Note 628 — Chapter XI · (continued 2)

The behaviour of Lord Clarendon on this occasion was so extraordinary, that no credit could have been given to any other account than his own. The Duke of York, he says, informed the king of the affection and friendship that had long been between him and the young lady; that they had been long contracted, and that she was with child; and therefore requested his majesty's leave that he might publicly marry her. The Marquis of Ormond by the king's order communicated this to the chancellor, who "broke out into an immoderate passion against the wickedness of his daughter; and said, with all imaginable earnestness, that as soon as he came home, he would turn her out of his house as a strumpet to shift for herself, and would never see her again. They told him that his passion was too violent to administer good counsel to him; that they thought that the duke was married to his daughter, and that there were other measures to be taken than those which the disorder he was in had suggested to him. Whereupon he fell into new commotions; and said, If that were true, he was well prepared to advise what was to be done; that he had much rather his daughter should be the duke's whore than his wife: in the former case, nobody could blame him for the resolution he had taken, for he was not obliged to keep a whore for the greatest prince alive; and the indignity to himself he would submit to the good pleasure of God. But, if there were any reason to suspect the other, he was ready to give a positive judgment, in which he hoped their lordships would concur with him, that the king should immediately cause the woman to be sent to the Tower and cast into a dungeon, under so strict a guard that no person living should be admitted to come to her; and then that an act of parliament should be immediately passed for cutting off her head, to which he would not only give his consent, but would very willingly be the first man that should propose it. And whoever knew the man, will believe that he said all this very heartily." Lord Southampton, he proceeds to inform us, on the king's entering the room at the time, said very naturally, that the chancellor was mad, and had proposed such extravagant things that he was no more to be consulted with. This, however, did not bring him to his senses; for he repeated his strange proposal of "sending her presently to the Tower, and the rest;" imploring the king to take this course, as the only expedient that could free him from the evils that this business would otherwise bring upon him.

That any man of sane intellects should fall into such an extravagance of passion, is sufficiently wonderful; that he should sit down in cool blood several years afterwards to relate it, is still more so; and perhaps we shall carry our candour to an excess, if we do not set down the whole scene to overacted hypocrisy. Charles II., we may be very sure, could see it in no other light. And here I must take notice, by the way, of the singular observation the worthy editor of Burnet has made: "King Charles's conduct in this business was excellent throughout; that of Clarendon worthy an ancient Roman." We have indeed a Roman precedent for subduing the sentiments of nature rather than permitting a daughter to incur disgrace through the passions of the great; but I think Virginius would not quite have understood the feelings of Clarendon. Such virtue was more like what Montesquieu calls "l'héroïsme de l'esclavage," and was just fit for the court of Gondar. But with all this violence that he records of himself, he deviates greatly from the truth: "The king (he says) afterwards spoke every day about it, and told the chancellor that he must behave himself wisely, for that the thing was remediless, and that his majesty knew that they were married; which would quickly appear to all men who knew that nothing could be done upon it. In this time the chancellor had conferred with his daughter, without anything of indulgence, and not only discovered that they were unquestionably married, but by whom, and who were present at it, who would be ready to avow it; which pleased him not, though it diverted him from using some of that rigour which he intended. And he saw no other remedy could be applied but that which he had proposed to the king, who thought of nothing like it." Life of Clarendon, 29 et post.

Every one would conclude from this, that a marriage had been solemnised if not before their arrival in England, yet before the chancellor had this conference with his daughter. It appears, however, from the Duke of York's declaration in the books of the privy council, quoted by Ralph, p. 40, that he was contracted to Ann Hyde on the 24th of November 1659, at Breda; and after that time lived with her as his wife, though very secretly; he married her 3rd Sept. 1660, according to the English ritual, Lord Ossory giving her away. The first child was born Oct. 22, 1660. Now whether the contract were sufficient to constitute a valid marriage, will depend on two things; first, upon the law existing at Breda; secondly, upon the applicability of what is commonly called the rule of the lex loci, to a marriage between such persons according to the received notions of English lawyers in that age. But, even admitting all this, it is still manifest that Clarendon's expressions point to an actual celebration, and are consequently intended to mislead the reader. Certain it is, that at the time the contract seems to have been reckoned only an honorary obligation. James tells us himself (Macpherson's Extracts, p. 17) that he promised to marry her; and "though when he asked the king for his leave, he refused and dissuaded him from it, yet at last he opposed it no more, and the duke married her privately, and owned it some time after." His biographer, writing from his own manuscript, adds, "it may well be supposed that my lord chancellor did his part, but with great caution and circumspection, to soften the king in that matter which in every respect seemed so much for his own advantage." Life of James, 387. And Pepys inserts in his diary, Feb. 23, 1661, "Mr. H. told me how my lord chancellor had lately got the Duke of York and duchess, and her woman, my Lord Ossory and a doctor, to make oath before most of the judges of the kingdom, concerning all the circumstances of their marriage. And, in fine, it is confessed that they were not fully married till about a month or two before she was brought to bed; but that they were contracted long before, and [were married] time enough for the child to be legitimate. But I do not hear that it was put to the judges to determine so or not." He had said before that Lord Sandwich told him (17th Oct. 1660) "the king wanted him [the duke] to marry her, but he would not." This seems at first sight inconsistent with what James says himself. But at this time, though the private marriage had really taken place, he had been persuaded by a most infamous conspiracy of some profligate courtiers that the lady was of a licentious character, and that Berkeley, afterwards Lord Falmouth, had enjoyed her favours. Life of Clarendon, 33. It must be presumed that those men knew only of a contract which they thought he could break. Hamilton, in the Memoirs of Grammont, speaks of this transaction with his usual levity, though the parties showed themselves as destitute of spirit as of honour and humanity. Clarendon, we must believe (and the most favourable hypothesis for him is to give up his veracity), would not permit his daughter to be made the victim of a few perjured debauchees, and of her husband's fickleness or credulity.