1660. He had not one good or great quality, but courage: so that he became both odious and contemptible.] Schomberg As the treaty with Portugal went on, France did through engage in the concerns of that crown, though they England to had by treaty promised the contrary to the Spa

went

Portugal.

niards. To excuse their perfidy, count Schomberg,

a German by birth, and a Calvinist by his religion, was ordered to go thither, as one prevailed with by the Portugal ambassador, and not as sent over by the orders of the court of France. He passed through England to concert with the king the matters of Portugal, and the supply that was to be sent thither from England. He told me, the king had admitted him into great familiarities with him at Paris. He had known him first at the Hague: for he was the prince of Orange's particular favourite; but had so great a share in the last violent actions of his life, seizing the states, and in the attempt upon Amsterdam, that he left the service upon his death; and gained so great a reputation in France, that, after the prince of Conde and Turenne, he was thought the best general they had. He had much free discourse with the king, though he found his mind was so turned to mirth and pleasure, that he seemed scarce capable of laying any thing to heart. He advised him to set up for the head of the protestant religion: for though, he said to him, he knew he had not much religion, yet his interests led him to that. It would keep the princes of Germany in a great dependence on him, and make him the umpire of all their affairs; and would procure him great credit with the Huguenots of France, and keep that crown in perpetual fear of him. He advised the king to employ the military men that had

sold to the

served under Cromwell, whom he thought the best 1661. officers he had ever seen: and he was sorry to see, they were dismissed, and that a company of wild young men were those the king relied on. But what he pressed most on the king, as the business then in agitation, was concerning the sale of Dunkirk. The Spaniards pretended it ought to be re- Dunkirk stored to them, since it was taken from them by French. Cromwell, when they had the king and his brothers in their armies: but that was not much regarded. The French pretended, that, by their agreement with Cromwell, he was only to hold it, till they had repayed the charge of the war: therefore they, offering to lay that down, ought to have the place delivered to them. The king was in no sort bound by this. So the matter under debate was, whether it ought to be kept or sold? The military men, who were believed to be corrupted by France, said, the place was not tenable; that in time of peace it would put the king to a great charge, and in time of war it would not quit the cost of keeping it ". 173 The earl of Clarendon said, he understood not those matters; but appealed to Monk's judgment, who did positively advise the letting it go for the sum that France offered. To make the business go the easier, the king promised, that he would lay up all the money in the Tower; and that it should not be touched, but upon extraordinary occasions. Schomberg advised, in opposition to all this, that the king

m See D'Estrades's letters; but see too my lord Clarendon's defence of himself, as to this matter. It is printed in the 8th vol. of State Trials, p.

399, 80. More of this will ap-
pear to the world, whenever
my lord Clarendon's history of
these times shall be published.
I have read it in MS. O.

1661. should keep it; for, considering the naval power of England, it could not be taken. He knew, that, though France spoke big, as if they would break with England unless that was delivered up, yet they were far from the thoughts of it. He had considered the place well; and he was sure it could never be taken, as long as England was master of the sea. The holding it would keep both France and Spain in a dependence upon the king. But he was singular in that opinion. So it was sold": and all the money that was paid for it was immediately squandered away among the mistress's creatures.

tion.

Tangier a By this the king lost his reputation abroad. The part of the queen's por- Court was believed venal. And because the earl of Clarendon was in greatest credit, the blame was cast chiefly on him; though his son assured me, he kept himself out of that affair entirely. The cost bestowed on that place since that time, and the

n There is some reason to suspect, from some things in Carte's history of the first duke of Ormonde, that the sale of Dunkirk, as well as the Portugal match, were first settled between the king and the French king, by the intervention only of the queen-mother of England and the court of Portugal; and my lord Clarendon says, in his Defence above mentioned, "It is very well "known to his majesty, and to "several persons yet alive, that "the parting with Dunkirk was "resolved upon before I ever "heard of it." Carte does not indeed mention Dunkirk; but Oldmixon does, when he speaks of the errand of the queen-mother to England. See what

they say: Carte, in his second vol. p. 250, &c. Oldmixon, in his History of the Stuarts, p. 490. See also the General Dictionary, vol. vi. p. 337. and Kennet's History of England, p. 224. See also a letter in MS. of sir Robert Southwell to the second earl of Clarendon, at the end of my second vol. (8vo edition) of the Lord Chancellor Clarendon's Life. See also Lord Clarendon's Life, p. 201, &c. O.

• In his opinion and advice, but not in his actings: an unhappy distinction of his, which went to other matters, and made him to be called the author of many things he was really averse to. O.

great prejudice we have suffered by it, has made 1661.
that sale to be often reflected on very severely.
But it was pretended, that Tangier, which was of-
fered as a part of the portion that the infanta of
Portugal was to bring with her, was a place of
much greater consequence. Its situation in the
map is indeed very eminent. And if Spain had
been then in a condition to put any restraint on our
trade, it had been of great use to us; especially, if
the making a mole there had been more practicable
than it proved to be. It was then spoken of in the
court in the highest strains of flattery. It was said,
this would not only give us the entire command of
the Mediterranean trade, but it would be a place of
safety for a squadron to be always kept there, for
securing our West and East India trade. And such
mighty things were said of it, as if it had been re-
served for the king's reign, to make it as glorious
abroad, as it was happy at home: though since that
time we have never been able, neither by force nor
treaty, to get ground enough round the town from
the Moors to maintain the garrison. But every
man that was employed there studied only his own
interest, and how to rob the king. If the money,
that was laid out in the mole at different times, had
been raised all in a succession, as fast as the work
could be carried on, it might have been made a
very valuable place. But there were so many dis-
continuings, and so many new undertakings, that
after an immense charge the court grew weary of 174
it and in the year 1683 they sent a squadron of
ships to bring away the garrison, and to destroy all
the works.

To end this matter of the king's marriage with

1661. the infanta of Portugal all at once: it was at last concluded. The earl of Sandwich went for her, and was the king's proxy in the nuptial ceremony. The king communicated the matter both to the parliament of England and Scotland. And so strangely were people changed, that though they all had seen the mischievous effects of a popish queen in the former reign, yet not one person moved against it in either parliament, except the earl of Cassilis in Scotland; who moved for an address to the king to marry a protestant. He had but one to second him so entirely were men run from one extreme to another.

1662.

The man

When the queen was brought over, the king met ner of the her at Winchester in summer 1662. The archbiking's mar- shop of Canterbury came to perform the ceremony:

riage.

but the queen was bigoted to such a degree, that she would not say the words of matrimony, nor bear the sight of the archbishop. The king said the words hastily: and the archbishop pronounced them married persons. Upon this some thought afterwards to have dissolved the marriage, as a marriage only de facto, in which no consent had been given. But the duke of York told me, they were married by the lord Aubigny according to the Roman ritual, and that he himself was one of the witnesses: and he added, that, a few days before he told me this, the queen had said to him, that she heard some intended to call her marriage in question; and that, if that was done, she must call on him, as one of her witnesses, to prove it. I saw the letter that the king writ to the earl of Clarendon the day after their marriage, by which it appeared very plainly, [if not too