Books: The Diary of Samuel Pepys

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22nd. This evening come Mr. Alsopp the King's brewer, with whom
I spent an hour talking and bewailing the posture of things at
present; the King led away by half-a-dozen men, that none of his
serious servants and friends can come at him. These are
Lauderdale, Buckingham, Hamilton, FitzHarding, (to whom he hath,
it seems, given 12,000l. per annum in the best part of the King's
estate); and that the old Duke of Buckingham could never get of
the King. Projers is another, [Edward Progers, Esq., the King's
Valet-de-Chambre, and the confidant of his amours. Ob. 1713,
aged ninety-six.] and Sir H. Bennett. He loves not the Queene
at all, but is rather sullen to her; and she, by all reports,
incapable of children. He is so fond of the Duke of Monmouth,
that every body admires it; and he says that the Duke hath said,
that he would be the death of any man that says the King was not
married to his mother: though Alsopp says, it is well known that
she was a common strumpet before the King was acquainted with
her. But it seems, he says, that the King is mighty kind to
these his bastard children; and at this day will go at midnight
to my Lady Castlemaine's nurses, and take the child and dance it
in his arms: that he is not likely to have his tables up again
in his house, for the crew that are about him will not have him
come to common view again, but keep him obscurely among
themselves. He hath this night, it seems, ordered that the Hall
(which there is a ball to be in to-night before the King) be
guarded, as the Queene-Mother's is, by his Horse Guards; whereas
heretofore they were by the Lord Chamberlain or Steward, and
their people. But it is feared they will reduce all to the
soldiery, and all other places be taken away; and what is worst
of all, will alter the present militia, and bring all to a flying
army. That my Lord Lauderdale, being Middleton's enemy, [John
Earl of Middleton, General of the Forces in Scotland.] and one
that scorns the Chancellor even to open affronts before the King,
hath got the whole power of Scotland into his hand; whereas the
other day he was in a fair way to have had his whole estate, and
honour, and life, voted away from him. That the King hath done
himself all imaginable wrong in the business of my Lord Antrim,
[Randall, second Earl, and first Marquis of Antrim. Ob. 1673.]
in Ireland; who, though he was the head of rebels, yet he by his
letter owns to have acted by his father's and mother's and his
commissions: but it seems the truth is, he hath obliged himself
upon the clearing of his estate, to settle it upon a daughter of
the Queene-Mother's (by my Lord Germin, [Earl of St. Albans.] I
suppose,) in marriage be it to whom the Queene pleases: which is
a sad story. It seems a daughter of the Duke of Lenox's was, by
force, going to be married the other day at Somerset House, to
Harry Germin; but she got away and run to the King, and he says
he will protect her. She is, it seems, very near akin to the
King. Such mad doings there are every day among them! There was
a French book in verse, the other day, translated and presented
to the Duke of Monmouth in such a high stile, that the Duke of
York, he tells me, was mightily offended at it. The Duke of
Monmouth's mother's brother hath a place at Court; and being a
Welchman, (I think he told me,) will talk very broad of the
King's being married to his sister. The King did the other day,
at the Council, commit my Lord Digby's [George, Lord Digby, 2nd
Earl of Bristol, who had been Secretary of State in 1643; but by
changing his religion while abroad, at the instigation of Don
John of Austria, incapacitated himself from being restored to
that office; and in consequence of the disappointment, which he
imputed to the interference of the Lord Chancellor, conspired and
effected his ruin. He was installed K.G. in 1661, and died
1676.] chaplin, and steward, and another servant, who went upon
the process begun there against their lord, to swear that they
saw him at church, and receive the Sacrament as a Protestant,
(which, the Judges said, was sufficient to prove him such in the
eye of the law); the King, I say, did commit them all to the
Gate-house, notwithstanding their pleading their dependance upon
him, and the faith they owed him as their lord, whose bread they
eat. And that the King should say, that he would soon see
whether he was King, or Digby. That the Queene-mother had outrun
herself in her expences, and is now come to pay very ill, or run
in debt the money being spent that she received for leases. He
believes there is not any money laid up in bank, as I told him
some did hope; but he says, from the best informers he can assure
me there is no such thing, nor any body that should look after
such a thing; and that there is not now above 80,000l. of the
Dunkirke money left in stock. That Oliver the year when he spent
1,400,000l. in the Navy did spend in the whole expence of the
kingdom 2,600,000l. That all the Court are mad for a Dutch war;
but both he and I did concur, that it was a thing rather to be
dreaded than hoped for; unless by the French King's falling upon
Flanders, they and the Dutch should be divided. That our
Embassador had, it is true, an audience; but in the most
dishonourable way that could be; for the Princes of the Blood
(though invited by our Embassador, which was the greatest
absurdity that ever Embassador committed these 400 years) were
not there; and so were not said to give place to our King's
Embassador. And that our King did openly say, the other day in
the Privy Chamber, that he would not be hectored out of his right
and pre-eminences by the King of France, as great as he was.
That the Pope is glad to yield to a peace with the French (as the
news-book says,) upon the basest terms that ever was. That the
talk which these people about our King, that I named before,
have, is to tell him how neither priviledge of Parliament nor
City is any thing; but that his will is all, and ought to be so:
and their discourse, it seems, when they are alone, is so base
and sordid, that it makes the eares of the very gentlemen of the
back stairs (I think he called them) to tingle to hear it spoke
in the King's hearing; and that must be very bad indeed. That my
Lord Digby did send to Lisbon a couple of priests, to search out
what they could against the Chancellor concerning the match, as
to the point of his knowing before-hand that the Queene was not
capable of bearing children; and that something was given her to
make her so. But as private as they were, when they come thither
they were clapped up prisoners. That my Lord Digby endeavours
what he can to bring the business into the House of Commons,
hoping there to master the Chancellor, there being many enemies
of his there: but I hope the contrary. That whereas the late
King did mortgage Clarendon [Clarendon Park near Salisbury.] to
somebody for 20,000l., and this to have given it to the Duke of
Albemarle, and he sold it to my Lord Chancellor, whose title of
Earldome is fetched from thence; the King hath this day sent his
order to the Privy Seale for the payment of this 20,000l. to my
Lord Chancellor, to clear the mortgage. Ireland in a very
distracted condition about the hard usage which the Protestants
meet with, and the too good which the Catholiques. And from all
together, God knows my heart, I expect nothing but ruin can
follow, unless things are better ordered in a little time.

23rd. This day, by the blessing of God, I have lived thirty-one
years in the world: and, by the grace of God, I find myself not
only in good health in every thing, and particularly as to the
stone, but only pain upon taking cold, and also in a fair way of
coming to a better esteem and estate in the world, than ever I
expected. But I pray God give me a heart to fear a fall, and to
prepare for it.

24th (Ash Wednesday). To the Queene's chapel, where I staid and
saw their masse, till a man come and bid me go out or kneel down:
so I did go out. And thence to Somerset House; and there into
the chapel, where Monsieur d'Espagne [Probably author of a small
volume called "Shibboleth, ou, Reformation de quelques Passages
de la Bible, per Jean d'Espagne; Ministre du St. Evangile," in
the Pepysian Collection, printed 1653, and dedicated to
Cromwell.] used to preach. But now it is made very fine, and
was ten times more crouded than the Queene's chapel at St.
James's: which I wonder at. Thence down to the garden of
Somerset House, and up and down the new building, which in every
respect will be mighty magnificent and costly.

27th. Sir Martin Noell told us the dispute between him, as
farmer of the Additional Duty, and the East India Company,
whether callico be linnen or no: which he says it is, having
been ever esteemed so: they say it is made of cotton woole, and
grows upon trees, not like flax or hemp. But it was carried
against the Company, though they stand out against the verdict.

28th (Lord's day). Up and walked to Paul's; and by chance it was
an extraordinary day for the Readers of the Inns of Court and all
the Students to come to church, it being an old ceremony not used
these twenty-five years, upon the first Sunday in Lent.
Abundance there was of Students, more than there was room to seat
but upon forms, and the Church mighty full. One Hawkins
preached, an Oxford man. A good sermon upon these words: "But
the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable." Both
before and after sermon I was most impatiently troubled at the
Quire, the worst that; ever I heard. But what was extraordinary,
the Bishop of London, [Humphrey Henchman translated from
Salisbury, September 1663. Ob. 1675.] who sat there in a pew,
made a' purpose for him by the pulpitt, do give the last blessing
to the congregation; which was, he being a comely old man, a very
decent thing, methought. The Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir J.
Robinson, would needs have me by coach home with him, where the
officers of his regiment dined with him. After dinner to chapel
in the Tower with the Lieutenant, with the keyes carried before
us, and the Warders and Gentleman-porter going before us. And I
sat with the Lieutenant in his pew, in great state. None, it
seems, of the prisoners in the Tower that are there now, though
they may, will come to prayers there.

29th. To Sir Philip Warwick, who showed me many excellent
collections of the state of the Revenue in former Kings' and the
late times, and the present. He showed me how the very
assessments between 1643 and 1659, which were taxes, (besides
Excise, Customes, Sequestrations, Decimations, King and Queene's
and Church Lands, or any thing else but just the Assessments,)
come to above fifteen millions. He showed me a discourse of his
concerning the Revenues of this and foreign States. How that of
Spayne was great but divided with his kingdoms, and so come to
little. How that of France did, and do much exceed ours before
for quantity; and that it is at the will of the Prince to tax
what he will upon his people; which is not here. That the
Hollanders have the best manner of tax, which is only upon the
expence of provisions, by an excise; and do conclude that no
other tax is proper for England but a pound-rate, or excise upon
the expence of provisions. He showed me every particular sort of
payment away of money, since the King's coming in, to this day;
and told me, from one to one, how little he hath received of
profit from most of them: and I believe him truly. That the
1,200,000l. which the Parliament with so much ado did first vote
to give the King, and since hath been re-examined by several
committees of the present Parliament, is yet above 300,000l.
short of making up really to the King the 1,200,000l. as by
particulars he showed me. And in my Lord Treasurer's excellent
letter to the King upon this subject, he tells the King how it
was the spending more than the revenue that did give the first
occasion of his fathers ruine, and did since to the rebels; who,
he says, just like Henry the Eighth, had great and sudden
increase of wealth, but yet by overspending both died poor: and
further tells the King how much of this 1,200,000l. depends upon
the life of the Prince, and so must be renewed by Parliament
again to his successor; which is seldom done without parting with
some of the prerogatives of the Crowne; or if denied and he
persists to take it of the people, it gives occasion to a civill
war, which did in the late business of tonnage and poundage prove
fatal to the Crowne. He showed me how many ways the Lord
Treasurer did take before he moved the King to farme the Customes
in the manner he do, and the reasons that moved him to do it. He
showed me a very excellent argument to prove, that our importing
lesse than we export, do not impoverish the kingdom, according to
the received opinion: which, though it be a paradox, and that I
do not remember the argument, yet methought there was a great
deal in what he said. And upon the whole I find him a most exact
and methodicall man, and of great industry: and very glad that
he thought fit to show me all this; though I cannot easily guess
the reason why he should do it to me, unless from the plainness
that he sees I use to him in telling him how much the King may
suffer for our want of understanding the case of our Treasury.

MARCH 2, 1663-64. This morning Mr. Burgby, one of the writing
clerks belonging to the Council, a knowing man, complains to me
how most of the Lords of the Council do look after themselves and
their own ends, and none the public, unless Sir Edward Nicholas.
Sir G. Carteret is diligent, but for all his own ends and profit.
My Lord Privy Seale, a destroyer of every body's business, and do
no good at all to the public. The Archbishop of Canterbury
[Gilbert Sheldon.] speaks very little, nor do much, being now
come to the highest pitch that he can expect. He tells me, that
he believes that things will go very high against the Chancellor
by Digby, and that bad things will be proved. Talks much of his
neglecting the King; and making the King to trot every day to
him, when he is well enough to go to visit his cosen Chief-
Justice Hide, but not to the Council or King. He commends my
Lord of Ormond mightily in Ireland; but cries out cruelly of Sir
G. Lane for his corruption; and that he hath done my Lord great
dishonour by selling of places here, which are now all taken
away, and the poor wretches ready to starve. But nobody almost
understands or judges of business better than the King, if he
would not be guilty of his father's fault to be doubtfull of
himself and easily be removed from his own opinion. That my Lord
Lauderdale is never from the King's care nor council, and that he
is a most cunning fellow. Upon the whole, that he finds things
go very bad every where; and even in the Council nobody minds the
public.

4th. There were several people trying a new-fashion gun brought
my Lord Peterborough this morning, to shoot off often, one after
another, without trouble or danger. At Greenwich I observed the
foundation laying of a very great house for the King, which will
cost a great deal of money.

10th. At the Privy Seale I enquired, and found the Bill come for
the Corporation of the Royall Fishery: whereof the Duke of York
is made present Governor, and severall other very great persons,
to the number of thirty-two, made his assistants for their lives:
whereof, by my Lord Sandwich's favour, I am one: and take it not
only as a matter of honour, but that, that may come to be of
profit to me.

14th. To White Hall; and in the Duke's chamber, while he was
dressing, two persons of quality that were there did tell his
Regal Highness how the other night, in Holborne, about midnight,
being at cards, a link-boy come by and run into the house, and
told the people the house was a-falling. Upon this the whole
family was frighted, concluding that the boy had said that; the
house was a-fire: so they left their cards above, and one would
have got out of the balcony, but it was not open; the other went
up to fetch down his children, that were in bed: so all got
clear out of the house. And no sooner so, but the house fell
down indeed, from top to bottom. It seems my Lord Southampton's
canaille did come too near their foundation, and so weakened the
house, and down it come: which, in every respect, is a most
extraordinary passage. The business between my Lords Chancellor
and Bristoll, they say, is hushed up: and the latter gone or
going, by the King's licence, to France.

15th. My poor brother Tom died.

16th. To the office, where we sat this afternoon, having changed
this day our sittings from morning to afternoon, because of the
Parliament which returned yesterday; but was adjourned till
Monday next, upon pretence that many of the members were said to
be upon the road; and also the King had other affairs, and so
desired them to adjourn till then. But the truth is, the King is
offended at my Lord of Bristoll, as they say, whom he hath found
to have been all this while (pretending a desire of leave to go
into France, and to have all the differences between him and the
Chancellor made up,) endeavouring to make: factions in both
Houses to the Chancellor. So the King did this to keep the
Houses from meeting; and in the meanwhile sent a guard and a
herald last night to have taken him at Wimbleton, where he was in
the morning, but could not find him: at which the King was and
is still mightily concerned, and runs up and down to and from the
Chancellor's like a boy: and it seems would make Digby's
articles against the Chancellor to be treasonable reflections
against his Majesty. So that the King is very high, as they say;
and God knows what will follow upon it!

18th. To church, and with the grave-maker chose a place for my
brother to lie in, just under my mother's pew. But to see how a
man's tombes [QUERY Bones?] are at the mercy of such a fellow,
that for sixpence he would, (as his own words were,) "I will
justle them together but I will make room for him;" speaking of
the fulness of the middle isle, where he was to lie. I dressed
myself, and so did my servant Besse; and so to my brother's
again: whither, though invited, as the custom is, at one or two
o'clock, they come not till four or five. But at last one after
another they come, many more than I bid: and my reckoning that I
bid was one hundred and twenty; but I believe there was nearer
one hundred and fifty. Their service was six biscuits a-piece,
and what they pleased of burnt claret. My cosen Joyce Norton
kept the wine and cakes above; and did give out to them that
served, who had white gloves given them. But above all, I am
beholden to Mrs. Holding, who was most kind, and did take mighty
pains not only in getting the house and every thing else ready,
but this day in going up and down to see the house filled and
served, in order to mine and their great content, I think; the
men sitting by themselves in some rooms, and the women by
themselves in others, very close, but yet room enough. Anon to
church, walking out into the street to the Conduit, and so across
the street; and had a very good company along with the corps and
being come to the grave as above, Dr. Pierson, the minister of
the parish, did read the service for buriall: and so I saw my
poor brother laid into the grave.

21st. This day the Houses of Parliament met; and the King met
them, with the Queene with him. And he made a speech to them:
among other things, discoursing largely of the plots abroad
against him and the peace of the kingdom; and that the
dissatisfied party had great hopes upon the effect of the Act for
a Triennial Parliament granted by his father, which he desired
them to peruse, and, I think, repeal. So the Houses did retire
to their own House, and did order the Act to be read to-morrow
before them; and I suppose it will be repealed, though I believe
much against the will of a good many that sit there.

23rd. To the Trinity House, and there dined very well: and good
discourse among the old men. Among other things, they observed,
that there are but two seamen in the Parliament, viz. Sir W.
Batten and Sir W. Pen, and not above twenty or thirty merchants;
which is a strange thing in an island.

25th. To White Hall, and there to chapel; where it was most
infinite full to hear Dr. Critton. [Creighton.] The Doctor
preached upon the thirty-first of Jeremy, and the twenty-first
and twenty-second verses, about a woman compassing a man; meaning
the Virgin conceiving and bearing our Saviour. It was the worst
sermon I ever heard him make, I must confess; and yet it was
good, and in two places very bitter, advising the King to do as
the Emperor Severus did, to hang up a Presbyter John (a short
coat and a long gowne interchangeably) in all the Courts of
England. But the story of Severus was pretty, that he hanged up
forty senators before the Senate-house, and then made a speech
presently to the Senate in praise of his own lenity; and then
decreed that never any senator after that time should suffer in
the same manner without consent of the Senate: which he compared
to the proceeding of the Long Parliament against my Lord
Strafford. He said the greatest part of the lay magistrates in
England were Puritans, and would not do justice; and the Bishops'
powers were so taken away and lessened, that they could not
exercise the power they ought. He told the King and the ladies,
plainly speaking of death and of the skulls and bones of dead men
and women, how there is no difference; that nobody could tell
that of the great Marius or Alexander from a pyoneer; nor, for
all the pains the ladies take with their faces, he that should
look in a charnel-house could not distinguish which was
Cleopatra's, or fair Rosamond's, or Jane Shore's.

26th. Sir W. Batten told me how Sir Richard Temple hath spoke
very discontentful words in the house about the Triennial Bill;
but it hath been read the second time to-day, and committed; and,
he believes, will go on without more ado, though there are many
in the house are displeased at it, though they dare not say much.
But above all expectation, Mr. Prin is the man against it,
comparing it to the idoll whose head was of gold, and his body
and legs and feet of different metal. So this Bill had several
degrees of calling of Parliaments, in case the King, and then the
Council, and then the Lord Chancellor, and then the Sheriffes,
should fail to do it. He tells me also, how, upon occasion of
some 'prentices being put in the pillory to-day for beating of
their masters or such like thing, in Cheapside, a company of
'prentices come and rescued them, and pulled down the pillory;
and they being set up again, did the like again.

28th. The great matter to-day in the House hath been, that Mr.
Vaughan, [John Vaughan, afterwards knighted, and made Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas.] the great speaker, is this day
come to town, and hath declared himself in a speech of an hour
and a half with great reason and eloquence, against the repealing
of the Bill for Triennial Parliaments, but with no successe: but
the House have carried it that there shall be such Parliaments,
but without any coercive power upon the King, if he will bring
this Act. But, Lord! to see how the best things are not done
without some design; for I perceive all these gentlemen that I
was with to-day, are against it (though there was reason enough
on their side); yet purely I could perceive, because it was the
King's mind to have it; and should he demand any thing else, I
believe they would give it him.

APRIL 1, 1664. To White Hall; and in the Gallery met the Duke of
York; (I also saw the Queene going to the Park, and her Maids of
Honour: she herself looks ill, and methinks Mrs. Stewart is
grown fatter, and not so fair as she was:) and he called me to
him, and discoursed a good while with me; and after he was gone,
twice or thrice staid and called me again to him, the whole
length of the house: and at last talked of the Dutch; and I
perceive do much wish that the Parliament will find reason to
fall out with them.

3rd. Called up by W. Joyce, [William Joyce had married Mr.
Pepys' first cousin, Kate Fenner.] he being summonsed to the
House of Lords to-morrow, for endeavouring to arrest my Lady
Peters for a debt. [Elizabeth, daughter of John Earl Rivers, and
first wife to William fourth Lord Petre, who was, in 1678,
impeached by the Commons of High Treason, and died under
confinement in the Tower, January 5th, 1683, S.P.]

4th. Up, and walked to my Lord Sandwich's; and there spoke with
him about W. Joyce, who tells me he would do what was fit; in so
tender a point. I to the Lords' House before they sat; and stood
within it, while the Duke of York come to me and spoke to me a
good while about the new ship at Woolwich. Afterwards I spoke
with my Lord Barkeley and my Lord Peterborough about it. And so
staid without a good while, and saw my Lady Peters, an impudent
jade, soliciting all the Lords on her behalf. And at last W.
Joyce was called in; and by the consequences, and what my Lord
Peterborough told me, I find that he did speak all he said to his
disadvantage, and so was committed to the Black Rod: which is
very hard, he doing what he did by the advice of my Lord Peter's
own steward. But the Serjeant of the Black Rod did direct one of
his messengers to take him in custody, and peaceably conducted
him to the Swan with two Necks, in Tuttle-street, to a handsome
dining-room; and there was most civilly used. It was a sad
sight, methought, to-day to see my Lord Peters coming out of the
House, fall out with his lady (from whom he is parted) about this
business, saying that she disgraced him. But she hath been a
handsome woman, and is, it seems, not only a lewd woman, but very
high-spirited.