CHAP. XV. ANNE HYDE BECOMES MAID OF HONOUR TO THE PRINCESS IN ENGLAND -THE RISING UNDER PENRUDDOCK AND NING'S TREACHERY.— CROMWELL'S TREATY WITH FRANCE. CHARLES II. ATTEMPTS ΤΟ REOPEN COMMUNICATION WITH SPAIN. HYDE'S COMMUNICATION WITH HIM. CHAP. 1654. 1654-1656. DURING the King's journey from Paris to Spa, Hyde obtained leave to quit him for a time, in order to see his wife and children, who, since the autumn of 1653, had resided at Breda *, whither they had removed from Antwerp, to a house which the Princess of Orange had assigned to them, and where they lived rent free. This kindness on the part of the Princess was followed by another act of favour, apparently unimportant, but which led to an important result - the appointment of Anne Hyde, his eldest daughter, to the situation of maid of * Clar. State Papers, iii. 198. 66 honour in the Princess's household. A vacancy having occurred, through the death of a victim to that terrible disease, the fear of which had driven Charles from Spa, O'Neile, a friend of Hyde, advised him to apply on his daughter's behalf. But Hyde declined, saying, as he tells us, "that "he had but one daughter, who was all the company and comfort her mother had, in her melan"cholie retirement, and therefore he was resolved "not to separate them, nor to dispose his daughter "to a court life." The Princess had already been solicited, and was favourable to the appointment; and she only desired that the King should propose it, that she might be sheltered from the expected reproaches of the Queen, who, ever grasping at power, wished to control, if possible, even the household of her married daughter. The King and the Princess severally proposed the appointment to Hyde, who to each expressed disinclination, but agreed to leave the decision to his wife. Lady Hyde accepted the offer; and the daughter was introduced into the household of the Princess. Anne Hyde, for whom such high destinies were in store, appears at this time to have been more attractive than she was afterwards thought. Charles II., in a letter to Bennett, in 1655, notices the admiration she had excited in Sir Spencer Compton t; and the Queen of Bohemia, with whom she was as much a favourite as with the *Life of Clarendon, i. 303. CHAP. XV. 1654. CHAP Princess of Orange, commends the beauty of her appearance at a court masque." XV. 1654. In November, Hyde was with the King at Cologne, where his attention was engaged by an attempt on the part of the Queen, which was encouraged by the French Court, to convert to Popery her youngest son, the Duke of Gloucester, through the instrumentality of the Abbé Montague, her almoner. Failing in her entreaties, she committed him to the care of this busy priest, who carried him away from all counteracting influence at Paris, to the seclusion of his own pleasant abbey at Pontoise. The King and his advisers, when apprised of this plot, of which no intimation had been given by the Queen, felt much annoyance. The King wrote strongly to his mother, in reprobation of the attempted conversion; and Lord Ormond was sent into France, to bring the young Duke away to Cologne. The arts and violence of the Queen, and the particulars of Ormond's successful expedition, are detailed by Carte in his life of that nobleman. On the young Duke giving, as his final answer, the expression of his resolution to be firm to Protestantism, Montague *In a letter to Nicholas, of January 11. 1655, the Queen of Bohemia says, "We had a Royaltie, though not upon twelf night, at Teiling... Mrs. Hide was a shepherdess, and I assure was verie handsome in it: none but her mistress looked better than she did. I "believe my Lady Hide, and Mr. Chancelour, will not be sorie to heare it, which I pray tell them from me." Evelyn's Memoirs, v. 217. "I pray remember me to Mr. Chancelour, and tell him his ladie, and my favorit his daughter, came hither upon Saturday, and are gone this day to Teiling. I finde my favorit growen everie way to her advan"tage." Evelyn, v. 206. On September 7. 1654, she had written, "I heare Mrs. Hide is to come to my niece in Mrs. Killigrew's place, "which I am verie glad of; she is verie fitt for itt: a great favorit of "mine." Evelyn, v. 199. XV. 1654. abruptly signified to him the Queen's command, CHAP, "that he should see her face no more." The Duke of York interceded in vain: the Queen was inexorable; and sternly rejected her son's attempt to speak to her again, and beg her blessing, as she was passing on her way to Mass. "The rigour "which followed," says Carte, "has something "in it too extraordinary to be omitted, though not "to be read without indignation. Banished from "his mother's presence, when he returned from divine service he was at a loss for a dinner; "there being a very strict prohibition given to all "the officers in the Queen's Court, that they "should not furnish him with any provisions or "necessaries. His horses were that night turned "out of the Queen's stables, and the next day "the sheets were taken off his bed. Thus was "he forced to seek a lodging elsewhere than in "the Palace Royal; and nobody that had any de"pendence on the Queen durst receive him into "their houses." * He was at length received in the house of Lord Hatton, where he remained till Ormond, partly by borrowing, partly by pawning his insignia of the Garter, could raise money to defray the expense of their journey to Cologne. + Charles's conduct in this affair, his letter to the Duke of Gloucester, and a previous letter to the * Carte's Life of Ormond, ii. 167. + Carte's Life of Ormond, ii. 163-168. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vii. 120-124. Clarendon's State Papers, iii. 256 XV. CHAP. Duke of York, respecting the Queen's ill-kept promise not to attempt the conversion of their brother Henry,-render improbable Burnet's assertion, that Charles himself had become a Papist before he left Paris; that "only Cardinal de Retz was in the se"cret, and Lord Aubigny had a great hand in it; " and that Hyde suspected it, but would never suffer himself to believe it.* Other testimonies, in support of the King's conversion to Popery, are Thurloe's letter to General Montague, of April, 1556, stating that Charles had "declared himself, "in private, to be a Roman Catholic † ;" and a story told by Carte, that Ormond, one morning very early stepping into a church, "where a great "number of people were at their devotions, saw "the King on his knees at Mass." This last tale is grossly improbable: it would have been madness in the King to have committed such an act. It is improbable that Cromwell's spies, who watched him every where, should not have ascertained and promulgated a fact so valuable to their employer. Moreover, the act stated would imply a fervour of devotion quite inconsistent with the character of Charles, and at variance with the principles ascribed to him by one of those companions who knew him best. § With respect to Thurloe's letter, it may be observed, that it is written from England, and that the authority for its assertion is not given. It is * Burnet's Own Times, i. 126. + Carte's Letters, ii. 102. Buckingham's Works, ii. 55. |