Wednesday 28 March 1660

This morning and the whole day busy, and that the more because Mr. Burr was about his own business all the day at Gravesend. At night there was a gentleman very well bred, his name was Banes, going for Flushing, who spoke French and Latin very well, brought by direction from Captain Clerke hither, as a prisoner, because he called out of the vessel that he went in, “Where is your King, we have done our business, Vive le Roi.” He confessed himself a Cavalier in his heart, and that he and his whole family had fought for the King; but that he was then drunk, having been all night taking his leave at Gravesend the night before, and so could not remember what it was that he said; but in his words and carriage showed much of a gentleman. My Lord had a great kindness for him, but did not think it safe to release him, but commanded him to be used civilly, so he was taken to the Master’s Cabin and had supper there. In the meantime I wrote a letter to the Council about him, and an order for the vessel to be sent for back that he was taken out of. But a while after, he sent a letter down to my Lord, which my Lord did like very well, and did advise with me what was best to be done. So I put in something to my Lord and then to the Captain that the gentleman was to be released and the letter stopped, which was done. So I went up and sat and talked with him in Latin and French, and drank a bottle or two with him; and about eleven at night he took boat again, and so God bless him. Thence I to my cabin and to bed. This day we had news of the election at Huntingdon for Bernard and Pedly, at which my Lord was much troubled for his friends’ missing of it.

22 Annotations

First Reading

Keith Wright  •  Link

And in a memorable cameo role:

"Banes, -----. The well-bred gentleman arrested for shouting 'Vive le Roy' is identifiable as Robert Banes, of Hampshire, on the strength of a reference in Clarendon's papers. But there were several royalists of this name in Lancashire too."

---Companion, pp. 17-18, complete.
Oh for a précis of their bottle-talk: even had one been a fly on the wall, few flies know Latin, and perhaps fewer yet know French pronounced à l'anglaise de dix-septième siècle.

steve h  •  Link

Meanwhile in London...

On this date, General Monk dined at the Draper's Hall and heard an Entertainment, namely "A Dialog between Tom a Countryman and Dick a Londoner, sung to the tune, 'I'll never love thee more'." Monk at this point was being feasted by the nine prinipal guilds in turn, with a stage-play acted at each.

Pauline  •  Link

Wait a minute, Steve
To the tune of "I'll never love thee more," but to what extent a parody on those sentiments, this "dialog" between country and town?

I suppose we don't get to know.

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

The fable of the town mouse and the country mouse was a well-known one. Thomas Wyatt wrote a satire on it in the previous century - see this link and scroll down to the poem beginning:

My mothers maydes when they did sowe and spyn
They sang sometyme a song of the feld mowse ;

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.c…

The issues between country people and town people were no different by Pepys' time.

RickAnsell  •  Link

A comment on Sams _official_ status on board.

I have seen Sam described as a 'Passenger' and, on this site, as a 'Civilian'. On this voyage at least he was neither.

On the 22nd he 'received my warrant of Mr. Blackburne, to be Secretary to the two Generals of the Fleet'.

Whilst he was not a seaman, as Secretary to the Generals of the Fleet he was a Warrant Officer in the Navy, ranked with the non-commisioned 'heads of Department' like the Gunner, Carpenter, Bosun etc. As such he would have normally eaten and socialised ('messed with') these men and the Lieutenants in the Gunroom, into which most officers cabins would have opened. Sam seems to have had a cabin closer to the Admirals, there are several just outside the Admirals Quarters on the Victory.

He would have had a 'Battle Station'. In later years, and probably at this time, he would have stood beside the Admiral on the Quarter Deck, taking a timed running commentary of events, signals sent and received etc. and taking sown any written orders from the Admiral. This was a risky place to be, Nelsons Secretary, John Scott, was decapitated by a roundshot in the early minutes of Trafalgar.

Glyn  •  Link

the election at Huntingdon for Bernard and Pedly

Sir John Bernard (aged 30) is a local, county rival to Lord Montagu, and Sam's entry for 14 March

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

shows some of the steps Montagu took to try and prevent Bernard being elected to Parliament. As we can see, he was unsuccessful. Since Pepys doesn't make any particular comment about it, maybe he personally didn't mind one way or the other.

KVK  •  Link

Parliamentary elections
For those who are curious what these elections were like, I've posted a (somewhat long) excerpt from Lucy Hutchinson's memoirs on the House of Commons page, describing the Nottingham election for this upcoming Parliament. This particular election doesn't take place until the 2nd, but the account gives an idea of the process and the debates already going on in other boroughs. Like Huntingdon, the Nottingham election was an actual contest.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

mary  •  Link

The mysterious Mr. Banes

It looks as if Banes is at first thought to be one of those dangerous persons that the ports between Hastings and Yarmouth were warned to look out for on 23rd March.

It's interesting that it seems to have been his reckless shouting of 'Vive le Roi' rather than the sentiment itself that was seen as dangerous. Once he's sobered up and discretion has been restored, he is allowed to go on his way. All indicative of a delicately balanced political situation.

Glyn  •  Link

Yes, drunken actions like Banes's could easily start riots and brawls, especially in London's numerous taverns. Remember that on 19 March, Pepys had written about a Proclamation "that all Cavaliers do depart the town", and Banes sounds as if he is one of them. Kicked out of London, he's on his way back to the Continent.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

mark  •  Link

Refreshing to see such lack of vindictiveness after a civil war. Was it like that everywhere then?

Emilio  •  Link

Elections
The discussion brings to mind Dickens's marvelous description of the election in Eatanswill (love the name) in The Pickwick Papers. You can find the relevant passage here:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etc…
Search for "noise and bustle" at the beginning of the passage, and have fun!

Roger Miller  •  Link

'I’ll never love thee more' could be the verse by James Graham, Marquis of Montrose (1612-1650). There is a tune for this in Playford's Dancing Master.

Montrose's first four lines are:

MY dear and only Love, I pray
That little world of thee
Be govern'd by no other sway
Than purest monarchy

The full text is here: http://www.bartleby.com/40/243.ht…

If the Drapers were invoking Montrose I wonder what message they were giving Monck. As I understand it, Montrose was a strong supporter of Charles I but had been let down badly by Charles Stuart. See http://www.skyhook.co.uk/civwar/b… or http://www.montrose-society.org.u…

steve h  •  Link

Great post Roger Miller

Even the footnotes on the footnotes are fascinating.

kvk  •  Link

Cult of Charles I martyr
According to 18th century antiquarian Tomas Hearne, Thomas Rawlinson inserts a printed engraving of Charles II, which had a short poem at bottom, into his notebook today. This seems to be the earliest recorded example of this sort of thing circulating in London. That particular engraving is lost but according to Hearne's description it was an early edition of this William Faithorne image:
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GRAPHICS/…

And the verses as Hearne recorded them are these. Note that it presents Charles I as a Christian martyr and compares him to no less a person than Jesus. This sort of sentiment is going to become very widespread.

The Second Charles, Heir of the Royal Martyr,
who, for Religion and his Subjects Charter,
spent the best Blood, that unjust Sword e'er dyed,
since the rude Soldier pierced our Savior's side:
who such a Father had'st; art such a Son;
redeem thy people and assume thy Own.

Roger Miller  •  Link

Society of King Charles the Martyr

Veneration of Charles I as a saint continues to the present day.

See: http://www.skcm.org/

Roger Miller  •  Link

Tom and Dick

This is the text of the Drapers' Hall ballad from the Bodlian Library's broadsheet collection.

http://bodley24.bodley.ox.ac.uk/c…

The song is addressed directly to Monck. It identifies the cause of the troubles of both town and country as 'Our damned breach of Oaths and Laws;Our Murther of the King' and ends by asking 'Restore us but our Laws agen'. Note that it doen't actually call for the restoration of the monarchy. It's more about calling on Monck to demonstrate that he can be trusted.

Grahamt  •  Link

George Lewis of Hanover born this day.
Great-grandson of James I. Later to become George I, king of Great Britain.

Second Reading

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

It appears that the town of Huntingdon and the county of Huntingdonshire both returned two MPs. Mountagu may have hoped to gain all four for his faction/family interest.

Lord Mandeville, the heir to Mountagu's cousin Manchester WAS elected for Huntingdonshire, but his uncle George, presumably by "my lord" 's influence (as de-facto warden of the Cinque Ports) was elected for Dover instead.

Interestingly, Mandeville's colleague as MP for Huntingdonshire was Henry Cromwell-Williams, a cousin of the Protector. The family name of the Cromwells was originally Williams:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henr…

Dick Wilson  •  Link

It is not surprising that they are having trouble obeying an order to "arrest dangerous persons." I'd like to give such an order to the local police, right now. It sounds like a good idea. In Pepys' day, with its divided loyalties and people trying to guess who is going to win so they can join the winner's side (or at least distance themselves from the losers), the merry question is "dangerous to whom?" Evidently, a merry gentleman qualifies as dangerous, until he sobers up.

Jackie  •  Link

There they all are delicately taking over the fleet ready for the politically tricky task of fetching the King back to a Country which is to put it mildly divided over whether they want a King at all and the bulk of the Army currently very opposed. In order to do so, people of apparently Republican sentiments are put in command of the Fleet when some idiot starts shouting in favour of the King. Of course they have to be seen to arrest him, otherwise what they’re really all up to becomes obvious, so they make a show of arresting him then treat him nicely, give him a dinner and a chance to sober up before quietly sending him on his way again. Job done.

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