Agnes Strickland's Queens of England (14 page)

[A.D. 1625.] As soon as the treaty was signed King James ordered all persons imprisoned for religion to be released, tines levied against Catholics to be returned, and the execution of convicted papists to be stopped. This was the origin of all the opposition of the English parliament to the Stuart monarchs.

King James died before the marriage took place. The ceremony was performed at Notre Dame, a prince of the house of Guise representing the royal groom. The Duke of Buckingham, with a splendid train of English nobles, met the bridal party at the church door, in order to escort the young Queen of England home.

The whole court and royal family of France prepared to

accompany the bride to the coast in magnificent style; but at the last moment Louis XIII. was prevented by illness from travelling, and the entire retinue were detained for two weeks at Campeigne by a dangerous malady which attacked Marie de Medicis.

Charles I. was at Canterbury when his bride arrived in England, but he hastened to Dover to meet her as soon as the tidings were brought him. She was at breakfast when he was announced, but arose promptly and ran down stairs to meet him. She would have knelt and kissed his hand, but he drew her towards him and pressed her in his arms. Then the bride attempted to recite a little speech that she had prepared, but her courage failed, and she burst into tears. Charles treated her very kindly, drew her gently aside, and soothed her with loving and tender expressions.

The weeping girl was soon reassured, her dark eyes brightened, and she conversed freely with her royal lover. Then she presented all her French attendants by name, — " Mamanga," now Madame St. George, being the principal of her ladies.

The royal party left Dover the same day, and stopped at Canterbur)', where all the English ladies of the queen's household were assembled to be presented to their royal mistress. It was in the open air on a June morning that Henrietta held her first court. The king assisted her to alight from her carriage, and after the presentation a magnificent feast was served.

The royal pair entered London by the river Thames, hundreds of beautiful barges forming a procession, which was greeted by thundering salutes from the navy. That evening the bells rang till midnight, bonfires blazed on every side, and rejoicing was kept up for several days.

King Charles opened his parliament with his bride seated beside him on the throne, and soon after retired for

THE PLAGUE.

several weeks to Hampton Court, because the plague was raging so dreadfully In London.

The young queen was very attractive at this time. She was of medium height, but possessed a beautiful figure, her complexion was fine, face oval, eyes large, dark, and sparkling. Her hair was black, her teeth handsome, her forehead, nose, and mouth large, but well-formed.

The king loved his little wife devotedly, and gave her the pet name of Mary, — a very unpopular one to English lads; but Charles declared that his people would soon forget their prejudice against it for the sake of the blessings the present bearer of it would bring them. •

Before many months the French attendants became objects of jealousy and dislike to the king, and notwithstanding the agreement that formed part of the marriage treaty he determined to get rid of them. Not only was it objectionable to the king that his wife should have mass celebrated in the palace, but his own attendants found fault with this arrangement, and Father Sancy, the queen's confessor, made himself obnoxious by insisting upon the establishment of a Roman Catholic chapel. Besides, Henrietta was so thoroughly under the influence of her French household that King Charles feared she would never become attached to him or his country. He thoroughly disliked Madame St. George, who was always thrusting herself forward, and interfering between him and his wife; but the most serious cause of displeasure that Charles I. had against the French attendants was that they influenced the queen in her refusal to share his coronation.

This was an unpardonable piece of ignorance and bigotry, injurious to the king and dangerous to herself ; for it was charged against her in later years that she had never been recognized as the consort of Charles I.

[A.D. 1626.] The king was therefore crowned at West-

minster Abbey alone, his young and lovely wife refusing even to be present at the ceremony. This obstinacy was a death-blow to her popularity, and increased the difficulties that surrounded her husband. The Duke of Buckingham, who was in Paris, was notified that the French attendants would be sent home, and the king wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, Louis XIII., in justification of the proceedings.

One day King Charles entered his wife's apartment at Whitehall, and found her attendants dancing about, and behaving in a manner that he considered disrespectful to the queen, so taking her quietly by the hand, he led her into a side room and closed the door. Presently an order was received bidding her majesty's French servants, young and old, to repair at once to Somerset House, there to await the king's orders. The women wept and lamented as though they had been summoned to execution; but the guard cleared them all out of the queen's apartments and bolted the doors after them.

Meanwhile a stormy scene was being enacted between the royal couple. Henrietta flew into a rage when her husband told her what he had done, and rushed to the window to bid farewell to her train. The king drew her away, telling her " to be satisfied, for it must be so." Then she broke the panes with her fist, and his majesty was obliged to hold her wrists until her temper abated.

She was not permitted to see her country-people again, excepting her nurse, her dresser, and Madame de la Tre-mouille, — those three being retained in her service.

In a few days the king repaired to Somerset House, and in a set speech informed the French household of the necessity of dismissing them to their own country, and promised them their wages with gratuities to the amount of twenty-two thousand pounds.

These people had robbed the queen to such an extent that she was actually left without a change of linen, and had, besides, contracted debts in ber name.

It was not until the following month, when the king sent a body of stout yeomen to turn the late attendants out of Somerset House by the shoulders, if they would not go otherwise, that they finally departed.

The royal couple had been married just one year when all the French attendants, including Father Sancy, returned to their native land.

The queen attributed her husband's turning off her household so summarily to the influence and advice of Buckingham, whom she disliked thoroughly.

She became so restless and unhappy that she wanted to go back to France, and wrote her mother to that effect, repeating the grievances of which the banished household had already given an exaggerated account.

The Duke de Bassompierre, a man of sense and spirit, and an old friend of Henry IV., was sent to England to inquire into the wrongs of which Henrietta complained. He found her dreadfully incensed against Buckingham, the prime minister, with whom she had had a violent quarrel, though she knew scarcely any English, and he very little French. Nevertheless he managed to make her comprehend him when he told her " to beware how she behaved, for in England queens had had their heads cut off before now."

Henrietta assured de Bassompierre that the prime minister was constantly making mischief between her and her husband, because he was jealous of her influence.

Bassompierre had several private interviews with the young queen, the king, and Buckingham, which resulted in a complete reconciliation. But her majesty was displeased because her father's old friend neither flattered nor spoiled

her, and so she fell out with him, and by the expiration of a fortnight the reconciled parties were more angry with each other than ever

The new subject of quarrel was the king's refusal to permit more than three chaplains for the performance of the Catholic service in the palace. Henrietta was too young to reason sensibly about her husband's affairs, and she was such a fervent Catholic that she could bear no opposition concerning her religion from her Protestant husband. Her position was an exceedingly difficult one, and all the errors she committed were the result of her youth and inexperience.

The French ambassador had to begin his work all over again; and so adroitly did he manage, that in the course of a few days he had arranged all the disputed points. It was agreed that the queen should have two chapels built for her, one at St, James's, the other at Somerset House. A bishop, ten priests, a confessor, and ten musicians were to be furnished, as well as ladies of the bed-chamber, a clear-starcher, two physicians, an apothecary, a surgeon, a grand-chamberlain, a squire, a secretary, a gentleman-usher, a valet, and a baker, all from her majesty's native land.

Even then the queen was not satisfied. She continued to play the vixen to such an extent that, regardless of her rank, Bassompierre took it upon himself to administer a bit of plain language. She had been flattered into believing that all her little tyrannies were quite becoming to a pretty queen, but she was now told that she behaved unlike a true wife, and that her conduct should be reported to her family in France.

Henrietta was surprised at this honest dealing; but the effect was wholesome, and secured for her nearly eighteen years of happiness with her husband.

Instead of being received with honors on his return to France, de Bassompierre was frowned upon because he had avoided extreme measures in his capacity of mediator, and because he had spoken the truth too plainly.

Shortly after a war broke out between England and France; but it did not in the least disturb Queen Henrietta's tranquillity, for she and her husband were never on better terms.

But the French nation despised Charles I,, and considered his wife a martyr and a victim. This led to the belief in an imposture of a crazy girl, who, calling herself the persecuted Queen of England, presented herself at a convent in Limoges, and claimed the protection of the nuns. She declared that she had escaped from England because she was persecuted on account of the true faith. She described the court and household of the queen so correctly that she was eagerly listened to by the whole neighborhood, who flocked to see her. Louis XIIL, who knew how happily and peacefully his sister was then living, was so incensed at this imposition that he had the girl imprisoned, and she was heard of no more.

[A.D. 1628.] The sudden death of Buckingham occurred when Henrietta was just eighteen years old, and she was thus rid of a person who had never ceased to be an object of dislike to her.

Queen Henrietta had a great fancy for dwarfs; so, at an entertainment given to her once when she was making a progress through her kingdom, an immense venison pasty was placed in the centre of the table. The crust was removed and Geoffrey Hudson, a little man just eighteen inches high, stepped out, prostrated himself before her majesty, and asked to be taken into her service. His request was immediatelycomplied with, and he was emplo)'ed to carry state messages of slight importance. He was not

the only dwarf at courtj for there was a married pair of these little monsters besides.

[A.D. 1630.] The queen had a son born at St. James's Palace in 1630, who succeeded to the throne as Charles II.

A Welsh nurse was provided for the royal infant, because it was the custom that the first words uttered by any Prince of Wales should be Welsh.

He could not have been a handsome child, for his mother wrote of him to her friend, Madame St. George: " He is so ugly that I am ashamed of him; but his size and fatness supply the want of beauty."

[A.D. 1632.] The royal family was increased by the birth of a daughter a couple of years later. She was named Mary, baptized, as her brother had been, according to the form prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, and placed under the care of Catherine, Lady Stanhope.

Henrietta's unpopularity was increased to an alarming degree on account of her laying the comer-stone of a Capuchin chapel, in the courtj^ard of Somerset House. She had already commenced one at St. James's; and when the Roman Catholic service was celebrated in them, about two years later, it was most injurious to the prosperity of the king, although it had been agreed that these chapels should be built. Henrietta refused to take part in her husband's coronation in Scotland as she had done in England, consequently he went alone.

[A.D. 1633.] On his return another prince was added to the family, and baptized James. His title was the Duke of York. He was a handsome baby, and his father des fined him for the navy. Henrietta was a fond mother, and devoted much of her time to the nursery. Etiquette prevented a queen from entertaining guests with her voice, but its magnificent strains often filled the galleries of the palace when she sang to her infants.

[A,D. 1638.] In 1638 King Charles incurred the displeasure of Cardinal Richelieu by offering a home in England to Marie de Medicis. This cardinal owed much of his grandeur to the queen-mother of France, but when she was in distress he turned his back on her.