The life of Queen Henrietta Maria (33 page)

Her own plans and movements were dependent, not only upon directions to be received from the King, but upon the state of affairs in the north, and the possibility of sparing a sufficient body of troops to conduct her in safety to Oxford. Her wishes on the subject were divided, and she confessed she was torn between the longing to find herself on the way to Charles and the desire to achieve some signal victory before starting on her way south. By June she was, nevertheless, on the road to Oxford, though detained for a fortnight at Newark before proceeding further. The construction liable to be put upon any action of the foreign Queen, however innocent, is illustrated by a contemporary pamphlet dealing with her visit to this town. Naturally gay and light-hearted, when not actually oppressed by present calamity, she would have been ready to make friends easily with congenial spirits. Such a companion she found, at this stage of her journey south, in the Duke of Devonshire's brother, Lord Charles Cavendish, shortly afterwards slain in the service of the King. Of any further connection there is no faintest proof. Yet the delay at Newark was sufficient to give rise to the calumny that it had been made in order that she might "enjoy the company of Lord Charles Cavendish, of whom her enemies reported that she was fonder than it was right for a virtuous woman to have shown herself." And this although the same authority goes on to relate that, being pressed by the ladies of Newark to make a longer stay, she replied " that she was under the command of the King, and was going to march elsewhere by his orders ; and that though she lamented not being able to comply with their request she rejoiced in being able to set them an example of obedience to their husbands." At Burton-on-Trent, the writer adds, "she

parted with her favourite, Cavendish, very heavily, and proceeded to meet the King, while he returned to his command near Newark." For favourite read friend, and few would blame the Queen either for her liking or for the presage of evil by which her spirits may have been clouded at parting. Yet it is well to recall the old groundless slander, and to bear it in mind in reference to others less easily discredited.

The true reason for the delay at Newark is given in a letter written by Henrietta from that place to Charles, in answer to one brought by Lord Savile. The messenger had found her awaiting the capitulation of Hull and Lincoln before starting southwards—a cause, as she observes, for which the King will pardon her a couple of days' delay. The Hothams, father and son, had returned to their allegiance, and the two cities were to be delivered up to the royal army. She was now almost ready to start on her journey, the troops near Newark remaining under the command of Charles Cavendish, whom she was leaving behind at the desire of the gentlemen of those parts, and much against his own will. Harry Jermyn, as colonel of the Queen's guards, commanded the forces marching with her, Sir Alexander Lesley the infantry under Jermyn, Gerard the cavalry, and Robin Legge the artillery, " enfin Sa Majeste generalissime est extresmement diligente," adds the Queen, enjoying to the full her new character of Commander-in-Chief.

Her hopes as to the surrender of Hull and Lincoln were not to be fulfilled. On the whole, however, she had reason to be satisfied. Except the first-named city, Yorkshire was almost entirely won for the King by the time that she quitted it to take her way to join him. From Walsall she reported the capture of Burton-

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on-Trent, and the encouragement thereby afforded to the Royalist troops ; and by July nth she had met Prince Rupert at Stratford-on-Avon, lodging, according to popular tradition, in Shakespeare's own house. Two days later the long-expected meeting with her husband had taken place. Apprised of her approach, the King, with his little sons, Charles and James, and accompanied by some troops of horse, rode forth from Oxford. Near the battlefield of Edgehill the two met, and the long separation was over. When next they parted it was to be for ever.

CHAPTER XIV

1643—1644

Meeting of King and Queen—Jermyn—At Oxford—Dissensions in the Royalist party—Overtures from the Earls of Holland and Bedford— Holland's double treason—Henrietta's letters to Newcastle—Death of Falkland—French professions—D'Harcourt's embassy—Solemn League and Covenant—Henrietta parts from the King—At Exeter— Birth of Henriette-Anne—Henrietta's letters to Charles—Her flight —Arrives in France.

THAT 13th of July must have been a red-letter day to both King and Queen. "Their meeting, after so long absence and on so sad an occasion," says an old chronicler, a was very joyful to each other." Yet an historian of the type of Warburton clouds it with a shadow of dissension. As at the time, so in later days, there have been those eager to misrepresent every action, however blameless, of this Queen of misfortune ; and he asserts that, applying at once for promotion for her favourite, she refused Charles a private interview until he had pledged himself to make Harry Jermyn a peer. Gardiner gives a truer colour to the incident when he interprets the condition made by Henrietta as a jest, quite in character with her gay spirits and the over-flowing happiness of the moment. Reckless as ever of the world's opinion, she had conferred the command of the troops escorting her to Charles upon the man whose name had been linked by hostile critics with her own. In a letter later on to Digby she takes credit to herself for being a

loyal friend ; Jermyn, whatever his faults, had done good service to her cause and to the King's, nor would it have occurred to her to refuse him his reward in order that calumny and misrepresentation might be averted. That Charles was of her opinion is proved by the fact that he at once acceded to her request and conferred a peerage upon her servant.

On the following day Oxford was re-entered in the midst of wild rejoicing, due both to the Queen's arrival and the reinforcements she brought with her and to the good news of Newcastle's successes, reaching the town almost at the same time. Bells were set ringing, the air was filled with acclamations as King and Queen rode together through the streets, and Henrietta's coming was rather, says the chronicle, "a triumph than a war." It must have been one of the last of her sunny hours.

For nine months—till April, 1644—the Queen remained at the King's headquarters, only parted from him when the necessities of the struggle called him elsewhere. It is impossible to follow in any detail the course of the civil war, or to trace the gradual decline of the sanguine hopes entertained at Oxford at the time of the reunion. It was not till nearly a year afterwards that the monarchy received its death-blow at Marston Moor. During the interval the fight was carried on with varying success, victory remaining now with the one, now with the other side, pitted ever more fiercely against one another as each had more to avenge. It is possible—perhaps probable—that, had Henrietta's influence been other than it was, English history might have lacked one of its most tragic chapters. It is, at any rate, with her share in preparing for the catastrophe that we are concerned.

Discord was rife amongst the King's partisans, as was to be expected when the varying views and desires of those remaining true to the Royalist cause is taken into account. A letter written by Lord Savile to Lady Temple in the spring of this year gives a fair impression of the attitude of the more moderate party, who had thrown in their lot with the Royalists. " You desire," he says, " to know what my aims and intentions are. ... I would not have the King trample on the Parliament, nor the Parliament lessen him so much as to make a way for the people to rule us all. I hate Papists so much that I would not have the King necessitated to use them for his defence, nor owe them any obligation. I love religion so well that I would not have it put to the hazard of a battle. I love liberty so much that I would not trust it in the hands of a conqueror." On the other hand, there was the party represented by the Queen, by Jermyn, and by Digby—to be made Secretary of State in the place of Falkland, when that pure-hearted idealist had sought and found on the field of battle a way of escape from the intolerable spectacle presented by an England hopelessly involved in civil war. In the eyes of these rash and hot-headed men and of their mistress, the sole peace to be aimed at would have included the unconditional surrender of those who had given up all that makes life desirable for the sake either of constitutional liberty or—in the case of the more fanatical section—for what they looked upon as the vindication of true religion. It can easily be imagined how, under such circumstances, councils were divided, and the King torn between the policy of conciliation advocated by wiser heads and the more violent courses pressed upon him by the Queen and her advisers.

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In the camp it was little better. It is fair to point out that the fatal mistake made by the King, in exempting Rupert, as his nephew, from the necessity of receiving orders save from himself, was in direct opposition to the warning sent by Henrietta from Holland. Her recommendation that some level-headed commander should be placed over the prince, "jeune et estourdy," had been disregarded, with the result of a perilous absence of unity in the conduct of the war. The two younger Palatine brothers were gallant soldiers, but neither generals nor politicians, and had, moreover, imparted to their troops the unhappy tradition of plunder acquired in foreign warfare. *7

In August, when the surrender of Bristol, with other successes, seemed to promise favourably for the royal arms, a notable defection took place from the supporters of the Parliament, the three Earls of Northumberland, Bedford, and Holland taking the step of withdrawing from Westminster. The two last repaired to Oxford to make their submission to the King, whilst Northumberland retired to his Sussex home to watch the event and to shape his course accordingly. The arrival of the deserters caused some embarrassment to the King. Bedford had been general of the Parliamentary Horse. Holland, under far greater obligations to the court, had thrown in his lot, scarcely less openly, with the King's enemies. The manner of the reception to be accorded to them was hotly debated, the majority of the King's advisers being vehemently opposed to any such show of favour as should appear to condone their past offences. Wiser counsellors, on the other hand, were of opinion that the repentant rebels should be treated in a manner as to encourage others to follow in their steps ; and in this view they had on this occasion the support of Jermyn,

who had gone so far as to hold out hopes, though it would seem without authority, that Holland might be restored to his former office as groom of the stole. The Queen herself had been in communication with the Earl since her return to England; but maintained for the present, in the absence of the King with the army, a neutral attitude, and abstained from any display of favour.

The Earls, on their arrival at Wallingford, had been detained there until the governor should learn the King's pleasure ; and the matter was considered of sufficient importance to bring Charles to Oxford for a night, in order that he might settle in person the question of their treatment. Other causes may likewise have contributed to render his presence desirable. In deciding the conduct of the war, Henrietta conceived that Rupert's counsels had been accorded greater weight than her own ; and, entertaining a suspicion that a conspiracy was on foot with the object of lessening her influence with Charles, she had written to him in such a strain that, having, says Clarendon, " her Majesty in such perfect adoration," he had started forthwith for Oxford that he might set her mind at rest. He cannot have found the task difficult; and during his short visit his principal concern was with the more urgent question of the policy to be pursued towards Holland and Bedford. His decision was, in the end, a characteristic one. The prodigals were to be received at court, but every man was to be left at liberty to use his own judgment in determining his conduct towards them—a liberty likely to be fruitful in increasing the difficulties of a difficult situation.

When, under these circumstances, Holland presented himself at Oxford, he was greatly disappointed at the coolness of his welcome. Although surprised at the

delay that had occurred, he appears to have reckoned with singular confidence upon an immediate restoration —without so much as the preliminary formality of an apology—to his former favour at court. Henrietta, on the contrary, displayed none of the cordiality he had anticipated ; and the courtesy of Charles' reception, when the two Earls followed him to the camp, was totally lacking in that friendliness which might have attached them permanently to his cause.

Nor were matters placed on a more satisfactory footing after the return of the King to Oxford. Holland, having given an earnest of loyalty by fighting his recent associates, considered that he had thereby earned a right to complete rehabilitation, and appears to have conceived the idea of forcing the King's hand by assuming the attitude of an old and trusted servant. Constantly visiting the Queen at Merton, where she had her lodging, at an hour when the King was to be found there, he was wont, with the curious court looking on, to whisper into Charles' ear or to Henrietta what the King characterised, with irritation, as mere trivialities ; or, drawing his master apart as if to communicate to him some secret of importance, would prove to have nothing to tell which might not have been spoken in the hearing of all present. To the Queen his conversation was of no greater interest, save that to her he was accustomed to enlarge upon the wisdom and power of Parliament—a topic the King may well have considered ill chosen.

Conscious of the necessity of steering a middle course, and avoiding alike the danger of arousing the jealousy of his loyal servants or of alienating the penitents by overmuch severity, Charles was in a position of no little embarrassment. For once he appears to have

acted with decision. Henrietta, it was true, had been won over to a desire that her former friend should be admitted to his old footing at court. " Whether from her inclination, or promise, or dislike of most other people who were not so good courtiers (as sure none was equal to him in that function and mystery), [the Queen]," says Clarendon, " did in truth heartily desire that he might receive satisfaction in all things." But, in spite of her wishes, the King was resolute. Unless Holland should offer a sufficient apology for the course he had pursued, Charles was not disposed to treat him with more than civility. Writing to his wife, probably in reference to this affair, Sunderland observed that he had never seen the King use any one with more neglect than " 100," and that he was said to be not much better used by the Queen. His own opinion of the trimmer is not recorded.