Thursday 2 July 1663
Up betimes to my office, and there all the morning doing business, at noon to the Change, and there met with several people, among others Captain Cox, and with him to a Coffee [House], and drank with him and some other merchants. Good discourse. Thence home and to dinner, and, after a little alone at my viol, to the office, where we sat all the afternoon, and so rose at the evening, and then home to supper and to bed, after a little musique. My mind troubled me with the thoughts of the difference between my wife and my father in the country.
Walking in the garden this evening with Sir G. Carteret and Sir J. Minnes, Sir G. Carteret told us with great contempt how like a stage-player my Lord Digby spoke yesterday, pointing to his head as my Lord did, and saying, “First, for his head,” says Sir G. Carteret, “I know what a calf’s head would have done better by half for his heart and his sword, I have nothing to say to them.” He told us that for certain his head cost the late King his, for it was he that broke off the treaty at Uxbridge. He told us also how great a man he was raised from a private gentleman in France by Monsieur Grandmont, and afterwards by the Cardinall, —[Mazarin]— who raised him to be a Lieutenant-generall, and then higher; and entrusted by the Cardinall, when he was banished out of France, with great matters, and recommended by him to the Queen as a man to be trusted and ruled by: yet when he came to have some power over the Queen, he begun to dissuade her from her opinion of the Cardinal; which she said nothing to till the Cardinal was returned, and then she told him of it; who told my Lord Digby, “Eh bien, Monsieur, vous estes un fort bon amy donc:” but presently put him out of all; and then he was, from a certainty of coming in two or three years’ time to be Mareschall of France (to which all strangers, even Protestants, and those as often as French themselves, are capable of coming, though it be one of the greatest places in France), he was driven to go out of France into Flanders; but there was not trusted, nor received any kindness from the Prince of Conde, as one to whom also he had been false, as he had been to the Cardinal and Grandmont. In fine, he told us how he is a man of excellent parts, but of no great faith nor judgment, and one very easy to get up to great height of preferment, but never able to hold it.
So home and to my musique; and then comes Mr. Creed to me giving me an account of his accounts, how he has now settled them fit for perusal the most strict, at which I am glad. So he and I to bed together.
19 Annotations
First Reading
Todd Bernhardt • Link
"Eh bien, Monsieur, vous estes un fort bon amy donc"
Anyone care to translate? I can figure out most except the "amy donc"...
"and then he was, from a certainty of coming in two or three years’ time to be Mareschall of France (to which all strangers, even Protestants, and those as often as French themselves, are capable of coming, though it be one of the greatest places in France)"
I'd be most indebted to anyone who can shed light on this, too...
Lea • Link
"un fort bon amy donc" -- isn't it "you are a very good friend therefore"?
TerryF • Link
To attempt to clarify
At the time of Louis XIV, many foreigners were mong the 51 he gave the high rank and title of Mareschall of France http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars… - one of Louis' skills was pan-European coalition-building, deputizing socially well-connected mercenaries, in effect.
Roy Feldman • Link
Pepys's Slumber Parties
Apologies if this has been answered before, but why does Creed always seem to end up lodging at Pepys's place? Doesn't he have his own place? I would think he could afford the cabfare, what with all those pieces of eight...
TerryF • Link
"why does Creed always seem to end up lodging at Pepys’s place?"
Well, he doesn't "always", does he. Part of your impression may be explained by the Background info on John Creed, esp. the main annote by language hat, who cites the L&M Companion entry -
"He had some private wealth, and (if Pepys is to be believed) was thoroughly mean with it?refusing loans to Sandwich, and moving his bachelor apartments from time to time in order to avoid the poll-tax."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Robert Gertz • Link
"...then comes Mr. Creed to me giving me an account of his accounts, how he has now settled them fit for perusal the most strict, at which I am glad. So he and I to bed together."
In bed together indeed... Sam, I would follow up on your own advice to yourself and get away from this fellow tout sweet.
Xjy • Link
“Eh bien, Monsieur, vous estes un fort bon amy donc”
Well, Sir, a great friend you are to be sure"
Roughly.
A bit more today: "you turned out to be then..."
Glyn • Link
Elizabeth, please do come home quickly, so Sam doesn't have the time to write entries as these.
language hat • Link
What?
If you don't enjoy reading long entries, why are you reading the diary at all?
TerryF • Link
"In fine, he told us how he is a man of excellent parts, but of no great faith nor judgment, and one very easy to get up to great height of preferment, but never able to hold it."
Wonderful description by Sir G. Carteret!
I wonder how many like Lord Digby in this respect there are at present. Nominations?
Bradford • Link
"Ah, sir, you are a very firm friend, then"---each reader will have their own colloquial rendering. ("old" French spelling)
Creed rectifying his accounts to Pepys's satisfaction, and then the two sharing a mattress---a literal enactment of the figurative phrase "to be in bed with someone."
Todd Bernhardt • Link
"So he and I to bed together."
You bring up a good point, Bradford -- I've wondered if the phrase above means that they're literally in bed together, or simply that Creed bunks down in another bed (possibly in the same room) at the same time as Sam goes to his. We know that Sam certainly has enough beds in his house that a guest wouldn't be forced to sleep with him, especially given how empty the house is now.
And LH, in Glyn's defense, I understand what he means sometimes -- I love the long, meaty entries, but sometimes when things are hectic and I'm pressed for time, I appreciate it when Sam's a bit more brief, giving me time to concentrate on the present rather than the past...
language hat • Link
"in Glyn’s defense"
Yeah, sorry Glyn, I know you're a regular and obviously love the entries and were just being funny -- I'm just cranky these days because when it's not raining it's hot and muggy, so I got snippy. Mea culpa.
Glyn • Link
That's OK L.Hat - I read what you were saying on your own website - but sometimes I wonder how he has the time to write all of this. Presumably he doesn't draft any entry in advance but writes it as he thinks of it.
jeannine • Link
Summary of Digby from Allen Andrews “The Royal Whore”
Castlemaine’s self appointed “role” included being hostess to the political get togethers after the day of Parliamentary meetings, etc. “While Charles was mediating his Declaration of Indulgence she brought in the Earl of Bristol. If she saw this peer, an undistinguished enemy of Clarendon’s, as her hatchet man capable of securing the long wished extinction of the Chancellor, it is an indication of Barbara’s poor political judgment. The whole assay was a disaster.
George Digby, second Earl of Bristol, was an old friend of Bennet and of the King. He had been secretary of state to Charles II in exile, but he was converted to Roman Catholicism in 1658 and had to be deprived of his office. An endearing, impetuous and unreliable man, he could still assume no office on his return to England, but he appointed himself the political champion of the Roman Catholics.
He also made much of Lady Castlemaine. His enthusiastic partisan promotion of her cause during the bedchamber controversy increased Charles’ affection for him. It was natural that Bristol should be deeply concerned with implementing the King’s intention to secure some measure of toleration for Roman Catholics, and during the framing of the declaration of Indulgence he was accepted more decisively as of the Castlemaine set. Clarendon effectively killed any parliamentary acceptance of toleration, and in irascible Bristol determined to bring the Chancellor down in a forlorn hope of foolish extremism. (At cards, dice and politics he was always an unsuccessful gambler).
He was no mean orator-he had made a profoundly influential speech to the Lords, persuading them to support the King’s policy of political appeasement by renouncing reprisal against all the Commonwealth crimes except the regicide. Bristol now made the unorthodox step of going into the House of Commons to deliver a speech attacking the Chancellor. When the King asked later to see the speech, and told him it was seditious, Bristol burst into an extraordinary tirade against Charles himself, so completely dumbfounding the King in his own closet that, as Charles said afterwards, “I had not the presence of mind to call for the guard and send hi to the Tower, as I ought to have done.” (p 103-104).. to be continued tomorrow…
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"He told us that for certain his head cost the late King his, for it was he that broke off the treaty at Uxbridge."
Bristol (then Digby) had been Secretary of State at the time of the negotiations at Uxbridge with Parliament in January-February 1645, but there is no foundation for this explanation of their failure. He was not one of the commissioners who conducted them; Parliament had made it a condition of the negotiations that he should not be. Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, iii, 465. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.…
(Per L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
"He told us that...he was, from a certainty of coming in two or three years’ time to be Mareschall of France (to which all strangers [i.e. foreigners], even Protestants, and those as often as French themselves, are capable of coming, though it be one of the greatest places in France)"
The marshals of France (whose number -- now about 12 -- was not fixed) were the highest-ranking officers of the French army after the suppression of the office of constable in 1627. They included Germans and Scandinavians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar…
Terry Foreman • Link
"he was driven to go out of France into Flanders; but there was not trusted, nor received any kindness from the Prince of Conde"
Condé, leader of the 'Princes' Fronde' , had fled to the Spanish Netherlands 1653 and taken service there, returning to France in 1659. Digby had been banished there in August 1656. Clarendon's account suggests that in the Spanish service Digby had some influence, although he was not trusted. Hist. vi, 49+. (Per L&M footnote, as is the preceding post)
Chris Squire UK • Link
The Treaty of Uxbridge of early 1645 was a negotiation to try to end the First English Civil War. It came between two major Parliamentary victories, Marston Moor in 1644 and Naseby in 1645, but when some minor victories for the Royalists made Charles I still unwilling to compromise. So nothing came of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre…
Part of the house in which the negotiations took place remains and is now the Crown and Treaty public house. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro…