Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

1709, in the sixty-first year of his age. His remains were interred under the east window of Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster.

The Earl of Portland was twice married; first to Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, and sister of Edward Earl of Jersey, by whom he had three sons and five daughters; and secondly, to Jane, sister of Henry Viscount Palmerston, and widow of John Lord Berkeley of Stratton, by whom he had also a large family. By his first wife he was the father of Henry, second Earl, and first Duke of Portland, ancestor of the present Duke.

233

ARNOLD VAN KEPPEL,

EARL OF ALBEMARLE.

Descended from an ancient Dutch family, and born in 1670.— Accompanies William to England as Page of Honour in 1688. -His rise owing to the intrigues of Lord Sunderland, and the King's mistress, Mrs. Villiers.-Is appointed to several distinguished posts, and created Earl of Albemarle.-Made a Knight of the Garter in 1700.-Is highly honoured in Holland, and made General of the Dutch forces.-His popularity with the English nobility.-His character by Burnet.Reflections on William's system of favouritism.- Albemarle's gallantry in the field. Is favourably noticed by Queen Anne, after William's death.-Deputed by the States General of Holland to congratulate George the First on his accession to the English throne. Is afterwards appointed to receive Peter the Great on his arrival at Amsterdam in 1717.-Duke of Marlborough's interview with him at Tournay.-Died at the Hague in 1718.

THE name of this nobleman is seldom mentioned without praise, and as the Dutch companions of King William were not, generally speaking, favourites with the English nation, the encomiums were probably deserved. As the character of a royal favourite has ever been eminently odious in this country; and, more especially, as the fact of the favourite being a foreigner was unlikely to render his position more popular, or his elevation less envied, it was undoubtedly a great triumph

to the Earl of Albemarle to have overcome the host of prejudices which he encountered at the commencement of his career, and finally to have rendered himself as agreeable to the English nation, as he was beloved by the monarch who exalted him.

Arnold Joost van Keppel was descended from an ancient Dutch family, who appear to have been Lords of Keppel in Guelderland at least as early as the twelfth century. He was the son of Asewolt van Keppel of the Voorst, by Reineza-AnnaGertruyde, daughter of Johan van Lintello tot de Mars, and was born in 1670. The names of his father and mother are sufficiently uninteresting and unpronounceable to deter us from diving more deeply into a Dutch pedigree.

The story of the Earl of Albemarle,-which varies between the pleasures of a courtier's life and the occasional fatigues of a military campaign,— unfortunately presents but few particulars likely to interest the reader. In 1688, he accompanied King William to England as one of his pages of honour, at which period also he seems to have been occasionally employed in the Secretary's department. In the performance of such subordinate offices he would probably long have continued unnoticed and unknown, but for the intrigues of Lord Sunderland and the King's mistress, Mrs. Villiers, whose object it was that he should supersede the King's early favourite, the Earl of Port

land, in the royal favour. Their project proved successful, and to the interested intrigues of these court profligates the young Hollander was indebted for his extraordinary rise.

The progress made by Keppel in the King's affection seems to have exceeded even the sanguine expectations of his libertine patrons. The first appointments conferred on him were those of Groom of the Bedchamber and Master of the Robes; and he was still but twenty-one when William despatched him on a mission of ceremony to congratulate the King of Bohemia on his arrival in the Flemish territories. Fresh honours rapidly followed. On the 10th of February, 1696, he was created, by letters patent, Baron Ashford, of Ashford in Kent, Viscount Bury in Lancashire, and Earl of Albemarle in Normandy ;-the latter a proud title, as it had been selected by the Plantagenets to grace their own line. The last occasion on which it had been conferred on a subject was when Monk recovered England for their

successors.

In addition to these distinctions, the King appointed his favourite a Lord of the Bedchamber ; in 1699, he conferred on him the command of the First Life Guards; and on the 14th of November, 1700, honoured him with the Order of the Garter. Among other and more substantial favours, he made over to him his favourite seat of Loo in Holland, and by his last will bequeathed him the lord

ship of Brevost and the large sum of two hundred thousand guilders. The honours conferred on the Earl in his own country, if not so valuable, were quite as numerous. We find him, at one and the same time, a Noble of Holland, Deputy Forester of that State, Colonel of a regiment of Swiss, Colonel of a regiment of carabineers; a General of horse; General of the Swiss in the service of Holland, and Governor of Bois-le-duc. The Dutch also, in 1702, appointed him General of their forces. The last proof which he received of the confidence of his royal master, was being intrusted by William with his private papers when on his death-bed.

There was probably no individual at the court of William the Third on whom nature had con ferred so many advantages as on the Earl of Albemarle, and consequently he seems to have rendered himself, with little difficulty, as agreeable to the English nobility as the other Dutch retainers of William made themselves unpopular and absurd. "About this time," says Burnet, "the King set up a new favourite. Keppel, a gentleman of Guelder, was raised, from being a page, into the highest degree of favour that any person had ever attained about the King. He was now made Earl of Albemarle, and soon after Knight of the Garter, and by a quick and unaccountable progress, he seemed to have engrossed the royal favour so entirely, that he disposed of everything that was in

« PredošláPokračovať »