Friday 26 April 1667

Up, and by coach with Sir W. Batten and [Sir] W. Pen to White Hall, and there saw the Duke of Albemarle, who is not well, and do grow crazy. Thence I to St. James’s, to meet Sir G. Carteret, and did, and Lord Berkely, to get them (as we would have done the Duke of Albemarle) to the meeting of the Lords of Appeale in the business of one of our prizes. With them to the meeting of the Guinny Company, and there staid, and went with Lord Berkely. While I was waiting for him in the Matted Gallery, a young man was most finely working in Indian inke the great picture of the King and Queen sitting, by Van Dyke; and did it very finely. Thence to Westminster Hall to hear our cause, but [it] did not come before them to-day, so went down and walked below in the Hall, and there met with Ned Pickering, who tells me the ill newes of his nephew Gilbert, who is turned a very rogue, and then I took a turn with Mr. Evelyn, with whom I walked two hours, till almost one of the clock: talking of the badness of the Government, where nothing but wickedness, and wicked men and women command the King: that it is not in his nature to gainsay any thing that relates to his pleasures; that much of it arises from the sickliness of our Ministers of State, who cannot be about him as the idle companions are, and therefore he gives way to the young rogues; and then, from the negligence of the Clergy, that a Bishop shall never be seen about him, as the King of France hath always: that the King would fain have some of the same gang to be Lord Treasurer, which would be yet worse, for now some delays are put to the getting gifts of the King, as that whore my Lady Byron, who had been, as he called it, the King’s seventeenth whore abroad, did not leave him till she had got him to give her an order for 4000l. worth of plate to be made for her; but by delays, thanks be to God! she died before she had it. He tells me mighty stories of the King of France, how great a prince he is. He hath made a code to shorten the law; he hath put out all the ancient commanders of castles that were become hereditary; he hath made all the fryers subject to the bishops, which before were only subject to Rome, and so were hardly the King’s subjects, and that none shall become ‘religieux’ but at such an age, which he thinks will in a few, years ruin the Pope, and bring France into a patriarchate. He confirmed to me the business of the want of paper at the Council-table the other day, which I have observed; Wooly being to have found it, and did, being called, tell the King to his face the reason of it; and Mr. Evelyn tells me several of the menial servants of the Court lacking bread, that have not received a farthing wages since the King’s coming in. He tells me the King of France hath his mistresses, but laughs at the foolery of our King, that makes his bastards princes,1 and loses his revenue upon them, and makes his mistresses his masters and the King of France did never grant Lavalliere2 any thing to bestow on others, and gives a little subsistence, but no more, to his bastards. He told me the whole story of Mrs. Stewart’s going away from Court, he knowing her well; and believes her, up to her leaving the Court, to be as virtuous as any woman in the world: and told me, from a Lord that she told it to but yesterday, with her own mouth, and a sober man, that when the Duke of Richmond did make love to her, she did ask the King, and he did the like also; and that the King did not deny it, and [she] told this Lord that she was come to that pass as to resolve to have married any gentleman of 1500l. a-year that would have had her in honour; for it was come to that pass, that she could not longer continue at Court without prostituting herself to the King,3 whom she had so long kept off, though he had liberty more than any other had, or he ought to have, as to dalliance.4 She told this Lord that she had reflected upon the occasion she had given the world to think her a bad woman, and that she had no way but to marry and leave the Court, rather in this way of discontent than otherwise, that the world might see that she sought not any thing but her honour; and that she will never come to live at Court more than when she comes to town to come to kiss the Queene her Mistress’s hand: and hopes, though she hath little reason to hope, she can please her Lord so as to reclaim him, that they may yet live comfortably in the country on his estate. She told this Lord that all the jewells she ever had given her at Court, or any other presents, more than the King’s allowance of 700l. per annum out of the Privypurse for her clothes, were, at her first coming the King did give her a necklace of pearl of about 1100l. and afterwards, about seven months since, when the King had hopes to have obtained some courtesy of her, the King did give her some jewells, I have forgot what, and I think a pair of pendants. The Duke of York, being once her Valentine, did give her a jewell of about 800l.; and my Lord Mandeville, her Valentine this year, a ring of about 300l.; and the King of France would have had her mother, who, he says, is one of the most cunning women in the world, to have let her stay in France, saying that he loved her not as a mistress, but as one that he could marry as well as any lady in France; and that, if she might stay, for the honour of his Court he would take care she should not repent. But her mother, by command of the Queen-mother, thought rather to bring her into England; and the King of France did give her a jewell: so that Mr. Evelyn believes she may be worth in jewells about 6000l., and that that is all that she hath in the world: and a worthy woman; and in this hath done as great an act of honour as ever was done by woman. That now the Countesse Castlemayne do carry all before her: and among other arguments to prove Mrs. Stewart to have been honest to the last, he says that the King’s keeping in still with my Lady Castlemayne do show it; for he never was known to keep two mistresses in his life, and would never have kept to her had he prevailed any thing with Mrs. Stewart. She is gone yesterday with her Lord to Cobham. He did tell me of the ridiculous humour of our King and Knights of the Garter the other day, who, whereas heretofore their robes were only to be worn during their ceremonies and service, these, as proud of their coats, did wear them all day till night, and then rode into the Parke with them on. Nay, and he tells me he did see my Lord Oxford and the Duke of Monmouth in a hackney-coach with two footmen in the Parke, with their robes on; which is a most scandalous thing, so as all gravity may be said to be lost among us. By and by we discoursed of Sir Thomas Clifford, whom I took for a very rich and learned man, and of the great family of that name. He tells me he is only a man of about seven-score pounds a-year, of little learning more than the law of a justice of peace, which he knows well: a parson’s son, got to be burgess in a little borough in the West, and here fell into the acquaintance of my Lord Arlington, whose creature he is, and never from him; a man of virtue, and comely, and good parts enough; and hath come into his place with a great grace, though with a great skip over the heads of a great many, as Chichly and Duncum, and some Lords that did expect it. By the way, he tells me, that of all the great men of England there is none that endeavours more to raise those that he takes into favour than my Lord Arlington; and that, on that score, he is much more to be made one’s patron than my Lord Chancellor, who never did, nor never will do, any thing, but for money! After having this long discourse we parted, about one of the clock, and so away by water home, calling upon Michell, whose wife and girle are pretty well, and I home to dinner, and after dinner with Sir W. Batten to White Hall, there to attend the Duke of York before council, where we all met at his closet and did the little business we had, and here he did tell us how the King of France is intent upon his design against Flanders, and hath drawn up a remonstrance of the cause of the war, and appointed the 20th of the next month for his rendezvous, and himself to prepare for the campaign the 30th, so that this, we are in hopes, will keep him in employment. Turenne is to be his general. Here was Carcasses business unexpectedly moved by him, but what was done therein appears in my account of his case in writing by itself. Certain newes of the Dutch being abroad on our coast with twenty-four great ships. This done Sir W. Batten and I back again to London, and in the way met my Lady Newcastle going with her coaches and footmen all in velvet: herself, whom I never saw before, as I have heard her often described, for all the town-talk is now-a-days of her extravagancies, with her velvetcap, her hair about her ears; many black patches, because of pimples about her mouth; naked-necked, without any thing about it, and a black just-au-corps. She seemed to me a very comely woman: but I hope to see more of her on Mayday. My mind is mightily of late upon a coach. At home, to the office, where late spending all the evening upon entering in long hand our late passages with Carcasse for memory sake, and so home in great pain in my back by the uneasiness of Sir W. Batten’s coach driving hard this afternoon over the stones to prevent coming too late. So at night to supper in great pain, and to bed, where lay in great pain, not able to turn myself all night.

57 Annotations

First Reading

Mr. Gunning  •  Link

Guinny Company

Amazing, JamesII who led the company was willing to die and forsake the English crown in the name of catholicisim and Jesus Christ, yet had absolutely no qualms about enslaving 100,000 people.

I'm with Sam (Johnson) who said: "Of black men the numbers are too great who are now repining under English cruelty."

Johnson (unlike Boswell) could not stomach slavery. I wonder what our Sam's stance would be? He was no Johnson but perhaps a Boswell.

Eric Walla  •  Link

I have to say, stand back when two pent-up diarists get together! It's like they've been saving up stories with no one showing the right degree of interest, and then BAM! It all spills out, from Evelyn to Pepys to diary in one fluid motion.

cape henry  •  Link

"...stand back when two pent-up diarists get together!"
You have summed it up nicely, EW. This entry is one of Pepys' true talents in full, brilliant blossom, the combination of news and gossip into an entertaining tour de force of concise writing.

cape henry  •  Link

"Certain newes of the Dutch being abroad on our coast with twenty-four great ships."Interesting placement of this tidbit,as if - "oh well,nothing we can do about that..."

JWB  •  Link

Evelyn: "...none did cry, but dogs..." (on funeral of Cromwell)
What with this praise for Sun King cf Chas II, I don't suppose he would have wanted to take it back. I guess you have to live in a disordered state to want to plant your trees all in a row.

Art  •  Link

Why does all the gossip from Evelyn wind up in Pepys' diary? If you only read Evelyn, you wouldn't know the smallest fraction of what's going on!

Don O'Shea  •  Link

Although the diary was encoded, Pepys was writing for others to read it.

"By the way, he tells me, that of all the great men of England there is none that endeavours more to raise those that he takes into favour than my Lord Arlington;...."

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... the great picture of the King and Queen sitting, by Van Dyke; ..."

Oliver Millar, L&M footnote, identified the picture as:
Charles I and Henrietta Maria with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary, 1632
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk…
He also observed that no C17th drawings from the complete composition are known.

Mary  •  Link

What a lovely morning of insider gossip our friend has enjoyed. No wonder that he's written it all down in such detail, because now he'll be able to enjoy it all over again when he returns to his diary in future years.

The entry affords an interesting sidelight on Evelyn too, who can appear as something of a sober-sides.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Amazing, JamesII who led the company was willing to die and forsake the English crown in the name of catholicisim and Jesus Christ, yet had absolutely no qualms about enslaving 100,000 people."

Not exactly exceptional for the time if you were to check in on the Irish or Mexicans or most Russians or etc, etc, etc. As for the future: Some in my part of the US still celebrate the "glories"? of the Confederate slave empire their great-grandparents hoped to preserve forever. 20th century madmen on all sides managed to bomb, gas, shoot, firebomb, nuke, napalm, and otherwise murder about 100 million or so defenseless civilians, along with at least briefly enslaving tens of millions. And our current rulers had no qualms about killing 100,000 innocents in a recent war.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...there saw the Duke of Albemarle, who is not well, and do grow crazy."

The comfort of able and sober leadership in wartime.

"Thence I to St. James’s, to meet Sir G. Carteret, and did, and Lord Berkely, to get them (as we would have done the Duke of Albemarle) to the meeting of the Lords of Appeale in the business of one of our prizes."

Not to mention the bracing effect of knowing the leadership is focused on the vital issues facing the Nation at war.

Don McCahill  •  Link

> James II ... was willing to die and forsake the English crown in the name of catholicisim and Jesus Christ.

That's not how I read the history. James didn't give up the throne willingly, he lost it but not being a pretend protestant like his brother. He felt he could be openly Catholic and still King. It was a rather major error, as he discovered.

Don McCahill  •  Link

> Although the diary was encoded, Pepys was writing for others to read it.

I have to disagree with this one as well. If Pepys expected others to read the diary, he would have censored it much more fully and made himself look much better than he does.

Bradford  •  Link

"the King would fain have some of the same gang to be Lord Treasurer,"

Interesting, what seems an early use of "gang"---OEDers, when did it come into the language?

language hat  •  Link

"Although the diary was encoded, Pepys was writing for others to read it."

What makes you think that? I know of no evidence for it, and it seems extremely unlikely to me.

Mary  •  Link

"Pepys was writing for others to read it"

Goodness, the number of times that we've had this little debate over the years. I'm firmly with LH and Don on this one and have the impression that this (i.e. that the diary is intended to be a completely private record) is the prevailing view amongst the annotators - but we've never taken a straw poll.

Mary  •  Link

gang.

OED has the word first appearing with this pejorative sense in 1632 with reference to a 'gang of varlets.' It indicates a group of people who go about together.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Evelyn's gosspip

L&M note that Evelyn had not been in France since 1652 and may have got much of this material from his cousin Sir Samuel Tuke, http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… who had twice been on diplomatic missions to France since 1660.

Phoenix  •  Link

“Pepys was writing for others to read it.”

The fact that the diary survives and that Sam wanted it to surely indicates that he knew others would sooner or later find and read it. And putting a signpost to it by indexing it pretty well confirms this. I'm not so sure it was intended to be completely private. Many passages are not just extemporaneous recall but appear to be carefully crafted, accomplished writing, something one might do for personal satisfaction - or for future readers. The diary is not just a record of events per se - like much of Evelyn's diary - but of Sam's relationship to and involvement in the events, a dramatization of his daily round which I think suggests a bit more than a purely private record. It has to do with presentation, something one is unlikely to do for personal satisfaction.

jeannine  •  Link

"Pepys was writing for others to read it"

A tease and a spoiler (but nothing will be revealed). At some point Sam will share his thoughts on this topic, but we'll all have to sit and wait for quite a bit to see what he has to say about his Diary! The good thing is that we'll all have each other to debate this with until Sam shares his opinion!

Robert Gertz  •  Link

I'm quite sure Sam hoped the Diary would survive and might, in the distant future, long after his death, be discovered and read. Why else preserve it so carefully, even if it did keep Bess alive for him? However, I doubt he wrote for anyone but himself and thus let chips fall where they may. We are the richer for that. One hates to think of the Diary Sam would have written for public consumption during or immediately after his lifetime.

language hat  •  Link

"a dramatization of his daily round which I think suggests a bit more than a purely private record. It has to do with presentation, something one is unlikely to do for personal satisfaction."

Again, I must disagree. I used to keep a discursive diary, much more "literary" than Sam's, and I assure you I was doing so exclusively for my own satisfaction, with zero interest in anyone else ever seeing it.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... He tells me the King of France hath his mistresses, but laughs at the foolery of our King, that makes his bastards princes, ..."

"The Bastards," Louis, Duc du Maine, and Louis, Compte du Tolouse, their behavior and their ceremonial precedence over all were the subject of some of the most splenetic passages in the wonderfully ill tempered and self absorbed 'Memoir' of the Duc de Saint-Simon.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Weighing in late on this -- I'm behind in my Pepys, as unfortunately happens to me too frequently lately -- but I will add that IIRC it's biographer's Claire Tomalin's theory that Pepys decided to preserve the Diary only after re-reading it in his 60s.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... here he did tell us how the King of France is intent upon his design against Flanders, and hath drawn up a remonstrance of the cause of the war, ..."

L&M suggest this is:-
Traité des droits de la Reyne très chrestiene sur divers estats de la monarchie d’Espagne
Paris : Imprimerie Royale, 1667

for various editions see second part of post
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Certain newes of the Dutch being abroad on our coast with twenty-four great ships. "

L&M: The Dutch plan this year was to attack shipping in the Thames, and their main fleet left the Dutch coast for this purpose on 4 June. The ships mentioned here were those of the diversionary squadron under van Ghent which now came out and, after convoying a merchant fleet to the North, made raids and took prizes in the Firth of Forth.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the Duke of Albemarle...is not well, and do grow crazy."

L&M: Albemarle was 59. He retired from public life at the end of 1668.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the great picture of the King and Queen sitting, by Van Dyke;"

L&M: The picture was of Charles I and his Queen seated, with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary (The greate peece of Our royal selfe, Consort and children'); van Dyck's first important royal commission after his arrival in London. He was paid £100 for it by a warrant of 8 August 1632. It is now at Buckminster Palace (see O. Millar, Tudor, Stuart and Early Georgian pictures in coll. H.M. Queen (1963), no. 150. No 17th-century drawings from the complete composition are known.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and then, from the negligence of the Clergy, that a Bishop shall never be seen about him, as the King of France hath always:"

L&M: Charles had been alienated from most of his bishops since the failure of his indulgence scheme in the spring of 1663. Several of Louis XIV's bishops held office at court.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"now some delays are put to the getting gifts of the King, as that whore my Lady Byron, who had been, as he called it, the King’s seventeenth whore abroad, did not leave him till she had got him to give her an order for 4000l. worth of plate to be made for her; but by delays, thanks be to God! she died before she had it."

L&M: Lady Byron had died in January 1664. She had contrived to get £15,000 from the King during his exile, but after the Restoration only with difficulty secured payment of a pension of £500 p.a. As for her being Charles's 'seventeenth whore abroad', there have been several attempts at counting them, but none giving such a high total for this early period.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the King of France....hath made a code to shorten the law."

L&M: Colbert's ordonnance (April 1667) reforming civil procedure; the first of a series of important legal reforms. F. A. Isambert, receuil des anciennes lois françaises, xviii (1829, no. 503.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"he hath put out all the ancient commanders of castles that were become hereditary"

L&M: There had been a large-scale reorganisation of commands of castles and garrisons in 1666: L. André Michel le Tellier, esp. pp. 534-5.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and that none shall become ‘religieux’ but at such an age, which he thinks will in a few, years ruin the Pope, and bring France into a patriarchate."

L&M: An edict (December 1666) had forbidden the establishment of new orders without the King's consent , and a parliamentary arrêt (April 1667) had reformed the four mendicant orders. The proposal to put an age limit on monks was abandoned at the behest of the Nuncio. See Isambert, op. cit. xviii, no. 496. C. Gérin, Louis XIV et le Saint-Siège, ii. 126-8. Cf. D de Repas to Sir R. Harley (London 8 December 1666): 'I hope to see all France cast off the authority og the Pope, which they do by degrees...in twenty or thirty years there will not be any monastery left....' (HMC, Portland, iii. 303).

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the business of the want of paper at the Council-table the other day, which I have observed; Wooly being to have found it, and did, being called, tell the King to his face the reason of it"

L&M: See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Evelyn's father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, was Clerk to the Council.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He tells me the King of France hath his mistresses, but laughs at the foolery of our King, that makes his bastards princes,1 and loses his revenue upon them, and makes his mistresses his masters and the King of France did never grant Lavalliere any thing to bestow on others, and gives a little subsistence, but no more, to his bastards. "

L&M: In fact Louis' bastards were given titles, lands and offices, and Louise de La Vallière obtained favours both fot herself and her relatives.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the King of France would have had her mother, who, he says, is one of the most cunning women in the world, to have let her stay in France, saying that he loved her not as a mistress, but as one that he could marry as well as any lady in France; and that, if she might stay, for the honour of his Court he would take care she should not repent."

L&M: Her Father, Walter Stewart, seems to have been a physician in the service of Henrietta-Maria. She had been given a present by Louis XIV when she left for England in January 1662 to enter the service of Catherine of Braganza, but nothing appears to be known of his desire to prevent her going.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"By and by we disc aoursed of Sir Thomas Clifford, whom I took for a very rich and learned man, and of the great family of that name."

L&M: He had beenppointed Comptroller of the Household in November 1666; and was soon (22 May) to be a Treasury Commissioner. Evelyn knew him as a colleague on the Commission for the Sick and Wounded. His account of Clifford, as Pepys reports it, is similar to the account in his own diary at 18 August 1673; cf. also ib., 27 November 1666. It has several inaccuracies. His family (the Cliffords, Earls of Westmorland) was one with which Pepys's wife claimed relationship: see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Sir Thomas belonged to a cadet branch which had settled in Devon.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He tells me he is only a man of about seven-score pounds a-year"

L&M: His patrimony was of about that value: for a account of his property (1659) see C. H. Hartmann, Clifford, pp. 14-23. But he had married well and had been given offices and perquisites vy the King, and was now employing a financial expert to look after his affairs to whom he paid £40 p.a.: ib., pp. 45, 124-5.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He tells me he is only a man...of little learning"

L&M: He always regretted his lack of languages, but he had a flair for finance and a command of both the spoken and written word.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He tells me he is...a parson’s son, got to be burgess in a little borough in the West."

L&M: Totnes, Devon, which he had represented sinces 1660. It was his grandfather (Thomas Clifford, d. 1634), not his father, who was his parson. (He had taken orders when a country gentliman of 38: Hartmann, p. 6.) Burnet (i. 402) falls into the same error.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"By the way, he tells me, that of all the great men of England there is none that endeavours more to raise those that he takes into favour than my Lord Arlington; and that, on that score, he is much more to be made one’s patron than my Lord Chancellor, who never did, nor never will do, any thing, but for money!'

L&M: Arlington (Bennet) had since 1663 deliberately formed (or presided over) a parliamentary party in rivalry to Clarendon. Clifford, with whom his frenship dated to c. 1662, was its 'bribe-master-general'. Clarendon (often accused of receiving money for offices: e.g. CJ, ix. 16) had always refrained from using government resources to form a political clientèle around him. Burnet (i. 402) states that Clifford turned to Bennet only after he had failed to engage the interest of Clarendon. See A. Browning in TRHS (ser. 4), 30/22+: cf. M. H. Nicolson (ed.), Conway Letters, p. 240.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"he did tell us how the King of France is intent upon his design against Flanders, and hath drawn up a remonstrance of the cause of the war"

L&M: Published as Traité des droits de la reine très-chrétienne sur divers États de la monarchie d'Espagne (Paris, 1667).

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I hope to see more of her on Mayday."

L&M: When the beauty and chivalry of the town paraded in Hyde Park in carriages.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Phil brought to my attention a London Gazette article for 26 April, 1667 ... and we can read it online. It's towards the bottom right of this page: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Lond…

My best effort as it's very blurred and he kindly sent me a still blurred enlargement:

"WHITEHALL April 26: This date the Ambassadors Extraordinary of Sweden took leave of their Majesties in a solemn Audience in the Banqueting House wither they were conducted in His Majesty's coach as is the usual practice by the Right Honourable the Earl of Carlisle, accompanied by Sir Charles Cotterel, Master of the Ceremonies, and [] with a numerous Train of Coaches, being in few days to depart hence for Breda, to assist w[ith] the Treaty."

I'm glad they got the Banqueting House cleaned up after the unsolemn St. George's Day's food fight. And I note there was more than one Swedish Ambassadors Extraordinary.

JayW  •  Link

Terry Foreman, I think the Queen’s Collection is at Buckingham Palace. And she still sends a carriage and escort to convey Ambassadors to Court for official arrivals and departures, SDS, all in red and black royal livery - or did until the COVID-19 lockdown, at least. At the moment she only has telephone meetings so London is deprived of the spectacle.

Scube  •  Link

This is one of the longer entries we have seen in a while. Wonder what the longest entry is. Be fun to rank them by length. As to Pepys intentions on others reading his diary, he probably wrote it initially for himself, then as men often do in later years, decided to preserve it for posterity.

Timo  •  Link

I cant believe you just wrote this Scube. I was about to write exactly the same. It must be the longest so far.

Timo  •  Link

I can’t wait to read Language Hat’s memoirs. I bet they’re a scream

T Webster  •  Link

Pepys left his professionally bound diaries to his alma mater, Cambridge, together with his library of carefully selected books in custom made book cases, including the book from which he learned the shorthand used in the diary. The idea that this was all to be a secret forever is fanciful. Of course he thought others would read it -- after he was dead and no longer subject to repercussions from some who would not want the world to know what Pepys revealed. He was writing for posterity. What an excellent website this is.

Timo  •  Link

Very good point TW. Although whether Pepys’ words, at the moment of writing, were for a future audience is still open to debate.

Thanks for the tip Terry

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.