Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion (97 page)

The Whigs were now furious with Oxford, feeling he had not helped them as they expected in their onslaught against Bolingbroke. Nor did Oxford have any reason to hope that Marlborough would forget their past differences. As soon as he heard that Parliament was prorogued, the Duke prepared to return to England, only to be detained on the Continent by adverse winds. Already, however, he had warned one of George Ludwig’s advisers not to trust Oxford’s claims to support the Protestant Succession, for ‘Since he had the power, he never made one step that was not directly against it’.
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Curiously Bolingbroke may have been more successful in forging a rapprochement with Marlborough, having been communicating
indirectly with him for some time. What the Queen thought about the Marlboroughs’ impending return is unclear. The previous autumn, she had reacted violently when Oxford had mentioned Marlborough. The Lord Treasurer claimed she told him, ‘She would never trust that man … She knew him to be capable of doing much harm and incapable of any good, and that if he wished to return to London and make peace it was not because he really desired to do so, but because he aspired to conceal his bad intentions and execute them at the first opportunity’. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1714 Marlborough’s associate Cadogan claimed that she now welcomed the prospect of having him back in England. It seems, however, that the Queen had not invited the Duke to come home or, if she had, he did not inform his wife, for Sarah would later say she was unaware of any such approach.
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In early July Oxford had cherished hopes that the Queen could heal the rift between him and Abigail. Prior to a meeting with Anne, he reminded himself to point out to her that it was ‘for your service that you reconcile L[ady] M[asham] and O[xford]. Tell them both so; have them then together. O will [own] himself in the wrong’. Whether or not the Queen tried to help him, it certainly did not work, for once Oxford had jeopardised Abigail’s chances of profiting from the Asiento, she declared ‘open war’. Just after Parliament was prorogued she told the Lord Treasurer, ‘You never did the Queen any service, nor are you capable of doing her any’. She declared ‘he has been the most ungrateful man to her and to all his best friends that ever was born’, believing he was working towards ‘removing her from the favour of a great person’, meaning the Queen.
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Oxford clung on to power ‘with a dead grip’, but it was obvious that he was weakening. An early sign that he was losing ground had come when the Queen had appointed her cousin Lord Clarendon, a known enemy of the Lord Treasurer’s, to go to Hanover on her behalf. Her choice was not welcomed there. Not only was Clarendon suspected of Jacobite sympathies, but he had made himself a figure of fun when, as Governor of Pennsylvania, he had attended official functions dressed as a woman, claiming that only by doing so could he represent the Queen. The message he delivered in Hanover was scarcely more palatable, for Clarendon was instructed to repeat that in Anne’s lifetime, no member of the Electoral family should take up residence in the kingdom that ‘God and the laws have entrusted to her Majesty alone’.
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The Queen no longer automatically deferred to Oxford on Hanoverian matters, and she was more exasperated than ever by his shambolic
conduct. His vendetta against Bolingbroke reminded her of his attacks on his predecessor as Lord Treasurer, and she spoke darkly of being ‘teased to do many things against her own inclination, particularly that of turning my Lord Godolphin out’. On 20 July she summoned the Lord Chancellor to Windsor for discussions with herself and Bolingbroke, and it was obvious this boded ill for Oxford’s future. Though some people were apt to think Lady Masham solely responsible for this state of affairs, Dr Arbuthnot believed Oxford’s ‘fall … does not proceed altogether from his old friend [Abigail] but from the great person, whom I perceive to be highly offended by little hints that I have received’.
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While the Queen was disenchanted with Oxford, she still had the gravest doubts about Bolingbroke’s moral character. It was hardly reassuring that he was reported to have boasted of passing 6 June ‘very agreeably … In the morning I went to the Queen and ruined the dog [Oxford] …; at dinner I got drunk with champagne, and at night was put to bed to the prettiest whore in England, and two lords tucked up the sheets’. Admittedly, in a recent effort to be more uxorious, he had begged his wife’s ‘pardon for all his ill usage and promised amendment for the future’. This puzzled one acquaintance until he reflected that Bolingbroke ‘may have been advised by his new ally [Abigail] to treat his wife better … that somebody [Anne] may with a better grace confide in him’. Besides drunkenness and immorality, other traits of his gave cause for concern. Baron Bothmer described him as ‘rash, violent and conceited’ and although the Queen had saved him from ruin in the last Parliament, the revelations of financial malpractice that had emerged there were disturbing. The fact was, by July 1714 Anne did not have much confidence in either of her chief ministers. To Sir David Hamilton she lamented ‘she had none to trust’ and complained of being ‘dealt insincerely with’. She commented that rather than seeking to serve her, ‘Most of them sought [for] themselves; they had neither regarded her health, her life, nor her peace’.
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The Queen was particularly distressed that the perception that she was seeking to cheat the Elector of his inheritance remained so widespread, fearing that in consequence her subjects were becoming estranged from her. Hamilton testified ‘Her conviction of the dissatisfaction of the people, out of a fear of her being in the interest of the Pretender, bore harder upon her than all the differences among her ministers’. Believing that the politicians who supposedly served her had only clouded the situation, she hatched an extraordinary scheme, hoping that by making a personal appeal to the Elector, she could clear up all
misunderstandings between them. Desperate to make her heir understand that any ministerial changes ‘should not injure him, nor lessen her friendship to him unless he was the cause of it himself by personal ingratitude’, she asked Hamilton to become her private emissary. She begged him to think of an excuse to go to Hanover, whereupon he volunteered to enrol his son at Leiden University, and to accompany him abroad. He could visit Hanover on the way, and deliver to the Elector any message she desired. The Queen not only asked Hamilton to ease George Ludwig’s mind as to the political situation, but offered another startling proof of her goodwill. Throughout her reign she had displayed an adamantine determination to keep her heirs out of the kingdom, but now she offered to receive the Elector if he paid her a three-or four-week visit that would give him ‘entire satisfaction and she quiet’.
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On 27 July the Queen went ahead with Oxford’s dismissal, ‘teased into it’, in the opinion of Lord Berkeley, just as she had earlier been prodded into removing Godolphin. Yet she betrayed little sign of regret when she announced in Cabinet ‘the reasons of her parting with him, viz, that he neglected all business; that he was seldom to be understood; that when he did explain himself, she could not depend upon the truth of what he said; that he never came to her at the time she appointed; that he often came drunk; that last, to crown all, he behaved himself towards her with ill manner, indecency and disrespect’.
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Anne’s irritation with Oxford had only been increased by the way he had avoided her for the last few days, inventing ‘shifts and excuses’ for staying away. Accordingly she informed him of her decision in a letter that reached him at eleven in the morning of 27 July. At two that afternoon she granted him a brief meeting, at which, according to his brother, she treated him graciously. By appointment he returned to Kensington at 8 p.m. to hand over his staff of office, and remained with her for three quarters of an hour. At this last encounter he strove to unsettle her, hoping that even if he could not avert his dismissal, he could ensure that she brought him back after a brief time in the wilderness. He told her she should not have deprived him of his office until she had named the Treasury commissioners to replace him, a shrewd point that shook her. It is probable that he also repeated that Bolingbroke was a Jacobite, for, within hours, he would inform Baron Bothmer that he could prove that the Secretary was working in the Pretender’s interests. Certainly he warned Anne against trusting Marlborough, declaring that the former Captain-General was returning only to betray her and cause civil unrest. To this the Queen ‘answered very little’.
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Troubled by what Oxford had said to her, Anne was still more upset by an unpleasant scene that took place when he emerged from his audience. The Queen had earlier insisted to Hamilton that, contrary to rumour, Oxford’s dismissal had nothing to do with his blocking grants to Abigail, observing that ‘if he said so, he was very ungrateful to Lady Masham’. Undoubtedly, however, Oxford was consumed with bitterness at his downfall. As he came out he encountered Lord Chancellor Harcourt and Lady Masham, and ‘strong words passed between them, which reached the Queen’s ears’. He told Harcourt, ‘My Lord, I found you a poor rascal and by my means you became rich and great, but by God I’ll … make you again what you was at first. I go out an honest man, but you stay in a rogue’. Deeply distressed to hear the fallen minister shouting that ‘he had been wronged and abused by lies and misrepresentations; but that he should be revenged, and leave some people as low as he found them’, the Queen later told her physicians and attendants, ‘She should not outlive it’.
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Bolingbroke, meanwhile, was exultant at having triumphed over his rival, and did not mind that, rather than giving him Oxford’s place, the Queen had decided to place the Treasury in commission. He was satisfied that he would be the effective leader of a new government, even if the administration’s shape remained unclear. Earlier that day he had dined with several Whig politicians, but it is hard to say what he hoped to achieve by this. It is improbable that he contemplated offering them places, but perhaps he thought that establishing friendly links with them would make it easier for him to gain the support of Hanoverian Tories. At any rate, the meeting was a failure. They made various unacceptable demands, including that Marlborough should be put back at the head of the armed forces.
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If Bolingbroke had already reached an understanding with Marlborough, as some people thought, it is odd he felt unable to fulfil this condition.

After the Queen’s audience with Oxford had ended, a Cabinet meeting was held to discuss the composition of the Treasury commission. Still disturbed by what Oxford had said to her, Anne was prey to ‘uneasy suspicions … of being abused and deluded’. The proceedings in Cabinet, which went on till two in the morning, did nothing to reassure her. They were ‘particularly heated’, and by the end those present had managed to choose only one of the five commissioners who were to run the Treasury.
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Since her brief illness in May, the Queen had been in relatively good health, and as recently as 9 July there was comment upon how well she looked as she prorogued Parliament. Nevertheless, the anxiety of the last few weeks had taken its toll. Baron Bothmer noted, ‘She had followed every phase of the ministerial feud with the personal interest with which she … always followed matters of state, and this had brought her into a state of constant emotional turmoil, which damaged her body no less than her spirit’.
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Being in no doubt that stress adversely affected her physical condition, her doctors were fearful that the intense disquiet that had lately oppressed her would have dangerous consequences. Both Hamilton and Dr Arbuthnot believed that mental strain accounted for the onset of her final illness, with Arbuthnot stating categorically that ‘the last troublesome scene of contention among her servants’ shortened her life. Abigail and Bolingbroke unhesitatingly put the blame on Oxford, but their own behaviour had indisputably added to Anne’s worries. A Prussian diplomat later remarked that it was fortunate for the future of the British monarchy that the Electoral Prince had stayed away from England, as otherwise everyone would have said he was responsible for Anne’s collapse.
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On 28 July her condition began giving rise to concern. She had slept very little the previous night, was in low spirits, and had lost her appetite. She also had what Dr Shadwell considered a worryingly high pulse rate. Yet she was granted no rest, for that evening she attended another Cabinet meeting, which again went on till late. When it finished, there was still no agreement as to who should be appointed to the Treasury commission. More worryingly still, the Queen had embarrassed those present by asking the same question three times in quick succession, apparently unaware she was repeating herself.
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That night she again slept badly, and the next morning seemed more dispirited than ever. She had several nosebleeds, was flushed, and had trembling hands, as well as feeling ‘a dozing heaviness and a shooting pain in her head’. Accordingly the scheduled Cabinet meeting was cancelled, and she was cupped, which she preferred to being bled.
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On the morning of 30 July, she showed some improvement. However, when she was having her head combed by her long-serving dresser, Mrs Danvers, the waiting woman noticed her staring fixedly at the clock. Mrs Danvers asked if she felt all right, and was horrified when the Queen turned to her ‘with a dying look’. Her physicians were summoned and ordered her to be blooded, whereupon the Queen became more alert.
Hearing a commotion outside, ‘she asked what the matter was’. She was told, ‘The Lady Masham, being informed of her Majesty’s indisposition, had fainted away’, and was being carried to her apartment.
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