Constitutional History of England Volume II Part 27

[628] The behaviour of Lord Clarendon on this occasion was so extraordinary, that no credit could have been given to any other account than his own. The Duke of York, he says, informed the king of the affection and friendship that had long been between him and the young lady; that they had been long contracted, and that she was with child; and therefore requested his majesty's leave that he might publicly marry her. The Marquis of Ormond by the king's order communicated this to the chancellor, who "broke out into an immoderate pa.s.sion against the wickedness of his daughter; and said, with all imaginable earnestness, that as soon as he came home, he would turn her out of his house as a strumpet to shift for herself, and would never see her again. They told him that his pa.s.sion was too violent to administer good counsel to him; that they thought that the duke was married to his daughter, and that there were other measures to be taken than those which the disorder he was in had suggested to him.

Whereupon he fell into new commotions; and said, If that were true, he was well prepared to advise what was to be done; that he had much rather his daughter should be the duke's wh.o.r.e than his wife: in the former case, n.o.body could blame him for the resolution he had taken, for he was not obliged to keep a wh.o.r.e for the greatest prince alive; and the indignity to himself he would submit to the good pleasure of G.o.d. But, if there were any reason to suspect the other, he was ready to give a positive judgment, in which he hoped their lordships would concur with him, that the king should immediately cause the woman _to be sent to the Tower and cast into a dungeon_, under so strict a guard that no person living should be admitted to come to her; and then that _an act of parliament should be immediately pa.s.sed for cutting off her head, to which he would not only give his consent, but would very willingly be the first man that should propose it_. And whoever knew the man, will believe that he said all this very heartily." Lord Southampton, he proceeds to inform us, on the king's entering the room at the time, said very naturally, that the chancellor was mad, and had proposed such extravagant things that he was no more to be consulted with. This, however, did not bring him to his senses; for he repeated his strange proposal of "sending her presently to the Tower, and the rest;" imploring the king to take this course, as the only expedient that could free him from the evils that this business would otherwise bring upon him.

That any man of sane intellects should fall into such an extravagance of pa.s.sion, is sufficiently wonderful; that he should sit down in cool blood several years afterwards to relate it, is still more so; and perhaps we shall carry our candour to an excess, if we do not set down the whole scene to overacted hypocrisy. Charles II., we may be very sure, could see it in no other light. And here I must take notice, by the way, of the singular observation the worthy editor of Burnet has made: "King Charles's conduct in this business was excellent throughout; that of Clarendon _worthy an ancient Roman_." We have indeed a Roman precedent for subduing the sentiments of nature rather than permitting a daughter to incur disgrace through the pa.s.sions of the great; but I think Virginius would not quite have understood the feelings of Clarendon. Such virtue was more like what Montesquieu calls "l'herosme de l'esclavage," and was just fit for the court of Gondar. But with all this violence that he records of himself, he deviates greatly from the truth: "The king (he says) afterwards spoke every day about it, and told the chancellor that he must behave himself wisely, for that the thing was remediless, and that his majesty knew that they were married; which would quickly appear to all men who knew that nothing could be done upon it. In this time the chancellor had conferred with his daughter, without anything of indulgence, and not only discovered that they were unquestionably married, but _by whom, and who were present at it, who would be ready to avow it_; which pleased him not, though it diverted him from using some of that rigour which he intended. And he saw no other remedy could be applied but that which he had proposed to the king, who thought of nothing like it." _Life of Clarendon_, 29 _et post_.

Every one would conclude from this, that a marriage had been solemnised if not before their arrival in England, yet before the chancellor had this conference with his daughter. It appears, however, from the Duke of York's declaration in the books of the privy council, quoted by Ralph, p. 40, that he was contracted to Ann Hyde on the 24th of November 1659, at Breda; and after that time lived with her as his wife, though very secretly; he married her 3rd Sept. 1660, according to the English ritual, Lord Ossory giving her away. The first child was born Oct. 22, 1660. Now whether the contract were sufficient to const.i.tute a valid marriage, will depend on two things; first, upon the law existing at Breda; secondly, upon the applicability of what is commonly called the rule of the _lex loci_, to a marriage between such persons according to the received notions of English lawyers in that age. But, even admitting all this, it is still manifest that Clarendon's expressions point to an actual celebration, and are consequently intended to mislead the reader. Certain it is, that at the time the contract seems to have been reckoned only an honorary obligation. James tells us himself (Macpherson's _Extracts_, p. 17) that he promised to marry her; and "though when he asked the king for his leave, he refused and dissuaded him from it, yet at last he opposed it no more, and the duke married her privately, and owned it some time after." His biographer, writing from his own ma.n.u.script, adds, "it may well be supposed that my lord chancellor did his part, but with great caution and circ.u.mspection, to soften the king in that matter which in every respect seemed so much for his own advantage."

_Life of James_, 387. And Pepys inserts in his diary, Feb. 23, 1661, "Mr. H. told me how my lord chancellor had lately got the Duke of York and d.u.c.h.ess, and her woman, my Lord Ossory and a doctor, to make oath before most of the judges of the kingdom, concerning all the circ.u.mstances of their marriage. And, in fine, it is confessed that they were not fully married till about a month or two before she was brought to bed; but that they were contracted long before, and [were married] time enough for the child to be legitimate. But I do not hear that it was put to the judges to determine so or not." He had said before that Lord Sandwich told him (17th Oct. 1660) "the king wanted him [the duke] to marry her, but he would not." This seems at first sight inconsistent with what James says himself. But at this time, though the private marriage had really taken place, he had been persuaded by a most infamous conspiracy of some profligate courtiers that the lady was of a licentious character, and that Berkeley, afterwards Lord Falmouth, had enjoyed her favours. _Life of Clarendon_, 33. It must be presumed that those men knew only of a contract which they thought he could break. Hamilton, in the _Memoirs of Grammont_, speaks of this transaction with his usual levity, though the parties showed themselves as dest.i.tute of spirit as of honour and humanity. Clarendon, we must believe (and the most favourable hypothesis for him is to give up his veracity), would not permit his daughter to be made the victim of a few perjured debauchees, and of her husband's fickleness or credulity.

[629] Hamilton mentions this as the current rumour of the court, and Burnet has done the same. But Clarendon himself denies that he had any concern in it, or any acquaintance with the parties. He wrote in too humble a strain to the king on the subject. _Life of Clar._ p. 454.

[630] Burnet says that Southampton had come into a scheme of obtaining 2,000,000 as the annual revenue; which was prevented by Clarendon, lest it should put the king out of need of parliaments. This the king found out, and hated him mortally for it. P. 223. It is the fashion to discredit all Burnet says. But observe what we may read in Pepys: "Sir W. Coventry did tell me it as the wisest thing that was ever said to the king by any statesman of his time; and it was by my lord treasurer that is dead, whom, I find, he takes for a very great statesman, that when the king did show himself forward for pa.s.sing the act of indemnity, he did advise the king that he would hold his hand in doing it, till he had got his power restored that had been diminished by the late times, and his revenue settled in such a manner as he might depend upon himself without resting upon parliaments, and then pa.s.s it. But my lord chancellor, who thought he could have the command of parliaments for ever, because for the king's sake they were awhile willing to grant all the king desired, did press for its being done; and so it was, and the king from that time able to do nothing with the parliament almost." March 20, 1669. Rari quippe boni! Neither Southampton nor Coventry make the figure in this extract we should wish to find; yet who were their superiors for integrity and patriotism under Charles II.? Perhaps Pepys, like most gossiping men, was not always correct.

[631] Macpherson's _Extracts from Life of James_, 17, 18. Compare Innes's _Life of James_, published by Clarke, i. 391, 393. In the former work it is said that Clarendon, upon Venner's insurrection, advised that the guards should not be disbanded. But this seems to be a mistake in copying: for Clarendon read the Duke of York. Pepys, however, who heard all the gossip of the town, mentions the year after, that the chancellor thought of raising an army, with the duke as general. Dec. 22, 1661.

[632] _Ibid._

[633] The Earl of Bristol, with all his const.i.tutional precipitancy, made a violent attack on Clarendon, by exhibiting articles of treason against him in the House of Lords in 1663; believing, no doubt, that the schemes of the intriguers were more mature, and the king more alienated, than was really the case; and thus disgraced himself at court instead of his enemy. _Parl. Hist._ 276; _Life of Clar._ 209.

Before this time Pepys had heard that the chancellor had lost the king's favour, and that Bristol, with Buckingham and two or three more, ruled him. May 15, 1663.

[634] A motion to refer the heads of charge against Clarendon to a committee was lost by 194 to 128; Seymour and Osborne telling the noes, Birch and Clarges the ayes. Commons' Journals, Nov. 6, 1667.

These names show how parties ran, Seymour and Osborne being high-flying cavaliers, and Birch a presbyterian. A motion that he be impeached for treason on the first article was lost by 172 to 103, the two former tellers for the ayes: Nov. 9. In the Harleian MS. 881, we have a copious account of the debates on this occasion, and a transcript in No. 1218. Sir Heneage Finch spoke much against the charge of treason; Maynard seems to have done the same. A charge of secret correspondence with Cromwell was introduced merely _ad invidiam_, the prosecutors admitting that it was pardoned by the act of indemnity, but wishing to make the chancellor plead that: Maynard and Hampden opposed it, and it was given up out of shame without a vote. Vaughan, afterwards chief justice, argued that counselling the king to govern by a standing army was treason at common law, and seems to dispute what Finch laid down most broadly, that there can be no such thing as a common law treason; relying on a pa.s.sage in Glanvill, where "seductio domini regis" is said to be treason. Maynard stood up for the opposite doctrine. Waller and Vaughan argued that the sale of Dunkirk was treason, but the article pa.s.sed without declaring it to be so; nor would the word have appeared probably in the impeachment, if a young Lord Vaughan had not a.s.serted that he could prove Clarendon to have betrayed the king's councils, on which an article to that effect was carried by 161 to 89. Garraway and Littleton were forward against the chancellor; but Coventry seems to have taken no great part. See Pepys's _Diary_, Dec. 3rd and 6th, 1667. Baxter also says that the presbyterians were by no means strenuous against Clarendon, but rather the contrary, fearing that worse might come for the country, as giving him credit for having kept off military government. Baxter's _Life_, part iii. 21. This is very highly to the honour of that party whom he had so much oppressed, if not betrayed. "It was a notable providence of G.o.d, he says, that this man, who had been the great instrument of state, and done almost all, and had dealt so cruelly with the nonconformists should thus by his own friends be cast out and banished; while those that he had persecuted were the most moderate in his cause, and many for him. And it was a great ease that befel the good people throughout the land by his dejection. For his way was to decoy men into conspiracies or to pretend plots, and upon the rumour of a plot the innocent people of many countries were laid in prison, so that no man knew when he was safe. Whereas since then, though laws have been made more and more severe, yet a man knoweth a little better what he is to expect, when it is by a law that he is to be tried."

Sham plots there seem to have been; but it is not reasonable to charge Clarendon with inventing them. Ralph, 122.

[635] In his wrath against the proviso inserted by Sir George Downing, as above mentioned, in the bill of supply, Clarendon told him, as he confesses, that the king could never be well served, while fellows of his condition were admitted to speak as much as they had a mind; and that in the best times such presumptions had been punished with imprisonment by the lords of the council, without the king's taking notice of it. 321. The king was naturally displeased at this insolent language towards one of his servants, a man who has filled an eminent station, and done services, for a suggestion intended to benefit the revenue. And it was a still more flagrant affront to the House of Commons, of which Downing was a member, and where he had proposed this clause, and induced the house to adopt it.

Coventry told Pepys "many things about the chancellor's dismissal, not fit to be spoken; and yet not any unfaithfulness to the king, but _instar omnium_, that he was so great at the council-board and in the administration of matters there was no room for anybody to propose any remedy for what was amiss, or to compa.s.s anything, though never so good for the kingdom, unless approved of by the chancellor; he managing all things with that greatness which now will be removed, that the king may have the benefit of others' advice." Sept. 2, 1667.

His own memoirs are full of proofs of this haughtiness and intemperance. He set himself against Sir William Coventry, and speaks of a man as able and virtuous as himself with marked aversion. See too _Life of James_, 398. Coventry, according to this writer (431), was the chief actor in Clarendon's impeachment, but this seems to be a mistake; though he was certainly desirous of getting him out of place.

The king, Clarendon tells us (438), pretended that the anger of parliament was such, and their power too, as it was not in his power to save him. The fallen minister desired him not to fear the power of parliament, "which was more or less, or nothing, as he pleased to make it." So preposterous as well as unconst.i.tutional a way of talking could not but aggravate his unpopularity with that great body he pretended to contemn.

[636] _State Trials_, vi. 318; _Parl. Hist._

[637] Ludlow, iii. 118, 165 _et post_; Clarendon's _Life_, 290; Burnet, 226; _Oeuvres de Louis XIV._ ii. 204.

[638] Harris's _Lives_, v. 28; _Biogr. Brit._ art. Harrington; _Life of James_, 396; _Somers Tracts_, vii. 530, 534.

[639] See Kennet's _Register_, 757; Ralph, 78 _et post_; Harris's _Lives_, v. 182, for proofs of this.

[640] _Mem. of Hutchinson_, 303. It seems, however, that he was suspected of some concern with an intended rising in 1663, though nothing was proved against him. _Miscellanea Aulica_, 319.

[641] _Life of Clarendon_, 424. Pepys says, the parliament was called together "against the Duke of York's mind flatly, who did rather advise the king to raise money as he pleased; and against the chancellor, who told the king that Queen Elizabeth did do all her business in 1588 without calling a parliament, and so might he do for anything he saw." June 25, 1667. He probably got this from his friend Sir W. Coventry.

[642] Ralph, 78, etc. The overture came from Clarendon, the French having no expectation of it. The worst was that, just before, he had dwelt in a speech to parliament on the importance of Dunkirk. This was on May 19, 1662. It appears by Louis XIV.'s own account, which certainly does not tally with some other authorities, that Dunkirk had been so great an object with Cromwell, that it was the stipulated price of the English alliance. Louis, however, was vexed at this, and determined to recover it at any price: il est certain que je ne pouvois trop donner pour racheter Dunkerque. He sent d'Estrades accordingly to England in 1661, directing him to make this his great object. Charles told the amba.s.sador that Spain had made him great offers, but he would rather treat with France. Louis was delighted at this; and though the sum asked was considerable, 5,000,000 livres, he would not break off, but finally concluded the treaty for 4,000,000, payable in three years; nay, saved 500,000 without its being found out by the English, for a banker having offered them prompt payment at this discount, they gladly accepted it; but this banker was a person employed by Louis himself, who had the money ready. He had the greatest anxiety about this affair; for the city of London deputed the lord mayor to offer any sum so that Dunkirk might not be alienated.

_Oeuvres de Louis XIV._ i. 167. If this be altogether correct, the King of France did not fancy he had made so bad a bargain; and indeed, with his projects, if he had the money to spare, he could not think so. Compare the _Memoires d'Estrades_, and the supplement to the third volume of _Clarendon State Papers_. The historians are of no value, except as they copy from some of these original testimonies.

[643] _Life of Clar._ 78; _Life of James_, 393.

[644] See Supplement to third volume of _Clarendon State Papers_, for abundant evidence of the close connection between the courts of France and England. The former offered bribes to Lord Clarendon so frequently and unceremoniously, that one is disposed to think he did not show so much indignation at the first overture as he ought to have done. See pp. 1, 4, 13. The aim of Louis was to effect the match with Catharine.

Spain would have given a great portion with any protestant princess, in order to break it. Clarendon asked, on his master's account, for 50,000, to avoid application to parliament. P. 4. The French offered a secret loan, or subsidy perhaps, of 2,000,000 livres for the succour of Portugal. This was accepted by Clarendon (p. 15); but I do not find anything more about it.

[645] As no one, who regards with attachment the present system of the English const.i.tution, can look upon Lord Clarendon as an excellent minister, or a friend to the soundest principles of civil and religious liberty; so no man whatever can avoid considering his incessant deviations from the great duties of an historian as a moral blemish in his character. He dares very frequently to say what is not true, and what he must have known to be otherwise; he does not dare to say what is true. And it is almost an aggravation of this reproach, that he aimed to deceive posterity, and poisoned at the fountain a stream from which another generation was to drink. No defence has ever been set up for the fidelity of Clarendon's history; nor can men, who have sifted the authentic materials, entertain much difference of judgment in this respect; though, as a monument of powerful ability and impressive eloquence, it will always be read with that delight which we receive from many great historians, especially the ancient, independent of any confidence in their veracity.

One more instance, before we quit Lord Clarendon for ever, may here be mentioned of his disregard for truth. The strange tale of a fruitless search after the restoration for the body of Charles I. is well known.

Lord Southampton and Lindsey, he tells us, who had a.s.sisted at their master's obsequies in St. George's chapel at Windsor, were so overcome with grief, that they could not recognise the place of interment; and, after several vain attempts, the search was abandoned in despair.

_Hist. of Rebellion_, vi. 244. Whatever motive the n.o.ble historian may have had for this story, it is absolutely incredible that any such ineffectual search was ever made. Nothing could have been more easy than to have taken up the pavement of the choir. But this was unnecessary. Some at least of the workmen employed must have remembered the place of the vault. Nor did it depend on them; for Sir Thomas Herbert, who was present, had made at the time a note of the spot, "just opposite the eleventh stall on the king's side." Herbert's _Memoirs_, 142. And we find from Pepys's _Diary_, Feb. 26, 1666, that "he was shown, at Windsor, where the late king was buried, and King Henry VIII. and my Lady Seymour." In which spot, as is well known, the royal body has twice been found, once in the reign of Anne, and again in 1813.

[646] The tenor of Clarendon's life and writings almost forbids any surmise of pecuniary corruption. Yet this is insinuated by Pepys, on the authority of Evelyn, April 27 and May 16, 1667. But the one was gossiping, though shrewd; and the other feeble, though accomplished.

Lord Dartmouth, who lived in the next age, and whose splenetic humour makes him no good witness against anybody, charges him with receiving bribes from the main instruments and promoters of the late troubles, and those who had plundered the royalists, which enabled him to build his great mansion in Piccadilly; a.s.serting that it was full of pictures belonging to families who had been despoiled of them. "And whoever had a mind to see what great families had been plundered during the civil war, might find some remains either at Clarendon House or at Cornbury." Note on Burnet, 88.

The character of Clarendon, as a minister, is fairly and judiciously drawn by Macpherson, _Hist. of England_, 98; a work by no means so full of a tory spirit as has been supposed.

[647] _Parl. Hist._ 347.

[648] The Lords refused to commit the Earl of Clarendon on a general impeachment of high treason; and in a conference with the lower house, denied the authority of the precedent in Strafford's case, which was pressed upon them. It is remarkable that the managers of this conference for the Commons vindicated the first proceedings of the long parliament, which shows a considerable change in their tone since 1661. They do not, however, seem to have urged, what is an apparent distinction between the two precedents, that the commitment of Strafford was on a verbal request of Pym in the name of the Commons, without alleging any special matter of treason, and consequently irregular and illegal; while the 16th article of Clarendon's impeachment charges him with betraying the king's counsels to his enemies; which, however untrue, evidently amounted to treason within the statute of Edward III.; so that the objection of the Lords extended to committing any one for treason upon impeachment, without all the particularity required in an indictment. This showed a very commendable regard to the liberty of the subject; and from this time we do not find the vague and unintelligible accusations, whether of treason or misdemeanour, so usual in former proceedings of parliament.

_Parl. Hist._ 387. A protest was signed by Buckingham, Albemarle, Bristol, Arlington, and others of their party, including three bishops (Cosins, Croft, and another), against the refusal of their house to commit Clarendon upon the general charge. A few, on the other hand, of whom Hollis is the only remarkable name, protested against the bill of banishment.

"The most fatal blow (says James) the king gave himself to his power and prerogative, was when he sought aid from the House of Commons to destroy the Earl of Clarendon: by that he put that house again in mind of their impeaching privilege, which had been wrested out of their hands by the restoration; and when ministers found they were like to be left to the censure of the parliament, it made them have a greater attention to court an interest there than to pursue that of their princes, from whom they hoped not for so sure a support." _Life of James_, 593.

The king, it is said, came rather slowly into the measure of impeachment; but became afterwards so eager, as to give the attorney-general, Finch, positive orders to be active in it, observing him to be silent. Carte's _Ormond_, ii. 353. Buckingham had made the king great promises of what the Commons would do, in case he would sacrifice Clarendon.

[649] Kennet, 293, 300. Burnet; Baxter, 23. The design was to act on the principle of the declaration of 1660, so that presbyterian ordinations should pa.s.s _sub modo_. Tillotson and Stillingfleet were concerned in it. The king was at this time exasperated against the bishops for their support of Clarendon. Burnet, _ibid._; Pepys's _Diary_, 21st Dec. 1667. And he had also deeper motives.

[650] _Parl. Hist._ 421; Ralph, 170; Carte's _Life of Ormond_, ii.

362. Sir Thomas Littleton spoke in favour of the comprehension, as did Seymour and Waller; all of them enemies of Clarendon, and probably connected with the Buckingham faction: but the church party was much too strong for them. Pepys says the Commons were furious against the project; it was said that whoever proposed new laws about religion must do it with a rope about his neck. Jan. 10, 1668. This is the first instance of a triumph obtained by the church over the Crown in the House of Commons. Ralph observes upon it, "It is not for nought that the words church and state are so often coupled together, and that the first has so insolently usurped the precedency of the last."

[651] _Parl. Hist._ 422.

[652] France retained Lille, Tournay, Douay, Charleroi, and other places by the treaty. The allies were surprised, and not pleased at the choice Spain made of yielding these towns in order to save Franche Comte. Temple's _Letters_, 97. In fact, they were not on good terms with that power; she had even a project, out of spite to Holland, of giving up the Netherlands entirely to France, in exchange for Rousillon, but thought better of it on cooler reflection.

[653] Dalrymple, ii. 5 _et post_. Temple was not treated very favourably by most of the ministers on his return from concluding the triple alliance: Clifford said to a friend, "Well, for all this noise, we must yet have another war with the Dutch before it be long."

Temple's _Letters_, 123.

[654] Dalrymple, ii. 12.

[655] Burnet.

[656] _Life of Clarendon_, 357.

[657] _Life of Clarendon_, 355.

[658] _State Trials_, vi. 807. One of the oddest things connected with this fire was, that some persons of the fanatic party had been hanged, in April, for a conspiracy to surprise the Tower, murder the Duke of Albemarle and others, and then declare for an equal division of lands, etc. In order to effect this, the city was to be fired, and the guards secured in their quarters and for this the 3rd of September following was fixed upon as a lucky day. This is undoubtedly to be read in the _London Gazette_ for April 30, 1666; and it is equally certain that the city was in flames on the 3rd of September. But, though the coincidence is curious, it would be very weak to think it more than a coincidence, for the same reason as applies to the suspicion which the catholics incurred; that the mere destruction of the city could not have been the object of any party, and that nothing was attempted to manifest any further design.

[659] Macpherson's _Extracts_, 38, 49; _Life of James_, 426.

[660] He tells us himself that it began by his reading a book written by a learned bishop of the church of England to clear her from schism in leaving the Roman communion, which had a contrary effect on him; especially when, at the said bishop's desire, he read an answer to it.

This made him inquisitive about the grounds and manner of the reformation. _After his return_, Heylin's _History of the Reformation_, and the preface to Hooker's _Ecclesiastical Polity_, thoroughly convinced him that neither the church of England, nor Calvin, nor any of the reformers, had power to do what they did; and he was confident, he said, that whosoever reads those two books with attention and without prejudice, would be of the same opinion. _Life of James_, i. 629. The d.u.c.h.ess of York embraced the same creed as her husband, and, as he tells us, without knowledge of his sentiments, but one year before her death in 1670. She left a paper at her death containing the reasons for her change. See it in Kennet, 320. It is plain that she, as well as the duke, had been influenced by the Romanising tendency of some Anglican divines.

[661] Macpherson, 50; _Life of James_, 441.