Note 29 — Chapter II · THE BRIDE OF ENGLAND
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The Mémoires inédits du Comte Leveneur de Tillières, published in 1862, are one of the principal authorities for Henrietta Maria's early married life: they are very full and vivid, but are coloured by the writer's dislike to the English, and especially to Buckingham.
[30]Cf. the following description of Paris in a humorous poem of the day:
"We came to Paris, on the Seyn, 'Tis wondrous faire but nothing clean, 'Tis Europes greatest Town. How strong it is, I need not tell it, For any man may easily smell it, That walkes it up and down."
Musarum Deliciæ, by Sir J. M. and Ja. S. (1655), p. 19.
[31]Musarum Deliciæ, by Sir J. M. and Ja. S. (1655), p. 49.
[32]She had been in Turin with Henrietta's sister, Christine.
[33]The French Oratory was quite distinct from the better known Roman Oratory founded by S. Philip Neri.
[34]See the list of miracles attributed to his intercession in La Vie du Cardinal Bérulle. Par Germain Habert, Abbé de Cerisy (1646). Liv. III, chaps. XIV., XV.
[35]P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.
[36]The English Catholics were anxious lest she should allow herself to be crowned by a heretic: Fr. Leander de S. Martino, an English Benedictine, wrote a long letter to Bérulle on the subject in June, 1625, expressing his anxiety. Archives Nationales, M. 232.
[37]As, for instance, Sir Lewis Lewknor, an official charged with the reception of ambassadors: he received £2000 per annum from Richelieu, and he was particularly useful to the French, whom he did not openly favour, because, being a Catholic, he received the confidences of the Spaniards and the Flemings.
[38]Bérulle to P. Bertin, Superior of French Oratory at Rome. Arch. Nat., M. 232.
[39]La Hermana y Mujer [of Buckingham] son Eresas muy perniciosas. Spanish news-letter, P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.
[40]"My Wyfe beginnes to mend her maners."—Harleian MS., 6988, f. 5.
[41]Verissima relacion en que se da cuenta en el estado en que estan los Catholicos de Inglaterra, ete Sevilla (1626).
[42]See chapter IV.
[43]Bishop of Mende to Ville-aux-clercs. MS. Français, 3693.
[44]"Seeing daylie the malitiusness of the Monsers by making and fomenting discontentments in my Wyfe I could tarie no longer from adverticing of you that I meane to seeke for no other grounds to casier my Monsers,"—Harleian MS., 6988, f. I.
[45]Arch. Nat., M. 232, from which the account in the text is taken: perhaps an account written by Charles or Buckingham would have been somewhat different: it is printed in an article entitled "L'Ambassade de M. de Blainville," published in Revue des Questions Historiques, 1878, t. 23.
[46]Bishop of Mende to (apparently) Richelieu, June 24th, 1626. "La Royne ma maitresse est reduite de fouiller dans nos bourses, si ces choses dureront sa maison durera fort peu."—Affaires Etrangères Ang., t. 41, f. 133.
[47]The date is not certain, it was probably at the time of the Jubilee, June, 1626: in February Henrietta had written to the Pope asking that she, her household, and the Catholics of England might share in the privileges of the Jubilee.—P.R.O. Roman Transcripts.
[48]Archives of See of Westminster. See Appendix, Doc. I.
[49]Court and Times of Charles I, I, 119.
[50]Such petty malice was part of Charles' character: cf. his refusal to allow Sir John Eliot to be buried at his home in Cornwall.
[51]Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41: it is endorsed "copie," and is perhaps a rough draft; it is apparently in Henrietta's handwriting. "Mamie" is Madame S. Georges.
[52]Charles wrote a violent note to Buckingham, commanding him to see to the departure of the French. "If you can by faire meanes (but stike not longe in disputing) otherways force them away, dryving away so manie wild beasts untill you have shipped them and so the Devill go with them." The French landed at Calais, August 3/13, 1626.
[53]Bishop of Mende to Mary de' Medici. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.
[54]The second Oratorian who remained was Father Viette, who became the Queen's confessor on Father Philip's death. She was allowed to keep also a few inferior French servants, and Maurice Aubert, who appears in a list of her servants made at the time of her marriage, continued with her; he was the companion of Windbank's flight to France in 1641.
[55]Baillon: Henriette Marie de France, reine d'Angleterre (1877), p. 348.
[56]She said, probably with truth, that the money they had received was in part payment of the debts incurred by her to them: her statement is confirmed by the fact that Charles requested the French Government to pay the debts owing to his wife's servants out of the half of her dot, which had not yet been paid.—Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.
[57]Mary de' Medici to Henrietta Maria, August 22nd, 1626. MS. Français, 3692. She wrote on the same day to Charles.
[58]Bishop of Mende to King of France, August 12th, 1626. Aff. Etran. Ang., t. 41.
[59]Bassompierre to Bishop of Mende, October 17th. MS. Français, 3692.
[60]Bishop of Mende to Bassompierre, October 29th, 1626. MS. Français, 3692.