon him. ..."

251

1689 "87

" . . . . The King has not returned to the siege of London-
derry but remains in Dublin ; he has not yet determined to
go to Scotland, which would appear opportune, as the news
from thence is better than from Ireland ; the Duke of Gordon
is vigorously defending himself in Edinburgh Castle, occasion-
ally sending a shot from his artillery into the town to keep it in
terror. Also Mylord Dundee, who had already declared for the
King, has a following of 700 or 800 foot and horse, and expects
to raise some of the counties in the hope of prompt succour from the
King who has sent him arms and ammunition which he has safely
received. ..."

The French Court was entirely opposed to a descent into
Scotland. Louvois, in one of his most masterly despatches,
writes to d'Avaux, June 13, 1869.

Minitere "... His Majesty has no other desire than to procure the re-

Guerre establishment of the English King ... so you may speak frankly

. . . and say that so long as there is an appearance that the assistance
may be useful . . . the King will do all he can to help him in
all things ; but if His Majesty finds that the succours he sends
at a time when he must deprive himself of what is necessary for
his own defence against the many enemies he has at present, are
uselessly employed in Ireland, he will be obliged to retain them
for his own service. . . .

It is idle to flatter oneself; the Prince of Orange is taking measures,
after securing Scotland, to send an army into Ireland. It will be
commanded by Marshal Schomberg and consist of 6 or 7,000 Dutch
troops and 18 to 20,000 of the best English and Scotch forces he has
lately raised. ... If Londonderry cannot be reduced it would be as
well not to leave the troops to perish before it, which the King will
need to defend himself against those of the Prince of Orange. . . .
The bad conduct of the force before Londonderry cost the life
of M. de Pusignan and M. de Maumont [the Duke of Berwick was
wounded on the same occasion]. The King of England must not
suppose that in letting General Officers be killed like common
soldiers he will not be allowed to feel the want of them ; such
persons are rare in all countries and have to be husbanded. ... It is
to be hoped the arms landed at Bantry by M. de Chateaurenauld
[after the battle of Bantry Bay] have been delivered ; it would be

252

JAMES II DESIRES TO GO TO ENGLAND

a strange thing if the Prince of Orange's troops were to land before 1689
they had been served out to the King's forces ; they should have
been delivered at once that the men might have learned the use
of them ; if I am not mistaken, three-fourths of them have never
seen a musket.

The King has spoken to the Queen of England in the strongest
possible terms on the disorder in Ireland. You will be so good as to
let me know with what effect, for there is not much appearance, as
things are, that the succours sent are of any use . . . the payment of
the troops should be regulated in such a way that it could not
be altered. . . . The King explained to the Queen of England that
the state of his kingdom would not permit him to continue to help
the King of England if affairs in Ireland remained in the horrid con-
fusion they were in when the last messengers left there. . . . '

The very day the above letter was written, Lord Melfort in
the King's name wrote to Louvois entreating the King of
France to send a fleet to carry him to Scotland or England as
" an absolutely necessary thing .... and it is certain that if
the King were to arrive in England before the taxes and
impositions, so odious to the people, are levied, the country
would be generally for him. . . . Besides the Catholics, a very
considerable number of Protestants have associated themselves
to join the King, and have even horses and arms ready in
Scotland,"

The Queen remained without news of the King for so long
that Rizzini, writing on June 29, concludes that ships have
been seized and letters intercepted, as it is incredible that the
King would leave Her Majesty in such great anxiety, his last
letter being dated 25 May. Meanwhile news has come from
London of the arrest of Lord Preston and others on the
discovery of a plot to restore the King, and d'Avaux complains
to Louvois of the bad quality of the arms sent from France,
adding : " The King of England can undertake nothing
considerable if he is not furnished with weapons to arm his
troops, and with some disciplined troops to place at their head
.... it seems likely that if he had a good supply of men,
arms and money he could soon make himself master of

253

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 England, if things there are in as good a state as several
persons have informed him. . . ."

TERRIESI TO TUSCAN SECRETARY OF STATE.

" LONDON 4-f June,

" . . . . The 1 3th inst. the House of Commons decreed that the
Proclamation of the late King [dated from Dublin in May] although
full of justice, goodness and clemency, offering pardon to all, even the
most criminal of traitors and rebels, should be burned by the hang-
man, which has shocked the foreigners, unaccustomed to such inhu-
manity. . ."

PIETRO VENIER, VENETIAN ENVOY IN PARIS, TO THE SENATE.

"27 July 1689.

Archives, " . . . . The Queen is grieved that union is deferred, as the

interests of the British King in Ireland suffer thereby Orange

goes on establishing his fortune in those kingdoms followed by the
applause of foreign Princes ; the Emperor has recognised him as king,
and so has the Court of Spain, which has confirmed Ronquillo as
Ambassador, and announced by him the re-marriage of the King and
the death of the late Queen, for whom the new English Court
is taking mourning. Meanwhile, he has received a present of

15,000 sterling "

" 10 August. 1689.

" The landing of 1 500 Irish troops and 50 officers

in Scotland is confirmed. The party of Viscount Dundee is
strengthened .... the English Parliament is occupied in the
examination of the members of the discovered plot ; intercepted
letters from the King prove that, had it succeeded, he would have
passed into that kingdom. Londonderry defends itself, having no
scarcity of food, and encouraged not only by the hope of speedy
relief, but by the slowness of the besiegers, who after three months
attack have not been able to reduce the place.

The Queen is in great anguish, seeing the armies of this crown
fully occupied ; she recommends herself to the protection of Heaven,
and to this King, and is ever in tears and in prayer. The Court of
London, on the contrary, is in jubilee at the birth of a son to the
Princess of Denmark."

" 24 August.

" I had the honour of paying my respects to the Queen of England,

254

and declared the grief of Your Excellencies at the strange adversities 1689
which have befallen her royal House, and the continuance of your
ancient affectionate regard. . . After the audience, Her Majesty kept
me an hour in various discourses upon current affairs . . . her hope
of peace as the only means of obtaining a change in their con-
cerns. . . .

The Prince of Wales has been ill, but is now recovered. If, at so
tender an age, it is allowable to judge of a likeness, I must say that he
resembles the Queen, and such a likeness is the truest disproof of the
false calumnies which have insulted her reputation. The most
important news from London is that Mylord Dundee has defeated
4000 men under Mackay [Battle of Killiecrankie] . . . The victory,
however, has cost the King dear, as Dundee remained on the field.
This event may put the British King's affairs into a better posture in
that country, if another capable head can be found. . . ."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO CARDINAL D'ESTE.

"ST GERMAINS, 24 August^ 1689.

"... News arrived yesterday of the death of the Pope. (Innocent
XI died August I2th.) I pray God to give rest to his soul, and to
inspire all the members of the Sacred College to make a good election,
for Christendom has need of a Pope as holy as the late one, 1 but less
partial, and less pertinacious. I suppose you are already on your way
to Rome, and I doubt not but you will exercise all your judgment and
prudence on an occasion when there will be so great need of both.
We have no other interest at present than that of this King, so by
serving him you will also serve us, and you may do so with a good
conscience, as the King of France desires nothing but a Pope who will
be impartial, and a father to all. I am writing to Cardinal Norfolk
to unite himself to you in so great and important a business, and I
beg you to forget the past, and that in future there may be a good
intelligence between you, who certainly have the same object the
service of the King, my lord, after the service of God. . . .

The King is well, thank God, but still in Ireland, and without
help he can do nothing. God grant that the future Pontiff may take
our interests to heart, which at present are the same as his own. ..."

PIETRO VERNIER TO THE SENATE.

"31 August.

"... The Queen spares no efforts to urge this King to continue Archives,

Venice
1 Innocent XI was the last Pope declared Venerable by the Church of Rome.

2 55

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 his assistance. There are some, however, who believe that finding
money and help thrown away, warmth here is cooling ; but the
engagements and glory of the monarch should render such speculations
fallacious."

A few days later, Venier reports a conversation with the French
Minister, de Croisy, who hints that France cannot go on for ever
risking officers and reputation " in a sterile and unfruitful soil.
Three events have occurred simultaneously to blast the King's
prospects, and the Court attributes them to his blunders, there
is no one who does not accuse him of being the author and
continuer of his own misfortunes." The three events were the
relief of Londonderry, the landing of Schomberg and Count
Solms in different parts of Ireland, and the capitulation of
Edinburgh Castle through" the weakness of the Duke of
Gordon.

SAME TO SAME.

"14 September.

Archives, "... Ireland is in consternation . . . Schomberg has published

an amnesty, and taken the title of Vice-Roy. . . A battle will be
hazardous for the King with his raw troops, but he has determined to
meet Schomberg, in order to save Limerick, and the passes conducting
thereto as a retreat in case of necessity. ... I have seen the Queen,
who expressed herself in general terms, admitting that affairs are taking
a bad turn, and hanging by a thread . . . that the King is in great
peril. He has sent Mylord Dover here, who left with small hopes of
obtaining help."

"26//J September 1689.

"... The Queen has dissembled until now, but some words
which are said to have escaped her have caused a little bitterness at this
Court. She allows herself to be guided by two of her servants, enemies
of the French, and she is supposed to give them all her confidence,
which makes her more easily disliked. . . . Misfortunes always come
together, and destiny adds link to link of its heavy chain."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO DUKE OF MODENA.

" 14 October 1689.

"The news from Ireland are most uncertain, and I have been
without letters for some time ; imagine, if you can, my impatience

256

TYRCONNEL TO THE QUEEN

and anxiety. Sometimes I feel as if my brain would give way, and 1689
unless God helps me, I do not know what will become of me, but I
hope in His mercy soon to have some good news of the King. My
son is well, thank God ; I also am in health, but I assure you I have
no time to think of myself."

Cardinal Ottoboni 1 having been elected Pope, and taken the
title of Alexander VIII, the Queen lost no time in congratulat-
ing him, and entreating his protection for her husband, her
child, and herself. "This letter will be laid at the feet of
Your Holiness by Cardinal d'Este, my uncle ; I pray you
to listen to all he will tell you from me, as he knows all
my sentiments, and the full state of our affairs. . . ."

PIETRO VENIER TO VENETIAN SENATE.

"PARIS, 26 October, 1689.

" . . . . The Queen expressed herself delighted at the Pope's Archives,
election. She praised his eminent qualities, and appeared to hope for Venice
effects corresponding to his zeal. . . . Mylord Melfort is going to
Rome. . . . He was Secretary of State to the King in Ireland ; he
is a man of mediocre ability, and with no experience whatever in the
management of affairs, but promoted to the post by means of flattery
and adulation. ..."

Ronchi writes the same day to the Duke of Modena :

"The Earl of Melfort is going to Rome, sent there, a it is
believed, in order to get rid of him in a manner honourable to
himself."

DUKE OF TYRCONNEL TO QUEEN MARY BEATRICE.

"DUBLIN CASTLE, ^-f Dec. 1689.
I cannot help repeating to your Majesty the trouble the Brit. Mus.

King is in. as well as all of us, least the ministers there should hinder

1 3.Dcrs

the French Fleet from having directions to obey his orders, in order Add. MSS.
to the transporting of himself and his troops into England at this * 8 >53>
time, the juncture being so favourable at present, that if slipt,
perhaps in our days we may not see another. . . . The people of
England were never in such a disposition to throw off the usurper,

1 A Venetian.

257 s

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1689 and receive their owne King as at this time. ... I know, Madam,
there is little need of laying these things before you, since noe-body
sees more clearly into all these matters, nor endeavours more to
redress them than yourself. Our want of copper is very great, that
thing alone being our support as to the payment of our army, ... for
not a farthing of silver or gold is now to be seen in this whole
nation. ... I pray, Madam, let 50 tons of copper be sent us
(besides the 40 tons a-coming) before the end of March . . . and
JO tons of steel for we begin now to make fire-arms. . . . Your
Majesty cannot choose but be soe very knowing in all these kind of
affairs that I believe the King needs no other factor there than
yourself. . . . Pray God preserve you and your Son."

The Queen's entreaties had prevailed with Louis XIV, and
he determined to send the Comte de Lauzun with troops, arms
and men to Ireland. The Venetian envoy announces that he
is to replace General de Rosen in the chief command, " and
d'Avaux, Ambassador from this Court, is to come back, as it
is believed that Lauzun will have more influence with the
King of England and greater freedom of action. Eleven
battalions are on their way to Brest and My lord Mel fort has
embarked at Marseilles, and must now be near Rome, from
whence the Queen expects some remarkable assistance."

PIETRO VENIER TO VENETIAN SENATE.

"21 December 1689.

Archives, " In Ireland matters are progressing with better fortune, the King

having recovered Sligo, with no small loss to Schomberg. From
London comes news that a portrait of Orange in the Guildhall with
the crown and sceptre, has been disfigured, and those emblems cut
away. In a disquieted populace malcontents are never lacking, but
the favour of Parliament and the foreign forces that Prince has in
hand are his safeguards."

"28 December 1689.

" . . . . Things look better in Ireland ; the King is at the head
of 25,000 men and master of the greater part of the country. The
Comte de Lauzun has not yet started ; he is ready at Brest with
several regiments. Both armies in Ireland have gone into winter
quarters."

258

MEMOIR TO POPE ALEXANDER VIII

Mary Beatrice sent a long memoir to the new Pope through 1689
Lord Melfort, exposing the King's necessities. After describing
the recent successes over Schomberg, she adds : ** The state Vatican
of His Majesty's affairs shows clearly that with assistance pro-
portionate to his needs, he is in a condition not only to maintain
himself where he is, but, taking advantage of the disorders
which are now very great in England and Scotland, he may push
his interests there, even to his re-establishment, in view of the
great change in the spirit of the people. Your Holiness can
give him this help in two ways. The first is a sum of money
to supply his pressing needs . . . the other help which the
Queen solicits from Your Holiness is yet greater and more
certain, but at the same time more distant. It is to obtain
peace among the Catholic Princes, which would make it im-
possible for the usurper to retain the King's dominions, for not
only would the Most Christian King have his hands set free, but
the other Princes, solicited by Your Holiness and bysentiments of
piety and religion would give the King their aid, which reasons
of State have hitherto prevented them from doing, though
strongly urged thereto by His Majesty. . . ."

At this period we first find Eusebe Renaudot employed as
the secret agent of the French Court with the English Jacobite
party. Well known as a theological writer and a distinguished
Orientalist, 1 his political career remained a secret buried in the
large collection of his papers in the MS. room at the Biblio-
theque Nationale, until the Marchesa Campana de Cavelli dis-
covered them. In a paper written to one of the French
Ministers he says of himself : " Shortly after the present
Revolution I began to be employed in English affairs by the
late Marquis of Seigneley. He ordered me to keep up certain
correspondences ; he often made me write instructions and
memoirs, send messengers, and was always well content with
what I did. The Queen of England, who was then alone at
St. Germains, often expressed the like satisfaction, and used
always to send me her letters to give an account of them,

1 His chief work was the Llturgtarum Orientalium Collectio.

259 S 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1690 Mylord Melfort was then in Italy, but as soon as he returned
he obliged those who had written to us to address themselves
solely to him ; several thereupon broke off all correspondence,
and we only saw extracts from letters of which we had formerly
seen the originals."

Renaudot seems to have spent some weeks in England in
1689, as there are letters from him to the French Court giving
interesting accounts of the unrest and discontent in that country
and the great chances of success he considered James II would
Bib. Nat. have if he landed there. " A strong cabal existed in his favour,
and at the same time to save the established Church of England

NOUV. from utter ruin. The Prince of Orange is hated by the greater

7487-7492 number of those who had some inclination towards him, and all

recognise that the success of his enterprise was more the effect

of hazard than of his virtues. In a word, they speak of him

with as much disdain as they formerly did of Cromwell. . . .

" There has been high play at Newmarket. The Prince of
Orange having lost 1,000 guineas, was in so bad a temper that
no one would play with him. His ill-humour was much
increased by the news of the seizure of several vessels loaded
with arms at the mouth of the Rhone, which he was sending to
the Vaudois. . . . The Earl of Oxford, who had been given
1,000 pieces to start immediately to join the army in Ireland,
lost 500 of them the same night at play at Madame de
Mazarin's. . . .".

The new year broke hopefully to the Queen, Louis XIV
went to St. Germains to announce to her the nomination of
further troops for Ireland, and to tell her of Marshal Schom-
berg's illness. " The squadron which is ready to convey the
expedition," writes Rizzini to the Duke of Modena, 15
February, 1690, "consists of thirty-five men-of-war under
d'Amfreville, and the Comte de Lauzun is to take leave of the
King to-day at Marly. . . . The provisions of every kind are
most copious besides considerable funds of money grain,
stores of food, brandy and munitions of war, cannon and clothing
for 40,000 men. ..."

260

THE TRAITOR FULLER

In March, the Queen had a moment of terrible alarm about 1690
her son. " Yesterday," writes Melani to Abbe Gondi, " the
Prince of Wales was taken for dead. Being of a most vivacious
temperament, he was seized with such passion at being denied
something he desired, that he fell into convulsions, and for
half an hour gave no signs of life." Rizzini added that when
the Queen saw him thus she fainted.

RENAUDOT TO ABBE GONDI, FLORENCE.

" PARIS, 13 March, 1690.

" . . . . The Queen of England has received two expresses from
England confirming the Prince of Orange's prohibition of all com-
merce by letter with France, which makes the merchants murmur
and causes discontent. . . . From Ireland we hear that a detachment
of Schomberg's army has been routed by the King's troops, who
have driven them to Inniskilling. ..."

RIZZINI TO DUKE OF MODENA.

"PARIS, 5 April^ 1690.

" . . . . The Queen lately sent letters to several persons in
England by two messengers ; one of them was a youth named
Fowler [Fuller], formerly page to Mylord Melfort, who had
proposed and recommended him to Her Majesty. As soon as he
arrived in London he took his letters to the Prince of Orange, and
denounced his companion, who was taken with the remaining
letters. . . . Also a man of the name of Prancdur (sic) a German,
who had been choirmaster in the King's chapel at Whitehall and
dismissed for misconduct, having gone to Ireland was received into
favour again by His Majesty and appointed Governor of some place
there. . . . He was sent into France with letters, and arrived nearly
two months late ; now I hear he has been sent to the Bastille, also
that the Most Christian King was so anxious to hear of his arrest,
that he ordered the news to be brought to him at any time, even if
he was asleep in bed, which was done at three o'clock in the
morning."

The above instances might be multiplied of that easy con-
fidence which the natural dispositions of both James II and
Mary Beatrice led them into, and which was singularly

261

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1690 unfitted for the atmosphere of intrigue, plot and counterplot,
suspicion and jealousy which reigned in their exiled Court.
Ronchi had lamented over their unsuspicious open confidence
as one of their greatest dangers at the time of Titus Gates.
Renaudot blames what he calls their "facilite" and even the
nuns at Chaillot, within a few years of her death, more than
once respectfully remonstrated with the Queen on her too easy
belief in all who approached her. " Your Majesty thinks well
of everybody, and does not beware of hypocrites. . . ." " It
is true," replied the Queen ; " I cannot suspect evil, and I
have not the spirit of Court intrigue." St. Germains, under
these conditions, was a safe and easy hunting-ground for spies,
and during the thirty years of its occupation by the Stuarts
there was never a time when the English Court was not
immediately and fully informed of all that was going on, in
spite of the elaborate systems of secrecy always in use there.

The Queen about this time entered into negotiations with
Sir James Montgomery, who, with Lord Annandale and Lord
Ross, known as the " Trefoil," had entered into a plot for
the restoration of the King. They went from Edinburgh to
London to offer their services to James through Lord Arran,
son of the Duke of Hamilton, then in the Tower, who put
them into communication with Lord Clarendon, with several
suspended Bishops, and others, including the Duke of Queens-
berry, the Marquis of Athol, Lord Tarbet, and Lord Breadal-
bane. They sent a man of the name of Simson, alias Jones, to
Paris, and the first of two letters of the Queen to Sir James
Montgomery, which have been preserved, is dated 25 March,
1 690, and the impression of her seal, known as the " Diamond
Seal," remains entire upon it.

Leven and " Since my last, which I hope you will have received long before

Melville t j 1 j s> i j^yg seen fyj r j ones 4 ^ t an( j heard with a great deal of

Edin- ' plaisur all he had to say, in which there is nothing more satisfactory

burgh, to me tn an my being, from many circumstances, fullie persuaded

p. 479 that I have to do with men of honor, who, notwithstanding the

consent the King may give to what is demanded of him, will be as

SIR JAMES MONTGOMERY

tender of giving away what so entirely belongs to him, as he 1690
himselfe could be ; ... and though I have endeavoured by my
letters to convince the King, that to enable you to serve him, it is
necessary he should condescend to what is proposed (as far as he can
in conscience do, for I would not, for all the world, see him go the
least step beyond it) yet I doe confidently expect, and entirely relye
upon, your good husbandry of what you well know is so valuable, for
its being so absolutely necessary both to a king and his ministers, in
the government of a people so inclined to trouble and change as you
are in. ... I have consulted our friend here, who is very well
satisfied, and will do his part in performing what is required of him.
I relye intirely both upon your serving the King, and preserving
him that power which really makes him so ; and tho I doe once
more heartily recommend it to you, yet don't in the least doubt of
you, but firmly believe you will acte like men of honor in the
performance of this great and good worke, which once don will
make us all happy, and put me in a condition of shewing you and all
the world the esteem I have of you, and of making good the assur-
ances I have sent you by Mr Jones, to whom I referre myself, hoping
he will be with, you soon after this.

MARIA R."

A few days later the Queen wrote to Tyrconnel :

"Sr GERMAINS. April 5. 1690.

"This is my third letter since I heard from you, but shall not
make it a long one, for the bearer of it [Lord Dover ?] knows a great
deel of my mind, or rather all the thoughts of my heart, for I was so Women,"
overjoyed to meet with one I durst speake freely to, that I opened ^j^- ei
my heart to him, and sayd mor than I am like to do again in haste to London,
anybody, I therfor refer myself to him to tell you all wee spoke off, l8 3 8
for I have no secrets from you ; one thing only I must beg of you,
to have a care of the King, and not lett him be too much encouraged
by the good news he will hear, for I dread nothing at this time, but
his going to fast into England, and in a manner dangerous, and un-
certain for himself, and disadvantageous to those of our persuasion ;
I have writt an unreasonable long letter to him to tell him my mynd,
and have sayd much to Lord Dover to say to him, .... Pray putt
him often in mynd of beeing carefull of his person, if not for his owne
sake, for mine, my sonnes, and all our friends that are undon, if any-
thing amiss happenes to him. I dare not lett myself go upon this
subject, I am to full of it ; I know you love the King. I am sure

263

"Auto-

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1690 you are my friend, and therefor I need say the lesse to you, but
cannot end my letter without telling you, that I never in my life
had a truer, nor a more sincere friendship for anybody than I have

for you.

M. R."

Louis XIV had exacted an equivalent for the French force
he sent to James II, in the shape of six or seven thousand of
his best Irish troops, which, Renaudot states, were brought back
in the squadron which had taken Lauzun and his force to Cork.

The Queen's next letter to Sir James Montgomery is dated
i May, 1690 :

Leven and " Tho I hope you will have had two of my letters long before

Melville t ^j ^ t j lat j think j t ver y possible for Mr Tones to be with you by
Papers . . i- i

this time, . . . yet 1 resolve to wntt to you again, thinking it neces-
sary that you should know what I have don here in your affaire ; and
full as necessary that you should lett me know how it goes on with
you. I am therefor a sending this bearer to you, to whose honesty,
as well as memory you can trust intirely, for I have had experience
of both ; and it is very convenient to make him learn all by heart
when one dares not give him letters.

I hope Mr Jones will have brought you satisfaction from that syde
where he was last [Ireland] and from this I send you all that the care
and industry of a willing person could gett for you, from one [Louis
XIV] who is now upon the necessity of defending himself against all
the world ; therefor you must not wonder if you gett not at present
so much as you deserve, nor I fear so much as you want ; but pray
believe that it was not possible to gett mor at this very time, or I
would have gott it, and make this goe as far as you can.

In the first place I have sent orders to the other syde of the water
[England or Scotland] to have 5,000 ready for you whenever you
shall send for it to your friends there, or to a friend I have sent
thither, whose name this bearer has order to tell you. . . .

Besides the five thousand pounds on the other syde, which I will
endeavour to make ten thousand in a short time, if you shall want it ;
I have ready ten thousand pounds more with as many arms and
ammunition as this great friend could spare for you, at this nick
of time, which he gives you most heartily, and will be ready to give
more hereafter, if this prove not sufficient. . . .

By the last letters I receaved, I find you have already begun to doe

264

FAILURE OF THE MONTGOMERY PLOT

your parts, and long to know what successe you have had in the first 1690
attempt ; . . . and above all it is necessary you let me know, as soon
as ever you have declared yourselves, to which place you will have
me send this succor, that will be ready shipt for you at Dunkirke, but
cannot be sent till you are ready for it, and till I know where it may
be landed with safety. All therfore that is to be don at this time
depends on your syde for on mine I shall not lose a moment in
sending to you, after I hear from you, and when all things are ripe
with you, and well disposed on the other syde ; then this friend has
promised to send over our great friend [James II] when I hope
he will soon be in a condition of rewarding those that have had
the first and greatest part in making him happy. . . .

MARIA R."

William III started from London for Ireland -% June,
leaving Queen Mary Regent, and landed at Belfast ^. The
plan of the Montgomery plot was that a French fleet should
prevent the conjunction of the English and Dutch fleets, and
prevent William's return from Ireland, and as the greater part
of the English troops were in that country and the flower
of the remainder in Flanders, leaving but some seven thousand
in England, their project might have been successfully carried
through if unity could have been maintained among the
confederates. Unfortunately for the Stuart cause the " Tre-
foil " obtained from James, who was ignorant of their arrange-
ments with the Queen, procurations bestowing all the honours
and emoluments upon themselves, and authorising them to call
a Parliament in Scotland with Lord Annandale as his Com-
missioner. They forgot their friends, and especially Lord
Arran, getting him nothing but a pardon for his father, the
Duke of Hamilton. These complained of James's ingratitude
and imprudence, and broke off alliance with the " Trefoil," who
in alarm hastened to London, after handing Queen Mary
Beatrice's letters to Montgomery to Lord Melville, the English
Commissioner in Scotland, who in William Ill's absence
forwarded them to Queen Mary. Montgomery and Lord
Ross refused to be witnesses in justice, but Lord Annandale
declared everything and denounced all the confederates.

265

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1690 Evelyn notes, " 24th June. Din'd with Mr Pepys, who
the next day was sent to the Gate House (accused of having
sent information to the French Court of the state of the
English Navy) and severall great persons to the Tower, on
suspicion of being affected to King James ; amongst them was
the Earl of Clarendon, the Queen's uncle."

The Lords Yarmouth, Griffin and Castlemaine were sent to
the Tower, and a proclamation was soon made against Lords
Litchfield, Preston, and Bellasys, Sir Edward Hales, Captain
Lloyd and others. Louis XIV, at Lord Melfort's request,
sent Jones-Simson to the Bastille, though Renaudot and the
French ministers seem to have remained convinced of his
good faith.

Meanwhile the little Prince of Wales had attained the com-
pletion of the second year of his life, and all the English lords
and ladies in Paris, writes Ronchi to the Duke of Modena,
" came to congratulate the Queen. There were divers amuse-
ments and in the evening a ball at this Court [St. Germains];
the inhabitants of the town made many bonfires and sent
off" fireworks in honour of the Prince. . . .

" Her Majesty has received letters from the King, who was
on the point of taking the field with 20,000 men, having given
the command of 15,000 others to his Generals, who will go
where they are needed ; all the King's men are in excellent
condition, especially the Cavalry, which is said to be finer than
any His Majesty had in England."

ABBE MELANI TO ABBE GONDI, FLORENCE.

"PARIS, 26 June. 1690.

... It is greatly teared that King James will meet with the same
misfortune which overtook him in England, and that in Ireland he
may find himself abandoned by the greater part of his army, having
there also made himself an object of compassion and scorn. He is
always hoping to be recalled by the English and treats them better
than he does the Irish, who have always been faithful ; this has
a bad effect upon the Earl of Tyrconnel and the other Irish
magnates. . . ."

266

BATTLE OF THE BOYNE

COMTE DE LAUZUN TO MARQUIS DE SEIGNELEY 1690

"CAMP near DARDEE, 4 July 1690."

The letter begins with regrets that no French squadron was
in St George's Channel as it would have been most useful in
cutting off transports and perhaps William himself :

" He landed the 24 of last month at Belfast. He has an army
of 40,000 men as I am assured by five Captains whom we took in
an ambush. . . . We are barely eight hours apart, and I think to-
morrow we shall be much nearer. ... it is very difficult to take
up a defensive position as there are neither strongholds nor rivers.
So it will not be easy to avoid engagements ... as he has 3,000
more horse than we. I shall, however, do my utmost to avoid decisive
action . . . but I have not the choice of position . . . through the
want of supplies, which affects our side only, as the Prince of Orange
with an open sea and his vessels which keep in touch with his camp
and furnish it with abundance, is free to do what he pleases. He
landed with none but his Dutch guard, the others having arrived before
him. He had a great many English Lords on his ship, including the
Prince of Denmark, the Duke of Ormonde, the Earl of Oxford. . . .
If you could see this place as closely as I do, I think you would be
convinced of the necessity of sending reinforcements ; with the little
we have it is impossible to resist both at land and at sea, especially having
to do with the Prince of Orange who means to carry it roundly. . . ."

The battle of the Boyne was fought -^ July. " The Duke
of Berwick," writes the author of his life, " the Duke of Tyr-
connel and the Comte de Lauzun did all that could be expected
from the ablest of Generals, but all their force, with the excep-
tion of the French troops, were raw militia and levies, incapable
of withstanding the shock of an army consisting entirely of
seasoned troops."

James II arrived at St. Germains, July 25, after an absence
of seventeen months. The Queen met him a little beyond
Poissy, the Prince of Wales receiving him in the Guard-room
of St. Germains " and had his lesson so well taught him, that Weidon's
he asked him blessing . . . and behaved like a man, which j am es 11.
made the Queen cry for joy." "All Versailles and Paris are f^J 1 ss>
astonished," writes Madame de Sevigne, " at the return of that

267

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1690 poor King of England. Ours continues his generosities in a
heroic manner. No one knows exactly what happened in
Ireland .... but I do not think I gained much honour by
that battle. . . . The Prince of Orange is not dead, only
M. de Schomberg. . . . People gave themselves up to demon-
strations of joy [at the report of William's death] which, as
President Herault says, did great honour to that Prince."
" The Prince of Orange," says the Gazette of 29 July, " was
severely wounded in the shoulder by a cannon-ball, 1 and
received another wound in the leg."

The Duke of Berwick, Lauzun and Tyrconnel remained in
Ireland. The Queen wrote to Lauzun from St. Germains
13 August, 1690 :

Alfred I think you know me well enough to be able to judge of my

Collection S rie ^ at learning of our misfortunes in Ireland, because, although I
apprehended it, and your last letters had prepared me, nevertheless, I
still hoped a battle might have been avoided for the present, but God
did not allow it, and we must will what He wills. I should have
been inconsolable if, when hearing news of the battle I had not at
the same time heard that the King was safe on this side of the water ;
I owe that happiness to you, and it is assuredly a great one in the
midst of my grief. You have been faithful to the promise you made
me at parting, that whatever happened you would save the King ;
you did so, remaining yourself in danger (from which I pray God to
deliver you.) Without seeing into my heart, you could not judge of
my gratitude, for it is beyond what I can express. I shall try to
prove it to you and to the world by my actions, and I have only too
many occasions of doing so in protecting you from an infinite number
of enemies who have now risen against you, and seek nothing so
much as your ruin. The King and I employ ourselves daily in
justifying your conduct, which has been faultless, and too perfect for
the rest of the French, whom it has put to shame ; I hear there are
some among them cowardly enough to justify their own ill-conduct,
by accusing yours. I shall uphold it with all my force ; I owe
so much to justice and to yourself, for whom, whatever I do, I shall
never do half as much as you deserve.

The King of France told us the other day he thought you were

1 The wound was not severe ; after it had been dressed, William remained for four
hours on the field.

368

THE QUEEN'S LETTER TO LAUZUN

on your homeward journey with the troops, as he had sent you 1690
positive orders to return ; it is not necessary, therefore, that I write
you a longer letter, moreover the King has written to you, and
mylord Tyrconnel will tell you the orders the King has sent him. . .
In the pitiable state of affairs in Ireland, I ask no better than to see
you safely here again, and to have your advice in all our business,
which is truly in a desperate condition. No one here believes a
word we say, nor will listen to our proposals for a descent into
England before the Prince of Orange returns there, nor for sending
ships into St. George's Channel, which is the most necessary thing
in the world, and which nevertheless has been refused for the last
six months.

In fine there is no remedy for us at present but to be patient if we
can, at any rate I pray God make us so. My heart bleeds to see
that we are the cause of the loss and ruin of so many honest men ; if
ever we were the cause of yours I should never console myself; but
I hope that misfortune may not be added to many others, and I
flatter myself that I may yet be happy enough to repair your losses
(which are as sensible to me as my own) and to recompense your
services. .

269

CHAPTER X

1690 THE defeat of the Boyne, the death of Lord Dundee, 1 and
the King's return from Ireland, had not entirely destroyed hopes
which the victory of de Tourville over the English and Dutch
fleets at Beachy Head, -nj-July, helped to sustain. The Queen
wrote to the French Admiral before the news of the Boyne
had reached her : " If we are so fortunate as to return to
our country I shall always consider that you were the first to
open the way to it ; for it was effectually shut against us
before the success of this engagement, to which your good
conduct has contributed so much. But if I do not deceive
myself, it appears to me now to be completely open, provided
the King could gain some little time in Ireland, which I hope
he will, but I tremble with fear lest the Prince of Orange,
who sees clearly that it is his interest so to do, should push the
King, and force him to give battle."

In Ireland the case was not considered desperate, to judge
by Lauzun's reports to the Marquis de Seigneley. He and
Tyrconnel had gone to the relief of Limerick, and he writes,
7 September :

Ministere " The siege of Limerick is raised. The enemy are leaving the

trenches . . . and firing a few cannon to cover their retreat, which
they are making in pretty good order . . . The Prince of Orange is
leaving for Dublin, and thence for England, much vexed at his ill-
success, and I see by the number of dead and dying that he must
have lost some 1500 men in this last affair . . . The siege lasted

" Oh, last and best of Scots ! who didst maintain
Thy country's freedom from a foreign reign.
New people fill the land, now thou art gone,
New gods the temples, and new kings the throne."

Dryden's translation of Pitcairn's epitaph.
270

SIEGE OF LIMERICK

twenty-two days, during which the garrison never had a mouthful of 1690
bread, only barley and oatmeal, which some of the soldiers' wives
made into cakes. There was no regular hospital nor surgeon. The
badly wounded men retired to die without a murmur. I never saw
soldiers so ready to endure. As to our Frenchmen, it was impossible
to make them suffer the like, which prevented my leaving any French
there, which I regretted, but they would have perished, as I had no
bread to give them . . . Without your ships, and the merchantmen
with wheat, the Prince of Orange would have been master of Ireland
without losing a man, and would not have the shame of raising a
siege, which will at least diminish his glory, and leaves Ireland in a
condition to defend herself until the Spring, having Corg [Cork]
Kinsale, Limerick, Sligo and Athlone, with nearly as many troops as
we had at Drogheda. . . If nothing rash is attempted this winter, as
at the beginning of the campaign . . Ireland is saved, and our affairs
will have taken a good turn, after a misfortune which reduced matters
to a state hardly to be believed . . ."

" GALLOWAY, 1 3 September 1 690.

The Duke of Tyrconnel having resolved to pass into France, con-
sidering Ireland safe until the Spring, he will take measures with the
King of England for the maintenance of the kingdom. He has
established a Regency for the Government during his absence, the
command of the forces being left to the Duke of Berwick, on con-
dition that he undertake nothing without the consent of four persons
Mylord Clare, Mylord Galway, Sarsfield and Maxwell, and a fifth
whom I had forgotten, Sheldon . . . Mylord Churchill is to land at
Cork with eight battalions ..."

Ronchi had written to the Duke of Modena a few days pre-
'iously :

"... The Duke of Tyrconnel agrees very well with the Comte
de Lauzun ; but the other French and Irish do not follow the example
of their chiefs, the latter do not look favourably on the French, who,
they say, will take all the glory of having saved them, which will be
a dishonour to their nation."

The Queen, who had laboured indefatigably all the time of
ler husband's absence, acting as his " factor," as Tyrconnel ex-
jressed it, keeping up negotiations with England and Scotland,
:onstantly in communication with Louis XIV and his ministers,

271

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1690 and supplicating Rome to obtain subsidies from the Holy See,
had displayed qualities of business and statecraft which caused
Melfort, on his return to Paris, to write to the King :

Stuart " I confess I never saw any one understand affairs better than the

Windsor Queen, and she has really gained so much esteem from the King here
Castle and his Ministers, that I am truly of opinion, that if it had not been

for her, the wicked reports spread here had made your affairs go entirely

wrong at the Court."

The return of James from the Irish expedition set the
Queen free, and there is a characteristic letter of hers about
this time to one of the Chaillot nuns, Sister Franchise
Angelique Priolo, daughter of a noble Venetian, who had
taken service in France with the Duke of Longueville. The
Queen became attached to her at once, and she was one of
the three Angeliques, the other two being Claire Angelique de
Beauvais and Catherine Angelique de Mesme, to whom the
Queen often sends greetings in her letters, and who attended
her when she stayed at the Convent. Angelique Priolo was
several times Superior.

"Sr GERMAINS. Tuesday.

Chaillot l t j s certain, dear Mother, that I have had great visits to make and

Archives to receive. I shall conclude them to-morrow . . . and I hope that

Nationales we shall then have a little repose together next week j in truth I need

it both for soul and body. What you say of that repose in your last

letter is admirable, but it seems to me that the more I seek for it, the

less I find it. It may be, perhaps, that I seek it with too much

anxiety, or rather that I search for it where it is not ; yet all the

while I am convinced that it is to be found in God alone, and I do

not appear even to wish to find it out of Him. . .

Thus, in the midst of many labours, Mary Beatrice failed
not in the building up of that " inner citadel " against which
the persistent fury of adverse circumstances was to beat in vain.

Louis XIV, discouraged by the failure of the Irish ex-
pedition, hampered by his several wars, turned a deaf ear to
the prayers of James and his Queen for further help, but con-
tinued to treat them with magnificent hospitality. Ronchi

272

THE CONVENT AT CHAILLOT

writes to Modena, 4 October, 1690: "Their Majesties are 1690
going to Fontainebleau, invited by the Most Christian King
for five or six days' hunting." While there, Mary Beatrice
knelt between the two Kings at Mass, a position she occupied
on all occasions.

The day of her arrival the Queen wrote to the Superior of
Chaillot, accepting the invitation of the nuns to become the
protectrice or patroness of their monastery :

" . . . . You are good enough to wish to place me at your head,
but I can say with truth that my greatest ambition, and the strongest
desire I ever had in my life, was to be one of the least among the
daughters of the Visitation ; though it did not please God to grant me
that grace, which would have been a benefit to myself alone, He now
gives me that of being able to procure the good of the whole
institute ..."

A MS. journal preserved at the Rouen convent of the order
written by the Superior, Mere Croiset, who had been a con-
fidant of the Queen at Chaillot, gives the date of the begin-
ning of her relations there as the first Monday in Lent, 1689,
when she sent the Comte de Lauzun to ask for a corner, and
to be looked on as a " fille de Ste Marie." The plans still
preserved in the Archives Nationales give an idea of the size
and importance of this monastery, one of the greatest in France,
with its high-domed church and vast extent of gardens, farm
and vineyards on the wooded slope of the picturesque heights
of Chaillot, looking down upon Paris and the surrounding
country. Catherine de Medici had built herself a country
house upon the spot, and the famous Marechal de Bassom-
pierre had, in his turn, erected an abode filled with every
luxury which art and nature could furnish. Anthony
Hamilton, writing some fourteen years later, asks:

" Par quel bizarre enchantement
La maison de feu Bassompierre,
Get homme jadis si galant,
Est-elle aujourd'hui le couvent
Qui re^oit tout ce que la terre
A de plus digne et de plus grand ?

273 T

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1690 La mere de ce roi charmant

Que, dans les dangers de la guerre,
J'ai vu tranquille, indifferent ;
Et sa sceur, cet astre naissant,
Qui de la rebelle Angleterre
Sera quelque jour 1'ornement."

The French King and his Court, Cardinals and Arch-
bishops, were frequent visitors at the convent, which numbered
among its members women bearing some of the greatest
names of France Montmorency, La Fayette, Ventadour, not
forgetting Mary Beatrice's favourite countrywoman, the noble
Venetian Priolo. The nuns seem to have piously carried out
the precepts of their order in humility, poverty, and prayer,
while the glimpses afforded us into their lives show them to
have been women of culture, well versed in the questions of
the day, in its politics and social life. Latin scholars, capable
of understanding an oration in that tongue, their literary
treasury, besides the works of their founder, St. Francis of
Sales, had the good fortune to be furnished by the Massillons,
Bourdaloues, and Bossuets, who were their contemporaries. The
suite of apartments allotted to the Queen, and for which she
paid an annual rent of 3,000 frs., had been splendidly deco-
rated, and supplied with furniture belonging to the Crown, by
Louis XIV's order.

The Court of St. Germains was now regularly organised.
Duke of Powis was Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Dum-
Library barton Lord of the Bed-Chamber, Robert Strickland and
Colonel Porter Vice-Chamberlains, Sir John Sparrow Board of
Green Cloth, Fergus Graham Privy Treasurer, Colonel Skelton
Comptroller, succeeded by John Stafford. Sir William Walde-
grave was Physician-in-Ordinary ; Sir Roger Strickland, late
Vice-Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Edward Hales and John and
Francis Stafford were equerries. Count Molza of Modena
and William Crane acted as equerries to the Queen on occa-
sions of ceremony, and Countess Molza, a friend of her child-
hood, was one of her ladies-in-waiting. Francesco Riva, who

274

THE COURT OF ST. GERMAINS

had taken so active a part in her escape from England, kept 1690
his office of Keeper of the Wardrobe ; and Leybourn and
Dufour, her former page, who had attended her on the same
occasion, were made equerries. Of the four companions of
James's flight, Labadie, his body-servant, Biddulph, Captain
Macdonald (or Macdonnel), and Captain Trevanion, the three
latter were appointed Grooms of the Chamber.

The number of chaplains and confessors at St. Germains has
been exaggerated there were seven. Father Warner, S.J., the
King's confessor, was afterwards replaced by Father Sanders,
also a Jesuit, who wrote a biography of the King. Father
Ruga, S.J., was confessor to the Queen, succeeded at his death
by Father Gail lard, who retained the office during the rest of
Mary Beatrice's lifetime. The chaplains were White, Gully,
Sabran, and Giacomo Ronchi, whose correspondence with the
Court of Modena we have often drawn upon. Abbe Lewis
Innes, Rector of the Scotch College in Paris, was chaplain to
the Queen. The Prince of Wales's household consisted of
the Duchess of Powis, governess, succeeded at her death by the
Countess of Erroll, and Lady Strickland, sub-governess.

The Earl of Mel fort was head of James's first Cabinet, and
was succeeded by Charles, Earl of Middleton and Monmouth,
the chief of the Protestants, who followed their King into exile.
The three Secretaries of State until 1695 were Brown, brother
of Lord Montacute, for England ; Abbe Innes, for Scotland ;
and Sir Richard Neagle (who had served James in Ireland
as Attorney-General and Secretary of State for War), for
Ireland. Gary 11, the Queen's former secretary, afterwards Lord
Caryll, was Secretary of State at St. Germains ; his nephew
became secretary to the Queen, and succeeded to the title.
The Marquis d'Albeville, ex-English ambassador in Holland,
also lived at St. Germains, a kind of minister sans portefeuille.
In the Queen's declining years John Stafford and Nicolas
Dempster were her secretaries.

The Court of St. Germains encouraged the arts ; as Mary
Beatrice had protected the painter Gennari in London, so now

275 T 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1690 the protraitists Mignard, Rigaud, and Largilliere were employed
by her and the King. Lords Perth and Middleton were men
of letters and good writers, and the elder Caryll was distin-
guished for his literary talents, his nephew, a poet himself,
being the intimate friend of Dryden and Pope. But perhaps
the most brilliant ornament of the exiled Court was Anthony
Hamilton, whose memoirs of his brother-in-law, the Comte de
Gramont, have made him famous. Voltaire describes him :

"... Le vif Hamilton,
Toujours arme d'un trait qui blesse,
Medisant de 1'humaine espfece,
Et meme d'un peu mieux, dit-on."

Hamilton's inequality of humour and proneness to " medi-
sance" somewhat detract from the weight of his authority.
When, as he says of himself, "My soul was filled with a
thousand sombre vapours . . . my ill-humour had not left
me, and I was ready to find fault with everything " ; he
peoples the palace and the park of St. Germains with none but
hypocrites and villains. He spares the fair sex, whom he calls
" Jacobite nymphs," but imagines them surrounded by a
phalanx of thirty or forty black-robed priests and religious,
whereas we have Nairne's authority that their number was
seven. In a happier mood, he writes of " Middleton, honoured
by all the world," of Berwick, the two Carylls, and of

Skelton :

" Skelton, prends en main ton verre,

Tu boiras, comme je bois
Au plus aimable des rois."

Among the ladies who shone at Mary Beatrice's Court, none
was more beautiful than " la belle Jennings," Duchess of
Tyrconnel, sister of a more famous Jennings, Sarah, Duchess
of Marlborough. Hamilton cites her as a very heroine, and a
marvel of beauty and prudence, resisting the advances of the
Duke of York, and of Charles II himself, refusing Dick
Talbot, afterwards Lord and Duke of Tyrconnel, reputed the

276

RICHARD ASHTON EXECUTED

handsomest man in England, for Sir George Hamilton, the 1691
lover of her youth. He died young, and she then married
Tyrconnel as his second wife. She lived through all the
vicissitudes of the exiled Court, and died in Dublin, at the
venerable age of ninety-two. The Countess of Erroll was
styled by the Queen an " ideal of perfection " ; Lady Melfort
kept up at St. Germains the reputation for beauty she had
acquired in London ; and Lady Sophia Bulkeley, one of the
Queen's oldest ladies, was sister of the beautiful Stewart
whose charms had dazzled Charles II, and her daughter Anne,
Hamilton's " belle Nanette," was to marry the Duke of
Berwick as his second wife.

Among the men, the Dillons, Nugents, Bulkeleys, Murrays,
Hamiltons, MacMahons, offered their swords to France, so as
not to be a burden on their own King, and the Duke of
Berwick was to die a Marshal of France, at the siege of
Philipsbourg.

As the Queen's secretary, Coleman, had been the first victim
of Titus Gates, so now the first Jacobite to be executed for
attempting to restore the King was another of her servants,
Richard Ashton, clerk of her Closet. Late in 1690 he had
attended a meeting of Protestant Jacobites, at which it was
resolved to invite Louis XIV forcibly to restore King James.
Richard Graham, Viscount Preston, was arrested at the same
time, and condemned to death, but saved himself by informing
against Lords Clarendon and Dartmouth, Turner, Bishop of
Ely, and William Penn as his accomplices. Ashton refused to
betray his friends, and was hanged at Tyburn, 28 January,
1691. He died declaring himself a Protestant, and happy to
lose his life for James II, from whom he had received favours
for sixteen years.

Renaudot, who somewhere complains pathetically of being
put into communication with " many mean men, women, and
lunatics," was the channel of correspondence between the
French Court and the English Protestant Jacobites. These
negotiations were often carried on without the consent of the

277

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1691 Court of St. Germains, and were the cause of no little friction,
jealousy, and counter agitations. Renaudot drew up a Memoir
for a French Minister (probably Pontchartrain) " on the
reasons of the ill-success of the efforts made for the restoration
of the King of England :

" i st. That too much credence was given to certain English-
BituNat. men, who wished to be entire masters of the confidence of the
King and Queen, and who promised more than they could
perform.

" 2nd. That when, upon the advice of these persons, a project
had been formed, all confidence was refused to others, and
everything coming from them rejected with scorn.

" 3rd. That several persons were even subjected to the gravest
perils, and that the death of the late Lord (sic) Ashton
may be attributed to the same causes, consequently others are
discouraged.

" 4th. Too much trust has been placed in men who had no
credit in the country, and even less capacity for the conduct of
such affairs.

" 5th. Too much distrust has been and still is shown of the
Presbyterians, and those who were concerned in the Rebellion.

" 6th. Lastly, that the Council of St. Germains has not only
lost the confidence of some of the best heads in England, but
has become so suspicious to them that they will have no more
to do with it ; the more so that they know by experience that
particular enmities have caused all they proposed to be rejected,
although it was admitted that they were capable of doing great
good, as they had hithertofore done great harm. This last article
touches them the more nearly now that they know that the
confidence of the Council of St. Germains in the King
[Louis XIV] and his ministers is no longer what it was,
that many matters are concealed from them, others only super-
ficially made known, and no opportunity given them to second
the plans formed at St. Germains, to judge of the truth and
weight of the advices from England, or to know their chief
authors and thus prevent several false steps, of which the

278

THE QUEEN'S MARRIAGE PORTION

Prince of Orange very well knew how to avail himself. . . . 1691
Men have been sent to the Bastille for no fault but that their
reproaches and presence were feared, while no effort is made
to discover the spies of the Prince of Orange, who certainly
has spies at St. Germains, as everything coming from that
quarter is instantly known, whereas anything which has passed
through our Ministers has been kept very secret. . . . That
Court has been so often mistaken in its judgments on the fidelity
of some, and the infidelity of others, that there is no risk in
not deferring blindly to it." 1

While the movements of William III were being anxiously
watched, the affairs of her native land and her own interests
there were the cause of trouble to the Queen. Louis XIV had
armies at this time on the Rhine and in Piedmont, as well as in
Flanders, and Mary Beatrice foresaw with dread that Italy was
to be one of the scenes of the struggle between France and
Austria. Writing to the Duke of Modena, and to Prince
Cesare d'Este, in May, Rizzini in cyphered letters describes her
extreme agitation of mind at learning that the Dukes of Tus-
cany and Parma, the Genoese and others had refused every
kind of contribution to the Emperor, and at the failure of her
own negotiations between Louis XIV and the Duke of Mantua.
" It appears to Her Majesty of the utmost moment that the
Princes of Italy should unite for their common defence, when it
seems probable that more German troops will be sent into the
country, especially as such measures can be taken so secretly as
'not to be discovered ; and even should Austria become aware of
them, she could not take offence, as it is a question of neu-
trality and of preserving peace against aggressions from either
side."

The question of her own interests was always an unpleasant
one to the Queen's generous nature ; of her marriage portion,
which should have been entirely paid within two years of her

1 Evelyn records : " 19 April 1691. The Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishops
of Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, Gloucester and the rest who would not take the
oaths to King William were now displaced, and in their rooms Dr. Tillotson, Dean of
St. Paul's, was made Archbishop."

279

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1691 marriage, a great part was still owing. Her affection for her
brother, and her own wealthy condition during the fifteen years
of her life in England, had restrained her from insisting upon
her claims, but now things were altered, and it became a matter
of necessity that the money should be paid. The Duke of
Modena had been seriously ill, so it is to Prince Cesare, again
all-powerful over his young cousin, that Rizzini writes at the
Queen's command : " What is more urgent still for Her
Majesty is to make known the necessity she is under of apply-
ing for the payment of some part of the dowry still owing to
her. I did not fail to represent the exigencies of the present
moment, and the small use of union among the princes, unless
it can be fortified with arms, and that troops cannot be raised
without intolerable expense ; but Her Majesty decided that I
should write in cypher to express her sentiments on the subject,
and she will write with her own hand to His Serene High-
ness . . ."

Both James II and Mary Beatrice continued to urge Louis
XIV to help the royal forces in Ireland, and Rizzini reports in
July not only that the recovery of the Duke of Modena's
health is what lies closest to the Queen's heart, but that she
showed some relief of mind not that affairs in Ireland were
going any better, but that the French King shows himself
determined to continue his assistance to the faithful Irish, the
more so that they have shown great courage and constancy in
the late engagements, although with their usual ill-fortune.

As for Tyrconnel, he will indubitably be recalled, the hatred
aroused against him, though perhaps undeserved, being general
there.

" 20 August 1691.

"... I was with the Queen on Saturday, and found her recovered
from her indisposition, but greatly afHicted at the bad state of Irish
affairs, news having arrived that Galloway has succumbed to the rebels,
but without any particulars . . . numerous letters from England and
Holland say no more than that the capitulation was on honourable
terms ..."

280

DEATH OF TYRCONNEL

On a separate sheet : 1691

" The loss of the last battle in Ireland carries with it the loss of the
kingdom ... for little is hoped from the resistance of Limerick,
owing to the lack of supplies and ammunition . . . All the news
comes by way of England and Holland, without notice of any
particularity except that the Princess of Orange forbade the lighting of
bonfires in London, saying that it was not becoming to rejoice at
victories gained over her own subjects. . . . '

Two days after the above letter was written, Tyrconnel,
worn out with toil and sickness, died in Ireland, 22 August,
1691.

Meanwhile, the correspondence with England, both from
St. Germains and Versailles, went on unflaggingly. A packet
of Godolphin's letters to the Queen was intercepted, and handed
to William III, who contented himself with showing it to
Godolphin, at the same time forgiving him, and continuing to
employ him. Lord Marlborough also entered into negotiations
with St. Germains, and there are numerous letters extant in
which the Queen figures as Mrs. Wisely or Mrs. Whiteley,
James II as Artley, Godolphin as " Bale of Goods," Marl-
borough as " Hamburg Merchant " or Armsworth ; and
Renaudot supplies the French Court with detailed accounts of
the general disposition of the English counties from his corres-
pondents "persons having special knowledge thereof" :

"Gloucestershire. The people and nobility generally well- Renaudot
disposed for the King, as the Duke of Beaufort and the Marquis Bib^Nat.
of Worcester, his son, who have great authority in that county,
have declared ; also Mylord Newburgh. The same in Lincoln-
shire, on the report of the Earl of Lindsay ; Cheshire and
Wales also, according to the Earl of Macclesfield. In Somer-
setshire and Devonshire the credit of Mylord Paulet, Mylord
Mohun, and Sir Hanwell Tent can be relied upon. Exeter
was attached to the King. The Bishop, Mylord Arundel,
Irvine, Sir John Trelawny and M. Godolphin may be trusted
here. Cornwall : The general dispositions of the whole
county are favourable. Mr. Kempe promises to bring the tin-

281

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1691 miners to the number of 7,000, and only asks for officers to
lead them. Bristol and all the neighbourhood are well disposed.
Sir John Knight has the greatest authority there, and is a
zealous servant of the King, as are also Sir Richard Hart
and Dr. Levet, Dean. In general the dispositions are con-
sidered good in Pembrokeshire, and in North and South Wales,
but we have no particulars. In Northumberland, Norfolk,
Lancashire, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, the greater part
of the nobility and people are for the King, and in the other
counties the chief of the nobility are nearly all of the same
sentiment. . . ."

If the royal prospects in England appeared to brighten,
affairs in Ireland were hastening to the capitulation of Limerick
and the arrival in France of the remnant of the faithful troops.

Donna Vittoria, Countess of Almond, writes to the Duke of
Modena, November 7, 1691 : "The Irish news will have
reached you, and worse may be expected ; if all the troops and
officers who have declared for the King come here, they will
form a considerable corps to suffer greatly, while awaiting some
favourable enterprise. . . ."

Two happy circumstances compensated the Queen in some
measure for the failure in Ireland ; first, the news that
Francesco II was about to marry Princess Margherita of Parma.
4< Her continued prayers have been heard, and her desires accom-
plished, seeing you the husband of a most worthy and accom-
plished Princess," are the words in which Donna Vittoria
conveys her mistress's congratulations to the Duke. The
second event, previously imparted to the Superior at Chaillot
in strict secrecy, is sent by Donna Vittoria a few days later in
a letter announcing that the Queen has hopes of again becoming
a mother, and Rizzini, when reporting James II's departure
for Brest in December, to receive the Irish troops after the
capitulation of Limerick, adds: "The Queen is progressing
favourably in her pregnancy."

The fact, so important as a verification of the legitimacy of
the Prince of Wales, was made public January 7, 1692.

282

DISGRACE OF MARLBOROUGH

Rizzini, writing 10 March, 1692, to the Duke of Modena, 1692
says : u . . . The news from London is that since the disgrace
of Churchill the Princess of Denmark is disgusted (disgustata)
and absents herself from Court."

Evelyn had recorded the great man's downfall a few weeks
previously. " Lord Marlborough, Lt General of the King's
Army, &c., &c., dismissed from all his charges for his exces-
sive taking of bribes, covetousness, and extortion on all occa-
sions from his inferior officers. Note. This was the Lord
who was entirely advanced by King James, and was the first
who betray 'd and forsook him."

We find another interesting entry, 20 March, 1692. " I
visited the Earl of Peterborough, who shew'd me the picture
of the Prince of Wales, newly brought out of France, seeming
in my opinion very much to resemble the Queen his mother,
and of a most vivacious countenance."

The expected birth of another child was the occasion of an
invitation from James II in the month of April to the Peeresses,
the Lady Mayoress of London, and the wives of the Sheriffs to
attend the Queen's lying-in. He also addressed the following
letter to his daughter Mary : " That we may not be want- Evelyn
ing to ourselves now that it hath pleased Almighty God,
the supporter of truth, to give us hopes of further issue, our
dearest consort, the Queen, drawing near her- time. . . . We
do therefore hereby signify our royal pleasure to you, that you
may use all possible means to come with what convenient
haste you may, the Queen looking about the middle of May
next (English account). And that you may have no scruple
on our side, the Most Christian King has given his consent
to promise you, as we hereby do, that you shall have leave
to come, and, the Queen's labour over, to return with safety."

Another effort was about to be made, and this time towards
England, to re-establish the fallen King. Hopes were high ;
Admiral Russell, commanding the English fleet, had promised
connivance, provided he were not defied, and the news from
England seemed to promise that, once landed, James would be

283

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1692 well received. Renaudot's correspondents speak : " Of a

Renaudot general contempt for the Prince of Orange, so that the fear of

Bib. Nat. the Catholic religion and of the power of France are the only

motives which can make this people adhere to the present

Government. . . . The number of the King's servants increases

from day to day, and in some places they are three to one.

It has been found necessary to send a Regiment of thirteen

Companies to Norwich, for fear of a rising.

" Several towns and counties have elected members well
affected to the King to vacant seats. Everything tends to the
same design of bringing a prompt remedy to the evils the
Usurper has brought upon the nation . . . but the different
opinions as to the methods for obtaining this end are the
greatest obstacles, and it is to be feared it will be impossible to
unite them unless the King arrives in person, with a good body
of troops. The nobility and the people have plenty of courage,
but their power is small, as the greater number are out of
place. Those who are in office could do more, but do not
venture to declare themselves yet. . . .

" The towns are groaning under the ruin of their commerce,
the country is ruined by the land taxes. . . . The sailors are
revolting daily. . . . The troops, from lack of pay, rob on the
highways, and go into the towns begging from door to door
. . . the greater part of the officers and men are for the

King "

James and the Duke of Berwick had met 14,000 Irish troops
at Brest in December, and formed them into regiments, of
which the most considerable was given to the Duke of Berwick
and called by his name, and on April 19, 1692, the King wrote
to Cardinal d'Este : " We are so entirely persuaded of your
affection, . . . that we wish to give you a mark of our own, and
of the confidence we have in your discretion, by informing you
of our design to make a descent into England with the help of
our dearest brother, the Most Christian King. We are sending
an express to Rome to inform His Holiness secretly of our
intention, and to solicit a prompt assistance on this occasion,

284

JAMES II LEAVES FOR LA HOGUE

which as greatly concerns the good of the Church as our own 1692
re-establishment. . . ."

James, after investing his little son with the Order of the
Garter, left St. Germains for Caen and La Hogue, and Rizzini
writes 25 April that great things are about to happen.

" The moment approaches in which Infinite Wisdom will
pronounce itself, either for prosperity or for misfortune . . . The
design is now public and indubitable of the King of England's descent
into that country. It appears an arduous enterprise to many, and we
shall await with beating hearts the progress of its execution.

If, therefore, nothing is changed in the system of private intelligence,
if the wind is not contrary . . . and if the English people continue
to be sensible of their own interests, the only power that governs
them, the attempt, it may be hoped, is likely to succeed ; as, besides
the general pardon the King has offered in his proclamation, he
promises the abolition of all imposts, and rewards and recompenses to
all who return to their allegiance . .

In any case, if a landing is effected, the least good to be hoped
from it by him who has promoted so great a project, will be the lighting
up of a Civil War in that kingdom, whence the most useful con-
sequences will arise for France, in diverting Orange's forces, combined
with a vigorous attack upon his confederates, who finding themselves
abandoned by him, will be forced to sue for peace, which could not
fail to be advantageous to the English King also . . ."

Same to Modenese Secretary of State. Same date :

"... I have no copy of the King's proclamation, which is to be
published forthwith in England . . in substance it contains a general
amnesty and pardon, liberty of religion, within the limits which
Parliament will enact ; a free Parliament to be summoned. It is
supposed that there are secret intelligences, and other favourable
dispositions, but nevertheless the design appears arduous to many . . .
2 May. News is daily expected of the Fleet, which is commanded
by Admiral de/Tourville .*. . 21 May. The winds are contrary, and
keep Tourville back, while giving Orange time to prepare obstacles to
the enterprise. It was feared this might cause the Queen great dis-
quiet, and a notable prejudice to her health in her present condition ;
but when I went to St. Germains yesterday ... I was happy to find
her more tranquil than could have been expected, firmly persuaded as

285

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1692 she is that sooner or later she will have good news, the more so, that

by the King's letters she finds they do not make much account of the
English and Dutch ships, which are all inferior to the French . . .

Letters from London declare the dissensions between the Princesses
of Orange and Denmark increase daily, and it was noticed that the
former, on leaving her sister's apartment, was weeping violently. . ."

Meanwhile Mary Beatrice had written to Lauzun, who had
lately been made a duke (at her earnest solicitation, as Dangeau
relates), the following order :

Alfred "The DukeofLauzun has power to treat with all those of the

King my Lord's subjects at present in Flanders in the service of the
Prince of Orange, who may wish to return to their allegiance to their
legitimate King.

MARIA R."

May 23, Gary 11 informs the Duke that the Queen is too ill
to write, as she tires herself writing long letters to the King
ibid. every day. " If the wind had been favourable, we should
apparently be in London at this hour, without the least opposi-
tion, for the enemy was so far from guessing our purpose, and
so bare of troops in England, that we need only have marched
straight to London to take possession of it. But now the face
of things is changed, alarm has been taken, troops sent from
Scotland, and the Prince of Orange can send some from
Holland. . . ."

The letter ends with an expression of the belief that if the
army in Normandy could be conveyed to England " we should
gain the mastery in a few days."

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR LEOPOLD.

"LONDON. 31 May 1692.

Imp. "... I must, by the messenger who is going to the King, inform

Vienna"' Your Majesty in all haste that an express last night brought the

joyful news from Admiral Russell that on Thursday he began the

combat with the French fleet at 1 1 o'clock in the morning ; it lasted

286

BATTLE OF LA HOGUE

until 5 in the evening, when the enemy began to retreat, the 1692
Admiral pursuing to engage him again. . . ."

3 June, Hoffmann sends extracts from Admiral Russell's
despatch :

" The news has been celebrated by firing guns from the Tower,
and the lighting of bonfires ; and as the Admiral's report, as well as
the direction of the wind gave reason to hope that the enemy would
not be allowed to reach Brest, the entire destruction of his Fleet was
expected ; the hope was not disappointed, as tidings have come this
morning from the Dutch Admiral Hallemond that the French fleet
is utterly dispersed, that nine vessels retired to Barfleur, pursued by
the Admiral, that sixteen others, in spite of the extreme danger, fled to
the rocks round Guernsey . . . that Admiral de la Val has burned
the'Soleil Royal,' Tourville's ship of 104 guns, { 1'Admirable,' of
1 02 guns, ' Le Fort,' 80 guns in a word all are dispersed, and few
will be able to escape. . . . From all these reports it seems that the
victory is complete. . . . On this side not one vessel has been lost,
only three English and one Dutchman put out of action.

The destruction of that Fleet is due to the Jacobites here, who
gave King James, and consequently the King of France, false ideas of
the English Fleet, assuring him it would never be ready to put to sea.
The King of France, who, by his bad advice, had made King James
lose three kingdoms, has now lost all his maritime power. . . . Some
Captains have arrived here, and confirm the former news ; they say
the French fleet consisted of no more than fifty line vessels, and that
the Toulon squadron was not there it was to arrive later."

" 6 June.

"... I have to inform you that Admiral Russell, on the 3rd,
burned thirteen to fifteen vessels which had fled to the Bay of
La Hogue. . . . They were burned under the very eyes of King
James, who, with his Irishmen, tried to save them from the shore.
The enemy's Fleet consisted of only 49 ships, as on the enclosed list
found upon some prisoners ; he thought he had only de la Val's
squadron to deal with, a fog preventing him from seeing the whole
fleet. He received (too late) a day after the battle, the order not to
fight. French presumption at sea has at all events been humbled
without costing the allies a single vessel, except the fire-ships, which
were all lost.

28 7

Chaillot
MSS.
Archives
Nationales

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1692 The ' Soleil Royal ' was the finest and most precious ship in

Europe, having cost, it is said, three millions of livres. It is a pity
she could not be saved as a perpetual trophy, but the enemy, to save
the crews, having run his vessels ashore, it was impossible to take any
of them, and they were all burned so he will be able to fish up his
guns, which are all metal, and the loss of which would have been
very considerable. . . ."

However brave a front the Queen might bear in public, the
letter she wrote to the Superior at Chaillot a few days after the
disaster of La Hogue betrays feelings of greater discouragement
than on any other occasion of her life.

"Sr GERMAINS. 14 June 1692.

"What shall I say to you, my beloved mother, or rather, what
would not you say to me, if we could be one quarter of an hour in
each other's arms ? I think, however, the time would pass entirely in
tears and sighs, and that my eyes and my sobs would say more than
my lips, for, in truth, what is there, after all, that can be said by
friendship in the state in which I am. . .

Oh, the ways of God are far from our ways, and his thoughts are
different from ours. We see this clearly in our last calamity, and by
the unforeseen, almost supernatural mischances by which God has
overthrown our designs, and has appeared to declare himself so clearly
against us for our overwhelming. What can we say to this, my
beloved mother, or rather is it not better to say nothing, but closing
our lips, and bowing our head, to adore, and to approve, if we can y
all that God does, for he is master of the universe, and it is meet and
right that all should be submitted to him. It is the Lord, he has done
what was good in his sight."

James II lingered for three weeks at the Hogue, as if unable
to tear himself away from the scene of so crushing a disaster,
and apparently forgetful of the necessity of returning to St.
Germains before the Queen's lying-in. She writes to the Superior
of Chaillot :

ibid. " The King has not chosen to return from La Hogue, though he

has nothing to keep him there, and my condition speaks for itself to

288

Qjacoltus ^ ecu r Jus

$?Gt.<

e<j IT

BIRTH OF PRINCESS LOUISE MARIE

make him come to me. In the meantime, he would not resolve upon 1692
anything ; but he will find all well over, although it costs me much
to have it so without his orders, which Lord Melfort brought us this
morning. . . Embrace all the dear Sisters ; take leave of them for
me before my lying-in, not knowing what may happen."

A letter to Lauzun, written about the same time, has a more
valiant ring :

"... The King is sending Lord Melfort [from La Hogue] to Alfred
your King. . . I tremble lest he should be hindered from doing that
which his reputation and the good of his affairs require of him, and
though his absence is very sensible to me, and that I passionately
desired to have him near me at this time, I should be very sorry to
see him spend the summer at St. Germains. ... I have written to
the King, and to Madame de Maintenon. ... I hope our mis-
fortunes will not lessen his friendship for us ; that were the greatest
loss of all. I pray God to bless his arms, and make them happier in
Flanders than they were at sea. . ."

James II returned to St. Germains 21 June, and on the
25th was born, in the presence of the Chancellor of France,
the Duchess of Orleans and the Princesses of the blood, a
Princess, to whom Louis XIV, on his return from the siege of
Namur, and the Duchess of Orleans stood sponsors, giving her
the names of Louise Marie. None of the persons invited
from England had come, but the presence of Madame Meere-
room, the wife of the Danish Ambassador, was noticed with
satisfaction, Denmark being in alliance with the Dutch and
English. " The King of England tenderly cherished that
Princess," says the Chaillot Journal ; he was wont to say :
" * This is she, whom the Lord has given us to be the consola-
tion of our exile.' ' How bftterly the iron had entered the
soul of James can be seen in his well-known letter to the King
of France after the battle of the Hogue : " My evil star has
influenced the arms of Your Majesty, ever victorious but when
fighting for me, I entreat you therefore to interest yourself
no more for a prince so unfortunate, but permit me to with-
draw, with my family, to some corner of the world, where I

289 u

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1692 may cease to be an interruption to Your Majesty's wonted
course of prosperity and glory."

Jacobite plotting continued active in spite of adverse circum-
stances. Simson, alias Jones, escaped, with the connivance of
the French Court, from the Bastille, and went to England,
whence he kept up a constant correspondence with Renaudot.
He sends him a key of names used for divers persons, and a
Renaudot " Memorial of some things necessary for our correspondence.
B?b. C Nat. Direct your letters ffor Mr William Robinson at the Venetian
Coffee house in the pall-mall London, ffor Dr. Murray to be
left next door to the Hartfordshyre Coffee-house in Brookes
Markett near Hollborne in London. But the first is the
best.

" But when you have anything particular proper for my own
knowledge only, Direct . . ffor Mrs Mary Russell, to be left
with Mrs. Penelope Huggons, at a tinn-shopp over against
Mark Lane in ffenchurch Street, London. Make up all your
letters after the manner of merchants as you saw I did myne
. . . and still number them at the top. . ."

Another paper contains no less than thirty reasons why Lord
Melfort, who, it will be remembered, had been instrumental in
sending the writer to the Bastille, should be removed from the
King of Great Britain. He is represented as being " one of
the chief causes of the misfortunes which obliged the King,
his master, to leave England, and the great cause of all those
that have befallen his affairs in France, and more especially
after the misfortune of His Majesty's late Expedition [to
Ireland], There is no remedy on earth than removing him
from the King, which will not only secure the whole manage-
ment in the hands of the Most Christian King and his
ministers . . . But also have the greatest present effect upon
all sorts of people in Britain in generall, and upon the two
Parliaments in particular. In one word, it will have a greater
effect to the facilitating our present measures with them, than
100,000 Louis d'or scattered among them."

Renaudot's own opinion of Melfort was a poor one. He

290

THE QUEEN'S DISTRUST OF MELFORT

several times ironically calls him " my hero," and writes to one 1692
of the French Ministers : " His anger against me greatly
increased when he found I would not fall into several traps he
had laid for me . . Since that time he has threatened me, he
has made me as suspect to the King and Queen as he could . . .
and only asked for my friendship again when he thought he
was lost for having, against all the world, prevented the King
from granting the Presbyterians the articles they asked for,
when they were all-powerful in Parliament.

" Having closed every path to those who sought access to the
King of England by any other way than through him, and
having several times written that the King would sooner
forgive those who addressed themselves to the Prince of
Orange than to the Court of France seeing that in spite of all
his precautions we have had intercourse with several considerable
persons, he sought occasion to fall upon me, as he has now
done. . . .

" Although the continual complaints against him with which
all the letters we have received during the past three years have
been filled, gave ample reason to speak against him, I have
always tried to appease discontent, but not to establish con-
fidence in him, which I considered would be impossible ..."

Renaudot's English correspondents are all in favour of Lord
Middleton against Melfort ; and that the Queen had no great
confidence in him would appear from an urgent message she had
sent to the King her husband in Ireland through Lauzun, before
Melfort's mission to Rome : u . . . Implore the King to order
him, if it appears as necessary to him as it does to me, to
depend entirely upon my uncle, Cardinal d'Este, and to let
himself be guided by him ... I beg you so to manage that he
may never suspect that I have caused you to speak of this to
the King . . ."

Evelyn notes, January 1693 : "Admiral Russell laid aside
for not pursuing the advantage he had obtained over the
French," and Jacobite feeling was running high, to judge by
some of the ballads of the time, and such a fervent address to

291 u 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1693 the absent Queen as Lansdowne wrote in his Progress of
Beauty :

" ' Be bold, be bold, my Muse ! nor fear to raise
Thy voice to her who was thy earliest praise,
Queen of our hearts, and charmer of our sight,
A monarch's pride, his glory and delight.

To be but at her feet more glory brings

Than 'tis to tread on sceptres and on kings ;

Secure of empire in that beauteous breast

Who would not give their crowns to be so blest ? ' '

Meanwhile Rizzini, writing February 1 1 to the Duke of
Modena, gives an instance of the facility with which King
James could be imposed upon. A gentleman named Bada(jzV),
to whom he had given a commission of Major in his guard,
was subsequently accused in the Dutch Gazette of being an
impostor, and a renegade Benedictine monk : " Their British
Majesties lie under the fatality of having had in their service
the greatest number of open or secret traitors, unknown
persons, or reputed unworthy of their favour . . They have
had to suffer the annoyance of great complaints against this
Bada . . of quarrels and accusations among their servants, and
of witnessing the misery of so many English and Irish
Catholic families at St. Germains, whose number increases
daily, and to feed whom they, so to speak, almost take the
bread from their own mouths . . .

" The widowed Milady Waldegrave, 1 natural daughter of the
British King, was on the point of making a clandestine
marriage with a natural son of the late Duke of Tyrconnel ;
so it has been judged expedient to make her withdraw into a
Convent of English nuns at Pontoise, where a sister of hers is
a nun.

" It is also reported in Paris, and at Court, that the Duke of
Berwick, having fallen in love with a daughter of Count
d'Armagnac of the House of Lorraine and grand Ecuyer, has

1 Henry, Lord Waldegrave, James IPs Ambassador at Versailles, died 24 January
1690. He was succeeded by Skelton.

292

JACOBITE PLOTS

asked her hand in marriage without the knowledge of the 1693
King, his father, who is much annoyed, being well aware that
the Count would refuse, as the natural sons of kings, although
recognised, do not hold the rank of princes in England, as in
France and Spain."

A few days later, Rizzini remarks upon the growing misery
in France, and the anxiety of peace, and 25th February, 1693,
Parliament insists upon triennial parliaments : " This is
directly contrary to the prerogative of the Crown in England,
and tends, little by little, to change that government into a
Republic."

Correspondence between France and the English Jacobites
was being carried on vigorously, and Renaudot remarks that
" the Prince of Orange " who had gone to Holland at the end
of March, " swore frightfully " on hearing of another Jacobite
plot. Simson-Jones, who had gone to England after his
permitted escape from the Bastille, finding that faithful
loyalists were wary of him, on the advice of one of them,
Mr. Craig, whose letter is among the Renaudot papers,
returned to Paris, and to the Bastille, where he was lodged in
the Governor's house. Renaudot informs M. de Pontchartrain
that he has sent letters from Jones to the unsuspicious King and
Queen, who had been left in ignorance of the part the French
Court had played in his evasion, though Renaudot, in his letter,
wonders if they can really be ignorant of it. They were over-
joyed at the news. " Poor lad f " exclaimed the King, " ... he
proves his innocence and his zeal for my service by returning
to the Bastille . . . Tell him that not only I forget all I have
heard against him, but that I shall take care to give him every
possible mark of my favour." The King said gaily to the
Queen : " Madam, Jones has come back to the Bastille, and
has written to me, and to you also." The Queen showed even
greater pleasure than the King, and cried : " Alas, poor
fellow, what has he not suffered for our sake ..." then
turning to the Countess of Almond : " Well, now he has
come back, what can be said against him ? "

293

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1693 A more important person than Jones was also returning,
unabashed by his former treachery, to attempt another plot.
Sir James Montgomery, who had asked Queen Mary II. to give
him " any place in which he could subsist with decency " now
enters into correspondence with Renaudot, who reports his
letters and Irving's : " That it is of the last importance not
to let the present occasion slip, so many are the persons with
favourable dispositions towards the King and Queen, and who
all display their impatience to see the execution of what has
been promised them, touching the object of their aversion
[Melfort] who, they say, forgets nothing to upset everything."
Montgomery proposed to come to Paris, and then changing

27 July

his mind wrote to Simson-Jones ^ that the Earl of

7 August

Arran, eldest son of the Duke of Hamilton, and Captain
Montgomery, a cousin of his own, would come instead :

" The former," writes Renaudot to M. de Pontchartrain, " has
been twice at the French Court. He has the confidence of
several of the King's servants in Scotland and in England, and
his person has always been agreeable to him, for which reason
he has been chosen.

" Captain Montgomery is a Naval officer . . . greatly attached
to the King's service . . . He is a particular friend of Lord
Middleton, but not of his colleague ... It is considered
important that before going to St. Germains, these gentlemen
should see some of the Ministers, so as to be informed of the
intentions of His Majesty [Louis XIV], lest, knowing nothing
of the state of the Court of St. Germains, the same might
happen to them as has happened to others, viz. : they might be
inspired with unfounded suspicions, prevented from speaking
freely, and their errand made fruitless. . . '

The Renaudot papers contain a letter from Jones to Renaudot
at this date, pathetically begging for money to support his wife,
and large family of young children.

We find about this time in Evelyn's Diary another proof of
his attachment to his former Queen. He has been to Whitehall

294

THE SCOTCH BRIGADE DISBANDED

to see the new Queen's apartment, her rare cabinets and col lee- 1693
tion of china : " In her library were many books ... of all
sorts ; a cupboard of gold plate ; a cabinet of silver filagree,
which I think was our Queen Mary's and which in my opinion
should have been generously sent to her." The silver filagree
was probably the present James had given his young wife after
the birth of her second child.

How beautiful Mary Beatrice remained in spite of her many
troubles is shown by a letter written in this her thirty-fifth
year by the Earl of Perth to his sister the Countess of Erroll.
Speaking of the beauteous Duchess of Arenberg he says : " She
is one of the most beautiful and every way accomplished ladies
I ever saw, except our Queen, who deserves the preferment for
her merit of all I have known."

One of the sad consequences of the royal misfortunes was the
disbandment of James's Scotch brigade. The Queen alludes
to it in the following letter to Sister Angelique Priolo :

" Yesterday we went to Versailles. . . . The King's [James II]
kind heart, as well as mine have suffered much for some days from
this desolating reform that awaits us ... it has at length begun
among our poor troops. . . . We are quite satisfied with the King,
[Louis XIV] he spoke to us yesterday with much kindness about it,
and convinced us that, if it had not been for the consideration he has
for us, he should not have kept the fourth part of those whom he has
retained. ..." >

Dalrymple gives a touching account of the King's last review
of his Brigade, the brave remnants of the followers of Dundee ;
a hundred and fifty officers, all of honourable birth, who en-
rolled themselves in the French army. The King bowed with
his hat off", and then, turning away, burst into a passion of
tears. He turned to them again, and " the regiment kneeled,
bent their heads and eyes steadfast on the ground, and then
rose, and passed him with the usual honours of war."

Renaudot reports, 14 October, 1693, a conversation with
Captain Montgomery : " Affairs in general, and with Sweden
in particular, are in a better state than ever ... As a proof

295

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1693 of the favourable dispositions of Sweden he said that the new
Ambassador, successor to M. Oxenstein, had entered into con-
fidence with them, and renewed the assurances of his prede-
cessor . . ." Later Renaudot sends extracts from letters of the
8th, nth, and ifth December from Sir James Montgomery and
Renaudot Irving : " The letters . . show that matters are ripe to

Paoers

Bib. Nat. make a great stir in this Parliament, and cause it to revolt
against the Government, but for want of the declaration asked
for [from James II] they were unable to profit by the turbulent
spirit they had excited in the first sittings. They declare that
otherwise they would have gained their object, as they can
positively prove. All they can now do is to foster the seeds of
dissension between Parliament and the Prince of Orange, in the
hope of deriving future advantage therefrom.

" They have heard that Father Peter (sic) has been incognito
to St. Germains, and stayed fifteen days there, which has done
great injury to the King's affairs. The King's enemies have
also availed themselves of a popular objection which obtains
some credence that in recalling their King, they would be
obliged to repay the Most Christian King all he had cost him,
the expenses of the war in Ireland, and even of the present
campaign. They recommend that this article should not be
neglected, however extravagant it may seem . . . and mea-
sures taken to disabuse the vulgar of such an apprehension,
which would never enter the mind of those who know the
greatness of soul and generosity of the King . . ."

The copy of an important document, which Renaudot is
sending by a Mr. Crosby to the Protestant Jacobites in England
bears date 20 December 1693, and declares that Louis XIV
intends to restore the King of England by " the means most
conformable to the interests and spirit of the nation, and to the

ibid, fundamental constitutions of the Government. . . . Any false
notions which may have been promulgated, especially at the
time of the Declaration last year, must be dispelled, as His
Majesty had no knowledge of it, nor of certain articles in that
declaration particularly odious to the Nation. . . ." Louis XIV

296

LOUIS XIV AND THE JACOBITES

promises to listen to any proposals made to him through his 1693
Ministers ; he promises inviolable secrecy. " His Majesty will
protect any who may be obliged to leave England, and they
shall in no way be troubled concerning their religion." He
will provide the means for their escape if necessary. " The
care taken by his orders, to save the life of Lord Preston,
although not in communication with him, may serve as a proof
of what may be expected from the generosity of His Majesty."
Entire confidence is placed in Lord Middleton and the Pro-
testant Bishops.

" If there be any persons near the King of England suspected
by those who may have important designs, they are earnestly
entreated not to abandon them on that account . . . When
the King will have positive assurance that the faithful servants
of the British King are united in sufficient numbers to declare
themselves in his favour with safety, and a descent into England
is judged practicable, His Majesty will furnish all that is neces-
sary for the enterprise, when it can be made in concert with the
nation."

The last clause of this important document contains the
essential difference between the standpoint of the French Court
and that of the English Jacobite party. Louis XIV was ready
to send money, arms and men into England, even after the
failure in Ireland and at La Hogue, the moment the Jacobites
declared themselves for King James. They, on the other hand,
ever strove to persuade him to make the first move, and to
send a French force into England ; they would then have risen,
or remained quiet, according to the success or failure of the first
engagements. A long answer is returned, urging Louis XIV
to strike at once, as the moment is favourable :

" To attain an end so desirable for the peace of Europe and the Renaudot
happiness of our country, and in which the glory, the honour and the gf^Nat.
justice of the Most Christian King seemed involved, we are ready to
risk our lives and fortunes, as are a number of other persons of every
quality and profession engaged with us. ... We have charged the
bearer of this letter to signify this to you, and very humbly to

297

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1693 entreat that you will make known to us, by him, as soon as possible
what assurances you require from us and our friends, in order to give
you entire satisfaction as to all you may expect from us. ... This
letter has been written in the presence and by order of the sub-named
persons :

" The Marquis of Worcester. Earl of Huntingdon.

Earl of Thanet. Earl of Clarendon.

Earl of Scarsdale. Earl of Lichfield.

Earl of Yarmouth. Lord Ferrers.

Lord Griffin. Lord Fanshaw.

Lord Forbes. Earl of Chesterfield.

Bishop of Norwich. Bishop of Exeter."
Lord Arran.

RENAUDOT TO THE COUNT OF PONTCHARTRAIN.

" Mr Crosby went back to-day. He has connections and ability
which may make him as useful as anybody. The conferences we
have had together have been without the participation of my hero,
who has made difficulties about everything (a fait finesse de tout) We
nevertheless found means to get instructions, which are pitiable so
vague are they, and making no more mention of this country than if
it were a thousand leagues away. I thought it therefore very
important to remedy this, as I think I have done. . . . " x

Not only was William Penn a personal friend and most
faithful servant of James II, but the whole sect of Quakers
never wavered in their belief in the honesty of their monarch's
promises regarding liberty of conscience, and remained true to
his cause to the last. Renaudot writes at the end of the above
letter : " The Quaker [Mr Broomfield is written in the
margin] is leaving to-morrow. I have given him a memoir
drawn from the one you approved of. He will need, if you
please, letters for Calais, and as it is not expedient he should
cross with Mr. Crosby, I shall send word to M. de Thom so
to arrange their passage that they may not see each other.
The latter travels post, and the Quaker on horseback, so it can
be done."

1 In a marginal note to a paper of Renaudot's saying ; " You will observe how that
Prince's (James II) orders are executed." the Minister remarks "He is much to be
pitied, but it is his own fault."

298

JEALOUSIES AND SUSPICIONS

At the beginning of January 1694, Renaudot reports that 1694
Sir James Montgomery is coming over to arrange for the
descent into England, and prays that he may be well received
at Calais " As he no doubt comes in order to be the first
bearer of good tidings, and if the least suspicion is aroused in
his queer mind (cet esprit bizarre] he would be capable of
doing great harm.

"It is wonderful that under circumstances such as these
private interests should prevail over the public good ; Crosby
sends word that six persons lately sent over by My lord Mel fort,
are more concerned in pacifying the complaints against him,
which are always the same, than in satisfying suspicious minds
by sincere negotiations. From other sources we hear that they
are doing more harm than good, and you are entreated not to
give credence to all they write ; nor to what will be said by
two lately arrived here Barclay and Williamson."

COPY OF ORDER TO THE COMMANDANT OF CALAIS.

"6 January 1694.

" Several English gentlemen are shortly to arrive at Calais, who
will make themselves known to you by whispering in your ear that
they are sent by Fabius, and the King commands me to tell you that
you are to allow them to pass upon that word, and to give them
every facility for coming secretly to Paris without the knowledge
of any one. You will please address them to. the Abbe R. . . .
[Renaudot]."

A fortnight later Renaudot announces the arrival of Irving,
a Jacobite agent whom he is sending to Versailles, and then, if
M. de Pontchartrain thinks fit, to St. Germains.

"27 January 1694.

Mr Irving's chief commission to the King of England concerns
Scotland, where, they declare, measures have been taken for
seizing Edinburgh Castle and the Council of State at the first
movement."

" 3 January.

" In one letter 20,000 men were asked for, including 5,000 for
Scotland. In the other only 10,000. The jalousies and suspicions

299

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1694 of which you are well aware have again produced their ordinary
effects ; and the worst has been to animate the Episcopal party
against the Presbyterians, so that in the present Parliament they have
traversed each other, to the profit of the Prince of Orange, through
mutual misunderstandings.'*

"31 January.

" I have just received news that Sir James Montgomery, who was
about to start in the sloop, has been arrested by a messenger. It is
not yet known if he is in London or on the coast ; but it is difficult
not to suspect treachery."

That Lord Melfort is the suspected person is clear from
Renaudot's next letter

" 5 February 1 694.

" .... I have several other letters of which I have given you no
account, after so complete a reversal of measures as the imprisonment
of Sir James Montgomery . . . which is a great misfortune. There
is hardly any one who does not believe there was treachery, and if
there are no proofs as yet, the indications are so strong as to destroy
for ever the little credit the suspected person possessed. This has
gone so far that several Englishmen have resolved to go home,
thinking themselves no longer safe for having declared against him ;
and the order obtained from you to send the agent of some merchants
to the Bastille has completed their trouble, making them believe that
the same measure may be dealt to any who may denounce him for
this last affair. I can therefore recommend nothing to you, except
to show great resentment at Montgomery's imprisonment, to use
every method to save him if possible, or at all events to preserve his
party, by making them aware of all that can be done to help and
encourage them."

A few days later Renaudot sends a -precis of a letter from
England of February 5 : "The complaints against the suspected
Minister are always the same, and the common opinion is that
if he remains at the head of affairs, it will need an increase of
10,000 men to re-establish the King. In case of a proposal to
send for Lord Torrington to France, it would be advisable to
await further news, as there is an important affair sur le tapis^
of which it is necessary to see the issue.

" Colonel Parker, Lord Melfort's chief correspondent, has

300

ESCAPE OF MONTGOMERY

caused much embarrassment by his imprudence, spreading 1694

sports of a descent as coming from St. Germains, and sending
letters to certain servants of the King who refused to receive
them, while others carried them to Lord Sydney."

Next day Renaudot announces the escape of Montgomery Renaudot

id his safe arrival at Calais on the ist February : " It has BiT^Nat.

sen one of the most extraordinary adventures that ever
lappened, and which must greatly annoy the Prince of Orange.
Sir James Montgomery was arrested on the I9th of January,
and sent to the house of a messenger. The order was given by
Mr. Secretary Trenchard, in presence of the Prince of Orange,
who had received positive news that Montgomery was about to
start for France, as well as of the house in which he was
concealed. It is not doubted but that the information came
from Mylord M . . . After his arrest, Montgomery was

;nt to three different messengers, so that no one might know
where he was. His guard was composed of five men from
Whitehall, and in three days they were changed every twenty-
four hours, so that forty-eight different men were employed.
The Prince of Orange publicly boasted that he would send
him to Scotland to be put to the torture, which, as you know,
is terrible in that country."

The case of Neville Payne lent special terror to William's
threat. Engaged with Montgomery in a former plot, he had
tried and condemned at Edinburgh, but his judges had
hesitated to put him to the question, which was deferred from
the date of his sentence in August, until special orders came
from the King on November i8th. The torture, with thumb-
screws and boot, lasted two hours, but Payne with great
constancy and courage confessed nothing. He was the last
man tortured in Scotland.

" Montgomery," continues Renaudot, " gained three of his Rid.
guards so completely and on the point of honour, as they
refused the money offered them that they were ready to
kill the other two, who made difficulties, but allowed them-
selves to be persuaded to wink at the evasion ; after it they were

301

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1694 all to desert, and come to France. Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe,
who was aware of the scheme, had a carriage ready at a given
point, to which the guards conducted Montgomery, who left
London with Oglethorpe. Outside the town a carriage and
six awaited them, and took them to the house of a friend who
gave them horses to continue their journey to our agent on
the coast, who certainly deserves a reward. The sloop
happily carried them into safety. I hear that nothing could
have caused greater astonishment, and that Prince Louis
of Baden could not help showing his amazement at seeing
the Prince of Orange betrayed by his own guards ....
Montgomery will be here on Tuesday or Wednesday ....
Oglethorpe comes also under the name of Mordaunt, and begs
that his identity may not be disclosed . . . .

10 February 1694 Renaudot announces Montgomery's
arrival in Paris so tired and ill that he has advised him to spend
a day or two in bed before presenting himself to Pontchartrain.
The chief things he has said are that " Trenchard and one of
the Scotch Secretaries declared they were warned of his hiding
place and departure by a letter from St. Germains. As
nothing was known there of Oglethorpe he attributes to that
happy ignorance the fact that he was not arrested also.

" The first house to which they went was the Swedish Ambas-
sador's. They beg you to keep this circumstance very secret.
Mr. Johnson, one of the Secretaries for Scotland, served them
very well, and you may remember that from the first he has
been spoken of as well-disposed. Dalrymple, the other Secre-
tary, did quite the contrary. . . . Walwood, the doctor who
had been sent by the Prince of Orange to watch Montgomery,
said the same thing as to the letter from St. Germains. The
person they suspect received letters from Calais on Sunday
with the first news of the arrest, and suppressed them until the
Wednesday. . . .

" Montgomery and Oglethorpe have drawn up a paper on the
chief points relating to the Jacobite movement. They had no
knowledge of King James's former proposals, the majority

302

JACOBITE PROPOSALS

*ing afraid to negotiate with Lord Melfort, especially since
Duller, whom he had employed, had denounced all those he
:new of. The generality of the nation desire the restoration
)f the legitimate sovereign ; but they admit that the artifices
>f the Prince of Orange, by which he has secured the majority
Parliament, the fears he has fostered of the power of the
Ling of France, who would, he says, in his zeal for religion,
>verthrow all the laws of the country, the foreign forces in the
:ingdom, the dissensions among the British King's servants,
the poor measures adopted by his agents, and the general dis-
:ouragement of well-intentioned people, have reduced affairs
to a very grave condition.

The remedy they propose is a direct attack upon the Prince
)f Orange by a descent into England before the month of May
>y the Thames, Dover, and Southampton, as they explain in a
jparate paper. They have the promise of three Admirals,
rho have a complete knowledge of the fleet, filled with
)fficers who are their creatures, and who would execute the
mterprise ; more than fifty Lords would declare themselves at
ic same time ; the Governors of the Forts at Chatham and
m the Thames would render them up, and even the City of
Condon would either declare at once for the King, or would
)on be obliged to receive him. They do not doubt of the
>mplete success of the enterprise, which would cost about
70 millions of French money. Montgomery will say nothing
ibout Lord Melfort, but prays that all communications may be
lade through Lord Middleton." l

RENAUDOT TO M. DE PONTCHARTRAIN.

"21 Feb. 1 694.

" You will have heard what occurred in the English Parliament Ibi
respecting the exclusion of the Court Pensioners. The majority of
the Commons put on their hats in the presence of the Prince of
Orange, and voted the strongest address which has been seen for a
long time. . . .

Mylord Chancellor, who knows his country well, said that if on
1 Montgomery died in Paris at the end of 1694.
303

1694
Renaudot

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1694 that occasion the King had been in England with a hundred men, he
would have been re-established ..."

A few days later,- Renaudot sends extracts from a letter
drawn up by Lord Clarendon, and on April 9 writes that Lord
Griffin has arrived.

Renaudot " His purpose is to remain as a hostage for the fulfilment of their

Papers, promises, and to give exact information of their designs, ... As he

will bear witness that with the exception of Mylord Ailesbury, the
Bishop of Norwich and two or three more, all persist in refusing,
nothwithstanding the repeated commands of the King of England,
to deal with Lord Melfort, he has partly come to speak to the
British King on that subject. Lord Griffin is a man of fifty, of
great good sense and excellent manners ... he and his wife, who is
a woman of great spirit, have suffered much in the service of the
King their master since the Revolution. . . . He speaks French
well ..."

EXTRACTS FROM DIVERS LETTERS FROM ENGLAND.

ibid. "... Mylord Devonshire openly treats Sunderland as a traitor,

who sold King James, and would now betray the Prince of Orange.
He has even declared that he will not continue to serve him unless
Sunderland is dismissed. . . . The Prince of Orange is greatly
embarrassed, and his favour varies from one to another, and the habit
he has taken of spending the night drinking heavily with two or
three confidants is attributed to his trouble of mind."

Churchill at this time, whether, as has been suggested, in
order to injure Admiral Russell, with whom he was at enmity,
or moved by the sight of the strong Jacobite tide running in
England to a transient desire to act the part of a General
Monk, offered his services to the King whom he had been the
first to betray, and as an earnest of his repentance and good
purpose sent the information contained in the following
letter :

GENERAL SACKFIELD TO LORD MELFORT.

"May 3. 1694.

" I have just now received the enclosed for the King. It is from
Lord Churchill, but no person but the Queen must know from whom
it comes. For the love of God, let it be kept a secret."

304

RESIGNATION OF LORD MELFORT

Enclosure from Lord Marlborough to James II : 1694

" It is only to-day I have learned the news I now write you, Macpher-
which is that the bomb-ketches and 12 Regiments encamped at p a n ' e s ng '
Portsmouth, with 2 Regiments of marines, all commanded by Talmarsh vol. i. '
[Tollemache] are destined for burning of harbour of Brest, and de- P g *44
stroying all the men-of-war there. This will be a great advantage for
England, but no consideration can prevent, or ever shall prevent me,
from informing you of all that I believe to be for your service.
Therefore you may make your own use of this intelligence, which
you may depend upon being exactly true, but I must conjure you,
for your own interest, to let no one know but the Queen and the
bearer of this letter. Russell sails to-morrow with 40 ships, the rest
are not yet paid, but it is said that in ten days the rest of the fleet will
follow. I endeavoured to learn this from Admiral Russell, but he
always denied it to me, though I am sure he knew this design for 6
weeks. This gives a bad sign of that man's intentions. I shall be
well pleased to learn that this letter comes safe to your hands."

The French, thus placed on their guard, totally defeated the
English squadron, but in the following July Evelyn notes on
the 1 3th : "Lord Berkeley burned Dieppe and Havre-de-
Grace with bombs in revenge for the defeat at Brest."

Writing, May 26, to the Duke of Modena, Rizzini states
that there have now been two years of scarcity in France.
" To-morrow there will be a solemn procession of the relics of
St. Genevieve in Paris, to beg God's blessing on the harvest,
and for a cessation of the present necessities. . . ."

" 2 "June 1694.

"... Their British Majesties have thought it well that Mylord
Melfort should resign his office of Secretary of State, to content the
English who call themselves the loyal party, and who have long
desired this, (in cypher) For certain offices at the French Court
where he is not to the mind of the Ministers part of the negotiations
passed through my hands, their Majesties having entrusted me with
their commands for M. de Croissy. . . . They parted with him most
unwillingly, having always held him faithful and very capable. . . .
They have raised him to the rank of Duke, giving him the warrant,

305 x

QUEEtf MARY OF MODENA

1694 but on the condition that it will only take effect when they return
to England, as they mean to give no more titles or dignities to
any one."

" 23 June.

" Mylord Melfort left St. Germains last Saturday, with his wife, for
the Baths of Bourbon ; but from there he will go further, to put an
end to the discontent of those who saw his great favour with the
British King. He is not yet accused of anything touching his loyalty,
but it is certain that he was always too much attached to his own
private interests." -

306

CHAPTER XI

THE home life of James and Mary Beatrice was happy in
each other and in their children ; the little Princess Louise
Marie, now in her third year, seems to have given little anxiety
on the score of her health, and to have thriven lustily, sur-
rounded by a throng of little Middletons, Plowdens, Hays,
Dillons, Bourkes, Stricklands and Molzas, bringing an element
of mirth and carelessness into the anxious Court of St.
Germains. James's love of children is prettily exemplified in
an anecdote which Miss Agnes Strickland had from a descend-
ant of one of Mrs. Plowden's daughters, who used to relate
that when her mother had occasion to punish her by shutting
her into a passage on which a window of the King's closet
opened, she had only to climb up and tap on the glass for the
King instantly to come and release her. Her mother would
then find her sitting at his feet, or on his knee, and at last
ventured to inquire how it came about that whenever she
punished her little girl, His Majesty always did her the honour
of admitting her to his closet. James pointed to the little
window in solution of the mystery.

The King's life of austerity and penance meanwhile became
more and more rigorous, his retreats at La Trappe had become
an annual institution, and year by year he seems to have turned
with greater eagerness to his sojourn within the austere walls,
on which the words inscribed by St. Bernard : " O solitudo,
sola beatitudo" appealed to him with ever increasing force.
The love and veneration of Mary Beatrice for her husband

307 x 2

1694

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1694 grew with the growth of his sanctity, and she conceived a great
gratitude and affection for the Abbe de Ranee for the good he
had wrought in him. There is but one record at La Trappe of
a visit from her in company with the King (in 1696) and she
was wont to call Chaillot " her La Trappe."

For more than a year Rizzini's letters had expressed the
growing anxiety of the Queen concerning her brother's health,
when the news reached her at Fontainebleau of his death,
6 September, 1694, at Sassuolo, his stately country palace near
Modena, with its painted halls and moated garden looking
towards the distant hills. Francesco II was in his thirty-fourth
year, and it will be remembered that he had profited by his
mother's absence in England to declare himself major and to
assume the reins of government at the age of fourteen, a cir-
cumstance for which Mary Beatrice, in her conversations at
Chaillot, took blame upon herself, as the cause of Duchess
Laura's lengthened stay in London. With the help of Prince
Cesare, Francesco's Court had soon assumed a laxity which
scandalised the older princes, accustomed to the regular dignity
which had prevailed during his mother's regency, and was one
of the reasons of Cesare's banishment from Modena. The
young Duke, like all his race, was a patron of art, and to him
Modena owes the foundation of its Academy. He left no
children and was succeeded by his uncle, Cardinal Rinaldo
d'Este.

RIZZINI TO DUKE RINALDO II.

" FONTAINEBLEAU, 29 September 1694

"... The unhappy news arrived at Fontainebleau yesterday of
the death of Duke Francesco of glorious memory. The previous
evening there had been rumours . . . brought from Parma, but the
Most Christian King judged that they should be kept from the
Queen until they were confirmed by the arrival of the messenger . . .
and then that she should not be informed until after she had retired
at night for her accustomed pious exercises. The British king under-
took (much against his will) to break the sad news to her with the
assistance of her confessor. They found Her Majesty on her knees
and rather thoughtful alquanto pensosa, as she had noticed that some

308

WEDDING OF THE DUKE OF BERWICK

unpleasant news had reached the Court, by the trouble on the 1695
courtiers' faces ; but supposing it to be owing to some reverse in the
army or at sea, she had abstained from enquiring the cause. When
the truth was made known to her, she had the strength to overcome
the first movement of anguish, and, being on her knees, offered her
great sorrow as a holocaust of resignation to Almighty God. . . .
When in bed, she gave way to her tears but did not refuse to receive
the consolation which the Most Christian King came to offer
her. . . . Madame de Maintenon followed him, and was a very
mirror of virtue and compassion. . . . Finally, Her Majesty deigned
to admit me and desired to know all the particulars of His Serene
Highness's death, above all wishing to be assured (as I was able to do
by the messenger's report) that he had had time to prepare for a
Christian death, and with every mark of exemplary conformity to the
Will of God. . . ."

Dangeau notes in his Journal 27 September : " There was
neither appartement nor comedy in the evening. The death of
the Duke of Modena has suspended all diversions on account
of the Queen of England."

X( D

The year 1695 began with a wedding at St. Germains.
January i, in the palace chapel, the gallant Duke of Berwick,
who, after a campaign in Flanders had spent the winter at
St. Germains, married a bride chosen for him by King James,
in the person of Honoria Burke, daughter of the Earl of
Clanricarde, and widow of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan
killed in 1693 in the service of France at the battle of
Nerwinde. St. Simon describes her as " beautiful, touching,
faite a peindre, a nymph who succeeded admirably at the Court
of St. Germains." Berwick loved her tenderly, " never was
marriage happier or more united during the three years before
the young Duchess's premature death," we read in a memoir of
the Duke published shortly after his death. She was attached
to Mary Beatrice's service and Louis XIV gave her an apart-
ment at Versailles " to please the Queen of England," writes
Dangeau.

12 January, 1695, Rizzini informs the Duke of Modena
that the Grand Duke of Tuscany has found himself obliged :

309

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

l6 95 " now that the English begin to predominate in the Medi-
terranean, to recognise the Prince of Orange as King." He has
sent to the Court of St. Germains to explain his reasons, "which
their Majesties accepted and understood." The Venetians have
done likewise, and Rizzini adds in cypher that it is supposed
" they were instigated thereto by the Emperor."

The reasons of State which obliged Grand Duke Cosimo to
acknowledge the sovereignty of William III made no altera-
tion in the friendship between him and the Queen. Mary
Beatrice sent him the portraits of her two children, and the
letter in which he thanks her for a gift so precious is full of
the old affectionate regard.

A sudden and tragic event is the subject of Rizzini's next

letter :

"20 Jan. 1695.

" The news will have reached you of the death of the Princess of
Orange of putrid small-pox after three days' illness. This death may
assuredly entail great consequences, as her husband loses in her the
one person on whom he could leave the weight of public affairs
during his absence in Flanders. And if he is obliged to live continu-
ally in England, the affairs of the League will move but slowly.
Great jealousies and suspicions may be expected, especially if he
marries again.

That Princess, young, beautiful, and reputed the delight of a
rebellious people, is suddenly become a frightful spectacle, and a
subject for their bitter tears. She was a daughter who sinned against
the commonest and most indispensable law of Nature ordained
by God that of honouring her parents. . . .

When Orange was informed that there was no hope he fainted
twice and then abandoned himself to so much grief and tears that his
accustomed asthma increased to a degree that he could hardly breathe,
which caused some apprehension to his physicians, who bled him
(some say twice). . . . Later letters announce that he is better, but
still inconsolable."

Renaudot had already written to the Marquis de Croissy
Renaudot that now was the moment to raise disorders in England. " It
. ma y be supposed that this death will oblige the Prince of
Orange to change his measures, and that he will not be able to

310

DEATH OF MARY II

go to Flanders this year. . . . He had a pallet bed placed in 1695
the Princess's room and slept there all the time. . . : The
great Seal has been broken and a new one is making on which
the Prince appears alone. The Acts of succession giving him
the reversion of the crown are nul on so many accounts that
several persons openly declare the Princess of Denmark's right
to be incontestable. . . . Two days before the death of the
other there was an extraordinary affluence of Lords and clergy
at the Princess's, and it has greatly augmented since."

The Minister answers that Renaudot's reflections are very
just, but the King [of France] must first know how the event
is taken in England. People may, however, be assured that
His Majesty's intention to help the British King remains
unaltered. Renaudot therefore sends extracts of letters from
Crosby of the ^ January : " There have been disorders at
Bristol on the news of the Queen's death ; many people called
for fiddlers and spent the night in dancing and drinking,
singing a song composed against the Parliament in the time of
Charles I. Some of the officers of the troops joined them, and
they shouted in the middle of a great crowd, ' that they must be
delivered from taxation and from foreigners.' . . . Something
of the same kind occurred at Norwich ; troops have been sent
into Norfolk, Suffolk, and Warwickshire to keep the people
quiet. ..."

With this we may contrast Evelyn's account of Mary's
funeral : " Never was so universal a mourning, all the Parlia-
ment men had cloaks given them, and 400 poor women. In
sum, she was such an admirable woman, abating for taking the
Crown without a more due apology, as does, if possible, outdo
the renown'd Queen Elizabeth."

At the death of Duke Francesco of Modena, Prince Cesare
d'Este had fled to Turin, and the Queen sends word by Rizzini
to her uncle that she hears he has suddenly appeared at Montec-
chio, " whence it may be presumed that they are tired of him at
Turin, and will not suffer him there any longer." The desire
to perpetuate the line of d'Este, of which he was now the sole

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1695 direct representative, induced Duke Rinaldo, who although a
Cardinal was not in Orders, to think of resigning his hat and
entering into matrimony. The Queen appears to have been
consulted, for Rizzini writes in cypher, 16 March, 1695 :

"... The Queen well remembers that Your Serene Highness
expressly said that so long as you were invested with the sacred
purple, you would not think of marrying ; Her Majesty has all that
concerns the illustrious name and glory of your house so near at
heart that she cannot rest contented that it should be thought all the
necessary documents had not been obtained, and still more that
everything regarding the most praiseworthy circumspection and
observance, in which she knows Your Serene Highness could not fail,
had not been respected.

In regard to what concerns Her Majesty (whether respecting her
brother's Will, or other matters) she has written herself, and feels
assured that all will be treated of with full and most loving
confidence."

" 23 March. 1695.

" The Queen is anxious to hear that the Cardinal's hat has been
resigned : * for the good of the people and the perpetuation of
the sovereign house of Este, equal in antiquity and renown to
the most illustrious in Europe. . . . '

" 30 March.

"The Queen is glad to hear that a Princess Palatine is thought
of, because of her relationship to the Empress, which might bring
about a change of sentiment towards the English Royal Family
as well as being a good alliance, but ' leaving in the hands of
Providence all that concerns themselves the chief thing Her Majesty
desires is the satisfaction of Your Serene Highness, and that Heaven
may bless the alliance with the much wished for issue.' "

Duke Rinaldo laid down the hat, which his niece had been
at so much pains to obtain for him, on the 24th March, and the
negotiations for a Palatine Princess having failed, the Queen
is glad to hear, writes Rizzini, that one of the Hanover
Princesses has been thought of. She praises the quiet tempera-
ment rumour credits them with, " considering that as Your
Serene Highness is of a most placid and equable nature, a
docile and easy disposition is best suited to you."

312

MARRIAGE OF DUKE RINALDO

Duke Rinaldo married Charlotte Felicite, eldest daughter of 1695
John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunebourg-Hanover,
and whose sister Amelia was to marry the Archduke and
future Emperor Joseph of Austria. Another marriage had
meanwhile taken place in Paris. The young widow, Henrietta
Fitzjames, Lady Waldegrave, the King's daughter by Arabella
Churchill, who, as we have seen, had been sent into a Convent
by her father for being on the point of making a clandestine
marriage with a natural son of the Duke of Tyrconnel,
married Lord Wilmot in March, 1695. Henrietta and her
husband went to Flanders, and thence, by the advice of her
mother (than whom King James had no more implacable
enemy), to England, where she made her court to William III
by revealing all she knew of her unfortunate father's affairs.

To what degree Lord Mel fort deserved the accusations
brought against him will perhaps never be known, but there
is little doubt that he was one of the feeble counsellors and
ill-chosen Ministers by whom it was so often James II's mis-
fortune to be badly served, if not betrayed. Though we may
hesitate to believe that he carried personal spite and vanity so
far as to send the intelligence which led to the arrest of Sir
James Montgomery, as Renaudot and the English Jacobites
declared, he had proved how bad a judge he was of men by
such instances as his recommending his former page, the traitor
Fuller, to Queen Mary Beatrice in 1690, as recounted by
Rizzini. The man became a notorious spy and informer,
author of one of the worst libels against the Queen, and of so
many accusations against important persons in England that
the House of Commons declared him a " notorious impostor, journal of
a cheat and a false accuser, having scandalized their Majesties commons
and the Government, abused the House, and falsely accused 2 4 Feb.
several persons of honour and quality."

James II dismissed Lord Melfort from his service in May,
1695, and he retired in disgrace to Rouen, where he remained
until 1697, when he was permitted to return to Paris. He
was succeeded as Secretary of State by Lord Middleton.

313

1694

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1695 William III having devoted three months to securing himself
in his new character of sole monarch of England, was about to
return to his army in Flanders. Rizzini writes, May n, 1695,
to the Duke of Modena : " As to the dissensions with the
Princess of Denmark, it is certain that Orange must feel some
anxiety in leaving that kingdom ; but, on the other hand, she
has not yet found any considerable party, and the death of
Halifax must have been a great loss to her, as he was held to
be one of her most important adherents and capable of greatly
furthering her interests, so it is suspected in London that he
was poisoned. . . . King James has been ill, but is now better.
The Queen was greatly alarmed, for many years she had seen
him suffer from no ills but those of fortune and of destiny."

Duke Rinaldo d'Este, constrained thereto not only by the
difficult situation of the Italian principalities, but by his
marriage with a Hanoverian Princess, drew closer to the
enemies of France. His fear of disobliging the Emperor led
him to forget all he owed to his niece so far as to receive
James's envoy, the Earl of Perth, with scant courtesy, as he
passed through Modena on his way to Rome. The Queen
administers a dignified rebuke in the following letter, which,
contrary to her usual custom, is written in French, and begins :
" Mon oncle," instead of the familiar " Caro mio Zio "...
" I doubt not but that the conjuncture at which the Earl of
Perth arrived at Modena, prevented you from giving him the
welcome he would have received at any other time, and I wish
to believe that the constraint in which you found yourself for
his reception, was as vexatious to you as it was to myself.
Neither do I doubt but that your intentions on my behalf are
as sincere as the expressions of them are strong and obliging in
the letter I received from you."

Lord Perth's mission to Rome was to obtain money, if pos-
sible, from Pope Innocent XII (Pignatelli). Mr. Caryll writes
to him from St. Germains June 6th, 1695, tnat ne * s g^ to near
of his arrival in Rome after so many hazards and sufferings :
" I doubt not but you will find there all ye outward civilitys you

POPE INNOCENT XII

can expect both from His Holiness and from ye Cardinalls, but 1695
to get any money from him to supply ye great necessities of His
Majesty's suffering subjects for their loyalty and their religion
I fear will be a difficult, if not impossible task."

EARL OF PERTH TO SECRETARY CARYLL,

"RoME June 1695.

" I'm sorry that the Queen should have the least trouble that Hir Naime
Majesty's Unkle did not do all she might have expected towards one

of hir servants : but as you well observe fear is sometimes too quick- Library,
sighted. Yet I shall be glad he be found to have no stop to his good ^ " 6
designs towards hir Majesty's interests but what comes from fear. I
find that at this place he's lookt upon as very German in his
inclinations. ..."

The following day Lord Perth reports his audience with
Innocent XII, saying how he had demonstrated to His Holi-
ness "that no earthly power could have hurt the King save
by the concurrence of Catholic Princes, and not they neither
if the King had been of the religion of his dominions. . . .
That there was now in Rome a great talking of Peace, and upon
such terms as if consented to, or even permitted, would be a
stain upon His Holiness's Reputation and a reflection upon
the Apostolic Chair. He said it was true ; but what can wee
do ? I have done and wil do what humanly speaking is possible,
but Catholic Princes wil not hearken to me, they have lost the
Respect that used to be pay'd to Popes, Religion is gone and a
wicked pollicy sett up in its place. But I said he could still
prevent a Peace with the King's Exclusion in it. God knows,
said he, to restore the King I wold give my blood, but
Christians have lost all respect even to us ! said he ; but can it
be believed, continued His Holiness, that I should ever con-
sent to any Peace that excludes that Good King from his just
right. God forbid, God forbid : but what will become of all
this ? The Prince of Orange is master, he's Arbitre of Europe,
the Emperor and King of Spain are slaves, and worse than sub-
jects to him. They neither will nor dare venture to displease

315

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1695 him ; and here he strook twice with his hand upon ye table and
sigh'd. Last of all I lay'd before him ye pittyfull case of the
Poor Catholics who, having follow'd their master were now
reduced to Extreame Miserie. God help them, said he : but
what can I do ? If I should do anything, I'm cry'd out upon
as favouring of France, who are pushing to be masters of all.
However he said he was convinced that all I said was most
reasonable, and that he wold think upon it. . . ."

The victorious campaign of William III and his allies in
Flanders had now reached what Europe felt to be its culminating
point, the siege of Namur. Should he succeed in retaking that
important stronghold from the French, it would be difficult for
Louis XIV, with so many wars on his hands, not to be
obliged to accept terms of peace, rumours of which were already
in the air. In July, James II went on one of his ordinary
visits to La Trappe, and the Queen remained anxiously watch-
ing the political horizon, and engaged in the arduous task of
trying to obtain the arrears of her dowry and her share of her
brother's inheritance from Duke Rinaldo. Rizzini's letters are
full of both subjects ; he relates how the Venetian Republic has
offered its mediation " and to send extraordinary Ambassadors
everywhere." July 20, 1695, ^ e sa y s > ne nas communicated
the Duke's answer respecting the Queen's inheritance : " Her
Majesty became very thoughtful and said she would write her-
self upon that and other subjects .... (in cypher] The
resolution of the Venetian Republic to send two Ambassadors
to Orange, which, the Queen concludes, is being done with the
consent of this Court may contain, she fears (if it comes to a
treaty of peace) clauses unfavourable to their Majesties. . . .
It is probable, in view of what may happen under Namur,
that the Most Christian King may not persist in his repugnance
to recognise the Prince of Orange, as it seems that without that
condition neither the Prince nor his confederates will have a
hand in any negotiations.

" It is true that if Orange does not succeed at Namur, the
King of France will be more free to maintain his first maxims ;

but the Queen concludes that the contrary event will be attri- 1695
butable to pure necessity, and to no defect of friendship or
constancy, and she and the King will trust to the guidance and
protection of Heaven. . . ."

The Assembly of the French clergy which had met at St.
Germains, presented the timely gift of 7,000 louis, writes
Renaudot to Abbe Gondi, to the poor Jacobites, to be dis-
tributed according to the orders of the King and Queen.
Rinaldo's offers, on the other hand, respecting his niece's claims,
had evidently been unsatisfactory to judge by her reply through
Rizzini, that she would gladly resign her pretensions in his
favour if she were in a different situation, there being no
advantage she did not ardently desire for him ; but her present
necessities are such that she cannot dispense herself from urging
the claims which are in no way open to discussion, while leaving
to a later time those requiring further examination. Rizzini
adds that he has represented the exhausted state of the Ducal
exchequer owing to the pressure of the times : " Her Majesty
expressed the liveliest pity, adding she was confident Your
Serene Highness would show reciprocal compassion for her
own." Rizzini goes on to describe the Queen's anxiety,
"although she makes no outward sign, showing herself uniformly
cheerful and courageous, whatever may happen. At the present
hour her most anxious attention turns to the 4 e g e f Namur,
on which depends the issues of peace or war, and the destinies
(one may say) of the whole of Europe."

The town of Namur capitulated on the 6th of August to the
Duke of Bavaria, and Count Tilly was appointed Governor.
The Castle still held out under de Guiscard, the French Com-
mander, with a garrison of 9,000 men.

MR. CARYLL TO THE EARL OF PERTH.

"ST. GERMAINS, 29 August^ 1695. Naime

Papers,

" . . . We agree in our sentiments, or rather in our apprehensions Bodleian
concerning a Peace. The truth of the matter is that the whole Library,

vol. 11.

world crys out for it, and nowhere more than in France, not only NO. 129

317

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1695 amongst the People, but the greatest at Court, so ... we are likely
to be made the sacrifice of it. ... What your Lordship has received
from the mouth of His Holiness that he will have no hand in
the wrong shall be done to His Majesty will be a great comfort
to him and the Queen. . . .

The attention of the whole world is now bent upon the success of
the siege of Namur. I can only tell you from hence that positive
orders are given to attempt the relief of it at any rate. . . .
The enemy has all possible advantages of ground which must cost us
very dear in the first attacke, but if they are forced the whole army is
utterly lost, and nobody can tell what may become of the Prince of
Orange, his person. ... I shall close my letter with the acceptable
account of their Majesties' good health, not omitting the Prince and
Princess, who thrive beyond expression, and as much as we can
wish. ..."

The Prince of Wales had been taken out of the hands of the
women on his seventh birthday ; Dr. John Bellairs was appointed
his preceptor in ordinary and Dr. John Tngleton under-preceptor.
The Earl of Perth was his Governor.

Louis XIV had confided the relief of Namur to the Marquis
de Villeroy, a man incapable of coping with the military genius
of William III, and who retired from the attempt to relieve the
beleaguered citadel on seeing, writes Rizzini, " the impossi-
bility of attacking the enemy's camp, which art and nature had
rendered impregnable."

De Guiscard capitulated September 3, 1695, "resigning to
the Confederates, but a tumulus under which lay buried all
that remained of so formidable a fortress. On the 3<Dth there
was a general assault, which was of the bloodiest, but sustained
with marvellous vigour by the besieged, although reduced to
half their number. . . . The siege was conducted . . . with
courage, power and a profusion of all things, and the remark-
able thing was to find soldiers of so many different nationalities
so prompt, and so prodigal of their lives, although their interests
were not identical. The greatest glory fell to the English,
who, it cannot be denied, are warlike to the utmost . . . and
despisers of death. (In cypher'] M. de Croissy told me yester-

CONFISCATION OF JACOBITE PROPERTY

day in confidence that the Papal Nuncio having asked him if 1695
there was now any hope that His Majesty would yield more
easily than before to thoughts of peace, he replied that this was
not the moment to enter upon the subject, His Majesty having
declared that he would listen to no such proposals, flattering
himself that he can continue the war, and an offensive war . . .
being bitterly annoyed at having lost time in a vain attempt at
a relief, when, by turning his arms elsewhere he could have
gained advantages . . . equalling those the confederates have
reaped at Namur."

Thus did Louis XIV, .blinded by the reflected radiance of his
former triumphs, and by his yet unconquered pride, persist in
a course which was to lead him from reverse to reverse to the
treaties of Ryswick and Utrecht, and to the loss of his greatest
conquests, made when Turenne won his battles, Louvois created
his armies, and Colbert controlled his finances.

After reporting that William III has insisted that the Council
of Regency shall confiscate the property of all those who have
followed the exiled monarch to St. Germains, " a thing proposed
before, but never executed, except upon some of the wealthiest,
such as the Duke of Powis, who had 20,000 sterling a year,
and which will greatly increase the burden upon their Majesties."
Rizzini adds : " Far from diminishing, the magnificence,
sumptuosity and generosity of the Most Christian King towards
their British Majesties seems to increase. At the same time,
the gifts and rare talents with which the Queen is adorned,
shine the more resplendent ly, coupled with her natural grace,
vivacity and ready wit, the maturity of judgment she has
:quired, and her exemplary piety."

"19 November 1675.

"... The Queen has informed me that the more violent
partisans of the Prince of Orange are urging him to marry, in order
to change the succession of the Crown. . . . The more sensible
politicians seem to think that, with his usual artifice, he will keep
them all in suspense (the Kings of Denmark and Sweden, and
the House of Hesse-Cassel are ready to give him their daughters)

319

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1696 but will never take another wife in the doubt of the effect upon his
interests, divisions in the kingdom seeming inevitable in such a case.
. . . He saw the Earl of Sunderland, in passing, at his country
house, no one knows for what purpose, though it may be presumed it
was to secure him as a valid instrument in the present occurrences,
and it is not to be doubted but he will find him useful, although (in
cypher] he [Sunderland] has risked himself to send indirectly to their
British Majesties notifications which may prove of service to them j
but it is not the first time he has known how to be zealous and
perfidious to two opposite parties at once."

How openly Jacobite feeling was meanwhile showing itself in
London may be judged by the fearless dedication of a life of
Lady Warner, printed by Thomas Hailes, London, 1696, "To
the Queen," and which, after expressions of warm affection and
admiration concludes : " Me thinks I hear the angel guardian
of our island whispering in our sovereign's ear. . . . Rise, and
take the child and his mother, and return into your country,
for they are dead who sought the life of the child."

The third and last serious effort to re-establish King James
was now to be made. " Parliament and the people were
grumbling at the expense of the war," says the above-mentioned
Life of the Duke of Berwick. " The Prince of Orange's army
was in Flanders, and the best part of his fleet at Cadiz. . . .
The King of England was occupied with nothing but the care
of his soul, and had no thought of regaining his throne of
which he had made the sacrifice to God ; but the solicitations
of the Queen, his love for his son the Prince of Wales, and the
fervent appeals of his faithful subjects prevailed with him to
agree to the proposals made by several English lords."

A gentleman of the name of Powel came to St. Germains
with the Jacobite proposals, and Louis XIV prepared a force of
troops, which started on their way to Calais. " The British
King takes with him," writes Rizzini to the Duke of Modena,
20 February, 1696, " 100,000 doubloons in gold, furnished by
the Most Christian King, and a force of the choicest troops,
8 to 10,000 infantry and ten squadrons of dragoons. ... In
a few days something positive will be known, and it is to be

320

DUKE OF BERWICK SENT TO ENGLAND

presumed that there are symptoms of repentance in England as 1696
well as in Scotland . . . The Queen, disconsolate at the
absence of her consort, and agitated by a conflict of hope and
fear, spends the greater part of her time in prayer to obtain the
divine assistance at this most important conjuncture." As on
other occasions, however, the Jacobites wished the landing of
the French troops in England to be the signal for their rising,
while Louis XIV was equally firm in his resolution that his
forces should act as auxiliaries to the Jacobite insurgents whom
the Duke of Berwick was to command. " This determined Memoirs
the King of England," writes the Duke, " to send me to try Berwick
and convince the English of the sincerity of the Most Christian
King." Berwick finds them not to be shaken. " And to tell
the truth, their reasons were good ; it was certain that as soon
as the Prince of Orange became aware of a revolt ... he
would instantly" send a fleet to block the French ports ; and
those who had risen would find themselves compelled to fight
with their new levies against a disciplined force which would
speedily destroy them."

James II went to Calais, and there a great storm for the
elements were always unfavourable to him arose and scattered
the fleet of transports prepared to carry him across the Channel,
and there also the Duke of Berwick returned with the news of
the failure of his mission. " There being no. appearance of
making them [the Jacobites] change their purpose, and having
moreover been informed when in London that a plot was being
formed there against the person of the Prince of Orange, I
thought my principal mission being ended I should lose no
time in returning to France, so as not to be confounded with
the plotters. ... It may be useful to say a word of this
conspiracy, which the Prince of Orange attempted to impute to
his father-in-law, and to the Most Christian King. A levy of
2,000 men had been raised by Sir John Fenwick ; lieutenant
Barkley of my company of body-guards was one of their
officers, and met Mr Porter, a Catholic gentleman, in London,
who told him he had thought of a plan which would greatly

321 y

QUEEN MARY OF MODEJSTA

1696 facilitate the proposed rising. He would undertake with some
fifty men to attack the guard and seize the person of the Prince
of Orange. Barkley liked the proposal, everything was settled,
and the day fixed. I saw Barkley three days after my arrival
in England, who informed me of the design ; and, although I
did not think the thing as safe as they made it appear, I did
not consider myself bound in honour to dissuade him from it ;
but one of the conspirators, Prendergas, frightened at the
danger, or rather with a view to a reward, discovered everything
to My lord Portland. . . . Several were taken, condemned and
put to death.

*' Porter, who had conceived and proposed the whole affair,
finding himself arrested, and won by a promise of reward, bore
witness against his friends and comrades. . . . Fenwick, who
was totally ignorant of the conspiracy, was arrested. . . ."

Evelyn notes that all the executed men, while acknowledging
their intention, acquitted King James of inciting them to it ;
and " April 10 ; The quarters of Sir William Perkins and
Sir John Friend, lately executed on the plot, with Perkins's
head, were set up at Temple Bar ; a dismal sight which many
pitied. I think there never was such at Temple Bar till now,
except one in the time of King Charles II."

Rizzini meanwhile records the growing anguish of the
Queen as the days passed in uncertainty and alarm :

" Her Majesty spent three days at Chaillot but could not avoid
giving audience to the Ambassadors and foreign Ministers . . who
wished to compliment her on the hopes of a happy change of fortune,
a change Her Majesty, however, holds for very uncertain. . . Before
returning to St Germains yesterday, she deigned to inform me more
particularly of her uneasiness at receiving no letters from Calais, nor
any news from Versailles, and at the thought of the great risks her
King is exposed to, as well as of the consequences which may ensue
if his designs are again rendered vain . . ."

" 14 March.

" I found Her Majesty prepared with a constant mind for a fresh
chalice of bitterness . . . though she had never flattered herself with
the hope of a happy issue to this last, though certainly well-combined

322

JAMES II RETURNS TO ST. GERMAINS

design. (in cypher] Meanwhile people- here are getting im-
patient . . . and are murmuring at these enterprises which never
succeed, a fact they attribute to his evil star, which renders futile
every effort to help His Majesty, while his presence here brings mis-
fortune upon the kingdom.

It is true these are the rumours ot the blind and ignorant
vulgar, afflicted by the disasters of a long war, but nevertheless they
have a bad effect. Others say that for his own honour's sake he
should hazard all, and even perish rather than return to St Ger-
mains. . . ' :

The Queen was using every effort to persuade Louis XIV to
allow his troops to accompany her husband to England, and
the Duke of Berwick was sent from Calais by James on a hasty
mission to Versailles for the same purpose, but Louis in-
exorably refused, and Mary Beatrice, writing to Sister Priolo,
asking for prayers for resignation to the will of God, adds :
" The King is still at Calais, or perhaps at Boulogne ; as long
as he remains there he must have some hope. . . ." The hope
failed, and James returned to St. Germains on the 5th of May,
the Queen going to St. Denis to meet him, " and it was
noticed," writes Rizzini, " that when their Majesties embraced,
their countenances were far more cheerful than could have been
thought possible."

" PARIS, 23 May, 1696.

". . . The Papal Nuncio has been to St Germains, and the
British King has given him a full account of his projected descent
into England ; he also thought proper to assure him of his innocence
respecting the supposed couspiracy."

" 30 May, 1 696.

" Last week I found the Queen much afflicted at the loss of the
faithful subjects executed in London, and also at the confiscation of
the property of those who are actually in their Majesties service at
St Germains . . . Mr. Caryll, their Secretary of State, has been
deprived of an estate worth ^2,000 a year . . ."

6 June.

"Their Majesties have gone to Chartres, and from there to La
Trappe."

323 Y 2

1696

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1696 In spite of failure and of William's stern reprisals plotting
went on in England. Renaudot, who had written to the
Marquis de Croissy that he had rid himself of a Quaker, and
wished he could do the same of many more, writes July i3th :
" I am very glad occasion was taken to enquire about Pigott, as
he said at Calais and at Boulogne to Mr. Jones and to Crosby
that he had a passport from the Prince of Orange. . . .*

As early as the month of August, 1696, William III let it be
known to the Court of France that he might entertain the idea,
at the coming treaty of peace, of recognising the Prince of
Wales as his successor to the throne of England. Rizzini
alludes to it in a letter of August 2ist: " ... A very
judicious remark of the Queen has been much admired ; during
a discussion respecting the willingness of Orange to secure the
succession of the crown to the Prince of Wales, Her Majesty
replied that of two usurpers she could more willingly suffer
the present one, than her own son."

James II had hardly returned from his unsuccessful attempt
to regain his crown, when another crown, that of Poland, was
offered him. Rizzini remarks, 12 September, "... Some
persons look upon the desire of the Poles to elect the King of
England to that throne as an effect of divine Providence, for
both the nobility and the people seem filled with a general
inclination in his favour. . . . There will be opposition on the
part of the Austrian faction ; but the chief difficulty lies in
the fear of prejudicing his rights and those of the Prince of
Wales to his own throne, and in the natural reluctance to
resign the hope of sooner or later, in one way or another,
recovering the crown which has for so many centuries
been hereditary in his royal line. However that may be,
one cannot but admire the religious, pious and respectfully
affectionate sentiments of that population towards the British
King."

1 Marginal note by de Croissy: "You will find that Pigott is no better than the
rest ; that is the certain result of all enquiries concerning those persons."

THE CROWN OF POLAND

Louis XIV seems to have entered heartily into the design, 1697
and urged the Queen to persuade her husband to accept so
dignified and honourable an issue from the difficulties of his
situation. But Mary Beatrice applauded the King's refusal, which
he based on the plea that ambition had no place in his heart, he
held that the covenant between him and his people was
indissoluble, and that he could not accept the allegiance of any
other nation without violating his duties to his own.

Duke Rinaldo seems to have deplored the opposition to
William Ill's proposal, for Rizzini writes to him in November
that he has not ventured to touch upon His Serene Highness's
counsel touching the Prince of Wales's rights, " as their
Majesties have the most potent motives to the contrary."
He also states that the generosity and kindness of Louis
XIV towards the King and Queen have suffered no
diminution since the refusal to accept the crown of Poland.

The peace which would, at the time Mary Beatrice sought
for it with so much insistence, have helped to restore her
husband to his throne, was now approaching as the crowning
triumph of their enemy. Rizzini writes, 23 January, 1697 :
"... Peace is drawing near, and if it is to bring a day of
serenity everywhere else, it will be for their Majesties a night
of bitter mortification . . .

" The news from England is that Sir John Fenwick has at last
been condemned to death, but the execution is deferred for
fifteen days, as he expresses some intention of making
revelations as to the supposed conspiracy ... If he does so,
he may save his life, as Orange would not be displeased to
preserve a witness who could convict others accused of designs
against himself." As Fenwick accused Malborough, Godolphin,
Shrewsbury and Russell of complicity in designs against the
government, his sentence was speedily executed, and Rizzini
recording it 20 February says : " Sir John Fenwick was
executed on the yth inst. ; he left a writing in which he
declared he died an Anglican, that he had conspired, not
against the Government, but with the sole desire that the

3 2 5

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1697 succession might remain in the direct line ; he expressed his
fidelity to the King, the Queen, and the Prince of Wales ; he
was 57 years of age, and died with great intrepidity, without
revealing matters which might have endangered persons
extremely well-disposed to their sovereign ....

" A few weeks ago the King of England sent a paper to the
Pope containing his justification against all that has been so
iniquitously charged against him. The writing was sent with
the participation of the Most Christian King, but with great
secrecy ; since then, however, it has been thought proper to
publish it, and it is now being printed . . .

The Duke of Modena had sent a small remittance on account
of what he owed the Queen, and she writes him a grateful
letter of thanks for the 1,000 doubloons and the other 1,000
which are promised. " If we were not so pressed ourselves, we
should not have pressed you at present, but as I told you
before, necessity knows no law. I can frankly say, however,
that no necessity is harder to me than that which compels me
to ask and to importune, it is a trade I have assuredly never
exercised, and which I cannot practise without great pain. I
pray you therefore to spare me, and to remember of your own
accord to satisfy that just debt.

" I rejoice to see peace finally established in our Italy. I pray
God to make it lasting, and that our poor country, and your
states in particular may soon recover from the long and terrible
oppressions of the war."

There is an interesting letter, written to the Electress Sophia
of Hanover by Madame de Brinon, a nun, at the Convent of
Maubuisson, of which the Princess Louise Palatine of Bohemia,
the elder sister of the Electress, was the Prioress, and known as
Madame de Maubuisson. The letter is dated : " Maubuisson,
22 February 1697," and after alluding to the prospects of
peace, says :

Brit. Mus. " Our good King James sees all this very calmly and virtuously.

MSS 8 i4o ^ e su ^ ers > not on ly as a sa i nt > b ut as a king incapable of baseness, the

loss of three crowns, which God will repay him in Heaven, if he does

326

THE QUEEN'S CHAEITY

not restore them to him on earth. I always remember that as soon 1697
as he arrived in France, he immediately sought Madame de
Maubuisson, and finding himself almost alone with the community, he
praised the happiness of true religious, and speaking of the loss of his
kingdoms, said that to be truly great, you must have a heart above
your greatness. . .

The Queen of England is no less saintly, and in truth it is a great
happiness to be so in the midst of such misfortunes. I have been told
by a lady of her court that she despoils herself of everything to help
the poor English who have followed them, and has sold even the
diamond buttons of her sleeves ... Is it possible, my dear Electress,
that the Confederate princes will not open their eyes to the merit and
the innocence of these oppressed sovereigns ? Will they be forgotten
in the general peace ? It seems to me that all the Powers should put
an end to these miserable conflicts, which have desolated Christendom,
and re-establish the legitimate King ... I always speak to you, my
very dear Electress, with the frankness of friendship. I tell you my
thoughts as they come from my heart, and it seems to me that Your
Serene Highness thinks as I do."

Rizzini, March 20, 1697, alludes to the same subject. After
conveying the Queen's thanks to the Duke of Modena for his
promise to try and wean the Emperor of Austria from his
great attachment to the Prince of Orange, he adds :

" Her Majesty and her family are well, but with the clearness ot
her judgment on the present state of affairs, the uncertainty of seeing
them improve in the future, or rather the fear of the contrary, the
approach of the fatal moment which will see, amid general applause,
the full triumph of their enemy upon their own ruins, cannot but be
as so many stabs in her sensitive and tender heart."

"MaySth.

"... Orange has had an attack of tertian fever, and it is observed
that he is much attenuated ; nevertheless he prorogued Parliament
himself, and has embarked for Holland with his plenipotentiaries . . .
as the conferences at Ryswick open on the 8th or gth instant . . .
Meanwhile the campaign is beginning, and three powerful French
armies are going into Flanders. On the Rhine also, and in Cata-
lonia, there will be stronger armies than usual."

3 2 7

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

OUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO THE SUPERIOR OF THE CONVENT OF
THE VISITATION AT MODENA.

"ST. GERMAINS, 3 /w/y, 1697.

Archives j am here, dear Mother, in as great tranquillity as I was with

Convent, you, but alas, not with that fervour in the service of God in which

Modena fj e WO uld make me advance by the means of tribulation. Our affairs

are in an uncertain and lamentable state. My consolation is that

they are in good hands, because they are in God's. I am certain

that all that may happen to me will be for the good of my soul, in

comparison with which what is a kingdom, or even the loss of mortal

life ? Deus meus et omnia, that is my canticle. If I weep sometimes,

I repeat it weeping . . . Deus meus et omnia is the cry of my mis-

fortunes.

I do not forget you, my dear mother, nor all my dear Sisters."

The treaty of Ryswick, while it recognised the sovereignty
of William III and the consequent exclusion of King James,
stipulated that an appanage of 50,000 a year should be paid
to Queen Mary Beatrice. Rizzini joyfully announces the news
from Fontainebleau, i October, 1697, saying that the Queen
is anxious to know if the Emperor had any share in procuring
it her. "... The point is, will it be regularly paid, as it is
well known the Queen Dowager has great difficulty in getting
a small portion of hers."

William III took care that the money should be regularly
paid by the English Treasury, for, as we shall see, it never went
further than his own pockets. His plenipotentiaries made a
determined effort to obtain the dismissal of James II from
St. Germains, but were met by an equally resolute refusal from
the Marquis de Boufflers, Louis XIV's representative.

The Duke of Shrewsbury wrote to the Earl of Portland l

"Memoirs ___ . it TO be convinced of the consequence of this,

ofAftairs AugUSt 7
of State," '

Christian one needs but reflect on the advantage the present King, when
oe> I?33 Prince of Orange, made of such full intercourse as was then
between London and the Hague."

Rizzini describes the courtesy of Louis XIV to his exiled

1 Plenipotentiary at Ryswick.

328

PEACE OF RYSWICK

guests, whose arrival at Fontainebleau coincided with that of 1697
the news of the articles of the peace :

"They, however, without giving the least sign of surprise or
interior commotion, sustained the blow with intrepid strength of
soul."

"9 October 1697.

" The King of France's precaution having gone so far as to forbid
the performance of any music on the subject of the peace, or that it
should be mentioned during their Majesties stay, everything was
spoken of except current affairs.

Their Majesties cannot divert their thoughts from the dangers to
religion in Ireland. It is true the Emperor's envoy made representa-
tions to the English plenipotentiaries that the rigours of Parliament
against the Catholics in Ireland might be moderated . . . but it is
feared his good offices will avail nothing through the cunning of
Ruvigny, a French Huguenot, the bitterest enemy of the Catholics,
and one of the chief heads of the Government there . . . Ruvigny
has already obtained the confiscation of the estates of all the Irish
who sided with the King, or died in his service ; so great numbers
of rich and noble families are reduced to beggary, and the Duchess
of Tyrconnel, who is with the Queen, loses something like 100,000
scudi a year, and the finest palace in that country. . . "

The Ruvigny here spoken of was the son of the fine old
Marquis de Ruvigny, whom Louis XIV, in the days of his
tolerance, had employed in many important services, even that
of Ambassador to England. At the Revocation of the Edict
of Nantes, Ruvigny had settled in England, one of his sons
was killed in William's service at the Battle of the Boyne, and
the other l was now dealing out to the Catholics of Ireland yet
sterner measures than his family had met with at the hands
of Louis XIV, and proving once again the pernicious effects of
persecution.

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO SCEUR DPOSE"E (title of ex-Superior)

AT CHAILLOT.

"ST. GERMAINS, 12 October 1697.

"... Notwithstanding all that has happened, we are really content
with our great King ; he was greatly disturbed that we should arrive
1 Created Earl of Galway in 1700.

3 2 9

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1697 at Fontafnebleau with the messenger bringing the news of the peace,
and gave us great marks of friendship, of pity, even of sorrow . . .
Moreover, nothing is changed with regard to our remaining at St.
Germains, it seems to be decided from what he said ; I say, seems to
be, for in truth, after all we have seen, how can we be sure of any-
thing in this world ? They have promised the King to give me my
dowry ; I begged him to get it paid through him, for I wish neither
to ask nor to receive anything but from him."

St. Simon asserts that the recognition of William's kingship
was little less bitter to Louis XIV than to James II himself.
When the King first began to think of marrying his illegitimate
children to Princes of the blood, he had offered the hand of his
eldest daughter, by Madame de la Valliere, afterwards Princess
of Conti, to the Prince of Orange, who had answered that the
Princes of Orange were accustomed to marry the legitimate
daughters of kings, and not their bastards. (His mother was
daughter of Charles I, and his grandmother of the Elector of
Brandenburg.) Louis XIV never forgave this refusal of what
he considered an honour to an obscure prince, and, according
to St. Simon, his Ambassadors had orders to traverse him on
every occasion, not only in public but in private affairs. After
endeavouring by every means in his power to recover the friend-
ship of the French monarch, the Prince is said to have ex-
claimed : " So be it ; if I cannot gain his love, I shall strive
to merit his consideration."

William Ill's recognition of the Prince of Wales as his
successor, if James would acquiesce, and would leave him in
quiet possession of the throne during his lifetime, mentioned by
Rizzini in August, 1696, was actually the subject of a secret
article of the peace of Ryswick. How far he meant to be
bound by the article is a point which was settled at once by
the prompt refusal of the King ; and even before he could
speak, the Queen impetuously cried, says the Duke of Berwick
in his Memoirs : " I would rather see my son, dear as he is
to me, dead at my feet, than allow him to become a party to
his father's injuries." So the King of France changed the

COURT FESTIVITIES

conversation. James's answer was that he could bear the 1697
usurpation of the Prince of Orange and the loss of his crown
with Christian patience, but not that his son should be instru-
mental to his wrongs. u It was, if I dare say so," continues
Berwick, " a great imprudence to refuse such an offer."

The peace brought an influx of English to Paris, and
Rizzini, December, 1697, after mentioning that the Prince of
Wales being now old enough to wear the Garter when he goes
to Chapel with his father, the King had sold a precious stone
he wore in his hat to buy the insignia, goes on to say : " Many
young Englishmen were at the Court festivities ; they were
curious above all to see the King and Queen, asking if the
Prince of Wales was there, but he only went once with the
Princess his sister, to compliment the Duke and Duchess of
Bourgogne."

Dangeau and St. Simon tell us of the magnificence of the
wedding festivities of the young Duke and Duchess, and how
the Queen of England put the bride to bed, and sat between
the two kings at supper and at the balls, which were splendid
beyond precedent.

Bentinck, Earl of Portland, was appointed Ambassador to
France, and Rizzini writes 29 January, 1698, that he is ex-
pected from day to day : " but it seems doubtful whether he
is commissioned to pay the money due to the Queen, as he has
orders to complain that the King is styled King of Great
Britain in the Paris Gazette. Orange thus shows his animus

against their Majesties, and little inclination to do justice to the

Qi
ueen.

" 29 ^January 1698.

"... There has been a fire at Whitehall, and a great part of it
has been destroyed. Mylord Clancarty, one of the King's Guards,
has been arrested. He left St. Germains a short time ago to meet his
wife in London, and she being the daughter of Mylord Sunderland,
he hoped he might not be molested, although he is a Catholic. . .

Portland is expected on Friday, a number of his people have
arrived, with some of his carriages and 124 horses. All who come
from London say that Orange appears extenuated, and more than

331

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1698 usually troubled with his asthma and cough. . . Yesterday the news
arrived of the death of the Duchess of Berwick at Pezenas in
Languedoc, having been advised to go there by the doctors for the
benefit of the air."

"Life of "The Duke's grief endured to the end of his days. He had the

Berwick" neart f ms beloved wife placed in a silver box, and kept it ever near
him."

RIZZJNI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" 19 February 1698.

" Mylord Portland is making every effort to obtain the removal of
their Majesties from St. Germains, and the sad thing is that if he
cannot succeed in sending them away, he will not consent to the
payment of the (Queen's ^50,000, although it has been granted by
act of Parliament. . .

This goes against the public faith of the treaty, it being notorious
to all the world that an authentic act of Orange's promise was passed.
... If he is the first to repudiate such solemn engagements, the
Most Christian King may hold himself dispensed from observing his
promise not to disturb him in his usurped possession of the English
crown."

"27 February.

" The King of France has resisted with heroic firmness Portland's
renewed instances for the removal of their Majesties, preferring to
expose himself to the necessity of renewing hostilities, (although
against his wish) rather than submit to such a demand. The answer
was given in peaceable terms ; but with the most valid reasons, and
in a manner to prevent the resumption of the subject. Portland
threatens in consequence to defraud the Queen. . ."

" 12 March 1698.

" Portland has made his public entry . . . He had about a hundred
livery-men in finest blue cloth trimmed with handsome silk galloon,
but little gold. There were twelve mounted pages with waistcoats
of rich cloth of gold ; more than fifty footmen, and twelve splendidly
mounted grooms, each with a led horse.

The carriages were not admired ; the two first, made in Paris,
were second or even third rate. Two made in London were very
costly, but not to the French taste . . .

The Embassy will soon be at an end, Portland meaning to leave
immediately after Easter. It is to be hoped he will have failed in

THE QUEEN'S JOINTURE

his two chief commissions, although he persists in urging upon the 1698
ministers of the Crown, that their British Majesties should at least
withdraw to Chambord, and that the Irish Brigade should be dis-
banded, part sent into the Austrian service in Hungary, and part to
that of the Venetian Republic in the Levant . . . (the number is
10 to 12,000 men). As for the Queen's dowry, M. de Tallard, the
French Ambassador in London, is charged to obtain it, but although
the non-payment would be a manifest infraction of the treaty, there
is little hope of success."

COUNT OF TALLARD, FRENCH AMBASSADOR IN LONDON TO
Louis XIV.

"ii April. 1698.

" .... As I was retiring. ... he [William III]' said : * Hofa, Affaires
have something to say to you in my turn. It is on a subject I Etran-
prefer to let my Ambassador treat of, than to do so myself, but it is S feres
in order to continue speaking frankly with you. You know that the
iarl of Portland has already spoken to the Most Christian King of
the withdrawal of King James, and so long as he remains at St.
Germains, I do not know what I can do in order to contract as close
a union as I am disposed for, with the King, your master.' I answered
him. . . . that the article had been exhaustively treated between
M. de Boufflers and Mylord Portland ; he interrupted me by saying
he knew that, that he asked for nothing in virtue of the treaty of
peace, but expected it from the friendship of Your Majesty, who
could easily find expedients for removing King James ; that Avignon,
Modena, Rome were all the same to him."

" 8 May.

. . . When this was ended, he wanted to come back to King
fames. I stopped him, saying : c Sire, in God's name, do not take
the trouble of referring to a matter on which I could only repeat the
words I had the honour of saying to you on the last occasion. . .' "

"9 May 1698.

" King James still has many friends in this country ; it is certain
that if the enterprise of La Hogue had succeeded, the greater part of
England would have declared for him ; and it is true that the King
of to-day has no solid basis for his maintenance in the country except
his army, of which he is master, and the neighbourhood of the Dutch,
of whom he is equally sure."

333

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1698 After Lord Portland's return to England, Matthew Prior,
the poet and secretary to the English Embassy in Paris, wrote
to his master, Lord Halifax : " You never saw such a strange
figure as the old bully [James II] is, lean, worn, and rivelled.
. . . The Queen looks very melancholy, but otherwise well
enough, their equipages are all very ragged and contemptible.
1 have written to Mylord Portland the sum of several discourses
I have had with the Duke of Lauzun, or rather they with me,
about the pension which we were to allow the Queen. Do we
intend, my dear master, to give her 50,000 per annum, or
not ? If we do not, I (or rather mylord Jersey) should now be
furnished with some chicaning answers when we are pressed on
that point, for it was fairly promised, that is certain."

RIZZINI TO DUKE OF MODENA.

" 14 May 1698.

"... The Prince of Wales has been seen by the English gentlemen
who were very eager to have sight of him. The occasion presented
itself at a Falcon chase given by the King of France in which he
took part. They were delighted with him, for he is always pleasant
to look upon, but on horseback he is seen to wonderful advantage for
the grace, lightness and gallant daring which at his tender age give
him a special dignity and charm."

"2 July 1698.

"... Her Majesty intended to go to Chaillot the day before
yesterday for the Feast of the Visitation, but on Sunday was seized
with a cold, which was the prelude of a sharp attack of fever. . . .
The King was to have gone to the monastery of La Trappe accord-
ing to his annual custom, but he has delayed his journey on account
of the indisposition of his consort.

The Queen's illnesses proceed more from the sufferings of her mind
than from defects of constitution, although naturally delicate, for
this reason they do not last long . . . (in cypher). When I was at
Versailles, M. de Torcy told me he had news from London that the
birthday of the Prince of Wales had been openly celebrated with
great demonstrations of joy, and that the vessels in the Thames fired
salutes. . . ."

In July the Queen had the satisfaction of hearing that a son

334

THE QUEEN AND DUKE MAZARIN

had been born to the Duke of Modena, and she writes to the 1698
Duchess :

" ST <JERMAINS, 23 July (1698).

" To you, next after God, my dear Aunt, do we owe thanks for
the happiness which has come to my family by the son to whom you
have given birth. I have felt as you may well believe, and I still
feel great joy. I thank God with all my heart, praying him to pre-
serve this dear child, and to give you others ; I do not despair ot
seeing half-a-dozen before six years have passed, if you continue as
well as you have begun. . . ."

Among her many labours for the suffering Jacobites, obtain-
ing grants and places from the Pope for exiled ecclesiastics,
recommending young men for foreign service and employment
in foreign courts, placing young girls in convents, and sup-
porting orphans and widows, we find the Queen at this time
acting as mediator between her cousin, the errant Duchess of
Mazarin, who still lived at Chelsea, the pensioner of William III,
and her husband.

THE QUEEN TO DUKE MAZARIN.

" ST GERMAINS, 14 August 1698.

"... I am informed from so good a source that the Duchess of Stuart
Mazarin is in the best possible disposition for returning to France, ?. pe , rs '
if you would be willing to receive her, that I feel bound to write to Castle
you with the proposition. Such an action would crown all your other
good works. It would perfectly correspond with the idea the world
has conceived of your piety and charity, and would replace in the
right path a person who, in spite of her errors, has always been dear
to you.

I beg you to let me know your sentiments thereon."

The Queen's good offices were fruitless, and the Duchess
remained in England till her death.

In October the King and Queen went to Fontainebleau to
assist at the wedding of Mademoiselle, daughter of the Duke
of Orleans by his second wife, Charlotte, Princess Palatine, with
the Duke of Lorraine. A few days after the marriage the
Queen writes to a nun at Chaillot :

335

QUEEN MARY OF MODE1STA

1698 " FONTAINEBLEAU 1J October.

" According to my promise 1 send you news of myself from here,
which are good, thank God, so far as my health is concerned,
though the life I lead here is very different from that of St. Ger-
mains ; I have hunted four times in very good weather, and the
King, as usual, overwhelms us with kindness. . . Our departure is
fixed for next Wednesday ; that of the Duchess of Lorraine made us
all very sad, she was so afflicted herself, that one could hardly look at
her without tears. Monsieur and Madame [Duke and Duchess of
Orleans] were, and still are, sad to see. . . The young bride's bear-
ing in all and towards all charmed every one, and me in particular,
for I have always loved her, and esteem her now more than ever. I
saw Madame de Maintenon twice, she has been indisposed, but is
now recovered ; yesterday I began quite naturally on the chapter of
Challiot with her, I told her all we had agreed upon, and many
other things ; she told me she had spoken to the King of the state of
your house."

The Queen's frequent solicitations on behalf of Chaillot
seem to have been sometimes an embarrassment to Madame de
Maintenon, who on one occasion pleaded the lateness of the
hour for not continuing the subject, and, on another, rather
offended the Queen by rising and leaving the room without
answering.

" Their Majesties very enemies," says Rizzini, " can do no less
than praise the Queen ; a gentleman in Orange's service, led by
curiosity to see the wedding of Mademoiselle, now Duchess of
Lorraine, said to a person of his acquaintance that the presence of
the Queen gave lustre to the splendour of that solemnity. Even
Mylord Jersey, the new ambassador, speaks of her with great respect."

COUNT OF TALLARD TO Louis XIV.

" LONDON, 29 December 1698.

Affaires "... I told him [William III] that I had taken the liberty to

Etran- confide to Your Majesty what he had said to me regarding King

James ; . . . you had replied that Your Majesty's honour was engaged
to leave the King of England, who had retired to St Germains, free
to remain there so long as he pleased j that Your Majesty's determi-
nation on that point was unalterable, but if ever the King felt a desire

336

WILLIAM III REFUSES JOINTURE

to go elsewhere, you would make no opposition. He answered 1699
* But the desire will never come to him, unless it is instilled into
him ! "

The anxious negotiations went on with respect to the
Queen's dowry. " Orange has declared," writes Rizzini to
the Duke of Modena, 25 January, 1699, "that he will not
give money which he suspects will be used against him ;
wherein he is much mistaken ; but reason has little force when
it contends alone against an absolute will."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO CARDINAL ALEXANDER CAPRARA.

"ST. GERMAINS, February 1699.

" I beg you to present my very humble thanks to His Holiness for Stuart
his charity towards our poor subjects, driven from Ireland on account whfd^or
of their faith. I take the occasion of saying that I have heard Castle
of complaints reaching the ears of the Holy Father, of a pretended
unequal distribution of his preceding donation. I am not greatly
astonished, when I remember that the same complaints were made
even in the time of the Apostles, but it appertains to the equity and
prudence of His Holiness and his ministers to examine the matter
thoroughly, before believing such reports ; and for their enlighten-
ment the King, my lord, has ordered the Bishops and ecclesiastics who
made the distribution, to draw up an exact account with the names of
the persons who participated in it, by which it will be seen that the
King added 9,000 livres of his own to the money sent by His
Holiness. ..."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO M!RE DEPOSE'E.

" February 1699.

"... The King had some fever a week ago, which did not Chaillot
prevent him from hunting at Marly, where we went the day before Arc h ives
yesterday, and stayed until one o'clock in the morning watching the Nationals
young people, and the old ones, dance. I take very little pleasure in
all that, and when it is over I feel very tired. . . . With regard
to affairs, the English Parliament has had small complaisance for
the Prince of Orange, as it has taken away his army, and he has had
to agree to it, and pass the act, seeing there was nothing else
to be done."

337 z

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1699 "The House of Commons," writes Evelyn, "persists in refusing

more than 7,000 men to be a standing army, and no strangers to be
in the number. This displeased the Court party."

How greatly it displeased William III may be seen in a
passage of a letter of January 6th to Pensionary Heinsens :
" Matters in Parliament are taking a turn which drives me
mad."

The Queen concludes her letter :-.

" The Electoral Prince of Bavaria died at Brussels of small-pox in
the night of the 5th February. Many rumours are current with
regard to his death, the King of Spain having named him as his
successor."

In May the Queen went to Marly, and there is an enthu-
siastic account in Rizzini of her delight in the place " in the
gardens, since the King's new improvements, the fountains
. . . the immense quantities of beautiful flowers, the order,
method, and convenience of the paths and arbours (pergola(i)
. . . the constant changing of the flowers, where in the morning
there is one kind, in the afternoon you find another. . . . The
hills are being levelled to enlarge the view, and the great
waterfall at the end of the gardens will be formed by all the
streams conducted there."

The Duchess of Mazarin died at Chelsea of dropsy in July,
her sister, the Duchess of Bouillon, had started for England,
but hearing at Dover that the Duchess was dead, returned to
France without landing.

" Her husband's hardness in giving her no assistance," writes
Rizzini, " even in the unhappy state of health in which she found
herself for several weeks before her death, increased her sufferings and
accelerated her end ; and it was almost impossible to inspire her with
Christian sentiments for the dread passage to the other life.

The course of her life, and her lamentable end, are a great example
of the vanity of earthly opulence and greatness ; a lady of noble
lineage, of famous beauty, allied to the greatest houses in Europe, and
of royal blood, with a dowry of 14 millions of francs, obliged to live
in exile in the vile commerce of cards and dice, and to die destitute
of divine and human aid."

338

ILLNESS OF JAMES II

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO DUKE MAZARIN 1699

" It is not only the proximity of blood which makes me participate Stuart
in your just sorrow for the death of the Duchess of Mazarin. I f a P ers

11 i_ L t r TIT j i Windsor

enter into all the reasons you can have for grief. We do not know Castle
how great is the mercy of God, nor how far it may extend. We
must not venture to set any bounds to it, and it is our duty, in
the most grievous events of our lives, to submit to, and acquiesce in,
what God has ordained. These are truths which we must not only
know, but put in practice every time God puts us to the proof. . . ."

EARL OF MANCHESTER, ENGLISH AMBASSADOR IN PARIS, TO
THE EARL OF JERSEY.

" At St. Germains they still please themselves with the hopes that "Memoirs
the nation will recall them at last. One George Mills, living at the [ ^* ! e r
sign of the Ship, Charles Street, Westminster, came hither three Christian
weeks ago. He says he has letters from fourteen Parliament men ; Cole
he is still at Fontainebleau, where he expects dispatches from
England. I believe I shall know where he goes, and which way.
One Thomas Johnson, too, who keeps the Cook's Arms, a
victualling house near Lockit's.

Mrs. Evans is gone for England. She saw King James and the
Queen, was conducted by Birkenhead. It is believed that Mrs.
Evans, who is the wife of a hair-merchant in the old Bailey, brought
and carried back letters. A sort of button has been invented, which
every-one that engages for King James, wears in his coat. . . ."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO SECRETARY CARYLL.

" FONTAINEBLEAU-, 21 Sept. 1699.
"The King orders me to send you back these two paquetts, and Caryii
tell you, that he likes both the Irs very well . . . i hope they will come
to you before Dr Witham leaves Paris, and that he has in his hands my
son's picture, for it were pitty to loose this opportunity ; for my part,
i admire in these Irs the sacrifice of your reason, which is made
so intire, that one would sweare you writt your owne sense, i wish it
may turne to as good an account as the king expects. . . ."

Before the end of the year King James fell seriously ill ; the
Queen wrote to the Deposee at Chaillot :

" ST. GERMAINS, 28 Nov. 1699.

" Much as it cost me to leave you so suddenly the other day, I do
not repent of it, for the King was too ill for me to be absent from

339 z 2

1699

" Memoirs
of Affairs
of State,"
Christian
Cole

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

him ; he was surprised and very pleased to see me arrive, he has had
very bad nights and suffered greatly for three or four days, but thank
God, since yesterday he is much better. . . . My own health is good,
God does not send me all kinds of afflictions at once, He knows my
weakness and spares it. ...

I recommend my son to your prayers, he is to make his First
Communion at Christmas, please God. ..."

RIZZINI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" 1 6 December 1699.

" . . . . The English King has almost recovered from the tumour,
which lasted nearly a month. . . . The Queen is in very good
health, and so are the royal children, the Prince of Wales in
particular. ..."

EARL OF MANCHESTER TO EARL OF JERSEY.

"PARIS, 23 December 1699.

" I have had no intelligence from St Germains of late, because the
late King's illness put a stop to all business there. He is now
perfectly well recovered, and dines in publick : so that though he
looks thin and wasted yet they think his life is quite out of
danger."

EARL OF MANCHESTER TO MR MATTHEW PRIOR.

" PARIS, 2 January 1 700.

". . . . There is nothing at present acting at St Germains, King
James being not well, and giving himself wholly up to Devotion and
Prayer. The Wound, which was very large, is healed ; but it is
thought they have done it too soon. ... He is extreamly broke and
most men are of opinion he cannot recover tho' he may go on some
time as he is."

The Queen, writing to a Chaillot nun, 7 January, 1700, to
thank her for her prayers for the First Communion of the
Prince of Wales, continues :

"Thank God that dear son appeared to me in very good
dispositions ; I could not restrain my tears to see him make his
First Communion, it seems to me that I offered him to God with
all my heart, asking Him to let him live but to serve, honour and
love Him ; the child appears to me well resolved to that. . . . Con-
firma hoc^ Deus, quod operatus es in eo."

340

POPE INNOCENT XII'S GIFTS

Duke Rinaldo sent his niece a small remittance of his debt to her, 1700
and Rizzini, writing to acknowledge its arrival February 24, 1 700,
continues : " .... Their Majesties no longer venture to speak of
the appanage due to the Queen in England, because they perceive
the Court does not wish to take any steps ; in the first place because
its efforts would meet with no satisfaction, and for other political
considerations. ..."

The following letter to Soeur Dpose of Chaillot makes the
first mention of the tumour in the breast which was to trouble
Queen Mary Beatrice for the rest of her life :

"25 March 1700. *

" I have an hour before supper to give you my poor news, the
word is a true one, for I have nothing good to say of either my body
or my soul, which are in a poor and languid condition. ... As to
my body, I cannot say that I am ill, but I have still that gland in my
breast, which does not decrease. ... I do not know what God
means to do with me. ... I try to abandon myself without reserve
into his hands, that he may do in me, of me, and by me all that he
pleases. You know that what little devotion I have, rests principally
in the last words of the Gospel of this great day [Annunciation
B.V.M.] Ecce Ancilla Daniini. Say them sometimes for me, I beg
of you."

" 1 6 April 1700.

" .... If God hears my prayers for you, and yours for me, we
shall become two great saints. I have made many resolutions during
this holy time [Easter] to do my best to become one, but alas ! I
am so miserable that on the smallest occasion I break my strongest
resolutions. ..."

Pope Innocent XII had made numerous gifts of money for
the poor Jacobites at St. Germains, and at the commencement
of the Jubilee year of 1700 had sent a Brief to Mary Beatrice,
dispensing her from the necessity of going to Rome in order to
gain the indulgences granted there. She writes him a letter
of thanks, 16 April, 1700, congratulating him at the same
time on his recovery from an attack of illness, and ending :
" Among all the titles attached to the supreme Pontificate, I
think there is none more glorious in this world, nor in the

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1700 next, than that which exemplary, almost unprecedented
charity has earned to Your Holiness of * Father of the
Poor/ . . ."

At the end of April Rizzini announces the second marriage
of the Duke of Berwick. Anne Bulkeley, daughter of Sir
Henry Bulkeley and of Sophia Stuart, a relative of the King's,
was the chosen lady, and the marriage seems to have been a
happy one.

EARL OF MANCHESTER TO EARL OF JERSEY.

" PARIS, 22 May 1700.

Memoirs "Last Thursday was a great day here. The Prince of Wales, as
of Affairs tn ey cg \\ him. went in state to Nostre Dame and was received by

of State "

Christian tne Archbishop of Paris with the same honours as if the French
Cole King had been himself there. After Mass, he was entertained by

him ; and your Lordship may easily imagine that all the English
that are here ran to see him. ... I must confess I am surprized to
see things of this nature so often done, considering the present state
of affairs."

The balance of the Queen's marriage portion was at last
paid, and James II writes in May to thank Duke Rinaldo, and
to say that the Queen and he have duly signed the receipts.
u You have not only accomplished an act of justice towards me,
but also of charity towards several noble families to whom I
am obliged to give bread, because they are exiles from their
country, after losing their estates for their religion and for
their fidelity to me . . . '

The question of Duke Francesco's legacies to his sister now
became the subject of much correspondence between the Queen
and her uncle. The young Duke, completely under the
influence of Prince Cesare, had inserted a clause to the effect
that he bequeathed to his sister " all that should be expressed and
signified " by that Prince, to whom he had confided his wishes
and intentions on the subject. The Queen desired that Cesare
might be interrogated, to which Rinaldo replies that they have
too many reasons to suspect that prince, whose actions are
known to the world, to take any such step, and begs the Queen

342

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER

to leave the matter, and the interpretation of the Will, in his 1700
hands. The negotiations came to no conclusion during Mary
Beatrice's life, and her son, writing after her death, speaks of
going to law with his great-uncle to obtain a settlement of the
matter.

Important news reached St. Germains early in August, that of
the death of the young Duke of Gloucester, the last surviving
child of the Princess of Denmark, thus leaving the Prince of
Wales, as the natural heir of his two half-sisters as well as of
his father, with a three-fold claim to the throne of England.
As the news first reached the ears of Lord Manchester through
one of his St. Germains spies, it seems probable that the
Princess, who was undoubtedly at this time in correspondence
with her father, sent him private and immediate news of her
son's death. " He had been declared," writes Rizzini,
" successor, after his mother, to the Crown, and was regarded as
the future defender of the protestant religion in the three
kingdoms. He was eleven years of age ; on his birthday,
July 25th, there was a ball at Court at which he got over
heated, fever supervened, the small-pox declared itself, and he
died in four days . . . The consternation is great in London,
because the difficulties are foreseen as to finding a substitute
with any right to the succession, to the exclusion of the
legitimate king, and his incontestable heir, the Prince of Wales.
By the death of the Duke, the Prince is freed from the most
formidable rival he had, and were it not for the point of
religion, he would perhaps be proclaimed at once, on condition
of leaving the usurper in possession for his life-time ; mean-
while no calumnies are being uttered against his birth."

The same day, August i8th, Lord Manchester writes to
James Vernon, Principal Secretary of State : " . . . Seven
thousand medals of the pretended Prince of Wales are to be
stamped by Rotier who is here, and sent to Captain Cheney
who formerly lived in Hackney, but is now in some part of
Kent."

No official intimation of the death of Mary II having been

343

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1700 made to the Courts of Versailles and St. Germains, they had
not taken mourning for her, Louis XIV forbidding, says St.
Simon, the Dukes of Bouillon and Duras, and others related to
the Prince of Orange from doing so. In the case of the Duke
of Gloucester, the Court of St. Germains, writes Rizzini to the
Duke of Modena, took mourning, " for the reason that the
tender age of the Prince, prevented him from having any share
in the crime of rebellion, and usurpation against his grandfather,
as was the case with the Princess of Orange, and should not
be debarred from the marks of respect due to his rank." This
action seems to confirm the opinion that the Princess Anne had
sent notice of her son's death to the King her father.

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO MERE DEPOSEE AT CHAILLOT.

"Sr GERMAINS, 29 Aug. 1700.

" . . . . No order has arrived from Rome regarding our poor
Jacobites j on the contrary the Pope is very ill, and I think he will
die without having given any, so we resolved yesterday to sell a few
jewels to pay the pensions for September, and then we shall do the
same each month unless help comes from elsewhere, of which I see
no likelihood. Do not afflict yourself about all this, my dear
mother ; as for me, I feel more astonished than afflicted, and as for
our poor people, I shall never think 1 have done my duty, until I
have given all I have, for only then shall I be able to say with truth
that I have nothing left, and can do no more.

As for the death of that young prince, it has produced no visible
change as yet, but of necessity it must do so, and perhaps sooner than
is expected here ; we follow our good rule of keeping silence, and
placing all our trust in God. . . .

I must thank our dear mother for the good figs and peaches. 1 My
ohly complaint is that she sends too many and too often ; we shall
eat some at Chaillot, please God, next week, as I hope to be with you
on Tuesday at five o'clock, for Compline. ..."

A new friend, who was to remain her very devoted and faith-
ful servant, now came into the life of the Queen, in the person

1 Chaillot repaid, with its gifts of fruit, the presents Mary Beatrice used to send as a
child from Sassuolo to the Visitation nuns at Modena: "I send you a basket of
peaches," she wrote in August 1672, " eat them for love of me."

344

NUNCIO GUALTERIO

of Monsignor Gualterio, the new Papal Nuncio at the Court of 1700
France. A scholar, the founder of a rich library in Italy, with
a noble and independent character which found favour at once
with Mary Beatrice, his correspondence with her is full of
interest. Her first letter is dated

"Sr. GERMAINS, i Sept. 1700.

" I cannot acknowledge the receipt of your letter, without at the Brit - Mus -
same time expressing a thousand cordial thanks for the interest you 20,293,
take in all our concerns, and for the hearty zeal with which you Art - 39>
co-operate for the success of our affairs ; words fail me to express how
much the King and I are obliged to you, and how much we desire
the occasion of proving our gratitude. ... I shall of course follow
your advice when I see the Most Christian King, which will not be
before the end of the week ; your letter shall be burned at once, and
when you have occasion to write to me, you will give me double
pleasure to do so without ceremony, as to a real friend who has for
you a confidence and esteem equal to your merits."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO SECRETARY CARYLL.

" FONTAINEBLEAU, 3 October IJQO.

" I send you back Monsignor Caprara's letter, the King does not Caryll
foresee that he can have any businesse with the French Ministers in Pa P ers
case of a conclave, and therefor does not think it necessary to speake
to these here about it, for you know, that wee make our Court by not
meddling with any businesse. ... I hope the aire of Paris agrees as welt
with you, as this does with the King and me, for I thank God wee
have been extremely well, ever since wee came hither ; as for news,
Madame de Maintenon has at last told me that she had given the
account to her King of what i had sayd to her some time ago, and
that when he comes back from Fontainebleau he will not fail to do
what i desire, wee did not come to name a summe quitt, but spoke
of 3,000 or 4,000 Louis d'or ; she entered also with me to speake of
other affairs, which is more than she had don for a long time befor,
but that must keep cold till i see you ; this King has been but once
in private with us, and i find that he thinks the Prince of Orange is
not well, he is as civil and kynd to us as he uses to be, and wee as
modest and as silent as to anything of businesse. Lord Manchester at
last is to be here next Friday to give notice of the death of the young
Prince of Denmark, i wish after staying so long that he had stayed
three days longer, and wee should have been gon. ..."

345

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1700 During this visit to Fontainebleau, Dangeau remarks that
the Queen gave up play, a resolution she was to retain during
the rest of her life.

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO A NUN AT CHAILLOT.

" ST GERMAINS, 13 October 1700.

" .... At last our Holy Father [Innocent XII, Pignatelli] is dead,
and the poor King of Spain [Charles II] also ; the news arrived at
Fontainebleau two hours after our departure, it had been expected at
any moment for the last three days ; we must not cease praying with
regard to all these events that God may protect and sustain his
Church by giving it a good Pope, notwithstanding all the cabals,
which, they say, are greater and stronger than they have ever been,
but God is infinitely above all that, and can overrule them to his own
glory, in one way or another.

.... One night at Fontainebleau, as I was saying my prayers,
my night cornettes caught fire, and burned down to the cap without
burning a hair of my head." (Cornettes were three high stages of
lace, stiffened with wire, placed upright from the brow, and the
Queen gratefully attributes her preservation to the prayers of her
Chaillot friends.)

346

CHAPTER XII

THE Abbe de Ranee, the great reformer of La Trappe, died 1700
in the autumn of 1700, and the Queen alludes to his death in
the following letter to Chaillot, Nov. 26th :

"... I send you copies of two letters from La Trappe ... all
our sisters will be glad to know something of the death of that holy
abbot ; . . . and I must say that I read and re-read the letters with
pleasure, especially the portions which prove the saintly and tender
affection that admirable man had for us ; when I see you I shall show
you the things mentioned in the letters, and which are very precious
and venerable to me. ... I was grieved at first on hearing of his death,
but I quickly consoled myself with the thought of his happiness, and
the hope of experiencing in myself the effect of his prayers, for I am
sure he does not forget us. . . ."

Charles II of Spain had, by his will, nominated the Duke
of Anjou as his successor, who was now proclaimed with the
title of Philip V, an event, writes Rizzini, which will make a
great noise, in England also, considering that the whole
monarchy of Spain will be vested in a French Prince. 1

The King and Queen of England went to Versailles to
congratulate the . monarch elect, whose advent seemed not
without promise to their own cause, and the Memoirs of the
Baron de Breteuil describe how the two princes, meeting at the
door of the presence-chamber with all the rigidity of ceremony

1 The Emperor immediately protested, prepared to attack Lombardy, and proclaimed
his second son, the Archduke Charles, under the title of Charles III, opening the War of
the Spanish Succession, which was to endure with varying fortunes until the peace of
Utrecht.

347

" Memoirs
of Affairs
of State,"
Christian
Cole

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1700 dear to them both, the Queen cried : " Embrassez-vous,
done ! " and advancing to the Duke of Anjou kissed him
heartily, saying : " Sir, I assure you our own misfortunes do
not prevent us from rejoicing greatly in the honour which has
come upon you ; I hope you may be as happy as you are
great." After this compliment, they walked abreast to the bed-
chamber, where they sat on three equal fauteuils. Four days
later, Philip V went to St. Germains in his mourning-cloak of
black cloth, with a train a yard and a half on the ground, first
to the King, then to the Queen, and lastly to the Prince of
Wales, who conducted him to his carriage, always walking
first.

EARL OF MANCHESTER TO MR. SECRETARY VERNON.

"PARIS, II December 1700.

"... I cannot tell you from whence they have at St. Germains
an apprehension that the P. Prince of Wales will be carried into
England, with his own consent ; and upon this they have increased
his Guards, whereas he had formerly but six, he has now fourteen.
They think their Game so very sure, that there is no occasion he
should make such a step. Besides, the changing of his religion will
never be suffered, and they have lately declared that they would rather
see him dead."

RIZZINI TO DUKE OF MODENA.

"22 December 1700.

" I was at St. Germains when Nuncio Gualterio arrived to present
the Brief in the Pope's hand [Clement XI, Albani] upon his elevation ;
it was conceived in such terms of paternal affection as to draw, more
from the heart than from the eyes of their Majesties, tears of emotion,
with every demonstration of joy at the exaltation of one whom they
had so greatly esteemed as a Cardinal, and now regard as a worthy
successor of St. Peter, . . . and a vigilant, indefatigable Pastor of his
flock."

Lord Melfort, who had been allowed to return to Paris in
1697, brought upon himself, at the beginning of 1701, a fresh
exile by an act of imprudent folly which did infinite harm to
the cause of his master. He wrote a letter to his brother, Lord
Perth, stating that there was a powerful party in Scotland

348

A MISDIRECTED LETTER

ly to rise in favour of King James, and that it was fully the 1701
intention of that prince to re-establish the Catholic religion in
England, with the help of France. " I do not know," writes
St. Simon, " nor did any one know, how it came about that a
letter addressed to St. Germains went to London. King
William communicated it to Parliament, and made great use of
against France, who thought of nothing less, and had plenty
)f other affairs on hand in supporting the Spanish succession ;
loreover so important a design would not have been imparted
the Earl of Melfort, in the position in which he found him-
f at his own Court and at ours. Melfort was sent to Angers
his pains, and was greatly suspected. I do not know
whether rightly or wrongly."

A key to the enigma lay for two centuries in the Archives
Modena. Rizzini first alludes to the letter, which contained
the assertion that Lord Middleton must be dismissed before
anything could be done, as a probable forgery : " at every
opening of Parliament since the Revolution something of the
kind has been produced." But, March 16, he says : "Their
Majesties are greatly concerned about that letter which has
made so much noise in England, as it has transpired that it was
written by My lord Melfort. . . . The servant charged to
deliver it to one of the usual messengers of St. Germains in
their Majesties' service, . . . not finding him, and seeing that
the courier for the Court of England was on the point of
starting, without reflecting upon the difference between the
Court of England at St. Germains and that of London, left the
letter at the Post Office, and the superscription being written
in English, without further question it was despatched by the
courier of that Government. . . ."

On a Friday in Lent, 4th of March, 1701, the exiled King
and Queen were attending Mass in the Chapel Royal of
St. Germains when, as the appropriate words " Recordare
Domine," l " Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us : con-
sider and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to

1 Lamentations. Chap. V.

349

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1701 strangers, our houses to aliens" were chanted by the choir,
the King fell forward in an attack of faintness which lasted half
an hour. The Queen was so affected to see him thus that
she became almost as ill as he. As at Salisbury thirteen
years before, a violent attack of bleeding from the nose super-
vened, and by order of Louis XIV's chief physician Fagon, who
was sent to him next day by that monarch, it was decided to
try the waters of Bourbon. Louis visited the King before his
departure, and appointed the Marquis d'Urfe to accompany the
English Court on the journey with all fitting state and con-
venience. The English Ambassador, the Earl of Manchester,
who wrote almost daily to Secretary Vernon on the progress of
" Memoirs James's illness, reports: "March 26. . . . His stay at
of state" Bourbon is to be three weeks. He is to be eleven days a-going,
Cole" 1 '*" anc ^ as ^ on S comm g back. . . . They desired but 30,000
livres of the French Court for this journey, which was imme-
diately sent them in Gold. I don't know but they may advise
him after that to a hotter climate, which may be convenient
enough on several accounts."

" April 6.

" King James is gone to Bourbon. He lay last night at the
Duke of Lauzun's house at Paris."

The Queen kept her friends at Chaillot informed of her
husband's progress, which was hindered by an attack of gout,
and of her own movements. " I have not yet seen our Sisters at
Moulins [the Visitation nuns had an important convent there]
... I shall go some day expressly to see them." The nuns
at Moulins were much edified by the Queen's piety. " She was
seen to follow the procession on Corpus Christi on foot, with-
out a parasol, without an equerry or train-bearer, a taper in her
hand, and with an angelic modesty which filled all who saw
her with admiration. We have had five queens here, whom I
remember very well, but not one to be compared to her,"
writes the Superior to Mother Priolo, May 27, 1701.
Another convent visited by Mary Beatrice during her stay

THE WATERS OF BOURBON

at Bourbon was that of " La Charite " on the Loire. She 1701
describes its great poverty in a letter to Chaillot, explained by
the nuns as the result of constant robberies, but of late they
have kept a musket always loaded to fire on the bandits if they
came. The Queen had noticed it, and wondered to see such a
weapon in the cell of a nun.

RlZZINI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" May 18, 1701.

"I went to St. Germains yesterday, and found the Prince and
Princess in perfect health. They have frequent letters from the
Queen, to whom they write by every ordinary, and this corre-
spondence with Her Majesty seems to give them a superiority to their
tender age, which also appears in their intercourse with the persons
who pay them court, a maturity of sense, frankness of discourse,
judiciousness in interrogation and gravity of bearing ; but all
accompanied with a natural grace, and most amiable and gentle
manners. . . ."

The Court returned to St. Germains on the 9th of June, the
King but little better for the Bourbon waters. Lord Man-
chester reports on the i5th that " he cares of nothing, all things
going now directly to the Queen."

The Queen, who had once written to the Italian nun,
Angelique Priolo, during a slight indisposition of the King's,
" Alas ! you know, dear mother, and you understand, chi ama,
teme" was now watching with the tenderest solicitude over her
husband. He had a second seizure in July, which left the right
side slightly paralysed, but he was still able occasionally,
leaning on the Queen's arm, to pace in the sun on the beautiful
broad terrace above the Seine, and "never was there seen,"
writes the Duke of Berwick, " greater patience, greater tran-
quillity, or greater joy than when he thought or spoke of
death." The last stroke came to him as he was hearing Mass
on Friday, 2nd September. "That poor King is dying like
a saint. The Queen is in great desolation. . . . Madame de
Main tenon hastened to St. Germains on Sunday, and spent part
of the day with her."

35 1

I 7 I RIZZINI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"PARIS, 7. September 1701.

"... After receiving the last Sacraments from the Cure of St
Germains, the King charged him to beg the Most Christian King to
give him no other sepulture than in the parish church, without any
pomp, and near the bodies of his poor subjects who lie buried
there. . . .

His Majesty's age, added to his entire detachment from earthly
things, immersed altogether in the contemplation of eternity, would
render him (even if he recovered) poco o niente currante of his own
and his son's interests. The Queen, on the contrary, a princess of
great sense, and so much clearness of judgment in all things, is alone
capable of maintaining (as she has hitherto done as far as she could)
all that concerns the temporal and spiritual interests of her children
in the circumstances in which they are placed. Were it not for them,
she would not hesitate a moment (in case of the loss of her husband)
before retiring into a convent."

Mary Beatrice, on Louis's visit to her husband on the Monday
after his seizure, besought him to recognise her son in the event
Archives of his father's death. "The King replied that the matter
32 a ' ' required some reflection ... he looked upon her husband as
a saint . . . and had a great inclination towards the Prince of
Wales, but he could not recognise him without assembling his
Council . . . accordingly the next day a Council was held . . .
the Chancellor and the greater number of the Ministers opposed
the measure, but the King and the Dauphin took part for the
Prince of Wales, the King giving several reasons to prove that
it was not contrary to the treaty of Ryswick, the Prince of
Orange being King de facto, but the Prince of Wales would be
king by the right of heredity, a right given him by nature, and
which none could take from him . . . moreover he had no
intention of assisting him to regain his dominions, as that would
be contrary to the treaty."

Meanwhile the dying King was making his last acts of
penance and forgiveness, and recommending his son to the care
of the King of France in a Will which the paralysis in his hand
prevented him from signing, so Lord Middleton signed it by

35 2

DEATH OF JAMES II

his order in the presence of the witnesses, Perth, Griffin, Caryll, 1701
Stafford, etc. The Duke of Berwick records the words with
which he comforted the Queen, convulsed with weeping :
" Think of it, Madam, I am going to be happy ! " words which
reveal a sum of past unhappiness which even the intimate
knowledge of his wife could not count up, for only the heart
knows its own bitterness. In his farewell to his little daughter,
he bids her " Follow close the steps of that great pattern, your
mother, who has been, no less than myself, overclouded with
calamity, but Time, the mother of Truth, will, I hope, at last p- 34 *
make her virtues shine as bright as the sun."

Rizzini says that after taking leave of the Queen, " who
kissed his hands, bathing them with her tears, and as if she could
never leave them, the King tenderly dismissed her, and she saw
him no more, lest the excess of her grief should distract him
from keeping his thoughts entirely fixed upon God."

The day after the Council Louis XIV carried the news him-
self to St. Germains of his resolution to recognise the Prince of
Wales, where it was gratefully received by the Queen, James
himself responding to the King's announcement only by a
look, " while the officers in the room, forgetting where they were, Archives
all cried * God save the King ! ' which was perhaps the first time s K* "* *'
the cry was ever raised in the chamber of a dying sovereign."
RIZZINI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" ST GERMAINS, 16 Sept. 1701.

"... When the Most Christian King confided to the Prince of
Wales, in the Queen's room, his secret intention of recognising him
as king, the young prince instantly embraced the King's knees,
declaring that he would remember all his life that he owed the title
to his Majesty. . . . Then he threw his arms round the Queen's
neck in a transport of sorrow at the thought of his father's approach-
ing death, and of compassion with his mother's grief, so that the Most
Christian King had to take him away almost by force. . . ."

James II expired peacefully at three o'clock on Friday after-
noon, September 1 6th, " it had always been his wish to die on
a Friday," remarks Dangeau. His son was immediately saluted

353 A A

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1701 as King by the Pope's Nuncio, who had remained in constant
attendance at St. Germains during James's illness, by France,
and by Rizzini in the name of Duke Rinaldo, receiving the
homage of the Duke of Berwick and all the Court of
St. Germains, and being proclaimed at the Palace gates under
the title of James III, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
St. Simon describes Louis XIV's conduct on this occasion as
" more worthy of the generosity of Louis XII or Francis I
than of his own wisdom," adding that the recognition of
James III did that prince no good, while it did infinite harm to
France, by provoking England, and bringing about the " Grand
Alliance " between that country, Holland, and Austria, which
was signed the following month. The Duke of Berwick seems
to have held the same opinion, remarking that the recognition
by France and Spain of James III was " one of the motives the
Prince of Orange made use of to engage the British party in
the war against those two countries." l

The Queen was removed to Chaillot a few hours after the
King's death, where she remained until after the funeral,
attended day and night by the nuns, ever ready to read her the
consoling words of Holy Writ, or of St. Augustine's soliloquies,
to share in her prayers and tears, and to listen to her words
describing the last hours of her consort, whose death she
compared with that of St. Stephen, who saw the heavens open.

James's body, having been embalmed, was carried the next
night, Saturday, September lyth, to the house of the English
Benedictines in the Rue St. Jacques, the procession stopping at
Chaillot to deposit his heart in the chapel tribune beside that of
his mother, while the pr<ecordia was placed in the parish church
of St. Germains, where it escaped the devastation of the French
Revolution, and still remains. 1 Louis XIV had given orders
that the short ceremony at Chaillot should take place as noise-

1 Rizzini truly remarks, however, (Nov. i6th, 1701) that the preliminaries of the
Alliance, in which a fresh partition of Spain was agreed upon, were signed by the
three contracting Powers on the jth September, nine days before King James's
death.

1 See Appendix B.

354

THE QUEEN'S MOURNING

lessly as possible, so that the Queen might remain in ignorance 1701
of it, but when, dressed for the first time in her widow's habit,
and the carriage to take her back to St. Germains stood at the
door, she rose, saying : " I have a visit to make before I leave, Chaiiiot
I will go and pay my duty to the heart of my good king ; I
feel that it is here : ... it is a relic I have given you, and I
must be allowed to venerate it."

Preceded by the nuns, chanting the De Profundis, she went
to the tribune, knelt and kissed the urn through the black
crape which covered it, and then silently and tearlessly retired,
to fall in a fainting-fit before she had made four steps, " which
caused us to fear for her life."

RlZZlNI TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"PARIS, 21 September 1 70 1.

"... The Most Christian King, with his usual solicitous and
magnanimous attention to whatever may prove of solace to the Queen,
as soon as he heard that the King's condition was hopeless, had a
silver-gilt heart, bearing a royal crown, prepared for the reception ot
that of the King ; so when the Queen's officials ordered a leaden
coffer as a temporary receptacle, they were surprised to find this
silver heart ready prepared. The King wished Her Majesty to know
nothing of it, but she, insisting upon going into the Chapel Tribune,
was surprised to see her Consort's heart so nobly placed. . . ."

" 23 Sept.

" The Queen will remain in retirement forty days before receiving
visits of condolence from foreign ministers and only from those who
recognise her son. . . ."

THE EARL OF MANCHESTER TO MR. SECRETARY VERNON.

"PARIS, 23 September 1701.

"... The King of France made the P. Prince of Wales the first Pub. Rec.
visit on Tuesday last ; he stayed but little with him, but was a con- p*"' e
siderable time with the Queen. The next day the P. Prince of 6 97 , xxxvi
Wales returned the visit to Versailles. All the ceremonies passed to
the entire satisfaction of those at St Germains. . . ."

" 24 September.

" I have seen M. de Torcy, who did endeavour to put the best colour
on this last proceeding. His chief aim was to show me that there

355 A A 2

1701

Pub. Rec.

Office,

France,

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

was nothing in this contrary to the treaty of Ryswick ; I could
perceive that the French King was brought to it by the solicitation
of the Queen at St Germains. It is certain that M. de Torcy, as
well as the rest of the ministers, was against it, and only the Dauphin
and Madame de Maintenon, whom the Queen had prevailed with,
carried this point, which I am satisfied they may have Reason to
repent of. . . ."

THE SAME TO MR. BLATHWAYT.

" 26 September.

"... The Will of the late King James is opened, but not yet
published, but I hear it is to be printed. What I have learned of it
is this, That the Queen is made Regent, the French King is desired
to take care of the education of the P. Prince of Wales, that in case
he be restored, the Queen is to be repaid all that she has laid out of
her own, . . . that the new King shall not take any Revenge against
his Father's enemies, nor his own ; that he shall not use any force in
matters of religion ... I am told that Lorth Perth is declared a
Duke, and Caryl a Lord. I do not doubt but we shall hear of several
new Titles and Garters. Certainly there ought to be some Stop put
to all this, else we shall not know where we are. . . ."

St. Simon William III was at LQO, at supper with several German
Dangeau princes and other lords when the news of his father-in-law's
death reached him. He did not utter a word beyond announc-
ing the fact ; but he reddened, lost countenance, and pulled his
hat down over his brows. He ordered Lord Manchester back
to England, but took mourning for King James in violet
" thereby affirming his pretension to complete equality with
the King of France."

One of Mary Beatrice's first letters after the King's death
was addressed to the Princess Anne, and bears date 27 Sep-
tember, 1701 :

Clarke,
'Life of
James II "

" I think myself indispensably obliged to defer no longer the
acquainting you with a message which the best of men, as well as
the best of fathers, has left with me for you. Some few days before
his death, he bid me find means to let you know that he forgave you
from the bottom of his heart, and prayed God to do so too, that he
gave you his last blessing, and prayed God to convert your heart, and
confirm you in the resolution of repairing to his son the wrongs done

356

THE QUEEN'S REGENCY

to himself; to which I shall only add, that I join my prayers to his 1701
herein with all my heart, and that I shall make it my business to
inspire to the young man who is left to my care, the sentiments of
his father, for better no man can have. . . ."

The day after her forty-third birthday, the Queen writes to
the Superior of Chaillot that her health is good " my heart
and soul are sad even unto death. ... I feel more and more
the privation and separation from him who was dearer to me
than my own life, and who alone rendered that life sweet and
supportable. I miss him every day more and more in a
thousand ways. In my first grief, I felt something like a calm
beneath, but now, though perhaps it does not appear so much
outwardly, I feel a deeper sorrow within me.

" Yesterday, my birthday, I made a day of retreat, but with so
much pain and weariness and tedium, that so far from finding it
a solace, I was oppressed and crushed down by it, as I am also
with the weight of business, so much so, that in truth my
condition is worthy of compassion. The God of mercy will
have pity, and come to my aid ; but here I feel it not, nor is it
permitted me to find comfort, either in earth or heaven. Never
had any one so great need for prayers as I have. I entreat of
God to hear those which you make for me. . . ."

Louis XIV continued to James Stuart the pension of 50,000
livres a month, and the same number of guards he had allowed
his father, and Mary Beatrice now entered upon her five years'
term of Regency. Had she had the opportunity, she would

loubtless have displayed some of the talent which had made

icr mother, the Duchess Laura, remarkable among the minor
rulers of her time, but that opportunity was never afforded her.
The people of England, won by her fascinating personality, had
exempted her from their hatred, even during the frenzied

;riod of Oates's plots, and it can scarcely be doubted that they
would have yielded a loyal affection to the regal beauty, the

lodest majesty and virtue which charmed all those who came
within her influence, had it again been brought to bear upon

lem. In the difficult situation of regent to an exiled prince,,

1 701 obliged to trust to information and promises of which the
accuracy and integrity could seldom be relied upon, aware
throughout that France had ulterior motives in her support of
the Stuart claims, unable to make her constant cry for peace
penetrate into the belligerent Catholic Courts of Europe,
hampered by the care of her poor population at St. Germains,
whose support absorbed the means which, had they been
ten times what they were, would have been as nothing compared
with the wealth at the command of William III and of Anne,
the Queen yet had her own well-defined policy, grounded upon
her step-daughter's promises and those of the English Tories
and Jacobites, and which, had those promises not proved
fallacious, would in all probability have resulted in the tranquil
restoration of her son. The words of her letter to the Princess
Anne, reminding her of her resolution to repair to James's son
the wrongs done to himself, reveal the hopes upon which she
relied, and which were to guide her future conduct to the last,
however often the stress of circumstances might force her
to take part in other schemes foredoomed to failure.

Mary Beatrice's first step as Regent was to publish a mani-
festo in the name of James III, setting forth his claims. It
had no visible effect in England, but in Scotland the Duke of
Hamilton and the confederate Lords sent Lord Belhaven to
St. Germains to endeavour to persuade the Regent to entrust
st. Ger- them with the person of her son. Lord Belhaven arrived
MSS" in November and remained three months ; he had been one
Bib. Nat. O f William's subtlest agents before 1688, which caused him at
first to be regarded with distrust, but his protestations of
loyalty were such as to remove that impression. After several
interviews with Lord Middleton, he was received in private
audience by the Queen, February 2, 1702, when he declared to
her that if the Prince would embrace the Protestant religion, it
would be easy to obtain his recall, even by Parliament, as the
recognised successor of William III. He represented how
desirable this would be ; for " England is so superior in force
to Scotland, both by land and sea, that unless he had a strong

3J8

LORD BELHAVEN'S MISSION

party, he would not, as King of Scotland, be able to conquer 1702
England." Belhaven even promised to declare him at once,
without waiting for William's death, if he would turn Protest-
ant. The Queen made answer, that she " would never be the
means of persuading her son to barter his hopes of Heaven for
a crown ; neither could she believe that any reliance could be
placed by others on the promises of a Prince who was willing
to make such a sacrifice to his worldly interests."

Belhaven expressed regret at her stiffness, and then asked on
behalf of Hamilton and the confederate Lords, that if the
Prince adhered to his religion, he should at least make a com-
pact not to suffer more than a limited number of Romish
priests in his kingdom, and engage to make no attempt to alter
the established religion in either realm. This the Queen freely
promised in the name of her son. Then his Lordship engaged
in the name of his party to do all they could to oppose the
English Parliament in the Act of the Hanoverian Succession.

The Queen's anxiety expresses itself in a letter to one of the
Chaillot nuns, February I, 1702. "I am ashamed to tell you,
that for several days I have slept less, and wept more, than I
have done for some time. ... I beg for particular prayers, to
obtain enlightenment from God on the business which we have
at present on the tapis, and when it is put home to me, is likely
to augment my troubles. This is for yourself alone. . . ."

In the course of subsequent interviews with Lord Belhaven,
Mary Beatrice declared that neither her husband, her son, nor
herself had ever entertained designs to the prejudice of the
Church of England. All they desired was toleration for those
of their own way of thinking, which, she added with some
emotion, she considered was only reasonable. Belhaven begged
her to let the Prince go to Scotland. He was only known
by name, if he was once seen, the people would be ready to
fight for his cause. But to this the Queen could not consent.
Her son was but thirteen years of age, and as his guardian, she
declared that she felt herself responsible to the late King, his
father, and also to the people of England, who would, she

359

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1702 doubted not, one day recall him to the throne of his forefathers,
and she could not take the responsibility of consenting to his
incurring so great a peril. Rightly or wrongly, Mary Beatrice
had a firm belief that the assassination of her son had been
contemplated by the Prince of Orange at the time of her flight
with him from England ; the fact is mentioned more than once
by Renaudot and Rizzini, but without explanation or comment,
and there seems to be no evidence extant of the grounds of the
Queen's belief. Apart, however, from any such fear, the
proposal to send her son into Scotland at the age of thirteen
was not one which her maternal affection and prudence could
allow her to entertain without more certain guarantees for his
safety and the success of the enterprise than the confederate
Lords could furnish.

In England meanwhile the Anglo-Dutch Cabinet had sought
to counteract the movement of sympathy which seemed stirring
in the breasts of the people for the legitimate heir and his
mother, by renewing the ancient calumnies against his birth.
James II had scarcely been in his grave a month when
William Ill's despicable tool Fuller presented, 17 October,
1701, to Parliament, to the Lords Justices, the Lord Mayor,
and several Ministers of State, a book entitled : " A full
demonstration that the pretended Prince of Wales was the son
of Mrs. Mary Gray, undeniably proved by original letters of
the late Queen and others, and by depositions of several persons
of worth and honour, never before published ; and a particular
account of the murder of Mrs. Mary Gray at Paris. Humbly
recommended to the consideration of both Houses of Parlia-
ment. By W. Fuller, Gent."

It was in substance a republication of the libel for which he
had been pilloried nine years before, and for which the House
of Commons, despite a strong hint that Fuller was protected by
the King, again declared him a cheat and a false accuser.

William III left Loo for England in November, and
immediately caused a Bill to be brought into the House of
Commons for attainting the son of the man for whom he and

360

BILL OF ATTAINDER

iis household were in mourning. Burnet ingenuously regrets
that though " the Bill could not be opposed, much less stopped,
yet many showed a coldness to it, and were absent on the days on
which it was ordered to be read." The Bill subjected the Prince
of Wales to the penalty of being executed without a trial, or any
ceremony other than a privy-seal warrant, in the event of his
falling into the hands of the reigning sovereign. The next
step was to include Mary Beatrice by a parenthesis into the
same Bill, " the pretended Prince of Wales, and Mary, his
pretended mother." Though strongly opposed, Compton,
Bishop of London, being among those who voted against it, the
Bill passed the House of Lords, but the Commons, to their
honour, stoutly refused even to put it to the question, and
throwing it under the table, consigned it to oblivion.

While the Bill was before the House of Commons, the
Queen wrote to the Superior of Chaillot : 25 February,
1702 :

"... The affairs of which I spoke in my last letter are not
domestic affairs, which go on well enough at present, but matters of
great importance. . . ."

And among the Chaillot documents there is a translation by
Mary Beatrice of the Act of Parliament attainting her son. It
is endorsed : " 1702. Several sheets which appear to be
written in the hand of the Queen of England, widow of
James II, containing the copy of the Act for convicting the
pretended Prince of Wales of high treason." About the
same time the Queen writes to Angelique Priolo : I have
need of consolation, for I am overwhelmed with distress, and
these fresh affairs are very disagreeable. Alas ! they are never
otherwise for me. Entreat of God, my dear mother, that he
would give me the gifts and grace to bear them, but above all,
those of wisdom, of counsel and of strength, whereof I am at
present in such extreme need."

One consolation, perhaps the greatest which could satisfy
and enhance her love and reverence for the husband whom she

1702

Journal
commons,

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1702 regarded as a saint, was Mary Beatrice's, in the conversion of
Lord Middleton to the Roman Catholic Church under circum-
chaiiiot stances which are related by St. Simon : " Lord Middleton
Archives had been ill for some time, when, at the end of December
Nationaies jyoi, King James appeared to him in a vision, telling him he
would recover, that he owed his health to the King's prayers,
and that he must become a Catholic." The Queen burst into
tears of joy when Middleton related the incident to her the
next day, and announced it to Angelique Priolo. " I send you
the good news of Lord Middleton's conversion, which I have
known for several days . . . the only pleasure in truth of which
I have been sensible since the death of our sainted King, to
whose intercession I cannot but attribute this miracle, the
greatest, in my opinion, that we have seen in our day. . . I
will tell you the particulars when we meet, but at present you
must be content with learning that he left us at 7 o'clock
yesterday morning to go to Paris, to put himself into the hands
of the Superior of the English Seminary there (who is a holy
man) for some weeks. I am about to send this news to
Madame de Maintenon. . . Let us confess that God is good,
my dear Mother . . . that His mercies are above all and
through all His works, and that He is to be blessed for ever.
Amen."

William Ill's state of health was such that the Jacobites
hoped by gaining time in the passage of the Bill enforcing the
oath of abjuration of James Stuart through the House of
Commons, where it was strongly opposed, that the King might
die before the third reading. They did not succeed, and the
Bill was carried to Kensington Palace, March 7, 1702, where
William lay dying the broken collar-bone resulting from the
fall from Sir John Fenwick's old horse Sorrel having accelerated
the end of what Evelyn describes as his " aguish " condition
with " a long cough and other weaknesse." As James II had
been unable, six months previously, to sign his last Will, full
of charity and pardon to his enemies, so now the nerveless hand
of his nephew and son-in-law could not give expression to his

362

IH.

^Vla/teJ II.

DEATH OF WILLIAM III

last act of enmity, and a fac-simile stamp had to be affixed to 1702
the Bill in his presence. He died next day, March 8, aged
fifty-two ; " worn out before his age," says St. Simon, " by
the labours and affairs which had filled his whole life, and
possessed of a capacity, an address, a superiority of genius which
gained for him supreme authority in Holland, the crown of
England, the confidence, and to tell the truth, the perfect
dictatorship of all Europe, France excepted."

Queen Anne succeeded as peacefully to the throne of
England as her father had done eighteen years before, but in
Scotland James III was proclaimed at Inverness immediately
upon the death of William III, by Simon Fraser, commonly
styled Lord Lovat, one of the most baffling characters of the
uneasy tim,e in which he lived, serving and betraying in turn
the cause for which he was at last to die, with the words upon
his lips : " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." Out-
lawed in 1701 for a forcible marriage with the Dowager Lady
Lovat, sister of the Marquis of Atholl, he had run over to St.
Germains twice during the previous year, in his own words " to
dissipate calumnies against the sincerity of his Jacobitism,"
while he went on from there to William III at Loo. Soon
after proclaiming James III, Lovat went to St. Germains to
persuade the Queen to allow her son to go to Scotland,
engaging to raise 12,000 men if France would give money
and arms, and land 5,000 troops at Dundee, and 500 at Fort
William.

Mary Beatrice made the same answer as to Lord Belhaven ;
the youth of the Prince and the good intentions of Queen Anne
inclining her, with the full assent of her two ministers,
Middleton and Caryll, to trust to amicable conventions for her
son's restoration. The Duke of Perth, on the contrary, urged
her to a more energetic policy, showing her a letter from his
son, the Marquis of Drummond, saying the principal Lords
were ready to take up arms. Lord Middleton replied urging
the youth of the Prince, and the infirmities of Queen Anne as
reasons for a quiescent policy, which the attitude of the Electress,

363

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1702 Sophia herself served to confirm. In her well-known " Jacobite
letter " to Mr. Stepney, envoy of the Court of Brandenburg, she
expresses herself reluctant to benefit by the misfortunes of her
royal kindred, and desirous that the nation would take into
consideration the unhappy case of " le pauvre Prince de Galles,"
that he might rather be thought of than her family, since he
had learned and suffered so much by his father's errors, that he
would certainly avoid them all, and make a good King of
England.

Mary Beatrice was also aware of the avowed reluctance of
Sophia's son, so that although they had consented to Parliament
settling the Protestant succession in their family, she appre-
hended little contest in that quarter. The Duke of Perth
remained unconvinced, and among his papers in the Biblio-
theque Nationale there is a letter in which he severely censures
Brit. MUS. fa e Queen's policy. Louis XIV meanwhile entered into a

Gualteno ^ *

MSS. secret treaty, the draft of which exists in the Gualterio Papers,
with Philip V and Clement XI, to restore James III to the
throne, a project which the war of the Spanish succession, the
genius of Marlborough and Prince Eugene reduced to a dead
letter before any steps could be taken to carry it into effect.

Mary Beatrice had a serious illness in the spring of 1702,
and writes May 2 to the Superior of Chaillot that the pre-
vious night " had been the best, and I can say the only entirely
good one I have had for eight months. . . ."

Another spiritual favour, at the intercession of her husband,
is the subject of the next paragraph : " I am impatient to see
the brother of the Cure of St. Poursain. I hope you will send
him to me soon. I have seen about the conversion of souls, a
greater miracle than the healing of the body, attributed to the
intercession of our holy King, and which gave me pleasure,
although I am not so sensible of it as I could wish. Alas, I
know not of what I am made ; the only sensibility that remains
in me is for pain. . . .

" I am ashamed of not having sent you all the money I owe
you, I will do so at the first opportunity. I dare not tell you

364

SIMON FRASER, LORD LOT AT

the state I am in for want of money, it would grieve you too 1702
much. . . ."

Lord Lovat made another visit to St. Germains in July, de-
clared himself a convert to Catholicism, and obtained an audi-
ence of Louis XIV through the Papal Nuncio Gualterio.
Upon his return to Scotland he showed the Duke of Queens-
berry, 1 the English Commissioner, a letter of which he was the
bearer from the Queen to the Duke of Atholl, assuring him :
" that when my concerns require the help of my friends, you
are one of the first I have in view." He had done his utmost
to persuade Mary Beatrice to sell some jewels to raise 20,000
crowns, and to keep the matter a secret from Lord Middleton,
while his letters to Lord Nottingham, commencing with his
first appearance at St. Germains in 1699, prove him to have
been the accredited spy of the English Government.

At the end of her first year of widowhood and regency, the
Queen's thoughts seem to have been much occupied with the
evidences of the sanctity of her husband. She writes, 4 October,
1 702, to the Superior at Chaillot : " As for the epitaph on the
heart of our holy King, I am not of opinion that it should be
proceeded with so soon, as it would not be permissible to expose
that dear heart to the public, nor to venerate it as a relic, as it
will be some day, if God will, and I think we must wait until
then. Monseigneur d'Autun seemed to me of the same
opinion, and the Cardinal, whom I saw for two hours yesterday
after his retreat, confirmed me absolutely thereupon, saying that
the time had not come. . . .

" I thank you for all you did for the holy King's anniversary,
all who were present found that everything was very well
executed, and with great order, which gives me pleasure, for if
any sensibility remains in me, it is only for what concerns the
memory of that dear King. . . ."

Among the unpleasant affairs alluded to by the Queen in her
letters to Chaillot during the past year, not the least were

1 James Douglas, second Duke of Queensberry, and the first Scotchman who joined
the Prince of Orange, called by the Jacobites the " Proto-Rebel."

365

QUEEN MARY OF MODE1STA

1702 occasioned by the conduct of her uncle, the Duke of Modena.
As early as December, 1701, Rizzini had in a cyphered despatch
expressed the Queen's consternation at the rumour that he was
in secret intelligence with Austria, and meditated allowing that
power to occupy Brescello, an important fortress in his states.
The Queen warns him repeatedly not to play into the hands of
the Emperor, and assures Louis XIV that "he is far too
prudent not to keep possession of his fortresses." Rinaldo's
letters are full of expressions of devotion to France, but early
in January, 1702, Marshal Villeroy, commander of the French
forces in Italy, sends word that the Austrians have occupied
Brescello : " Her Majesty was on the point of starting for
Versailles with the King her son, but has changed her mind,
feeling ashamed to appear anywhere. . . . She thought your
Serene Highness would have guarded Brescello as the apple of
your eye. ... A letter has arrived from Cardinal d'Estrees,
asserting that you had constantly assured him you would never
cede Brescello to the Austrians. . . ."

The French troops were ordered to occupy Modena and
Reggio, and the Duke and his family removed to Bologna.
Rizzini's letters throughout the year are full of the subject,
and when the ill-success of the French against Prince Eugene
had resulted in the capture of Marshal Villeroy himself,
Rizzini was inspired to suggest to Duke Rinaldo to make his
peace with Louis XIV by obtaining the Marshal's release
through the intercession of his sister-in-law, the Archduchess
Joseph, Queen of the Romans. He writes August 28th :
"... The affection of the Queen of the Romans for her
Most Serene sister will excite her to move heaven and earth in
this urgent necessity. ..."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" 7 September 1702.

"... Words fail me to express my distress at the deplorable
condition to which you and all the family so dear to me are reduced
. . . you will do me the justice to believe that there is nothing I
would not do to deliver you . . . but for your misfortune and

366

THE DUKE OF MODENA

for mine, it is not in my power, having spoken several times for you 1702
to the King without receiving any favourable answer, but on the
contrary, much to my mortification, to hear him enlarge upon the
way in which you had broken faith with him in so ugly a fashion,
(such were his words). Madame de Maintenon, when I opened my
heart to her, after many expressions of compassion and assurances of
afFection, advised me, as a friend, not to speak to the King again on
the subject ; that at present there was no remedy, and that I might
do harm to myself without any possible good to you by continuing to
importune the King . . . but that you might appeal to the Pope for
his good offices with him, as I told her you had done with the King
of Spain. . . . All the credit you assume me to have with the King
would not suffice to hinder the ruin of a person who will take no
single step to avoid it, as you know very well that you have given
nothing but words here, and that all your acts have been on the other
side. ... All that has happened has appeared inevitable to me since
you put Brescello into the hands of the Germans. You thus bound
your own hands, and rendered those of your friends incapable of
serving you. . . ."

The news of Villeroy's release without ransom reached Louis
XIV at Fontainebleau in October. St. Simon describes the
King's pleasure, and at the further privilege accorded to the
Marshal of not being conducted on his return to the French
quarters by the troops of the victorious Prince Eugene.

The Queen expresses her pleasure at the success of the
negotiations, and suggests to her uncle that he should declare
himself for France and Spain, and Rizzini writes, 10 January,
1703:

"... If there has been moderation, it must certainly all be
attributed to respect for the Queen, the source of any good which
may result to Your Serene Highness and your Ducal house ; to
whom also may be attributed the grace of my toleration here, (added
to the conduct I have always held, which has been displeasing to no
one) . . ."

About the same time the Queen wrote to Nuncio
Gualterio :

,, r. /-i T-. / Brit. MUS.

" ST GERMAINS, Friday morning. Add.MSS.

<c . . . I have this moment received your letter, full of prudent ^' I93 g
reflections on our Scotch affairs, which can terminate in no other f 62

367

QUEEN MARY OF MODEtf A

1703 way than the one you propose. ... I have resolved to send you
to-morrow, not only the Lord [Lovat] who has come from Scotland,
but also the Duke of Perth, who speaks better French, and knows
not only the Highlands, but the Lowlands and the strongholds of
Scotland, and who may be of great use in forming a plan, although I
greatly fear that without troops from here, it will be found a very
hard task to make a beginning. ... I hope in God, his Vicar will
not fail us, but I think an express should be sent to him ; and that a
sum of no less than 100,000 scudi should be insisted on ; I confide
this and all the rest to your friendship, and I augur well of our affairs,
seeing them in the hands of no less prudent and zealous a person than
yourself. . . ."

"22 January^ 1703.

" . . . I do not know in what state our Scotch affairs are at
present, but I feel myself urged to write to you on the subject, as
since I have heard they no longer wish to send a Frenchman, and
think of sending the money at once, I greatly fear the King
[Louis XIV] may not receive so good an account of the business,
nor so great an advantage as could be wished, and which might be
expected, if a little more precaution were taken ; for this reason I beg
you to manage it so that no final resolution be taken until I have
spoken to you, or to M. de Torcy, whom I shall see at the end of
the week ; I also beg you that no Scotchman and no Frenchman,
except M. de Torcy, may know that I have written to you on this
subject. . . ."

Rizzini describes de Torcy as the kindest and most service-
able of all the French Ministers to the Queen of England.

The Queen's anxiety proceeded from the fear that Louis
XIV., in spite of the private treaty of the preceding year,
might not be disposed to send a French force into Scotland.
She turns to her friends at Chaillot for the help of their prayers
and as a refuge from her perplexities :

" ST GERMAINS, 7 February 1 703

". . . Pray to God for me, dear Mother, that He may teach me
how to seek Him, that at last I may deserve to find him. Our holy
King taught me, but I have no strength to follow his example. . . .
I cannot forbear to tell you that Abbe Albani, the Pope's nephew,
who was to have made the King's funeral oration in the Papal
chapel, was so overcome that he could not pronounce it, and it

was postponed to another time in the hope of his being able to 1703
do so.

Madame de Maintenon spent two hours with me yesterday. I
shall try to lift my heart, which in truth is very low, and much
oppressed j pray to that dear heart, which you possess, for the needs
of mine, which are extreme ... I always loved Chaillot, but never
so much as now. . . ."

One of the Queen's most trusted friends, Donna Vittoria
Montecuccoli Davia, Countess of Almond, whose husband had
joined her at St. Germains, in order that she might remain in
the Queen's service (and whom James II had created Earl of
Almond) now fell seriously ill, to the alarm of her royal
mistress :

" Poor Madame Almond, alas ! " she writes to a nun at Chaillot,
"she is so far from getting better, that she has thought herself dying
two or three times since the day before yesterday. ... I wept her
for dead yesterday, and yet I will not despair, for while there is life
there is hope, but what say you, dear mother, to the great resolution
of her son, who left last Saturday for la Trappe to become a monk,
and end his days there ; he said nothing to me about it until the day
before his departure, and he spoke of it with a piety, a joy and a
firmness of purpose which touched and edified me. His mother
takes it as a good Christian, but it is impossible one's lower self
should not suffer at such a farewell, and for ever. He has fought
against his vocation for seven years, and would have gone two years
ago, had it not been for his mother's illness."

Donna Vittoria's illness ended fatally, and the Queen writes
in answer to the condolences of one of her friends at Chaillot:

" You know better than any one the reasons I have for regretting
her, and you give so true a description of the loss to me, that there is
nothing to add to it ; nevertheless I must tell you that my heart is so
full of sadness and desolation since my great loss, that all others seem
less grave than they would have been at any other time. ... I have
been interrupted so often while writing, that I do not know what
I am saying. . . . The King is coming to-day, and perhaps Madame
de Maintenon to-morrow."

369 B B

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1703 St. Simon, in noticing Donna Vittoria's death and the Queen's
affection and great confidence in her, calls her : "A tall, well-
made woman, with a great deal of wit, much appreciated at our
Court."

The Queen had not much time to weep for the loss of her
friend ; important briefs had arrived from Rome, and she
writes to Nuncio Gualterio, March 21 :

Brit. Mus. "... I find the Pope's briefs very strong, and I pray God to

Add.MSS. i ns pi r e the King and the Cardinals to conform to the sentiments and
Art. 46, to the zeal of His Holiness. ... I wrote at once to Madame de
Maintenon, and I received her answer last night at bed time in
these terms : c The King will write to the Pope as you desire ; M.. de
Torcy will give you an account of it' I sent Mylord Middleton
to Versailles to speak to M. de Torcy, and to know when the King
is sending his messenger, so that I may do myself the honour of
writing to the Pope also ; I am sure you will do so with all the
force and affection you always display in what concerns me ; I
should think I did you injustice even to remind you of it. . . .

M. R.

I send you an abridgment of the life of our holy King, which is
only just finished. . . ." x

Rizzini, in sending word to the Duke of Modena that the
Queen has given him three copies of James II's Life, by his
confessor, Father Sanders, to be sent at the first opportunity to
Modena for himself, for the Duchess, his wife, and for the
Duchess of Brunswick, says : " It contains admirable things
regarding the spirit of penance, of humility, and of mortification
of that resigned and pious King."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO NUNCIO GUALTERIO.

" ST GERMAINS, 23 April 1703.

lbltl - "... I send you my letter for the Pope, and one from the King,

my son, as I thought it his duty to help me to thank his Holiness for
the great grace he has shown us, and above all the way in which it

Stuart ! The Queen wrote to Cardinal Delfine : " . . . The miracles, by which it pleases

Papers, God to honour his tomb, multiply daily ... As his patience and resignation helped

Windsor me to SU p por t our common afflictions, so now I hope his intercession will aid me to the

Castle end. . .

370

INSTRUCTIONS TO LORD LOT AT

has been done. ... I have written nothing yet to the Duke of 1703
Hamilton ; Mylord Middleton is to see M. de Torcy to-day, and on
Thursday I shall see the King, after which I will write ; the man to
whom I was to have spoken on Friday last, and who comes from
Scotland, has brought me tolerably good news ; they are too long for
a letter. I shall merely say that he is sure we shall have a majority
of votes in the Parliament. . . . He says that Hanover only sent
,5,000, and that he will do nothing with that. ... In two days
I shall send a man to the Duke of Hamilton, and to the Bishops . . .
which I hope will serve to re-assure and encourage them, the Duke
of Hamilton himself asked me to send him. . . ."

Neither the Queen's messengers nor the subsidies of the Pope,
supported by the promises of France, could give cohesion to
diversities of interests, tainted with disunion and suspicion, nor
supply genius to incompetency. Jacobitism seemed to be spread
all over the land, in Scotland and Ireland especially, in innu-
merable little rills all running into the ground for want of a
master-hand to guide them into a stream which would have
carried all before it. Mary Beatrice writes in one of her
letters : " There are very many well-disposed people, but they
want a head." Such a head had appeared for one brilliant
moment in the person of Dundee, whose irreparable loss to the
Stuart cause was briefly epitomised in William Ill's curt :
*' There is no need, Dundee is dead," in answer to his
Ministers' advice to send reinforcements into Scotland.

The outcome of many negotiations was a paper of instruc-
tions to Lord Lovat, signed May 5 :

" You are with all convenient speed to return to your own country, Nairne
and to show this paper only to such of the Hyghlanders as knew of g^dfJian
your coming hither, and had sent to us by you, and such others of Library
them as you hope to bring to our interest. . .

You are to assure them of ye great sence we have of ye past proofs
of their affection. . . You are to let them know that the King of
France hath promised us that whenever we shall be put in possession
of our kingdom of Scotland by the faithful endeavours of our friends
in that our ancient kingdom, he will then restore the Scotch nation to
all the privileges they formerly enjoyed in France. . .

J. R."

371 B B 2

1703 Rizzini's next letter to the Duke of Modena tells of the
safe arrival of an envoy of his, a Carmelite monk,

" who was received with extreme kindness by the Queen, but when
he asked for the good offices of Her Majesty for a cause he has in
the Parliament here, he had great trouble to obtain them, the Queen
having made it a law never to ask for good justice from judges, it
seeming to her an oftence to appear to doubt of their own dispositions
to administer it without being solicited thereto . . ."

Twenty months had now elapsed since the death of King
James, and for political reasons it was fitting that the Queen
and her son should re-appear at an entertainment at the French
Court.

"Thursday in last week," continues Rizzini in the above letter,
" the Queen and the King, her son, went to Marly for the first time
since King James's death, and were entertained at supper by the Most
Christian King, who with his ingenious magnificent disposition to
provide novel amusements . . . had arranged a game of Loto with
rich prizes, such as rare Indian stuffs, gold boxes, girdles, gloves,
scarves, ... so that all the ladies of Her Majesty's Court and those
of the Duchess of Burgundy should win them . . . the Queen and
the King her son getting the portion which chance, or ingenuity,
allotted to them."

" 1 1 May 1 703.

"... There is Jubilee at the French Court at the happy junction
ot Marshal Villars with Bavaria, which leads the Queen to hope that
the calamities in Italy and those of Your Serene Highness in
particular may come to an end sooner than was expected. . .

The Queen imagines that the Court of Vienna, embarrassed by the
union of such a powerful force with that of the Elector of Bavaria,
may find itself, in order to meet them, obliged to withdraw its troops
from Italy, rather than send any fresh ones there. In that case Her
Majesty has thought of all that can influence the re- integration of
Your Serene Highness into your states, to be ready to make good use
of it at the proper time and place. . . '

Duke Rinaldo sends pitiful appeals to his niece, minutes of
which are in the Archives of Modena. He tells her of the
steps he has taken with the Duke of Vendome, commander of

372

DISTRESS OF DUKE RINALDO

the French forces in Italy, and supplicates the Queen to con- 1703
tinue the effects of her powerful protection on which " all my
hopes are founded, for unless I speedily obtain relief, matters
have taken such a turn, that I cannot but fear the utter desola-
tion of the country and of our subjects, and the consequent
total ruin of your honoured house." Again : " The only
comfort I have in my present affliction lies in your Majesty's
letters ... I confess that what pierces my heart is to find the
heart of a hero who has always had true glory for his object,
shut against me alone, and that he should lower himself by
oppressing and annihilating a feeble creature such as I am. . . .
At the beginning of June, a heavy quartering of troops was
intimated to me, and the providing of so great a quantity of
grain and forage, that it would be impossible for me to find it,
even if I were to take my subjects' entire subsistence. . . ."

The Queen answers, through Rizzini, with words of ten-
derest compassion, and will appeal to Madame de Maintenon,
" not considering it opportune to address herself directly to the
King . . . the afore-named lady may have an opportunity (if
she will undertake the office) of remonstrating against the
strange conduct of the Commanders who are in Your Serene
Highness's states. (In cypher.) I know that M. de Torcy
was lately at St. Germains, and that with his usual genial
benevolence he approved of the Queen's speaking to that lady,
holding it for most certain that it is not His Majesty's wish
that the inhabitants of any place should be oppressed, and far
less in those countries where they meet with accommodation and
good entertainment. His sole object is to maintain the just
rights of the Catholic King, his grandson, and to defend their
common cause."

Not content with appealing to Madame de Maintenon, Mary
Beatrice writes to some great person at the French Court, whom
she calls " Cousin " in favour of her native country :

Brit. Mus.
" Having heard that you have been good enough to speak to Add MSS.

M. de Chamillard l on behalf of Mr. Murray,! must not omit to give * 2 93.

Art. z o ,
Minister of War. .51

373

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1703 you my thanks, as that gentleman is a faithful subject of my son, as
his whole family has ever been ... I am also greatly obliged to you
for having given M. de Chamillard the letter of Marquis Rangoni,
Governor of Modena, and of his associates ; it is only natural for me
to interest myself in my countrymen, and I own to you that I
pity them, seeing them weighed down with contributions, and what
is even worse, with the continual gratifications they are forced to give
the officers, and which are quite beyond their means ; but not
venturing to intercede for them myself, it is a sensible pleasure to me
that you should undertake to do so, feeling persuaded that M. de
Chamillard, who is naturally just and good, when he is informed of
their condition, will give them some relief; but whatever the result
may be, I shall have the same obligation to you, to add to innumerable
others. . .

Your affection. Cousin.

M. R."

Duke Rinaldo had placed himself in so difficult a position,
that it was no easy task for the Queen to help him. The fort-
ress of Brescello was taken from the Austrians by the French
and Spanish troops, and the assailants discovered several French
cannons in the citadel. The news caused great irritation in
Paris, and Rizzini reports his own efforts to explain matters in
defence of his patron. " I suggested that in the time of Duke
Francis I of glorious memory, when he commanded the French
armies in the States of Milan, he (as is probable) had guns cast
with the three lilies, which are undoubtedly the arms of France,
but were conceded by Charles VI to the Dukes of Ferrara, and
the name Francis I is not Francis of France, but of Modena,
the august father of Your Serene Highness, who died in the
active service of the present most glorious King." Rizzini's
ingenious explanation does not seem to have met with success ;
his next letter, August 10, 1703, says :

" On Tuesday the Queen went to Marly, but with bitter regret
I have to state that the words died on her lips, on finding that no
opportunity was afforded her of entering upon the subject of Your
Serene Highness's affairs. The moment the cession of Brescello to
the Austrians was known here, its destruction was determined on ...
The Queen knew that the orders had already been sent, added to

374

THE QUEEN'S HEALTH

which certain reflections made on the large number or guns found 1703
in the place, and some suggestions of the malevolently inclined,
deprived her of the courage to broach the subject.

The public and private opinion is that it was necessary to give
Europe, and the Italian princes in particular, an example to make
them cautious in their behaviour towards great monarchs in future. If
the reports of the vulgar are to be believed, resentment will not rest
satisfied with the demolition of Brescello, and further demonstrations
of anger will follow, but it is to be hoped that the magnanimity of
the King, and respect to the Queen, together with her tearful invo-
cations of pity and clemency, may arrest the irritation caused by
contumacious and sinister interpretations."

The Queen allowed neither bodily nor mental suffering to
interfere with her work, and it is probable that she was never
more fully occupied than at this time of her life. Only to one
or two of the nuns at Chaillot did she admit that her malady
was increasing, that the first among the French surgeons,
Mareschal, had been called in, and that there was a question of
consulting a woman doctor. The Queen writes :

" ST GERMAINS, 2 September 1 703.

"... Beaulieu will see you to-morrow, and will tell you what Chaillot
Mareschal says. After seeing me he will go to Paris to see the Arc h' ives
woman you know of, and the person she is treating, and who is Nationales
recovering ; others will be given her to try her remedy upon.
Mareschal declares there is nothing urgent in my malady, nevertheless
I must admit I am not without apprehension, and I have great need
of prayers, for we must always begin and end with them ; I beg our
dear Mother and the Sisters to join with me, without explaining to
those who do not already know of it, what my need is."

The Queen then gives the number of Masses, and the
Psalms and prayers she wishes to have said, to end

" with an invocation of our holy King, in order that he may
obtain for me entire resignation to the will of God, such as he
had while on earth and a pious indifference as to the cure or
aggravation of my infirmity, that God may inspire the physicians
and surgeons into whose hands I have put myself, to do with me what
will be for His greater glory, and for the good of my soul ; to cure me
if I may better serve him, or be useful to my children, or to grant me

375

I 73 patience and courage to endure great suffering if it be His holy will.
It is two years to-day since the King fell ill ... I shall be with you
on the I4th ... to stay until the i8th or iQth. . . .

Madame de Maintenon was quite cured, but the fever laid hold or
her again two days ago ; we cried heartily together at St. Cyr over
the sad state in which I am, but she is not of opinion that I should
place myself in that woman's hands ; she says if I begin to listen
to those sort of people, I shall have quacks coming daily with fresh
remedies, and shall find myself in continual embarrassments and
incertitudes ; nevertheless she thought I might try her remedy, which
we are doing ; meanwhile I try to pacify myself, and to abandon
myself without reserve to the will of God. . . "

Nine days later we have the following letter from the Queen
to the Governors of Modena, appointed by Duke Rinaldo
before his departure to take refuge at Bologna :

Stuart "Messieurs Marquis Rangoni, Santi Giovenardi and Tamburini.

Windsor Your letter of July a8th has been handed to me by Abb Tamburini, 1
Castle who fully explained the object of his errand, and applied himself with

great zeal and capacity to the execution of the commission you had
entrusted to him. I wish with all my heart I could contribute to its
success, and you may rest assured that I shall employ all the good
offices I may ; as the affair is to be referred to the Generals and
Commandants of the two Crowns in Italy, I shall enclose a letter to
the Duke of Vendome, begging him to enter, as far as the service of
the king his master will allow, into all the just and equitable con-
siderations for the prevention of the complete ruin of my native
country, for which I have always preserved a sincere affection. . ."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO THE DUKE OF VENDOME.

"13 September 1703.

Kia. " . . . I could not refuse the recommendation asked of me for you

in favour of Modena, my native land, and I pray you with all the
greater confidence to treat it with all the consideration the king's
service may allow of, that I am convinced by experience of your
inclination to oblige me. You could not do so in a matter touching
me more nearly. . . ."

While the Duke of Modena was employing his niece's good
offices with France, he continued to play into the hands of

1 Sent on a special mission to Paris by the Governors of Modena.
376

DUPLICITY OF DUKE RINALDO

Austria, and Rizzini writes in alarm to tell him the news has 1703
arrived at Paris that he had been the first person, through his
representative at Vienna, to recognise the Archduke Charles as
King of Spain, in opposition to the Duke of Anjou, Philip V.
" The news has come from Fontainebleau [where the Queen and
her son were on a visit to Louis XIV] and is public in Paris,
where it makes a great noise, Your Serene Highness being
accused of acting in concert with the Duke of Savoy. I do not
know if anything has been said to the Queen." In the same
letter he describes the young King's success during this his
first visit to Fontainebleau, " tasting of all its magnificent
diversions as if they were nothing new. . . . The season, though
wet, does not interfere with the hunting, the only pleasure
the Queen takes part in, which does not prevent the rest
of the Court from enjoying the Comedies, Music and the
play."

The efforts the Queen made during this visit at Fontaine-
bleau, " putting extreme violence upon herself to overcome her
sadness," says a note on her illness by a Chaillot nun, the
press of business and the fresh proof of the Duke of Modena's
double-faced proceedings, brought on a severe attack of fever.
Rizzini's habitually humble attitude towards his patron gives
way for a moment, and he plainly tells him the Queen's illness
may be partly attributed to the news from Modena. She had
hesitated to believe the first reports of his recognition of the
Archduke Charles, " but seeing it printed two days later in the
Paris Gazette, she received so great a shock that she fainted,
fever supervened, and the rumour got about at Fontainebleau
and in Paris that she was dangerously ill. . . . Her Majesty
was able to return to St Germains on the 1 6th inst. . . .

" As to the news from Modena, she has said nothing to me
except that she would not credit them without positive con-
firmation. One of the Queen's oldest servants, Signer Riva,
is returning to Bologna ; he had a great share in saving the
present King and Her Majesty from the hands of the Usurper,
and has therefore every claim upon the kind consideration

377

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1703 of Your Serene Highness, to whom he bears letters from the

/"v "

Queen. . . .

Rizzini encloses the translation of a letter from Robert Stuart
MacAlpine, chief of the Stuart clan, in the name of the principal
Highlanders to the Queen. It is dated 13 October, 1703, and
expresses their delight at the confidence reposed in them by the
King and herself. They are all ready to expose their lives, and
have entrusted Lord Lovat to promise in their name all they
are prepared to undertake, as well as to ask for all that is
necessary for them. MacAlpine urges haste, as things have
never been so ripe as they are now, not only in the Highlands
but in the Lowlands. He concludes by begging Her Majesty
to have a care of his family who have suffered so greatly for her
cause, and he is ready to put 1,500 men into the field at her
command.

John Murray wrote in almost identical terms, bidding the
Queen to place full confidence in their messenger, Lord
Lovat.

The Queen escaped for a few days to Chaillot after her
return from Fontainebleau, and the note of the nun above
alluded to gives an account of the efforts made by her ladies
chaiiiot and the nuns to induce her to lead the life of an invalid. " One
morn i n g> being alone with her, I threw myself on my knees
before her bed, and with many tears besought her to take care of
herself, out of pity for the young King, and for the Princess ;
not only was she bound to devote herself to their education,
but to relieve them of the distress of seeing her ill, and taking
no care of herself. ... I retired weeping. Her Majesty gently
called me back ' Come, come, Sister, do not distress yourself.
... I promise you I will do what I can, let us see what can be
done.' She was weeping softly as she spoke, then gathering
firmness she continued : * God has tried me with many
afflictions, apparently it was not enough. He wishes me in

greater abjection still ; I never expected this kind of

> >
cross.

At the end of November Rizzini sends an account of the

378

FRANCE AND MODENA

Queen's illness, saying that Louis XIV has ordered his own 1703
physicians to take the greatest care of her.

"... At first Her Majesty concealed it, thinking it of no
moment. It began four years ago as a minute swelling in the breast,
and only by the express wish of the late King did she consent to con-
sult her physician and her surgeon, who augured badly of it, although
at that time she felt no pain. . . . On her return from Fontaine-
bleau fresh consultations were held, and as there is an excellent doctor
at the Court of Lorraine, who practised several years in Paris, and is
most experienced in this kind of malady, having cured several ladies,
I wrote to have his opinion.

He proposed two remedies, the one extirpation and eradication by
the knife, and the other reduction and absorption by general treat-
ment, saying he has practised both with good results. The Queen,
although with her usual intrepidity and resignation she speaks of her
illness almost with indifference, is ready to submit to any treatment ^
nevertheless on account of her extreme thinness, an operation has not
been judged advisable, and the other course has been adopted, con-
cerning which further instructions are expected from Lorraine. If I
had known the true state of the Queen regarding this tumour, I
should not have failed to inform Your Serene Highness . . . but I
knew none of the details until after her return from Fontainebleau,
when Her Majesty deigned to inform me of them herself, and gave
me directions to impart them to Your Serene Highness. . ,' r

" 21 -December 1703.

"... The Queen is pierced to the heart by the misfortunes ot
Your Serene Highness, which she fears will become still more pitiful
with the fresh cause of offence given by your Minister at Vienna ;
Her Majesty did not hesitate to speak to whomsoever she could, to
see if it was possible to insinuate the truth according to Your Serene
Highness's ingenuous statements . . . but having reflected that if the
Minister had taken such a step without instructions, he would imme-
diately have been disavowed and punished, nothing will avail against
the resentment here, not only on this subject, but upon every other
event connected with Your Serene Highness since the beginning of
the war.

The Queen's grief is inexpressible, and I could have wished to
be spared the necessity of acquainting you with her views, but Her
Majesty charged me expressly to attest . . . the impossibility in

379

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1703 which she finds herself to further Your Serene Highness's affairs at
present. . . .

I have had an answer from the doctor in Lorraine proposing his
remedy ; it will be consulted upon at St Germains by the most
intelligent and learned of the profession. I enclose a copy of the pre-
scription, that Your Serene Highness may have the satisfaction of
submitting it to the excellent and celebrated professors [at Bologna]."

A few days later Rizzini sends without comment an extract
from the Paris Gazette, stating that the Modenese envoy at
Vienna having been the only Minister to acknowledge the
Austrian Archduke as King of Spain, the Most Christian King,
in his irritation, has ordered the sequestration of the revenues,
and of all the most precious possessions of Duke Rinaldo,
as he had not thought fit publicly to disavow the act of
his Minister.

Before the end of the year the Duke of Berwick, who
had proved himself one of the most brilliant young officers
in the French service, attaining the rank of Lieutenant-General
at the age of twenty-two, determined to become a naturalised
French subject. He sought the Queen's good offices, who
took upon herself to support his application to Louis XIV,
and succeeded in obtaining the act of naturalisation, which
was to prove a not unimportant factor in her son's future
career.

380

CHAPTER XIII

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO NUNCIO GUALTERIO. 1704

"ST. GERMAINS, Jan. 1704.

"... I shall defer speaking of the first letter from Rome until I Brit - M -
see you, but as for the second, I beg you not to delay sending His 10,193,
Holiness the liveliest expressions of gratitude in my name for the Art. 6,
interest he takes in my poor health, of which I shall hold myself more ' "
straitly bound to take good care, now I know it is not indifferent to
one whom I so greatly desire to please and to obey. . . .

I do not know if you have already seen My lord Lovat, I am
anxious to see him to know if the news he brings me are as good and
as important as he declares them to be, but I must tell you as to
this, that I have seen several letters written by different persons
having no connection with each other, who speak not only dubiously
of that Lord, but to his positive disadvantage. I shall suspend
my judgment until the arrival of two men whom I expect, but
I think it necessary not to open myself too much to Mylord Lovat,
and I beg you to act with the same reserve, without however letting
him perceive that we have any diffidence concerning him. I beg you
also to persuade him to live privately a little while longer ; when I
see you I shall give you my reasons, not being able to say more
at present. ..."

SAME TO SAME.

I send you an extract of news brought us from England ibid.

respecting the Scotch conspiracy. I know nothing more, as I ^ rtg 8

have no letters from Scotland. . . . M. de Torcy has only seen the
first part of the extract as I received it this morning ; it was written
by a Protestant minister, who has never taken the oath to the
Government, to a lady of our Court, it appears naturally written,
and by an impartial person ; I only saw it by chance. In England
Mylord Lovat is called Frazer of Beaufort."

381

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1704 The enclosed letter declared Lovat to be talked of as the
author or inventor of a conspiracy which had resulted in the
arrest of several Scotch Jacobites.

Another letter, dated January 15, says :

"... Many persons think the conspiracy will come to nothing,
and will prove to be no more than a scheme of the Duke of Queens-
berry, Commissioner for Scotland^ and his party, to catch some of the
nationalists, the Earl of Atholl being chiefly aimed at j that Frazer
of Beaufort, who is as broken in reputation as he is in his fortunes,
was secretly employed by the Duke of Queensberry to negotiate
with some of the Highlanders, and then to go to the Courts of France
and of St. Germains ; that he had protection, passports and money
from those who employed him. ... I hear that Ferguson has made
it plainly known to the English Council that the whole project was
designed by the Duke of Queensberry, and he says he had it from
Frazer himself. . . . The Earl of Athole, who saw that the plot was
directed against himself and his friends, so pushed on the discovery
that the scheme is ruined. However that may be, Maclaine, the
Keiths, Lindsay and several others are still in prison. A little time
will throw fresh light on this affair."

In spite of the Queen's injunctions to secrecy, the adverse
reports against Lovat seem to have reached him immediately,
to judge from his letter to Lord Middleton, dated January 19,

1704.

Nairne
Papers,
Bodleian
Library,
vol. ii.,
No. 62

" I have been mighty ill this three days . . . and it truly ads
very much to my distemper that I hear the Queen, for whom I have
done so much, seems to give ear to ye frivolous suggestions of my
enemys. ... As to the King my master's affairs, I have this to say
for myself, that when I came last year to France with a commission
from the most of the Highlanders to ofer ther services .to the yong
King I was then in full and free possession of a good Estate, and its
known to most of the Kingdom that I lost it by my staying last year
in France. ... I hazard by my coming here now the intire extinc-
tion of my Family, ther being none to represent it but my Brother
and me who were both exposed to the dayly hazard of our lives. I
have likewise ruined my health by my constant toil in my master's
service in which I had so good success that it will be the fault
of those on this side if he is not soon restored. If all this meet not

382

RENAUDOT'S REPORTS

with some good reward I believe Loyalty is a Rock that none in 1704
Brittan who hears my story will hereafter split upon. . . .

And at the bottom I cannot understand where the balance lyes
betwixt the family of Atholl, a branch of the Morays which canot
bring fifty of its name to the King's service, and who were Traytors
from their origine to this moment, and the family of Lovat which has
lost more men in defending the present Royall Family of Stewart
than ther are Morays in the Kingdom of Scotland, and which I bless
God even at this tyme can bring 1,000 Frasers well-armed in
24 hours to the king's service. . . . '

He writes again 25 Jan. to Lord Middleton :

" I am dayly informed that the Queen has but a scurvy opinion ot
me, and that I rather did her Majesty bad than good service by
my journey. My Lord I find by that, that my Enemys have greater
power with the Queen than I can have, and to please them and ease
Her Majesty I am resolv'd to medle no more with any afair till
the King is of age. This is leaving the field with a fair victory to
my enemys. ..."

Renaudot sent report after report and drew up memorials
upon Scotch affairs, which give evidence of reluctance to believe
the accusations against Lovat and throw light upon the
ulterior views of French policy :

" . . These two Ministers [Middleton and Caryll] who possess Renaudot
the entire confidence of the Queen, have established the maxim that B ^ e ^3 t
the King her son can only be restored by treating with the English
. . . that the King [Louis XIV] not being in a condition to re-estab-
lish him by force of arms, because of the great enemies His Majesty
has on his hands, 1 all the risings which could be excited would
only serve to make a diversion useful to France, but prejudicial
to their king's interests . . . because they would irritate Queen
Anne whom they suppose to be well intentioned towards the King,
her brother, and would render her Ministers incapable of serving
him. . . . They conclude that the Queen should undertake
nothing during her Regency, contenting herself with entertaining
secret correspondences with the King's friends in the three kingdoms,
until a favourable moment for making use of them, when he is of an
age to take his own resolutions. The Queen's maternal tenderness,

The battle of Blenheim was won by Marlborough and Prince Eugene over the
French and Bavarians the following August.

383

1604 an d the memory of the risk she ran of being assassinated together
with her son during their flight from England, as the Prince of
Orange had ordered, serve to strengthen the reasons for undertaking
nothing. ..."

Renaudot is inclined to think that both Caryll and Middleton
have ends of their own to serve, though he puts their fidelity
above suspicion, and rates the capacity of the latter as far superior
to that of Lord Caryll. He then describes the Duke of Perth

" whose universally-acknowledged probity and fidelity had earned him
the confidence of the late King James and of the Queen ; he is now
a little estranged by the dominant credit of the English faction, who
have persuaded the Queen to enter into their views, but he is more
worthy of credit than any one else respecting the state of Scotland.
. . . The Duke asserts that he has a letter from Captain John
Murray, who was sent into Scotland with Mylord Lovat to enquire
if all that Lord said at his first journey to France was true ; that
John Murray not only confirms his statements but praises his fidelity
and services. . . .

Mylord Middleton opposes to these proofs, extracts from written
and printed Gazettes current in London, which try to cast suspicion
on mylord Lovat, and he alleges the testimony of a certain James
Murray, a Scotch protestant, whom he had sent into Scotland . . .
and who, far from inciting their King's friends to declare themselves,
omitted nothing to deter them from doing so. ... If the statements
of Mylord Middleton and his emissary are examined, they will be
found to contain manifest absurdities and contradictions. . . .

Nothing could be more opportune for His Majesty's [Louis XIV]
interests at the present conjuncture than to make the Scotch
malcontents, who are certainly very numerous, take up arms, and to
send them a moderate sum of money with some Irish officers, arms,
and supplies as soon as possible in two frigates from St Malo or
Dunkerque. ... If the Scotch prove themselves strong enough to
re-establish their legitimate King, the Catholics in Ireland will soon
rise and shake off the English yoke ; and with those two kingdoms,
that monarch could maintain himself against England, waiting
patiently for the death of his sister, Queen Anne, to make himself
recognised, spontaneously or by force, in England.

Such a restoration would be the surest method to procure a glorious
and lasting peace for His Majesty [Louis XIV] for if the young king
were king of Scotland and ally of France, as were his predecessors

384

THE INTERESTS OF FRANCE

before the union of England and Scotland, such an alliance would 1704
deprive England of the power to injure France. It would not be the
same thing if he were restored to the three kingdoms ; whatever
gratitude he might owe His Majesty, he would soon be drawn by
the English into interests opposed to those of France. If a rising in
Scotland does not result in re-establishing the rightful king, it will at
least serve as a very useful diversion during the coming campaign.
Such a diversion would compel the English to withdraw a great part
of their force from Flanders, and would put His Majesty in a position
to make peace next winter by the superiority of his arms, which is a
sufficient reason for the enterprise.

The King of England may gain greatly, and can lose nothing, as
the worst that could befall him would be to remain in his present
condition ; and the Scotch . . . would always be strong enough to
make a good capitulation by favour of their inaccessible Highlands,
which destroys the English policy of the Queen of England's two
Ministers, who oppose the scheme. But as it is to be feared they
might prevail with the Queen, who knows Scotch affairs only through
their reports, it would appear advisable to cause her Council to lose
the thread of this negotiation, as of an affair concerning the essential
interests of His Majesty [Louis XIV], since it is a question of render-
ing his enemies, by an important diversion, incapable of continuing
the present war."

In another memorial, dated Feb. 4th, Renaudot says he has
worked two years to discover the real state of affairs in Scotland,
considering a rising there a decisive method to force the
enemies of the King of France to a peace. He concludes that
the bulk of the nation, though divided into Episcopalians and
Presbyterians, desires a separation from England, and a King of
Scotland who would not be King of England, since the refusal
of Queen Anne to consent to the Act passed by the Scotch
Parliament to insure the independence and commerce of that
country, " an act passed almost unanimously, and celebrated
with public rejoicings throughout Scotland." He gives a good
account of Lord Lovat's fidelity and trustworthiness. 1

1 From authentic copies of Gualterio MSS. in the possession of Rev. Canon H. B.
Mackey, we find the Duke of Perth's firm belief in Lovat's good faith : " The Queen,"
he wrote Jan. 17, 1703, in a letter full of his praise, " did not intend to receive Mylord
Lovat ... as had been proposed, the reason of the change was her hesitation to accord
his demands. He asked for an earldom which she refused. . . . He also asks to be

385 C C

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1704 "The Ministry of St Germains are resolutely opposed to the enter-

prise, saying it would be good for France, and bad for them . . . they
say their King can only be restored by their negotiations with England,
and try to make it appear that Queen Anne is well-disposed to him,
that it would spoil all to irritate her and the whole English nation by
a rising in Scotland, which would only serve to destroy the King's
friends there. Even were he restored, they do not appear to value
that crown sufficiently to make them prefer the sojourn in Edinburgh
to that of St Germains. . . .

To judge of the real intentions of Queen Anne, it is only needful
to examine her conduct. She allowed the English Parliament to pass
the Act making it high treason to propose any other prince than that
of Hanover as her successor. . . . She has just re-affirmed, by her
answer to the last address of the House of Commons, her resolution
to assure the succession of the crown for ever in the Protestant line.
She is working by means of her agents in Scotland to procure the
recognition of Hanover there . . . She is the bitterest of all the
enemies of France. It may therefor be assumed that the secret
negotiations between her Ministers and those of St Germains are but
vain amusements to turn them from the enterprises which might be
directed against her for the restoration of the King, her brother,
among which there is none more certain, easier or more speedy, than
to profit by the general disposition of the whole of Scotland to take
up arms. It is so public that none doubt of it, except the Ministers
at St Germains. . . .

It is necessary to persuade the Queen of England to allow herself
to be guided by His Majesty, to whom in conjunction with her, the
late King of England confided the guardianship of the King her son,
and to leave to His Majesty the care of distinguishing good advice
from the bad so often given to her, either upon untrustworthy
information, or through the passion and cabals which throw her into
painful uncertainties, and expose all her secrets to discovery. ... It
would be very useful to profit by the great capacity and good inten-
tions of the Nuncio Gualterio, who has worked hard in this business
out of zeal for religion and for His Majesty's service, to engage the
Pope to enter therein, and to write to the Queen of England that she
must in conscience confide the conduct of matters regarding her son's
restoration to the profound wisdom and the proved generosity of His
Majesty."

made Brigadier. The Queen cannot consent to grant him this favour. ... I am
distressed at her manner of proceeding. ... It depends upon Your Excellency to soften
the mind of the Queen. . . ."

3 86

THE QUEEN'S ANSWER

Mary Beatrice's answer to these recommendations took the 1704
form of a paper addressed by her to Louis XIV, the latter part
of which shows that the ulterior designs of the French Court
were not unknown to her. After recounting the accusations
made against Lord Lovat by persons of all religions and all
parties, that he was the tool of the Duke of Queensberry, it
continues :

"This is confirmed by the testimony of Sir James Murray, a Scotch
gentleman of good birth and great probity who was employed by the
Earl of Arran, and whose declaration is in the hands of the Marquis
de Torcy. It is in great measure further confirmed by the admissions
of Mylord Lovat himself, avowing his correspondence with the enemies
of the King his master. If (after this) Mylord Lovat is permitted to
return to Scotland, it is much to be feared it would be to put him in
a position to ruin all the friends of the British King, which would be
imputed to the Queen of England, as it would never be believed in
England or Scotland, that such a man could be credited and employed
by the Court of France on his simple word without the approbation
of the Queen.

Even supposing Lord Lovat's intentions to be good, it is certain he
is incapable of rendering any service in Scotland, for he has neither
credit nor power in that country, where he has been proscribed for
odious crimes . . . where he no longer owns an inch of land, and
where it is assured that no more than forty or fifty of his clan would
follow him. 1 As for the title he assumes here of Lord Lovat, with-
out entering into the question whether it belongs to him or not, it is
certain that no one gives it him in England or Scotland, and that in
all public and private letters from those countries he is described as
Mr or Captain Simon Frazer of Beaufort, he having formerly been
a lieutenant or captain in the service of the Prince of Orange in
Scotland.

Finally, the Queen of England appeals to the Most Christian King
to say whether he has not found her always ready to enter into the
measures proposed for the re-establishment of the King, her son, and
for the interests of France, which she has always regarded as insepar-
able from those of His British Majesty. There is therefore no ground
for supposing that Her Majesty would oppose the designs of Lord
Lovat, if she were not convinced that his project would tend rather to

That this was an under estimation of Lovat's power was disastrously proved in
1715.

387 C C 2

1704 ru i n everything than to procure any advantage to His Most Christian
Majesty, or to the King, her son."

The paper is endorsed : " Given by the Queen to the King
of France, 29 February, 1704."

Almost simultaneously with this strong indictment, which

was supported by numerous letters addressed to Renaudot by

the Queen's Ministers, the Marquis de Torcy, to his greater

bewilderment, received from the Marquis of Drummond a

Renaudot letter of " inexpressible joy " at the news communicated " by

Bib^Nat. tne Lord Lovat of the intention of His Most Christian

Majesty to assist the King my master in his just pretension to

the crown of his ancestors . . . Lord Lovat can fully inform

you of the state of affairs in this country . . .

Lord Drummond enclosed the following list of the clans
ready to take up arms, which, if Lovat communicated it, with
the rest of his full information on Scotch affairs, to Queen Anne's
Ministers, must have been read by them with considerable
interest : " Mackenzies 2,000 ; McLeans 1,200 ; Macdonalds
2,000 ; Camerons 800 ; Farquharsons 500 ; Stewarts of the
North 600 ; Frasers 1,000 ; Chisholms 300 ; Rosses 500 ;
Sutherlands 500; Grants 500 ; total 12,000. Earl Marishal,
My lord Duff, Sir Alexander Innes &c. have promised 1,000
horse."

The Duke of Berwick, who was commanding the French
forces in Spain, wrote to the Queen from Alcantara, 3 April
1 74> gi ym g ^ er a fresh proof " of the knavery of Lord Lovat "

papers, which he considers of such moment that he advises her to have

Bodleian . , _

Library, it translated at once into French and given to de Torcy, as she
NO. 52 ma y count upon it that the King's affairs are ruined if Lovat is
not arrested. This new witness is an Irish priest named Farrell,
who has escaped on a Dutch vessel to Lisbon from England,
where he had spent eight months in prison. The Duke writes
that he knows Farrell to be an honest and sensible man, who
has often been employed by the King's friends in England.
His message is from Lord Granard in the name of the Duke
of Hamilton and his party, to warn Berwick that Fraser, other-

388

ARREST OF LOVAT

wise Lord Lovat, is a spy of the Duke of Queensberry's, and 1704
that they desire he may be arrested if he be still in France.
The paper concludes with an account of the betrayal by Eraser
of an honest apothecary in London, named Clarke, who has
been thrown into Newgate, and probably executed.

The Queen sent the Duke of Berwick's information to the
Nuncio with the following letter :

" ST GERMAINS, April 1 704.

" I think it only due to my friendship for you, to continue to render Brit. Mus.
c J rr <, Add. MSS.

you an exact account or our poor and unhappy attairs ; here are the 20,293

last news I have received since I saw you, and which have made a Art. 7,
great round, as you will see. ... I have sent another copy to M. de '
Torcy, with no other comment than to ask him to preserve the
greatest secrecy concerning the correspondence between the Earl of
Arran and myself, as Mylord Lovat has never known of it from me,
whatever he may have guessed.

The Lord Granard referred to is an Irish nobleman who has always
been attached to our interests, and who bears the character of an
honest man. You will see what the Duke of Berwick thinks of
Mylord Lovat, and then, after a few moments' reflection, you will
concert thereon with M. de Torcy as God may inspire you both. I
am persuaded that in a short time so much light will be thrown on
this affair, that you will all be agreed upon it, and meanwhile it is a
sensible trouble to me that I cannot enter into your sentiments, nor
make you enter into mine on this one subject, for it has never hap-
pened to us before ; but I console myself with the thought that our
friendship is too solidly founded for so feeble an instrument as Mylord
Lovat ever to be able to make the smallest breach in it. . ."

Lovat was arrested, and after spending, according to his
Memoirs, " thirty-two days in a dark and unwholesome
dungeon," was confined for three years in the Castle of
Angouleme, and for other seven had his liberty restricted
to the town of Saumur.

RIZZINI TO DUKE OF MODENA.

" 22 May 1704.

"... When all appeared to be lost, the good offices of the
Nuncio, and the zealous management (/ zelanti maneggi] of the
Queen succeeding in modifying the intentions of the Most Christian

3 8 9

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1704 King towards Modena, and this success raises hopes of a prompt
accommodation."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO NUNCIO GUALTERIO.

Brit. Mus. "... I send a thousand thanks for all you have done with M.

Add.MSS. j e Chamillard in favour of the Duke of Modena, my uncle, who

Art. 48, without you would be doubly ruined. The poor man presses me by

f - 8 3 every post, and I think I cannot do better than place his letters in

your hands . . . and to beg you to have the patience to read them,

and to forgive all the trouble, which with much regret I have caused

you lately on this particular."

By Rizzini's letters of the two preceding months we see how
strong had been the displeasure of the French Court, Louis
XIV replying to Gualterio's solicitations that he would treat
the Emperor's friends as that monarch had treated the friends
of France, and we find the frank and probably unpalatable
advice of the Queen : " To soften the asperity here, it will be
necessary to consign the fortress of Mont' Alfonso to the
French and to do it spontaneously. It will also be necessary
before all things, publicly to disavow the conduct of the
Modenese envoy at Vienna."

We may here place an undated letter of the Queen to Soeur
Deposee, which gives us a glimpse of her inner self at the
period of unceasing toil, anxiety, perplexity and physical
suffering which composed her regency :

Chaillot "... I believe that a heart full of divine love is at peace and con-

Archives tent m an y kind of state, wherein it cannot but be well ; it is the one
Nationales thing I beg of you to ask for me ... it is the one thing necessary,
having which all that the world calls misfortunes and disgrace cannot
cause unhappiness ; I believe all this as firmly as if I experienced it,
though in truth I have never felt anything approaching it, for instead
of doing all for love, I do all by force. . . .'*

It is interesting to see how Mary Beatrice succeeded in
" doing all by force " in the eyes of Gabriel de la Roquette,
Bishop of Autun, who, writing to the Superior at Chaillot
on the occasion of the First Communion of Princess Louise
Marie, says of the Queen of England :

Wid. " What a Queen, what a work of grace as well as of nature,

390

LOUISE DE LA VALLIERE

what a prodigy of virtue, what an example of gaiety, what a 1704
treasure to all who have the privilege of seeing her, of rejoicing in
her conversation ; the more I think of her greatness of soul, of her
constancy, her courage, her perseverance, and disdain of worldly
things, the more do I recognise my inability to find fit terms to
express my thoughts, and am reduced to silent admiration."

The quality which the Bishop lauded as " her gaiety "
remained with the Queen to the last, a sense of humour,
without which the finest character lacks something of human
lovableness, and which, despite the hardest rubs of adverse
fortune, made her able to enjoy a joke, to laugh heartily as
she so often had cause to weep bitterly. " Her Majesty
laughed to tears," we read sometimes in the Chaillot Journal,
at some comic incident, some humorous contretemps in the ever
increasing austerity of her daily life.

The next letter shows the Queen in intercourse with an
illustrious penitent, Louise de la Valliere, " Sister Louise of
Mercy." Chaillot had received her on her second flight from
Court, and a tree in the garden was long pointed out under which
Lauzun, sent by her royal lover with an armed force to bring
her back to Versailles, found her kneeling before her crucifix.
She had been a nun of the severe Carmelite order in the Rue
St. Jacques some years before Mary Beatrice arrived in France,
and the friendship between the exiled Queen and the august
penitent must have been a touching one.

" ST GERMAINS, 20 September 1 704.

" At last I send you, dear Mother, the enclosed note for Sister
Louise of Mercy. . . I am ashamed to have deferred it so long, but
if you knew to what an extent I have been overwhelmed and tor-
mented since I left you, you would pity me. I have just finished
a business which has troubled me greatly [probably Lord Lovat's] ;
God grant it is really at an end, but as soon as one thing is done with,
another still more difficult and disagreeable comes upon me. Pray to
God to give me the virtues of patience and prudence to a degree
proportionate to the extreme need I have of them."

The Princess Louise Marie was in her fourteenth year when,
8 January 1705, she made her first appearance at a ball at

391

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1704 Marly, and " danced very well," remarks Dangeau, who adds
that Louis XIV made her take precedence of the Duchess of
Burgundy, daughter-in-law of the Dauphin, and that " he stood
while the King of England danced, an honour he would scarcely
have rendered to a happy King." And Rizzini reports to the
Duke of Modena that the Princess had been the leader of the
ball with the young Duke of Berry ; " winning the greatest
applause, which has given rise to the report that there is a pro-
ject of marriage between them."

James and his sister danced the first minuet at another ball
at Marly in February, and the Queen, according to St. Simon,
had to insist that Louis XIV should not remain standing each
time her son danced. Although Mary Beatrice was rapidly
despoiling herself of all the jewels it was in her power to sell,
to feed her poor pensioners, the few heirlooms, including the
wonderful pearls which her mother had left her, gave her an
adornment worthy of her rank and second to that of none of
the Princesses of the Court of Versailles, while the fresh beauty
of the young English Princess was admired of all. Writing a
few months later to Father Meredith, a priest at the English
Seminary in Rome, Father Sanders, the late King's confessor,
Rawiinson says i " The King is very well, and grows tall and strong.
No! The Queen, also, is much better than she was, and it is hoped
Bodleian t h at ^ Q \ um p m her breast is not so dangerous as was once
thought. The Princess is one of the most complete young
ladies of her age, very witty and handsome, and of a most ex-
cellent humour, which gains her the hearts of all who know her."
In obedience to a wish of her husband, expressed shortly
before his death, the Queen recalled Lord Melfort to St.
Germains in the month of March, and desired him to assume
the title of Duke, conferred upon him by James II. " King
James," writes St. Simon, " when dying, believed the suspicions
against him were unfounded, and, in reparation, made him a
Duke. Everybody at St. Germains and Versailles was not so
fully persuaded of it as was that Prince."

St. Simon's " everybody " included the Queen, who seems

392

DEATH OF LEOPOLD II

never to have employed Melfort in any capacity during the 1705
remainder of his life, which he spent in obscurity, dying in the
summer of 1714.

The secret negotiations with Queen Anne's Cabinet were
meanwhile being actively carried on ; Godolphin, Mary
Beatrice's faithful but timid friend, was Lord Treasurer, and
under the name of Gilburn or Goulston he frequently appears
in the correspondence of the Queen's Ministers, Middleton and
Gary 11, Marlborough doing so even more frequently under that
of Armsworth. They had promised the Queen that the Bill
for the Protestant succession would be thrown out in the Scotch
Parliament, and Caryll writing on the subject, June 3Oth, 1705,
says : " I must also own the receipt of yours of the 3rd May,
wherein you relate what passed between you and Mr. Goulston,
which merchant is not so prodigal of his words as his partner
Armsworth, and therefore they are somewhat more to be relied
on unless they both join to deceive which may be hoped
from their agreeing in the same story."

The Emperor Leopold died May 5, 1705 ; he had been,
among Catholic rulers, the only one held by James II as an
open enemy, and on his death-bed he had coupled Leopold's
name with that of William of Orange in a special act of pardon
for the wrongs they had done him. The Court of St. Germains
had reason to hope that a new departure in their regard might
take place in the politics of Austria at the accession of the
Emperor Joseph I, brother-in-law of Duke Rinaldo's wife, but
the continuation of the disastrous war of the Spanish succession
prevented the realisation of that hope, and Joseph's forces,
under the genius of Eugene, der edler Ritter, with the support
of England, Holland, and Prussia, maintained the best tradi-
tions of their country, and were to succeed a few months later
in driving the French out of Italy.

The summer seems to have passed gaily for Mary Beatrice's
children, the young Duchess of Burgundy was devoted to the
Queen, and great friends with the Princess Louise Marie.
Dangeau makes special mention of a gay water-party at Trianon

393

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1705 in June, where they all greatly diverted themselves. When
the time approached, however, for the annual visit to Fontaine-
bleau, the Prince went alone, his mother being ill. She wished
to go for the sake of her daughter, says Dangeau, but the
Princess dissuaded her " le plus gentilment du monde."

It was probably during this illness that the Queen wrote to
Maria Constance Gobert, Superior at Chaillot : "Patientia vobis
necessariat est. Yes, verily, my dear mother, it is very necessary
to have patience. ... I confess I am mortified at not being
able to go to our dear Chaillot. ... I must give up that
hope. ... My illness has been trifling and I believe in two
or three days I shall be hors d" affaire if it please God ; if not, I
trust He will grant me good patience. ... A thousand
remembrances . . . above all to C. Ang. . . ." *

For nearly two years Rizzini's age and infirmities had forced
him to employ an amanuensis, the Abbe Bunat, to write the
despatches which for thirty years had so faithfully and
graphically pictured for the Court of Modena, and for us, the
multitudinous events of which he was the interested observer.
His love for Mary Beatrice, his zeal for her service and
admiration for her virtues increased as he watched the develop-
ment of her character, and met with affectionate gracious
response from her, expressing itself in acts of kindness which
he often gratefully records. His later letters to his master
frequently complained of the increasing burden or years,
making it difficult for him to undertake the winter journeys to
St. Germains and Versailles, necessitating a departure from
Paris at 2 a.m. His last report bears date January 15, 1706,
and tells of a visit of the Queen and her children to Marly for
the Twelfth Night festivities, when " the young King and the
Princess danced to the admiration of the whole Court . . . His
Majesty was to go to Meudon yesterday to sup with the Dauphin,
after having visited the Opera at Paris, for the first time, in

1 Miss Strickland gives this letter as having been written by the Queen on her death-
bed, but it is endorsed: "Letter to Maria Constance Gobert. Superior 1705-1706."
She died in October, 1706.

394

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

company with that most amiable prince." A few days later, 1706
Bunat sends the news of his death, adding : " Nor did he
forget to charge the writer to commend him heartily to the
gracious remembrance and pious prayers of Your Serene
Highness, with the assurance that he was your most humble,
most faithful servant to his death."

Another death is recorded at this time by St. Simon :
"Towards the middle of February the DowagerQueen of England
died in Portugal ; a widow, and childless, she had returned to
her brother the King, who loved and esteemed her greatly."

The growing financial difficulties of Louis XIV, and the
consequent irregularity in the payment of her pension, pressed
heavily upon the Queen, burdened as she was with the care of
her poor Jacobites. She writes to Madame de Maintenon at
the beginning of the year :

u I have just returned from Chaillot, and I shall send to-morrow Brit. Mus.
for news of you, as it seems a thousand years since I have had any. ' *
I hope they may be good with all my heart, but not more so at this
time than at any other, for from the beginning of the year to the end
of it, I wish you all the good you can yourself desire, and my friend-
ship has reached the point when it can increase no more.

After this opening of my heart to you, permit me as usual to
importune you, by begging you to remind the King that it is
generally at the beginning of the year he has the goodness to give
us 40,000 livres. I wish I were in a condition not to ask for them.
But since it has pleased God to place me in it, I hope He will inspire
the King to continue this charity, for we must call things by their
names. I pray God to reward him for this, and for so many other
benefits towards us.

I am in despair to be so importunate, but you are good enough to
pardon me, and to obtain a like pardon from the King." l

A few days later the Queen writes to a nun at Chaillot :

"... I expect a letter from you to-night, and I have need
of consolation, as I am overwhelmed with trouble, and with new
and difficult affairs, alas ! there are never any others for me. . . .

* A collection of 140 letters from the Queen to Madame de Maintenon was sold in
1753 by the secretary of Marshal de Noailles for z6o frs. All trace of them h^s
disappeared.

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1706 Scotch affairs probably counted among the difficulties the
Queen alludes to. There came long memorials from Fleming,
brother of the Earl of Wigton, to M. de Torcy, early in 1706,
giving accounts of the number of Scotch ready to rise, and
asking for troops, money and arms from Louis XIV (which
that monarch was in no condition to furnish, however useful a
diversion in Scotland might appear to Renaudot and others)
and for the prompt arrival of James III at Edinburgh, which
the Queen was still unwilling to agree to. On the other hand
the improvement in her health is noticed by Father Sanders in
a letter to Father Meredith at Rome ; he says the tumour in
her breast is decreasing. " The King is very well, and grows
Bodleian strong and tall. He has begun to ride the great horse, and
^ oes ^ ver y gleefully, and all say he will be a very good
horseman. He has a great desire to make a campaign, and the
Queen has asked it of the King of France, which he has not yet
consented to. In all appearance it would do our King a great
deal of good, and be much to his honour and reputation ; but
the King of France will be loath to let him go till he can send
him like a King. The Princess is very tali for her age, and
by her wit and gracious behaviour charms all that come near
her . . "

Dangeau also notices the " considerable " improvement in
the Queen's health, "the swelling diminished and no longer
painful." He also mentions " her great desire that the King,
her son, should go to the war this year," proving that her
refusal to send him to Scotland arose from no weak fear of
exposing him to the apprenticeship of war, to the hazards
which every man of his name and race, as well as of her own,
was accustomed to encounter at his age. " She wished him to
serve as a volunteer in Marshal Villeroy's army under an
assumed name, so as to avoid ceremony and expense ; the King
of England desired it as much as the Queen, but the King did
not consider it fitting. There are always a great many
objections to such a step, not to be avoided, whatever
precautions may be taken."

396

KING PHILIP Y

King Philip V was as friendly to the Stuarts as his pre- 1706
decessor had been hostile, and but for his present struggle with
the Austrian Archduke Charles and his English allies he might
have been able to give useful proofs of his amity. He and the
Queen of Spain sent frequent messages to Mary Beatrice
through Sir Thoby Bourke, who represented the Jacobite
interests in Spain, and there is a letter from Bourke to Lord
Caryll dated March 3, 1706, on the return of the Duke
of Berwick, Generalissimo of the French and Spanish forces,
to that country after a visit to France :

"... I believe it would not be amiss that the Queen in her
first letter to the Princess des Ursins. 1 [Camerera Major to
the Queen of Spain, and a connection of Mary Beatrice through
the Duchess Laura, her mother] should thank her for her kind-
ness to the Duke . . ."

Affairs in Spain were anxiously watched from St. Germains.
The Duke of Berwick writes indignantly of the capitulation of
Alcantara, and Sir Thoby Bourke sends Caryl! news : " From
the Camp, ten miles from Madrid," of the disaster to the
Spanish forces by the Portuguese and the consequent abandon-
ment of Madrid by the King and Queen.

"22 June, 1706.

" I am told Madrid is like a desert ... if France sends us a speedy Nairne
succour we may soon recover all the ground we loose, but if you 5*??? 1

11 u r T- -11 f Bodleian

continue still the siege of Turin, and that you will absolutely prefer Library,
the taking of a town to the keeping of a crown I can't tell what * o1 - "
to say. . . . I'll join the King's camp when I know where it
settles. . . ."

Meanwhile Mary Beatrice's Regency had come to an end ;
Countess Molza, who had taken many of the duties of Donna
Vittoria Montecuccoli Davia, writes to the Duke of Modena,
1 8 June, 1706 :

" Their Majesties enjoy perfect health, thank God, and so does the
Princess. The King will attain his majority on the 2oth of this

1 Daughter of the Due de la Tremouille, and widow of the head of the Orsini
(Ursins) family, and grandee of Spain.

397

1706 month, [on the completion of his 1 8th year] to the great comfort
of the Queen ; I cannot describe the submission that Prince has
always shown towards his mother, and he displays no joy at the
prospect of governing his Court ; a young man is generally glad
to escape from maternal authority, but he is not so. Might God
grant, as Your Serene Highness wishes, that we might see him
restored to his throne but but but By this time you know
the foreign news, I have nothing to add to it."

LORD MlDDLETON TO THE MARQUIS DE ToRCY.

"28 June, 1706.

f airne "... The King, my master, now applies himself to business

Bodleian with the ability of a skilled workman. The Scotch despatch is

Library, quite conformable to what you have said of it. It is entirely in his

No. 33 ' own hand, and according to his own ideas, as were eight letters

he has addressed to his chief partizans. As this gives me extreme

pleasure, I thought you would not be displeased to hear of it. . . ."

Nuncio Gualterio was now made a Cardinal and there arose
a difficulty as to the etiquette to be observed at his first visit to
St. Germains in his new capacity. The Queen solves it with her
usual good sense and simplicity :

A^'H iuss " ^ ent i re ly agree with you and M. de Torcy that you must come

20,293, here, either quite in ceremony or quite incognito ; but as, on our side,

f^ rt - 33> neither the King my son, nor I could receive you with ceremony,
not thinking it right to make any change in the rule established by
the King his father upon our first arrival in France, and which has
always been approved by the Popes (as I have good reason to believe,
never having heard anything to the contrary) and by the King, in
whose regard it was made, and by which we degrade ourselves much
more than we do others, as it would be more becoming to our dignity
to receive Cardinals, Nuncios and Ambassadors as Kings than as
private individuals. ... It only remains for me to propose to you
what I proposed the other day, viz. that you should come in your
habit court as usual, which will make the Incognito complete, and will
cut short all difficulties on your side ; on mine there have never been
any as I claim nothing, and if your predecessors have acted differently
it has been by their own wish, and not because I expected it. I
hope you will be satisfied with the sincerity with which I speak
to you, it is the same that I have always asked you to use towards
me."

398

CARDINAL GUALTERIO

Gualterio returned to Rome, and the Queen sent by him 1706
a renewal of her inviolable devotion to the Holy See.

"... I entreat Your Holiness to listen benignly to the Lord Vatican

A V*

Cardinal, and to give entire credit to all he will tell you from me ;
no one knows my sentiments better than he owing to the particular
friendship I have long had for him, for his great and well-known
merit, and the zeal he has always shown for the Royal house of
England. . . ." *

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO CARDINAL GUALTERIO.

" 2 November \ 706.

" I heard with much pleasure that you had safely reached Avignon. Brit. Mus.
. . . The Scotch Parliament met at the beginning of last month ; Add - Mss -
the Princess is doing all she can to get the Bill of Union between the Art. 34,
two kingdoms passed, it is even said she has sent money for it ; if that f - 59
is true, she will succeed ; 2 we have at last had news from that country
by the return of the frigate which had been sent there ; the well-
intentioned are always in the same state, ready for everything if they
can get help from this country, of which I have no expectation, and
I have great reason to believe that there is a thought of a peace, but
what peace, God only knows. . . ."

CARDINAL GUALTERIO TO THE QUEEN.

"RAVENNA, 16 December 1706.

[The letter begins with an account of a miserable journey, and ibid.
the fear of the loss of a ship with all his carriages and a part of f 94
his luggage.]

"In Florence I was received with infinite kindness by the Grand
Duke [The Queen's old friend Cosimo]. He made the greatest pro-
fessions of love and respect for Your Majesty and the King. ... I
cannot doubt but he spoke sincerely. He appeared to believe, and
even said he had certain knowledge that the Princess of Denmark was
well-disposed towards the King, and recommended that she should be
cultivated, in the hope by that means to obtain the restoration of His
Majesty. He gave me a piece of advice which appeared to me most
prudent . . . viz. that as it will be necessary for the King in case of
his re-establishment to accommodate himself to the humour of the
Protestants, and to their interests, so far as conscience permits, it

The Cardinal's brother, Giovanni Battista Gualterio, was created Earl of Dundee

in 1706. wSs'or

The preliminaries of the Treaty of Union had been signed at the end of July. p s

399

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1707 would be well that the matter should be secretly discussed before
hand, treating with His Holiness on the points which may come
under consideration, and negotiating with him to obtain the necessary
and all possible dispensations, so as to have them so to speak in one's
pouch, that when occasion may arise, an immediate answer may be
given without raising doubts, which might lead to the loss of an
opportunity. If Your Majesty finds the expedient a good one, it
would be well to have a paper drawn up and entrusted to me to obtain
the desired facilities.

I found Cardinal d'Adda here [former Nuncio at the Court or
St. James] on a visit to an abbey of Camaldolese, of which he is
protector. He left Rome, because the Imperialists wished to force
him to put the Imperial arms over his door instead or those of
the King of Spain. . . . He spoke to me with the utmost respect
of the King and of Your Majesty, testifying the greatest zeal for
your service. . . ."

The letter ends with a request for a cypher.

The disturbances in Scotland were increasing, and the Duke of
Queensberry, Queen Anne's Commissioner, was nearly stoned to
death in his carriage, surrounded by his guards. The hopes of
the Scotch Jacobites showed no signs of decline, and plotting
was active at the beginning of 1707. An element of distrust
of Queen Mary Beatrice betrays itself in a memorial given
to De Torcy January 8th, by Mr. Hooke, one of Renaudot's
correspondents, on " matters regarding the Court of St.
Germains."

Renaudot "It will be necessary to communicate the enterprise to the Queen

^ England, because we have need of her letters, and those of the
King her son, to the Lords of their party, who are very numerous and
powerful, and also because we need letters from the Duke of Perth,
who will not engage himself without the consent of the Queen. But
it is very important that the Queen should keep the secret well,
because the Court of St. Germains is full of doubtful persons, and we
know by experience that very important matters have been made
known in England in a manner that could never .have been suspected.
The Queen should therefore only know in a general way that the
King [Louis XIV] intends to send a person into Scotland to dispose
all things for the future.

400

RUMOURS OF PEACE

In order that nothing maybe known at St. Germains, ... it would 1707
be well for the Queen to send the Duke of Perth's letters with her
own and the King her son's to the Marquis de Torcy . . . Although
the King attained his majority six months ago, his handwriting is not
yet sufficiently known, so it will be necessary for the Queen to write
words of her own in his letter to confirm their contents.

In their letters, their British Majesties must entirely accredit the
person sent by the King, as to what he shall say in their name,
principally in what regards the liberties and religion of the Scotch.
It would also be expedient for their Majesties to write to Mylord
Granard in Ireland, who is in a position to make the whole north of
that country take up arms. . . ."

We have no record of the Queen's answer to the suggestion,
if indeed it was ever seriously made to her, that she should fully
accredit an agent, receiving his instructions from the Court of
France, to make promises in her name and that of her son on
matters of which she was only to be allowed a "general" know-
ledge.

The peace rumours were increasing, and the Queen, writing
2Oth January, 1707, to the Duke of Modena to thank him for
his New Year's good wishes, says

" I unite my prayers to yours for a good peace, good in every way,
just and stable, so that every one may enjoy his own, without fear or
losing it again . . meanwhile time passes, and we are getting old, I
hope our children at least may see better days than those we see ; in
any case we must conform ourselves in all things to God's will, and
think of another life, this one being well advanced, for you have now
passed your fiftieth year, and I am very near it. God give us the
grace of a good end. . . ''

On the 2oth February, 1707, the news arrived that the
Austrian forces had re-taken Modena from the French, and Duke
Rinaldo, who had fled to Rome, returned to his dominions.

A glimpse at the brighter side of the life at St. Germains is
afforded in a letter of the old wit, Anthony Hamilton, to the
Duke of Berwick in Spain.

" The King, our master, increases daily in wit, and the Princess
his sister becomes more and more charming. Heaven prevent her
being stolen from us ! for her lady Governess [Lady Middleton]

401 D D

1707 seems to have no other fear but that. The two are always near
their august mother, to whom they pay the most dutiful and tender
attention. . .

We will now speak of our beauties, those stars of St. Germains,
always cruel and disdainful. Winter is near its end, and they begin
to prepare their nets against the spring. They have mended, washed
and spread out the delicate laces of which their cornettes are made, to
bleach in your garden j all the bushes are covered with them, like so
many spiders' webs. They are putting all their fatta/as in order, and
in the meantime, plunged in sweet reveries, they neglect the patterns
on their tapestry frames.

" A painter might chose the figure of our young king for a model
of the god of love, if such a deity could dare be represented in this
saintly court of St. Germains. As for the Princess, her hair is very
beautiful, and of the loveliest shade of brown ; her complexion
reminds us of the most brilliant yet delicate tints of the fairest spring
flowers ; she has her brother's features in a softer mould, and her
mother's eyes. . . .

She has the roundness one adores in a divinity of sixteen, with the
freshness of an Aurora j and if anything more may be said, it must
be in praise of the shape and whiteness of her arms."

In another letter Hamilton delightfully describes a pilgrimage
to the shrine of St. Thibaut in the forest of St. Germains,
organised by the Princess Louise. St. Thibaut is supposed to
cure the ague, and as the Queen's treasurer, Mr. Dicconson,
sometimes has the ague, he is to be the person prayed for.
" The fair Nannette [the Duchess of Berwick] chose to beguile
her pilgrimage by looking for strawberries. I will tell you the
names of some of the fair pilgrims who went with Her Royal
Highness . . . the charming Miss Plowden was there, and
those two divinities, the ladies Dillon and Marishal, but none
was more agreeable than the Duchess of Berwick, unless it were
the Princess. . . ."

The pilgrimage was followed by a sylvan repast, with the
green grass for a table, but a French gentleman, the " Chevalier
la Salle, who had attended them, not out of devotion, but
gallantry," was ordered by the Princess for his want of piety to
sit at the foot of a tree at a respectful distance, and to rinse

402

CARNIVAL FESTIVITIES

their glasses. They allowed him something to eat, and the 1707
forest glades rang with laughter. The mirth was enhanced by
the unexpected appearance of Dicconson himself, who was
greeted with cries of "a miracle ! a miracle ! " and asked the
precise hour and minute when the fever had left him. " The
repast did not end the less gaily for this, nor was the walk home
the less agreeable. The shepherds, the shepherdesses, and the
wood-cutters stopped to look at the courtly pilgrims, and
admired their hilarity and good humour."

Hamilton elsewhere describes the balls in winter, and a
certain Shrovetide masquerade given by the Queen, to which
the whole town of St. Germains was invited. The barriers were
thrown down by her Majesty's order, that high and low, young and
old, French and English might join in the Carnival. Etiquette
forbade the Prince and Princess from wearing masks, but they
danced merrily, the Prince with peculiar grace and lightness,
but they both excelled in the accomplishment.

Among the greatest amusements in summer were the boating
parties to Pontalie, the Countess of Gramont's (Hamilton's
sister) country house on the Grand Canal in the Park of
Versailles, given to her by Louis XIV, and which Hamilton
compares to Horace's villa. The Countess had been one of the
beauties of Charles II's Court, and then Dame du Palais to
Queen Marie Therese of France. Her wit and vivacity were
as great as her beauty had been, and Pontalie was not only a
favourite meeting place for the young Duchess of Burgundy
and the Princess Louise, but the haunt of all the wits and
celebrities of France.

There was a banquet at Versailles on Twelfth Night, Dangeau
1708. The famous Long Gallery was lighted with 2,000
great candles, and " the King and the Princess of
England were present, but not the Queen. A fortnight
later, at a masked ball at Marly, the Princess had brought
with her " Mesdemoiselles de Melfort and de Middleton, who
are remarkably pretty, and dance very well."

Dangeau's next entry regarding the Stuarts treats of graver

403 D D 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1708 matters. " Saturday, 3rd March. The King of England will
certainly leave St. Germains on Tuesday or Wednesday at the
latest ; many of those who are to accompany him have
already started. The King of England is transported with
joy at the thought of the enterprise." Then follows the
momentous little sentence : " The Princess of England has had
the measles, but is cured. The Queen," he continues, " spends
her time in prayer for the success of her son's voyage. He is call-
ing himself the Chevalier of St. George. His governor, the Duke
of Perth, left on Monday, and Middleton, Sheldon, Richard
Hamilton, with several others. Forbin will be in command."

Louis XIV, suddenly yielding to the arguments of those who
advised a " diversion in Scotland " as a remedy for the continued
ill-success of his armies in Italy and Flanders, had determined to
send James Stuart with what the latter, in a letter to Cardinal
Paolucci calls " a good succour of troops, (6,000) to take
possession of our kingdom of Scotland."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO POPE CLEMENT XL

"ST GERMAINS, 8 March 1708.

Vatican "... The King, my son, has done himself the honour of writing

to acquaint Your Holiness with his departure and embarcation for
Scotland, of which I hope, with the help of God, and with the troops
the Most Christian King has given him, he will soon make himself
master, the greater part of the people being ready to receive him with
open arms, and to put him into a position to be able to advance into
England with a large army.

At so important a conjuncture, when my maternal heart is full of
such different sentiments of joy and pain, of hope and fear, I throw
myself at the feet of Your Holiness to supplicate you humbly, but
with greatest insistance (istantisshnamente), not to refuse the king,
my son, the necessary succours, which on such an occasion can,
I think, be allotted without scruple of the Apostolic Chamber, as
Your Holiness has often promised us, going so far as to say that for
the re-establishment of the King of England you would even sell the
sacred vessels, which would be more usefully employed for the glory of
God in the conversion of three kingdoms, which is my son's principal
end in this enterprise, than by remaining on the altars ; but I do not
ask so much, I would only remind Your Holiness of the sum of

404

EXPEDITION TO SCOTLAND

100,000 scudi which you had the goodness, some years ago, to place in 1708
the hands of Cardinal Gualterio in the hope that something might be
effected in Scotland for my son's service, who undertaking nothing at
that time, we did not ask for the money, and have always kept
inviolable secrecy concerning it, as we shall continue to do ; now
that it is no longer a question of hopes, words or promises, but that
the King my son has departed, and that the Most Christian King,
with indescribable goodness and generosity, has granted a large succour
of troops and money, I cannot doubt but Your Holiness will be
incited to follow his example, and thus encourage him (by joining
with him) to continue the help necessary to sustain so glorious an
enterprise . . and will deign to take measures for the future with the
Most Christian King to furnish funds as they are needed, and
proportionate to those given by him ..."

James was in bed with the measles at Dunkirk when his
mother wrote. With the disregard for infection which charac-
terised the time, no precautions had been taken to discover if
he had caught the disease from his sister before starting on an
enterprise of which, once entered upon, promptitude of execu-
tion was the very soul. Precious time was lost before, in
defiance of the doctors, he was able to insist on being put on
board ship, whence he wrote to his mother : " At last I am on Dangeau'
board. The body is very feeble, but courage is so good, it will
sustain the weakness of the body. I hope not to write to you
again until I do so from Edinburgh Castle, where I expect to
arrive on Saturday."

Admiral Forbin at once encountered a heavy gale, and Sir
George Byng, who had had time to put out to sea, gave chase to
the French fleet, much inferior to his own. Forbin entered the
Firth of Forth, but was afraid to land, in spite of James's
vehement entreaties to be set on shore ; his ships dispersed, the
Salisbury and another smaller vessel were taken, and the rest
returned to Dunkirk. The Duke of Berwick, in his account of
the expedition, attributes blame to the French Ministers. " The Memoirs
affair was very badly concerted, owing to the jealousies and Duke ot
differences between Chamillard, Minister of War, and Pontchar- Berwick
train, Minister of Marine. It was also held that if Forbin,

405

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1708 who was in command, had ventured to risk losing his vessels, the
young King might have been landed, and by running his ships
ashore, the troops could have disembarked . . . England was void
of troops, and Queen Anne, according to all appearances, in order
to prevent a civil war would have sought an accommodation."

The 3rd of April the news reached Paris that Queen Anne
had informed Parliament of James's embarkation, and had
declared all those who had joined the " Pretender," upon whose
head a price was set, guilty of high treason. This was the first
occasion on which the term " Pretender " was used.

James wrote from Dunkirk to entreat Louis XIV to allow
him to join the army in Flanders, a request supported by the
Queen, and which was immediately granted.

Of the Scotch gentlemen who expected him, some were
thrown into the Tolbooth, but on their trial, in the following
November, they were all unanimously acquitted.

The Queen turned, in her disappointment, to her friends at
Chaillot. " The desolation of my soul would excite your pity,
could you look into its depths," she writes, after the return of
her son to St. Germains. " My heart is also much broken, and I
have had, these ten days past, business and domestic quarrels
which have disturbed and vexed me to a degree of which I am
ashamed. I declare to you that coming so immediately after
my other trouble, I have been quite overwhelmed. ... I was
at the Review on Friday ; my son was there, and many
English, who were, it is said, much pleased with him.

" My God ! what a world this is, and who may understand
it ? For my part, the more I know of it, the less I comprehend
it ; unhappy are they who have much to do with it ! . . ."

The Queen's own disappointments never lessened her sym-
pathy in the joys of her friends. On the 26th March she
wrote a charming letter to the Duchess of Modena on the
occasion of the first Communion of her eldest daughter,
concluding : " I feel a particular affection for her, having been
told by some Irish officers who had seen her that she greatly
resembles me. ..."

406

BATTLE OF OUDENARDE

James left St. Germains on the i8th of May at 7 in the 1708
morning, dined at Chantilly, slept at Senlis, and reached Valen-
ciennes, where he found the Duke of Burgundy two days later.

The Queen, who was well aware of the inferiority of the
French commanders to their opponents, writes before the end of
May to a nun at Chaillot : " We have been in expectation of
great news for several days past. I may tell you in confidence
that they have missed the opportunity of a great stroke in
Flanders, and I fear a similar one will not present itself again
in this campaign. God be praised for all, we must try and be
satisfied with all that happens. . . ."

The Queen was exerting herself to the utmost to save the
lives of the gentlemen taken on board the Salisbury y among
whom were Lord Griffin and the Earl of Middleton's two sons,
Lord Clermont and Mr. Middleton ; she applied to M. de
Chamillard, Minister of War, urging him to claim them as
officers in the service of Louis XIV, and she writes 23 June to
Chaillot : " My Chevalier is in perfect health, thank God, and I
am better than I have been for a long time. . . . We have some
hopes of obtaining the liberty of the two Middletons, and of the
Irish prisoners ; but for My lord Griffin, they have condemned him
to die on the 27th of this month, which gives me great pain. I
recommend him to your prayers, and to those of our dear sisters."

Lord Griffin was not executed ; his sentence was remitted
from time to time until his natural death two years later.

The news of the battle of Oudenarde, where James Stuart
had an opportunity of witnessing the superior military genius of
his secret correspondent the Duke of Marlborough, reached
Versailles on the I4th July. The young Prince distinguished
himself in this his first great battle, where the Electoral Prince
of Hanover fought on the winning side. The Duke of Berwick
writes of " the great valour and coolness of the King of
England," while Madame de Maintenon, in a letter to the
Princess des Ursins, says : " The Queen of England is very Recueii
well pleased with the King her son, and she has reason to be so ; V oiu. ge '
he is behaving admirably, and if his nation were not so bad (si p> 27Z

407

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1708 mechanf) it would declare for him. He wrote to the Queen
the other day that his incognito suits him very well, giving him
constant opportunities of meeting the officers." And again :
" The Chevalier of St. George is so well liked, that if he
wished to return to Scotland, there would be as great a press to
follow him, as there was before to escape that voyage."

St. Simon relates that M. de Biron, a French officer taken
prisoner at Oudenarde, was very well treated by the English
commanders ; that the Duke of Marlborough asked him many
questions at dinner about the Prince of Wales, apologising for
calling him thus, and declared himself very much pleased with
de Biron's praise, while all the English officers listened with
delighted faces (visages fyanouis).

The young Chevalier certainly won the esteem and regard of
his comrades, and especially of his Commander the Duke of
Vendome. He returned to St. Germains at the end of the
year ; he had caught intermittent fever at Mons during the
campaign, and the Queen writes in the spring, n April 1709,
to Chaillot to explain that she cannot go there for Holy Week.
" If the war continues, as is supposed, the King, my son, will
be soon on the point of leaving me for the army. It is not
right, therefore, that I should quit him, as he is not yet wholly
recovered from his fever ; he had a touch of it yesterday,
though he perseveres in taking the bark five times a day."

Mary Beatrice and her children lost a faithful friend in their
old cousin, the abbess of Maubuisson, the Princess Louise
Palatine, elder sister of the Electress Sophia of Hanover, who
died, in her 8yth year, in February 1709. The Chaillot
papers contain ten letters from her, full of eager sympathy and
hope for the cause of James Stuart, and of admiration for the
virtues of his mother. She and her nuns are bound to pray for
the Prince's restoration, she more than once observes, as their
foundress, Blanche of Castille, charged their convent ever to
pray for her descendants, among whom he ranks through his
grandmother Queen Henrietta Maria.

Another loss to the Queen was that of Robert Strickland,

408

DEATH OF ROBERT STRICKLAND

her vice-chamberlain, who had walked first in her coronation 1709
procession, and, with his wife, Bridget Manock, had followed
her to Versailles. Writing to Angelique Priolo that he had
been seized with paralysis, and that his wife was in despair, the
Queen adds : '* I am grieved, and shall be sorry to lose him,
for he is an ancient servant, and very affectionate." He died
6 March, 1709, at the age of seventy.

James Stuart left St. Germains in June for his second campaign
in Flanders under Marshal Villars, and Renaudot presents a Renaudot
memoir to the French Ministry the following month, urging
the necessity of another attempt to create a diversion " in this
dangerous war," when the French arms were being worsted in
Flanders and in Italy, by sending the Prince not to Scotland,
but to Ireland as being "at the present moment safer and
more certain." He must be sent there with all the foreign
troops now serving under the French flag in Flanders and in
Spain, and with a certain number of French officers, "and
there will be a general revolution in the three kingdoms,
immediately upon the landing of their King.

"This enterprise must not be known at St. Germains, and
must be conducted solely by the King (Louis XIV) and his
Ministers. . . ."

The suggestion met with no favour at Court. Unsuccessful
war, famine, and a shrinking revenue had inclined Louis XIV
rather to thoughts of peace than to the renewal, for the fifth
time, of an attempt to restore the Stuarts. He had sent pleni-
potentiaries to the Hague before recommencing hostilities to
discuss terms of peace with the Duke of Marlborough and Prince
Eugene, and the Memoirs of the Marquis de Torcy contain
interesting evidence of Marlborough's attitude towards the
Prince and his mother. He advised de Torcy to renew the
demand for the Queen's dowry. "Insist strenuously on that
article." He was still more explicit to the Duke of Berwick,
advising that the Chevalier should withdraw from the protec-
tion of France, " hoping thus by prudent arrangement to see all
parties united to recognise him as successor to his sister's throne."

409

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1709 The peace negotiations were fruitless, war was renewed, and
the Court of St. Germains trusted too little in Marlborough's
loyalty to follow his advice with regard to the grave step of
discarding the protection of the King of France.

The Queen was struggling with financial difficulties ; the
French exchequer was in so exhausted a condition that her
pension was irregularly paid, and Madame de Maintenon, in
answer to her complaint against the discount claimed by the
French officials, advised her to acquiesce in the inevitable, as
the King was himself greatly inconvenienced by the deficiency
in his revenue.

One of the results of these embarrassments must have been
peculiarly painful to the Queen ; the rent for her apartment
at Chaillot was in arrear, and the nuns, after suggesting that a
portion of it might with advantage be sublet, proceeded,
apparently without waiting for an answer, to let certain rooms,
including that of the Princess Louise Marie, to Madame de
TOrge and her daughter, who hearing from Lady Sophia
Bulkeley that the Queen would be seriously inconvenienced,
offered to let her have the use of them when she came to
Chaillot with the Princess.

With admirable temper Mary Beatrice writes to the Superior,
May, 1709, that it would be difficult for her ladies "to accom-
modate themselves in places now occupied by the waiting-
maids. . . . However, if you, dear mother, or Madame and
Mademoiselle de 1'Orge have any trouble about the apartment,
I pray you to tell me so plainly, with your usual sincerity, and
I will endeavour to make some other arrangement, at least if it
be in our power. You can, if you please, consult my dear
sisters Catherine Angelique and Marie Gabrielle, about it, and
then take your resolution and send me word, for in case my
daughter can continue where she is, I should wish them to take
away the furniture of Madame, and I would send mine. . . .
I cannot accept the offer she makes me of the loan of her
chamber ; I say this in case she wishes to take it from
me. . . ." The apartment was relinquished by the intruding

410

>Cw

CHEVALIER OF ST. GEORGE

tenant, and the blunder of the nuns caused no change in the 1709
Queen's affectionate intercourse with them.

Mary Beatrice had reason to be again proud of the warlike
qualities of her son ; at the battle of Malplaquet, 1 1 September,
1709, the Prince, who had risen from an attack of fever to
hasten to the field, distinguished himself with a valorous intre-
pidity which aroused the admiration of both friends and foes. The
Duke of Berwick, St. Simon, Dangeau, give the same account of
his conduct, while Marshal Boufflers, who had succeeded to the
command, after Villars had been dangerously wounded, described
him in his despatches to Louis XIV as behaving " during the
whole action with the utmost valour." When the cavalry
of the allies broke his lines, Boufflers ordered the Prince to
advance at the head of 1,200 horse. He performed the duty Boufflers'
so well that in one charge he repulsed and broke the German espat
horse, and nothing but the steadiness ot the English troops and
the consummate skill of their commander prevented the rout
from becoming general. Though wounded by a sabre cut in the
right arm, the Chevalier stood his ground, charging twelve times
under six hours' continuous fire.

With fever in his veins, as he flung himself time after time
upon the German host, the blue ribbon across his breast as much a
safeguard as a target in the sight of the English, visions may have
passed through the young man's mind of snatching a crown at the
cannon's mouth, of cutting a way to the hearts of his country-
men by proving himself worthy to be their king. And when
the day went against him, and the supreme effort had been
made in vain, some mainspring of action may have snapped,
some sense of the fatality which weighed upon his race may
have begun unconsciously to influence his character. " He was
recognised by the English," writes Dangeau, " as he had
refused to hide his Order [of the Garter], and Skelton, who
had been taken prisoner two days previously, brought back the
news that all the English soldiers had drunk his health."

St. Simon speaks of the loss of the battle, " in spite of the
efforts and example of King James."

411

CHAPTER XIV

1710 THE disastrous effects of long-continued defeat in war were
keenly felt in France the following winter. St. Simon notes
that for the first time during his reign Louis XIV gave no New
Year's presents to his family, and that the 40,000 pistoles he
used to employ for his own, he sent to supply the needs of his
troops on the Flemish frontier, while the longing for peace was
becoming ever greater in the country.

In the spring an infectious fever broke out at Chaillot among
the nuns and the Queen was warned not to go there. With
her usual disregard for infection she rebels against the advice.
She writes of her anxiety for the sick, especially her dear
Franchise Angelique Priolo and : " I cannot see any reason
.... why I should not come. You know that I have no fear

but of colds, and I see no cause to apprehend infection

So, with your permission I shall be with you on Monday even-
ing. I entreat you to send me tidings of our invalids. The
drowsiness of my Sister Franchise Angelique does not please
me. I am very glad you have made her leave off the viper

broth, which is too heating for her We are all well here,

thank God My daughter must not come, but for me

there is nothing to fear "

Notwithstanding the reverses inflicted by the English upon
James Stuart's protector Louis XIV, the policy adopted by
Mary Beatrice during her regency the tranquil restoration of
her son by friendly negotiations with Queen Anne and her
Ministers never seemed nearer fulfilment than in the year 1710.

412

SACHEVERELL'S TRIAL

How high the waters of Jacobitism had risen was proved by 1710
the success of Sacheverell's sermon in favour of non-resistance
at St. Paul's on the 5th November 1709, preached before the
Lord Mayor, in which he openly attacked Burnet, Bishop of
Salisbury, pointed to the Whig Ministers as false friends and
true enemies of the Church, called them Wily Volpones in
obvious reference to Godolphin's nickname ; and sold 40,000
copies of the sermon, which he published and dedicated to the
Lord Mayor.

On the day of his trial cheering multitudes followed his
carriage which was escorted by six others, and his sentence was
so slight suspension from preaching for three years that it
was regarded as a triumph, while his subsequent journeys about
the country were like royal progresses.

A letter of Godolphin's to Queen Mary Beatrice or her
Minister having fallen into the hands of his greatest enemy
Lord Wharton, he was compelled to resign, as did Lord
Sunderland, the Duke of Marlborough's son-in-law ; the Duke
and Godolphin first obtaining from Queen Anne the publica-
tion of a general pardon, in which correspondence with St.
Germains was particularly specified. Marlborough was in dis-
grace with Queen Anne, and during the following campaign in
the Lowlands, where James served again as a volunteer under
Marshal de Villars, a close correspondence was kept up between
the English Commander and the Duke of Berwick, who was
this year created Duke and Peer of France, and through him
with the Queen and her son. " This was with the consent of
the King" [Louis XIV], says St. Simon, adding that Marl-
borough duped all three ; an opinion which his correspondence
with the Elector of Hanover fully justifies.

While the hostile armies lay encamped on either side of the
Scarpe, much friendly intercourse went on between James's
retinue and the English officers. The Prince was asked to
show himself on the banks of a narrow stream to a group who
ardently desired to see him, and medals bearing his bust and
inscription were eagerly accepted. Charles Booth, Groom of the

Stuart
Papers,
Windsor
Castle

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1710 bed-chamber at St. Germains, writes to Lord Middleton, July
23rd, that he had sent the medals by a trumpeter, who brought
back word " that thirty English officers spoke to him to bring
them medals." Some were also addressed to General Officers, each
wrapped in paper bearing the words : "The metal is good, for
it bore six hours fire ; you know it was hot, for yourselves

blew the coals " Postscript : " You know it was well

tried, nth Sept. 1709 " [Malplaquet].

A letter from the Queen to the Duke of Marlborough was
sent by Marshal de Villars to the English Commander, enclosed
in one of his own military notes, by a trumpet. It was
addressed under the name of Gurney, and spoke of her son as
Mr. Mathews. She says that what Marlborough wrote to
his nephew on the 1 3th of last month was of such importance
that she thinks herself obliged to answer it in her own
hand :

Macpher-

son.

Nairne's

Stuart

Papers

c< I shall tell you in the first place, that I was glad to find you still
continue in your good resolutions towards Mr Mathews, I was
surprised, on the other hand, to see you had a design of quitting
everything as soon as the peace was concluded ; for I find that to be
the only means of rendering you useless to your friends, and your
retreat may prove dangerous to yourself. You are too large a mark,
and too much exposed for malice to miss, and your enemies will
never believe themselves in safety till they have ruined you." " But
as you are lost if you quit your employment, I see likewise, on the
other hand, that it will be difficult for you to keep in office as
things are at present, so that your interest itself now declares for
your honour. You cannot be in safety without discharging your
duty, and the time is precious to you as well as to us. The advice
you give us in sending us to the new favourite (Mrs Masham) is very
obliging ; but what can we hope from a stranger, who has no
obligation to us ? Whereas we have all the reasons in the world to
depend upon you, since we have now but the same interest to
manage, and you have the power to put Mr Mathews in a condition
to protect you. Lay aside then, I beseech you, your resolution of
retiring. Take courage, and without losing more time, send us a
person in whom you can have entire confidence ; or, if you have not
such a man with you, allow us to send you one whom we may

414

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH

trust. . . . We shall know, by your speedy and positive answer to 1710
this letter, what judgment we can form of our affairs. . . .

I must not finish my letter without thanking you for promising to
assist me in my suit at the treaty of peace. My cause is so just
that I have all reason to hope I shall gain it ; at least I flatter
myself that Mr Matthew's sister is of too good a disposition to
oppose it. ... "

The Protestant succession may be said to have hung in the
balance when letters such as this passed between the English
commander and the mother of the Prince who was within a
ride of the English camp, but Marlborough waited ; ^90,000
a year was too great a stake for a money-loving man to risk,
and he Jet the occasion pass of a volte-face on the banks of the
Scarpe, which would have counteracted that he had executed at
Salisbury twenty-two years before.

The Prince returned to St. Germains in September.

During his "absence the Queen and the Princess of England
had assisted at the marriage of the Duke of Berry whom
rumour had once designed as a match for the Princess with
Mademoiselle, daughter of the Duke of Orleans. St. Simon
gives a proof of the unfailing respect of Louis XIV to the
Queen : " The King had ordered all the ladies to appear in
full dress the previous day to receive the Queen and the Prin-
cess of England."

After Rizzini's death, no other envoy had replaced him in
Paris. Duke Rinaldo had given himself entirely to Austria,
and diplomatic relations with France had ceased, only to be
resumed in 1716. The avvisi continued regularly, but con-
tained little beyond general news, and the Queen's letters to
Modena were mere letters of compliment. The Emperor
Joseph had put the Duke in possession of Mirandola, " con-
trary to the hopes held out at Vienna to the Prince of Miran-
dola, who had offered 200,000 ducats to be reinstated in his
principality. It is believed that the Empress, although she is
the Duke of Modena's sister-in-law, is not pleased that he
should have prevailed.". Rinaldo lost his wife, at the age of

415

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1710 thirty-nine, in the autumn, and the Queen writes, October 15,
to tell him of her u great and sensible trouble to hear of the
loss you and all our house have sustained by the death of our
good Duchess, whose soul God rest. . . ."

Towards the end of the year Queen Anne's new Lord
Treasurer Harley, Earl of Oxford, approached the Duke of
Memoirs Berwick by sending to him at St. Germains Abbe Gaultier, the
f French agent in London, 1 "to concert with me," writes the
Duke, " on the affairs of King James, and on the means of
procuring his restoration, but before entering into the matter he
had orders to exact a promise ist, that no one at St. Germains,
not even the Queen, should have cognisance of it; 2nd, that
Queen Anne should retain the crown for her life ; and 3rd,
that sufficient assurances should be given for the preservation
of the Anglican Church and the liberties of the people." The
conclusion of the peace must precede any further step, or the
Ministry would not venture upon so delicate a matter.
Although the Duke could not see that the one could interfere
with the other, " to show that we would omit nothing on our
side, we wrote to all the Jacobites to join the Court party,
which helped to make the Queen so strong in the House of
Commons that everything passed there according to her desires."
It was agreed that James should join the Duke, who was going
to command the French forces in Dauphiny, so as to be on the
spot when Harley should send his project. " The Prince
came, but I received no papers, and heard no more until the
following winter."

As the pressure of his enemies became greater and inflicted
severer losses upon his arms, the urgency of the suggestions to
Louis XIV to save everything by a diversion in Scotland
increased. The archives of the Affaires Etrangeres and the
Renaudot papers preserve them, and we can trace the palpita-

1 Abbe Gaultier had been third curate at the parish church of St. Germains. " He
had applied for four months' leave of absence" says the Chaillot Journal, "and went to
Normandy. Having exceeded his leave by fifteen days he was replaced. Abbe" Gaultier
was much vexed, and being without employment, passed into England .... where he
negotiated the peace."

416

EXCITEMENT IN SCOTLAND

tions of eager hopes and eager wrath which inspired them : 1711
" The Presbyterians are so angry at the protection accorded to Renaudot
the Episcopalians by Parliament that they would join anybody BuTNat.
with pleasure who would repeal the union between the two
kingdoms. The King's return is the only means, according
to them, to do so. ... He must come quickly. ... If he
can bring 10,000 men, he will meet with no resistance, if he
brings 5,000 his chance will still be good, but not so certain.

" The Princess of Denmark is, it is believed, well inclined
towards her brother, but does not know whom to trust. The
Earl of Derby, who has that Princess's confidence, told me he
had adroitly sounded her on the subject ; she did not open her-
self to him, but she said nothing against the King. ..."

The next significant paragraph reminds us how the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes acted as a blight, from first
to last, on the fortunes of the Stuarts. Its passing was an im-
portant factor in the overthrow of James II, coming as it did
in the first year of his reign, and serving the press and the
pulpit with an unfailing and plausible argument against the
intolerant spirit of Popery. The fear that James, re-established
by the force of the French arms, might follow examples
learned at the Court of France, survived all his most earnest
and sincere declarations, public as well as private, in favour of
liberty of conscience, and appears perpetually iri the words and
writings of the Protestant Jacobites. Not only did such men
as the Ruvignys become important instruments in the hands of
William III, but battalions of Huguenots ranged themselves
in the rank and file of his armies and those of his successors.
In the dealings through Renaudot with the English Protestant
Jacobites, whenever they were invited to send delegates to the
Court of France, elaborate promises had to be made that they
should not be troubled while on French soil on account of their
religion, and now, twenty-six years after the fatal Revocation,
the writer of the above memorial says : " If the Most
Christian King would permit the protestant servants of the
King of England [at St. Germains] to meet and pray to God

417 E E

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1711 together according to their manner, it would have a very good
effect in England, and would serve as a gage to all men of what
he would do in future for the Protestants." l

A measure which Louis XIV probably considered an act
strictly between himself and a small section of his subjects
thus helped to ruin and to preserve in oppression princes whom
he spent so much blood and treasure in the vain effort to
restore, and earned for him, in a sense that monarch probably
ignored, Leopold IPs accusation that he was the greatest
enemy to religion in Europe. The Emperor referred to the
subsidies given by Louis to the Turks when warring against
Austria, but certain breaches of the laws of justice and good
faith have consequences as widespread and unexpected as they
are desolating.and enduring.

The memorial ends with a recommendation that the King

Renaudot should bring " the Duke of Berwick with him, as he is greatly

Bi a b Pe Sat. beloved, and all would readily submit to him. Time passes,

peace will probably be made next winter and then all will have

to begin again. . . . On the other hand, if the Princess of

Denmark dies, Hanover will bring German troops who, by an

Act of Parliament, will be naturalised on their arrival. He

will thus be able to destroy the King's party, and all will be

lost, or at least greatly endangered."

While the Court of St. Germains firmly adhered to the
belief that the restoration of James Stuart could best be
obtained by negotiations with Queen Anne and her Ministers,
and the French diplomatists acted with the view of benefiting
their own country by provoking intestine strife in the British
Isles, alt concerted action became well-nigh impossible. A
direct appeal to Queen Anne by the young Chevalier was urged
by the English party and opposed by the French Court. The
Marquis de Torcy writes to the Duke of Berwick from Marly,
i June, 1711 : " .... I am pressed for the corrected draft
of the letter [from James Stuart to Queen Anne] I should,

1 The permission was not granted. During the Irish expedition D'Avaux, by
Louis XIV's order, refused to attend a Council, to which James II had admitted one or
two Protestants

LETTER TO QUEEN ANNE

however, prefer its not being written at all, as I hear from all 1711
sides that the efforts of the King of England will do him more
harm than good. . . . You know, however, that this is not
the time to communicate this secret to St. Germains."

The projected letter exists among Nairne's papers, and though
probably never sent to Queen Anne is interesting for the
following passage ; after saying he wished to owe his restora-
tion to her : " It is for yourself that a work so just and
glorious is reserved. The voice of God and nature calls you
to it. The promises you made to the King our Father enjoin
it. . . ."

Meanwhile Abbe Gaul tier writes to the French Court :

" 16 June, 1711.
" .... I repeat that Mongoulin [James Stuart] will lose all Affaires

credit if he writes as you say he thinks of doing ; his letter will be E'ran-

ill-received and his friends will not be pleased."

19 June.

" I am desired to tell Mongoulin that he must absolutely not
think of writing to his aunt [Queen Anne] at present, unless he
wishes to quarrel with his whole family."

The English Government was on the alert, and a squadron
was sent before Brest, and another under Hardy before Dunkirk,
while James according to the plan agreed upon between the
Duke of Berwick and Harley started for Besan^on and Lyons
on his way to join Berwick's army in Dauphine.

In an interesting letter of June 17 from one of the French
Ministers, probably de Torcy to the Duke of Berwick, we see
how the attempt to divide the interests of Mary Beatrice and
her son was met by them :

" . . . . I sounded the King of England before his departure, as u>id
to his keeping matters secret from the Queen and Lord Middleton.
I told him those who are working for him are as distrustful of the
one as of the other . . . and that they would never discover them-
selves unless they were assured beforehand that their names and their
designs should be concealed from Her Majesty and from Lord
Middleton.

"It would be useless to repeat all the just and reasonable things the

419 E E 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1711 King or England said to me. It was at last determined that he
should tell the Queen that there were well-intentioned persons who
demanded that she should not be informed of what they were going
to do. He assured me the Queen would consent to it with pleasure,
and in truth when I went to St Germains a few days later . . . she
herself confirmed it, adding she was not surprised at the opinion the
English had of her, that they had reproached her with many events
of which she had not been the cause, that she did not complain ot
their present want of confidence ; on the contrary she regarded it as
an advantage, for if the affairs of the King of England passed solely
through the King's hands, His Majesty would be all the more
constrained to watch over his interests, and to act a father's part
towards him. . . . The last letters from Holland show that there
are suspicions as to what is going on in England in favour of the
legitimate King. His Britannic Majesty has given me the letter he
has written to Queen Anne, and which he was good enough to
correct according to the draft I gave him. I shall send it by the
next ordinary to the man you know of [Gaultier]."

Gaultier had evidently modified his opinion as to the inex-
pediency of a letter to Queen Anne, for de Torcy in sending
it to him says : " ... I hope it may please. . . . My
honour is engaged that you should get an answer, otherwise it
will be thought I had too lightly credited what you had told
me. Mongoulin's intention was to send it by one of his
friends to M. Vandenberg [Harley] and to write to him and to
M. Deslandes [Mrs. Masham]. I thought it would embarrass
them both and spoil the business. Let them know, therefore,
that if Mongoulin has not written to them it was through no
want of esteem .... but simply out of consideration for their
position."

With their young King gone to the war, his mother and
sister retired to Chaillot, and of their sojourn and conversations
there, a minute record remains to us in the Journal covering
the years 1711, '12 and '13, kept by the nuns, and
which furnishes us with many an interesting detail. The
Chevalier's letters as they arrive from Besan^on and Lyons are
read and re-read, commented on and placed in the Chaillot
Archives " in King James Ill's drawer." From Lyons the

420

CAMPAIGN IN DAUPHINY

Prince sends his sister the finest piece of brocade he can find to 1711
make her a skirt ; he doubted his own taste, so " prayed
Mme. the Intendante to choose it for him. . . ."

This is what the King wrote in his last letter to the Princess
of England in August :

" We are diverting ourselves well in spite of the rain. ... I went
to a banquet given by Mr Ideton (j/V), an Irish Lieutenant General
under our General ; such are the chances of fortune. Our cousin of
Savoy preferred taking the waters to making us a visit ; we had
modestly retired half a league, and glory came to seek us and crown
us in our camp, where we are in perfect security. ..." Some of
us remarking on the agreeable style of the King's letters, the Queen
said it was true her son made himself liked and esteemed ; she had
heard from Mylord Middleton (who had accompanied James) that two
deserters from the Duke of Berwick's Regiment having given
themselves up to the German General Thaun commanding the
Duke of Savoy's army, he had exclaimed : * You are cowards for
leaving your army, especially when the King, your master, is there.'
4 1 was surprised,' said the Queen, c that a German should be so polite,
and should dare to give my son the name of King.' "

The Queen wrote from Chaillot 2 August, 1711, to
de Torcy :

<l . . . . I thought it right in my son's absence to thank Cardinal Affaires
de la Tremouille for what he has done for him since Cardinal
Caprara's death [late Protector of the English at Rome] . . . when I
had my pen in hand, I let it run on to other matters, into which I
had perhaps done better not to have entered. In this doubt I send
you my letter open, so that you may despatch it or burn it, as
you may judge fitting. Some of the parentheses are a little too
long, but as I do not pride myself on writing good French, provided
people understand what I mean, it is all I desire. . . .

" I have another thing to ask you ; before my son's departure
Mylord Fingal, whom you saw in Paris, strongly urged him to
empower him to borrow money for his service from certain rich
and well-intentioned persons. . . . My son thanked him, but neither
accepted nor rejected the proposition, wishing, as he told me, to
consult you first. . . . Lord Fingal, who is on the point of leaving,
presses me strongly for a positive answer ; I have therefore, resolved

421

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1711 to ask you what I shall say to him ; you can judge better than I, i.

this small affair, at the present juncture may not do harm to greater
ones, which I do not believe, as it will make no noise ; ror though
he proposes to find ,20,000, I shall try to persuade him to begin
with a less sum, which he can obtain by addressing himself only to
three or four persons. ..."

News of an event mil of promise to the Stuart cause arrived
at this time from Scotland, the Duchess of Gordon had
presented a silver medal of James Stuart to the faculty of
lawyers at Edinburgh, bearing his effigy with the words cujus
est? on one side, and a fleet approaching the British Isles on
the other with the word reddite. Sixty-three out of the seventy-
five lawyers present voted it should be accepted and classed
under the title of James VIII of Scotland, and ordered their
dean to thank the Duchess in their name.

The cloistered chronicler of Chaillot rejoices at the acquittal
of the bold advocates, and the Queen tells the nuns that the
discourse or one of them, Dundas of Arniston, has been
printed and widely circulated in England and Scotland. " For
my part," exclaims the Princess Louise, " I am delighted not to
know the future." " It is a great mercy of God to hide it from
us," said the Queen, " when I came into France, I should have
been in despair if I had been told I must remain here two
years, we have been here twenty-three . . . ' "It seems to
me, Madam," continued the Princess, " that those who, like
me, have been born in misfortune are less to be pitied than
others ; never having tasted good fortune, they feel their
unhappiness less, and they can always hope ; but yet it is a sad
destiny to spend the best days of one's youth in so hard a
situation."

An immediate reply to this complaint comes from one of the
nuns : " What say you, Madam ? . . . The Queen, your
grandmother, used to thank God for having made her a queen,
and an unhappy queen ; it is a great happiness that Your Royal
Highness does not find herself in a condition to enjoy all the
pleasures due to her birth and rank." "That is true," said the

422

CONVERSATIONS AT CHAILLOT

Queen, "... I thank God for you and for my son that you 1711
are, at present, in the state you find yourselves, your inclination
to pleasure might have led you too far." " You are right,
Madam," acquiesces her young daughter. Mother Angelique
next takes up the thread of reminiscences : " The Queen our
foundress used to say in spite of all her sorrows she was glad to
be a queen, * the title is always a good one, and I do not cease
to be pleased with it.' ' " How was that possible ?" cried the
Queen, " for my part, I never tasted that pretended happiness ;
I was so afflicted at the death of King Charles II that I dared
not show the exent of my grief for fear of being accused of
dissimulation and grimace."

The Queen next spoke of her coronation : " Never can
there have been a more magnificent or well-ordered coronation
.... of all the jewels on my dress and mantle, only one
small diamond, worth forty francs, was lost ... A presage
which struck us all . . . was that the King's crown would not
stay on his head, it appeared ready to fall off, for all the care
that was used to steady it ... I only knew happiness in
England from the age of fifteen to twenty, but during those
five years, I was always having children and lost them all : so
judge of that happiness .... At our first exile to Brussels,
King Charles came to bid us good-bye. He was beside himself
with grief and wept. He said : ' The wind is against you,
don't go.' I flew into a passion and cried, ' How, Sir, you send
us into exile and now you are vexed ; we must go, you have
ordered it.' But I was wrong," continued her Majesty, " he
was not his own master, he had to yield to our enemies . . . . "

The Queen seems always to have preserved an intrepidity
worthy of her rank : " Her Majesty sometimes said the King
and she had always tried to inspire a like firmness in their
children, and that the King, who was very rarely angry, had
once lost his temper when the Prince of Wales, at the age of
four, had shown signs of fear. * As for that,' added the Queen,
' the Duchess of Modena, my mother, having noticed that I
was frightened when nine years old, at having a gun fired in the

423

QUEEN MARY OF MODEKA

1711 chimney of my room, ordered the firing to be continued until I
showed no more alarm.'

"The Queen is infinitely sensible of all her misfortunes,
but none touches her great soul more nearly than her state of
dependance,and her fear of being importunate ; she refuses herself
everything, so as to have the less to ask for .... she observes
the extremest moderation. One day . . . she appeared much
annoyed during her dinner and spoke warmly to Madame
Strickland in English ; . . . afterwards she did us the honour
to tell us she was angry because Madame Strickland had served
some young partridges, which must have cost dear, and she had
absolutely forbidden any such expense."

The Princess Louise had inherited her father's love of sport,
and on one occasion when the Queen had mentioned the late
King's and her mother's objection to her riding after her
accidents in Scotland, the Princess exclaimed : u Well, after my
accident last year when I was thrown and broke my nose, I was
by no means disgusted, and my first question was to ask if the
hare was caught ; the equerry was astonished at my enquiry ;
but the King my brother will not hear reason on this subject.
He cannot bear to see a woman on horseback." " Necessity
has settled the question for you," said the Queen, " you have no
horse fit to ride."

The kind Dauphiness who knew her tastes, sometimes con-
trived to give the young Princess a day's hunting. " In
September, she ordered the Duke of Lauzun," says our Journal,
" to summon a hunting-party in the Bois de Boulogne, to be
followed by a supper at the Duke's house at Passy." An
equerry bringing a horse and a lady's habit arrived with a note
from the Dauphiness to the Queen " asking her to permit the
princess to use the horse, which was one habitually ridden by
herself, and to excuse the liberty of sending one of her own
habits to the Princess of England . . . but the shortness of the
time prevented her from having a new one made . . . Her
Majesty answered with her own hand . . . that it would be
very wrong of her to refuse what was asked with so much

424

A HUNTING PARTY

goodness and civility . . . and that she felt real joy at the 1711
pleasure offered to her daughter. At half past twelve the
Duchesses of Lauzun and Duras arrived to fetch the Princess,
whose habit was scarlet laced with gold, while the others were
all in half-mourning, grey and black. ... At nine o'clock in
the evening Her Royal Highness returned with Lady Middle-
ton, well-satisfied with her day's pleasure."

The vision of her beautiful daughter in the rich red and
gold must have remained with the Queen through the sorrowful
days which were coming with the coming year. The following
Tuesday she determined to go to Versailles to see the King and
to thank the Dauphiness, and we see there was still a touch of
human nature in the saintly queen. " T am quite embarrassed
to show myself," she said several times, " I feel so old, and
that others think of me what I think of them, so that we
frighten one another."

One day, "October 2ist," says the Journal, "a note from
the Duke of Lauzun was put into the Queen's hand as she was
on her way to the Chapel ; she read it and showed it to her
daughter and passed on, merely desiring one of the Sisters to
write and thank the Duke and to ask him to keep her informed
of what he might learn. . . . The Princess wept sorely during
her dinner, but the Queen showed no sign of emotion."
Lauzun had reported a few words uttered by Louis XIV at
his levee " I wish the public to know what is passing. The
English offer conditions of peace which are tolerably reasonable,
and the choice of three towns to treat in." The Superior
observed : " Probably, Madame, the King, your son, and Your
Majesty, may find your advantage in a peace." The Queen's
reply was merely : " Peace is so great a good that we must
always rejoice in it, and we have so many obligations to France
that we can never wish too heartily for what may benefit her." *

1 The Awiho of Nov. 25 informs the Duke of Modena that Louis XIV " has sent
Queen Anne 1500 bottles of excellent champagne and 500 of Burgundy, with some
magnificent dresses, among them a violet one all embroidered with gold of the greatest
beauty, His Majesty having had the material woven expressly. A service of a new kind
of silver gilt (vermeil) is also being made for her." A previous awiso reports Nov. 9 :
" Duke Mazarin, who is over eighty years of age, is marrying a young lady of fifteen."

425

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1711 Mary Beatrice wrote to her son to hasten his return, but
Gaultier writing to de Torcy from London 3 November, 1711,
says :

Affaires jf by an y chance Mongoulin has not yet returned home, do not

v tran " press him to do so. as I think for his own interest he will have to go

geres

back to the country. . . .

" 4 December.

" Mongoulin must stay where he is and make no stir, and then it
is believed no notice will be taken of him. Prothose [Queen Anne]
and her friends [the Ministers] will think of him at the right
time."

Mary Beatrice's faithful friend Cardinal Gualterio had managed

her private affairs in Rome so well that he was able in January,

1712, to send her a round sum of money from her Monti

Brit. MUS. estates. He writes at the same time that her son had better

Add.MSS. , . . ,, T- i j

20,294, not hazard his most precious person by going to Jknglana
" without full security. I will also take the liberty of telling
Your Majesty you would do well to return to St Germains,
out of regard for your health " [Gualterio always maintained
that Chaillot air did not suit the Queen], " and for the consola-
tion of the poor people there. God designed Your Majesty
for the throne and not for the cloister, and it is necessary to
submit to His will, even though thorns take the place in Your
Majesty's crown, of jewels in the crowns of others. I humbly
beg your forgiveness for my most respectful liberty. ..."

Gaultier, now that the negotiations for peace were on foot,
suggests that Louis XIV should write to Queen Anne and that
" Mongoulin might seize the occasion to let Prothose [Queen
Anne] know his sentiments, and that he is ready to be guided
by the advice she may send him." l

A withdrawal from France is also recommended by the

1 The airv'ui prove the general opinion of Queen Anne's good intentions, " Oct. 18,
711. . . . The King [Louis XIV] has stated that two Englishmen had come to ask him
for the King of England's proposals which have been found acceptable in England. The
preliminary articles appear to be that Philip V shall remain King of Spain and the Indies,
and the King of England shall be King of Scotland and Ireland." We find the statement
repeated in several letters.

426

RISING HOPES

English Jacobites, and one or the French Ministers writes to 1712
Gaultier : " I have seen what Mongoulin's friends propose. I
do not know if they have reflected that Berne is full of Whigs
and that he would probably be less safe there than in any other
part of Europe."

The Duke of Marlborough gave the same advice, saying, in
one of his conferences with Tunstal, an agent of Lord Middle-
ton's, " that a Protestant state should be chosen, and that to go Stuart
to the Pope's dominions would be fatal." Marlborough also
recommended the urging of the question of the Queen's join-
ture at the coming congress, " which cannot be refused, it being
formerly conceded at Poncy [peace of Ryswick] and only
diverted by the unworthiness of him who then ruled the roast."
[William III] " He declared, nay, solemnly swore, that the
recall or the Prince appeared to him certain to take place."
Middleton's answer, while it shows his distrust of Marl-
borough, shows also how high the tide of hope had risen at St.
Germains " As for your lawyer [Marlborough] he is gone,
and before you meet again we shall see clearer. . . . He might
have been great and good, but God hardened Pharaoh's heart,
and he can only now pretend to the humble merit of a post-
boy, who brings good news to which he has not contributed."

So certain of success did the Prince's prospects appear that
the Dauphin paid a visit to St. Germains to congratulate Mary
Beatrice and her son upon the happy turn of affairs. It was his
last visit ; the young Dauphiness was attacked by malignant
fever on the 6th February and died on the nth, her husband
following her to the grave six days later. Writing of the
double tragedy to the Superior at Chaillot the Queen says :

" After the King of France no one has lost more than we in every
way. We must adore God's judgments which are always just,
however incomprehensible. . . .

I beg you, my dear Mother, to send me by the bearer the packet
I left with you, and my Will. I should like to put everything in
order before death comes, for we see him strike every day where we
least expect it. . . ."

427

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

"CARDINAL GUALTERIO TO LORD MIDDLETON.

" ROME, 5 March 1712.

Brit. Mus. "... I greatly hope for the conclusion of peace, so desirable on

Add.MSS. ever y account. It is said on many sides that the Kingdom of Sicily

f. 59 ' might be allotted to His Majesty until it should please God to restore

him to his hereditary throne. I should be infinitely pleased, for though

the kingdom is small, it is a good and a beautiful one. 1 I am in deep

affliction at the loss of the Dauphiness, which has been rendered

still greater by the fatal news which has come from Turin of the

death of the Dauphin. ... I cannot think without dismay of the

consequences of so terrible an event."

Before the meeting or the Treaty of Utrecht, James Stuart

.issued a protest to " all kings, princes and potentates " against

all that might be done to his prejudice and to that of his

legitimate successors. " Given at St. Germains the 25 April,

1712, in the eleventh year of our reign. J. R."

Some of the wealthy English Jacobites were preparing their
gifts, and there is a letter from the Queen about this time to old
Lady Petre, thanking her for the offer of ,1,000 for the King's
service at a time that he stands in very great need of it. . . ."

The lawyers also were busy preparing the Queen's demand
for the payment of her pension, which it was believed the Treaty
of Utrecht would decree, and drawing up a power of attorney.

Nairne "... The difficulty consists in this," writes Dicconson, the

vHi^No Queen's treasurer, to Mr. Berry, a lawyer in London, " how to avoid
owning ye Government, in what she signs herself, and yet not
to offend it ; to compass these two points and yet make the instru-
ment valid is ye matter you are desired to advise with some judicious
Counsel about. Should the Queen stile herself Queen Mother, she
supposes that will not be allowed ; should she stile herself Queen
Dowager that would be a lessening of herself, and a prejudice to the
King, her son, which she will never do.

The question is, whether ye Instrument may not be good without
any title at all, only ye word We (for inasmuch as it will be signed
Maria R. and sealed with her seal, one would think ye Person would

1 The Kingdom of Sicily was allotted to the Duke of Savoy by the Treaty of
Utrecht,

428

'"Hill,"

DEATH OF PRINCESS LOUISE MARIE

be sufficiently denoted). Our Councel here think she might stile 1712
herself thus : Mary )ueen Consort of James //, late King of England^
etc. . . . Send your result as soon as you can, yt Her Majesty may
not have to seek in so material a point when ye time comes or
using it. ... "

Before the answer came the waters of affliction had closed
over the head of the Queen, and she had become, in Madame
de Maintenon's words, " a model of desolation." Her son
sickened with small-pox on the 3rd of April, the Princess
caught it on the i ith, and expired on the morning of the i8th
in the twenty-first year of her age. Her body was taken to
the English Benedictines in the night of April 20, and the
royal virgin heart was laid beside the hearts of Henrietta Maria
and of James in the quiet stillness of the Tribune of the Chaillot
chapel. As had been the case with her father, a portion of the
entrails were deposited in the Church of St. Germains, where
they still remain.

" QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

"ST GERMAINS, 21 April 1712.

" The depth of affliction I am in at the death of my daughter,
the danger of losing my son, . . . and a fever which confines me to
my bed, do not permit me to write to you with my own hand.
I have lost one of the chief consolations left to me ... a daughter I
loved and who deserved all my tenderness ; I hope God will give me
strength to support this sorrow. . . . '

" QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO POPE CLEMENT XI.

"ST GERMAINS, 26 April, 1712.

" Before my son was out of danger from the small-pox, my Vatican
daughter was seized with the same malady and was suddenly taken Archlves
from me on the eighth day, but not without previous signs of
the most perfect resignation. This blow is all the more cruel, that I
lose the dearest companion who would have consoled me for the
absence of my son, made necessary by the present conjuncture of
affairs. He has not yet been told of this most grievous loss, as it is
feared a sudden shock might occasion a relapse. In the midst of so
many afflictions with which it has pleased God to visit me, I implore
the compassion of Your Holiness and the help of your prayers. . . . "

429

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1712 Gualterio, writing to Lord Middleton, fears the effect upon
the Queen of the Princess's death : " Misfortune persecutes
us, and I confess to your Lordship that for some time past I
never open letters from France without a feeling of terror."

The Queen's first letter to Chaillot after her daughter's death
was written to the Superior on her re-election. It is dated 19
May, 1712.

"... What shall I say to you of the dear daughter whom God gave
me, and whom He took away : nothing but that because it was His
doing I must be silent, nor open my lips but to praise His holy Name.
He is the Master of the mother and of the children j He took one
and left the other, I cannot doubt but He did what was best for them
both, and for me also, if I knew how to profit by it, but alas ! . . .
I do not act as I speak. . . . Pray for the living and for the dead. I
believe the latter are in a condition to hear our prayers in the sight of
God, for from the dispositions in which He placed my dear daughter
at the beginning of her illness. ... I have every reason to hope that
she enjoys, or will soon enjoy with our holy king the happiness
of Heaven, and that they will obtain for me the grace to rejoin
them when, and where, and how it shall please the Master of all
things. ..."

At a later period the Queen dictated to the nuns the follow-
ing account of the Princess's words during her illness :

chaillot " Madam, you see the happiest person in the world ; I have just

Journal made my general confession ; it seems to me I have made it as well

as possible, and that if I were to be told at once that I must die, I
could not do differently than I have done. I have abandoned myself
entirely to the hands of God ; I do not ask to live, but only that His
will may be accomplished in me." The Queen replied : " My
daughter, I cannot say the same. ... I pray God to preserve your
life that you may the better love and serve Him. . . . ' "If
I desire to live, Madam, it is only for that reason, and because I
think I may be of some comfort to you."

The last words probably referred to the coming departure of
her brother, whose expulsion from France was to be one of the
English primary conditions of peace, and which had caused
the Princess such bitter weeping when she had heard the first

430

TREATY OF UTRECHT

news of the negotiations. Utrecht was decided upon for the 1712
meeting of the plenipotentiaries, and Gualterio, writing to the
Queen on the threatened consequence to her son, says :

"... As for the King, Your Majesty takes him, so to speak, out Brit. Mus.
of your own arms, to place him in those of divine Providence. . . . Add - MSS -
Little by little God is separating Your Majesty from all earthly f. 157 '
things to make you entirely His. It is the fruit of your many
prayers, of so many good works, and also of the intercession of the
holy King. Your present solitude will be filled by him.

" I regret that I cannot have the privilege of personally serving and
assisting Your Majesty in this tribulation, and I assure you that if it
were permitted I would willingly leave all things to enjoy that
honour. But wherever I may be, I entreat Your Majesty to deign
to look upon me as the most submissive and the truest of your
servants, the one most desirous of obeying and serving you. ..."

From this time forward a touch, almost of awe, seems to
enter into the love and respect felt for Mary Beatrice by those
who knew her, as of one set apart for suffering. The Princess
des Ursins writing from Madrid to the Princess of Vaudemont
of the English Queen's virtues and afflictions, says : " She will
some day be a great saint," and the great preacher, Bourdaloue,
said of her : " I know no one so holy or more worthy of
veneration. Since I heard her I strike my breast, and say to
myself, that Queen will judge us some day."

The Queen, who had lost her great friend Franchise Angelique
Priolo in the spring, the only person, she once wrote, in whom,
except Father Ruga, she had entire confidence, made her first
visit to Chaillot after her daughter's death, in July. " She went chaiiiot
to the Tribune, where prayers were said for the King and
the Princess. . . Afterwards Her Majesty admitted the Duchess
of Lauzun . . . and spoke of the death and virtues of the
Dauphin whose life, by Father Martineau, she commended. . . .
The Queen told us how, at Marly, the King, Madame de
Maintenon and she had shed many tears to see that they, the
old, were left, and that death had taken the young the
Dauphin, the Dauphiness and the Princess of England."

QUEEN MARY OF MODEISTA

1712 On this occasion the beautiful brocade which James had sent
from Lyons to his sister, was given to make a vestment for the
Chaillot chapel.

At her next visit, August 18, the Queen spoke of the
Jesuits : " Although she had always liked the Society, she had
never been blind to the faults of individuals ; the late King,
her lord, had submitted her to a strange trial (un etrange
exercise) in giving himself up to the advice of Father Petre,
admitting him to his Council, and trying to make him a
Cardinal ; the man had no love for her, and she had suffered
greatly by him, but the imprudence and bad conduct of one
man must not fall upon a whole company. . . .

" The Queen smiled at the extravagance of the Dutch Gazette
which said the * Pretender ' had received the Pope's permission
to turn Protestant for a season."

The next remark of Mary Beatrice betrays a fear which it is
probable had often haunted her. " The only consolation she
had in the Princess of England's death was the thought of her
safety ; God's designs upon her had been full of mercy. . . .
The present English Government would have accepted her
more willingly than the King ; they would have married her
to some Protestant prince of their own choice, and she might
have had to endure great combats . . , Indeed it was true that
the Princess, with her engaging air, and agreeable and caressing
manners, .pleased better than did the King, her brother, who
was too cold ; Mylord Perth had often told him, when he was
a boy, that he ought to obtain by study, the affability which his
sister had by nature."

The question of finding an asylum for the doubly exiled
prince was settled by the hearty consent of the Duke of
Lorraine whose wife, it will be remembered, was a daughter
of the Duke of Orleans and a great favourite of Mary Beatrice
to receive him into his states and to give him the Castle at
Bar-le-Duc as a residence. The French Envoy d'Audiffrey
reports to Louis XIV that the Duke " esteems himself happy
to have the occasion of being agreeable to Your Majesty. . . .

432

DEPARTURE OF JAMES III

that the King of England may not only live at Bar, but in 1172
other towns of his dominions. . . . Nothing need be feared at Pub. Rec.
Bar from small bodies of Your Majesty's enemies, as there are France,
200 men of his Regiment of Guards, and the upper town is No - 3 * 6
well enclosed, but he feared it would not be safe against larger
detachments . . . and for this reason, it might be better to
choose Nancy. I answered, according to Your Majesty's
commands that this would be provided for by the assurances
obtained from the Princes still engaged in the League. . ." l

The parting between the Queen and her son took place in
the Tribune at Chaillot.

" September 6.

" The King came here wearing a scarlet coat ; it was the eve Chaillot
of his departure. He did not appear moved, but had a composed and ou
deliberate air. ... At five o'clock the Duke of Lauzun arrived.
The King took tea with the Queen, and they embraced with many
tears in the Queen's room, whence they went to the Tribune,
and separated there. Her Majesty wept bitterly at the King's
leaving, and he was moved, but with no sign of weakness, recom-
mending our Mother and the Sisters to think of consoling the Queen.
Then he went to Chalons and afterwards to Bar."

DUKE OF BERWICK TO JAMES III AT CHALONS.

"S-r GERMAINS, 23 October, 1712.

"... I was yesterday at Versailles but could -not discourse with
M. de Torcy for he was gone a-hunting with M. de Tallard. ... I
do really believe that they mean well for your interests . . . but
they are so afraid of its being known before the conclusion of
the peace, that they are unwilling to trust anybody with their secret ;
... at the same time it is certain that both Your Majesty's affairs
and their safety would run great hazard if the Princess of Denmark
should unfortunately tripp of, before your restauration were secured.
... I can say no more until I discourse with M. de Torcy, and
shall then settle with him the time of my going to make my Court
to Your Majesty : if there be nothing that presses, I would willingly
stay till the Duchess of Berwick be brought a bed, which I reckon
will be in the beginning of November. . . .

1 The awiso of Sept. 6 says : "The King of England no longer has a guard, and is
only spoken of as the Duke of Gloucester."

433 F *

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1712 I found the Queen in good health and Your Majesty may be sure

that I shall never be wanting in doing all that lyes in my power
to obey her commands."

DUKE OF PERTH TO CARDINAL GUALTERIO.

"ST GERMAINS, 20 Nov. 1712.

Brit. Mus. "... His Majesty is still at Chalons and will be there until peace

Add MSS. - s conc i u( ] ec [ otherwise he would not be safe at Bar-le-Duc. His

zo ? z y o j

f. 13 English friends press him to go for a time into a protestant country ;

but that he will not do, as he does not wish to give ground for
supposing that he is capable of changing his religion. ..."

The letter next gives important news :

" I doubt not but Your Eminence has heard that Mylord Churchill,
whom our enemies call the Duke of Marlborough, is about to leave
England with his famous wife who has so long and so cruelly
oppressed the Princess of Denmark with a prodigious tyranny. The
rumour of what Parliament was going to do against him so frightened
him that he gave a large sum of money to the Princess and disclosed
a conspiracy of which he had been invited to be the head, to bring
the young Duke of Hanover to England, when the Princess would
have been dethroned and the Ministers hanged.

The Queen's dowry will be granted to her, but not so long as the
King her son remains in France. . . "

The Queen, if she could have had her wish would have
remained permanently at Chaillot, or would have entered the
Visitation Convent at Moulins :

Chaillot I W as told not to think of it. ... I did not content myself with

the advice of Father Gaillard and Father Ruga, I consulted Madame
de Maintenon and the Duke of Berwick ; all were of opinion that
in the present state of my son's affairs, who is not yet settled in life,
I should not retire altogether from the world. . . I wrote to my son
about it, and this is what he answered : * It is not for me, Madam,
to exhort Your Majesty, I should be very impertinent to have that
temerity, but you know what St. Augustine says : non pervenitur
ad summam pacem etiam in silentio nisi cum magno strepitu
pugnaverit cum motibus suis ! "

One or two interesting remarks of the Queen are registered
during this visit to Chaillot ; speaking of the death of

434

CHAILLOT CONVERSATIONS

Charles II at 7.30 in the morning : "The King went
publicly to Mass at eight o'clock, which surprised the Pro-
testants who then appeared to like him all the better for it,
saying he was a straight and generous man who wished to
deceive nobody."

On another occasion being asked by one of the nuns if there
was any ground for the reported inclination of Queen Catherine
of Braganza for Lord Feversham : " None," said the Queen.
" Then how did the rumour arise, Madam ? Malice and
calumny never dared attack your Majesty. . . ." " You are
too young to know." " Forgive me, Madam, private persons
know very well what is said of princes, and an old poet
remarks that their faults are written in the public archives. . . ."
During her recreation she spoke of her aunt, her father's sister,
who became a Carmelite. " I have received a letter from her,"
said the Queen. " She writes with admirable humility as if
she were the last person in the world. I am ashamed not to
have written to her for so long ; we used to dispute as to which
of us would be a nun, I was fifteen and she was thirty when
the marriage with the Duke of York was spoken of, and we
said secretly to each other : * You will be chosen ' ; but the
lot fell to me ; it was thought that youth was a defect which
time would cure, but the thirty years of my aunt were an evii
which would go on increasing. . . ."

On the subject of her marriage, the Queen said more than
once that the King's attachments had given her intolerable
pain ; and that she had said to him with regard to a certain
person : " Give her my dowry, make her Queen of England,
but never let me see her again." The Queen spoke as if she
had committed a great fault. While the Queen was here she
always spoke well of the Princess of Denmark, saying that for
all her prosperity she was not happy.

No better sign of the inclinations of Queen Anne and her
ministers gladdened the exiled Court, than the appointment of
the Duke of Hamilton 1 the main pillar of James's cause in

1 James Douglas, tourth Duke of Hamilton, killed 15 November, 1712.

435 F F 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1712 Scotland as Ambassador to France. Hamilton had written
a cyphered letter in June, saying that all was going excellently,
and that he had been offered the embassy to Vienna, but would
not accept before he had James Ill's opinion thereon. On the
5th of December, the Due de Lauzun arrived at Chaillot
with bad news for the Queen. Hamilton had been slain in a
duel with Lord Mohun, riot without suspicion of foul play on
the part of the latter's second, General Macartney. It was
generally believed that Hamilton was to have brought secret
powers to treat for James's adoption as her successor by Queen
Anne, provided she were left in possession during her life-
time.

MATTHEW PRIOR TO THE LORD TREASURER.

"PARIS, 29 December 1712.

Pub. Rec. "... Another obstacle is that the Chevalier must be out of

Office, France at the signing of the Peace, and the Emperor will not let

No. 340 him have passeports sufficient to secure his stay in Lorraine. The

Monarch [Louis XIV] is a good deal troubled upon this head lest

(as M. de Torcy expressed it) the young Man should fall into the

hands of the Hussars or Barbarians, and M. d'Aumont has, I presume,

orders to speak to our Minister upon it.

11 As to the Dowry, I shall not only be dunned to death, but hanged,
for the Dowager sends messengers to me, which you in England do
not think it extremely lawfull to receive. But if it is to be paid,
pray let it be done in the handsome manner that may show the
charity of the Queen and the generosity of her Lord Treasurer
[Harley] M. de Torcy thought I should have orders concerning it,
and so, I am otherwise told, did the Monarch. ..."

The spirit of intrigue and jealousy which never ceased to
exist among the different sections of the Jacobites now fastened
upon Lord Middleton, against whom vague charges were made
of betraying secrets and of faithlessness in his master's service.
There is an indignant letter from Abbe Innes, the rector of
the Scotch College on the subject, in which he speaks of
Middleton as the only person capable of giving advice to the
Prince.

Lord Middleton offered his resignation, which James had

436

EARL OF MIDDLETON

the good sense not to accept, and the Queen wrote to her 1713
faithful servant :

" ST. GERMAINS, 28 January.
"I have not had the heart all this time to write to you upon this Carte

\TSS

dismall subject of your leaving the King, but i am sure you are just B od [ e ' ian
enough to believe that it has, and dos give me a great deal of trouble, Library
and that which i see it gives the King increases mine ; . . . . but
alas, i am grown so insignificant, and so useless to my friends, that
all i can do is to pray for them ; . . . I own to you that as weary as
i am of the world, i am not yet so dead to it, as not to feel the usage
the King and i meet with ; l his troubles are more sensible to me
than my own, and if all fell upon me, and his affairs went well, and
he were easy, i think i could be so to ... You told me in one of your
former letters, that you were charmed with the King's being a good
son, what do you think then i must be, that am the poor old doating
mother of him. I do assure you his kyndnesse to me is all my sup-
port under God ; . . . i am also charmed with him for beeing a
good master, and a trew friend to those that deserve it from him,
though i am sorry from my heart, that you have so much cause of
late to make experience of it. . "

James Stuart was still at Chalons, and in a letter to some
lady unknown, Mary Beatrice writes in January 1713 saying
she has been ill but is now better, and that she writes such long
letters to her son, that she has little time for other corres-
pondence :

" The tenderness with which you speak or my dear children, of Brit. Mus.
him whom God has left me as well of her whom He has taken from fg dd g MSS '
me, charms me and shows me the tenderness you have for me. . . . Art. 57,
I cannot express the obligations we owe M. de Lorraine, who alone f ' I72
asked and obtained the passports from the Emperor for my son's
safety. . . . 2

I could wish the King my son were able to thank him in person,
but I do not yet know how far he will be able to go j I expect news
to-morrow as to when he will leave Chalons ; as for me I am waiting

1 In one of her conversations at Chaillot the Queen remarked : " We are Kings and
Queens of comedy or rather of tragedy."

2 Joseph I had died in April 1711, and was succeeded by his brother the Archduke
Charles, under the title of Charles VI. It was hoped he would prove more friendly to
the Stuart cause than his two predecessors.

437

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1713 impatiently for the end of the winter to be able to go to Chaillot
where my heart rests better, near the dear hearts which are there,
than anywhere else. ..."

Before leaving Chalons on the arrival of the Emperor's long-
deferred passports, James wrote a graceful letter of farewell to
Louis XIV, thanking him for the asylum he had granted him
in France, almost from his birth, and for providing him with
another " more suitable to the situation or your affairs and of
mine." He asks for the continual protection of the King
" for the Queen my mother, the only person left to me of all
who were dearest to me, and who deserves everything from me,
as the best of mothers. . . .'*

He wrote at the same time to Madame de Maintenon, who
replied in the following letter, which is interesting by the
careful respect of its terms towards a man who owed his
recognition as King in great measure to her influence over
Louis XIV :

SIRE,

La "Your Majesty will have no difficulty in believing that I could

Amster '' not w " te to y ou > smce I have not done so j for the last eight or ten
dam, 1756, days I have been in a state of weakness which prevents me from
vo1 - S going to St. Germains : it gives me great pain not to be able to re-

double my attentions to the Queen, at a time when she is deprived of
all consolations ; Your Majesty nevertheless gave her a great one by
the letter you wrote to the King, which certainly is above all that
can be said of it, far from needing to be seconded : I wish with all
my heart it were made public ; it would augment the zeal and esteem
felt for Your Majesty. The one with which you honoured me
overcomes me with pleasure ; I venture to say that I deserve the
continuance of your favour by the ardent and sincere attachment I
have for her whom you hold most dear, and for Your Majesty. The
day will come when we shall see you re-established, and then the
misfortunes of your youth will become your happiness and your glory.

" I am, with the profound respect I owe you. . . . *

Clement XI had given the red hat to Cardinal Polignac on
James Ill's recommendation, an act which caused the Queen
great pleasure, and must partly have consoled her for the Pope's

438

DUKE OF BERWICK'S PROPOSAL

continued unwillingness to make Cardinal Gualterio, known 1713
for his friendship for France, protector of the English at
Rome. 1 She writes to Gualterio " the justice the Pope has
done to the King, my son, and to the merit of Cardinal
Polignac gives me sensible pleasure .... as at last it shows
to the whole world that he is not wanting in consideration
towards him [her son] .... It gratifies me to think that I
may soon thank you in person as you lead me to hope I
may see you in May .... with all my heart I trust nothing
may hinder your journey."

When Abbe Gaultier returned to Paris after the peace, the
Duke of Berwick pressed for the fulfilment of Harley's (Earl
of Oxford's) promises : " He put us off .... finally I Memoirs

i v- T i u 1 i j of Duke 01

proposed that King James should go secretly to his sister, and Berwick
that she should present him to Parliament as her heir and
successor, and he would make all the promises respecting
religion, &c." This soldier-like solution met with no re-
sponse : " It became morally certain that all the advances
Oxford had made, had no other motive than his own interest
by joining the Jacobites with the Tories to strengthen his party
in Parliament. His object achieved, he thought of nothing
but playing into the hands of the Court of Hanover."

" QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO SUPERIOR AT CHAILLOT.

"ST. GERMAINS, 20 March (Lent] 1713.

" I am very glad Sister M. Gabriel liked the tea, but

assuredly the poor present did not deserve so beautiful and eloquent a
letter. . . . My son, the King continues well at Bar, where the
Duke of Lorraine overwhelms him with kindness. I recommend
him earnestly to your prayers. . . . He has great need of patience,
courage, prudence, above all that God may strengthen him in his
faith, and give him grace never to succumb to the temptations he
has, and will have from his visible and invisible foes. . . . Pray also
for our great King, I hope God will long preserve him to enjoy the

1 He had accepted the rich Abbey of St. Remy at Rheims, and had placed the arms of
France over the door of his palace at Rome. Clement XI, like his predecessors, seems to
have been doubtful of the advantage to the Stuart cause of the preponderating influence
of France.

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1713 benefits of the peace, .... which we are led to hope will be signed
in March, I hope so with all my heart, more for others than for
myself, though in time my son may also profit by it. . . *

In a letter from the Queen to Pope Clement XI in favour
of the beatification of Cardinal Bellarmine she says :

Brit. Mus. Apart from the general motives I have for interesting

Add. MSS. ,- . , /-. . -i

10,293, myself with the whole Church in the matter, my particular reasons

Art. 88, are that Italy, my country, gave birth to so great a man. . . and also
that James I held him in singular esteem, to the point of declaring in
a letter he wrote to him that he had found more solid doctrine in a
short chapter of his, than in whole volumes written by the Protestant
ministers. . . . finally the asylum he offered with special charity and
generosity to Catholics from Great Britain, who, flying from persecu-
tion, took refuge in Rome : . . . "

At the beginning of May, 1713, the Queen went toChaillot,
where she received letters from her son, telling of a visit to
the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine at Luneville. " The Duke
went to meet him," says the Chaillot Journal, " receiving him
perfectly, and the Duchess wept with tenderness when she
embraced him, . . . Luneville is a fine town well situated, and
some of the apartments are as fine as Versailles ; he had hunted
with the Duke, and had given his gold snuff-box to the
Duchess, receiving her lapis one in return ; in the evening
there had been country dances after the fashion of Lorraine ;
as the Duchess did not dance, the old ladies of the Court dared
not do so, though they greatly wished it, which the King per-
ceiving, he took the Duchess and danced with her, which gave
the old ladies courage, who danced with great enjoyment. . . ."

Mary Beatrice, who had before complained of the sadness of
dining alone in public at St. Germains, an irksome duty she
escaped at Chaillot, told the nuns during this visit that " since
the departure of the King she had no one to whom she could
open her heart, which was a hard privation ; but in losing the
persons to whom one could open one's heart, one lost many
occasions of offending God, and that when we could spend a

440

MIDDLETON'S RESIGNATION

few days without speaking on unpleasant topics, our emotion 1713
seemed to pass away. . . . June. In the evening the Queen
told us the King had insisted upon her having her portrait
painted ; he had begged her to do so before he left St. Ger-
mains, she had consented and had arranged it should be done
at Chaillot by the same painter who had taken the King's
portrait and whose name was Gobert. . . ." l

The cabals against the Earl of Middleton had succeeded, and lm P-

TT o IT-VI/-T- iv r Archives,

in June James Stuart wrote to the Duke or Lorraine that My- Vienna
lord Middleton had long pressed him to allow him to retire
from office, and he had at last consented, giving him at the
same time " public marks of my particular consideration for
his long services, great merit and inviolable fidelity. To this
end, the Queen gives him the charge of first Lord in waiting,
and I, that of gentleman of the bed-chamber to his son Lord
Clermont. Sir Thomas Higgons, whom Your Royal High-
ness saw at Luneville, will replace Lord Middleton. . . ."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO PRINCESS VAUDEMONT.

(The Queen begins by thanking her for the reception she and the Brit. Mus.
Prince of Vaudemont had accorded her son at Commercy) " . . . . A g !J' ^ SS '
He tells me you are both very amiable, very polite and very sincere, Art. 58,
and that the last quality charms him more than all the others, and I I7S
cannot help wounding your modesty by telling yeu that he calls you
the most amiable saint in the world. . .

I am delighted to hear that your health is good ; mine is not bad,
but I am extraordinarily thin. . . . All the good you tell me of the
King my son is a sensible pleasure to me, for I think you like me too
well to flatter me. ... I admire God's providence for that dear son,
who, obliged to leave France and wander over the world (courlr le
monde] has found in Lorraine, Princes full of goodness and friendship,
who give him a safe and agreeable asylum, doing for him what his
nearest relations will not (I mean the P 0688 his sister), and the
others can no longer do for him. ... I cannot close without asking
you to kiss my dear Chevalier for me, your age and your virtue give
you that privilege, and I embrace you with all my heart as the best
of my friends "

1 No trace can be found of this portrait. See Appendix C.

44 i

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1713 Meanwhile, the Queen had received, on Ascension Day, May
1713, the printed papers of the Treaty of Utrecht. After read-
ing them she placed the voluminous packet on the chimney-
shelf, and a few days later asked the nuns if they had looked
chaiiiot at them. No one had had the courage to do so : " l Then I
Journal w 'j] k ave coura g e f or you,' said the Queen and taking up her
spectacles, began to read aloud ... at the fourth and fifth
articles which declare that in order to secure the peace and
repose of Europe and of England, the King [Louis XIV]
recognises, for himself and his successors, the protestant line of
Hanover according to the acts of Parliament, and promises that
he who has taken the title of King of Great Britain shall no
longer stay in France, that he will give him no help by land
or sea . . . the Queen heaved a sigh at the words * he who
has taken,' and said * the King of France knows if my son's
title is just or unjust . . . but I am sure the King is more
sorry about it than we are . . . hard necessity knows no law,
the King of France cannot do otherwise, and England would
have made peace on no other terms. God will care for us. . . ."
The Journal tells of the Queen's joy at hearing of Cardinal
Gualterio's approaching visit to France, of the regular letters
from her son, from Bar and Luneville, of visits from the Duke
and Duchess of Berwick and many great personages of the
French Court, including Madame de Maintenon, and of a peace-
making episode with her faithful old friend and servant the
Due de Lauzun. The Queen had heard he would not go to
his house at Passy, as some of his relations had made alterations
there against his will, so she asks him if she goes there will he
go also ? He protests he would go an canon et au feu for Her
Majesty. " I do not ask as much as that, only to receive me
at Passy." He promised, and at her recreation the Queen said :
" the very thought of such an excursion in my present state
frightens me, and my presence can only give pain to my friends,
but I must make an effort to restore peace and union in a
family." " In the evening Cardinal Gualterio arrived, and
with him came Lady Middleton's sons [Lord Clermont and

442

Mr. Middleton] who had spent five years in prison in 1713
England."

When Cardinal de Polignac came to pay his respects to
Mary Beatrice on his promotion at James Stuart's recom-
mendation, the nuns made him put on his train before going in
to the Queen, "which made Her Majesty laugh heartily."

Many instances are given of her self-denying economy and
her regret at refusing an alms, " as she only had two rings
left one the little ruby of her marriage, and the other the
large ruby of her coronation. * As to the small diamond of my
marriage, I am sending it to the King, my son, with some of
my daughter's hair, which he has asked for ; were it not already
promised I would give it.' . . ."

During Cardinal Gualterio's stay in Paris he received a
curious letter dated Saumur, 29 July, 1713, from Fraser of
Lovat, Lord Lovat's brother. It is endorsed in pencil " inter-
essantissimo, from the brother of the famous Lovat, the traitor
of Culloden."

*...'. I have solicited the Courts of Versailles and St Germains Brit. Mus.
for five years to allow me to go back to my own country ; my brother 20 J
prevented my returning without the consent of those two Courts. ... f. 74
Lord Perth's letters declare that my King and the Queen never
wished to hinder me from going home ; on the contrary their
Majesties desired it. ... This has determined me to go at once,
in order that our house may not become extinct through the barbarous
persecution my brother has suffered for ten years from his enemies at
the Court of St Germains, and which he is resolved to suffer rather
than abandon the interests of France and of the King. . . . Madame
de la Rochemillay having advised my brother that the Queen is still
irritated against him. ... I dare not have the boldness to importune
you at a time when the Queen is perhaps reproaching Your Eminence
for having had the charity to protect us. . . But I cannot go away
without assuring you that the gratitude of the house of Lovat will last
as long as there is a Fraser alive . . . and I take the liberty of im-
ploring Your Eminence for the love of God not to abandon my
brother, as he only came to and stayed in France under your
auspices ... I declare before God, Who will judge Kings and
Queens as well as us, that my brother and I have had no more com-

443

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

merce with our King's enemies than with the Turk, and that neither
of us has received a single letter, nor any other thing from the present
Government of England or Scotland for the nine years we have been
in France ; Your Eminence may judge by that how much the Queen
and the King are mistaken on our account. God grant that the in-
justice that Princess continues to do us may not bring the malediction
of heaven upon her and her son. ... I beg you, Sir, to assure the
King and the Queen that in spite of our suffering, I am leaving with
the firm resolution to risk my life and the heads of my clan . . .
whenever a good opportunity presents itself .... and those and their
despicable family who have ruined us with their Majesties may have
cause to repent it. ... "

Lord Lovat escaped from Saumur before the end of the year,
and arrived in London, where he and his cousin, Fraser of
Castle Leathers, who had contrived his evasion, were arrested in
Soho Square ; he was subsequently bailed for 5,000 by Lord
Sutherland, Forbes of Culloden, and others.

In July the Queen and the nuns were much diverted by the
visit of a Quaker " who had his hat removed by a footman,"
says the Journal, " as his principles did not allow him to call
anyone master or mistress. * Art thou the Queen ? ' ' Yes.'
4 Then I have come to tell thee thy son will soon return to
England. I am going to Bar to announce it to him.' * How
do you know .... and when will it be ? ' asked the Queen.
To that the Quaker would give no answer, contenting himself
with saying if he had not been sure he would not have gone to
the expense of a journey to Bar."

The Quaker went on to Bar, " and when the Queen was
laughing over his stories, some one observed that a person like
that, who would be shut up as a madman here, might do the
King some injury. * Oh, as to that,' said the Queen, * the King
has no fear, besides, those poor people are quite harmless and
they greatly loved the late King. . . . All kinds of religions
are tolerated in England, and the late King used to say that
they had one bond of negative union which consisted in not
submitting to the Pope ; with that exception, everything was
welcome in England. The King, my lord, was firmly persuaded

444

BAD NEWS

that no man should be forced in matters of religion ; that was 1713
not believed in England where he was thought to be in league
with the King of France to do with regard to religion what was
being done in France, when the King drove out all the Hugue-
nots ; they took refuge in Holland and in England, and made
us odious there ; as the King my son was born about that

time, everything conspired against us I was accused of

many things of which I never thought, and they are still mis-
taken in me, attributing crimes to me of which I am assuredly
incapable a supposititious child and perjuries ; on the other
hand those who love me credit me with virtues I do not
possess, but God will be my judge.' ' On the subject of
religion, some one expressing the hope that it might triumph
with the return of the King to the throne : " If my son were
restored," answered the Queen, " there would be no change of
religion, all that would be done would be to stop the persecu-
tion of the Catholics ; prudence would forbid any innova-
tions."

The Journal goes on to relate the excellent news from
Lorraine, how the Duke and Duchess have sent word to the
Duchess of Orleans of their love and esteem for the King, to
his mother's great delight. Then comes a certain Wednesday
when the Marquis de Torcy arrives with a message for the
Queen. " In leaving her presence he said her virtue was
Imirable, but her sorrows were very great ; according to all
appearances her son would be restored, but not yet. When the
Queen supped, it was noticed that contrary to her usual habit

she was very sad and much moved Some one had the

boldness to ask if M. de Torcy had brought bad news. * He
told me nothing fresh, I knew it. God be praised for all. His
will be done.' ' On Friday, seeing the Gazette in the con-
fessor's hand, " You will see there," said the Queen, " that the
two houses of Parliament have begged the Princess of Denmark
to ask the Duke of Lorraine to send the Pretender (as they call
the King) out of his dominions, and that she answered she had
already done so, and would do so again. ... I confess the

445

1713 news troubled me so much at first, that I determined to keep it
to myself. * Why afflict these poor women ? ' I thought, but
now it is in the Gazette, I can no longer conceal it."

On Saturday the Duke of Berwick came to see the Queen,
and told her that during the debate in the lower House ....
Chaiiiot an o ld member of eighty had said : " Have a care what you
do. I was very young in Cromwell's time, when they per-
sisted in hunting Charles Stuart, as they called him, from
country to country ; they made him change so often, that at
last they brought him here. You may do as much again." In
the evening the Queen heard from the King that he had seen
the Quaker, who had told him : " I am not so great a prophet
as Daniel, but I am as true a one." " The King had been
much diverted .... and had given him some medals. The
King dislikes prophets and drawers of horoscopes .... in
which he follows the Queen, who hates them cordially. Her
Majesty once said she could not suffer those kind of extrava-
gances, any more than revelations and ecstasies, and as Madame
Molza was telling her of an Italian lady who often fell into a
prolonged ecstasy, adding that the Duchess of Modena delighted
in seeing her : * It is true,' replied the Queen, * my mother
loved extraordinary things, but as for me, I cannot suffer them,
and would always fly from them.' '

A few days later we find a prayer of the Queen's recorded :
" Lord, give me the grace to drink the chalice Thou has pre-
pared for me, to the dregs."

DUKE OF LORRAINE TO QUEEN ANNE.

"LuNEViLLE, 26 November 1713.

Brit. Mus. u Madam, We could not be more surprised at the addresses of the

Add.MSS. British Parliament last summer than with the remonstrances or
f. 54 ' Your Majesty's Minister at Utrecht, with relation to the removal or

the Chevalier de St. George from the dominions of Lorraine.

Before we could absolutely comply with the request of the Most
Christian King in that affair, the profound respect we have for Your
Majesty, and the tender regard for your quiet, made us apprehensive
of giving the least uneasiness to Your Majesty.

446

DEATH OF PRINCE CESARE

But when we were assured that this expedient would be highly 1713
agreeable to all sides . . . proud also of so great an honour, we could
no longer refrain opening our arms to receive a Prince, the most
accomplished and most virtuous, and the most amiable of the Human
Race, who only wants to be seen to be admired, and known to be
almost adored. . . .

We therefore hope Your Majesty and the British Nation will not
take it in ill part that we cannot comply with a demand so incon-
sistent with our Honour and the laws of Hospitality, after our protec-
tion once given to abandon to the Rage of his Enemies an innocent
and depressed Prince who knows no Crime but of being born the last
male heir to that illustrious family, which for severall ages has given
so many great monarchs to the world, and amongst the rest Your
Majesty, whose conspicuous virtues and great actions have reflected as
much lustre as you have received from your illustrious progenitors. . . ."

QUEEN MARY BEATRICE TO THE DUKE OF MODENA.

" ST GERMAINS, 4 December 1713.

" I cannot sufficiently thank you for your letter on the illness it
pleased God to send me two months ago, and on the restored health
He has vouchsafed me. You let it concern you too much and esteem
it at more than its worth, for I am now only a poor old woman (una
povera vecchia) useless to the few friends left to me, and far from the
only person I would be near, and whose condition continually afflicts
me ; the hope of seeing it improve being the only thing which makes
life endurable to me.

I also see from your letter that our cousin poor Prince Cesare is
dead. I pray God for the repose of his soul, and I learn with much
satisfaction that he has made your second son his heir, it being only
right that those possessions should remain in the family, to whom
with all my heart I wish every happiness."

The above letter was not without its dignified rebuke.
Rinaldo, who had been her piteous client when she was in a
position to help him, who had pursued his own ends without
any scruple as to how he might embroil his niece with her only
powerful friend, Louis XIV, and who still withheld a part of
her inheritance, had now completely espoused the cause of her
enemies. " The Queen said," we read in the Chaillot Journal,

447

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1713 " she had written to the Princess of Brunswick [Rinaldo's
mother-in-law, and since his wife's death the guardian of his
daughters] to thank her for her kindness to a daughter of
Countess Molza, who had returned to Italy, telling her she well
perceived the Princess had a regard for her which the Duke of
Modena had not."

The Queen had returned to the Court of St. Germains to find

it almost deserted, all the Jacobites who were in a position to

do so having returned home in consequence of the peace :

chaiiiot but that does not relieve me, for the town is full of Irish

Journal . . ,_. . r .

who are poverty itselr ; 20,000 came into trance, and or those
only 6,000 effectives are left, the rest have perished in the wars,
but their wives and children remain on our hands ; as soon as
it became known that my dowry was to be paid other Irish
prepared to come to France, but I told Mr Dicconson to notify
to them that those who came would receive nothing."

To feed this multitude the Queen gave all she had, and
exercised a more and more rigid economy in all her personal
expenses. " Though it is not true," she once said in reply to
a remonstrance from the nuns, " as Madame de Lauzun in her
usual exaggerated style said to the King, ' Sire, she has no
shoes to her feet,' although," she continued laughing, " care is
taken to sew new ribbons on these fine shoes," showing them
as she spoke, " they cost ten francs ; I think it is too much,
but they will not sell them to me for less."

Before returning to Italy, Cardinal Gualterio visited James
Stuart at Bar, and when he came to give the Queen news of her
son, " The Queen laughed and cried together on seeing him
again, as he was her intimate friend, and she had thought she
would never see him again."

The negotiations at Utrecht were not yet concluded, and

there were difficulties as to the wording of the articles con-

stuart cerning the Queen's dowry. " At the peace of Ryswick," says

Windsor a memorial sent to de Torcy, " King William declared . . .

he would see to it that the stipulations in favour of the Queen

were executed in good faith, but he received the 50,000

448

THE QUEEN'S PENSION

voted by Parliament and never remitted them to the Queen, 1713
nor to the French Minister commissioned to receive them."

" Reasons which prevent the Queen from signing the papers smart
sent from England, ist. If the Queen recognises the Princess of Windsor
Denmark as Queen of England, she will renew the popular Castle
calumny that the King is a supposititious prince, and will
furnish an argument to the Whig writers which they will
employ with the people to throw suspicion on his birth."

The question of arrears and as to whether the Electress of
Hanover would continue the pension (reduced to 47,000) in
case of Queen Anne's death having been touched upon, the
paper concludes : " The Queen therefore hopes the Most
Christian King will have the goodness to obtain assurances
from the English Ministers to accord the first promise, without
obliging the Queen to such hard conditions, and to which she
can never consent." l

Although it has been said that Queen Anne signed the
warrant for payment of a first instalment at the end of 1713,
the most careful search at the Public Record Office has failed
to find any trace of payment on account of the jointure.
Applications continued to be made throughout the following
year without result, and Oxford on his impeachment in 1717 Calendar,
denied having advised Queen Anne to sign the warrant. In p^rs,
later years, when Mary Beatrice's grandsons, Charles Edward, vol j v i . > .
and Henry, attempted to recover the arrears of the jointure, it
was expressly stated that the Queen had never received anything
on account.

1 The Stuart Papers contain a letter from the " Duke of Berwick to James III,"
written in 1714, on this subject : " ... I brought yesterday from Versailles two papers
sent out of England for the Queen to sign, which are of a nature that she cannot possibly
consent to it ... 'tis very odd that after eleaven months' delay such a come of should be
thought on ; the money was promised to the King of France without these strange
conditions. . . ."

449 G G

CHAPTER XV

I 7 I 3 THE Chaillot Journal ends with the year 1713, and with a
short account of " the manner of life of the Queen. She
took a cup of broth at eight or half-past eight, rose, and after
half an hour's prayer, she would write three or four times a
week and eat a piece of bread while opening or sealing her
letters ; she then dressed and heard two Masses ... if there
were no visitors and no business, after a visit to the tribune, and
in summer to the Chapel of the Angels, she dined. Being told
that Lady Middleton had said with some emotion, * The Queen
prays too much ; if the King of France knew it, he would
take the Queen from you,' she laughed and said, * I do not
think the King troubles himself about my prayers. . . . My
ladies like St. Germains so they speak according to their taste
and inclination ... at St. Germains, as soon as I have supped,
I have to write for three or four hours, and here I write in the
morning which rests my eyes ; I spend the rest of my day
there listening to the complaints of the unfortunate, that is all
my society ; at least here I have good company after my meals ;
I assure you,' added the Queen obligingly, * if I can take any
pleasure in life, it is here. . . .' When Miss Plowden is here,
the Queen makes her say the prayers, when she is not, the
Queen, however tired and weary she may be, says all her
prayers. The Psalms in Latin, the litanies of the Saints and
of the B. Virgin Mary, the Imitation of Christ, and the sermons
of Bourdaloue, Massillon and others are the Queen's accustomed
reading."

FALSE REPORTS

With the exception of Lord Middleton, the suite and house- 1714
hold, some sixty in all, James Stuart had taken to Bar consisted
almost entirely of Protestants, for whom, being freed from the
restrictions of the French laws, he was able to appoint a
chaplain, the celebrated non-juror Lesley. This fact, and the
retirement of Middleton, gave rise to a report that he had
abandoned his religion. The Queen writes to one of her
Chaillot friends :

"Sr. GERMAINS, 26 January, 1714.

w Here is the extract from the letter of the King my son I promised
you, and which will serve to confirm the good opinion you had of his
faith, and of his religion, of which I think all the current reports
did not cause you to doubt ; for my part, I assure you I had not a
moment's anxiety, nevertheless I was delighted to see these lines
written by his own hand, and which I am sure are graven on his
heart. I wrote to that dear son that I fell on my knees after reading
them, and thanked God with all my heart for His mercy in giving us
both the like sentiments, to him the will rather to die, and to me,
rather to see him dead than out of the Church. . . ."

" Extract from a letter of the King, my son, written to me in
English, 30 December 1713. * I doubt not but that the positive and
circumstantial reports which are prevalent of my change of religion
will have reached you, but you know me too well to be alarmed by
them, and I can assure you that by the grace of God, you will sooner
see me dead than out of the Church.' "

A few days after writing the above letter the Queen fell
seriously ill, to the great alarm of her son, who writes to
Mr. Dicconson :

"BAR, 13 February 1714.

" Though yours of the loth has filled me with trouble and anxiety Stuart
I cannot but take it very kindly of you to tell me the naked truth, wincUo
which I beg you always to do on all occasions. I hope God in His Castle
mercy will long preserve the Queen, but you did very well to get her
to sign the papers you mention. . . I desire you to say to the Queen
all that is dutyfull and kind from me, who am almost without life
in the apprehension I am in for hers. ... I depend entirely on your
care and prudence for all that can conduce to the Queen's comfort

451 G G 2

1714

Stuart
Papers,
Windsor
Castle

Imp.

Archives,

Vienna

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

and interest. She is, I am sure, more to be envied than pitied. . .
but those she leaves want support and comfort to a great degree.

J. R."
SAME TO SAME.

"15 February.

" . . . . Nothing ought to comfort me so much as what you tell
me of the good dispositions she is in, which I easily believed, but the
desire of death frightened me very much knowing how much in health
she used to apprehend it. ... I cannot but admire her great
tranquillity in giving you her directions as to her papers, and though
I hope in God all those precautions will prove unnecessary I here send
you my directions, not to be produced but after the fatal strook, which
I hope God in His mercy will deliver us from."

"James R. Whenever it shall please God to call our dearest
mother the Queen to Himself (which I hope will not be for many
many years) our intention is and we do hereby authorise and order
you to take into your custody all and everything that belonged to her,
and that all papers of any kind without being opened, perused or
examined, be putt up under the seals, and in the presence of the
Dukes of Berwick and Perth and the Earl of Middleton, or any of
them, the whole to remain in your custody till our further order. At
Bar-le-Duc, Feb. 15. 1714.

J.R.

For Mr. Dicconson, treasurer to the Queen."

" 2O February ', 1714.

u I have nothing to say by this post but to give you my hearty
thanks for all your care and diligence about the Queen during her
sicknesse, which I think I may now see her over God Almighty be
praised for it. I write to her to-night myself, and shall continue to
do so, counting her now able to read my letters. Pray take care she
doth not begin to answer them too soon. ..."

Not content with the attempt, so gallantly resisted by his
host, to drive James Stuart out of Lorraine, Parliament was
debating, writes Hoffmann, 20 April, 1714, on the proclama-
tion to be issued against him. "The words, * alive or dead,'
to be struck out, but a reward to whoever shall bring him to
justice. . . ." Hoffmann thinks the Queen will be against it.

Ten days later Queen Anne wrote with her own hand to the

45 2

LETTER OF QUEEN ANNE

Duke of Lorraine, addressing him as " Mon Frere" and 1714
asking him to remove to a greater distance " the person who Pub- Re
pretends to a right to my crown." The Queen thinks she France,
would fail in the regard Providence allows her to have for her No< 346
own safety, and in the vigilant care she must exercise for the
quiet of her good subjects, if she did not urgently pray the
Duke to put an end to this cause of jealousy by removing "to
a greater distance from my kingdoms the person who openly
declares he has a right to them ; so that ... he may ha^e
fewer communications with evil-disposed persons."

The letter ends with assurances of esteem, and that the
writer can " expect nothing less than your acquiescence in so
reasonable a demand. ... If you refuse, I shall consider such
a determination as incompatible with the friendship which has
hitherto subsisted between us. . . ."

Queen Anne's conduct at this time was as that of a sick
woman, terrified at the thought of approaching death, nervously
repelling every sign which could remind her of it, and trying to
delude herself into the belief that she had many years of life
and reign before her. Grown so corpulent and unwieldy that,
as Mary Beatrice told the Chaillot nuns, she had to be hoisted
into her chariot with the aid of machinery, and was obliged to
apologise to the Due d'Aumont, the newly appointed French
Ambassador, for her inability to rise from her chair to receive
him, oppressed with many infirmities, the nearness of the end
was apparent to everyone except herself. She was as unwilling
to admit the presence of her parliamentary heir, as she was
eager to drive her natural heir further and further from her,
and a few weeks after the above letter was written the Electress
Sophia was found sitting dead in her chair in the garden of
Herrenhausen, with a letter from Queen Anne in her hand,
which was supposed to have brought on a seizure of apoplexy,
and which contained the Queen's peremptory, almost threaten-
ing refusal to consent to the suggestion that it might be well
for Prince George to go to England to be formally accepted as
her future successor.

453

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

I 7 1 4 HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR CHARLES VI.

3>&

imp. ". . . . The Proclamation was really resolved upon by the Privy

Vienna^' Council last night, and will be made public either to-night or
to-morrow. The sum of money to be given to whoever seizes the
Prince of Wales on his landing or attempting to land, and bringing
him to justice is ^5000 sterling, following the example of King James
who put the same amount on the Duke of Monmouth's head. ..."

SAME TO SAME.

" 10 July.

" The two Houses nemine contradicente have voted an address to
the Queen thanking her for the proclamation. The City of London
is preparing one also, an example which will probably be followed by
other towns and corporations."

A few days later Queen Anne was dead, and George I had
succeeded to the Crown, not without a burst of indignation
from the people. " Down with the Roundheads, no Hanover,
St. George for England ! " was the cry of the populace who
needed but a leader to prevent the foreigner from landing ;
halters were thrown into Harley's carriage as he went to
receive the new monarch, and had James been in London with
a bodyguard of a hundred men, his chance of re-establishment
would have been a good one. But he had neither money nor
men ; the moment the news of Anne's death reached him he
hastened in disguise to Paris, resolved, says the Duke of
Berwick, to cross over to England to assert his rights.

Matthew Prior sends the news to George I, writing in
French, so as to be understood by the King of England :

"PARIS, if August 1714.

Pub. Rec. *'....! can assure Your Majesty for certain that the Pretender

France came here by post incognito accompanied by only two persons, he

No 341 made his presence known to the King by a message from the Queen

Dowager through Madame de Maintenon. The King would not

see him, he sent M. de Torcy to him at the village near by, where he

Stayed, to tell him His Majesty found his conduct very extraordinary,

454

DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE

that he could not and would not violate his engagements nor plunge 1714
Europe into a fresh war, and that he [James Stuart] had better leave

again immediately that if the step he had taken became

known, it would be prejudicial to the King and his subjects, without
benefitting him in any way. The Chevalier retired immediately
upon receiving this message. . . . '

The village above mentioned was Chaillot, where the faithful
Lauzun had taken a house in his own name for the Chevalier.
The Queen had thus the happiness of embracing her son after
two years' separation, and was perhaps little surprised at
Louis XI V's answer. Worn out with years, with disastrous
wars and domestic sorrows, and with an empty exchequer, the
King of France was in no mood for a new and hazardous
enterprise.

Queen Anne's Ministers, Harley, Bolingbroke, and the
Duke of Ormonde, had been disgraced, and a Whig Ministry
with Townshend at its head had succeeded them. Bolingbroke
and Ormonde offered their services to Mary Beatrice and her
son, the former informing the Queen that he did not act out of
personal devotion to the Chevalier, but out of obedience to his
party, which he would have obeyed had it ordered him to
Constantinople.

HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR CHARLES VI.

"27 November 1714.

" . . . . Last Saturday . . . the French post brought a proclama- imp
tion from the Chevalier of St. George, in plain envelopes, addressed to
the assembled royal Ministers, which Townshend had translated into
French, and gave openly the same night to the King as he left the
Chapel. Several hundred persons have read it, so it is made no secret
of, but is treated as a trivial matter, not worth noticing. The most
remarkable sentence in it is that in which he speaks of the late Queen
as, * the Princess, his sister.' * Whose good intentions towards us,
which of late were not to be doubted, were the reason we took no
measures, out of respect for her good affection, but which un-
fortunately her deplorable death prevented her from giving proof of.'
thus attempting to make it clear that the Queen, as well as her
Ministers, intended to re-establish him. It is dated plombieres,

455

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1714 iQth August, and is very well expressed, and doubtless has been sent
to others besides the Ministers. ... It is not yet known if the
Court will continue to ignore it .... or will answer it by a
counter proclamation. . . . Anger falls meanwhile on the Duke of
Lorraine."

" 30 November.

c< . . . . The King has refused to receive the newly-arrived envoy
of Lorraine [Marquis Lamberty] who will probably soon go
away. ..-.'*

Cardinal Gualterio, writing to the Queen from Rome, i
January, 1715, to send her a small sum of money from the
Brit. MUS. Pope, says it is " all I can for the moment extract from His
20,294, Holiness for the King's service, . . . nevertheless it was granted
f - 2 S7 with so much grace and goodwill that it deserves the royal
thanks. ... I had an audience of the Holy Father this morning,
and upon what the Duke of Perth had written to me of the
lack of powder for the royal forces in Scotland, and the other
wants of those faithful people, I insisted with all my strength
upon obtaining a further sum for that purpose . . . but I fear
His Holiness is resolved to wait for tidings of the arrival of
the King in Scotland . . . and of some success there, upon
which he would not fail to make fresh efforts to assist him.
. . . Here it is held for certain that the King has arrived in
Scotland, . . . and that he immediately called a Parliament.
I ardently hope the next letters from France may give me the
consolation of hearing this happy news confirmed."

A French Almanach for the year 1715 had meanwhile
awakened the anger of the English Court, and Lord Stair,
English Minister in Paris, writes to Secretary Stanhope,
12 February, 1715 :

Pub. Rec. "... I spoke to him [de Torcy] of the Almanach. . . . He

Office, appeared to be prepared upon this article. The Almanach, says he,

there's a pretty ground of complaint indeed ! I told him . . . that
book was of greater consequence than the Almanachs elsewhere . . .
that everybody knows it is printed by permission of the King after
having been examined . . . that it could not be by inadvertency that
the author takes out the Queen's name . . . putts the Pretender in

456

COUNT GYLLEMBOEG

her place, and leaves the King Elector of Hanover, without saying 1715
anything more upon the subject. ... I had almost forgott to tell
you that in two or three places of our discourse, he magnified extremely
the obligation we ow'd to France for not having sent the Pretender
among us at the Queen's death, and that it appear'd by that, that the
King his master was * de bonne fay"* and wished for peace. . . ."

Fresh elements of hope, invariably ending in disappointment,
perpetually buoyed up the Stuart cause. The King of Sweden,
Charles XII, had reason to be displeased with the attitude of
the English Court, and the Jacobites immediately addressed
themselves to Count Gyllemborg, Swedish envoy in London,
who reports to Baron von Mu'llern, Plenipotentiary of
Charles XII, that these malcontents have approached him
to learn in what way they could show their good will to his
master : " They expect his Majesty may find himself con- Royal
strained to attack the House of Hanover. ... A good Stockholm
number of those who were among the most zealous defenders
of Hanover begin to wish for the young man from Lorraine.
The most distinguished among them . . . have consulted me
in all confidence. . . . They have also told me they were
disposed to provide a considerable sum of money to facilitate
His Majesty's journey, in case he felt moved to give proofs of
friendship to the young man above-mentioned. . . . Your
Excellency will be good enough to examine whether I should
enter further into relations with these men of quality, and what
confidence 1 must accord them. . . ."

The project was stifled for the moment by Von Mullern's
uncompromising reply : " M. le Resident did well to acquaint md.
me with the affair treated of in his letter of February 1 5 ; and
I leave him to judge of the pernicious consequences such a
proposition might entail, if it were acceded to. . . ."

The state of popular feeling in London was made manifest
on St. George's Day, an interesting account of the proceedings
in London existing in the Vienna Archives, addressed to a Mr.
Johnson, merchant in Paris, and which the Chevalier forwarded
to the Duke of Lorraine :

457

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1715 " Last Saturday, St George's Day was strictly observed, the whole

city was illuminated with great bonfires . . . but none so noted as
that upon Snow Hill, where about 10,000 Mobb . . . proceeded to
the choyce of a Speaker who commanded a health to the glorious
memory of Queen Anne . . . then the condid [conduit] presently ran
with Wine and the health with a triple Hussa, that being ended the
Speaker commanded all to kneel downe . . . and commanded a
health to King James III which was begun with a triple Hussa, that
being ended, the Speaker commanded a health to mount King George
for his home, which was immediately don. . . . Then the burning of
the Picture of King William and his last speach, which was Don,
then Oliver Cromwell and lastly King George, which were all thrown
into the fire and burnt ; this solemnly being ended, the Speaker com-
manded to drink a health to the family of Stuarts . . . then to
separate and break all the windows in town that were not
illuminated . . . which was immediately don with greate fury, but
noe house was so terribly mould [mawled] as the Lord Mayor's
because he was a known Whig ; these tumults of the people are
extremely increased at the accidental fall of three houses whereby
almost all the people were kill'd and by a most dreadfull fire which
happened yesterday at White Chapell, . . . and by the Dismall totall
eclipse of the Sun upon St George's Eve, all which the people look
upon as judgments for keeping the lawfull heire out of the throne, so
that were he alone in England, noe man would dare to touch
him. , ."

Nothing lay nearer the Queen's heart than the question, now
seriously agitated, of a marriage for her son. The Emperor
Charles VI, to whom the exaltation of the House of Hanover
was not altogether pleasing, and who did not share his father's
dislike for the Stuarts, seems to have entertained the possibility
of a marriage between James and one of his sisters, his daughter
not being of a marriageable age.

The efforts of Mary Beatrice with the French Court did not
relax, the news from England and Bolingbroke's arrival in
Paris in March were fresh incentives of good augury in James's
favour, and she contemplated going to Bar (under pretence of a
visit to Plombieres to drink the waters), to see her son and
treat of his marriage and other affairs ; but sickness again laid

45S

ZT.

THE QUEEN STARTS FOR BAR

her low, and the Duke of Berwick writing from St. Germains 1715

29 April, 1715, says :

" The Queen, thank God, is free of her feever and I make no Stuart
doubt but with the continuation of Quinquine will not have it any w/ndsor
more, but I do not think it possible for her soon to be in a condition Castle
for travelling. . . ."

Princess Clementina Sobieska had been suggested as a bride
for James Stuart in case the negotiations with Austria fell
through, and James, writing to the Duke of Berwick, suggests
that Bolingbroke, who is so much for his marrying, should go
to Blois

" a fine pleasant country, and where he may have occasion to see
pretty Miss, and of even negotiating that affair if t'other fails, as I
believe it will after what I acquainted the Queen some days ago.
But this is only a thought, of which you will consider with the
Queen. ... I cannot but approve extreamly all you have agreed
with him [Bolingbroke] and hope soon a solid plan may be made in
which I think no time should be lost, no more than in Sably's
[Bolingbroke's] coming here. ... If we saw one another I am sure
we should part very well satisfied with one another.

J. R."

The Queen, travelling in a litter, reached Meaux on June 15,
and the following Saturday arrived at Commercy. " You may
judge of the joy and consolation of the King, says a circular
letter from Chaillot to the nuns at Annecy, 1 at possess-
ing for a time this august princess, who is no less pleased at
being re-united to a son for whom she feels all imaginable
tenderness . . . The Queen contemplates returning in the
month of August . . ."

Lord Stair was naturally anxious to know what was going on
at Bar, and reported to the English Court, 24 July : " I sent
Barton to Lorraine to be informed of the Pretender's motions.
I met the Abb6 du Bois 2 in a wood, and gave him an account
of the intelligence I had concerning the Pretender. I desired
he would be particularly careful in informing himself of the

1 The Visitation nuns had a large convent at Annecy.

2 Afterwards Archbishop of Paris.

459

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1715 Pretender's designs, and how far the Court meddled with him.
I set a man to observe Lord Bolingbroke."

The intelligence Mary Beatrice had brought her son, the
pressing appeals from Scotland, and the renewal of negotiations
with Sweden resulted in James Stuart's writing the following
urgent letter to Bolingbroke :

"BAR, i8>/y, 1715.

11 1 have ordered Mr Innes to give you an account of a message I have
just received from our great friend on t'other side. You will see the
necessity of losing no time. So I shall part the a8th, to be the 3Oth
at Dieppe, where I desire you will be by the same time, that we may
embark together.

This messenger knows not of your having been here, so I addressed
him to Mr Innes to whom I shall refer you, but could not but write
however these few lines to one who after having given himself to me
in adversity will, I hope, before it be long enjoy with me the sweet of
better days. . . ."

Bolingbroke's gift of himself had not been as complete as
James imagined. The order to meet his new master at Dieppe
and embark with him was met by a long letter, in which he
thinks it his duty " to point out to Your Majesty the mischiefs
and the causes of them under which your service labours ....
I soon found a general expectation gone abroad that Your
Majesty was to undertake somewhat immediately, and I was not
a little concerned to hear in two or three places and among
women over their tea that arms were provided and shipps got
ready ; but I confess 1 was struck with concern when I knew in
such a manner as is to be depended upon .... that the factor
of Laurence in this country [Lord Stair] knew of the little
armament, and had sent advice of it home, that the Court of
Maryland [England] was in the resolution of conniving till the
enterprise should be gone upon, and made no doubt of crushing
the whole at once ....

It is evident that in Margaret's country [England] things are
not ripe .... that the secret is divulged .... and lastly
that Harry [King of France] has not yet spoke clearly whether
he will not .... give a private assistance now, and perhaps a

460

BOLINGBROKE

public one hereafter .... As I have nothing before my eyes 1715
but a true zeal for your service, so, Sir, I hope you will please
to accept my faithful endeavor . . . ."

How little the Queen approved of delay may be seen in the
following letter to Dicconson, dated from Bar early in August :

"... I am sorry to find that the paper you carryed made so little Naime
impression, and that I am sure was not the fault of the paper, for it B odi"an
contained very good sense and reason against delay not to be answered. Library
I cannot beleev either that this shynesse and all these delays proceed
from any ill will, I therefore must conclude that the great triumvirate
[Berwick, Ormonde and Bolingbroke] have a mind to engrosse all to
themselves, and I suppose they beleeve they can do it better than any-
body else, as I beleeve myself, provided they would hear others and
take advice when it is good. . . . Without it be perishing in the
attempt, I know nothing so bad as all these uncertainties, that cause
endless delays which will at last (and I fear very soon) make the game
desperat ;

The relation of St Germains misery makes me sad, and what
M. Desmarets 1 said to you is most uncomfortable. I will writt to
Mme. de Maintenon to speak to him, I wish you may find the effect
of it before you come away, and I pray God give us all more
patience. . . ."

August 2Oth Bolingbroke wrote to the French Minister, de Affaires
Talon, to thank him for having had a spy of Lord Stair's E ^ s n "
arrested at Havre, and asking for 2,000 men, " for the want
of so small a succour shall we lose so good an occasion ? " The
whole letter is an impassioned appeal for " the tenth part of the
money, the troops, which the States-General, in a very delicate
conjuncture for themselves furnished to the Prince of Orange
against his [James's] father . . . . If we undertake nothing,
or if we fail you will inevitably have war, and the Whigs will
not fail to seize the first occasion for dealing a blow at France
.... What a misfortune if we found ourselves obliged to
act before being assured of money and of troops. On
the last point I shall see Baron de Spaar [Swedish Minister at
Paris] again, although I have no doubt he has sent the express

1 French Comptroller of Finance.
461

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1715 according to the promise he made me last week. As to the
first, I beseech you * a mains jointes* to press Prince Cellamare
[Spanish Ambassador] so that we may get a favourable answer
from Madrid . . . ."

There is also a characteristic note from the Duke of Berwick
to de Torcy, August 24, saying he has received a letter from
the Duke of Marlborough " in which he expresses the hope
that he may enjoy the protection of M. le Chevalier, accom-
panying these professions with a second present of 2,000.
This gives me great hope, considering the character of my
uncle, who is not wont to scatter his money thus, unless he fore-
sees that it will prove of some utility . . . ."

Two days later, Louis XIV was seized with his last illness,
which Bolingbroke announces in a hasty message to James :
" though he is not yet dead his death is equally sure .... All
centres now in Overbury [Duke of Orleans], for God's sake let
me know whether I shall not, or rather perhaps Charles [Duke
of Berwick ?] ask to see him and perhaps speak to him in your
name, he is left Regent, ye Duke de Maine Tutor, and Villeroy,
Governor [of the Infant Louis XV].

" I have writt a letter which I hope will meet ye Queen on
ye road."

Mary Beatrice reached Paris a few 'days before the death of
Louis XIV. Her friend to the last, he had yielded to her
entreaties, had written with his dying hand to his grandson, the
King of Spain, urging him to render all the assistance he
could to his adopted son, as he called Tames Stuart, and had

Lemontey, r '

"Histoire given orders for the armament of 10,000 men, and for ships to
R 6 e g ence " take them to the north of England or to Scotland.

" He had told the Queen several times," writes the Duke of
Berwick, " that he knew, at his advanced age, he must soon
expect to die ; and thus he prepared himself for it, day by
day, that he might not be taken by surprise. They had a
very different opinion of him in the world, for they imagined
he would not suffer anyone to speak to him of death. I know
to a certainty that what I have stated is true, having had it

462

DEATH OF LOUIS XIV

from the mouth of the Queen herself, a princess of strict 1715
veracity."

After Louis XIV's death, Madame de Maintenon was
shunned as carefully as she had been assiduously courted
during that monarch's lifetime shunned by all except the
Queen, who continued to treat her exactly as she had done
before, thereby endangering her own position with the Court
of France.

A letter from a Chaillot nun describes the first meeting of
the two ladies, which took place in that convent : " The Queen
of England gave her [Madame de Maintenon] on this occasion
a great mark of esteem and of the friendship with which she
has always honoured her .... Her Majesty came to see her
a few days after the King's death .... and stretched out her
arms to her the moment she perceived her, embracing her
tenderly, while they both melted into tears. Mme. de
Maintenon related to the Queen some of the marks of piety
the King had shown during his illness .... When the Queen
left, she exclaimed aloud to our Mother (who was awaiting her
at the door) how greatly she had been edified by Mme. de
Maintenon's words, admiring the holy dispositions in which she
had found her . . . ."

At Mary Beatrice's first interview with the Regent Orleans,
he promised that the pension to her and her son should be con-
tinued, giving her at the same time, writes James to the Duke imp-,
of Lorraine, " all possible expressions of friendship and civility Vienna 6 "'

.... Meanwhile the change of Government in France
necessarily suspends my resolutions with regard to England
.... However strong my inclination may be to the con-
trary, I must submit to reason . . . ."

The misfortune of Louis XIV's death was followed by the
failure of Charles XII to keep his promise of landing 12,000
troops in Scotland, owing to his own investment in Stralsund.
The Queen, who had caused the Duke of Berwick to write and
urge the fulfilment of the promise, had to acquaint her son with
this fresh stroke of ill-fortune. Bolingbroke, who was now

463

QUEEN MARY OF MODEISTA

1715 James's Secretary of State, writes to him : " I enclose to Your
Majesty two letters from Stralsund with great reluctance, since
you will find by them that all our hopes of troops are vanished.
I received them from the Queen, whose packet accompanies
this, and who intends to send Your Majesty's servants down to
you." At the same time the King of Spain informed the
Queen that he was unable to send a large sum of money, which
he had promised in aid of James's enterprise. 1

Meanwhile the Royal Standard had been raised at Braemar
by the Earl of Mar on the 6th September, followed ten days
later by the taking of Perth by John Hay, brother of the Earl
of Kinnoul, while a formidable rising took place simultaneously
in Northumberland, headed by the Earl of Derwentwater and
Mr. Forster.

Up to this point the sincerity of Bolingbroke's zeal for the
Stuarts scarcely admits of a doubt. He had told the French
env y> Herville, at Queen Anne's death " that in six weeks he

tosh could have made matters safe," and he wrote to Swift Aug. 3,
1714. " Oxford was removed on Saturday, the Queen died
on Sunday. What a world this is ! And how does fortune
banter us ! "

Had Louis XIV lived a few months longer, had the Kings
of Spain and Sweden been able to fulfil their promises to
furnish money and men, the extent and the depth of Jacobite
feeling in England might have warranted an armed attempt to
upset the Hanoverian Government, and restore the Stuarts.
According to Bolingbroke's own account, he thought the
English people were inclining daily towards Jacobitism ; but
the triple disappointment from France, Spain, and Sweden
hardly needed the further blow of Ormonde's impeachment
and consequent flight to France thereby crushing all hopes of
his influence in England to convince a man of Bolingbroke's
intelligence and capacity of the futility of a rising. From this
moment his zeal relaxed, to degenerate ultimately into infidel-

1 " Spain cooled very much towards the Pretender after the King's death," says St.
Simon.

464

THE REGENT ORLEANS

ity and dishonesty to the cause he had embraced, and of which 1715
his brilliant qualities and genius for public affairs might have
made him the illustrious champion.

In a remarkable letter to the Earl of Mar, this feeling of
disappointment and discouragement is made manifest.

"20th September 1715.

u . . . I have not been idle, and if the French King had lived, we
should have obtained some assistance directly, much more indirectly,
and a great many facilities by connivance, though even this was
thought unattainable when I first came to Paris j but the case is
altered, he is dead, and the Regent is in quite other dispositions.

The prospect of opposition to his regency made him enter into
engagements with Hanover, and the prospect of opposition to his
seizing the crown in case of the young king's death, makes him adhere
to those engagements.

I now most heartily wish the King had gone away two months ago
with the few armes and little money which he then had. But your
Lordship knows what instructions Charles Kinnaird brought. ... I
know you will do our Master justice on this head ; his friends in
Scotland were ready, but his friends in England desired besides
succours of several kinds a longer time to prepare . . . much against
his inclination he was prevail'd upon to defer his embarkation, which
is now grown difficult beyond expression. . . .

Sir George Byng is come into the road of Havre, and has demanded
by name the ships on which are some arms and stores. The Regent
has indeed not thought fit to give them up, but he has sent down
orders to unload them, and has promised that they shall not go out.
After this I leave you to judge how easy it will be for the King to get
off with the Regent's knowledge, and how safe for him without it.
We are taking, however, measures to find a passage for him, and how
hazardous soever the attempt may be, nothing but impossibility will
stop him.

We hear you are in arms, and you easily judge this motive sufficient
to carry us to all that men can do. But we do not yet know, which
is a most uncomfortable consideration, what our friends in England
will resolve to do, now Hanover has an army, more money, the
Habeas Corpus Act suspended and a friend at the head of this
Government. . . .

I cannot conclude this letter without summing up the present state

465 H H

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1715 of the King's affairs, according to the light I see them in, ... for I
write to a man of sense, a man of honour, and a friend. Instead of
having a ship furnished by France . . . the whole coast from Scotland
to Spain is against us, and unless the King steals off unknown, which
to me appears almost impossible considering the extent of country he
must traverse and the vigilance which is used in every part of France,
he will either be seized or betrayed. The Troops we hoped for from
Sweden are refused . . . the money expected from Spain is, in my
opinion, still in the clouds. ... In a word every resource has failed
us, and every accident which we could apprehend has fallen
out. . . .

I must therefore be of opinion that a more fatall conjuncture can
never happen, and that the attempt can probably end in nothing but
the ruin of our cause for ever, of which you may observe the Whiggs
are sensible, that they precipitate their violent measures in order to
oblige us to come to a decision at this time. . . .

But if our Friends are not in a condition to wait without submitting
and giving up the cause entirely and for ever, desperate as I think the
attempt is it must be made ; and dying for dying, it is better to dye
warm and att once of a feavour than to pine away with a con-
sumption."

This deterrent letter arrived too late to be of any effect, and
meanwhile Bolingbroke continued his efforts with the French
Court. The Duke of Ormonde was preparing to pass into
England to provoke a rising in the West, and Bolingbroke
writes to James, Paris, Oct. 20, 1715.

"PARIS, Oct. 20, 1715.

"... I have already acquainted the Queen with what has passed
between M. d'Essiat and myself, and I shall from time to time inform
her of the steps I take, and the good or bad success I meet in treating
with the Ministers of this Court. ... I am really hopeful ... so
far as to have the French coast to a certain degree open to us, whereas
according to the track things were going in, the ports of France would
have been as much closed to us as those of Holland. ..."

"October 2ist.

"... The storm grumbles in the West, but is not yet begun, and
Hanover takes what measures he can to prevent it. I will press the
Duke of Ormonde's departure for Wensday and the moment he sets

466

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM SPAIN

out a courrier shall be despatched to Your Majesty. . . . Let the 1715
Duke have a reasonable time before you, otherwise you must
come upon the English coast and go enquiring from place to
place where you may land ; which is a project that will not bear
two thoughts, and must give a chance of fifty to one that you
are taken.

Stair has some jealousy that you or the Duke of Ormonde and
myselfe are in motion, or all three. He has people on most of
the roads, and two are this morning gone towards Rouen. ... I
cannot penetrate that he has any jealousy of Your Majesty's way of
going off.

I will do my utmost by several little expedients I have thought of
to perplex him and put him on a wrong scent. . . . " l

James Stuart started from Bar on his perilous adventure, the
28th October, leaving with his secretary, Nairne, letters addressed
to the Queen, to be sent by successive posts as if he were still
at Bar, departing " literally alone," writes Nairne. " The King
gave Nairne a seald paquet of papers, backed in his own hand,
with orders to deliver it to the Queen, with a little golden
heart in a chagrin case, and a book, La retraite Spirituelle. . ."

The Queen again had recourse to the Pope, praying the Brit. M US .
Nuncio to represent in her name to the Holy Father that Her 20,293,
Majesty is informed the Bishops and Clergy of Spain are f~ r *' 6 * 6 '
disposed to contribute to the restoration of the King, her son,
and she entreats His Holiness to write himself to the King of
Spain on the subject, to obtain his consent to a voluntary
contribution from the prelates his subjects for so good a work ;
and at the same time to write to his Nuncio at Madrid or
to Cardinal del Judice, ordering them to let those Bishops
and Clergy know that they will accomplish an act meritorious
in the sight of God and agreeable to His Holiness, by con-
tributing all they can to the restoration of a Catholic King to
his dominions.

1 The Awiso of Nov. 5, 1715, says : " The Duke of Ormonde left ten days ago. The
Earl of Stair gave the Duke's coachman a louis a day to know the day of his departure,
but in spite of all his precautions he learned nothing until after he had embarked at
St. Malo."

467 H H 2

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

I 7 I 5 HOFFMANN TO THE EMPEROR CHARLES VI.

"19 November 1715.

Im P- " . . . . Lord Stair sends word that the Chevalier de St George is

Vknna "' n his way through Normandy, and has passed through the town

of Evreux ; also that the Duke of Ormonde has sailed from that

coast. ..."

Dogged by Stair's spies, James, accompanied by William
Erskine, brother of Lord Buchan, moved about Normandy,
unable to reach Nantes, where Lord Walsh lay with a light
well-armed vessel ready to convey him down the Loire ; he
suddenly determined to go to Paris to attend a council of his
adherents at the house of his friend Baron de Breteuil and
Preuilly, who had married the beautiful daughter of Lord
O'Brian Clare. The following account of the events which
ensued is taken from the memoirs of the Marquise de Crequi,
corroborated by St. Simon, Duclos, Lemontey and others. The
Chevalier seems to have made a great impression on the
Marquise, then Mile, de Froulay, a girl in her teens, who
describes him as a " very handsome and accomplished prince."
After the conference, James left the Hotel de Breteuil at break
of day for Chaillot, where the Queen had come to meet him,
and where the Due de Lauzun had placed a small house at his
disposal. He remained there twenty-four hours and then,
having parted from the Queen, started, in the disguise of a
French Abbe, in one of the Baron de Breteuil's post-carriages,
and attended by a few horsemen in the Baron's livery, for
Chateau Thierry on the way to the coast of Brittany. But
there was an unexpected traitress in the house of Breteuil,
Mile, de Preuilly, who sent secret information to Lord Stair of
the Chevalier's movements, and that he would change horses at
Nonancourt, twenty leagues from Paris. The English Minister,
misdoubting the Regent, who when appealed to on James's
first departure from Bar to arrest him had replied : " If you
can point out where he is, I will have him re-conducted to
Lorraine, but I am not obliged to act as spy or gaoler for King

468

A NARROW ESCAPE

George," determined to take matters into his own hands, and 1715
waylay the prince by persons in his own employment. The
scheme was frustrated by the cool courage of the post-mistress,
Madame Lospital, who, overhearing three Englishmen discuss-
ing with some desperate characters of the neighbourhood a
design upon a traveller who was to change horses at Nonan-
court that night, took care to intoxicate her three guests, turned
the key upon them, and ran to meet the traveller at the entrance
to the village. Stopping the postillions and mounting on the
step of the carriage, she whispered to the supposed Abbe :
" If you are the King of England, go not to the post-house ;
several villains are waiting there to murder you." She further
explained that she was the post-mistress, and offered to conduct
him to the Cure's house, where he would be in safety while she
went to summon M. d'Argenson, the nearest magistrate.

D'Argenson took the three men into custody ; two of them
were English, and produced Lord Stair's passports, the third
was a French Baron, well known as one of his spies. The
leader, Colonel Douglas, a son of Sir William Douglas, an
attache at the Embassy, assumed a high tone, saying he and his
companions were in the service of the British Minister. " No
Minister would dare avow such actions," was the reply, and all
three were committed to prison. Meanwhile, Mme. Lospital
sent the Chevalier on, in a fresh disguise, in one of her own
post-chaises to Nantes, where he found the vessel, and safely
arrived at St. Malo. The Queen sent for the brave woman,
gave her her portrait and thanked her, " and the Regent gave
her nothing," says St. Simon. The Regent, for political reasons,
thought it necessary to stifle the affair, and the depositions of
the post-mistress and her servants were not made public. They
are still in existence, and may be found in the appendix to
Lemontey's Histoire de la Regence^

The Chevalier wrote a spirited letter from St. Malo to

1 See also letter of Marshal d'Uxelles to M. Iherville, French Minister at the Court of
Sweden, 15 December 1715, and Dangeau notes in his Journal: "The Duke of
Orleans has set Mylord Stair's people at liberty, who were arrested at Nonancourt ; but
he exhorted his lordship to be more circumspect in future. . ,"

469

QUEEN MAEY OF MODENA

1715 announce his arrival, and the Queen's condition during this
period of suspense is described in a letter from Lady Sophia
Bulkeley to a nun at Chaillot.

" ST GERMAINS, 12 November.

" . . . . The Queen looks ill, which is not surprising, considering
the pain and trouble she is in, and in which she will remain until
the King her son is re-established ; Her Majesty commands me to
tell you . . . that the King my master has left Lorraine, but that is
all she can say, except that affairs in Scotland are going well ; we
believe the Earl of Mar to be at the head of 20,000 well disciplined
men, firmly united for the good cause ; and that the Duke of Argyle
has not more than 3,000 ; moreover four provinces in the north of
England have declared for the king. ..."

SAME TO SUPERIOR AT CHAILLOT.

"28 November.

" The Queen is well, and received good news yesterday from
Scotland, and from the north of England . . . her great and ardent
faith sustains her, and makes me reproach myself every moment for
my lack of faith, finding how often I tremble for the King's safety ;
I am ashamed of myself when I see to what a degree the Queen's
trust in God renders her tranquil, but I beg you not to reply to
me on this head, as I pretend to be very courageous before the
Queen."

It was again Lauzun's task to be the bearer of bad news,
and to make known to the Queen the three disasters of the
1 3th November the battle of Sheriff-muir, lost by the in-
capacity of Lord Mar, the capture of Inverness by Lord Lovat,
and the rout and collapse of the Jacobites at Preston through
the ignorance or treachery of Forster. Lovat, who had
remained in London after his return from Saumur until the
outbreak in Scotland, hastened to take part with the Govern-
ment. " Lovat is the life and soul of the party here," wrote
Mar some weeks later, " the whole country and his name doat
on him ; all the Frasers have left us since his appearing in the
country." Thus did Lovat fulfil the threat conveyed in his
brother's letter to Cardinal Gualterio two years before, that the

470

LETTER OF CLEMENT XI

Queen would suffer for having doubted his fidelity. His 1713
treachery probably caused Mary Beatrice little surprise.

" The bad news from the north of England being con-
firmed," writes Lady Sophia Bulkeley to the Superior of
Chaillot, December 5, the Queen orders me, dear Mother, to
tell you that she cannot write as I had said she would . . .
she does not doubt but you will redouble your good prayers
for the safety of the King, her son, for his prosperity ; as well
as for the consolation of his faithful subjects. ..."

Meanwhile, urgent representations had been made to
Clement XI by Gualterio and by Cardinal Imperiali in favour
of James Stuart. The harassed pontiff, timid by nature, with
an exhausted exchequer, and determined, as he explained to
Gualterio, not to increase the burdens on his subjects, taxed to
the utmost with the struggle against the Turks and the dis- Brit. MUS.
turbed state of Italy, and yet unable to refuse all help to I5 , 3 ' 9 8,
a Catholic Prince actually fighting for his crown, took the f - 375
unusual step of writing a letter in Italian to the Queen, in
which, after telling her that from the moment he had heard of
the courageous resolution of the King, her son, to place himself
at the head of his faithful subjects he had not ceased to pray
for his success, and to obtain many other prayers " far worthier
to be heard than ours. . . . We have received Your Majesty's
letter enclosing that of the King, urging us to assist him. . . .
It is an inexpressible pain to us to find ourselves . . . owing
to our well-known adversities, and to the calamities which
threaten us from the enemies of the Christian name, deprived
of the power of doing that which we should so greatly desire
to do on so important an occasion. . . . We must content
ourselves with doing what we can, though it be little in com-
parison to the King's necessities and to our own ardent wish to
help him, and yet not little with regard to the circumstances,
the time, and our own necessities which your Majesty will
learn more fully from our Nuncio . . ."

Cardinal Gualterio in a letter of the same date, 10 December,
announcing that the Pope was sending the sum of 30,000 scudi

471

QUEEN MARY OF MODENA

1715 at once, and an order on a banker for 80,000 frs. remarks :
" I must do His Holiness the justice to say that he required no
pressing . . . and showed the utmost regret that his present
difficulties will permit him to do no more. . . ."

Mary Beatrice had been some six weeks without news of her
son when she sent, 27 December, her New Year's greeting to
the Chaillot nuns through Lady Sophia Bulkeley : " . . .
The Queen commands me to wish you and the whole com-
munity a happy feast, and to tell you that she is well, thank
God. . . . When she receives good news, she will not fail to
send it you. . . . You must not believe the rumour you
may hear that the Scotch wish to come to terms with the Duke
of Hanover ; it is not true, although affairs in Scotland are not
going so well as they did at first. . . . Although you know
the great virtue of the Queen, you would be surprised, dear
Mother, to see the firmness with which Her Majesty bears
the events which have occurred since she came back to
St. Germains ; let us thank God for all the graces he has
granted the Queen, and let us pray for the preservation of one
so dear to us. ..."

It was not until the I2th January that news of her son's safe
arrival in Scotland reached the Queen. James's letter to
Bolingbroke is the only one which has been preserved of the
three he wrote from

"PETERHEAD, Dec. 22, 1715.

" I am at last, thank God, in my own ancient kingdom as the bearer
will tell you with all the particulars of my passage, and his own
proposals of future service. I send the Queen the news I have
gott, and send a line to the Regent en attendant that I send you
from the army a letter for my friend Coulson (?) I am going
to-morrow.

I find things in a prosperous way, and hope all will go well, if
friends on your side do their part as I have done mine. My com-
pliments to Magny (?) tell him the good news, I can't write to him,
for I am weary, and won't delay the bearer.

J.R.

In the King's own hand, addressed to the Earl of Bullingbroke."

472

JAMES STUART IN SCOTLAND

SAME TO SAME. 1716

" 2 "January 1716.

" All was in confusion before my arrival, and terms of accommoda- Lord
tion pretty openly talked of. The Highlanders returned home, and Appendi
but 4,000 men left at