SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



HAMPTON 



On 23 April a meeting of the Privy Council 

 was held to discuss the question of reducing the 

 army, for which Parliament had voted very in- 

 adequate supplies, 6 ' 8 and two days afterwards to 

 consider alterations in the Commissions of the 

 Peace, 679 one of the proceedings aimed at the 

 ministry, and especially at Lord Chancellor 

 Somers, who was accused of being partial in his 

 appointments. He was present at this meeting as 

 Chancellor for the last time. 690 



Many of the intrigues and interviews described 

 by Burnet took place no doubt at Hampton 

 Court. 681 The king remained at the palace, and 

 Serjeant Sir Nathan Wright received the Great 

 Seal at a meeting of the Privy Council at Hamp- 

 ton Court on 2 1 May I /oo. 68 ' 



William had already begun to carry into execu- 

 tion his plan to receive the foreign ambassadors 

 only at Hampton Court, and in April 1700 he 

 received the envoys of Spain and France, 683 who 

 came to present a petition on behalf of the Roman 

 Catholic priests in England, against whom an Act 

 of great severity had been passed in the preceding 

 session. 684 The Envoy Extraordinary of the Grand 

 Duke of Tuscany was also received at Hampton 

 Court in May. 684 A Chapter of the Order of the 

 Garter was held in the palace soon after for ' elect- 

 ing the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, Lord 

 President of the Council, and the Rt. Honble. 

 Arnold Joost, Earl of Albemarle, Master of the 

 Robes to His Majesty, Knights of the Garter in 

 the room of the late Kings of Sweden and Den- 

 mark.' 686 William's attachment to Albemarle was 

 the cause of much of his unpopularity, and that he 

 should ' lavish away a Garter on his favourite ' was 

 the text for many severe reflections. 681 In April 

 1 700 the Duke of Shrewsbury decided to resign 

 the office of Lord Chamberlain, on account of his 

 health, in spite of the opposition of the king, who 

 could ill afford to lose a friend near his person, 658 and 

 on 24 June at Hampton Court the Earl of Jersey 

 was appointed Lord Chamberlain in his place. 689 



It was noticed in June that the king was not in 

 his usual health, 690 and he became very anxious to 

 go to Holland in his customary manner, but was 

 delayed by various affairs of state, 691 among them 

 the question of the Scottish colony at Darien. 698 

 The king received the Scottish lords on Sunday 



9 June, and the commissioners of the Lower 

 House on 1 1 June. The physicians could not agree 

 about him, and John Locke, the philosopher, who 

 came tc resign his commissionership at the Board of 

 Trade,'" was asked as a scientific expert to give an 

 opinion on the king's state of health. He was 

 sufficiei tly recovered to start for Holland on 

 7 July, alter holding a Grand Council at the palace 

 the day befjre, which was attended by the Lords 

 Justices who were to administer the government 

 in his absence. 694 



William went straight to Hampton Court 

 when he returned in the autumn, but after 

 holding one Privy Council there decided that they 

 should meet at Kensington in future, for the 

 greater convenience of the Lords. 695 



The Lord Mayor and Alderm :n of London came 

 to the palace to congratulate ths king on his safe 

 return, were entertained with ' a very splendid 

 dinner,' and returned to the City with great 

 satisfaction. 696 It was at about this period that 

 William made up his mind, as he wrote from 

 Hampton Court, to the ' absolute necessity of 

 calling the House of Hanover to the succes- 

 sion, and of announcing the fact openly.' 69? On 

 I November he received at Hampton Court the un- 

 expected news of the death of the King of Spain, 68 * 

 an event which caused the utmost consternation in 

 Europe, taking place as it did before the Second 

 Partition Treaty had been completed. 699 Louis XIV, 

 in violation of his most solemn pledges, accepted 

 the late king's will in favour of the Duke of 

 Anjou. William wrote to Heinsius from Hampton 

 Court on 5 November, 703 expressing his extreme 

 dissatisfaction, and his astonishment at the state of 

 public opinion in England. ' It seems as if it 

 were a punishment from Heaven,' he said, ' that 

 people here are so little sensible to what passes 

 without the island.' 



In pursuance of a policy which it is impossible 

 to follow here, the king dismissed the Whigs from 

 office and sent for Lord Godolphin, 701 who had 

 not been to court for four years. He attended 

 the Cabinet Council held at Hampton Court on 

 I December, and was appointed First Commissioner 

 of the Treasury. Other Tory appointments 

 followed, and on the igth the king in Council at 

 Hampton Court dissolved Parliament and ordered 



W Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 636-7 ; Ken- 

 net, Complete Hist, of Engl. 1676-1700. 



8 < Ralph, Hist. Engl. ii, 843. 



680 Burnet, Hist, of His Own Times, 

 iv 433i * c - i Ralph, op. cit. ii, 908 ; 

 Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors, 

 148, &c. 



881 Burner, op. cit. ir, 434, &C. ; 

 Cole, Memoirs, 125. 



882 Campbell, Lives of the Lord 

 Chancellors, iv, 241, 243 ; Luttrell, 

 op. cit. iv, 646 ; Lond. Gass. Hamp- 

 ton Court, 21 May 1700. 



988 There are three letters from 

 William to Heinsius concerning his 

 interviews at Hampton Court with de 

 Tallard, the French ambassador, while 

 the Second Treaty of Partition was 

 being considered ; Grimblot, Letters of 

 Will. Ill, ii, 407-12. 



2 



684 Burner, op. cit. iv, 409 ; Luttrell, 

 op. cit. ' Diary.' 



cs * Lond. Ga%. 7 May 1700. 



686 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 645 ; Lond. 

 Gay. 



6S ? White Kennet, Hist. Europe, iii, 

 782 ; Oldmixon, op. cit. ii, 209. 



688 Shrewsbury Correspondence, 624. 



689 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 645. 



690 Vernon, Correspondence, iii, 69. 



691 Kennet, Complete Hist, of Engl. 

 (1702) 52 ; Grimblot, Letters of Will. 

 Ill, ii, 416. 



692 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 655 ; Ver- 

 non, Correspondence, iii, 77. 



698 Prior, Hist, of His Own Times (ed. 

 Bancks), 179. Matthew Prior had 

 been constantly at court, amusing him- 

 self and looking out for a post. He suc- 

 ceeded Locke at the Board of Trade. 



3 6l 



894 Lond. Gaz. 27 June 1700 ; Ver- 

 non, Correspondence, iii, 107. Vernon 

 gives a detailed account of the king's 

 illness. Kennet, Hist, of Europe, vol. 

 for 1702, p. 52, also gives a minute 

 description of the same, with the 

 doctor's report on his illness. 



695 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 707 ; Lond. 

 Gay. 89 Lond. Gaa. 



69 ' Shrewsbury Correspondence, iii, 



'43- 



898 Grimblot, Letters of Will. Ill, ii, 



453- 



198 Hardwicke, State Papers, ii, 397. 



" Grimblot, op. cit. ii, 477. 



< 01 Godolphin, with Shrewsbury, 

 Marlborough, and Russell, had been 

 accused of complicity in the Fenwick 

 plot in 1696 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. 'James 

 Vernon/ 



46 



