SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



lain, says that as he was conducting the queen 

 down the steps of the Great Hall, when they 

 were leaving the palace, he heard the king and 

 the Duke of Buckingham speaking about it, and 

 that Charles made Lord Hamilton take a seat 

 inside the coach that Mme. de Saint Georges 

 might be excluded. 489 The quarrels were no 

 doubt rather between Buckingham and the lady- 

 in-waiting than between Charles and his queen. 490 

 Jealousies that arose from the presence of the 

 king's chaplain and the queen's Roman Catholic 

 confessor also led to trouble. One day when the 

 king and queen were dining together in the 

 'Presence Chamber' at Hampton Court, 'Mr. 

 Hacket (chaplain to the lord-keeper) being there 

 to say grace, the confessor would have prevented 

 him, but that Hacket shoved him away ; where- 

 upon the confessor went to the queen's side, and 

 was about to say grace again, but that the king, 

 pulling the dishes unto him, and the carvers falling 

 to the business, hindered. When dinner was 

 done' they both started saying grace aloud to- 

 gether, ' with such confusion that the king in great 

 passion instantly rose from the table, and taking 

 the queen by the hand, retired into the bed- 

 chamber.' 4 " Such a scene at the king's table 

 seems hardly credible in these days. 



As the virulence of the plague kept the court 

 away from Whitehall, and a proclamation was 

 issued to prohibit communication between Hamp- 

 ton Court and London, 49 ' the French ambassador, 

 M. de Blainville, was very anxious to be lodged 

 in the palace, and he tried in various ways to over- 

 come the king's reluctance. Sir John Finett, the 

 Master of the Ceremonies, told him that ' his 

 Majesty would be loth to make a " President," that 

 would hereafter . . . beget him so great a trouble 

 as this was like to be.' is The rooms were at 

 last granted to him, and ' Mr. Secretary ' Con- 

 way writing to Buckingham from Hampton Court 

 complains much of the expense and trouble caused 

 thereby. 494 



In 1626 Paul Rosencrantz, the Danish ambassa- 

 dor, was received twice at Hampton Court, 495 and 

 an ambassador from Bethlem Gabor, ' the Prince 

 of Transylvania,' also had an audience. 496 On 

 6 October Laud was appointed Dean of the Chapel 

 Royal, and took the oath in the vestry of the chapel 



HAMPTON 



at Hampton Court before the Lord Chamber- 

 lain. 4 * 7 Eventually the difficulties concerning Hen- 

 rietta Maria's household arrived at such a pass that 

 Richelieu sent the Marquis de Bassompierre to try 

 to arrange a compromise. On Sunday, 1 1 Octo- 

 ber, he arrived at Hampton Court in one of the 

 king's coaches. A splendid repast had been pre- 

 pared for him, but neither he nor his suite would 

 touch it. To enter into the details of his mission 

 is not possible here ; de Bassompierre acted with 

 tact and discretion, but ineffectually, 498 and on 

 31 July 1626, after a final scene with the queen, 

 Charles insisted on her French attendants being 

 turned out of Whitehall. On 8 August they 

 re-embarked for France. 499 



Charles continued to visit Hampton Court at 

 intervals, and the Duke of Buckingham was con- 

 stantly with the king there up to the time of his 

 own assassination in l628. 500 The usual court 

 ceremonies, and the usual plays performed by the 

 king's players, took place from time to time, and it 

 is interesting to find two of Shakespeare's plays 

 among them the Moore of Venice, on 8 Decem- 

 ber 1636, and Hamlet on 24 January i637. wl 



In June 1636 Straffbrd came to Hampton Court 

 to ' kiss hands ' on his appointment as Lord Deputy 

 of Ireland.* 01 In 1639 Charles caused the canal 

 called the ' King's ' or ' Longford ' River to be cut 

 for the supply of water to the palace ; M3 he also 

 interested himself in the gardens and in the decora- 

 tion of the interior. The catalogue of his pictures 

 was compiled by Vanderdoort in the same year, 

 and he also attempted once more to make a 

 ' chase ' and inclose it with a wall ; but, as 

 before, the inhabitants objected so strongly to 

 the encroachment on their lands and commons 504 

 that the scheme had to be given up ; and political 

 difficulties were thickening rapidly round the king 

 so that he had little further time to devote to 

 private or domestic interests. He was at Hampton 

 Court in December 1641, when Parliament pre- 

 sented to him ' the Grand Remonstrance.' 50S He 

 refused to answer it immediately, and Parliament 

 caused the text of the declaration to be published 

 at once, much to the king's annoyance. Three 

 days later he entertained seven of the city aldermen 

 at the palace, and knighted three of them in the 

 hope of reviving personal loyalty to himself in the 



9 De Tillieres, Memoires (ed. 1863), 

 92 ; Memoirs of Henrietta Maria, 1671, 

 p. 13. 



490 Charles seems at first to have 

 made Buckingham his intermediary 

 with the queen, and Buckingham's 

 arrogance and insolence served to in- 

 crease the difficulty. Charles's private 

 letters to 'Steenie,' many of them dated 

 from Hampton Court, show how de- 

 termined they both were to get rid of 

 the ' Monsers,* without much regard 

 for Henrietta Maria's feelings or wishes. 

 Vide letters in Hardwicke, State Papers, 

 iii, 2, 3, 1 1, &c. ; Ellis, Orig. Letters, 

 iii, 224, Ac. 



491 Letter from Mr. Mead to Sir 

 Martin Stuteville, Oct. 1625 ; Sloane 

 MSS. no. 4177, cit. Law, Hist. Hamp- 

 ton Court Palace, ii, 101. 



49a Rymer, Foedera, xviii, 1 98. 



499 Eventually he was given rooms 

 ' next the river in the garden,' which 

 were the same as those occupied by 

 Queen Elizabeth as a state prisoner in 

 the reign of Queen Mary ; see p. 343. 

 De Tillieres, op. cit. pp. 88-150; 

 Finett, Pbiloxenis, 166. 



494 Hardwicke, State Papers, iii, 6. 

 The charges for the ambassador's house- 

 hold amounted in a month or two to 

 over 2,000 ;S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ix, 54. 



496 Finett, Philoxenis, 181-5. 



Ibid. 187. 



W Laud, Diary, 84. 



4 " Disraeli, Chat. I ; Finett, Pbilo- 

 xenis, 187-9 De Bassompierre^ s Embassy 

 to Engl. in 1626, p. 37 (ed. Croker). 



< Ibid. Diet. Nat. Biog. <Charlei"; 

 Silt. MSS. Com. Ref. xi, App. i, 14. 



351 



500 A picture of George Villiers, is! 

 Duke of Buckingham, with his family, 

 attributed to Honthorst, is at Hampton 

 Court ; Law, op. cit. ii, 119. 



501 Cunningham, Revels at Court, p. 

 xxiv ; S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclii, 55 ; 

 Collier, Annals of the Stage, ii, 12. 



sm S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxxxvi, no. 

 II. 



503 Ibid, cccc, 70 ; ccccxli, 144 ; 

 Lysons, MM. Par.; also 'Enrolled 

 Accounts ' in the Record Office. 



M4 Law, op. cit. ii, 125-6 ; see also 

 p. 324. 



005 Husband, Coll. of Remonstrances, 

 24; Heath, Cbron. Ci-vil Wars, 25; 

 Clarendon, Hist. Rebellion, 200 et eq. ; 

 Evelyn, Diary, App . ' Correspondence 

 of Sir Edw. Nicholas and King Charles 

 I' ; Kennet, Hiit. Engl. iii, nz. 



