CHAPTER XI.
Accession of Anne to the throne—That event considered by the Whigs as unpropitious—Coronation of the Queen—Dislike of Anne to the Whigs—Efforts of Lady Marlborough—Dismissal of Somers and Halifax—1702.
Queen Anne was not tantalised by suspense concerning the result of her predecessor’s illness. Particulars were hourly sent by Lord and Lady Jersey to Lady Marlborough, of the King’s state, as “his breath grew shorter and shorter;” an attention which, instead of gratifying the Countess, “filled her,” as she declares, “with horror.”[[357]] The courtiers, who had been weeping at the bedside of the late monarch, hastened to depart from Kensington, and to remove into the more genial atmosphere of St. James’s palace, where they offered their congratulations to the new sovereign in crowds.[[358]] The Queen was proclaimed in the courtyard of St. James’s, on the day of the King’s death, March the eighth, 1702, at five o’clock in the afternoon, both Houses of Parliament attending the ceremony.[[359]] A solemn mourning was ordered, and the members of the privy council were enjoined to hang their coaches with mourning, and to put their servants in black liveries; the Queen wearing purple—at that time royal mourning. Two days after the King’s death, her Majesty went to the House of Lords, attended by Lady Marlborough, and preceded by the Earl of Marlborough, carrying before her the sword of state. She addressed both Houses in the usual mode, and inspired admiration and confidence by the dignity, self-possession, and graciousness of her manner. “Her speeches were delivered,” says Bishop Burnet, “with great weight and authority, and with a softness of voice, and sweetness in the pronunciation, that added much life to all that she spoke.” Yet she offended the partisans of the late King, by saying “that her heart was entirely English;”[[360]]—which appeared to challenge an invidious comparison with one whose affections, it was well known, had often reverted to the kingdom which he had quitted.[[361]] The speculations which were set afloat concerning the fate of parties, and the opinions which her Majesty’s political appointments would display, may readily be imagined. By a proclamation issued, however, immediately after her accession, the Queen signified that all persons at present in authority should continue to hold their places, until her Majesty’s further pleasure should be made known.[[362]]
Notwithstanding the known influence, and the avowed opinions, of Lady Marlborough, the Whigs regarded the accession of Queen Anne as unpropitious. The principles of the adverse party had been instilled into her mind at a very early age, by Compton, Bishop of London. She owed the Tories many obligations; in particular, the settlement of her annuity, which they had secured, in opposition to the wishes of William and Mary. Her mother’s family were devoted loyalists, or, rather, when times changed and appellations were changed also, zealous Tories.
The capacity of Queen Anne was limited, her notions were contracted, her prejudices consequently strong.[[363]] Any opinions imbibed could with difficulty, therefore, be eradicated from a mind which could view only one side of the question; and early prepossessions seldom lose their hold over our feelings, even when our judgment strives to dispel their influence. Easy, and regardless of forms in private, Anne, when seated on her throne, was jealous of her prerogative, retaining that attribute of the Stuarts, whether it were implanted by others, or the result of a disposition naturally tenacious of certain rights. Her heart had never been wholly weaned from her father during his lifetime, nor from those sentiments which James had inculcated both by precept and example; and, in the Whigs, she saw only a party who were anxious to curb the power, and to abridge the independence of the crown, upon a plan equally systematic and dangerous.[[364]]
Before any political changes were adopted, the funeral of King William took place. After several deliberations in council, it had been agreed to perform his obsequies privately. The royal corpse was carried from Kensington in an open chariot, during the night of Sunday, the 12th of April, to the chapel of Henry the Seventh at Westminster. The pall was borne by six Dukes. Prince George was chief mourner, supported by two Dukes, and followed by sixteen of the first Earls in England, as assistants, among whom was the Earl of Marlborough. A long train of carriages closed the procession. Amidst the solemn service, and the swelling anthem, the body of William was interred in the same vault with Charles the Second, and with his late consort, Queen Mary.[[365]]
On the twenty-third of April the coronation of Queen Anne took place. Her Majesty was carried in a low open chair to Westminster Abbey, from the Hall. The ceremonies were those anciently prescribed, and the Queen made the responses with her usual clear articulation and accurate pronunciation.[[366]] When the Holy Bible was opened, she vouchsafed to kiss the bishops;[[367]] and the ceremonials of the day concluded with a banquet, during which Prince George sat by her side. The Queen, who had remained at the Duke of Gloucester’s apartments in St. James’s till her own rooms were hung with black, now went to Kensington at night, and remained at St. James’s during the day.[[368]] The Countess of Marlborough was, on all occasions, her constant attendant.
The change from royal robes to suits of mourning; from festive halls, and the shouts of the people, to the now deserted apartments of her son, or her own sombre, though stately chambers, would have grated upon a more sensitive disposition than that which Anne possessed. Perhaps the coronation of her father, when the crown tottered upon his head; perhaps the half rebuke of her sister, upon a similar occasion, occurred with bitterness to one who was now nearly the last of her family, with the exception of her maternal uncle, and of her attainted nephew. At the coronation of Mary, Anne, observing the Queen to be heated with the weight of the royal robes, and tired with the solemnity, said to her in a low voice, “Madam, I pity your fatigue.” “A crown, sister,” returned Mary, quickly, “is not so heavy as it seems to be, or as you think it;” the words being eagerly caught by the curious attendants around.[[369]]
Whilst the public were amused with the pageantry of this imposing ceremony, busy cabals occupied the private hours of the Queen, and within her palace, a contemporary writer has not hesitated to affirm, there was a very busy market of all the offices of government. “For,” says Cunningham, “the Queen’s own relations being kept at a distance, all things were managed by the sole authority of one woman, to whom there was no access but by the golden road; and it was to no purpose for the Earl of Rochester to set forth his own duty, affection, and the rights of consanguinity.”[[370]]
This “woman,” it needs scarcely to be stated, was the Countess of Marlborough, whose frank avowal of her exertions to form the Queen’s household, at this period, in her Conduct, was not necessary to establish that which all the world knew. With respect to the grave charge preferred against her by Mr. Cunningham, the consideration of her imputed corruption must be hereafter discussed.