SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



tisements in that company that said and did all 

 things to please him.' Catherine's Portuguese 

 attendants were sent away ; she was told, not truly, 

 that her dowry was in arrears ; and the Portuguese 

 ambassador was ' so grossly insulted that he left 

 Hampton Court and retired to his own house in 

 the city.' Lady Castlemaine had apartments as- 

 signed to her in the palace, and received greater 

 homage than the queen herself. At last the 

 pressure brought to bear on Catherine had its 

 effect, and she yielded to the king's wishes ; 

 Clarendon being the first to blame her for the 

 ' downfall ' he himself had been instrumental in 

 bringing to pass. 605 



On 28 July the king and queen went to meet 

 Henrietta Maria at Greenwich, and on their 

 return to Hampton Court supped together in 

 public that their reconciliation might be under- 

 stood. 60 * Two days later the queen mother 

 arrived at the palace, which she had not visited 

 since the fatal flight from London in 164.2.*" 

 She alighted at the foot of the stairs leading to the 

 Great Hall, where she was received by the queen, 

 and they sat together in the Presence Chamber, 

 under the ' Cloth of State.' The king and the 

 Duke of York had to act as interpreters, for 

 Catherine could not speak French, nor Henrietta 

 Spanish or Portuguese. 603 She shortly afterwards 

 returned to Greenwich, but Charles and Catherine 

 remained at Hampton Court till 23 August, when 

 they made their state entry into London by 

 river. 609 Pepys and Evelyn both describe the 

 scene of the journey, the number of spectators, the 

 barges and boats that covered the river, the splen- 

 did reception given to the king and queen. 610 It 

 can hardly be hoped that all this magnificence was 

 much comfort to Catherine ; from that time for- 

 ward a suite of apartments was always kept for 

 Lady Castlemaine at the palace, and in 1666 was 

 fitted up again for her. 611 



Several distinguished travellers who visited Eng- 

 land at this time have left records of their impres- 

 sions of Hampton Court, among them the Due 

 de Monconys and M. de la Moliere, in 1663.*" 



In 1665 the king and queen were at the palace, 

 in quarantine from the plague, the deaths in 

 London amounting to 267 a week. 613 They 

 remained at Hampton Court for a month, the 

 king transacting business with the council at Syon 

 House, probably that they might not come to the 



HAMPTON 



palace from London.'" Pepys gives an entertain- 

 ing account of his being at Hampton Court on 

 2 3 July, ' where I followed the king to chapel and 

 there heard a good sermon.' He was distressed 

 because no one invited him to dinner, but was even- 

 tually entertained by Mr. Marriott the housekeeper, 

 in whoss house he found 'good dinner and good 

 company, amongst others Mr. Lilly the painter.' tu 



On 26 July the king and queen went by river 

 to Greenwich, and thence proceeded to Salisbury 

 and afterwards to Oxford, where Parliament had 

 been summoned to meet on account of the plague 

 in London. In January of the following year it 

 was thought safe for the king to return to London; 

 he stayed at Hampton Court for a week ; Pepys 

 and Evelyn record their visits to him there. 6 " 

 The queen also stayed there for a couple of days 

 on her way back from Oxford in February. 6 " In 

 September 1666, at the time of the Great Fire of 

 London, many of the king's valuables were sent by 

 water to Hampton Court for safety. 618 



Towards the end of his reign Charles was not 

 often at the palace, but he sometimes came down 

 to play tennis, or for stag-hunting, 619 and he retired 

 there with the Duke of York in August 1669, 

 when they received news of the death of their 

 mother, Queen Henrietta Maria. 680 There is also 

 an account of a council held in the palace in June 

 1679, when Charles, to the dismay of the majority 

 of those present, ordered the Chancellor to prepare 

 a proclamation for the dissolution of the Parlia- 

 ment then sitting, and a writ for calling together 

 a new one. 621 At another council in the palace 

 on 23 May 1681 an order was issued by Charles 

 forbidding ' the king's servants to frequent the 

 company of the Duke of Monmouth,' whose con- 

 duct had become so overbearing as to excite the 

 displeasure even of his father. 6 " 



Charles never stayed at Hampton Court for any 

 length of time after 1666, though he continued to 

 pay short visits and to hold councils there. 613 Con- 

 cerning one of these visits a story is told by Walpole 

 of the reckless extravagance of Verrio the painter, 

 who had done much work in the palace, and had 

 received large sums from Charles, which did not 

 prevent him from constantly asking for more. 

 On one occasion at Hampton Court, when he had 

 but lately received an advance of 1,000, he found 

 the king in such a circle that he could not approach 

 him. He called out : ' Sire, I desire the favour 



605 Law, op. cit. ii, 230-9. 



6M Ibid. Unedited Portuguese Re- 

 cordi,' trans. Adamson, cit. Strick- 

 land, op. cit. v, 536-7 ; Hist. Casa 

 Real Portugutsa, cit. Law, op. cit. ii, 

 239. 



7 AftM the attempted rrest of the 

 1 Five Members,' see p. 352. 



608 Strickland, op. cit. v, 537. 



o Ecbard, Hist, iii, 84 ; Evelyn, 

 Diary, 24 Aug. 1662 j John Tatham, 

 Aqua Triumphalis (1662). 



610 Evelyn, Diary, 24 Aug. 1662 ; 

 Pepys, Diary, 24 Aug. 1662. 



Harl. MSS. no. 1658, fol. 138, 

 Feb. 1666. 



" a De Monconys, Voyage fAngle- 



618 Pepys, Diary, 29 June 1665 ; 

 Clarendon, Autobiography, ii, 403. 



614 Evelyn, Diary, 7 July 1665 ; 

 Pepys, Diary, 24 July 1665. 



615 Pepys, Diary, 24 July 1665. It 

 was about this time that Lely, com- 

 missioned by the Duchess of York, 

 painted all the beauties of the court. 

 These portraits now hang all together 

 in the ' King's Bedchamber ' at Hamp- 

 ton Court. They were for some time 

 at Windsor. 



616 Pepys, Diary, 28 Jan. 1665-6 ; 

 Evelyn, Diary ; S.P. Dom. Chas. II, 

 cxlviii, 38. 



6 " S.P. Dom. Chas. II, c*lviii, 38. 



618 Anfiq. Repository, ii, I 54. 



" Magalotti, Travels of Cosmo III, 



357 



Duke of Tuscany (ed. 1821), 208 ; Hist. 

 MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. vi, 263. 

 (' Lord Anglesey's Diary.') 



620 Mem. of Henrietta Maria (ed. 

 1671), 89. 



>ia Diary of Henry Sidney, 21 ; His!. 

 MSS. Com. Ref. vii, App. 473 ; Temple, 

 Works, ii, 511-12. The House of 

 Commons thus summarily dismissed 

 had passed a Bill excluding the Duke 

 of York from the succession, and was 

 further proceeding to inquire into the 

 ' bribery and corruption ' which existed 

 among members of Parliament. 



* M Reresby, Memoirs, 264. 



>as Hiit. MSS. Com. Ref. vii, App. 

 352*, 3633, 4054,4103 ; ibid, iii, App. 

 viii, 1 60. 



