Books: History of King Charles II of England
J >>
Jacob Abbott >> History of King Charles II of England
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 Mary Wampler, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
HISTORY OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND OF ENGLAND.
BY JACOB ABBOTT.
PREFACE.
The author of this series has made it his special object to confine
himself very strictly, even in the most minute details which he records,
to historic truth. The narratives are not tales founded upon history,
but history itself, without any embellishment or any deviations from
the strict truth, so far as it can now be discovered by an attentive
examination of the annals written at the time when the events themselves
occurred. In writing the narratives, the author has endeavored to avail
himself of the best sources of information which this country affords;
and though, of course, there must be in these volumes, as in all
historical accounts, more or less of imperfection and error, there is
no intentional embellishment. Nothing is stated, not even the most
minute and apparently imaginary details, without what was deemed good
historical authority. The readers, therefore, may rely upon the record
as the truth, and nothing but the truth, so far as an honest purpose
and a careful examination have been effectual in ascertaining it.
CONTENTS.
Chapter
I. INFANCY
II. PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER
III. QUEEN HENRIETTA'S FLIGHT
IV. ESCAPE OF THE CHILDREN
V. THE PRINCE'S RECEPTION AT PARIS
VI. NEGOTIATIONS WITH ANNE MARIA
VII. THE ROYAL OAK OF BOSCOBEL
VIII. THE KING'S ESCAPE TO FRANCE
IX. THE RESTORATION
X. THE MARRIAGE
XI. CHARACTER AND REIGN
XII. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER I.
INFANCY.
King Charles the Second was the son and successor of King Charles the
First. These two are the only kings of the name of Charles that have
appeared, thus far, in the line of English sovereigns. Nor is it very
probable that there will soon be another. The reigns of both these
monarchs were stained and tarnished with many vices and crimes, and
darkened by national disasters of every kind, and the name is thus
connected with so many painful associations in the minds of men, that
it seems to have been dropped, by common consent, in all branches of
the royal family.
The reign of Charles the First, as will be seen by the history of his
life in this series, was characterized by a long and obstinate contest
between the king and the people, which brought on, at last, a civil
war, in which the king was defeated and taken prisoner, and in the end
beheaded on a block, before one of his own palaces. During the last
stages of this terrible contest, and before Charles way himself taken
prisoner, he was, as it were, a fugitive and an outlaw in his own
dominions. His wife and family were scattered in various foreign lands,
his cities and castles were in the hands of his enemies, and his oldest
son, the prince Charles, was the object of special hostility. The
prince incurred, therefore, a great many dangers, and suffered many
heavy calamities in his early years. He lived to see these calamities
pass away, and, after they were gone, he enjoyed, so far as his own
personal safety and welfare were concerned, a tranquil and prosperous
life. The storm, however, of trial and suffering which enveloped the
evening of his father's days, darkened the morning of his own. The
life of Charles the First was a river rising gently, from quiet springs,
in a scene of verdure and sunshine, and flowing gradually into rugged
and gloomy regions, where at last it falls into a terrific abyss,
enveloped in darkness and storms. That of Charles the Second, on the
other hand, rising in the wild and rugged mountains where the parent
stream was engulfed, commences its course by leaping frightfully from
precipice to precipice, with turbid and foaming waters, but emerges
at last into a smooth and smiling land, and flows through it
prosperously to the sea.
Prince Charles's mother, the wife of Charles the First, was a French
princess. Her name was Henrietta Maria. She was unaccomplished,
beautiful, and very spirited woman. She was a Catholic, and the English
people, who were very decided in their hostility to the Catholic faith,
were extremely jealous of her. They watched all her movements with the
utmost suspicion. They were very unwilling that an heir to the crown
should arise in her family. The animosity which they felt against her
husband the king, which was becoming every day more and more bitter,
seemed to be doubly inveterate and intense toward her. They published
pamphlets, in which they called her a daughter of Heth, a Canaanite,
and an idolatress, and expressed hopes that from such a worse than
pagan stock no progeny should ever spring.
Henrietta was at this time--1630--twenty-one years of age, and had
been married about four years. She had had one son, who had died a few
days after his birth. Of course, she did not lead a very happy life
in England. Her husband the king, like the majority of the English
people, was a Protestant, and the difference was a far more important
circumstance in those days than it would be now; though even now a
difference in religious faith, on points _which either party deems
essential_, is, in married life, an obstacle to domestic happiness,
which comes to no termination, and admits of no cure. If it were
possible for reason and reflection to control the impetuous impulses
of youthful hearts, such differences of religious faith would be
regarded, where they exist, as an insurmountable objection to a
matrimonial union.
The queen, made thus unhappy by religious dissensions with her husband,
and by the public odium of which she was the object, lived in
considerable retirement and seclusion at St. James's Palace, in
Westminster, which is the western part of London. Here her second son,
the subject of this history, was born, in May, 1630, which was ten
years after the landing of the pilgrims on the Plymouth rock. The babe
was very far from being pretty, though he grew up at last to be quite
a handsome man. King Charles was very much pleased at the birth of his
son. He rode into London the next morning at the head of a long train
of guards and noble attendants, to the great cathedral church of St.
Paul's, to render thanks publicly to God for the birth of his child
and the safety of the queen. While this procession was going through
the streets, all London being out to gaze upon it, the attention of
the vast crowd was attracted to the appearance of a star glimmering
faintly in the sky at midday. This is an occurrence not very uncommon,
though it seldom, perhaps, occurs when it has so many observers to
witness it. The star was doubtless Venus, which, in certain
circumstances, is often bright enough to be seen when the sun is above
the horizon. The populace of London, however, who were not in those
days very profound astronomers, regarded the shining of the star as
a supernatural occurrence altogether, and as portending the future
greatness and glory of the prince whose natal day it thus unexpectedly
adorned.
Preparations were made for the baptism of the young prince in July.
The baptism of a prince is an important affair, and there was one
circumstance which gave a peculiar interest to that of the infant
Charles. The Reformation had not been long established in England, and
this happened to be the first occasion on which an heir to the English
crown had been baptized since the Liturgy of the English Church had
been arranged. There is a chapel connected with the palace of St.
James, as is usual with royal palaces in Europe, and even, in fact,
with the private castles and mansions of the higher nobility. The
baptism took place there. On such occasions it is usual for certain
persons to appear as sponsors, as they are called, who undertake to
answer for the safe and careful instruction of the child in the
principles of the Christian faith. This is, of course, mainly a form,
the real function of the sponsors being confined, as it would appear,
to making magnificent presents to their young godchild, in
acknowledgment of the distinguished honor conferred upon them by their
designation to the office which they hold. The sponsors, on this
occasion, were certain royal personages in France, the relatives of
the queen. They could not appear personally, and so they appointed
proxies from among the higher nobility of England, who appeared at the
baptism in their stead, and made the presents to the child. One of
these proxies was a duchess, whose gift was a jewel valued at a sum
in English money equal to thirty thousand dollars.
The oldest son of a king of England receives the title of Prince of
Wales; and there was an ancient custom of the realm, that an infant
prince of Wales should be under the care, in his earliest years, of
a Welsh nurse, so that the first words which he should learn to speak
might be the vernacular language of his principality. Such a nurse was
provided for Charles. Rockers for his cradle were appointed, and many
other officers of his household, all the arrangements being made in
a very magnificent and sumptuous manner. It is the custom in England
to pay fees to the servants by which a lady or gentleman is attended,
even when a guest in private dwellings; and some idea may be formed
of the scale on which the pageantry of this occasion was conducted,
from the fact that one of the lady sponsors who rode to the palace in
the queen's carriage, which was sent for her on this occasion, paid
a sum equal to fifty dollars each to six running footmen who attended
the carriage, and a hundred dollars to the coachman; while a number
of knights who came on horseback and in armor to attend upon the
carriage, as it moved to the palace, received each a gratuity of two
hundred and fifty dollars. The state dresses on the occasion of this
baptism were very costly and splendid, being of white satin trimmed
with crimson.
The little prince was thus an object of great attention at the very
commencement of his days, His mother had his portrait painted, and
sent it to _her_ mother in France. She did not, however, in the letters
which accompanied the picture, though his mother, praise the beauty
of her child. She said, in fact, that he was so ugly that she was
ashamed of him, though his size and plumpness, she added, atoned for
the want of beauty. And then he was so comically serious and grave in
the expression of his countenance! the queen said she verily believed
that he was wiser than herself.
As the young prince advanced in years, the religious and political
difficulties in the English nation increased, and by the time that he
had arrived at an age when he could begin to receive impressions from
the conversation and intercourse of those around him, the Parliament
began to be very jealous of the influence which his mother might exert.
They were extremely anxious that he should be educated a Protestant,
and were very much afraid that his mother would contrive to initiate
him secretly into the ideas and practices of the Catholic faith.
She insisted that she did not attempt to do this, and perhaps she did
not; but in those days it was often considered right to make false
pretensions and to deceive, so far as this was necessary to promote
the cause of true religion. The queen did certainly make some efforts
to instill Catholic principles into the minds of some of her children;
for she had other children after the birth of Charles. She gave a
daughter a crucifix one day, which is a little image of Christ upon
the cross, made usually of ivory, or silver, or gold, and also a rosary,
which is a string of beads, by means of which the Catholics are assisted
to count their prayers. Henrietta gave these things to her daughter
secretly, and told her to hide them in her pocket, and taught her how
to use them. The Parliament considered such attempts to influence the
minds of the royal children as very heinous sins, and they made such
arrangements for secluding the young prince Charles from his mother,
and putting the others under the guidance of Protestant teachers and
governors, as very much interfered with Henrietta's desires to enjoy
the society of her children. Since England was a Protestant realm, a
Catholic lady, in marrying an English king, ought not to have expected,
perhaps, to have been allowed to bring up her children in her own
faith; still, it must have been very hard for a mother to be forbidden
to teach her own children what she undoubtedly believed was the only
possible means of securing for them the favor and protection of Heaven.
There is in London a vast storehouse of books, manuscripts, relics,
curiosities, pictures, and other memorials of by-gone days, called the
British Museum. Among the old records here preserved are various letters
written by Henrietta, and one or two by Charles, the young prince,
during his childhood. Here is one, for instance, written by Henrietta
to her child, when the little prince was but eight years of age, chiding
him for not being willing to take his medicine. He was at that time
under the charge of Lord Newcastle.
"CHARLES,--I am sorry that I must begin my first letter with chiding
you, because I hear that you will not take phisicke, I hope it was
onlie for this day, and that to-morrow you will do it for if you will
not, I must come to you, and _make_ you take it, for it is for your
health. I have given order to mi Lord of Newcastle to send mi word
to-night whether you will or not. Therefore I hope you will not give
me the paines to goe; and so I rest, your affectionate mother,
HENRIETTE MARIE."
The letter was addressed
"To MI DEARE SONNE the Prince."
The queen must have taken special pains with this her first letter to
her son, for, with all its faults of orthography, it is very much more
correct than most of the epistles which she attempted to write in
English. She was very imperfectly acquainted with the English language,
using, as she almost always did, in her domestic intercourse, her own
native tongue.
Time passed on, and the difficulties and contests between King Charles
and his people and Parliament became more and more exciting and
alarming. One after another of the king's most devoted and faithful
ministers was arrested, tried, condemned, and beheaded, notwithstanding
all the efforts which their sovereign master could make to save them.
Parties were formed, and party spirit ran very high. Tumults were
continually breaking out about the palaces, which threatened the
personal safety of the king and queen. Henrietta herself was a special
object of the hatred which these outbreaks expressed. The king himself
was half distracted by the overwhelming difficulties of his position.
Bad as it was in England, it was still worse in Scotland. There was
an actual rebellion there, and the urgency of the danger in that quarter
was so great that Charles concluded to go there, leaving the poor queen
at home to take care of herself and her little ones as well as she
could, with the few remaining means of protection yet left at her
disposal.
There was an ancient mansion, called Oatlands, not very far from London,
where the queen generally resided during the absence of her husband.
It was a lonely place, on low and level ground, and surrounded by moats
filled with water, over which those who wished to enter passed by draw
bridges. Henrietta chose this place for her residence because she
thought she should be safer there from mobs and violence. She kept the
children all there except the Prince of Wales, who was not allowed to
be wholly under her care. He, how ever, often visited his mother, and
she sometimes visited him.
During the absence of her husband, Queen Henrietta was subjected to
many severe and heavy trials. Her communications with him were often
interrupted and broken. She felt a very warm interest in the prosperity
and success of his expedition, and sometimes the tidings she received
from him encouraged her to hope that all might yet be well. Here, for
instance, is a note which she addressed one day to an officer who had
sent her a letter from the king, that had come enclosed to him. It is
written in a broken English, which shows how imperfectly the foreign
lady had learned the language of her adopted country. They who
understand the French language will be interested in observing that
most of the errors which the writer falls into are those which result
naturally from the usages of her mother tongue.
_Queen Henrietta to Sir Edward Nicholas_.
"MAISTRE NICHOLAS,--I have reseaved your letter, and that you send me
from the king, which writes me word he as been vere well reseaved in
Scotland; that both the armi and the people have shewed a creat joy
to see the king, and such that theay say was never seen before. Pray
God it may continue.
Your friend, HENRIETTE MARIE R."
At one time during the king's absence in Scotland the Parliament
threatened to take the queen's children all away from her, for fear,
as they said, that she would make papists of them. This danger alarmed
and distressed the queen exceedingly. She declared that she did not
intend or desire to bring up her children in the Catholic faith. She
knew this was contrary to the wish of the king her husband, as well
as of the people of England. In order to diminish the danger that the
children would be taken away, she left Oatlands herself, and went to
reside at other palaces, only going occasionally to visit her children.
Though she was thus absent from them in person, her heart was with
them all the time, and she was watching with great solicitude and
anxiety for any indications of a design on the part of her enemies to
come and take them away.
At last she received intelligence that an armed force was ordered to
assemble one night in the vicinity of Oatlands to seize her children,
under the pretext that the queen was herself forming plans for removing
them out of the country and taking them to France. Henrietta was a
lady of great spirit and energy, and this threatened danger to her
children aroused all her powers. She sent immediately to all the friends
about her on whom she could rely, and asked them to come, armed and
equipped, and with as many followers as they could muster, to the park
at Oatlands that night. There were also then in and near London a
number of officers of the army, absent from their posts on furlough.
She sent similar orders to these. All obeyed the summons with eager
alacrity. The queen mustered and armed her own household, too, down
to the lowest servants of the kitchen. By these means quite a little
army was collected in the park at Oatlands, the separate parties coming
in, one after another, in the evening and night. This guard patrolled
the grounds till morning, the queen herself animating them by her
presence and energy. The children, whom the excited mother was thus
guarding, like a lioness defending her young, were all the time within
the mansion, awaiting in infantile terror some dreadful calamity, they
scarcely knew what, which all this excitement seemed to portend.
The names and ages of the queen's children at this time were as follows:
Charles, prince of Wales, the subject of this story, eleven.
Mary, ten. Young as she was, she was already married, having been
espoused a short time before to William, prince of Orange, who was one
year older than herself.
James, duke of York, seven. He became afterward King James II.
Elizabeth, six.
Henry, an infant only a few months old.
The night passed away without any attack, though a considerable force
assembled in the vicinity, which was, however, soon after disbanded.
The queen's fears were, nevertheless, not allayed. She began to make
arrangements for escaping from the kingdom in ease it should become
necessary to do so. She sent a certain faithful friend and servant to
Portsmouth with orders to get some vessels ready, so that she could
fly there with her children and embark at a moment's notice, if these
dangers and alarms should continue.
She did not, however, have occasion to avail herself of these
preparations. Affairs seemed to take a more favorable turn. The king
came back from Scotland. He was received by his people, on his arrival,
with apparent cordiality and good will. The queen was, of course,
rejoiced to welcome him home, and she felt relieved and protected by
his presence. The city of London, which had been the main seat of
disaffection and hostility to the royal family, began to show symptoms
of returning loyalty and friendly regard. In reciprocation for this,
the king determined on making a grand entry into the city, to pay a
sort of visit to the authorities. He rode, on this occasion, in a
splendid chariot of state, with the little prince by his side. Queen
Henrietta came next, in an open carriage of her own, and the other
children, with other carriages, followed in the train. A long cortege
of guards and attendants, richly dressed and magnificently mounted,
preceded and followed the royal family, while the streets were lined
with thousands of spectators, who waved handkerchiefs and banners, and
shouted God save the king! In the midst of this scene of excitement
and triumph, Henrietta rode quietly along, her anxieties relieved, her
sorrows and trials ended, and her heart bounding with happiness and
hope. She was once more, as she conceived, reunited to her husband and
her children, and reconciled to the people of her realm. She thought
her troubles were over Alas! they had, on the contrary, scarcely begun.
CHAPTER II.
PRINCE CHARLES'S MOTHER.
The indications and promises of returning peace and happiness which
gave Prince Charles's mother so much animation and hope after the
return of her husband from Scotland were all very superficial and
fallacious. The real grounds of the quarrel between the king and his
Parliament, and of the feelings of alienation and ill will cherished
toward the queen, were all, unfortunately, as deep and extensive as
ever; and the storm, which lulled treacherously for a little time,
broke forth soon afterward anew, with a frightful violence which it
was evident that nothing could withstand. This new onset of disaster
and calamity was produced in such a way that Henrietta had to reproach
herself with being the cause of its coming.
She had often represented to the king that, in her opinion, one main
cause of the difficulties he had suffered was that he did not act
efficiently and decidedly, and like a man, in putting down the
opposition manifested against him on the part of his subjects; and
now, soon after his return from Scotland, on some new spirit of
disaffection showing itself in Parliament, she urged him to act at
once energetically and promptly against it. She proposed to him to
take an armed force with him, and proceed boldly to the halls where
the Parliament was assembled, and arrest the leaders of the party who
were opposed to him. There were five of them who were specially
prominent. The queen believed that if these five men were seized and
imprisoned in the Tower, the rest would be intimidated and overawed,
and the monarch's lost authority and power would be restored again.
The king was persuaded, partly by the dictates of his own judgment,
and partly by the urgency of the queen, to make the attempt. The
circumstances of this case, so far as the action of the king was
concerned in them, are fully related in the history of Charles the
First. Here we have only to speak of the queen, who was left in a state
of great suspense and anxiety in her palace at Whitehall while her
husband was gone on his dangerous mission.
The plan of the king to make this irruption into the great legislative
assembly of the nation had been kept, so they supposed, a very profound
secret, lest the members whom he was going to arrest should receive
warning of their danger and fly. When the time arrived, the king bade
Henrietta farewell, saying that she might wait there an hour, and if
she received no ill news from him during that time, she might be sure
that he had been successful, and that he was once more master of his
kingdom. The queen remained in the apartment where the king had left
her, looking continually at the watch which she held before her, and
counting the minutes impatiently as the hands moved slowly on. She had
with her one confidential friend, the Lady Carlisle, who sat with her
and seemed to share her solicitude, though she had not been entrusted
with the secret. The time passed on. No ill tidings came; and at length
the hour fully expired, and Henrietta, able to contain herself no
longer, exclaimed with exultation, "Rejoice with me; the hour is gone.
From this time my husband is master of his realm. His enemies in
Parliament are all arrested before this time, and his kingdom is
henceforth his own."
It certainly is possible for kings and queens to have faithful friends,
but there are so many motives and inducements to falsehood and treachery
in court, that it is _not_ possible, generally, for them to distinguish
false friends from true. The Lady Carlisle was a confederate with some
of the very men whom Charles had gone to arrest. On receiving this
intimation of their danger, she sent immediately to the houses of
Parliament, which were very near at hand, and the obnoxious members
received warning in time to fly. The hour had indeed elapsed, but the
king had met with several unexpected delays, both in his preparations
for going, and on his way to the House of Commons, so that when at
last he entered, the members were gone. His attempt, however,
unsuccessful as it was, evoked a general storm of indignation and
anger, producing thus all the exasperation which was to have been
expected from the measure, without in any degree accomplishing its
end. The poor queen was overwhelmed with confusion and dismay when she
learned the result. She had urged her husband forward to an extremely
dangerous and desperate measure, and then by her thoughtless
indiscretion had completely defeated the end. A universal and utterly
uncontrollable excitement burst like a clap of thunder upon the country
as this outrage, as they termed it, of the king became known, and the
queen was utterly appalled at the extent and magnitude of the mischief
she had done.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13