SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



used to play.* 68 There is also record of sermons 

 preached before him in the chapel, where the rich 

 ornamentation of the Tudor roof of Henry VIII 

 must have been strangely out of keeping with the 

 severity of the Puritan preaching." 9 Cromwell's 

 third daughter Mary was married to Lord Falcon- 

 bridge in the chapel on 17 November 1657. This 

 public marriage was solemnized by one of Crom- 

 well's chaplains, in accordance with the rite ac- 

 cepted by the Puritans, but they also seem to have 

 been married privately on the same day by 

 Dr. Hewitt, with the Church of England cere- 

 monial, partly to please Mary Cromwell, who was 

 still a member of the Church, and partly no doubt 

 that there should be no question of the validity of 

 the marriage in the event of a Restoration. 460 

 Cromwell always seems to have amused himself on 

 such occasions with the ' anticks and tricks ' men- 

 tioned by Heath. 561 



The accounts of conspiracies and plots against 

 the ' Lord Protector's ' life read like the records of 

 a modern anarchist society. In 1657 it was 

 actually proposed that he should be blown up by 

 a sort of ' infernal machine ' at Hammersmith, on 

 his way to Hampton Court. The Duke of York, 

 writing to Charles II, says calmly that the plan 

 was ' better laid and resolved on than any he had 

 known of the kind.' 56> In the same year a Cap- 

 tain Thomas Gardiner was also ' taken in the 

 gallery at Hampton Court with two loaded pistols 

 and a dagger.' Such discoveries naturally had 

 some effect on Cromwell, and Heath says he was 

 always ' shifting and changing his lodging, to which 

 he passed through several locks ; when he went 

 between Whitehall and Hampton Court he passed 

 by private and back ways, but never the same way 

 backward and forward ; he was always in a hurry, 

 his guards behind and before riding at full gallop, 

 and the coach always filled with armed persons, 

 he himself being furnished with private weapons.' *** 

 He seems to have felt himself safer at Hamp- 

 ton Court than in London, and was constantly 

 there with his children and grandchildren, to all 

 of whom apartments in the palace were assigned. 56 * 

 Only one of his sons-in-law, Fleetwood, who lived 

 near Hampton Court, was avowedly Republican, 

 and refused to allow his wife to visit her father. 565 

 Cromwell's favourite daughter was Elizabeth Clay- 

 pole, and she died at Hampton Court, after a short 



HAMPTON 



illness, on 6 August 165 a, 566 to the inconsolable grief 

 of her father. Dr. Bates, Cromwell's physician, 

 who attended her, testifies to her great distress and 

 agony of mind, and declares that on her death-bed 

 she implored her father to make atonement for his 

 disloyalty by taking steps to ensure the restoration 

 of the king. 5 " Her body was taken by water 

 to London and buried among the kings and queens 

 in Westminster Abbey. 



A week after her death Cromwell himself was 

 dangerously ill, 561 and though he recovered suffi- 

 ciently to ride in the park on 1 7 August, George 

 Fox, who came to the palace to present a petition 

 on behalf of the Quakers, says that ' he looked like 

 a dead man.' ** He shortly afterwards again visited 

 Cromwell, but found that he had become too ill 

 to see anyone. 570 On 24 August he was confined 

 to his room ; the doctors evidently thought that 

 he was dying, 5 " and ' a public fast was ordered 

 for his sake and kept at Hampton Court ' ; 572 

 but two days later he was well enough to receive 

 Whitelocke, who dined with him. 5 " However, 

 the improvement did not continue, and he was 

 removed to Whitehall, 574 where he died on z Sep- 

 tember 1658, the eve of his 'fortunate day,' the 

 anniversary of the battles of Worcester and Dun- 

 bar. 575 



Richard Cromwell probably desired to keep 

 Hampton Court as his private property; the Crom- 

 well family certainly endeavoured to take possession 

 of some of the contents, and an inventory S76 was 

 immediately made by the Parliamentary Commis- 

 sioners, who did not acknowledge Mrs. Cromwell's 

 claim. 5 ' 7 Richard Cromwell was also ordered not 

 to kill deer in the parks. 578 A resolution was once 

 more passed in the House of Commons for the 

 sale of Hampton Court and other royal manors 

 and parks, 579 but Ludlow seems to have considered 

 the place ' very convenient for the retirement of 

 those in public affairs, when they should be indis- 

 posed in the summer season,' i80 and he was suc- 

 cessful in preventing the sale. In February 1660 

 a Bill was introduced in the 'Long Parliament' to 

 settle Hampton Court on Monk, the Parliamentary 

 General, 681 but he looked on it as a bribe, and 

 induced his friends to have the Bill rejected. On 

 15 March 1660 a sum of ^20,000 was voted to 

 him, together with the custody and stewardship of 

 Hampton Court Manor and Park for his life, 581 an 



68 Hawkins, Hist, of Music, iv 44 ; 

 Noble, op. cit i, 314; Thurloe, Slate 

 Papers, 12 Apr. 1654; 'Inventory of 

 Cromwell's Goods,' Gent. Mag. 1877, 

 p. 753. One of the organs is said to 

 have been brought from Magdalen Col- 

 lege, Oxford. It was returned to the 

 authorities there at the Restoration, 

 and is now at Tewfcesbury Abbey ; S.P. 

 Dom. Chas. II, xi, 57; Law, op. cit. ii, 

 183-4. 



649 There is a copy of one such ser- 

 mon in the Ashmolean Museum, no. 

 826, 2540 ; -vide Law, op. cit. ii, 184. 



660 Noble, Memoirs of the Cromieells, 



' H3-4; 



461 Ibid. 155 ; Cromtvelliana, 169. 



463 Crom'weUiana, 1 60 ; Thurloe, 

 Stan Paftn, ii, 666. 



468 Heath, Flagellum, 193. 



66< Noble, op. cit. ii, 155 ; Cromwel- 

 liana, 1 74. 



464 Bates, Elenchus Motuum Nupero- 

 rum in Anglia, Pars Secunda (ed. 1676), 

 3*7- 



S6 Thurloe, State Papers, vii. 



567 Bates, op. cit. 327 ; Mercurius 

 Political, cit. Whitelocke, Mem. 674. 



468 Thurloe, State Papers, vii, 320, 

 340. 



169 G. Fox, Journ. 127 (ed. 3, 1765). 



WSewel, Hist, of the Quakers, i, 

 242. 



571 Bates, op. cit. (pt. 2), 275; Thur- 

 loe, Statt Papers, vii, 367, 376. 



"" Echard, Hist. 824. 



Whitelocke, Mem. 674. 



M Thurloe, op. cit. vii, 355. 



355 



475 Ibid. 373 ; Peck, Cromwell, 39. 



676 See p. 354 ; Harl. MSS. no. 4898, 

 fol. 238 ; Cal. S.P. Dom. Commoniv. 

 1658-9, p. 380. 



" Parl. Intelligencer, 7, 14 May 

 1660; Me rcurius Politicus, 10, 17 May 

 1660, cit. Law, op. cit. ii, 199, n. i. 



578 Cal. S.P. Dom. Commontu. 1658-9, 

 P- 3*7- 



579 Journals of the House of Commons, 

 Oct. 1659. 



480 Ludlow, Memoirs, 286 (ed. 1771). 



481 White Rennet, Hist, of Engl. 67; 

 Public Intelligencer, 25 Feb. 1660, no. 6; 

 Philips, Chas. II, 714. 



482 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vfi, App. i, 

 463 ; Journ. of House of Commons, i 5 

 1 6 Mar. 1660 ; Cal. Treas. Bks. \, 461, 

 659. 



