COUNT KÖNIGSMARK AND THE DUCHESS OF SOMERSET.
Several notices of Count Königsmark have lately appeared in "N. & Q.," Walpole's mistake having occasioned a question by MR. MARKLAND respecting his identity. There can, however, be no doubt that the person who was tried for being accessory to the assassination of Mr. Thynne in 1681-2, and whose trial is reported at length in the 9th volume of Howell's State Trials, p. 1., was Charles John Count Königsmark, as stated by MR. BRUCE in Vol. v., p. 115. of "N. & Q.," and whose biography and genealogy are more fully given by J. R. J. in p. 183. of the same volume.
In the Note on this subject by J. R. J. it is stated that "the most mysterious episode in the life of this Count Königsmark was brought on by his sueing for England's richest and highest heiress, Elizabeth, daughter of Josceline, second Earl of Northumberland." This is perfectly true; but the personal history of this lady, her connexion with Königsmark, her imputed privity to the murder of Mr. Thynne, and the savage allusion to these circumstances by Swift thirty years afterwards, deserve a more particular notice.
Elizabeth, Baroness Percy, was daughter and heiress of Josceline, Earl of Northumberland, who died in 1670. According to Collins (Peerage, vol. iv. p. 185.) she was four years old at the time of her father's death; so that she was born in 1666. In 1679 she was married to Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle, who was only son and heir of the Duke of Newcastle, and who died in 1680, before either party were of puberty to consummate the marriage. In 1681 the Lady Ogle was married to Thomas Thynne, of Longleat, in the county of Wilts, Esquire,—a gentleman of great wealth, a friend of the Duke of Monmouth, and the Issachar of Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel." Sir John Reresby, in his Memoirs, p. 135., says "The lady, repenting of the match, fled from her husband into Holland before they were bedded." Whether this elopement had any relation to Königsmark does not appear: but a few months afterwards, namely, in February 1681-2, Mr. Thynne was assassinated in the Haymarket by foreigners, who were devoted friends of the Count, and who apparently acted under his direction, or, at all events, with his acquiescence. The Count was at that time a mere youth, and having been in London a few months before Lady Ogle's marriage with Mr. Thynne, had then paid his addresses to her. He returned into England about ten days before the murder, and was in London at the time it was committed. In endeavouring to escape beyond sea the day afterwards, he was taken in disguise at Gravesend, brought to Westminster, and examined before King and Council. Sir John Reresby says, "I was present upon this occasion, and observed that he appeared before the king with all the assurance imaginable. He was a fine person of a man, and I think his hair was the longest I ever saw." He denied all participation in the murder, but he was committed and tried with the principals, as an accessory before the fact; and although acquitted by the jury, a perusal of the trial produces a strong persuasion that he was privy to the purpose of the assassins. A fact much pressed against him was his inquiry of the Swedish envoy, "Whether or no, if he should kill Mr. Thynne in a duel, he could, by the laws of England, afterwards marry the Lady Ogle?" a question which showed beyond all doubt that he had in some form entertained a design against Mr. Thynne's life, and also that the attainment of the lady was the motive. But whatever may have been the intention of the Count, and whatever may have been the nature of his intercourse with the Lady Ogle, it is quite clear that they were not married. On the contrary, this lady of early nuptial experience, and of romantic but somewhat suspicious adventure,—who was married three times, and twice a widow, before she was sixteen years old,—was married on the 30th of May, 1682, and within four months after the murder of Mr. Thynne, to Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset. (Collins's Peerage, vol. i. p. 191.) Thus early practised in matrimonial intrigue, we find her thirty years afterwards the accomplished organ of political intrigue; the favourite and friend of Queen Anne, and the zealous partisan of the Whig party. In that character she became the object of Swift's pasquinade, the "Windsor Prophecy," which, though aimed at the Duchess of Somerset, and the destruction of her influence at court, recoiled upon the head of the author, prevented the queen from making him a bishop, and banished him from her favour for the remainder of her reign. The meaning of the "Prophecy," and the keenness of its sarcasm, were of course readily understood and appreciated by cotemporaries. Swift himself seems to have been highly pleased with it. He says, in one of his letters to Stella, "The Prophecy is an admirable good one, and the people are mad for it." The above recital of the early history of the Duchess of Somerset will render it fully intelligible at the present day. After mentioning some incidents and characters of the time, the "Windsor Prophecy" ends thus:
"And, dear Englond, if aught I understond,
Beware of Carrots[3] from Northumberlond!
Carrots, sown Thynne, a deep root may get,
If so be they are in Sommer set.
Their conyngs mark thou! for I have been told,
They assassine when young, and poison when old.
Root out these Carrots, O thou, whose name[4]
Is backwards and forwards always the same!
And keep close to thee always that name[5]
Which backwards or forwards is almost the same.
And, Englond, would'st thou be happy still,
Bury those Carrots under a Hill."[6]
[3] Alluding to the Duchess of Somerset's red hair.
[4] Anna Regina.
[5] Lady Masham.
[6] Lady Masham's maiden name.
D. JARDINE.