by him to Paris, dated at Wanstead, July 12, 1626 s.

[Charles II.] to put himself into the hands of those, whose counsels and conduct had been so apparently unfortunate to his blessed father and himself, was a prudence and policy that he could not fathom. And in one to lord Hatton, of the 7th of June, 1651, N.S. he prays, that the influence of those of the Louvre, which would be a great discouragement to honest men, might not prove as fatal to the young king as to his father."

"It is not unknown both to the French king and his mother, what unkindnesses and distastes have fallen between my wife and me, which hitherto I have borne with great patience, (as all the world knows) ever expecting and hoping an amendment; knowing her to be but young, and perceiving it to be the ill crafty counsels of her servants, for advancing of their own ends, rather than her own inclination: for at my first meeting of her at Dover, I could not expect more testimonies of respect and love than she shewed: as, to give one instance, her first suit to me was, that she being young, and coming to a strange country, both by her years and ignorance of the customs of the place, might commit many errors, therefore that I would not be angry with her for her faults of ignorance, before I had with my instructions learned her to eschew them, and desired me in these cases to use no third person, but to tell her myself, when I found she did any thing amiss. I both granted her request and thanked her for it; but desired her she would use me as she had

* Appendix to the Inquiry into the share which K. Charles I. had in the transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan, 1755.

This representation of king Charles to his

desired me to use her, which she willingly promised me, which promise she never kept: for a little after this, madam St. George taking a distaste, because I would not let her ride with us in the coach, when there was women of better quality to fill her room, claiming it as her due, (which in England we think a strange thing) set my wife in such an humour of distaste against me, as from that very hour to this, no man can say that ever she used me two days together with so much respect as I deserved of her; but, by the contrary, has put so many disrespects upon me, as it were too long to set down all. Some I will relate: as I take it, it was at her first coming to Hamptoncourt, I sent some of my council to her, with those orders that were kept in the queen my mother's house, desiring she would command the counte of Tilliers, that the same might be kept in her's her answer was, she hoped that I would give her leave to order her house as she list herself (now if she had said that she would speak with me, not doubting to give me satisfaction in it, I could have found no fault, whatsoever she would have said of this to myself; for I could only impute it to ignorance; but I could not imagine that she affronted me so, as, to refuse me in such a thing publicly). After I heard this answer, I took a time (when I thought we had both best leisure to dispute it) to tell her calmly both her fault in the public denial, as her mistaking the business itself. She, instead of acknowledging her fault and mistaking, gave me so ill an answer, that I omit, not to be tedious, the relation of that discourse, having too much of that nature hereafter to relate. Many little neglects I will not take the pains to set down, as her eschewing to be in my company: when I have any thing to speak to her, I

brother of France, and his sending home the

must means her servant first, else I am sure to be denied; her neglect of the English tongue, and of the nation in general. I will also omit the affront she did me before my going to this last unhappy assembly of parliament, because there has been talk enough of that already, &c. and the author of it is before you in France. To be short, omitting all other passages, coming only to that which is recent in my memory : I having made a commission to make my wife's jointure, &c. to assign her those lands she is to live on, and it being brought to such a ripeness, that it wanted but my consent to the particulars then had chosen : she, taking notice that it was now time to name the officers for her revenue, one night when I was a bed, put a paper in my hand, telling me it was a list of those that she desired to be of her revenue. I took it, and said I would read it next morning; but withal told her, that, by agreement in France, I had the naming of them. She said, there were both English and French in the note. I replied, that those English I thought fit to serve her, I would confirm; but for the French, it was impossible for them to serve her in that nature, Then she said, all those in the paper had brevets from her mother and herself, and that she could admit no other. Then I said, it was neither in her mother's power nor her's to admit any without my leave; and that if she stood upon that, whomsoever she recommended should not come in. Then she bad me plainly take my lands to myself; for if she had no power to put in whom she would in those places, she would have neither lands nor house of me, but bad me give her what I thought fit in pension. I bad her then remember to whoin she spake, and told her, that she ought not to use me so. Then she fell into a passionate dis

queen's servants who attended her into England, and were to have been of her house

course, how she is miserable in having no power to place servants, and that business succeeded the worse for her recommendation; which when I offered to answer, she would not so much as hear me. Then she went on, saying, she was not of that base quality to be used so ill. Then I made her both hear me, and end that discourse. Thus having so long patience, with the disturbance of that that should be one of my greatest contentments, I can no longer suffer those that I know to be the cause and fomenters of these humours, to be about my wife any longer; which I must do, if it were but for one action they made my wife do, which is, to make her go to Tiburn in devotion to pray; which action can have no greater invective made against, than the relation.Therefore you shall tell my brother the French king, as likewise his mother, that this being an action of so much necessity, I doubt not but he will be satisfied with it, especially since he hath done the like himself, not staying while he had so much reason: and being an action that some may interpret to be of harshness to his nation, I thought good to give him an account of it, because in all things I would preserve the good correspondency and brotherly affection that is between us.”

*The King's Cabinet opened, or certain packets or secret letters and papers written with the king's own hand, and taken in his cabinet in Nashyfield, June 14, 1645, by victorious Sir Thomas Fairfax. Published by special order of parliament, London, 4to. 1645. As I shall have occasion frequently to quote these letters, it will be proper, once for all, to establish their authority. This will be best done by king Charles himself, who, in a letter to secretary Nicholas, has these words: "Though I could have wished their pains had been spared, yet I will neither deny that those things are mine which they have set out in my name, (only some word's

here

hold, was owing to Buckingham', who, on a particular passion, took all the ways he

9 This representation of the king's, his sending home the queen's servants who were to have been of her household, was owing to Buckingham, &c.] There is something curious enough in the accounts given us of the cause of Buckingham's aversion to France, and the vexations he caused to the queen of England, which at length raised a war that ended ingloriously to himself and his master, as I shall have occasion hereafter to shew.

"In his embassy in France, where his person and presence was wonderfully admired and esteemed, and in which he appeared with all the lustre the wealth of England could adorn him with, and outshined all the bravery that court could dress itself in, and overacted the whole nation in their own most peculiar vanities; he had the ambition to fix his eyes upon, and to dedicate his most violent affection to a lady of a very sublime quality, and to pursue it with most importunate addresses; insomuch as, when the king had brought the queen his sister as far as he meant to do, and delivered her into the hands of the duke, to be by him conducted into England, the duke, in his journey, after the departure of that court, took a resolution once more to make a visit to that great lady, which he believed he might do with much privacy. But it was so easily discovered, that provision was made for his reception; and if he had pursued his attempt, he had

here and there are mistaken, and some commas misplaced, but not much material) nor as a good protestant or honest man blush for any of those papers. Indeed, as a discreet man, I will not justify myself, and yet I would fain know him who would be willing that the freedom of all his private letters were publickly seen, as mine have now been." King Charles's Works, p. 155.