SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



HAMPTON 



hunting in the spring, and often spent Christmas 

 there. 444 



Up to the time of her marriage in 1610 the 

 unfortunate Lady Arabella Stuart was constantly at 

 Hampton Court with the king and queen. 440 



In September 1605, on Michaelmas Day, Dr. 

 Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, was sworn a 

 Privy Councillor at Hampton Court, and the king 

 remained there till October," 1 just before the famous 

 meeting of Parliament after the discovery of the 

 Gunpowder Plot. He was also there in December 

 while the trial of the conspirators was going on. 45 * 



In August 1606 the queen's brother, Chris- 

 tian IV of Denmark, came to England and visited 

 Hampton Court with the king and queen, they 

 ' dyned and there hunted and killed deare, with 

 great pleasures.' *" The King of Denmark also 

 saw a play 'presented by his Majesties' Players 

 in the Great Hall.' 4S * Sir John Harrington wrote 

 an astonishing account .of his convivial manners 

 and habits. 446 



James always enjoyed associating the frivolities 

 of the court with theological discussions, and in 

 the autumn of 1606 he invited several of the 

 leading ministers of the Presbyterian Church of 

 Scotland to attend him at Hampton Court, and 

 chose four eminent English divines to preach 

 before them, ' for the reduction of ... the 

 Presbyterian Scots to a right understanding of the 

 Church of England.' 4i6 Between the sermons the 

 king received the Scottish ministers in private 

 audience and argued with them at much length, 

 no doubt to his own satisfaction ; ' in effect they 

 returned to Scotland of the same opinion, no good 

 end having been served by their visit.' 4 * 7 



While they were still at the palace Francis 

 Prince of Vaudemont, third son of Charles Duke 

 of Lorraine, also arrived with a great retinue. 468 

 One of the gentlemen of the court wrote to the 

 Earl of Shrewsbury that 'this night the Earl of 

 Vaudemont will be here, with his crew, //*/ 

 clinquant que If soleil.' Ki He stayed at Hamp- 



ton Court for a fortnight, being ' very royally 

 entertained and feasted, and rode a-hawking and 

 hunting with the king to divers places, and then 

 returned.' <6 Lord Shrewsbury's correspondent 

 also described the ' dancing in the Queen's Pre- 

 sence Chambre,' when ' my lady Pembroke carried 

 away the glory.' 461 



The following year saw a different scene when 

 the queen went to Hampton Court alone, after the 

 death of her infant daughter Mary, and ' the 

 Court officers had leave to play, and are gone every 

 one to his own home, only Lord Salisbury went to 

 Hampton Court to comfort the Queen.' 46> 



There are two contemporary accounts of Hamp- 

 ton Court in the reign of James I, 463 one written 

 by Prince Otto, the son of the Landgrave Maurice 

 of Hesse, who came there in 1 6 1 1 , and gives a 

 long description of the palace, the tapestries, pic- 

 tures, and other curiosities. Among the rooms he 

 mentions one called 'Paradise within which 

 almost all the tapestry is stitched with pearls and 

 mixed with precious stones.' 464 The Duke of 

 Wtlrtemberg had described this room in Elizabeth's 

 reign, and mentioned a table-cover in it worth 

 fifty thousand crowns, and the ' royal throne stud- 

 ded with . . . diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and the 

 like.' <&i The German traveller Hentzner also 

 spoke of it at that time, and said it ' glitters so 

 with silver, gold, and jewels as to dazzle one's 

 eyes.' 466 The other account is by Ernest, Duke 

 of Saxe- Weimar, who was at the palace in i6i3. 467 

 He was also astonished by the ' Paradise ' room, 

 and adds the detail that ' all the apartments and 

 galleries were laid with rush matting.' He further 

 described a 'great hunt' he had with the king, 

 who was devoted to the sport. On 9 September 

 1609 the king issued from Hampton Court a 

 stringent proclamation against ' Hunters, stealers 

 and killers of Deare, within any of the king's 

 Majesties Forests, Chases or Parks.' 468 Anne of 

 Denmark shared this taste, and Ben Jonson called 

 her ' the Huntress Queen.' 469 



449 So unvarying were the king's 

 habits that an observant courtier ii said 

 to have remarked, 'Were he asleep 

 seven years and then awakened he 

 could tell where the king every day 

 had been and every dish he had at his 

 table ' ; Secret Hist, of Jas. 7, ii, 5. 



* M Lodge, Illustration! of Engl. Hist. 

 iii, 236 ; Progresses of Jas. I, i, 457. 

 In Feb. 1610, Arabella, after suffering 

 much for no reason but her nearness 

 in the line of succession to the throne, 

 engaged herself to William Seymour, 

 son of the Earl of Hertford. In 

 March they were summoned before 

 the Privy Council and promised not to 

 marry without the king's consent, but 

 in July were privately married. They 

 were immediately separated by the 

 king's orders, and after Arabella had 

 made a desperate effort to escape to 

 France disguised in a man's clothes on 

 4 June 1611, she was brought back to 

 the Tower and remained there till her 

 death in 1615. Diet. Nat. Biog. ; 

 Cooper, Life and Letters of Lady A. 

 Stuart. 



451 Howe, Chron. (continuation of 



Stowe, Citron.") \ Nichols, Progresses of 

 Jas. I, i, 577; Cat. S.P. Dom. 1603-10, 

 p. 234. 



45a S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xvii, 7-32 

 (the 'examination ' of those implicated 

 in the plot). Nichols, Progresses of 

 Jas. I, iii. 



453 England's Fare-well to the King of 

 Denmark, cit. Law, op. cit. ii, 50 ; 

 Nichols, op. cit. ii, 81. There is a 

 portrait of Christian IV in the palace, 

 by Vansomer. 



444 Cunningham, Extracts from Accts. 

 of the Revels at Court (Shakespeare Soc.), 

 p. xxxviii. 



455 frfugag Antiquae, i, 348 ; Diet. 

 Nat. Biog. 'James I.' 



456 Wood, Atbenae, ii, col. 507 (ed. 

 Bliss). 



4 *7 Spotswood, Hist. Ch. of Scotland, 

 496-8 j Wood, Atbenae, ii (ed. Bliss) ; 

 Gardiner, Hist, of Engl. The four 

 preachers were Bishops Barlow of Lin- 

 coln and Andrews of Chichester, 

 Dr. Buckeridge and Dr. King. A few 

 copies of the sermon preached by 

 Dr. Buckeridge are still extant, and 

 one is in Mr. Law's collection at 



349 



Hampton Court. Law, op. cit. ii, 



S3- 



458 Howe, Chron. (continuation of 

 Stowe, Cbron.), 887. 



459 Nichols, Progresses of Jas. I, ii, 96. 

 480 Howe, Cbron. 887. 



461 Law, op. cit. ii, 57 ; Lodge, 

 Illustrations, iii. 



4M Ibid, iii, 324. 



<6S They are given at length in Law, 

 Hist. Hampton Court Palace, ii, 65 et seq.; 

 W. B. Rye, Engl. as seen by Foreigners, 

 144; Nichols, Progresses of Jas. I, ii, 424. 



484 Law, op. cit. ii, 72. 



465 Ibid, i, 328-9 ; from Rye, op. 

 cit. 19, &c. 



466 Hentzner, Journey into Engl. (ed. 

 1757), 82. 



467 Law, op. cit. ii, 72. 



46a S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xlviii, 23 ; see 

 the account of James's love for hunting 

 in Law, op. cit. ii, chap, v, vi, p. 7 3 et secj. 



469 Ibid. There is a picture of her 

 at Hampton Court, no. 444 in the 

 Picture Galleries, by Vansomer, in a 

 fanciful green hunting dress, standing 

 by her horse, with two little greyhounds 

 jumping round her. 



