The life of Queen Henrietta Maria (6 page)

To " Captain Coxcomb," as he calls Kensington, the Prince wrote that the Monsieurs had played so scurvy a trick that, were it not out of respect for Madame, he would not care a farthing for their friendship.

Charles' spirit and determination may have borne good fruit and convinced the u Monsieurs " that they were in danger of over-reaching themselves. By the latter part of September Kensington was able to report success. General satisfaction prevailed, and the commissioners had gone straight to the Queen's chamber to carry the good news and to announce that the marriage was made.

The King had been out hunting at the time ; but not only the two Queens, but little Madame herself, had been present when they were admitted, and a description is furnished of the demeanour of all three.

The Queen-Mother's joy was excessive. Anne of Austria, always eager for the match, had declared that, had she been presented with a kingdom, she would have been less rejoiced. All eyes were then turned towards Madame, to note how the person principally concerned was affected by the news—or rather, as Kensington phrased it, how she would carry her joy. The child's looks and smiles were expressive enough, u though she would fain have kept her gravity " ; and " she straight went to her lodging, being unwilling to continue in that constraint . . . for she had a desire to enjoy her joy by her liberty and mirth." So soon as she had escaped from the Queen's apartment, Henrietta was joined by her young brother, Gaston d'Orleans, who, having also heard the good news, had hastened to offer his congratulations. Taking her aside, he asked his sister whether she thought not this day the happiest that ever she had, and Kensington had been assured her answer was in the affirmative.

All, therefore, seemed to be going smoothly. The Queen-Mother was doing her utmost to create in the bride-elect a sense that she was the favourite of fortune. Her ladies were directed to sing the Prince's praises, as the noblest and best in the world, and Henrietta listened with " an unspeakable joy." Kensington, for his part, lost no opportunity of performing a like office by his master, and increasing by his reports the ardour of Charles' suit. Thus he wrote one day that it had been his fortune to enter Madame's chamber as she was singing with her master, and, her back being towards the door, he had come up softly unperceived, and, listening, had been amazed at her skill. He added that he had already been told of her musical talent, but had discounted the praises lavished

upon it, attributing them in part to her position. Now he found there had been no exaggeration in the matter, and that she sang as no one else.

Kensington was doubtless aware that to a man of Charles' artistic tastes such an accomplishment was of no small moment. Carlisle, too, had his own accounts to give to the Prince of his future wife. Writing in November to say that all remaining difficulties had been removed, it is to be inferred from his letter that Madame had been at this time displaying some embarrassment or shyness ; for the Queen-Mother had sent for her, and whilst commending her conduct hitherto as having given her infinite contentment, she had added that she must not now make la petite bouche.

"Rejoice, my daughter," she had told her, "as I myself do, with all my heart."

Marie's admonition, if such it was, had taken effect ; for when the English envoys came to make their reverence to their future mistress, her joy was so full that she could not give it expression, but, laughing and in few words, rendered them thanks.

" Eh bien^ Madame," said Kensington, now preferred to the earldom of Holland, " to-day you will laugh ; to-morrow you will speak ; after that you will sing."

Whereupon, smiling, she promised, on their next meeting, to do the visitors that honour.

So far as the French Government was concerned there was ample cause for self-congratulation. It had practically succeeded in obtaining all it had demanded ; nor is it easy, reading the articles of the Treaty of Marriage, signed in November, 1624, to believe that James can ever have intended them to be carried out fully, or that he conceived it possible that it should be done.

HENRIETTA MARIA

By the stipulations contained in this astonishing document—some of its clauses were, indeed, kept private —it was provided that Madame should be supplied with a chapel in all the royal palaces, as well as in any place where she might reside. A bishop and twenty-eight priests were to be included in her household. Her domestic establishment was to consist exclusively of French Catholics ; and the children born of the marriage were to be brought up by their mother till they reached the age of thirteen. So far the terms of the engagement, if thoroughly obnoxious to British prejudice, were, nevertheless—except perhaps for the French constitution of her household—what might have been expected, should Charles choose for his wife the sister of the Most Christian King. Conditions dealing with the treatment of British subjects were a different matter, conceding as they did to a foreign power the right to intermeddle in domestic affairs, and admitting a principle unlikely to be tolerated by any self-respecting people. There had, nevertheless, been inserted in the treaty private or secret articles, requiring the liberation of all Catholics imprisoned since the breach with Spain (when persecution had begun afresh), and furthermore stipulating that they should remain for the future unmolested, and that the goods they had forfeited should be restored to them.

Such were the main provisions of the contract. When the temper of the English people at the time is taken into account, it is almost incredible that either James or Charles, when he personally endorsed the terms of the treaty, should have consented to them. The document was, however, duly signed, and the Pere de Berulle despatched to Rome to sue for a dispensation.

Meantime, fresh difficulties had arisen. In March Carlisle was railing at " these base perfidious Monsieurs,"

and impressing on his master the fact that " a Monsieur is to be ridden with a discreet high hand." Not content with all that had been already obtained, new demands had been made upon the English Government, which the ambassador begged the Prince to be firm in refusing. He would, Carlisle felt no doubt, obtain his incomparable mistress, but he must change his manner of pursuit; she was worth the roaring for.

Little Madame herself was plainly perturbed. " These accidents "—the unreasonable requirements of the French cuthorities—had begotten in her much amazement and grief. Though kept in ignorance of part of what was going forward, she divined that all was not right, and her ladies found a great perplexity in her. If a day passed without bringing about a meeting with the English envoys, she feared they were discontented, "the which in this case is death to her." She was, however, revived and comforted by the letters Charles continued to write. Before the end of March, acting on the advice of his ambassadors, he had given an explicit refusal to the fresh conditions proposed to him, and Carlisle's forecast was justified. He was able to report to his master that all was finally arranged.

Pope Urban had not granted the necessary dispensation willingly ; and when at length it was obtained, his consent was apparently dictated rather by the fear lest the marriage, in default of it, should take place without the papal blessing, than from any approval of the match. Proceeding to make the best of a bad business, he addressed a letter to the bride, impressing upon her the motive by which he had been actuated— namely, a hope that she would prove the guardian angel of English Catholics. The eyes of both worlds, earthly and spiritual, were, he told her, upon her. There

«

was no danger that Henrietta would forget his admonitions. In reply she gave the Pope

The necessary arrangements were thus completed. Upon his father's death in March, 1625, Charles at once renewed in his own person the marriage treaty, and all promised well. The accession of the new King had been the occasion of an outburst of popular enthusiasm, and Sir Benjamin Rudyard only gave expression to the passionate loyalty of Parliament and people when he declared that from the present sovereign everything was to be hoped. It was not a moment when the nation was inclined to be critical. If a Protestant Queen would have been still more acceptable to the country, its confidence in Charles was sufficient to reconcile public opinion to the match. The country trusted the King, and was content to allow him to choose his own bride.

On May 8th the solemn betrothal was celebrated in Paris, the Due de Chevreuse, Charles' own kinsman, acting as his proxy. On the following Sunday, May nth —the old English May-day—the marriage itself took place ; Henriette Marie de Bourbon had become Queen of England, and had gained the crown afterwards to prove so heavy a burthen. It was well that, as the child sat at the great state banquet between her brother the King and her husband's representative, those who loved her could not foresee her future fate.

On the same day Carlisle sent an account of the" affair to the King. His marriage had been fully accomplished, with dignity and infinite acclamation of the

French people. The new Queen would now, after some fitting ceremonies, hasten to cast herself into her husband's arms. Moreover, the two French Queens were intending to accompany the bride as far as Dover in order to see Charles and contemplate his virtues—an honour greater than that enjoyed by Solomon, since the Jewish King was visited by but one Queen of Sheba, and no less than three were to pay the like tribute to the writer's master. And Carlisle is confident—a little anxiety is apparent in this and other letters—that the King will have everything so prepared for their reception that they, like the Queen of Sheba, may admire.

The project of the French Queens was not carried into effect ; and Carlisle hints at a doubt, in a subsequent letter, whether the suggestion had not been thrown out in the hope of luring Charles to a meeting at Boulogne, a plan strongly deprecated by the ambassador. In the meantime Henrietta had given no proof of the longing ascribed to her to hasten her departure for England. Whether owing to indisposition on the part of her brother, who was to have accompanied her as far as Amiens, or to other causes, a delay not unfruitful in results intervened before the new Queen set out on her journey. Before she had left Paris an event took place causing general surprise. This was the arrival of the Duke of Buckingham. The reasons of his sudden visit can only be matter of conjecture. By some it was attributed to the King's desire to ascertain the causes of the delay. By others it was supposed that he was merely despatched by his master to serve as escort to Henrietta, and as the bearer of presents from Charles to his bride. A letter from the Duke himself seems to point to the former reason being the true one.

Writing to the King on the day when he had his

first audiences, he states that he had found the travellers unresolved, owing to Louis' illness, on a date of departure. He had obtained " thus much, or rather thus little "— since he knew that it would not answer to his master's expectations—that the journey should be begun on the following Wednesday. It would be the Duke's endeavour to hasten as much as possible a meeting between "the two perfectest creatures in the world." Notwithstanding this somewhat perfunctory tribute, when Buckingham descends to more detail in the way of a description of the bride, there is a marked absence of the extravagance of praise characteristic of the letters of Carlisle and Holland. He could not yet send the measure of Henrietta's height, but hoped to get it the following day. She had been sick, and was still looking lean and pale, but was now mending fast, assured of her happiness. With these cursory observations the Duke dismissed the important subject of the Queen's appearance.

If his first interview with Henrietta had taken place in the presence of her sister-in-law, Buckingham may not have had as much attention to spare for his master's bride as might otherwise have been the case. The sojourning of the favourite in France, short though it was, was fraught with serious consequences.

Although Holland and Carlisle, with their ally the Duchesse de Chevreuse, had contrived that their patron should be cordially received at court, the pleasure caused by his arrival was by no means unmixed. Brienne, the King's secretary, who had been sent to England on business connected with the marriage treaty, and had enjoyed opportunities there of .cultivating the Duke's acquaintance, could clearly have dispensed with its renewal ; and the prejudice he already entertained received a

BUCKINGHAM AND QUEEN ANNE 47

sensible increase when the favourite made his appearance at the Louvre—"1'esprit rempli," said the secretary, c< de beaucoup de chimeres." The nature of one at least of these " chimeres " must soon have been patent to the entire court. Buckingham spent no more than a week in Paris ; but during that space of time he conceived the passion for the young Queen of Louis XIII. subsequently exercising, in the opinion of most authorities, so powerful an influence upon his policy.

People in England were meantime growing impatient. In Paris, too, it must have been recognised that there was nothing to justify further postponement in delivering over Henrietta to her husband's keeping ; whilst, as to her fresh escort, every one—save, perhaps, the person most nearly concerned—was in haste to be quit of " cet etranger presomptueux,"

It had been found necessary, in consequence of King Louis' indisposition, to modify the original intention that he should accompany his sister part of the way to the coast. When it became apparent that he would proceed no further with her than to Compiegne, the discreet Brienne represents himself as having pointed out to Anne of Austria, a little officiously, that she would do well, under the circumstances, to relinquish her own intention of making one of the royal party who were to attend Henrietta to Calais, and to remain instead with her husband.

He was undoubtedly right. Nevertheless, the Queen, disregarding his counsels, elected to pursue her way towards the sea-coast. Before it was reached another delay was rendered inevitable by the serious illness of Marie de Medicis, in consequence of which the whole bridal train were detained at Amiens.