A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



On 20 September 1613 James wrote the order 

 at Hampton Court for the removal of the remains 

 of his mother Mary, Queen of Scots, from Peter- 

 borough to Westminster Abbey.* 70 The court 

 was at the palace again in December 1 6 14,"' and 

 in April 1615."' In June 1616 George Villiers, 

 afterwards Duke of Buckingham, was appointed 

 ' Keeper of the Honour of Hampton Court for 

 life.' 4 " In September 1617 was solemnized in the 

 chapel the marriage of Buckingham's brother, Sir 

 John Villiers, with Frances, daughter of Lord Chief 

 Justice Coke. The wedding was followed by a 

 great banquet and masque, 4 " when the king and 

 his courtiers ran about the palace and played 

 extraordinary pranks. According to the strange 

 custom of the period, early the next morning the 

 bride and bridegroom were given a reveille-matin, 

 the king himself jumping and rolling on their bed 

 ' in shirt and nightgown.' 4 " 



In 1618 Anne of Denmark became seriously 

 ill, and after a short stay at Oatlands moved to 

 Hampton Court, 4 ' 6 in the hope of regaining her 

 health away from London. She was evidently 

 consumptive, and by the end of February 1619 

 grew rapidly worse. On I March ' all the Lords 

 and Ladies went to Hampton Court, but very 

 few were admitted.' 4 " The physicians, 478 the Prince 

 (Charles) of Wales, and the Bishop of London 

 were called to her hastily in the early morning of 

 the following day, and at four o'clock she died. 479 



Her body was embalmed and taken by water in 

 a royal barge to Somerset House. She was after- 

 wards buried in Westminster Abbey. 480 



One of the curious economies of James I was 

 the refusal to grant ' lodgings ' in the precincts to 

 any of the ambassadors, but in 1620 he allowed 

 Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, to take up his 

 residence in one of the detached towers of the 

 palace. 481 Inigo Jones was surveyor of the Royal 



Works at the time, 482 and a letter which is said to 

 be the only one of his that has been preserved is 

 from Hampton Court, and is addressed to the Earl 

 of Arundel and Surrey, concerning the 'lodgings 

 intended for the ambassador.' 48B 



In January 1620-1 the French ambassador was 

 invited to the palace, and ' nobly entertained with 

 hunting and hawking,' probably to prevent any 

 jealousy concerning the Spaniard. Charles, Prince 

 of Wales, returned to Hampton Court in Septem- 

 ber 1623, after his romantic journey to Spain, to 

 make his own proposals of marriage to the Infanta, 

 or rather perhaps to test the sincerity of the pro- 

 fessions of the Spanish government. 484 



The negotiations were broken off very soon 

 after Charles's return, and in September 1624, 

 when the tharg d'affaires for Spain, in the absence 

 of the ambassador, came to the palace, he was 

 received with great coldness, 485 and did not even 

 see the prince, who had had a severe fall while 

 hunting in the park a week or two before, and 

 remained in his own room. 466 There is no record 

 that James I was at Hampton Court again before 

 his death on 27 March 1625. 



During the earlier part of the reign of Charles 1 487 

 Hampton Court was chiefly the scene of his many 

 difficulties with regard to Henrietta Maria's house- 

 hold, 488 and the record is one of succeeding mis- 

 understandings, quarrels and reconciliations with 

 her and with the diplomatic agents of France. 

 The lady in waiting who had the greatest in- 

 fluence over the queen, and therefore inspired 

 great distrust in Charles and his advisers, was 

 Mme. de Saint Georges. Charles seized the 

 opportunity, both in going to Hampton Court for 

 the first time with his wife, and on leaving it for 

 Windsor, to exclude Mme. de Saint Georges from 

 the coach which carried himself and the queen. 

 De Tillieres, who was Henrietta Maria's chamber- 



Stanley, Mem. of We:tm. Abbey, 

 App. 



*<* Cat. S.P. Dam. 1611-18, p. 263. 



<"" Ibid. 282. 



" 8 Ibid. 374. 



4 ~ 4 Nichols, Progresses of Jas. 7, iii, 

 440. 



<? 5 Campbell, Lives of the Chief 

 Justices, i, 303 ; Progresses of Jas. I, 

 i, 471 ; iii, 255 et seq. The history 

 of this marriage is a romantic one, too 

 long to be given here. 



4 " 6 Progresses of Jas. I, iii, 441. She 

 was not too ill to remember her old 

 favourite, Sir Walter Raleigh, and 

 wrote from Hampton Court to try to 

 obtain a pardon for him, but without 

 success. He was executed on Tower 

 Hill on 29 Oct. 1618. 



4 '7 Letter from Mr. Chamberlain,' 

 Progresses of Jas. 1, iii, 531. 



4 ? 8 Sir Theodore Mayerne, who had 

 attended Prince Henry in his last ill- 

 ness, was one of the physicians. There 

 is a portrait of him in the palace. 

 His MS. note-books are in the Brit. 

 Mus.; Law, op. cit. ii, 83. 



4 ' 9 There is an ancient tradition to the 

 effect that she died exactly as the clock 

 struck the hour, and that ever since it 

 has always stopped when an old resident 

 dies in the palace. Many corrobora- 



tive coincidences have been noted, but 

 no record has been kept of the dates 

 when the clock stopped without any 

 death having taken place. 



480 An account of her death, by one 

 of her attendants, is printed in the Mis- 

 cellany of the AbbotsforJ Club, i, 81, 84; 

 see also letter from Mr. Chamberlain 

 in Progresses of Jas. I, iii, 531; Law, 

 op. cit. ii, 83, 87. James was at New- 

 market when she died. The portrait of 

 him at Hampton Court, by Vansomer, 

 in black clothes, was probably painted 

 while he was wearing mourning for the 

 queen. There is another portrait of 

 him in the palace, by the same painter, 

 in robes of state. 



481 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxvi, 61, 

 20 Aug. 1620. 



488 He remained Surveyor in the time 

 of Charles I ; Cat. S.P. Dom. 1637-8, 

 p. 376. 



183 Collier, Life of Inigo Jones, 23, 

 vide Law, op. cit. ii, 92, where the 

 letter is printed in full 5 S.P. Dom. 

 Jas. I, cxvi, 65. 



484 Diet. Nat. Biog. 'James I ' ; Hard- 

 wicke, Stare Papers, vol. i. James 

 seems to have been alarmed by the 

 suggestion that Charles should remain 

 in Spain for a year, and to have signed 

 the articles agreeing to the marriage, 



350 



chiefly in order that his son might 

 return to England. 



4S5 Cat. S.P. Dom. 1623-5, P- 349- 

 486 Progresses of Jas. I, ii, 1005. 

 Charles and the Duke of Bucking- 

 ham were the real rulers of the kingdom 

 during all the latter part of James's 

 reign. 



48 ? He first came to the palace after 

 his accession in July 1625, two or 

 three weeks after his marriage. The 

 plague was raging in London at the 

 time, and all through this reign con- 

 stant precautions were necessary to 

 prevent communication with London 

 and the spread of the infection. Only 

 one death from plague seems to have 

 taken place at Hampton Court in 1636; 

 Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. iv, App. 78 ; 

 ibid, xi, App. 24 ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 

 Chas. I, 1636-7, p. 57, &c. ; De Til- 

 lieres, Memoirei (ed. Hippeau, 1862); 

 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, iv, 13. On 7 July 

 1625 Charles received a deputation 

 from both Houses of Parliament, who 

 presented a ' Petition concerning Re- 

 ligion '; ibid. 20 ; Clarendon, Parl. Hist. 

 iv, 377. 



488 It must be remembered that Hen- 

 rietta Maria was only fifteen years old 

 at the time. 



