jeannine
Articles
jeannine has written 14 articles:
- The Bedchamber (26 July 2005)
- Annotators of Sam (22 December 2005)
- A Walk with Ferrers (8 February 2006)
- The Journal of “My Lord” Sandwich (2 May 2006)
- Between a Son and His Father: Sam’s Letter to John Sr regarding Brampton (17 May 2006)
- A Voice for Elizabeth (31 May 2006)
- Queen Catherine’s Illness and Court Politics (30 August 2006)
- Twas the night before New Years! (29 December 2006)
- Inventory of the tailor shop (31 March 2007)
- Carteret and the King (22 July 2007)
- The Plot Against Pepys by James Long and Ben Long (16 August 2007)
- Sam’s N-A-V-Y (25 December 2007)
- The Next Chapter of Samuel Pepys (31 May 2012)
- Plague: Murder has a New Friend by C.C. Humphreys (31 August 2014)
Encyclopedia topics
jeannine has written summaries for eight topics:
- Sir Charles Berkeley (1st Earl of Falmouth, 1st Viscount Fitzharding)
- Catherine of Braganza (Queen)
- Sir George Carteret (Treasurer of the Navy 1660-7, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household 1660-70)
- Sir Edward Hyde (Earl of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor 1658-67)
- Sir Edward Mountagu ("my Lord," Earl of Sandwich)
- Barbara Palmer (Countess of Castlemaine)
- Elizabeth Pepys (wife, b. St Michel)
- Frances Stuart (Duchess of Richmond)
Annotations and comments
jeannine has posted 1,236 annotations/comments since 16 June 2004.
Comments
First Reading
About Wednesday 5 November 1662
Jeannine • Link
Robert-Loved today's play! It must be hard to scold someone who has done something that you secretly would have loved to have done yourself!
About Wednesday 5 November 1662
Jeannine • Link
Lady Batten question.. In looking into her background and other diary entries is there any specific "incident" or falling out between Elizabeth and Lady Batten?? It seems like Sam has an underlying dislike for her, which he apparently "covers up" as he has to for office "politics", but I couldn't seem to find anything at issue between the two women, other than Elizabeth wasn't inclinded to feed the Lady's ego or indulge her in her sense of status??Perhaps just difference in personality?
About Monday 3 November 1662
Jeannine • Link
"All is not well". Exactly (and well summarized) Terry! It'll take a lot more than Sam's "standard" dose of physique to cure all of those ills....
Seriously, all the "gossip" stories, the political and social maneuverings, etc. that are going on around Sam will either directly or indirectly affect his career. He has to make choices every day to decide how to advance himself and protect his personal interests. Although the behavior of the Courts (love affairs, moral corruption, etc.) concerning and around the King, Duke, and higher uppers is totally disgusting, all of this is pertinent to the choices Sam makes every day as he works in this environment. He needs to "please" men like the King and the Duke in order to "stay in the game". In the case of some of Charles' recent choices for promotion (Berkeley, etc. as discussed over the past few days) they will rise based on aligning with the seedier side of bringing pleasure to the King. In the case of Sam, he is plugging away digging a hole and looking for gold, trying to improve the Navy, etc. He could be taking another path and dangling his beautiful wife in the face of the King or Duke to get ahead, but he is not. He could be drinking with the gang, pimping, gambling or whatever but he is not.
In spite of the fact that he's working and committing himself to do reputable service for the monarchy he is still competing in the larger sense with others that will use whatever means they can to get ahead.Sam's challenge will be to move through the growing mass of moral decay, perversions, monetary crunches, politics, etc. without getting engulfed by them. He is aware that things are not well and seems to fear (and rightly so) that they will be getting worse.
Sam is a quick study and doesn't miss a thing. He isn't just writing about gossip but he is taking it in, figuring it out and internalizing his understanding of the subcultures, "good old boys networks", "love triangles" and politics forming around his world and moving carefully to remain afloat in very rocky waters.
About Elizabeth Stanhope (Countess of Chesterfield, b. Butler)
Jeannine • Link
Lady Chesterfield-another “virtuous lady, treated badly….(background to November 3, 1662 entry by Sam)
Lord Chesterfield was a rogue and a ladies’ man who “played the field”. He was a major lover of Lady Castlemaine before and during her marriage and overlapping the beginning time period of her affair with Charles II. During his period he feigned great affection for and then married married Elizabeth Butler, daughter of Ormond. Per Grammont” he had therefore married Lady Chesterfield without loving her, and had lived some time with her in such coolness, as to leave her no room to doubt of his indifference. As she was endowed with great sensibility and delicacy, she suffered at this contempt: she was at first much affected with his behaviour, and afterwards enraged at it; and, when he began to give her proofs of his affection, she had the pleasure of convincing him of her indifference.” Over time she began to “understand” and adopt to the ways of Charles’ court and realized her marriage as a loss. In her loneliness she had her eyes set not only on the Duke of York but also a cousin James Hamilton. Around this time her husband had started to “fall in love” with his wife, which, in the court of Charles II was a laughable act of a fool. Lady Chesterfield began flirting around between Hamilton and the Duke of York. In order to throw the suspicion elsewhere, Hamilton started to plant the seed in Lord Chesterfield’s head that his wife was having an affair with the Duke. This made Chesterfield, in his jealousy, ever vigilant of that relationship while Hamilton was sneaking letters back and forth with his wife unnoticed. As all of this progressed none of the parties were particularly honest with the other but Lord Chesterfield’s suspicions were growing as was his jealousy of the Duke. Finally after a few suspicious situations including an incident where his wife ended up alone with the Duke during a guitar playing session, Chesterfield walked into a bombshell. He explained to Hamilton, who was now his confidant (per Grammont) that the Duke “was just now with my wife at a card party in the Queen’s chamber…They imagined they were cleverly hiding in the crowd. I do not know what had become of the Duke’s hand, but I know very well that his arm had disappeared right up to the elbow. He turned round and saw me, and was so disconcerted by my presence that in drawing away his hand he came near to completely undressing Lady Chesterfield”, As Pepys reports Lady Chesterfield was scurried away. Per Grammont “ The court was filled with the story of this adventure; nobody was ignorant of the occasion of this sudden departure, but very few approved of Lord Chesterfield’s conduct. In England they looked with astonishment upon a man who could be so uncivil as to be jealous of his wife; and in the city of London it was a prodigy, till that time unknown, to see a husband have recourse to violent means to prevent what jealousy fears, and what it always deserves. They endeavoured, however, to excuse poor Lord Chesterfield, as far as they could safely do it, without incurring the public odium, by laying all the blame on his bad education. This made all the mothers vow to God, that none of their sons should ever set a foot in Italy, lest they should bring back with them that infamous custom of laying restraint upon their wives.” According to Allen Allen (‘The Royal Whore”, p87), nobody in the court at this time knew that Lady Chesterfield was four months pregnant. “Lady Chesterfield had a child at Bretby, and though Lord Chesterfield was uncertain whether he had become a father he saw that at least he had the decision on who should be godfather, and chose Lord Clarendon. He comforted himself with the thought that he, Chesterfield still wore among the courtiers the faint halo of the fathership of Lady Castlemaine’s first child”…
About Monday 3 November 1662
Jeannine • Link
A. DeAraujo... James' sins... according to Charles II, James' biggest fault was to pick mistresses (aka "targets") that were homely and skinny. Charles preferred the "beauties" of the day but his brother went after a different type and was teased about it regularly. Both were Libertines and had a series of mistresses, one night stands, etc. throughout their lifetimes, although James did somewhat reform while in exile and married to Mary of Modena. Both fathered a string of bastard children. James was a less flagrant about his activities, not so open to general "whoring" and clearly not as insensitive to the feelings of either of his wives in the process.
About Monday 3 November 1662
Jeannine • Link
"yet her Lord being still in town, and sometimes seeing of her, though never to eat or lie together"
Poor Roger Palmer, as Allen Andrews reports in "The Royal Whore" ..."When courtiers whispered that Barbara was pregnant again in October 1662, they recognized that Roger Castlemaine, who had been itching to go into Europe, would not be given pass to leave the country". Roger's unofficial "role" had been reduced to one where in order to make it look "proper" for his wife he was supposed to be in the vicinity of his wife around the time she became pregnant and when she delivered. Charles handled this by denying him leave when it was "convenient" for him to be "around".
About Monday 3 November 1662
Jeannine • Link
Lady Chesterfield-another "virtuous lady, treated badly....
Lord Chesterfield was a rogue and a ladies' man who “played the field”. He was a major lover of Lady Castlemaine before and during her marriage and overlapping the beginning time period of her affair with Charles II. During his period he feigned great affection for and then married married Elizabeth Butler, daughter of Ormond. Per Grammont” he had therefore married Lady Chesterfield without loving her, and had lived some time with her in such coolness, as to leave her no room to doubt of his indifference. As she was endowed with great sensibility and delicacy, she suffered at this contempt: she was at first much affected with his behaviour, and afterwards enraged at it; and, when he began to give her proofs of his affection, she had the pleasure of convincing him of her indifference.” Over time she began to “understand” and adopt to the ways of Charles' court and realized her marriage as a loss. In her loneliness she had her eyes set not only on the Duke of York but also a cousin James Hamilton. Around this time her husband had started to “fall in love” with his wife, which, in the court of Charles II was a laughable act of a fool. Lady Chesterfield began flirting around between Hamilton and the Duke of York. In order to throw the suspicion elsewhere, Hamilton started to plant the seed in Lord Chesterfield’s head that his wife was having an affair with the Duke. This made Chesterfield, in his jealousy, ever vigilant of that relationship while Hamilton was sneaking letters back and forth with his wife unnoticed. As all of this progressed none of the parties were particularly honest with the other but Lord Chesterfield’s suspicions were growing as was his jealousy of the Duke. Finally after a few suspicious situations including an incident where his wife ended up alone with the Duke during a guitar playing session, Chesterfield walked into a bombshell. He explained to Hamilton, who was now his confidant (per Grammont) that the Duke “was just now with my wife at a card party in the Queen’s chamber…They imagined they were cleverly hiding in the crowd. I do not know what had become of the Duke’s hand, but I know very well that his arm had disappeared right up to the elbow. He turned round and saw me, and was so disconcerted by my presence that in drawing away his hand he came near to completely undressing Lady Chesterfield”, As Pepys reports Lady Chesterfield was scurried away. Per Grammont “ The court was filled with the story of this adventure; nobody was ignorant of the occasion of this sudden departure, but very few approved of Lord Chesterfield's conduct. In England they looked with astonishment upon a man who could be so uncivil as to be jealous of his wife; and in the city of London it was a prodigy, till that time unknown, to see a husband have recourse to violent means to prevent what jealousy fears, and what it always deserves. They endeavoured, however, to excuse poor Lord Chesterfield, as far as they could safely do it, without incurring the public odium, by laying all the blame on his bad education. This made all the mothers vow to God, that none of their sons should ever set a foot in Italy, lest they should bring back with them that infamous custom of laying restraint upon their wives.” According to Allen Allen (‘The Royal Whore”, p87), nobody in the court at this time knew that Lady Chesterfield was four months pregnant. “Lady Chesterfield had a child at Bretby, and though Lord Chesterfield was uncertain whether he had become a father he saw that at least he had the decision on who should be godfather, and chose Lord Clarendon. He comforted himself with the thought that he, Chesterfield still wore among the courtiers the faint halo of the fathership of Lady Castlemaine’s first child”…
About Sunday 2 November 1662
Jeannine • Link
"in sitting too long bare-legged to pare my corns" perhaps there are certain parts of the diary that one would rather not visualize?
About Saturday 1 November 1662
Jeannine • Link
Langauge Hat, too true, but, Geraldo...UGH! He's from the school of better to remain silent and thought a fool then to open one's mouth and remove all doubt......At least after looking for fool's gold Sam won't end up doing news reports from hurricane locations and telling us it's windy out! He will still have a life, a career and the ability to report vis a vis the diary with style.
About Friday 31 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
Ooops--hit "post' too fast. We'll have to watch how he feels about her over time. I am wondering if her "beauty" will be diminished or not in his eyes as his animosity rises. Perhaps someone else will catch his eye. I don't know if he will be able to separate his attraction to her sexuality vs. the rise of her political influence which could threaten his livelihood (and that of others too). Also to ponder--do you think Sam's adoration of the Lady would be changing at all had she just remained a mistress to Charles, but one without greed of political influence?
About Friday 31 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
Terry, This is what I meant--he's been noting his strong feelings of concern against Lady Castlemaine more and more over the last few weeks...perhaps our Sam is realizing that beauty is more than skin deep? (then again, where he is our Sam perhaps not!). It's just an interesting shift from his awe strcuk reverence to her sex appeal and his former ability to "forgive" her so to speak for her lifestyle choices. Perhaps now he doesn't seem so enamoured by the total package.
About Friday 31 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
"my Lady Castlemaine, and her faction at Court; though I know not what they would have more than to debauch the king, whom God preserve from it"
Has anyone else noticed the shift in Sam's entries over the last few weeks as they apply to Lady Castlemaine? (or perhaps it's just me?). Her beauty aside does she seem to others to be taking on a different light in Sam's eyes--perhaps more "dangerous" to the good of the people? or at least more concern over her "faction at Court", which would include people like Berkely and Bennett? Perhaps Sam is seeing the shift in the politics and isn't liking her rising influence?
About Monday 27 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
"Black patches"
Rex--you were right--links are below. In the second link he compares Elizabeth to Princess Henrietta and says
"The Princess Henrietta is very pretty, but much below my expectation; and her dressing of herself with her hair frized short up to her ears, did make her seem so much the less to me. But my wife standing near her with two or three black patches on, and well dressed, did seem to me much handsomer than she."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
About Sunday 26 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
Castlemaine in the afterlife vs. this life...
Andrew --What a great poem! Now I suppose I could add a few poems written by Lord Rochester about Lady Castlemaine during her life. Now let's see.... if I edited out the obscene vulgarity from what he wrote about her in an effort to keep this a "family friendly" site, there wouldn't be anything left to say!
About Monday 27 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
"she did it because she did not like herself, nor had not liked herself, nor anything she did a great while. It seems she was well-favoured enough, but crooked’
Adam and Benenuto--I agree--it appears that the poor maid was somehow disabled or disfigured and probably suffered in her self-image becasue of it. Today would probably be seen as a "teen suicide". I would imagine back then more shocking because so many religions had such strong feelings about it being a "sin" to take one's life.
About Monday 27 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
Terry --ugh! What were they hiding!
About Monday 27 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
A. Hamilton
Beauty Marks were on the rise of the more wealthy upper class, and these "patches" were well used by people like Lady Castlemaine. They came in handy to hide marks of smallpox, venereal disease, etc. which could mar a woman's face.
About Monday 27 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
"Sir Charles Barkeley, their bringing in, and the high game that my Lady Castlemaine plays at Court "
Sir Charles Berkeley (Sam spells it Barkerly)
You have to forgive me for posting this but in case you haven’t had your daily dose of “tabloid trash” this little “resume” of Sir Charles Berkeley (1660 incident) is brought to you from “The Royal Whore” [biography of Lady Castlemaine] by Allen Andrews (page 41-42). You may notice a similarity of character among the “Lady” and her friend Berkeley, and it may help to explain Sam’s disappointment expressed over the last week or so regarding Berkeley’s recent “promotion”……..
After the Duke of York married a very pregnant Anne Hyde, he got cold feet and tried to squirm his way out of the marriage and in order to move things along a “gang of courtiers intrigued to convince the gullible James that Anne Hyde was worthless as a wife because they had all had the ultimate favors from her already. The Earl of Arran declared, with defamatory wit, that once at Hounslaerdyke, where James and Anne had become engaged, she had left a game of ninepins on the pretext of feeling faint and he had followed her to a private room, cut her laces, and ‘exerted himself to the best of his ability both in succour and consolidation’. Harry Jermyn and Richard Talbot offered additional spurious reminiscences. Tom Killigrew, a licensed wit who had decided that the matter was not yet, clinched, contributed a masculinly diverting but completely imaginary account of how ‘he had found the moment of his happiness in a certain closet which was constructed above the water to quite another end than relieving the pangs of love”. Three or four ‘swans’, he added ’had been the witnesses of his good fortune, and he had no doubt that they had witnessed the good fortune of many others in the same closet, since Miss Hyde resorted there often, and seemed indeed inordinately fond of the place’. In conclusion Sir Charles Berkeley, with touching clarity, assured the Duke of York, that he too, had had Anne Hyde, and was not too impressed with her now, but was willing to marry her in order to do the Duke a favor.’” After putting poor Anne through hell and back and having her deliver her son while abandoned by her morally depraved husband, it was “Sir Charles Berkeley who later confessed that his and his cronies’ stories of infidelity with Anne Hyde were impure invention.” This is exactly the type of background one will need to advance in the court of Charles II so perhaps Berkeley will do quite well, if not as a minister then in his well known role of “pimp” to both Charles and Lady Castlemaine (and not necessarily setting them up with each other).. …….Probably the only redeeming part of the story is knowing that the children who were later born by Anne Hyde and James (Mary and Anne) will get revenge on him at a later date and add truth to the saying “what goes around, comes around!”
About Monday 27 October 1662
Jeannine • Link
" that young Crofts is lawful son to the King, the King being married to his mother."
Not really a “spoiler” in any way regarding Sam, but perhaps to note and be aware to look for as it plays out over time. Today’s entry references James Crofts, Charles illegitimate son by Lucy Walters (see below). Over his lifetime, Charles will continue to treat James in a manner that will feed into the belief that James was actually his legitimate son and has a true claim to the throne.
Charles loved and indulged his bastard children by all of his mistresses. He especially loved James and treated him in a manner that set the public to have cause to think of him as a legitimate heir, but more important had James Crofts thinking of himself as a legitimate heir. All of this will have disastrous effects in the future of Charles II and those around him (his brother James and Catherine) as the politics start to kick in and people will demand a Protestant monarchy. .
Lucy Walters from http://www.britannia.com/history/…
The first pretty girl to catch his eye and the first of at least fifteen mistresses, was a Welshwoman, Lucy Walter whom he met in The Hague in the summer of 1648. Lucy took up with Charles shortly after his arrival , and in 1649 gave birth to his first child, James, later Duke of Monmouth. Lucy was her lover's constant companion, but he made the mistake of leaving her behind when he left The Hague in 1650. He returned to find she had been intriguing with a certain Colonel Henry Bennet. Charles ended the affaire there and then, leaving Lucy to a life of prostitution. She died, probably of venereal disease, in 1658.
About Barbara Palmer (Countess of Castlemaine)
Jeannine • Link
"The Royal Whore" by Allen Andrews
Barbara Villiers, (Lady Castlemaine, infamous mistress of Charles II) is well known to diary readers for her beauty and adoration by Sam. Barbara was a beauty on the outside but underneath a greedy, vulgar, unfaithful, backstabbing, vindictive Libertine whose main purpose in life was to dig her claws into Charles II and bleed him dry for whatever land, titles, money, jewels, and prestige that she could get. Her tactics ranged from erotic sexual seduction, to blackmail, to emotional battery and politicking, etc. to get what she desired. In order to understand Barbara, Allen takes the reader into the Court of Charles II and then exposes the crass, debauched, libertine lifestyle of the idle, morally corrupt rakes that were the courtiers of the King. In addition, the secret cabals and back room intrigues, along with some not so morally stellar side anecdotes of the entourage are set forth in an entertaining fashion. Barbara had a notorious appetite, not only for sex, where she had an ongoing and never ending overlapping string of partners, but mostly for material gain. She even sunk to an event of prostitution in later days when she found a wealthy man willing to pay for what the King had already tasted. In her glory days she carried a power over Charles which caused fear in those around him. Over time the bond was drawn out to cover the bastards that Charles had so kindly accepted as his own (although it's doubtful that many of them actually were his as she was always active with an overlapping string of men). As her glory days faded out she sunk into more debauchery and vulgar antics including the all time low of turning the mummified body of Bishop Braybooke (died 1404) into a eunuch by dismembering his private parts right of his coffin with her mouth.
Allen explains "Female rakes are rare, because profligacy with its exaggeration of the natural masculine taste for risk, adventure and sporting insecurity is a gross aberration from the feminine inclination. When women develop as libertines, and retain their maternal instinct to the extent that they give priority to the protection of their children and their lovers, they enlarge the family which must be maintained before they attend to other pleasures; whereas the male voluptuary diminishes or obliterates his family. The consequence is of greater psychological interest to an observer, but entirely devastating to the rake's intended prey. For since the woman needs more, she is that much more rapacious. When Barbara Cleveland [she was made the Duchess of Cleveland over time]wanted something, or someone, men trembled and obeyed" (p 225). Barbara's grasp of greed extended to cover her children and ensure titles, land, wealth, noble marriages, etc. and to support the lovers that she "paid" during their periods of "servicing" her. Of note, none of her children who were claimed by Charles amounted to anything of intellect, achievement or "value" and were pretty much classified as "blockheads", albeit, overindulged and spoiled ones. An interesting read of a complex, highly unlikable woman and her times.
Amazon US
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/…
Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
Used books
http://www.usedbooksearch.co.uk/c…