1660] OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. 235 



vice of the King my father, and / never shall be wanting 

 to reward and encourage as well that kindness to his 

 person as that zeal to his service which you have ex 

 pressed in all your actions.&quot; But he was then only 

 nineteen years of age, unseared by the eleven years of 

 profligacy, the expiration of which found him on the 

 throne of his ancestors. 



The Marquis s political position had been unpopu 

 lar, making him many enemies, which even altered 

 times could not wholly obliterate. It was not merely 

 a question whether he was justified in acting in concert 

 with the late King, but it was manifestly imprudent 

 and unwise, to say the least, his becoming the champion 

 of his church in so dangerous an enterprise as that in 

 which he engaged in Ireland. Consequently he found 

 comparatively few who sincerely sympathised in his 

 sufferings, amidst the crowd of suffering humanity dis 

 tinguishing those unhappy times. 



On the 9th of May, 1660, being the day after the 

 King s proclamation, the House of Lords had before 

 them a petition from the Marchioness of Worcester,* 

 the subject of which was strange enough, being no 

 other than to complain u That Colonel Christopher 

 Copley, doth undermine Worcester House.&quot; Wherefore 

 it was ordered, &quot; That stop be made to further pro 

 ceedings therein.&quot; 



His Lordship early solicited the kind offices of Lord 

 Clarendon, offering him gratuitously the use of his 

 mansion in the Strand. 26 He says : 



&quot; MY LORD CHANCELLOR, 



u The world speaks you to be a person of honour, 

 and I know your Lordship to be so, and that if you 



* Jo. II. of Lords, Vol. xi. p. 19. 26 Clarendon. 



