The life of Queen Henrietta Maria (4 page)

Whether the person chiefly concerned in their success or failure found leisure and opportunity to watch the proceedings of her brother's agents on the opposite side of the Channel there are few indications to show. One of her first recorded sayings points to the fact that she was not without opinions of her own on the subject. " A wife," she is reported to have declared, when it was suggested that religion might prove an obstacle to her marriage—" a wife ought to have no will but that of her husband." The expression of the sentiment—singularly out of harmony with the principles governing her conduct in after-life—goes to prove that her brain was already occupied, at eleven years old, with speculations as to her probable future ; but it was not until three years later that she was brought for a moment

into something like personal contact with the man destined to become her husband.

During these years many changes had taken place at the French court, no doubt affecting in some degree the King's sister. The reconciliation between Marie de Medicis and her son had had a destructive influence upon the domestic happiness of the young King and Queen. So long as the ex-Regent had remained at a distance from the court, if no strong bond of affection had united the pair, their relations had not been wanting in harmony. With Marie's return, the death of the Due de Luynes, and her recovery of influence and power, matters underwent a change. " Le paix entre la mere et le fils," says Madame de Motteville, " brouilla le mari et la femme "—a sequence of cause and effect not unknown in domestic life. The Queen-Mother's policy in seeking to produce estrangement between her son and his wife was attended with marked success. Thrown upon her own resources and finding her chief consolation in the society of the Duchesse de Chevreuse, Anne was not always wise in her methods of pleasure-seeking. The Duchess was eminently fitted to serve as purveyor of amusement to her mistress; and though said to have complained of the difficulty she found in instilling into Anne a proper appreciation of the uses of life and love, she succeeded to a certain extent in the endeavour, and under her guidance, according to Madame de Motteville, it became the custom for the most serious matters to furnish material for pleasantry.

At a court thus reconstructed the future Queen of England was receiving the training designed to fit her, at fifteen, to fill the place at Whitehall occupied by her sister-in-law at the Louvre. When this is borne in mind it will be found less astonishing that she should

have made mistakes than that she should have been guilty of nothing worse. It is true that the influence of the Queen-Mother had encouraged the pretty spoilt child to set herself in opposition to her brother's wife ; but the fact that she was accompanied to England by the Duchesse de Chevreuse, and that that lady remained at her court for some considerable time, is proof that the leader of the revels at the Louvre had not been unsuccessful in ingratiating herself with little Madame.

Whilst all the world, in jest or earnest, was engaged in making love around her, Henrietta was not likely to remain unprovided with a lover. The part was played by her young cousin, the Comte de Soissons, of whom it is stated that he " pretended to Madame," and that his " respects for her were not thought fit to be discouraged till a seasonable condition offered itself." The intervention of Charles Stuart as a suitor was, in other words, fatal to the hopes entertained by the young Count.

In the month of February, 1623, an incident occurred causing a revival of the desires and regrets that had attended the unsuccessful missions to St. James' three years earlier. It was at this time that the first meeting took place between Henrietta and her future husband. The occasion was the rehearsal of a ballet shortly to be performed at court, the Queen, her fourteen-year-old sister-in-law, and nineteen other ladies being included amongst the dancers. The principal role —that of Juno —was of course assigned to Anne; whilst that of Iris was bestowed upon Madame. The child acquitted herself of her performance to the great satisfaction of the court, and received an ovation. But the circumstance distinguishing this special entertainment from others of the same sort was the presence of two

unexpected guests who, under the pseudonyms of John Brown and Tom Smith, had obtained permission to witness it. These strangers were in truth the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Buckingham, then passing through Paris on the celebrated journey to Spain, undertaken with the double object of affording Charles an opportunity of winning the personal affections of his bride, and of bringing the protracted marriage negotiations to a successful end.

Finding themselves on the spot, and hearing of the projected rehearsal, the travellers had conceived the idea of assisting at it incognito, and had contrived, by means of periwigs and other appliances, to carry their purpose into effect. Whether the identity of the two Englishmen with the heir to the throne and James' powerful favourite had remained altogether unsuspected must continue undetermined. The facility with which a couple of unknown foreigners, bearing no credentials and under a purposely plebeian disguise, obtained admission to the Court entertainment, seems to cast a doubt upon the matter. At any rate, Charles was enabled to inspect at close quarters the bride so persistently offered for his acceptance ; whilst Buckingham saw for the first time the woman for whom he afterwards conceived so violent a passion.

At a later stage, when he was addressing Henrietta as his betrothed, a letter from Charles rested the tribute he then' offered to her personal attractions not only upon reports transmitted to him by others, but upon the witness of his own eyes, he himself having been permitted, though unknown, to look upon her. It is also alleged in an early memoir that the Prince, seeing her dance in the memorable ballet, " as she could rarely well . . . took in by the eyes that love which he preserved inviolable for her till his death." Both statements must alike be

regarded in the light of polite fiction. The description given by Charles of the impression made upon him by the fourteen-year-old charms of Madame may have been, under the circumstances, a pardonable departure from strict adherence to fact; but that it strained the truth does not admit of doubt. At the time of the incident his heart was wholly occupied by the thought of the unseen bride whom he had set himself, in romantic fashion, to win ; and had it been otherwise, Henrietta would have been eclipsed by the more mature beauty of the young Queen. If proof were wanting, it is to be found in the letter written to his father on the following day, when, mentioning his presence at the ballet, he added that of all the ladies taking part in it the Queen was the fairest, and that the sight of Anne had quickened his desire to see her sister, the Infanta.

When the stranger guests had gone their way there was trouble and regret in Paris. The real quality and station of the disguised spectators of the dance had quickly become known, and for different reasons more than one person felt injured. The English ambassador, Lord Herbert, who had not been let into the secret, was naturally perturbed—partly probably owing to the slight put upon himself, partly lest danger should threaten the heir-apparent on his adventurous journey. It was annoying to be asked by a casual Scot, named Andrews, whether he had seen the Prince, and to have given evidence of his ignorance by asking what prince was in question ; and more annoying still to be informed by the French secretary that " his Prince " had left that morning for Spain. Nor was it Lord Herbert alone who felt aggrieved. Anne of Austria—having, it wonld appear, the interests of France and of little Madame more at heart than those of her own sister in Spain—

expressed her regret, later on, that Henrietta had not been seen to greater advantage than was possible by a dim light and at a distance, her face and figure gaining in beauty when viewed close at hand. Whilst Madame herself is reported to have observed, with a sigh, that the Prince need not have gone so far as Madrid to look for a wife.

It is further said that, this remark having come to the ears of the Comte de Soissons, he was much disordered, till such time as Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld " dealt freely with his mother," telling her that if they thought the King would give his sister to the young Count in marriage they were much mistaken. If this incident is correctly reported it seems likely that this free dealing with Madame de Soissons would have taken place after the failure of the Spanish expedition, and the consequent revival of hope with regard to the cherished projects of the French court. For the events of the ensuing year put an end once for all to her young cousin's pretensions to Henrietta's hand.

CHAPTER II

1623—1625

Failure of marriage negotiations with Spain—Private mission to England —De Tillieres and the cordelier —Lord Kensington at Paris—His letters—Joined by Lord Carlisle—Protracted negotiations—The Treaty of Marriage—Fresh difficulties—Betrothal and marriage— Buckingham and Anne of Austria.

BEFORE many months had passed all the world was aware that Charles' adventurous journey had been taken to no purpose and that the marriage negotiations with Spain were practically, though not formally, at an end. Every attempt had been made by the English Government to meet the Spanish demands ; concessions had been granted to which it would have been difficult in any case to reconcile the belligerent spirit of British Protestantism, but all had proved vain. It was clear that it was not intended at Madrid that the marriage should take place. The Prince of Wales returned home, to all intents and purposes, a free man.

The events following the arrival of Charles and the favourite in England made the position patent to every one. A Parliament was summoned, and it joined with Buckingham and the Prince in demanding from the King a declaration of war with Spain. A treaty was concluded with Holland, and negotiations were set on foot with the Protestant princes of Germany. Under these circumstances it was not difficult to foresee where next a bride for Charles would be sought. If France was

Catholic it was also the inveterate enemy of Spain, the champion par excellence of Catholicism in Europe ; nor does any marriage for the heir-apparent save one with Henrietta appear to have been so much as in question. Whilst he was yet in Spain, and when it must have been becoming evident that the negotiations there carried on were doomed to failure, the young Queen, in the course of one of the few private conversations with Charles permitted by the rigidity of Spanish etiquette, had suggested to him the substitution of her own sister for her husband's. She wished, Elisabeth had said, that he would marry Henrietta. What response was made by Charles does not appear ; and upon his expressing a desire for another interview Elisabeth declined his request, on the sufficient grounds that it was a Spanish custom to poison any man suspected of gallantry towards the Queen. She had, for the rest, only given utterance to a wish felt by many.

The course of events had been carefully followed in France. The French Secretary of State, whilst giving the English ambassador the assurance he had demanded that the Prince should be permitted to proceed unmolested from Paris to Spain, had added that he could not promise not to despatch those in the wake of the travellers who would keep the French Government informed as to the success attending the fourney. The collapse of the negotiations would in any case have been hailed with the utmost satisfaction at Paris. As rendering possible the marriage upon which the French authorities had long been bent, it opened out new vistas of hope.

For information as to the next step taken by the French court, on receiving the intelligence of Charles' departure from Spain, it is necessary to rely chiefly upon

the account given by the ill-used ambassador, M. de Tillieres.

It was three years since Du Buisson and de Cadenet had successively been sent to interfere with his cautious and methodical diplomacy. The envoy now entrusted with a mission to England was yet more unsuitable. An English cordelier who had been resident at Madrid, he had—" after the fashion of monks," says the indignant ambassador, u who love intrigues, and are mostly restless spirits"—brought to Paris the welcome news of the termination of Charles' visit to Spain, and had, moreover, suggested his own fitness to act as intermediary between the French Government and the Duke of Buckingham on the subject of the English marriage, grounding this astonishing proposal upon certain facilities he represented himself as possessing for gaining access to the Duke. By the Queen-Mother, with whom he succeeded in obtaining an interview, he was sent to Richelieu, now her chief adviser, and received from the Cardinal, according to de Tillieres, both leave to proceed to England and carry his proposal into effect, and sufficient money for the journey. Acting upon his instructions, he appears to have put himself into communication with Buckingham, and to have met with a favourable reception from the Duke—the latter preferring, as de Tillieres surmises, to treat with an ignorant monk rather than with a practised diplomatist.

The progress of events was first made known to the accredited ambassador by the adventurer himself. Informed one afternoon that an " honest Englishman " desired speech with him, he was met by the cordelier with the request that a packet containing important communications, and addressed to a lady attached to the royal household, might find a place in the ambassadorial bag.

When, in reply to this demand, " digne d'un maniaque," the Count required to be informed of the nature of its contents, his visitor introduced himself in the character of the agent selected by Richelieu and the Queen-Mother to conduct negotiations undeniably more fitted to be entrusted to their official representative. Whereupon the enraged Count not only refused to forward his visitor's papers, but told the reverend envoy that, being " half an ambassador," he could employ a courier of his own.

De Tillieres would have done better, in his own interest, to keep his temper. The complaints he proceeded to address to head quarters only elicited a disavowal from the Queen-Mother of her complicity in the matter. Admitting that the errant monk had been the bearer of a communication from Spain, she denied that he had had her authority for his subsequent proceedings. The disclaimer may be taken for what it is worth, but there seems no reason to doubt de Tillieres' account of the affair, rendered more probable by the fact that, the French Court being, on his hypothesis, anxious rather to hasten the marriage than to conduct matters with dignity, he himself was shortly removed from his post.