Henrietta Maria Part 4

"We came to Paris, on the Seyn, 'Tis wondrous faire but nothing clean, 'Tis Europes greatest Town.

How strong it is, I need not tell it, For any man may easily smell it, That walkes it up and down."

_Musarum Deliciae_, by Sir J. M. and Ja. S. (1655), p. 19.]

[Footnote 31: _Musarum Deliciae_, by Sir J. M. and Ja. S. (1655), p. 49.]

[Footnote 32: She had been in Turin with Henrietta's sister, Christine.]

[Footnote 33: The French Oratory was quite distinct from the better known Roman Oratory founded by S. Philip Neri.]

[Footnote 34: See the list of miracles attributed to his intercession in _La Vie du Cardinal Berulle_. Par Germain Habert, Abbe de Cerisy (1646).

Liv. III, chaps. XIV., XV.]

[Footnote 35: P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.]

[Footnote 36: The English Catholics were anxious lest she should allow herself to be crowned by a heretic: Fr. Leander de S. Martino, an English Benedictine, wrote a long letter to Berulle on the subject in June, 1625, expressing his anxiety. Archives Nationales, M. 232.]

[Footnote 37: As, for instance, Sir Lewis Lewknor, an official charged with the reception of amba.s.sadors: he received 2000 per annum from Richelieu, and he was particularly useful to the French, whom he did not openly favour, because, being a Catholic, he received the confidences of the Spaniards and the Flemings.]

[Footnote 38: Berulle to P. Bertin, Superior of French Oratory at Rome.

Arch. Nat., M. 232.]

[Footnote 39: La Hermana y Mujer [of Buckingham] son Eresas muy perniciosas. Spanish news-letter, P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.]

[Footnote 40: "My Wyfe beginnes to mend her maners."--Harleian MS., 6988, f. 5.]

[Footnote 41: _Verissima relacion en que se da cuenta en el estado en que estan los Catholicos de Inglaterra, ete Sevilla_ (1626).]

[Footnote 42: See chapter IV.]

[Footnote 43: Bishop of Mende to Ville-aux-clercs. MS. Francais, 3693.]

[Footnote 44: "Seeing daylie the malitiusness of the Monsers by making and fomenting discontentments in my Wyfe I could tarie no longer from adverticing of you that I meane to seeke for no other grounds to casier my Monsers,"--Harleian MS., 6988, f. I.]

[Footnote 45: Arch. Nat., M. 232, from which the account in the text is taken: perhaps an account written by Charles or Buckingham would have been somewhat different: it is printed in an article ent.i.tled "L'Amba.s.sade de M.

de Blainville," published in _Revue des Questions Historiques_, 1878, t.

23.]

[Footnote 46: Bishop of Mende to (apparently) Richelieu, June 24th, 1626.

"La Royne ma maitresse est reduite de fouiller dans nos bourses, si ces choses dureront sa maison durera fort peu."--Affaires Etrangeres Ang., t.

41, f. 133.]

[Footnote 47: The date is not certain, it was probably at the time of the Jubilee, June, 1626: in February Henrietta had written to the Pope asking that she, her household, and the Catholics of England might share in the privileges of the Jubilee.--P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.]

[Footnote 48: Archives of See of Westminster. See Appendix, Doc. I.]

[Footnote 49: _Court and Times of Charles I_, I, 119.]

[Footnote 50: Such petty malice was part of Charles' character: cf. his refusal to allow Sir John Eliot to be buried at his home in Cornwall.]

[Footnote 51: Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41: it is endorsed "copie," and is perhaps a rough draft; it is apparently in Henrietta's handwriting. "Mamie"

is Madame S. Georges.]

[Footnote 52: Charles wrote a violent note to Buckingham, commanding him to see to the departure of the French. "If you can by faire meanes (but stike not longe in disputing) otherways force them away, dryving away so manie wild beasts untill you have s.h.i.+pped them and so the Devill go with them."

The French landed at Calais, August 3/13, 1626.]

[Footnote 53: Bishop of Mende to Mary de' Medici. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.]

[Footnote 54: The second Oratorian who remained was Father Viette, who became the Queen's confessor on Father Philip's death. She was allowed to keep also a few inferior French servants, and Maurice Aubert, who appears in a list of her servants made at the time of her marriage, continued with her; he was the companion of Windbank's flight to France in 1641.]

[Footnote 55: Baillon: _Henriette Marie de France, reine d'Angleterre_ (1877), p. 348.]

[Footnote 56: She said, probably with truth, that the money they had received was in part payment of the debts incurred by her to them: her statement is confirmed by the fact that Charles requested the French Government to pay the debts owing to his wife's servants out of the half of her _dot_, which had not yet been paid.--Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.]

[Footnote 57: Mary de' Medici to Henrietta Maria, August 22nd, 1626. MS.

Francais, 3692. She wrote on the same day to Charles.]

[Footnote 58: Bishop of Mende to King of France, August 12th, 1626. Aff.

Etran. Ang., t. 41.]

[Footnote 59: Ba.s.sompierre to Bishop of Mende, October 17th. MS. Francais, 3692.]

[Footnote 60: Bishop of Mende to Ba.s.sompierre, October 29th, 1626. MS.

Francais, 3692.]

CHAPTER III

THE QUEEN OF THE COURTIERS

Let's now take our time While w'are in our prime, And old, old Age is a-farre off: For the evill, evill dayes Will come on apace Before we can be aware of.

ROBERT HERRICK

"I was," Henrietta Maria[61] was accustomed to say in the days of her sorrow, "I was the happiest and most fortunate of Queens. Not only had I every pleasure which heart could desire, but, above all, I had the love of my husband, who adored me." The expulsion of her French attendants was the foundation of the Queen's married happiness. Away from the insinuations of Madame S. Georges and the gibes of the Bishop of Mende, she began, in an amazingly short time, to appreciate the good qualities of her husband, to which indeed she had never been totally blind; and, in the words of Madame de Motteville, to "make her pleasure of her duty." "The incomparable virtues of the King," wrote Holland at this time, "are working upon the generosity and goodness of the Queen, so that his Majesty should soon have the best wife in the world."[62] And somewhat later an exceptionally well-qualified witness[63] was able to say that the royal couple lived together with the satisfaction which all their loyal subjects ought to desire.

But still one thing was lacking to her full content. Her husband's nature was such that his full confidence and affection could only be bestowed upon one person at the time, and she knew well who held the first place in his heart and counsels. But she had not long to wait. On August 23rd, 1628, the knife of Felton ended, in a few moments, the dazzling career of the Duke of Buckingham. Charles' grief was deep and lasting. He had loved his favourite like a brother, and he never had another personal friend. But to Henrietta the news, though shocking in its suddenness, cannot have been unwelcome.

She showed all due respect to his memory, but, as one of her friends wrote to Carlisle, her lamentations were rather "out of discretion than out of a true sensation of his death. I need not tell you she is glad of it, for you must imagine as much."[64]

Thenceforward there was nothing to check the growth of an affection which became the admiration of Europe. Charles' artistic eye had always dwelt with pleasure upon his wife's beautiful face, and her wit and readiness relieved his sombre nature much as Buckingham's bright audacity had, and now that the latter's hostile influence was removed, he was so completely captivated that the watchful courtiers soon perceived that the advent of another favourite was not to be feared, "for the King has made over all his affection to his wife."[65] The tokens of his love were innumerable. He delighted in making her gifts of jewels, of religious pictures, of anything which he thought would please her. He caused her portrait, painted by the hand of Van Dyck, to be hung in his bedroom, and as early as 1629 it was remarked that he wished always to be in her company. Nor was she behindhand in affection. It is pleasant to read that when the King was away for a few days his wife lay awake at night sighing for his return, and that, on another occasion when she was at Tunbridge Wells drinking the waters which were just coming into fas.h.i.+on, she was so home-sick for her husband after a few days' separation that she cut short her visit and went home to him, arriving after a long journey quite unexpectedly. Such little incidents show that Charles was not exaggerating when, in 1630, he wrote to his mother-in-law that "the only dispute that now exists between us is that of conquering each other by affection, both esteeming ourselves victorious in following the will of the other";[66] and that the virtuous Habington, the poet of wedded love, was not paying one of the empty compliments of a courtier when he appealed to the example of his sovereign to enforce the lessons of virtue:

"Princes' example is a law: then we If loyalle subjects must true lovers be."[67]

Of course the Queen's great wish was to give the King, her husband, an heir to his throne. But for several years no children appeared, and it was not until the early spring of 1629 that Henrietta retired to Greenwich for her first confinement, and even then her hopes were disappointed, for the boy who was born only lived long enough to receive his father's name. She herself was very ill; but she showed the brave spirit which never deserted her in suffering, and her physician was able to report that she was "full of strength and courage."[68]