Courting Her Highness

by Jean Plaidy

  The Earl had been in the house less than a week when the Marlborough outriders arrived at the house to say that the Countess of Marlborough was on her way.

  Sarah Churchill swept into the house like a tornado—as Alice had once described her advent. Pots and pans were polished, so was furniture; and there was a smell of baking in the kitchen. The Earl was so delighted at the prospect of seeing his wife that he did not calculate the cost of this extra activity. From a window Abigail watched him go out to greet her. She saw him take her hands, stand a little way from her as though to see her more clearly; then he clasped her in a prolonged embrace. And what would my Lady Marlborough think of that? He was crushing her head-dress but she did not seem to mind. Abigail marvelled to see them laughing together; she had never seen Lady Marlborough look at anyone else like that and would not have believed that she could.

  They came in and Abigail could hear her voice penetrating the house.

  “And where is my family? Why are they not here to greet me?”

  But of course they were all there. They would not dream of displeasing her.

  She did not ask for Abigail Hill; as Abigail guessed, she had forgotten her existence.

  Lady Marlborough was never happier than when in the company of her husband. Although she loved intrigue and to enjoy it she must live close to the Princess Anne, and if Marlborough were ever to achieve the fame which was his due he could not do so, as she would say, “in his wife’s pocket,” these brief sojourns at St. Albans with her husband and family were the happiest periods of Sarah Churchill’s life.

  This time a purpose other than pleasure had brought her to St. Albans; and it was one which she would only discuss with her husband in the privacy of their bedchamber.

  There she sat at her mirror and let her rich hair, which he loved so much, fall about her shoulders.

  “Oh my dear Marl,” she said, “I am sick to death of this waiting. How long can he live, do you think?”

  “It’s a question we have been asking ourselves for a very long time, my love.”

  “H’m? Sometimes I think he goes on living just to spite us.”

  Marlborough laughed. “Well, my dear, you can hardly expect him to die to please us.”

  “We are not the only ones who would be pleased. I wish he’d go back to Holland. We could manage very well without him here. I had thought the crown would be on my fat stupid Morley’s head by now.”

  “Hush!”

  “Nonsense, Marl. No one can hear, and if they could they wouldn’t dare talk of what I say.”

  “One can never be sure where our enemies are.”

  “In our own house! My dearest, we are perfectly safe here. Now I want to talk sense. When the great day comes we must be ready, must we not? My dearest Marl, you have genius, I know. And I can do as I will with Morley. But we have our enemies and I believe it is time we began to build up our defences.”

  “My dearest Sarah is becoming a general, it seems.”

  “Now listen to me. Even when my fat friend is on the throne, she will not be all powerful. There will be her ministers. We shall never have an absolute monarchy again. We need friends, Marl, and we need them badly.”

  “And, Sarah dear, I do not think we are very popular, you and I. There is only one person in the world whom I can absolutely trust—and that is you.”

  “Why, bless you, Marl, you and I are one and nothing on earth can alter that. But we are going to need friends. Do you agree?”

  “Friends are always useful.”

  “Useful! They are a necessity.”

  “Where shall we find them?”

  “By binding them to us.”

  “With what?”

  “Sometimes I think the most brilliant soldier in the world is lacking in strategy.”

  “It is a mercy he has a wife who can supply his lack.”

  “Seriously, have you forgotten that we have marriageable daughters?”

  “Marriageable. Why Henrietta is …”

  “Sixteen, Marl. Ripe for marriage.”

  “Oh, not yet.”

  “You are like all fathers. They want to keep their daughters children for ever just to give themselves an illusion of youth.”

  He smiled and said, “Well, who have you in mind for Henrietta?”

  “Godolphin’s boy, Francis,” she said.

  Marlborough stared at her.

  “Well?” demanded Sarah. “What objections could you have, my lord, to such an alliance? Godolphin is one of the cleverest men in the country. He would be a power, as you would, my dear Marl, on your own; but together … You see what I mean?”

  “You mean an alliance between the Churchills and the Godolphins.”

  “I do, and how better to strengthen such alliances than by marriage. Godolphin’s grandchildren will be ours. One family instead of two. Would that not be a good thing?”

  “There is one thing you have forgotten.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Do you remember how we made up our minds to marry?”

  “Yes, and your family stood against us. I was not good enough for the Churchills. I remember well. They had someone else in mind for you.”

  “That is my point. No one would have induced me to marry anyone but you.”

  “I should think not.”

  “So I say there is one point you have omitted. What of Henrietta?”

  “Henrietta will do as she is told.”

  “She is your daughter and mine.”

  “Bah!” said Sarah. “I’ll have no disobedience from my children.”

  The Earl laid his hand on her arm. “Be gentle,” he begged.

  “Are you telling me how to treat my own daughter?”

  “I am suggesting how you should treat mine.”

  She smiled at him. She adored him; he was the one person who could reason with her.

  “Well?” she demanded.

  “We will invite them here. Francis and his father. And we will not mention marriage to the young people until we know they are fond of each other.”

  “Romantic nonsense!” said Sarah.

  But she agreed.

  Sarah had long been watchful of Sidney Godolphin, for she had marked him out as a man whom it would be better to have for a friend than an enemy. The Godolphins were a noble Cornish family and Sidney had found favour with Charles II, who had summed up his regard for him in one of his apt phrases. “Here is a man,” he had said, “who is never in the way and never out of it.” That was good praise from Charles. It was often the case that a man who was honoured in one reign was out of favour in the next. Sidney Godolphin was too clever to allow this to happen to him. He had received his title when Charles had made him Secretary of State and when Charles died he remained one of James’s most trusted ministers and was appointed Chamberlain to James’s Queen, Mary Beatrice. He was one of those Tories who had remained faithful to James longer than most; and when he had seen that the exile of James was inevitable, he had voted for a Regency. His fidelity to James had never really wavered, and when Marlborough, deciding that he could not satisfy his ambition through William, had turned to the “King across the Water,” this had made a bond between him and Godolphin. Like Marlborough, Godolphin had wished to show his friendship with James while at the same time he feigned a friendship with William; it was a case of waiting to see which side could be the one an ambitious man should be on; and because of William’s undoubted qualities it seemed certain that he was the one whom they must serve—but at the same time they were watchful of what was happening at the Court of St. Germains where the exile lived with his Queen and the son whose birth had caused such a controversy in England and who was acknowledged by Louis of France as the Prince of Wales.

  Godolphin’s name, with that of Marlborough, had been mentioned in the case of Sir John Fenwick; and although neither he nor Marlborough had been brought to trial over that affair, Godolphin had been forced to resign. This was the state of affairs when Sarah had the idea that
the two families united by marriage could form the nucleus of a ruling party which would of course be dominated by the Marlboroughs.

  In his youth Sidney had made a romantic marriage. He had fallen in love with Margaret Blagge, one of the most beautiful and virtuous young women at Court. Margaret, a maid of honour to Anne Hyde, who was Duchess of York and mother to the Princesses Mary and Anne, had taken part in John Crowne’s Calista which had been written that the Princess Mary might perform and make her debut at Court. Although Margaret had believed dancing and play-acting was sinful and had been forced to play a part in this, she had scored a success as Diana the Goddess of chastity. Sidney watching her had fallen more deeply in love than ever before. Margaret seemed to him unique; for to find a girl who was virtuous at the Court of King Charles was rare.

  He often thought of those days of courtship, the secret marriage, the friendship with John Evelyn, the writer, who, recognizing Margaret’s rare qualities, loved her as though she were his daughter. A strange interlude for an ambitious man, to discover that there was a life which did not depend on gaining advantages over other men, fighting for power, enviously watching the progress of rivals—days which later he was to look back on as a dream. In due course they announced their marriage; he remembered the house they had lived in, in Scotland Yard near the palace of Whitehall, during the days when they had been awaiting the birth of their first child.

  It was not wise to brood on those days; there was too much sadness in nostalgia for a past which was lost for ever; but he could not stop thinking of how they had walked in the gardens, always talking of the child. There had come that September day—September days had ever after seemed tinged with sadness for him—just as the green leaves were touched with brown; their edges dry and shrivelled ready to fall from the trees to be trampled underfoot or swept up and destroyed, as his happiness had been. But how was he to guess then that soon his joy in life would be gone as surely as those bright leaves upon the trees.

  Young Francis had been born on the third day of September—a healthy boy, which was what they had secretly longed for, although neither of them had admitted it. They had stoutly declared to each other that the sex of the child was unimportant, lest the other should think either one would be disappointed.

  But a boy brought that moment of triumph. For two days they were at the peak of happiness. Then she took fever, and a week after the birth of Francis, Margaret was dead.

  Sidney had had only one desire for a long time—that was to follow her. But he went on living, and in place of the love he had had for his wife he had built up ambition. His great relaxation was gambling and no amount of losses on horse racing could deter him. Consequently he was almost always in debt; but he was a brilliant politician.

  John Evelyn, who had been almost as desolate as Sidney when Margaret died, had found his solace in Margaret’s son; and Sidney was glad of this, for he had a great respect for the writer. It was Evelyn who took charge of the boy’s education, who had advised his father to send him to Eton and afterwards to Cambridge. Francis was, at the time when Sarah Churchill had cast calculating eyes on him, eighteen years old.

  Although the Churchill girls despised their cousin Abigail, she was far more observant than they were. When the Godolphins visited St. Albans it did not take her long to guess for what reason Sarah had invited them.

  She watched Henrietta and Anne riding with Francis and one of the grooms: and she guessed that Francis was being offered a choice of the two girls, although Henrietta was the one her parents hoped he would select.

  Why? wondered Abigail. The answer was simple. Because they wanted a marriage to take place as soon as possible, and Henrietta was older than Anne.

  Abigail believed that their wish would be granted, for Henrietta, bold and dashing, was determined not to be put aside for her sister. She began to understand why Francis had been brought to St. Albans, and summed him up as a docile young man who could be trained to become the kind of husband whom she could dominate. To dominate was a need with her, as it was with her mother. She wanted her freedom. Marriage could give her that—and what better than marriage with a malleable man!

  Anne, who had no desire for marriage with Francis Godolphin, was well content to remain in the background, leaving the field clear for Henrietta.

  There had been no lavish hospitality for the Godolphins. The Earl of Marlborough had no intention of throwing away good money for that. Sidney Godolphin was a friend of his—at least as near a friend as they could have in their ambitious lives. They could go along together, be of use to each other; they shared their dreams of power; so if Godolphin could be persuaded to the marriage it would not be because of rich food being served from gold plate, but because he saw in it a useful alliance between two ambitious families.

  But after the visit the Churchills were still uncertain.

  The Earl and Countess walked in the gardens discussing it. Lady Marlborough’s strident voice floated over to Abigail Hill who had been sent to weed the flower border in the enclosed garden.

  “What do you think, Marl?”

  The Earl’s voice did not reach Abigail.

  Sarah’s went on, “Well, if Sidney Godolphin thinks he’s too good for the Marlboroughs …” A low reproving murmur. “What do we care for him? And I’ll tell you this: I think he was considering very seriously. He knows what will happen when Caliban dies. And it must be soon. It must. It must. I had it from one of the pages that he’s spitting blood … badly. How does he go on? He must have a pact with the devil. That wouldn’t surprise me.” A pause. “Good gracious, Marl! Who would hear me out here? And what I say about him, I mean. What? Henrietta seemed taken with the boy? She had better be, Marl. She had better be.” Then: “I know. We married for love. But that boy’s not you. And Henrietta’s not me. We were different. You must see that.” The sounds of laughter. “I tell you this, John Churchill, I’ll have Henrietta married to Francis Godolphin if I have to whip her to the altar.”

  Abigail went on weeding. She was thinking of the future of Henrietta, married to Francis Godolphin. A place of honour at Court. Lady Marlborough would make sure of that—and the children they would have would belong to the Churchills and the Godolphins.

  Abigail stood up to press her hands to her aching back. How exciting to play a part in moulding affairs of state. What fun to be at the Court, to make decisions!

  How she would enjoy that!

  She laughed at herself. She was imagining herself a Godolphin or a Churchill. As if such opportunities would ever come her way!

  There were more visits from the Godolphins, and Francis and Henrietta seemed as though they would fall in with their parents’ wishes for they clearly enjoyed each other’s company.

  Henrietta’s seventeenth birthday came and although the Earl of Marlborough wished his daughter to wait a little, his wife was impatient and Abigail was sure that soon she would have her way.

  Then an event occurred which was clearly the first step towards the change in the Marlboroughs’ fortunes.

  The King had evidently decided that much as he distrusted Marlborough it was better to have him on his side than against him, and while he was skulking in semi-banishment William could not be sure what mischief he would stir up. He knew of the rapprochement between the Marlborough and Godolphin families; he would therefore feel happier with Marlborough at Court in some post which he valued.

  The Duke of Gloucester was now nine years old and it was necessary to establish him in a household of his own. Anne would readily agree to Marlborough’s being appointed her son’s Governor, so this seemed the obvious solution.

  William sent for Marlborough and when the Earl had kissed his hand he said: “The Princess Anne would welcome your appointment to the household of the Duke of Gloucester and I myself believe that none could do the job better.”

  William was indeed in a gracious mood for he went on: “Teach him to be what you are and my nephew will never want accomplishments.”

 
Perhaps there was an ambiguity in the remark; but John Churchill was not going to question it. He assured the King that he would accept the post with pleasure and would perform it to the best of his abilities.

  When John told Sarah of the good news, she was delighted.

  “This is the end of our misfortunes,” she declared. “Even the Dutchman sees that we cannot be ignored for ever.”

  And it seemed that she was right, for following on John’s appointment to the governorship William sent for him once more and told him that he should be restored to his old rank in the Army; nor was that all; he was to rejoin the Privy Council.

  Sarah was delighted. “Now,” she said, “with you back at Court and Henrietta soon to marry Francis Godolphin we really can begin to get to work.”

  The Princess Anne reclining on her couch, to rest her swollen legs, listened with pleasure to Sarah’s account of Marlborough’s restored glory.

  “Nothing could delight me more, dear Mrs. Freeman,” she said. “Pray pass the dish.”

  Sarah held the sweetmeats before her royal mistress.

  “I do declare that these are not so sweet as those we had yesterday. Do taste, Mrs. Freeman, and tell me if I am wrong.”

  Sarah nibbled impatiently. “They taste the same to me, Mrs. Morley. I was thinking of the Duke of Gloucester.”

  Anne’s attention was immediately turned from the sweetmeats for her son was the delight of her heart and she would rather talk of him than of anything else on earth, even food.

  “What of my boy, dear Mrs. Freeman?”

  “He is now growing up. Nine years old. But to tell the truth, Mrs. Morley, I should think him much older.”

  “I do believe there is not a brighter boy in the kingdom. Such intelligence and with it the kindest heart. Do you know, dear Mrs. Freeman, yesterday at my toilet he used an oath which I did not much like and I asked him sharply where he had learned it. It was from one of his attendants I am certain. That tutor of his—Pratt … or perhaps Lewis Jenkins. He knew that I was angry with whoever had taught him such a word and he thought a while … but only a little while, for, Mrs. Freeman, he is so quick. Then he said: ‘I invented it myself.’ You see, because he thought to save someone from trouble. Was there ever such a boy?”