1662.]

EXECUTION OF VANE.

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endeavoured to keep out the king. The courage, the proud consciousness of right, the lofty principles of Vane, were the reasons which would have induced a high-minded sovereign to adhere gladly to his promise that his life should be spared in the event of his condemnation. Charles was not a highminded sovereign-he was selfish, corrupt, faithless, shameless. The letter which he wrote to Clarendon the day after Vane's trial is as characteristic of the man as any other of the acts of his unworthy life:

"The relation that has been made to me of Sir Henry Vane's carriage yesterday in the hall is the occasion of this letter, which, if I am rightly informed, was so insolent as to justify all he had done, acknowledging no supreme power in England but a Parliament, and many things to that purpose. You have had a true account of all; and if he has given new occasion to be hanged, certainly he is too dangerous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way. Think of this, and give me some account of it to-morrow, till when I have no more to say to you.-C. R."

The deportment of a prisoner on his trial could not "give new occasion to

be hanged," even if it had been most violent. Vane in his justification avoided every topic of offence to the king personally, as none of Vane's public acts had been marked by any personal hostility to him. The "if we can honestly

262

CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA,

[1662 put him out of the way," was not a scruple which Charles would long entertain. He was put out of the way on the 14th of June, dying with a courage which, says Pepys, "is talked on everywhere as a miracle." The life of Lambert was spared, according to that promise which the king did not scruple to violate when his victim was "too dangerous a man to let live." Vane was the last of the sacrifices on the scaffold to the revenges of the monarchy.

On the opening of the Parliament of 1661, the king announced that he was about to marry "a daughter of Portugal." This marriage had been advised by Louis XIV., who, although he had engaged to Spain to give no support to Portugal in its struggles to maintain its independence, saw in this English alliance a mode of strengthening Portugal against the power which entered into rivalry with him. The Spanish ambassador in London opposed the match, declaring that Spain would never cease to maintain her claims against the House of Braganza. Vatteville, the ambassador from Spain, and Bastide, the ambassador from France, each pressed their opinions upon the Council of Charles. When the Portuguese alliance was settled, they entered into a personal contest, which is an amusing variety of the dull battles of protocols. They resolved to fight out, in the streets of London, the claims of the two Crowns for precedency. Charles issued a proclamation forbidding his subjects to take part in the conflict which was to take place

on the expected entry of the Swedish ambassador. On the Tower Wharf was drawn up, on one side of the stairs, the carriage of the Spanish ambassador; on the other side the carriage of the French ambassador. They were each surrounded by many liveried servants, on foot and horseback, fully

1652.]

MARRIAGE OF THE KING.

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armed. The Swede landed; and, occupying a royal carriage, went on his way. Then began the mighty strife of the representatives of the two greatest Bovereigns in Europe, as to which should next follow. Their attendants fought till fifty were killed or wounded; but the Spaniard won the race, by cutting the traces of the Frenchman's carriage. Why should not the quarrels of courts always be fought out in this fashion, which might give ambassadors some real business that would allow them less leisure to embroil nations?

In spite of the triumphant Vatteville, Charles married Catherine of Braganza. She was not remarkable for beauty, but she was sensible and amiable; and the king professed himself fortunate, and avowed his resolution to seek his future happiness in conjugal affection. His first act of devotion to his queen was to present lady Castlemaine to her in the midst of the Court. It was known to all, and to the queen herself, that "the lady" was his avowed mistress. Catherine suppressed her indignation; but the effort caused the blood to gush from her nose, and she was carried in a fit from the royal presence. The gracious king was indignant at the squeamishness of the queen; and insisted that Castlemaine should be one of the ladies of her bedchamber. Clarendon remonstrated with his master, and ventured to compare royal harlots with other lewd women; but the remonstrances ended by the Chancellor undertaking to persuade the queen "to a full compliance with what the king desired." Catherine threatened to return to Portugal. Charles

did more than threaten-he sent away her old servants, with the exception of a few, who were allowed to remain when the queen's spirit was humbled to

264

SALE OF DUNKIRK TO THE FRENCH.

[1662.

ask a favour. Clarendon, in his 'Life,' tells the issue of this characteristic scoundrelism of "our most religious and gracious king "-the title which the discriminating bishops now gave Charles in the Liturgy: "The king pursued his point: the lady came to the court,-was lodged there, was every day in the queen's presence, and the king in continual conference with her, whilst the queen sat untaken notice of; and if her majesty rose at the indignity and retired into her chamber, it may be one or two attended her; but all the company remained in the room she left, and too often said those things aloud which nobody ought to have whispered. . . . All these mortifications were too heavy to be borne; so that at last, when it was least expected or suspected, the queen on a sudden let herself fall first to conversation and then to familiarity, and, even in the same instant, to a confidence with the lady; was merry with her in public, talked kindly of her, and in private used nobody more friendly."

The Infanta of Portugal brought to Charles three hundred and fifty thousand pounds as her dowry. The English Crown also acquired Tangier, a fort on the coast of Africa. The possession of Tangier, which the nation regarded as worthless, was to compensate for the sale of Dunkirk, which the nation regarded as one of the chief triumphs of the foreign policy of the great Protector. Charles was more eager to put money into his purse, than to gratify the national pride; and Louis the Fourteenth was as desirous to obtain Dunkirk as Charles to convert the Gibraltar of that day into jewels for new mistresses. Louis made a cunning bargain. He gave four millions of livres in bills; and then employed his own ready money to discount his own bills, at a saving of half a million. According to Louis's own account of the transaction, his rival in the treaty was the city of London, the lord mayor having been

deputed to offer any sum, that Dunkirk might not be alienated. Clarendon had advised the sale, although he had a little before, in a speech in Parliament, dwelt on the value of the place. The people, naturally enough, however unjustly, held that the Chancellor had been bribed. The magnificent

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PROFLIGACY OF THE KING AND HIS COURT.

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palace that he was building near St. James's was popularly called "Dunkirk House;" and the national dislike of the sale of Dunkirk was one of the first symptoms that his power was on the wane. His participation in that sale subsequently formed an article of his impeachment. The popular opinion that the sale of Dunkirk was to supply new funds for the profligacy of the Court, was confirmed by the public demonstrations of that profligacy. Lord Buckhurst and Sir Charles Sedley had outraged all decency by an exhibition which Pepys recorded in cypher, but which his editor says is "too gross to print." Baxter gives us some notion of "the horrid wickedness" of these titled blackguards, "acting the part of preachers, in their shirts, in a balcony" in Covent Garden.* With such companions was Charles now generally surrounded. All thoughts of business were abhorrent to him. To lady Castlemaine's lodgings he was followed by his "counsellors of pleasure,' who laughed at the "old dotards" who presumed to talk in a serious vein. Rivals to "the lady" now sprung up, with the usual incidents of jealousies and poutings, to be averted by lavish presents to the old favourite, or heavier bribes to the new. The English Court became the ridicule of foreigners. The Dutch caricatured the king in various of his characteristic positions. In one print he was shown with "pockets turned the wrong side outward, hanging out empty;" in another, with two courtiers picking his pockets; in a third, leading two ladies, whilst other ladies were abusing him. The heart

less swindler had appropriated great part of his queen's jointure to his rapa

* "Life,' Part iii. p. 13.

Pepys, November 28, 1663.