It was not until the following month, when the king sent a body of stout yeomen to turn the late attendants out of Somerset House by the shoulders, if they would not go otherwise, that they finally departed.
The royal couple had been married just one year when all the French attendants, including Father Sancy, returned to their native land.
The queen attributed her husband's turning off her household so summarily to the influence and advice of Buckingham, whom she disliked thoroughly.
She became so restless and unhappy that she wanted to go back to France, and wrote her mother to that effect, repeating the grievances of which the banished household had already given an exaggerated account.
The Duke de Bassompierre, a man of sense and spirit, and an old friend of Henry IV., was sent to England to inquire into the wrongs of which Henrietta complained. He found her dreadfully incensed against Buckingham, the prime minister, with whom she had had a violent quarrel, though she knew scarcely any English, and he very little French. Nevertheless he managed to make her comprehend him when he told her "to beware how she behaved, for in England queens had had their heads cut off before now."
Henrietta assured de Bassompierre that the prime minister was constantly making mischief between her and her husband, because he was jealous of her influence.
Bassompierre had several private interviews with the young queen, the king, and Buckingham, which resulted in a complete reconciliation. But her majesty was displeased because her father's old friend neither flattered nor spoiled her, and so she fell out with him, and by the expiration of a fortnight the reconciled parties were more angry with each other than ever before.
The new subject of quarrel was the king's refusal to permit more than three chaplains for the performance of the Catholic service in the palace. Henrietta was too young to reason sensibly about her husband's affairs, and she was such a fervent Catholic that she could bear no opposition concerning her religion from her Protestant husband. Her position was an exceedingly difficult one, and all the errors she committed were the result of her youth and inexperience.
The French ambassador had to begin his work all over again; and so adroitly did he manage, that in the course of a few days he had arranged all the disputed points. It was agreed that the queen should have two chapels built for her, one at St. James's, the other at Somerset House.
A bishop, ten priests, a confessor, and ten musicians were to be furnished, as well as ladies of the bed-chamber, a clear-starcher, two physicians, an apothecary, a surgeon, a grand-chamberlain, a squire, a secretary, a gentleman-usher, a valet, and a baker, all from her majesty's native land.