“Elizabeth, Lady Lucas, to the Earl of Newcastle.
“1645. December 20. You have been pleased to honour me by your letter, my daughter much more by marriage, and thereby made her extremely happy. The state of the kingdom is such that her mother cannot give unto her that which is hers nor can I shew my love and affection towards my daughter as I would, in respect of the great burdens we groan under.”
[129] Welbeck MSS.
Margaret thus analyses her love for Newcastle:—
“He was the onely Person I ever was in love with;
Neither was I ashamed to own it, but gloried therein, for it was not Amorous Love, I never was infected therewith, it is a Disease, or a Passion, or both, I only know by relation, not by experience; neither could Title, Wealth, Power, or Person entice me to love; but my love was honest and honourable, being placed upon Merit, which Affection joy’d at the fame of his Worth, pleas’d with delight in his Wit, proud of the respects he used to me, and triumphing in the affections he profest for me.”
This sounds rather an arctic sort of love; but, be that as it may, the wedding took place, and, according to Evelyn, in the chapel of Evelyn’s father-in-law, Sir Richard Brown, the English Ambassador.
Although married to one who had been among the wealthiest of English noblemen, the bride found herself in poverty. Her husband was unable to obtain a penny from England; the Parliament had taken possession of his estates and he was living with money borrowed upon, what looked at that time, exceptionally bad security. The Duchess says that “the ordinary Use” was then “at Six in the Hundred,” i.e. that the usual interest on good securities was 6 per cent. Then what rate of interest were lenders in Holland and France likely to have charged an exile whose chance of ever regaining his property seemed very remote? The question summons up visions of something nearer sixty than “six in the hundred”.
The bride thus describes the financial position:—
“After My Lord was married, having no Estate or Means left him to maintain himself and his Family, he was necessitated to seek for Credit, and live upon the Courtesie of those that were pleased to Trust him; which although they did for somewhile, and shew’d themselves very civil to My Lord, yet they grew weary at length, insomuch that his Steward was forced one time to tell him, That he was not able to provide a Dinner for him, for his Creditors were resolved to trust him no longer. My Lord being always a great master of his Passions, was, at least shew’d himself not in any manner troubled at it, but in a pleasant humour told me, that I must of necessity pawn my Cloaths to make so much Money as would procure a Dinner. I answer’d That my Cloaths would be but of small value and therefore desired my Waiting-Maid to pawn some small toys, which I had formerly given her, which she willingly did.”
One cannot help admiring Newcastle for being so far “master of his Passions,” as to overcome any desire to pawn his own clothes in order to get a dinner, and for conceiving the happy idea of telling his wife to pawn hers. When he had fortified himself by eating the dinner provided by pawning the toys belonging to his wife’s maid, Newcastle paid his creditors a visit and, by “perswasive arguments,” induced them to lend him some more money, with which he got the toys out of pawn for his wife’s maid, and provided her with means to go to England with the object of endeavouring to obtain some money from his brother-in-law.
Soon afterwards, Newcastle had “proffers made him of rich matches in England for his two sons,” whom he dispatched there forthwith, “hoping by that means to provide for them and himself”—the italics are not in the original. Somehow these matches failed to come off; but at least one of his sons made a good marriage a little later.
It may seem that, when Newcastle himself married a girl who was not an heiress, he must have lost the match-making instincts which he had inherited from his grandmother; but in justice to his memory let it be remembered that no heiresses were then to be had at the impoverished Court of the English Queen in France; and that, as Margaret’s father had been a very wealthy man, in the case of a royal restoration it was just possible that there might yet be some useful pickings.
CHAPTER XVI.
Although Queen Henrietta Maria had disapproved of Newcastle’s marriage with her maid-of-honour, she showed him considerable kindness. She invited him to a great Council which was held at St. Germains, attended by the Prince of Wales, Prince Rupert, the Marquesses of Worcester and of Ormond, the Earl of St. Albans, Lord Jermyn and others. At the Council, Newcastle[130] “delivered his sentiment, that he could perceive no other probability of procuring Forces for His Majesty, but an assistance of the Scots; But Her Majesty was pleased to answer my Lord, That he was too quick”. An unpleasant expression; but Her Majesty was quite right! For the King, unfortunately, did seek “an assistance of the Scots,” with a result only too well known.
[130] The Cavalier in Exile, p. 59.
The Queen did Newcastle a much greater service than the empty compliment of an invitation to a Council at which he was snubbed. She gave him £2000! Fortunately at that time, she still had some money. She received 12,000 crowns a month from Anne of Austria, and she obtained help from some of her relations; but she sent very large sums to her husband in England, and she made handsome donations to distressed cavaliers—such as Newcastle—in France and Belgium, selling her jewels for the same purposes. When the wars of the Fronde began, those who were helping her became in want themselves, and they could do nothing more for her. She then found herself in sore straits.
Mademoiselle de Montpensier says in her Memoirs: “The Queen of England appeared, during a little while, with the splendour of royal equipage, she had a full number of ladies, of maids of honour, of running footmen, coaches and guards. All vanished, however, by little and little, and at last nothing could be more mean than her train and appearance.” And so things went on, from bad to worse, until, about three years after the time with which we are now dealing, Cardinal de Retz found her, with her last loaf eaten, her last faggot burned, and her little daughter in bed at mid-day, because there was no fire on the hearth and snow was falling heavily.
Things were a long way from being so bad as that, however, when she gave Newcastle £2000. Having got that money, and having squeezed a little more cash out of his creditors, instead of economising, Newcastle left his lodgings and took a good house, resolving, as his wife says, “for his own recreation and divertisement in his banished condition, to exercise the Art of Mannage, which he is a great lover and Master of”. He gave £160 for one horse, and what is now vulgarly termed an “I.O.U.” for £100, for another. To estimate these prices as £480 and £300 of our money would be to undervalue them. But men in debt always seem to buy the longest-priced horses.
Soon after he had made these purchases, the Queen desired Newcastle to go to the Prince of Wales in Holland; but his ungrateful creditors made a difficulty about their debtor leaving Paris, whereupon the Queen most generously made herself responsible for his Parisian debts. On the morning of the day on which he left Paris, his creditors, says his wife, showed “so great a love and kindness for him” that they came to “take their farewell of him”. No wonder! It is easy to understand that they would be anxious, to have a few words with him—perhaps a good many words—and to come to a very clear understanding, before losing sight of him. Love and kindness indeed!
For about six months Newcastle lived at Rotterdam, as his wife tells us, “at a great charge keeping an open and noble table for all comers”; although he was heavily in debt and seemed to have little prospect of ever repaying his creditors.
In addition to the large sums he owed in Holland and in Paris, he borrowed £2000, while in Rotterdam, from Lord Hertford and Lord Devonshire, all of which he spent there, as well as another £1000 which he borrowed; “his expense being the more, by reason he lived freely and nobly,” which, of course, he had no business to do.[131]
[131] About this time Lady Newcastle lost her brother, Sir Charles Lucas, a very brave Cavalier, who, as she says, “was most inhumanly murthered and shot to death” at Colchester by the Parliamentary army.
While at Rotterdam, he made visits to the Prince of Wales at the Hague. Finding that he could be of no help to the Prince, and probably also finding that he could borrow no more money in Rotterdam, he went to Antwerp, where he took a house[132] “that belonged to the widow of a famous Picture-drawer, Van Ruben”. Here, however, was a difficulty, for the Widow Rubens’s house was “to be let unfurnished,” and Newcastle had no cash with which to buy furniture. Happily he was a past-master in the art of borrowing.
[132] The Cavalier in Exile, p. 63.
His wife says:—
“About this time my Lord was much necessitated for Money, which forced him to try several ways for to obtain so much as would relieve his present wants. At last Mr. Alesbury, the onely Son to Sir Th. Alesbury, Knight and Baronet, and Brother to the now Countess of Clarendon, a very worthy Gentleman, and great Friend to my Lord, having some Moneys that belonged to the now Duke of Buckingham, and seeing my Lord in so great distress did him the favour to lend him 200£. (which money my Lord since his return hath honestly and justly repaid).” No doubt! But that was some dozen years later, and the delay may have been inconvenient to the Duke of Buckingham. “This relief came so seasonably, that it got my Lord Credit in the City of Antwerp, whereas otherwise he would have lost himself to his great disadvantage; for my Lord having hired the house aforementioned, and wanting Furniture for it, was credited by the Citizens for as many Goods as he was pleased to have, as also for Meat and Drink, and all kind of necessaries and provisions, which certainly was a special Blessing of God, he being not onely a stranger in that Nation, but to all appearance, a Ruined man.”
While at Antwerp, Newcastle was exempted from all taxes and excise dues. In 1650 he was made a member of the Privy Council of Charles II, and he urged the King to make an agreement with Scotland on any terms and to go there in person. Hyde opposed the Scotch policy advocated by Newcastle, whom he describes in one of his letters “as a most lamentable man, as fit to be a general as to be a bishop”.[133] Yet Hyde and Newcastle remained on good terms, and, when Hyde was accused in 1653 of betraying the King’s Councils, Newcastle wrote him “a very comfortable letter of advice”.[134]
[133] Clarendon State Papers, II, 63.
[134] Ibid., 280.
At Antwerp Newcastle’s chief amusement was riding the two horses which he had bought for £160 and £100, until they both, unfortunately, suffered premature death. This is remarkable; for tittupping round a riding-school was a gentle form of exercise more likely to lengthen than to shorten a horse’s existence. Being desperately hard up, it might naturally be expected that he would give up riding and economise. Not a bit of it! On the contrary, finding himself horseless, “though he wanted present means to repair these his losses, yet he endeavoured and obtained so much Credit at last that he was able to buy two others, and by degrees so many as amounted in all to the number of 8. In which he took so much delight and pleasure, that though he was then in distress for Money, yet he would sooner have tried all other ways, then parted with any of them; for I have hear’d him say, that good Horses are so rare, as not to be valued for Money.” He had excellent offers for two of these horses; but, poor as he was, nothing would induce him to sell either of them.
So difficult did Newcastle find it to keep eight horses and himself, to say nothing of his wife, with scarcely any money in hand, and a rapidly diminishing credit, that it became necessary, not to reduce his stud, but to send his wife to England to try to raise the wind. He could spare her, but not his horses. With Lady Newcastle went Newcastle’s brother, Sir Charles Cavendish, whose property, which had been sequestered since he left England, was to be sold outright if he did not quickly compound for it.
Lady Newcastle and Sir Charles had so little money for their journey that they were obliged to stay at Southwark, until Sir Charles had pawned his watch to pay for their night’s lodging and for the very short remainder of their journey into London, where they found lodgings in Covent Garden. The Duchess’s book relates what followed.
“Having rested our selves some time, I desired my Brother the Lord Lucas, to claim, in my behalf, some subsistence for my self out of my Lords Estate (for it was declared by the Parliament, That the Lands of those that were banished, should be sold to any that would buy them, onely their Wives and Children were allowed to put in their Claims:) But he received this Answer, That I could not expect the least allowance, by reason my Lord and Husband had been the greatest Traitor of England (that is to say, the honestest man, because he had been most against them).”
Newcastle had felt some compunction about compounding with traitors to his King. Henrietta Maria very kindly wrote to him, saying that she had heard of his scruples from Lord Jermyn, adding: “I am sufficiently assured of your affection and fidelity to tell you, that I think the king cannot be displeased that you should do what the late king his father”—it was after the death of Charles I—“permited those to do who had served him, when he was not in a condition to assist them.... And I cannot forbear pitying you, knowing well your repugnance to treat with these abominable villains.”
The Duchess continues:—
“Then Sir Charles intrusted some persons to compound for his Estate; but it being a good while before they agreed in their Composition, and then before the Rents could be received, we having in the mean time nothing to live on, must of necessity have been starved, had not Sir Charles got some Credit of several Persons, and that not without great difficulty; for all those that had Estates, were afraid to come near him, much less to assist him, until he was sure of his own Estate. So much is Misery and Poverty shun’d!” No novel discovery.
“But though our Condition was hard, yet my dear Lord and Husband, whom we left in Antwerp, was then in a far greater distress than our selves.”
In fact his creditors had become very “impatient”—who can wonder?—and he wrote to his wife that, unless some money were sent to him immediately, he would starve. With very great difficulty Sir Charles Cavendish raised £200, which he sent out at once to his brother. We need not enter into the details of Sir Charles’s compounding for his estates, or of his saving Welbeck and Bolsover for Newcastle.
During her stay in England, Lady Newcastle consoled herself in her anxieties with pens and paper, of which we shall hear a good deal later.
It was probably not very long before Lady Newcastle’s visit to London that King Charles I was beheaded, an incident unmentioned in her memoirs. But perhaps she regarded it as a tragedy too well known to require notice.
After being in England a year and a half, having heard that her husband was “not very well,” and having but “small hopes” of raising money out of his estates, Lady Newcastle returned to him. Sir Charles Cavendish was prevented from accompanying her by ague, and she had reached her husband only a short time, when news came of Sir Charles’s death.
Clarendon[135] describes Sir Charles Cavendish as Newcastle’s “brave brother, who was a man of the noblest and largest mind, though the least, and most inconvenient body that lived”. Almost the only words at all approaching disparagement of her husband, occurring in the Duchess’s story of his life, are in her already quoted statement that he had “not so much of scholarship and learning as his brother Sir Charles Cavendish”.
[135] Hist., vol. II, part II. bk. viii.
As we have seen, Newcastle had written to his wife, in England, that unless she or his brother sent him money immediately, he would starve; therefore it might be reasonably supposed that he had sold the last of his horses. Such was very far from being the fact. When Lady Newcastle returned, she found her starving husband with “the Mannage of his horses,” as she calls it, so splendid that “all strangers that were Persons of Quality” came to see it.
It was at Antwerp that Newcastle wrote his famous book on horsemanship, which we will notice when we consider his literary works in a later chapter.
Ben Jonson had written, concerning Newcastle’s horsemanship:—
When first, my Lord, I saw you back your horse,
Provoke his mettle and command his force
To all the uses of the field and race,
Methought I read the ancient art of Thrace,
And saw a Centaur past those tales of Greece,
So seemed your horse and you both of a piece!
You showed like Perseus upon Pegasus,
Or Castor mounted on his Cyllarus,
Or what we hear our home-born legends tell,
Of bold Sir Bevis and his Arundel;
Nay, so your seat his beauties did endorse,
As I began to wish myself a horse;
And surely, had I but your stable seen
Before, I think my wish absolv’d had been,
For never saw I yet the Muses dwell,
Nor any of their household, half so well.
So well, as when I saw the floor and room,
I looked for Hercules to be the groom;
And cried, Away with the Cæsarian bread!
At these immortal mangers Virgil fed.
Underwoods, lxxii.
Of his book on horsemanship, Newcastle wrote to Secretary Nicholas from Antwerp, on 15 February, 1656: “I am so tormented about my book of horsemanship as you cannot believe, with a hundred several trades I think, and the printing will cost above £1,300, which I could never have done but for my good friends, Sir H. Cartwright and Mr. Loving; and I hope they shall lose nothing by it, and I am sure they hope the like”. Only the impecunious can afford to embark upon literary extravagances of this sort.
Lady Newcastle’s return had one very inconvenient effect. It had been generally known at Antwerp that her expedition to England had been for the purpose of raising money to pay her husband’s debts, and it was naturally, though most erroneously, assumed that she had returned with that money. In consequence, there was a general rush of Newcastle’s creditors to his house, crowding and clamouring for a settlement of their little accounts. Wonderful to relate, when Newcastle “had informed them of the truth of the business, and desired their patience somewhat longer,” they were “willing to forbear”. This, says the pious Duchess, “was a work of Divine Providence”. Undoubtedly it was; but did not Newcastle tempt Providence very hard, when he lived in what she admits to have been “so much Splendor and Grandure” on borrowed money, with only a very problematical prospect of ever being able to repay it?
It would seem, from the following letter, written by Buckingham, that Newcastle had asked him to beg on his account from Charles II; that Charles had promised some money, and had been persuaded to break his promise by Newcastle’s enemies. Buckingham also advises Newcastle to make the best terms he can with the Government of the Commonwealth about his property.[136]
[136] Portland MSS. at Welbeck Abbey, Hist. MSS. Com., 13th Rep., App., part II. vol. II. 137.