Books: Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
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Seeing what I had to trust to, I began to shape my life as well as I
could to my fortune, in order whereunto I dismissed all my family but
some few persons. At my arrival I gave them all mourning, and five
pounds apiece, and put most of them into a good way of living, I thank
God.
In 1667, I took a house in Holborn-row, Lincoln's-inn Fields, for
twenty-one years, of Mr. Cole. This year I christened a daughter of
Lord Fanshawe's. Here, in this year, I only spent my time in lament
and dear remembrances of my past happiness and fortune; and though I
had great graces and favours from the King and Queen, and whole Court,
yet I found at the present no remedy. I often reflected how many
miscarriages and errors the fall from that happy estate I had been in
would throw me; and as it is hard for the rider to quit his horse in a
full career, so I found myself at a loss, that hindered my settling
myself in a narrow compass suddenly, though my narrow fortune required
it; but I resolved to hold me fast by God, until I could digest, in
some measure, my afflictions. Sometimes I thought to quit the world as
a sacrifice to your father's memory, and to shut myself up in a house
for ever from all people; but upon the consideration of my children,
who were all young and unprovided for, being wholly left to my care
and disposal, I resolved to suffer, as long as it pleased God, the
storms and flows of fortune.
As soon as I got my tallies placed again by the Commissioners, I sold
them for five hundred pounds less than my assignments to Alderman
Buckwell, who gave me ready money, and I put it out upon a mortgage of
Sir Richard Ayloff's estate, in Essex, at Braxted.
In 1668, I hired a house and ground, of sixty pounds a year, at
Hartingfordbury, in Hertfordshire, to be near my father, being but two
miles from Balls, both because I would have my father's company, and
because the air was very good for my children; but when God took my
father, I let my time in it, and never saw it more.
About this time Sir Philip Warwick retired himself from public
business, to his house at Frogpool, in Kent; his son and daughter-in-
law lived with him some time, until this year, 1669, they went into
France. She was the daughter and coheir of the Lord Freschville.
In my brother Warwick's house, in London, in 1666, died my sister
Bedell, and was carried down into Huntingdonshire, to Hamerton, and
was there buried by her husband in the chancel. She was a most worthy
woman, and eminently good, wise, and handsome; she never much enjoyed
herself since the death of her eldest daughter, who married Sir
Francis Compton, and, in her right, he had Hamerton, in
Huntingdonshire. She died five years before my sister, a most dutiful
daughter, and a very fine-bred lady, and excellent company, and very
virtuous.
About this time died my brother Lord Fanshawe's widow. She was a very
good wife and tender mother, but else nothing extraordinary. She was
buried in the vault of her husband's family in Ware church. Within a
year after this, his son, Lord Fanshawe, sold Ware Park for 26,000
pounds to Sir Thomas Byde, a brewer, of London.
Thus, in the fourth generation, the chief of our family, since they
came into the south, for their sufferings for the Crown, sold the
flower of their estates, and near 2000 pounds a year more. There
remains but the Remembrancer's place of the Exchequer office: and very
pathetical is the motto of our arms for us--'The victory is in the
Cross.' [Footnote: "In Cruce Victoria." Another motto of the Fanshawe
family was, "Dux vitae ratio." Of these mottoes a Correspondent in the
Gentleman's Magazine for July 1796, tells the following story. "When
Sir Richard was ambassador, and was travelling in Spain, in an English
carriage, with his arms upon it, surrounded by the two mottoes
belonging to them--Dux vitae Ratio--In Cruce Victoria; a crowd of
peasants gathering round the unusual sight of so many foreigners, in a
town where they stopped for refreshment, were very anxious with a
priest, who happened to be amongst them, for an explanation of the
Latin, which being beyond his skill, he informed them that the coach
belonged to the Duke of Vitae Ratio, who had done great things for the
Cross."]
I had, about this time, some trouble with keeping the lordships of
Tring and Hitching, which your father held of the Queen-Mother; but I
not being able to make a considerable advantage of them, gave them up
again: and then I sold a lease of the Manor of Burstalgarth, which was
granted for thirty-one years to your father from the King. Dean Hicks
bought it, it being convenient for him, lying upon Humber. There was a
widow, one Mrs. Hiliard, hired this manor, and had so done long. She
was very earnest to buy it at a very under rate. When she saw it sold,
she, as was suspected, fired the house, which was burnt down to the
ground within two months after I had sold it.
In this year my brother Harrison married the eldest daughter of the
Lord Viscount Grandison. I let in this year a lease of eleven years of
Fanton Hall, in Essex, to Jonathan Wier, which I held of the Bishopric
of London: this lease was bought the first year the King came home, of
Doctor Sheldon, then Bishop of London, who was exceeding kind to us,
and sold it for half the worth, which I will ever acknowledge with
thankfulness.
My dear father departed this life, upon the 28th of September, 1670,
being above eighty years of age, in perfect understanding, God be
praised! He left five hundred pounds to every one of my four
daughters; and gave me three thousand pounds for a part of the manor
of Scallshow, near Lynn, in Norfolk, but the year before he died, to
make my sister Harrison a jointure. The 11th I christened the eldest
daughter of my brother Harrison, with Lord Grandison, and Sir Edmund
Turner.
The death of my father made so great an impression on me, that with
the grief, I was sick half a year almost to death; but through God's
mercy, and the care of Doctor Jasper Needham, a most worthy and
learned physician, I recovered; and as soon as I was able to think of
business, I bought ground in St. Mary's Chapel, in Ware Church, of the
Bishop of London, and there made a vault for my husband's body, which
I had there laid by most of the same persons that laid him before in
my father's vault, in Hertford Church deposited, until I could make
this vault and monument, which cost me two hundred pounds; and here,
if God pleases, I intend to lie myself.
He had the good fortune to be the first chosen, and the first returned
member of the Commons' House of Parliament, in England, after the King
came home; and this cost him no more than a letter of thanks, and two
brace of bucks, and twenty broad pieces of gold to buy them wine. Upon
St. Stephen's day the King shut the
EXTRACTS
FROM THE
CORRESPONDENCE
OF
SIR RICHARD FANSHAWE
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE MEMOIR
The Letters from which part of the following Extracts have been taken,
were printed in 1701, under the title of "Original Letters of his
Excellency Sir Richard Fanshawe, during his Embassies in Spain and
Portugal; which, together with divers Letters and Answers from the
Chief Ministers of State of England, Spain, and Portugal, contain the
whole negociations of the treaty of Peace between those three Crowns."
8vo, pp. 510.
The remainder are now printed, for the first time, from the rough
copies of the originals, or the originals themselves, preserved in the
Harleian MS. 7010, in the British Museum.
Although these Extracts were chiefly made with the view of
illustrating the statements in the Memoir, nearly every passage has
been copied from the Correspondence which is of the slightest general
interest, unconnected with political affairs.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
[See MEMOIRS, p 152.]
On Board his Majesty's Admiral, entering the Bay of Cadiz, Wednesday
about noon, 24th of February, 1669, English style.
"By former advertisements, I presume his Majesty, from you, hath
understood how, after sharp storms and cross winds, with the first
favourable breath we adventured to put to sea a third time, and out of
Torbay the second, upon Monday the 15th instant, at nine of the clock
at night; from whence in so few days, as appears by computation, to
the time of the date hereof, and with the most auspicious weather that
could be imagined, we were all arrived thus far, in perfect health and
safety; where perceiving some sailors steering towards us, which we
took to be English, and homewards bound, I thought it my duty, en
duda, to prepare hastily, thus much only, against we speak with them
in passage; which may suffice at present, from him who knows no more
as yet."
Original Letters of Sir Richard Fanshawe, p. 30.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
[See MEMOIRS, p. 153.]
Cadiz, February 29, 1663/March 10, 1664.
My last of the 29th of February, English style, (which yet cannot go
sooner than this, having not met with the present opportunity of
conveyance I then expected,) advertised your honour we were just then
entering this bay, after a brief and very fair passage from Torbay.
The same evening we came to anchor at some distance from this city,
intending, God willing, the next day, 6th instant, to come on shore;
but a strong Levant rising, not only that was impossible, but even for
any to come to me from the land.
The next morning, 7th, our ships weighing, made a hard shift to get
into the port, and I from thence a harder to land in boats. The Duke
of Medina Celi, in the interim, having complimented me aboard, by a
Caballero de el Habito, with a letter from Port S. Mary, and in person
from this city the deputed governor of this town, Don Diego de Ibarra,
both of them, as by a general order from his Catholic Majesty, which
they had had some weeks by them in case of my arrival here, in virtue
whereof somewhat more than ordinary salutes were given by this city to
his Majesty's Ambassador and fleet; also a house ready furnished for
me, whereunto I was very honourably conducted, with appearance of
universal joy, and there visited the same day by the Duke of
Albuquerque, the Cabildo, and all the nobles and principal gentlemen
here residing. My table, the governor signified, was to be at my own
finding, yet that I must not refuse to accept of the first meal from
him; of the former I was very glad, as enjoying thereby a liberty
which I preferred to any delicacies whatsoever upon free cost; the
latter, I was not at all nice to receive for once. But I had not been
three hours on shore, when an Extraordinary arrived from Madrid, with
more particular orders than formerly from his Catholic Majesty,
importing, that our Master's fleet, when arrived, and this Ambassador,
should be presaluted from the city, in a manner unexampled to others,
and which should not be drawn into example hereafter. Moreover, and
this so likewise, that I and all my company must be totally defrayed,
both here and all the way up to Madrid, upon his Catholic Majesty's
account; with several other circumstances of particular esteem for our
Royal Master above all the world besides. The substance of all hath
been related to me, and the effects declare it; but a copy of the
order itself I have not as yet been able to obtain though desired, it
being the style not to communicate it without leave from above, and
out of the Secretary of State, else I should have thought it my duty
to remit it unto his Majesty from hence, and shall from thence if I
get it.
The first night the keys of the city were brought to me in a great
silver basin, by the governor, which, after several refusals, I took
and put into the right hands; then the governor forced me to give him
the word, which, after like refusals, I did, and was Viva el Rey
Catolico.
At supper, he and his Lady would bear me and my wife company, which I
accepting as a great favour, told him my wife should eat with her
Ladyship, retired from the men, after the Spanish fashion, it being
more than sufficient, they would not think strange, we used the
innocent freedom of our own when we were among ourselves. But by no
means, that he would not suffer; and to keep us the more in
countenance, alleged this manner of eating to be now the custom of
many of the greatest families of Spain, and had been from all
antiquity to this day of the majestical House of Alva; the generosity
whereof, particularly in the person of the present duke, he took this
occasion to celebrate very highly. So, in fine, he had his will of me
in this particular.
As the Duke of Albuquerque, newly created Generalissimo of the Ocean,
and very shortly going to enjoy that high puesto at his ease in the
Court, where he is likewise Gentilhombre de la Camara--had done to me
before, so yesterday his Duchess and their daughter, (married to his
own brother, to keep up the name, for want of issue male,) both vastly
rich in jewels, as lately returned from the viceroyship of Mexico, so
full as to refuse that of Peru, in consequence of the other, began an
obliging visit of many hours to my wife; both of the above-named Dukes
and Duchess, whether by letter and message, as the Duke of Medina, or
in person, as the other, treating us both to a full equality in all
respects.
I had forgot to specify, as I may have done several other remarkable
points of respect to his Majesty's Ambassador, how one part of this
King's last order was, that for more honour and security, a guard of
soldiers, with a captain of it, should be night and day in my house;
which is practised where I now am, and, as I understood it, is to be
in like manner in all towns of note; a person of quality, by the same
royal command, conducting me from one to another.
All this ceremony, I hope, is not instead of substance; for then it
would prove very tedious and irksome to me indeed; but an earnest and
prognostic of it, which time will try when I come to treat.--Ibid. p.
31.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
[See MEMOIRS, pp. 159-166.]
Seville, March 23, 1663,
2 April, 1664
Pursuing my journal, from the date of my last to you from Cadiz, Feb.
29th, 1663/March 10th, 1664 you may be pleased to understand that,
March 3/13, the old Governor, D. Ant. Pimentel, returned thither,
surprising me with a visit in my house before he would enter into his
own, or had any notice of his landing; the cause of his suspension
having been only that which I then signified, and as powerfully
removed at Court by a letter from the Duke de Medina Celi to his
Catholic Majesty in his defence, as it seemed to have been laid on
with a very good will by the Duke of Albuquerque; the letter I have
seen, wanting neither rhetoric, logic, nor assurance.
6/16, (of the same.) The said Don Antonio treated me and all my
company with splendour and magnificence, borrowing us for that dinner
from the King's entertainment.
The 9/19. Himself in person accompanied me to Port St. Mary, my first
step towards Madrid, and had been my first landing-place, as nearest
and of most convenience, if it had not been signified to me by
message, that I must not waive Cadiz, where all things were orderly
prepared for my reception, from whence also I pressed to have removed
sooner; but that the Duke of Medina intimated his desire of the
contrary, as not till then so well prepared for my entertainment as
his Excellency intended to be; and in particular, because a rich
gondola, built purposely, said they, for the wafting over of Princes,
had some days' work to do about it, before it could be fitted for my
transportation.
Arrived therein at Port St. Mary, the Duke, with all his family and
vassals, (that city being his patrimony,) met me at the landing-place,
whence, with coaches, and vollies of shot by many troops, not upon the
King's pay but his own, for so his Excellency then told me, he
conducted me to a very fair house, prepared by his care, and furnished
with the richest of what he had for his own palace moreover, under his
Excellency's proper inspection against my coming from Cadiz, whence,
having been there revisited at parting by the Duke of Albuquerque, and
all other who had visited me at my arrival, I was dismissed with great
and small shot from the town, and in like manner saluted in my passage
by the Spanish Armada, and all other ships in the bay, as well Spanish
as strangers, Van Tromp riding there at the same time with his
squadron. The rest of my entertainment at Port St. Mary was
proportionable to the beginning, and there also the Duke of Medina
gave me one treat at his own palace. The civilities to me of the
Marquis of Bayona, Gentleman of the Galleys of Spain, the constant
station thereof is there, and of his lady to my wife, inheritrix or
the Marquisate of Santa Cruz, and so of a Grandeeship, noted likewise
for eminent virtue and education at Court, came nothing behind; but
these two great men cannot set their horses together.
On Monday, March 14/24, I was accompanied out of the city of Port by
the Duke of Medina, Don Antonio de Pimentel, who had never left me
till then, being one, and the Marquis of Bayona, with his Lady,
planting his coach upon the way-side, beyond the place where the Duke
took leave. I came that night to Xerez de la Frontera; met and
welcomed before our approaching to the city by the magistrates thereof
and principal gentlemen, that is all, with many troops of soldiers,
and shoals of common people. The next day, treated in the interim, and
then dismissed as before at the other two places, I arrived and lodged
at Lebrija. The next at Utrera; met about a league short, by order of
the Conde de Molina, Assistente de Sevilla, with a troop of horse, and
by Don Lope de Mendoza, Alguazil, mayor of the city, as Teniente del
Duque de Alcal, proprietor by inheritance of that office, the said Don
Lope being, by the same order, to conduct me as far as Cordova.
The next day, 16/26 of March, accompanied with the same troop and
conductor, we set forth for Seville; but this small stream soon lost
itself, when, about the distance before named it fell into a torrent
of people of all sorts and degrees, both military and civil, which,
together with the Conde Assistente, rushed out to receive and conduct
me to the King's palace, or Alcazar, which accordingly was done.
Churches, streets, inhabitants, river, places much noted at all times,
setting now upon this occasion the best side outward to express a
pride in their joy of a hoped perfect correspondence with England.
Here, at my arrival, I found lying for me, in the hand of a servant of
the Duke of Medina de las Torres, a letter from his Excellency, of
high welcome to Spain, and no less respect. Here, since my arrival,
besides a perpetual court of company and entertainments of the best
above stairs, and ranks of soldiers, with multitudes of others below,
upon my account, in this famous palace of the King, where I am lodging
in his Majesty's own bedchamber, as royally furnished as when himself
was in it, visits I have received in form from their Excellency the
City, by their Representatives; from their Senoria the Audiencia, by
their Regente; from their Senoria the Contratacion House, by their
Presidente; and from his Illustrissima the Archbishop, being at
present sick, by message; all which I have repaid respectively; and
tomorrow, God willing, set forth towards Cordova; perceiving
beforehand that my salida will be proportionable to my entrada. The
conclusion I make of the whole is, 'thus shall it be done to the man
whom the King our Master is pleased to honour,' and the King of Spain,
for his Majesty's sake, as far as outward ceremony can testify it;
well, hoping that neither his Majesty, nor any other at home, will
apprehend I take aught of this as done to my person, or for any thing
of intrinsic value supposed to be in me, but merely as I bear my
master's image and superscription; his Majesty's prerogative shining
the more therein, by how much the metal on which he is stamped hath
less of value in itself. Not a compliment, which will be always a
saucy thing, as well as impertinent, with a man's prince; but a sober
and natural inference, at least so understood by such as could wish it
were otherwise.--Ibid. p. 36.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET.
[See MEMOIRS, pp, 167, 168.]
Cordova, 29 March/7 April, 1664.
My last journal--such I call all letters of mine as related only to
my motions towards Madrid--with something of the splendid and
ceremonious entertainment of his Majesty's Ambassador, from place to
place, more or less as the places themselves are more or less eminent
and plentiful, was dated at Seville, 23 Mart, 1663/2 Aprilis, 1664 and
figured _I_.
The next day, according to the account I then made, departed from
Seville, accompanied out of the city about a mile by the Conde
Assistente, and divers other of the nobility and gentry of that place,
and was guarded by foot soldiers quite through the city, with colours
displayed, and abased as I passed by, and muskets discharged; a
company of foot having been upon my guard all the while I stayed
there, as in all other places of note.
That night I came to Carmona, a city formerly considerable for the
lofty situation, strong, and pleasant palace there of the Kings of
Castile, and were the last which held out for Don Pedro the Cruel;
both the one and the other now ruinous enough. About half a league
short thereof, I was met by the magistrates and gentry of the place,
and by them conducted to my lodging; having placed a company of foot
at the entrance into the town, who discharged their muskets, &c.
From Carmona, the next day, to Fuentes; a very pleasant and healthful
small town, from whence the Marquis, uncle to the now Duke Medina
Sidonia, had his title. From Fuentes, the next day, to Ezija; which,
in respect of the great heats thereof at some times, is called 'the
Frying-pan of Andaluzia,' yet we, upon the 5th of April, their style,
found it cold enough. I was there very civilly and splendidly lodged
and entertained for two days; being, indeed, an extraordinary place.
Our company and cattle harassed; and foreseeing we must make a halt at
Cordova till the Holy Week, now begun, were past, and therefore to no
purpose to hurry thither.
From Ezija, 28 March/7th April, I arrived at Cordova, where now I am:
where also my reception without this most ancient and famous city, by
the Corregidor and gentry thereof, the flower of all Spain for
extraction and civility, was, and our lodging and treatment of all
sorts within is, and is like to be, do what we can, and the Lent
season too, to avoid and qualify it, such as will require a letter
apart, and more lines therein, to abbreviate it only, than the
feasting and pastimes themselves will probably allow me leisure for
whilst I am here; and therefore I must defer that to another
occasion.--Ibid. p. 44.
To MR. SECRETARY BENNET
[See MEMOIRS, pp. 168-170.]
Ballecas, one league from Madrid, 7th May, 1664, stilo loci.
My last from Cordova, 29th of March, N. S. 7th of April, carried on
the journal of my great reception and entertainment in my way up to
Madrid, to the day of the date thereof.
What was afterwards in the same city, whilst I remained there, which
was until Tuesday in Easter Week--because those gentlemen would needs
make the King of England's Ambassador a fiesta of canas upon the
Monday, at the rate of taking up their horses from verde, [Footnote:
i.e., From grass. ] on purpose for it; and since, in all other places
proportionably, particularly in Toledo, where there was another fiesta
of bulls given, was every way rather exceeding than inferior to any
thing that was elsewhere before, until my safe arrival at this very
place, which I reckon my journey's end; and by earnest suit to this
Court from Seville, did obtain it might be so esteemed by them;
leaving me here to my own expense and disposal, although I have as yet
no house provided for me in Madrid; notwithstanding all diligence
towards it by the Aposentadores there, upon the King's special
command, and also by such private persons as I myself have employed
not to stick at any just rate for a good one, upon my particular
account, with advance of a year's rent in plata doble, and so to be
continued, as long as the house should be used by me, upon merchant
security: such a dearth there is really of accommodations of this
nature for the present, and for a long time hath been; yet there want
not descants, that there is some great mystery of state in the matter,
which doubtless will fly as far as Paris, if not reach London.
POSTSCRIPT.--Since my arrival in this village, and that my present
want of a house in Madrid is more murmured at there than needs,
considering the King is absent, and moreover, though I am much
straitened in matter of lodgings, yet that I have a very large and
pleasant garden thereunto belonging, to expatiate and refresh myself
and wearied family in, I received a message from Baron Battevil to
this effect, besides general tenders of all manner of service which is
in his power; that he is at present (as in truth he is) sick, or else
would have waited upon me himself in person; but that he will with all
his heart quit his house to me--which I am told is a very fine one, as
he hath made it, with chargeable additions of his own, in the midst of
the Calle de Alcala, with a fair garden to it, and that it is no
compliment at all. This I have thought reasonable to advertise in
England, though not to accept.--Ibid. p.63-66.
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