"PORTSMOUTH, 23rd May 1662.

"Your Majesty's of the 21st of last month has come to my hands. Having robbed you of the brightest jewel of your crown to adorn my own, I must employ all my powers in defence thereof, and so you will have gained a brother without losing a sister, who, although lost to your sight, will never lose you from her memory. We both pray that God may grant long life to your Majesty."

Charles also sent a letter to the Queen of Portugal, who, in return, wrote that her daughter gave her news that she was quite happy with him. Unfortunately, the young queen's happiness was of short duration.

Queen Catherine of Braganza arrived at Hampton Court on the 29th of May, attended by a numerous suite of very plain Portuguese ladies, who were all dressed in monstrous farthingales or guard-infantas. "The young queen," said Lord Chesterfield, "was exactly shaped, had lovely hands, excellent eyes, a good countenance, a pleasing voice, fine hair; in a word, what an understanding man would wish for a wife." Moreover, it was remarked, "she painted well"-meaning her face this being considered part of the necessary toilet of a great lady at that time. Evelyn, who was also among those to greet her, remarked that the Queen was rather good-looking; she had a small, well-shaped figure, fine eyes, and rather prominent teeth. He describes some of the bridal gifts; how the rich gondola, a present from the states of Venice to the King, although managed by Venetians, was not so swift as the common wherries. He tells us the states of Holland presented the Queen with a state bed of crimson velvet, richly embroidered with silver, which cost £8000. Catherine

1 Egerton MSS., British Museum Historical Letters.

brought from Portugal some most superb Indian cabinets, the like of which had never before been seen; some of these may still be found in the royal palaces.

The court remained at Hampton Court until August, when it moved to Whitehall. The King and Queen "came by water in an antique-shaped open vessel, covered with a canopy of cloth of gold, made in the form of a cupola, supported with Corinthian pillars wreathed with flowers and festoons and garlands." They were accompanied by a large flotilla of boats and wherries, decorated with great magnificence, and were met by the Lord Mayor and City companies in stately barges, while guns were fired from the vessels, bells were rung, and music played to welcome Catherine on her first coming to the capital.

During Charles's many years of exile, with no business or responsibility to steady him, with the example of the refined but still immoral court of France to copy, it is not wonderful that a man of his temperament should have led a wild life, thinking only of the pleasures of the hour. The pity was that, when responsibility came, he could not detach himself from pleasures that had become part of his nature. Among his early intrigues, there was one which had a very serious effect upon his after life and that of his country and court-this was his meeting with a beautiful but profligate woman named Barbara Palmer. She was the daughter of William, second Viscount Grandison, who had lost his life in the Royal cause.

At an early age she married one Roger Palmer, a student of the Middle Temple. This gentleman had quarrelled with and killed another young student, and for fear of the consequences of his crime, fled with his wife to France. This was just about the time of Charles's preparations for his return to England. Palmer

first obtained the King's pardon, and then joined his court at Brussels, where Barbara was not long in obtaining influence over Charles, and the intrigue was continued on his restoration-this arrangement being acquiesced in by the obliging husband, who accepted a peerage, and was created Earl of Castlemaine. Before marriage, Barbara had had a lover in the person of Philip Stanhope, second Earl of Chesterfield, who was a fascinating but unprincipled man.

Charles's intrigue was known to Catherine before she left Portugal; her mother had told her never to allow Lady Castlemaine's name to be uttered in her proximity. Shortly after her marriage the King gave the Queen a list of the ladies of her household, at the head of which was Lady Castlemaine's name. Catherine struck it out, and assured her husband she would sooner return to Portugal than tolerate such an outrage. Charles was, however, determined to break his wife's spirit, for he had no intention of giving up Lady Castlemaine. One day he presented her to the Queen before the whole court. Catherine did not at first realise who the lady was, but one of the Portuguese attendants whispered the information. The poor young queen was completely overcome; in her efforts to control her emotion her nose bled, and she fell back insensible into the arms of her ladies. The King was not a bit softened, but only exasperated, and continued to insist that Lady Castlemaine should be included among the ladies of the Queen's bedchamber. In vain did he storm; Catherine would not consent, and begged to be allowed to return to her own country.

Lord Clarendon was commissioned to remonstrate with her, but without avail, until the last expedient of dismissing her Portuguese attendants was resorted to. He mentions how Lady Castlemaine was brought daily

into the Queen's presence; how Catherine sat unnoticed in a corner, and if she retired to her own apartments, few followed, and there was universal mirth except in her company. After a time, in order to regain her husband's love, Catherine became on familiar terms with Lady Castlemaine. The iron must have indeed entered her soul before she could go so far against her nature. She always remained a devout and virtuous

woman.

Pepys, delightful old gossip, notwithstanding his Puritan upbringing, seems to have held Lady Castlemaine in great admiration at a respectful distance. On one occasion he and his wife were walking in Whitehall Gardens and, looking into the Privy Garden, saw "the finest smocks and linen petticoats of my Lady Castlemaine laced with rich lace at the bottom that ever I saw, and did me good to look at them!" Another time he visited Somerset House, where the Queen mother, Henrietta Maria, was staying; there he also saw the young queen and Madame Castlemaine and the King's son by Lucy Walters, James Crofts, who was afterwards created Duke of Monmouth. Pepys admired the young queen for a "good and innocent look, but it pleased him more to look on Lady Castlemaine."

One day he saw Queen Catherine going to chapel in St. James's Park and followed her in. He was not much taken with the music, but says, "What pleased me best was to see my dear Lady Castlemaine, who, though Protestant, did wait upon the Queen to Chapel!" Later he saw Lady Castlemaine's portrait at Lely's, and thought it "the most blessed picture, that I must have a copy."

However, notwithstanding Pepys' admiration for the lady, he did not approve of the King so constantly visiting her and thereby neglecting state affairs, and

was very indignant that all the King's Christmas presents from the peers had been given her; also he remarked she had more jewels than the Queen and Duchess of York together.

The Queen was much blamed for being so meek and gentle under the indignities she received. She, however, occasionally mildly asserted herself. One day, finding the Queen had been long in her dressers' hands, Lady Castlemaine said, "I wonder your Majesty can have the patience to sit so long a-dressing?" "I have so much reason to use patience," answered the poor queen, "that I can very well bear with it." Shortly after this, Lady Castlemaine left the court, and, it was conjectured, at the Queen's command. However, if this was the case, her banishment did not last long, for when Catherine fell ill of a fever, the King, although he tended her with great concern, still continued every evening to sup with Lady Castlemaine.

raised that the Queen an heir; these hopes,

Hopes had frequently been would present the King with however, were never fulfilled. No doubt her barrenness preyed upon her mind, for in her delirium she imagined she had several children, and used to ask Charles after their health; he humoured her in this delusion. A few years later, in 1669, Sir J. Clayton wrote on June 8th to Sir R. Paxton, "I suppose the news of the Queen's miscarriage is stale with you, for it was last Friday, being affrighted by an unfortunate accident with one of the King's tame foxes, which stealing after the King unknown, into the bedchamber, lay there all night, and in the morning very early leaped upon the bed and ran over the Queen and into the bed."1 At one time it was represented to Charles that he should divorce the H.M.C., Sir H. Inglisby MSS.