Book review: William and Mary: A History of Their Most Important Places and Events by Deborah Fisher 2024
William and Mary, Britain's most mysterious monarchs, were married for reasons of dynastic convenience. Their union gradually developed into a happy and successful one, despite William's frequent absences on military campaign. They shared interests such as art and gardening, both of which they practised at their palace retreat, Het Loo. Despite the fact that Mary was heir presumptive to her father, the Duke of York, they might have expected to remain in the Netherlands for the rest of their lives. Midway through their marriage, their way of life changed substantially when Mary's father, now King James II, was rejected by his English and Scottish subjects because of his fervent Catholicism. William, a foreigner, was accepted as a replacement primarily because of his British queen. The couple had Kensington Palace built, to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, and their renovations at Hampton Court Palace, also by Wren, gave the palace much of its present character. The monarchy was now fully answerable to Parliament, but wives were still generally subservient to their husbands. William and Mary ruled jointly for 7 years, with Mary working conscientiously to maintain order in the country during her husband's absences. William continued to reign alone for only a further 7 years after Mary's death. Their 14 years on the throne were critical ones in the history of the British Isles, and the world of William and Mary was one that in many ways would be recognisable to us today. https://www.amazon.ca/William-Mar…
Bill for Pains and Penalties on Persons excepted from Indemnity. Hodie 2a vice lecta est Billa, "An Act declaring the Penalties, Pains, and Forfeitures, imposed upon the Estates and Persons of certain notorious Offenders, excepted out of the free and general Pardon and Oblivion."
Then William Lord Monson was brought to this Bar; and, having kneeled as a Delinquent, the Speaker told him, "That a Bill is brought up from the House of Commons, in which Bill it is to be enacted, That he shall lose and forfeit all his Lands and Goods, and undergo such Pains and Penalties as are therein expressed, for fitting in that traiterous pretended High Court of Justice, whereby His late Majesty was sentenced to be murdered; and to know what he can say why he should not undergo those Penalties and Forfeiture." He confessed he was drawn in and constrained Once to fit in that pretended Court; for which he was heartily sorry. And his further Desires were expressed in a Petition which is before their Lordships, which he humbly desired may be taken into Consideration.
After this, Sir Henry Mildmay was in the same Manner brought to the Bar. And the Speaker told him likewise what Pains, Penalties, and Forfeitures, were to be enacted against him, by an Act from the House of Commons; and demanded what he could say for himself, why the Bill should not pass against him. He confessed he sat Once in that Court, and no more, and was heartily sorry for the same; and begged for Mercy.
Wallop's Pet. about it. Also a Petition was presented, in Behalf of Mr. Wallop, being sick and not able to come in Person; which being read, he therein confessed he Once sat in that pretended High Court, for which he is heartily sorry.
Bill for Pains and Penalties on Persons excepted from Indemnity. After this, the House ORDERED the said Bill to be committed to the Consideration of these Lords following: ... It is further ORDERED, That the Proviso concerning the Marquis of Winton shall be left out of the Bill; and for the other concerning the Lord Craven, he himself did voluntarily withdraw it: And all the other Provisos, which are Matters of mere Grace, shall be left to the King. Likewise all the Petitions presented to the House this Day are referred to the aforesaid Committee, that those which are Matter of Right may be retained, and those that are Matter of Grace are to be left to the King.
...
Bill to restore Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. ORDERED, That the Bill concerning restoring Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall be taken into further Consideration To-morrow Morning, the First Business.
The House of Lords was also busy -- I find their notes more obscure:
L. Monson to be brought to the House. ORDERED, That William Lord Monson, now a Prisoner in The Fleete, shall be brought presently before the Lords in Parliament; being One of those Persons concerned in the Bill of Pains and Penalties.
Bill to restore Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. The Lord Lucas reported from the Committee, the Bill for restoring Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; and "That, upon further Consideration thereof, the Committee are of Opinion, That the said Bill should pass, without any Alterations." And the House taking the same into Consideration; for the freer Debate thereof, the House was adjourned into a Committee during Pleasure.
A Message was brought from the House of Commons, by Mr. Churchhill and others; who brought up these Bills following, wherein their Lordships Concurrence is desired: 1. "An Act for discharging those whose Estates have been sold, sequestered, or decimated, for adhering to His Majesty, or His Royal Father, from all Interest exceeding Three Pounds per Annum." 2. "An Act to enable the King's Majesty to make Leases, Grants, and Copies of Offices, Lands, and Tenements, and Hereditaments, Parcel of His Highness' Dutchy of Cornwall, or annexed to the same; and for Confirmation of Leases and Grants already made." 3. They returned a Bill sent down to them, with Alterations, concerning unlawful hurting and killing of Deer; to which Alterations the Commons do agree.
Regulating the Press. Ordered, That Mr. Solicitor General do bring in a Bill to impower his Majesty to regulate the Press, till it be otherwise provided for.
Confirming Acts. A Bill for confirming several Acts made by his Majesty, with the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons, expressed in the Bill, was this Day read the First [AND SECOND] time.
Publick Revenue. Ordered, That this House will, at the First time of their Meeting after this Recess, take into Consideration the Advance of the King's Majesty's Revenue to such a Proportion as may be sufficient to support the Grandeur of his Majesty, and be suitable to his Occasions.
Regulating the Press. A Bill to impower his Majesty to regulate the Press, was this Day read the First [AND SECOND] time.
...
Highways. Sir John Brampston reports Amendments to the Bill for Repairing and Amending the Highways in and about Westminster: Which he read, with the Coherence, in his Place; and afterwards, delivered in the same at the Clerk's Table: Which said Amendments being severally twice read;
Regulating the Press. Sir Heneage Finch reports from the Committee to whom the Bill for impowering his Majesty to regulate the Press, was committed, several Amendments to the said Bill: Which he read, with the Coherence, in his Place; and afterwards delivered in the same, with the Bill, at the Clerk's Table: Which Amendments being severally twice read; and, in the last Amendment save one, the University of Oxford being mentioned before Cambridge; ...
Corporations. This House, this Day, resuming the Debate of the Bill for well-governing and regulating of Corporations, directed several Members, appointed to manage the Conference with the Lords, to withdraw, and prepare the Reasons to be insisted upon at the Conference: Who having withdrawn, and returned; Mr. Solicitor General reported from them these several Reasons following: The Second Amendment strikes out all the Commissioners Names, and the Powers given to remove ill Members, and restore those who are unjustly removed; to which we cannot agree; Because, 1. The whole Regulation of Corporations doth consist in placing the Government in right Hands; which, by the Bill sent up, was put in a probable Way of being effected; by this Amendment is not so much as thought of: Provision is made for nominating Mayors and Recorders; but no Care for other Members. 2. Nothing enacted by their Lordships seems to us to provide for present Safety; because, if they do not renew before June, which they may choose whether they will or no, the Government stands still as it is. 3. So total an Alteration of the Government may have an ill Influence upon the free Elections. 4. The Bill sent up established Charters, notwithstanding past Defects: These Amendments force all Corporation to renew, though their Charters be no way defective. 5. Charters made void, unless renewed; yet no Clause that they shall be renewed, if desired. 6. No Care taken that, if renewed, they shall have their old Privileges: nor for putting in good Men. 7. The Body of Amendments repugnant to the Title of the Bill, which is, A Bill for Regulation of Corporation; whereas the Amendments do either extirpate, or, at least, new create them. 8. The Reformation in the Bill sent up, but temperary; and such as we had Reason to believe would be agreeable to them, and suitable to our Trust: These Amendments would make a perpetual Change; and we have no Cause to believe it either so agreeable to the Desires of the Corporations, for which we serve, or so consonant with our Trust. 9. The Intermeddling of Justices of Peace of the Counties in Corporate Towns may occasion a Clashing of Jurisdictions, and a Disturbance of Government, to the great Interruption of Peace and Trade. Which being twice read; and agreed unto; Resolved, upon the Question, That the said Reasons and Instructions be entered in the Journal.
...
Confirming Acts. Ordered, That Sir Phillip Warwick do prepare and bring in a Bill To-morrow Morning, to confirm the several Acts hereafter-mentioned; viz. The Act of Navigation; Act for Wool and Wool Pelts; The Act to enable the Master of the Rolls to make Leases; The Act concerning Tobacco; The Act against taking above 6£. per Cent. for Interest; The Act concerning Commissioners for Sewers; The Act concerning Process, and judicial Proceedings; The Act for Marriages; The Act for Soldiers to exercise Trades.
In the House of Commons today they pushed through a lot of business -- I suspect not all of it was popular:
Curates Allowances. Mr. Crouch reports from the Committee to whom the Bill for competent Allowances to be made to such Curates, as shall officiate in Livings where the proper Incumbents do not reside, was committed, several Amendments to the said Bill: Which he read, with the Coherence, in his Place; and afterwards, delivered in the same, with the Bill, at the Clerk's Table. Which said Amendments being severally twice read; Resolved, upon the Question, That this House doth agree to the said Amendments: ...
Discharging Loyalists of Interest. A Bill for discharging the loyal Party of all Interest exceeding 3/.s per Centum, being ingrossed, was this Day read the Third time. Resolved, That the Title of the said Bill shall be, "An Act discharging those whose Estates have been sold, sequestered, or decimated, for adhering to his Majesty, or his Royal Father, of all Interest exceeding Three Pounds per Centum."
Westminster Streets. A Bill for Paving, Repairing, and Cleansing the Streets and Highways of Westminster, and other Parts adjacent to London, was this Day read the First [AND SECOND] time.
...
Deane Forest. Ordered, That it may be recommended to the Lord Treasurer to take into Consideration the Claim and Interest of Sir John Wintour to the Forest of Deane, and such as claim under him; and to take care for the Preservation of the Forest, and the Timber and Wood therein, during the Recess of the Parliament; and to hear such Proposals as shall be made by Sir Baynham Throgmorton, and others, for Increase of his Majesty's Revenue, and the Improvement of the Growth of Timber for Advantage of Shipping, and of Coppice-wood for the Iron-works: And, upon Report thereof from his Lordship, this House will take the same into Consideration at their next Meeting: And Sir Baynham Throgmorton, Sir Charles Harbord, Mr. Fane, the Lord Herbert, Sir John Holland, and Sir Charles Cornwallis, are to attend his Lordship with this Order.
Curates Allowances. A Bill for competent Allowances to be made to such Curates as shall officiate in Livings where the proper Incumbents do not reside, being ingrossed, was this Day read the Third time. Resolved, That the Title of the said Bill shall be, "An Act for competent Allowances to be made to such Curates as shall officiate in Livings where the proper Incumbents do not reside."
"Having the beginning of this week made a vow to myself to drink no wine this week (finding it to unfit me to look after business), and this day breaking of it against my will, I am much troubled for it, but I hope God will forgive me."
I think Pepys' troubling was how to avoid drinking when everyone dragged him off to the pub at the earliest opportunity. Coffee shops are one answer, but presumably others preferred working in the buzzed condition.
As to God's forgiveness, was his tongue firmly in his cheek? Was he still sufficiently beholden to religion that he believed God was following his vows? Did he use the threat of God's punishment as a way to motivate himself without really believing in God's involvement in his life? Who knows -- since I have observed that in life "what goes around, comes around" I do not judge. When it comes to vows to live a better life, whatever motivates you is a tool worth using.
And Pepys could have tried to move Mr. Hill and his ladies to a coffee house -- or did they not admit women?
I think they did admit women, as a 'handbill promoted the launch of Pasqua Rosée’s coffee shack telling people how to drink coffee, and hailing it as the miracle cure for most ailments including dropsy, scurvy, gout, scrofula and “mis-carryings in childbearing women”.'
And 'For women, historian Markman Ellis writes, coffeehouses offered a business opportunity. While it is true, as the satirists of the time wrote, that sex workers used coffeehouses to solicit work, they were far from the only women there. A number of coffeehouses were run by women, often widows, and women worked in them as servers or in other capacities.
'Historians differ in their opinions as to whether women attended coffeehouses as customers – for instance, while Ellis does not believe they did, Pincus writes “there is little warrant for the claim that women were excluded from coffeehouses.” Although there may have been no hard-and-fast rule excluding women, obstacles such as public perception that linked women in coffee houses with sex work may have helped keep women from attending coffeehouses as guests in the same number as men. However, as Pincus writes, the fact that women could and sometimes did attend these places just shows how much they were places of exchange between people of different backgrounds, leading to the creative and transgressive spread of ideas by these caffeine junkies.' https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sm… How attitudes have changed: women were free to drink wine and beer, but coffee was questionable.
Pepys, help your colleages change their attitudes.
SILVERSMITHS -- from the Wiki article -- "By a decree of 16 April 1684, the bank commissioners secured the monopoly of the trade in silver and silver coins. The few exceptions made here were in favor of goldsmiths and silversmiths and merchants, who received the metal from foreign countries. The export of uncoined metal was allowed only when accompanied by a certificate given by the bank commissioners. These and many other orders were found insufficient to suppress private trade in precious metals, or private changing at Amsterdam."
This goes back to the pirate economy. In New England there were as many silversmiths as there were lawyers -- a strange situation for a part of the world with little in the way of silver mines. See why -- with much more piratical info., at https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
We think of silversmithing as a classic “ye olde” profession; Paul Revere was a silversmith, and they outnumbered lawyers in Colonial America. But why were any there at all, given that the land had little by way of silver mines?
The answer, Mark Hanna explains, is that silversmiths worked as fences, transmuting “pirate metal” into respectable wealth. The first mint in the 13 colonies was established in 1652 by John Hull, who made Massachusetts pine-tree shillings from Spanish bullion. Hull was a silversmith; his brother Edward was a pirate.
John Hull faced charges for backing his brother’s pirate ship, but he was acquitted. Such outcomes were common. Although piracy was a felony, it could also be a bonanza, and sympathetic locals made prosecution difficult.
Moses Butterworth, who had sailed with Capt. William Kidd, was tried for piracy in what’s now New Jersey, an armed militia stormed the courthouse. The judge drew his sword, but he was no match for more than 100 men with guns and clubs. They freed Butterworth and seized the governor and the sheriff, taking them prisoner. They held the governor for 4 days, by which point Butterworth was long gone. (He turned up 3 years later in Newport, Rhode Island, captaining his own vessel.)
Richard Blakemore’s new book, “Enemies of All,” addresses this theme. In Pennsylvania, Blakemore notes, a prominent pirate married the governor’s daughter and was elected to the legislature.
An even more prominent pirate, Henry Morgan was arrested and hauled to London. Then, after being released without punishment, he was knighted and returned to Jamaica, where he served several stints as the acting governor. When Morgan died, in 1688, he received a state funeral in Port Royal, with a 22-gun salute. Pirates were reportedly given amnesty to join the mourners.
"The ocean is a lonely, perilous place. It is especially so when you are aboard a leak-prone wooden vessel laden with a rich cargo of sugar, silks, and opium, ... " So starts a New Yorker article on pirates told me about the English 17th century need for Pieces of Eight, and other things piratical:
Privateers often relied on letters of marque that were invalid, expired, or issued after the fact, when they had letters at all. For the most part, the authorities didn’t mind. So long as the pirates had their prows pointed in the right direction, their work was good for business. Not only did they harry England’s rivals; they also enriched its colonies.
McDonald notes their importance in furnishing new settlements with enslaved people, who were initially hard for English colonists to buy through normal trade. The Africans sold into bondage in Virginia in 1619 (the event that prompted the 1619 Project) had been seized from a Portuguese slave ship by an English privateer carrying a Dutch letter of marque.
Pirates also supplied cash. The Americas produced prodigious amounts of silver and gold, but the mines were in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. The English colonies suffered chronic shortages of the metal they needed to pay England’s taxes and buy its goods.
One turn-of-the-18th-century observer estimated that the average coin lasted only 6 months in America before leaving for England.
Since imperial rules and rivalries blocked English colonists from trading directly with their Spanish and Portuguese counterparts, pirates and smugglers (overlapping categories) were indispensable. They tapped the rich vein of minerals flowing from the Americas to Iberia, irrigating the English empire with hard currency.
“Pieces of eight” and “doubloons” sound like colorful pirate talk, but they were the English names for Spanish coins, which the pirates stole in their raids, earned from their trade, and spent on their sprees. These, plus gold coins from Indian Ocean plunder, flooded colonial societies.
The familiar dollar sign was originally the American symbol for the peso, the fabled “piece of eight.” In cash-parched America, illicitly acquired Spanish silver was the predominant currency, so it became the sign for money.
Pirate sexuality is relevant here, because sex was a crucial conduit through which foreign coin entered the colonies. The ports that pirates favored were hotbeds of prostitution. This was illegal, and in the pirate haunt of Port Royal, in Jamaica, “common strumpetts” were jailed in a “cage by the turtle market,” a visitor wrote. But, rather than locking these women in the wench kennel, Jamaica should have erected statues to them for resolving the colonial liquidity crisis. The largest statue should be of the unnamed woman who talked a pirate into giving her 500 pieces of eight just to watch her strip. Forget Blackbeard; she’s the outlaw they should be making television shows about.
dirk during the first round contributed this review:
"The Jovial Crew"
By Richard Brome, c.1590-1652, English dramatist. He was the friend, servant, and disciple of Ben Jonson. Primarily a writer of realistic satiric comedy, picturing the life and manners of Caroline bourgeois London, he also produced several tragicomedies, but with much less success. The main features of his plays are the humor characters, complicated comic intrigue, and an abundance of action. The majority of his comedies were performed between 1629 and 1642, the most noteworthy being "The Northern Lass," "The City Wit," and "The Jovial Crew."
From a dead website
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A&C Black, Jun 25, 2014 - Drama - 328 pages "A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars," is a comedy about four noble lovers who join the beggar community for a pastoral life of dance and song. Or is it? Whilst maintaining its unremitting good humour, "A Jovial Crew" shows that the literary depiction of beggar life, and real beggar life, are profoundly different. Daily aspects of life in the beggar world – poverty, dirt, licentiousness – come as a surprise to the well-born, who are ultimately led to question their own values.
The last production mounted before theatres were closed for the English Civil War, "A Jovial Crew" is an exploration of class, commonwealth, kinship and kingship shows an intense engagement with contemporary politics.
This edition, with dedicated sections on music and language in the play, argues that "A Jovial Crew" also offers a nostalgic farewell to English theatre. It explores Brome's attitude to performance and print, and follows "A Jovial Crew" from its first, Caroline staging, to its later manifestations as a Restoration comedy, an 18th-century opera, and a 20th-century proto-Marxist tragicomedy.
But it does bring up a question which did not bother Pepys, but the thinkers around him were at least aware of, and we may give some thought to:
[The Rev.] Bede had experimented with [refering to the years before Christ as] ‘the year before the incarnation of the Lord’, and ‘In the year before the birth of Christ’ was used by the German monk Werner Rolevinck in his world history of 1474, but it was not until 1627 that ante Christum, ‘Before Christ’, first emerged in France, introduced by a Jesuit theologian called Denis Pétau.
While AD was adopted in its Latin form relatively early, initially by Bede but also in legal and ecclesiastical documents in Latin, the period ‘before Christ’ was of limited interest to medieval lawyers or clergymen; ‘before Christ’ emerged in a post-Reformation, vernacular-speaking world, so it was more natural to adopt an English expression.
Alternatives have arisen over the centuries, including vulgaris aerae, or ‘vulgar era’, (c.1615), ‘Christian era’ (1652) and ‘common era’ (1708). While these often make no specific reference to the birth of Christ, they are nonetheless based on the same point of division as BC/AD. Most failed to gain widespread traction.
More recently, a subtle revision to the seemingly ‘standard’ (Western) dating system of BC/AD has emerged and is quietly replacing it. In contemporary historical discourse there has been an explicit move to rebrand BC/AD as Before Common Era (BCE) and Common Era (CE). These terms were first proposed in the early 18th century, in an English astronomy book by David Gregory, The Elements of Astronomy, Physical and Geometrical (1715). They reflect a post-enlightenment departure from the ubiquity of religion in society and nascent scientific thought and writing.
Why is all this important? In losing BC and AD, we would only stand to gain a relatively nondescript replacement in BCE/CE. What is a ‘Common Era’? What can we expect from the period ‘Before Common Era’? These phrases have simply piggybacked the existing conceptual dating framework and revised the wording with similar – but largely meaningless – terms. ..."
Agreed, Nate -- Pepys' trip to Brampton must have brought things to a head at home. In his absence, Pall tested her boundaries with Elizabeth.
Of course, Uncle Robert was also Pall's uncle, so it is possible she knew the man and wanted to mourn him, only to find the need for her to empty the chamberpots and cater to Elizabeth's whims increased with Pepys' absence.
Making her Pepys' servant wasn't a long-term solution for the what-do-we-do-with-Pall-since-we-can't-afford-a-dowery-for-her fundamental problem IMHO.
As reported by Pepys today, a ceremonial procession was held to celebrate the public entry into London of Sweden’s Ambassador, Count Nils Nillsson Brahe, in September 1661. But when the coach carrying the Spanish Ambassador forced its way in front of the French Ambassador’s coach, the Spanish delegation opened fire and several Frenchmen and horses were killed, forcing the French delegation to withdraw from the procession. As street protests continued, the French Ambassador, Godefroy d’Estrades, complained to Louis XIV’s ministers that “in the course of 8 days, I was twice in danger of being assassinated and a musket ball went through my hat; soldiers and a mob have come to attack me in my own house.”
-- an excerpt from "Devil-Land: England under Siege, 1588-1688" (Allen Lane, 2021), by Clare Jackson, the senior tutor of Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. She has presented a number of highly successful programs on the Stuart dynasty for the BBC and is the author of "Charles II" in the penguin Monarchs series.
For Dr. Jackson's opinion of the challenges faced by ambassadors to the Court of St. James's in those years, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
BOOK REVIEW: DEVIL-LAND by Dr. Clare Jackson, Senior Tutor of Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, offers a riveting insight into foreign diplomats’ perceptions of 17th-century England
Few 17th-century diplomats relished the prospect of London as their next posting. In 1652, England was nicknamed ‘Devil-Land’, or ‘Duyvel-Landt’, by a Dutch pamphleteer. Reversing familiar Latin puns, whereby the English (‘Angli’) were to be cherished as cherubic angels (‘angeli’), the English appeared as diabolically dreadful king-killers. (In January 1649, they had sent shockwaves throughout the Continental by putting their divinely ordained king, Charles, on trial for high treason and executing him in public. Three days after the regicide, the dazed Spanish Ambassador in London, Alonso de Cárdenas, reported to Philip IV “we are here in utter chaos, living without religion, king or law, subject entirely to the power of the sword.”)
In "Devil-Land: England under Siege 1588-1688," foreign diplomats are center stage, supplying detailed commentaries on the most turbulent century in English history.
Bookended by two invasion attempts, Devil-Land opens with Spain’s failed Armada in 1588 and concludes with William of Orange successfully landing at Torbay, Devon a century later, with 500 ships and 15,000 soldiers and prompting his Catholic uncle and father-in-law, James VII & II, to flee to Louis XIV’s France.
As Devil-Land reveals, diplomats’ observations supply incisive critiques of Stuart rule in England as foreign ambassadors continually calibrated the standing of their own country vis-à-vis that of other states through interactions at court, intelligence gathering and unofficial patronage. At the same time, ambassadors’ assessments were inescapably subjective and distorted, since diplomats deployed a double vision, observing events in their host country less in terms of their domestic impact than as the basis for reports to be returned to their own country.
As Louis XIV reminded a new envoy to London in 1663, “there is nothing in the whole world that does not come under the cognisance and fall within the sphere of an ambassador.”
To foreign envoys residing in London, ‘Devil-Land’ was inherently unstable and infuriatingly unpredictable: its political infrastructure was weak, its inhabitants were dangerously capricious, and its intentions were impossible to fathom. As one flummoxed Venetian envoy, Anzolo Correr, concluded in the 1630s, “there was no school in the world where one could learn how to negotiate with the English.”
When it comes to trading insults, ... has [anything] changed from 1638 when Louis XIV’s chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, “stated emphatically that, at present, England might be called the country where they talk of everything and conclude nothing.”
Excerpts taken from the book review of "Devil-Land: England under Siege, 1588-1688" (Allen Lane, 2021), by Clare Jackson https://diplomatmagazine.com/devi…
She made it for 7-1/2 months. Now what will become of her? Chambermaid at the Tower of London (as the Duchess of Albermarle had done)? You can meet such interesting people there! Is there another relative willing to provide board and lodging for the angry/rebellious 21-year-old? What does Pepys have in mind?
Brennoralt, by Sir John Suckling Apparently Pepys liked the play enough to see it two more times over the coming years.
"Although 'The Goblins' is Suckling's most satisfactory performance, the tragedy 'Brennoralt' is a work of more promise and a more striking evidence of his poetic capacity. It did not appear till 1646; but it had been printed in a shorter form in 1640 as 'The Discontented Colonell.' The interest of 'Brennoralt' lies mainly in our seeming to detect in the hero something of the inner self of the author, and to find that self better and sounder than the shallow prodigal who caught the public eye. The gloomy colonel, despite his strict loyalty, is clearly aware of defects in his king. The rebel Lithuanians are meant for Scots, of about the year 1639. The rebels having been informed that the king cannot be unjust to them "Where there's so little to be had," their leader Almerine replies, "Where there is least, there's liberty." Suckling's style perceptibly strengthens in the play.”
Bishop Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715) says this about Barbara Villiers Palmer:
"Married to one Palmer, a Papist, soon after made Earl of Castlemaine; and she when separated from him, was advanced to the Duchess of Cleveland. A woman of great beauty, but enormously vicious and ravenous, foolish but imperious, very uneasy to the King, always carrying on intrigues with other men, even while she pretended to be jealous of him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour to him, disordered him so that he was oftentimes neither master of himself nor capable of business…"
In 2024 Hever Castle reopened the Bolyn family rooms after renovations. They looked at contemporary paintings before decorating, so the rooms lined with ceiling-to-floor curtains (keeping out drafts) is correct.
Curtains and tapestries were all referred to as "hangings". Whether Pepys bought curtains or tapestries, I don't know. And if curtains, how extensive they were, I don't know. Keep an open mind.
Comments
Third Reading
About Mary Stuart (future Queen Mary II)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Book review:
William and Mary: A History of Their Most Important Places and Events
by Deborah Fisher
2024
William and Mary, Britain's most mysterious monarchs, were married for reasons of dynastic convenience. Their union gradually developed into a happy and successful one, despite William's frequent absences on military campaign.
They shared interests such as art and gardening, both of which they practised at their palace retreat, Het Loo. Despite the fact that Mary was heir presumptive to her father, the Duke of York, they might have expected to remain in the Netherlands for the rest of their lives.
Midway through their marriage, their way of life changed substantially when Mary's father, now King James II, was rejected by his English and Scottish subjects because of his fervent Catholicism.
William, a foreigner, was accepted as a replacement primarily because of his British queen.
The couple had Kensington Palace built, to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, and their renovations at Hampton Court Palace, also by Wren, gave the palace much of its present character.
The monarchy was now fully answerable to Parliament, but wives were still generally subservient to their husbands. William and Mary ruled jointly for 7 years, with Mary working conscientiously to maintain order in the country during her husband's absences.
William continued to reign alone for only a further 7 years after Mary's death.
Their 14 years on the throne were critical ones in the history of the British Isles, and the world of William and Mary was one that in many ways would be recognisable to us today.
https://www.amazon.ca/William-Mar…
About Thursday 25 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
Bill for Pains and Penalties on Persons excepted from Indemnity.
Hodie 2a vice lecta est Billa, "An Act declaring the Penalties, Pains, and Forfeitures, imposed upon the Estates and Persons of certain notorious Offenders, excepted out of the free and general Pardon and Oblivion."
Then William Lord Monson was brought to this Bar; and, having kneeled as a Delinquent, the Speaker told him, "That a Bill is brought up from the House of Commons, in which Bill it is to be enacted, That he shall lose and forfeit all his Lands and Goods, and undergo such Pains and Penalties as are therein expressed, for fitting in that traiterous pretended High Court of Justice, whereby His late Majesty was sentenced to be murdered; and to know what he can say why he should not undergo those Penalties and Forfeiture."
He confessed he was drawn in and constrained Once to fit in that pretended Court; for which he was heartily sorry. And his further Desires were expressed in a Petition which is before their Lordships, which he humbly desired may be taken into Consideration.
After this, Sir Henry Mildmay was in the same Manner brought to the Bar. And the Speaker told him likewise what Pains, Penalties, and Forfeitures, were to be enacted against him, by an Act from the House of Commons; and demanded what he could say for himself, why the Bill should not pass against him.
He confessed he sat Once in that Court, and no more, and was heartily sorry for the same; and begged for Mercy.
Wallop's Pet. about it.
Also a Petition was presented, in Behalf of Mr. Wallop, being sick and not able to come in Person; which being read, he therein confessed he Once sat in that pretended High Court, for which he is heartily sorry.
Bill for Pains and Penalties on Persons excepted from Indemnity.
After this, the House ORDERED the said Bill to be committed to the Consideration of these Lords following: ...
It is further ORDERED, That the Proviso concerning the Marquis of Winton shall be left out of the Bill; and for the other concerning the Lord Craven, he himself did voluntarily withdraw it: And all the other Provisos, which are Matters of mere Grace, shall be left to the King.
Likewise all the Petitions presented to the House this Day are referred to the aforesaid Committee, that those which are Matter of Right may be retained, and those that are Matter of Grace are to be left to the King.
...
Bill to restore Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction.
ORDERED, That the Bill concerning restoring Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall be taken into further Consideration To-morrow Morning, the First Business.
About Thursday 25 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
The House of Lords was also busy -- I find their notes more obscure:
L. Monson to be brought to the House.
ORDERED, That William Lord Monson, now a Prisoner in The Fleete, shall be brought presently before the Lords in Parliament; being One of those Persons concerned in the Bill of Pains and Penalties.
Bill to restore Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction.
The Lord Lucas reported from the Committee, the Bill for restoring Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; and "That, upon further Consideration thereof, the Committee are of Opinion, That the said Bill should pass, without any Alterations."
And the House taking the same into Consideration; for the freer Debate thereof, the House was adjourned into a Committee during Pleasure.
A Message was brought from the House of Commons, by Mr. Churchhill and others; who brought up these Bills following, wherein their Lordships Concurrence is desired:
1. "An Act for discharging those whose Estates have been sold, sequestered, or decimated, for adhering to His Majesty, or His Royal Father, from all Interest exceeding Three Pounds per Annum."
2. "An Act to enable the King's Majesty to make Leases, Grants, and Copies of Offices, Lands, and Tenements, and Hereditaments, Parcel of His Highness' Dutchy of Cornwall, or annexed to the same; and for Confirmation of Leases and Grants already made."
3. They returned a Bill sent down to them, with Alterations, concerning unlawful hurting and killing of Deer; to which Alterations the Commons do agree.
...
About Thursday 25 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
Regulating the Press.
Ordered, That Mr. Solicitor General do bring in a Bill to impower his Majesty to regulate the Press, till it be otherwise provided for.
Confirming Acts.
A Bill for confirming several Acts made by his Majesty, with the Advice and Consent of the Lords and Commons, expressed in the Bill, was this Day read the First [AND SECOND] time.
Publick Revenue.
Ordered, That this House will, at the First time of their Meeting after this Recess, take into Consideration the Advance of the King's Majesty's Revenue to such a Proportion as may be sufficient to support the Grandeur of his Majesty, and be suitable to his Occasions.
Regulating the Press.
A Bill to impower his Majesty to regulate the Press, was this Day read the First [AND SECOND] time.
...
Highways.
Sir John Brampston reports Amendments to the Bill for Repairing and Amending the Highways in and about Westminster: Which he read, with the Coherence, in his Place; and afterwards, delivered in the same at the Clerk's Table: Which said Amendments being severally twice read;
Regulating the Press.
Sir Heneage Finch reports from the Committee to whom the Bill for impowering his Majesty to regulate the Press, was committed, several Amendments to the said Bill: Which he read, with the Coherence, in his Place; and afterwards delivered in the same, with the Bill, at the Clerk's Table: Which Amendments being severally twice read; and, in the last Amendment save one, the University of Oxford being mentioned before Cambridge; ...
About Thursday 25 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
Corporations.
This House, this Day, resuming the Debate of the Bill for well-governing and regulating of Corporations, directed several Members, appointed to manage the Conference with the Lords, to withdraw, and prepare the Reasons to be insisted upon at the Conference: Who having withdrawn, and returned;
Mr. Solicitor General reported from them these several Reasons following:
The Second Amendment strikes out all the Commissioners Names, and the Powers given to remove ill Members, and restore those who are unjustly removed; to which we cannot agree; Because,
1. The whole Regulation of Corporations doth consist in placing the Government in right Hands; which, by the Bill sent up, was put in a probable Way of being effected; by this Amendment is not so much as thought of: Provision is made for nominating Mayors and Recorders; but no Care for other Members.
2. Nothing enacted by their Lordships seems to us to provide for present Safety; because, if they do not renew before June, which they may choose whether they will or no, the Government stands still as it is.
3. So total an Alteration of the Government may have an ill Influence upon the free Elections.
4. The Bill sent up established Charters, notwithstanding past Defects: These Amendments force all Corporation to renew, though their Charters be no way defective.
5. Charters made void, unless renewed; yet no Clause that they shall be renewed, if desired.
6. No Care taken that, if renewed, they shall have their old Privileges: nor for putting in good Men.
7. The Body of Amendments repugnant to the Title of the Bill, which is, A Bill for Regulation of Corporation; whereas the Amendments do either extirpate, or, at least, new create them.
8. The Reformation in the Bill sent up, but temperary; and such as we had Reason to believe would be agreeable to them, and suitable to our Trust: These Amendments would make a perpetual Change; and we have no Cause to believe it either so agreeable to the Desires of the Corporations, for which we serve, or so consonant with our Trust.
9. The Intermeddling of Justices of Peace of the Counties in Corporate Towns may occasion a Clashing of Jurisdictions, and a Disturbance of Government, to the great Interruption of Peace and Trade.
Which being twice read; and agreed unto;
Resolved, upon the Question, That the said Reasons and Instructions be entered in the Journal.
...
Confirming Acts.
Ordered, That Sir Phillip Warwick do prepare and bring in a Bill To-morrow Morning, to confirm the several Acts hereafter-mentioned; viz.
The Act of Navigation;
Act for Wool and Wool Pelts;
The Act to enable the Master of the Rolls to make Leases;
The Act concerning Tobacco;
The Act against taking above 6£. per Cent. for Interest;
The Act concerning Commissioners for Sewers;
The Act concerning Process, and judicial Proceedings;
The Act for Marriages;
The Act for Soldiers to exercise Trades.
...
About Thursday 25 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
In the House of Commons today they pushed through a lot of business -- I suspect not all of it was popular:
Curates Allowances.
Mr. Crouch reports from the Committee to whom the Bill for competent Allowances to be made to such Curates, as shall officiate in Livings where the proper Incumbents do not reside, was committed, several Amendments to the said Bill: Which he read, with the Coherence, in his Place; and afterwards, delivered in the same, with the Bill, at the Clerk's Table.
Which said Amendments being severally twice read;
Resolved, upon the Question, That this House doth agree to the said Amendments: ...
Discharging Loyalists of Interest.
A Bill for discharging the loyal Party of all Interest exceeding 3/.s per Centum, being ingrossed, was this Day read the Third time.
Resolved, That the Title of the said Bill shall be, "An Act discharging those whose Estates have been sold, sequestered, or decimated, for adhering to his Majesty, or his Royal Father, of all Interest exceeding Three Pounds per Centum."
Westminster Streets.
A Bill for Paving, Repairing, and Cleansing the Streets and Highways of Westminster, and other Parts adjacent to London, was this Day read the First [AND SECOND] time.
...
Deane Forest.
Ordered, That it may be recommended to the Lord Treasurer to take into Consideration the Claim and Interest of Sir John Wintour to the Forest of Deane, and such as claim under him; and to take care for the Preservation of the Forest, and the Timber and Wood therein, during the Recess of the Parliament; and to hear such Proposals as shall be made by Sir Baynham Throgmorton, and others, for Increase of his Majesty's Revenue, and the Improvement of the Growth of Timber for Advantage of Shipping, and of Coppice-wood for the Iron-works: And, upon Report thereof from his Lordship, this House will take the same into Consideration at their next Meeting: And Sir Baynham Throgmorton, Sir Charles Harbord, Mr. Fane, the Lord Herbert, Sir John Holland, and Sir Charles Cornwallis, are to attend his Lordship with this Order.
Curates Allowances.
A Bill for competent Allowances to be made to such Curates as shall officiate in Livings where the proper Incumbents do not reside, being ingrossed, was this Day read the Third time.
Resolved, That the Title of the said Bill shall be, "An Act for competent Allowances to be made to such Curates as shall officiate in Livings where the proper Incumbents do not reside."
About Friday 26 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Having the beginning of this week made a vow to myself to drink no wine this week (finding it to unfit me to look after business), and this day breaking of it against my will, I am much troubled for it, but I hope God will forgive me."
I think Pepys' troubling was how to avoid drinking when everyone dragged him off to the pub at the earliest opportunity. Coffee shops are one answer, but presumably others preferred working in the buzzed condition.
As to God's forgiveness, was his tongue firmly in his cheek?
Was he still sufficiently beholden to religion that he believed God was following his vows?
Did he use the threat of God's punishment as a way to motivate himself without really believing in God's involvement in his life?
Who knows -- since I have observed that in life "what goes around, comes around" I do not judge.
When it comes to vows to live a better life, whatever motivates you is a tool worth using.
About Friday 26 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Apparently he did, LKvM.
And Pepys could have tried to move Mr. Hill and his ladies to a coffee house -- or did they not admit women?
I think they did admit women, as a 'handbill promoted the launch of Pasqua Rosée’s coffee shack telling people how to drink coffee, and hailing it as the miracle cure for most ailments including dropsy, scurvy, gout, scrofula and “mis-carryings in childbearing women”.'
And 'For women, historian Markman Ellis writes, coffeehouses offered a business opportunity. While it is true, as the satirists of the time wrote, that sex workers used coffeehouses to solicit work, they were far from the only women there. A number of coffeehouses were run by women, often widows, and women worked in them as servers or in other capacities.
'Historians differ in their opinions as to whether women attended coffeehouses as customers – for instance, while Ellis does not believe they did, Pincus writes “there is little warrant for the claim that women were excluded from coffeehouses.” Although there may have been no hard-and-fast rule excluding women, obstacles such as public perception that linked women in coffee houses with sex work may have helped keep women from attending coffeehouses as guests in the same number as men. However, as Pincus writes, the fact that women could and sometimes did attend these places just shows how much they were places of exchange between people of different backgrounds, leading to the creative and transgressive spread of ideas by these caffeine junkies.'
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sm…
How attitudes have changed: women were free to drink wine and beer, but coffee was questionable.
Pepys, help your colleages change their attitudes.
About Bank of Amsterdam
San Diego Sarah • Link
SILVERSMITHS -- from the Wiki article -- "By a decree of 16 April 1684, the bank commissioners secured the monopoly of the trade in silver and silver coins. The few exceptions made here were in favor of goldsmiths and silversmiths and merchants, who received the metal from foreign countries. The export of uncoined metal was allowed only when accompanied by a certificate given by the bank commissioners. These and many other orders were found insufficient to suppress private trade in precious metals, or private changing at Amsterdam."
This goes back to the pirate economy. In New England there were as many silversmiths as there were lawyers -- a strange situation for a part of the world with little in the way of silver mines.
See why -- with much more piratical info., at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Pieces of eight
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
The ports also brimmed with silversmiths.
We think of silversmithing as a classic “ye olde” profession; Paul Revere was a silversmith, and they outnumbered lawyers in Colonial America. But why were any there at all, given that the land had little by way of silver mines?
The answer, Mark Hanna explains, is that silversmiths worked as fences, transmuting “pirate metal” into respectable wealth. The first mint in the 13 colonies was established in 1652 by John Hull, who made Massachusetts pine-tree shillings from Spanish bullion. Hull was a silversmith; his brother Edward was a pirate.
John Hull faced charges for backing his brother’s pirate ship, but he was acquitted. Such outcomes were common. Although piracy was a felony, it could also be a bonanza, and sympathetic locals made prosecution difficult.
Moses Butterworth, who had sailed with Capt. William Kidd, was tried for piracy in what’s now New Jersey, an armed militia stormed the courthouse. The judge drew his sword, but he was no match for more than 100 men with guns and clubs. They freed Butterworth and seized the governor and the sheriff, taking them prisoner. They held the governor for 4 days, by which point Butterworth was long gone. (He turned up 3 years later in Newport, Rhode Island, captaining his own vessel.)
Richard Blakemore’s new book, “Enemies of All,” addresses this theme. In Pennsylvania, Blakemore notes, a prominent pirate married the governor’s daughter and was elected to the legislature.
An even more prominent pirate, Henry Morgan was arrested and hauled to London. Then, after being released without punishment, he was knighted and returned to Jamaica, where he served several stints as the acting governor. When Morgan died, in 1688, he received a state funeral in Port Royal, with a 22-gun salute. Pirates were reportedly given amnesty to join the mourners.
Much more at
https://www.newyorker.com/magazin…
About Pieces of eight
San Diego Sarah • Link
"The ocean is a lonely, perilous place. It is especially so when you are aboard a leak-prone wooden vessel laden with a rich cargo of sugar, silks, and opium, ... " So starts a New Yorker article on pirates told me about the English 17th century need for Pieces of Eight, and other things piratical:
Privateers often relied on letters of marque that were invalid, expired, or issued after the fact, when they had letters at all. For the most part, the authorities didn’t mind. So long as the pirates had their prows pointed in the right direction, their work was good for business. Not only did they harry England’s rivals; they also enriched its colonies.
McDonald notes their importance in furnishing new settlements with enslaved people, who were initially hard for English colonists to buy through normal trade. The Africans sold into bondage in Virginia in 1619 (the event that prompted the 1619 Project) had been seized from a Portuguese slave ship by an English privateer carrying a Dutch letter of marque.
Pirates also supplied cash. The Americas produced prodigious amounts of silver and gold, but the mines were in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. The English colonies suffered chronic shortages of the metal they needed to pay England’s taxes and buy its goods.
One turn-of-the-18th-century observer estimated that the average coin lasted only 6 months in America before leaving for England.
Since imperial rules and rivalries blocked English colonists from trading directly with their Spanish and Portuguese counterparts, pirates and smugglers (overlapping categories) were indispensable. They tapped the rich vein of minerals flowing from the Americas to Iberia, irrigating the English empire with hard currency.
“Pieces of eight” and “doubloons” sound like colorful pirate talk, but they were the English names for Spanish coins, which the pirates stole in their raids, earned from their trade, and spent on their sprees. These, plus gold coins from Indian Ocean plunder, flooded colonial societies.
The familiar dollar sign was originally the American symbol for the peso, the fabled “piece of eight.”
In cash-parched America, illicitly acquired Spanish silver was the predominant currency, so it became the sign for money.
Pirate sexuality is relevant here, because sex was a crucial conduit through which foreign coin entered the colonies. The ports that pirates favored were hotbeds of prostitution. This was illegal, and in the pirate haunt of Port Royal, in Jamaica, “common strumpetts” were jailed in a “cage by the turtle market,” a visitor wrote.
But, rather than locking these women in the wench kennel, Jamaica should have erected statues to them for resolving the colonial liquidity crisis. The largest statue should be of the unnamed woman who talked a pirate into giving her 500 pieces of eight just to watch her strip.
Forget Blackbeard; she’s the outlaw they should be making television shows about.
About Jovial Crew, A (Richard Brome)
San Diego Sarah • Link
dirk during the first round contributed this review:
"The Jovial Crew"
By Richard Brome, c.1590-1652, English dramatist. He was the friend, servant, and disciple of Ben Jonson. Primarily a writer of realistic satiric comedy, picturing the life and manners of Caroline bourgeois London, he also produced several tragicomedies, but with much less success. The main features of his plays are the humor characters, complicated comic intrigue, and an abundance of action. The majority of his comedies were performed between 1629 and 1642, the most noteworthy being "The Northern Lass," "The City Wit," and "The Jovial Crew."
From a dead website
@@@
A&C Black, Jun 25, 2014 - Drama - 328 pages
"A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars," is a comedy about four noble lovers who join the beggar community for a pastoral life of dance and song.
Or is it?
Whilst maintaining its unremitting good humour, "A Jovial Crew" shows that the literary depiction of beggar life, and real beggar life, are profoundly different. Daily aspects of life in the beggar world – poverty, dirt, licentiousness – come as a surprise to the well-born, who are ultimately led to question their own values.
The last production mounted before theatres were closed for the English Civil War, "A Jovial Crew" is an exploration of class, commonwealth, kinship and kingship shows an intense engagement with contemporary politics.
This edition, with dedicated sections on music and language in the play, argues that "A Jovial Crew" also offers a nostalgic farewell to English theatre. It explores Brome's attitude to performance and print, and follows "A Jovial Crew" from its first, Caroline staging, to its later manifestations as a Restoration comedy, an 18th-century opera, and a 20th-century proto-Marxist tragicomedy.
https://books.google.com/books/ab…
About James Ussher
San Diego Sarah • Link
BC. Before computers indeed!!! Very funny, Terry.
But it does bring up a question which did not bother Pepys, but the thinkers around him were at least aware of, and we may give some thought to:
[The Rev.] Bede had experimented with [refering to the years before Christ as] ‘the year before the incarnation of the Lord’, and ‘In the year before the birth of Christ’ was used by the German monk Werner Rolevinck in his world history of 1474, but it was not until 1627 that ante Christum, ‘Before Christ’, first emerged in France, introduced by a Jesuit theologian called Denis Pétau.
While AD was adopted in its Latin form relatively early, initially by Bede but also in legal and ecclesiastical documents in Latin, the period ‘before Christ’ was of limited interest to medieval lawyers or clergymen; ‘before Christ’ emerged in a post-Reformation, vernacular-speaking world, so it was more natural to adopt an English expression.
Alternatives have arisen over the centuries, including vulgaris aerae, or ‘vulgar era’, (c.1615), ‘Christian era’ (1652) and ‘common era’ (1708). While these often make no specific reference to the birth of Christ, they are nonetheless based on the same point of division as BC/AD. Most failed to gain widespread traction.
More recently, a subtle revision to the seemingly ‘standard’ (Western) dating system of BC/AD has emerged and is quietly replacing it. In contemporary historical discourse there has been an explicit move to rebrand BC/AD as Before Common Era (BCE) and Common Era (CE). These terms were first proposed in the early 18th century, in an English astronomy book by David Gregory, The Elements of Astronomy, Physical and Geometrical (1715). They reflect a post-enlightenment departure from the ubiquity of religion in society and nascent scientific thought and writing.
Why is all this important? In losing BC and AD, we would only stand to gain a relatively nondescript replacement in BCE/CE. What is a ‘Common Era’? What can we expect from the period ‘Before Common Era’? These phrases have simply piggybacked the existing conceptual dating framework and revised the wording with similar – but largely meaningless – terms. ..."
https://www.historytoday.com/arch…
About Tuesday 23 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Agreed, Nate -- Pepys' trip to Brampton must have brought things to a head at home. In his absence, Pall tested her boundaries with Elizabeth.
Of course, Uncle Robert was also Pall's uncle, so it is possible she knew the man and wanted to mourn him, only to find the need for her to empty the chamberpots and cater to Elizabeth's whims increased with Pepys' absence.
Making her Pepys' servant wasn't a long-term solution for the what-do-we-do-with-Pall-since-we-can't-afford-a-dowery-for-her fundamental problem IMHO.
About Monday 30 September 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
As reported by Pepys today, a ceremonial procession was held to celebrate the public entry into London of Sweden’s Ambassador, Count Nils Nillsson Brahe, in September 1661.
But when the coach carrying the Spanish Ambassador forced its way in front of the French Ambassador’s coach, the Spanish delegation opened fire and several Frenchmen and horses were killed, forcing the French delegation to withdraw from the procession.
As street protests continued, the French Ambassador, Godefroy d’Estrades, complained to Louis XIV’s ministers that “in the course of 8 days, I was twice in danger of being assassinated and a musket ball went through my hat; soldiers and a mob have come to attack me in my own house.”
-- an excerpt from "Devil-Land: England under Siege, 1588-1688" (Allen Lane, 2021), by Clare Jackson, the senior tutor of Trinity Hall, Cambridge University. She has presented a number of highly successful programs on the Stuart dynasty for the BBC and is the author of "Charles II" in the penguin Monarchs series.
For Dr. Jackson's opinion of the challenges faced by ambassadors to the Court of St. James's in those years, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Charles Colbert (Marquis de Croissy)
San Diego Sarah • Link
BOOK REVIEW: DEVIL-LAND by Dr. Clare Jackson, Senior Tutor of Trinity Hall, Cambridge University, offers a riveting insight into foreign diplomats’ perceptions of 17th-century England
Few 17th-century diplomats relished the prospect of London as their next posting. In 1652, England was nicknamed ‘Devil-Land’, or ‘Duyvel-Landt’, by a Dutch pamphleteer. Reversing familiar Latin puns, whereby the English (‘Angli’) were to be cherished as cherubic angels (‘angeli’), the English appeared as diabolically dreadful king-killers. (In January 1649, they had sent shockwaves throughout the Continental by putting their divinely ordained king, Charles, on trial for high treason and executing him in public. Three days after the regicide, the dazed Spanish Ambassador in London, Alonso de Cárdenas, reported to Philip IV “we are here in utter chaos, living without religion, king or law, subject entirely to the power of the sword.”)
In "Devil-Land: England under Siege 1588-1688," foreign diplomats are center stage, supplying detailed commentaries on the most turbulent century in English history.
Bookended by two invasion attempts, Devil-Land opens with Spain’s failed Armada in 1588 and concludes with William of Orange successfully landing at Torbay, Devon a century later, with 500 ships and 15,000 soldiers and prompting his Catholic uncle and father-in-law, James VII & II, to flee to Louis XIV’s France.
As Devil-Land reveals, diplomats’ observations supply incisive critiques of Stuart rule in England as foreign ambassadors continually calibrated the standing of their own country vis-à-vis that of other states through interactions at court, intelligence gathering and unofficial patronage.
At the same time, ambassadors’ assessments were inescapably subjective and distorted, since diplomats deployed a double vision, observing events in their host country less in terms of their domestic impact than as the basis for reports to be returned to their own country.
As Louis XIV reminded a new envoy to London in 1663, “there is nothing in the whole world that does not come under the cognisance and fall within the sphere of an ambassador.”
To foreign envoys residing in London, ‘Devil-Land’ was inherently unstable and infuriatingly unpredictable: its political infrastructure was weak, its inhabitants were dangerously capricious, and its intentions were impossible to fathom.
As one flummoxed Venetian envoy, Anzolo Correr, concluded in the 1630s, “there was no school in the world where one could learn how to negotiate with the English.”
When it comes to trading insults, ... has [anything] changed from 1638 when Louis XIV’s chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu, “stated emphatically that, at present, England might be called the country where they talk of everything and conclude nothing.”
Excerpts taken from the book review of "Devil-Land: England under Siege, 1588-1688" (Allen Lane, 2021), by Clare Jackson
https://diplomatmagazine.com/devi…
About Tuesday 23 July 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pall moved in with Sam and Elizabeth on January 2, 1661
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
She made it for 7-1/2 months. Now what will become of her? Chambermaid at the Tower of London (as the Duchess of Albermarle had done)? You can meet such interesting people there!
Is there another relative willing to provide board and lodging for the angry/rebellious 21-year-old?
What does Pepys have in mind?
About Brennoralt, or The Discontented Colonel (Sir John Suckling)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sjoerd gave this review during the first round:
Brennoralt, by Sir John Suckling
Apparently Pepys liked the play enough to see it two more times over the coming years.
"Although 'The Goblins' is Suckling's most satisfactory performance, the tragedy 'Brennoralt' is a work of more promise and a more striking evidence of his poetic capacity. It did not appear till 1646; but it had been printed in a shorter form in 1640 as 'The Discontented Colonell.' The interest of 'Brennoralt' lies mainly in our seeming to detect in the hero something of the inner self of the author, and to find that self better and sounder than the shallow prodigal who caught the public eye. The gloomy colonel, despite his strict loyalty, is clearly aware of defects in his king. The rebel Lithuanians are meant for Scots, of about the year 1639. The rebels having been informed that the king cannot be unjust to them "Where there's so little to be had," their leader Almerine replies, "Where there is least, there's liberty." Suckling's style perceptibly strengthens in the play.”
https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/…
About Barbara Palmer (Countess of Castlemaine)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Bishop Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715) says this about Barbara Villiers Palmer:
"Married to one Palmer, a Papist, soon after made Earl of Castlemaine; and she when separated from him, was advanced to the Duchess of Cleveland. A woman of great beauty, but enormously vicious and ravenous, foolish but imperious, very uneasy to the King, always carrying on intrigues with other men, even while she pretended to be jealous of him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour to him, disordered him so that he was oftentimes neither master of himself nor capable of business…"
About Tapestry
San Diego Sarah • Link
In 2024 Hever Castle reopened the Bolyn family rooms after renovations. They looked at contemporary paintings before decorating, so the rooms lined with ceiling-to-floor curtains (keeping out drafts) is correct.
Curtains and tapestries were all referred to as "hangings". Whether Pepys bought curtains or tapestries, I don't know. And if curtains, how extensive they were, I don't know. Keep an open mind.
Pictures at
https://news.artnet.com/art-world…