Note 166 — V THE HEIRESS OF GREAT BRITAIN (HERRENHAUSEN, 1701-1714)

This visit synchronised very nearly with the coming of age of the Pretender (June), who seized the opportunity to assure Pope Clement XI that ‘no temptation of this world, and no desire to reign, should ever make him wander from the right path of the Catholic faith.’ The anecdote must go for what it is worth, which was said to have been related by Halifax to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and her husband: how, at his first formal audience with the Electress, she ran across the room in order to place herself in front of a portrait of the Pretender, and thus screen it from the ambassador’s eyes.