King's Mistress, Queen's Servant: The Life and Times of Henrietta Howard
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14. Reynolds, 175; Halsband, III, 28.
15. Halsband, Letters, III, 24; Baird, 18; Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726). See also Jones, 46.
16. Ketton-Cremer, 60.
17. NRS 11129 25 E5.
18. This was later moved a short distance to the garden of the Woodrow Inn on the Norwich to Holt road. The inn has since been replaced by a petrol station.
19. Ketton-Cremer, 61.
20. NRS 14020 28 F5.
21. NRS 11129 25 E5 23.
22. No likenesses of Lady Hobart are known to have survived.
23. P. Hounswell, Ealing and Hanwell Past (London, 2003).
24. When the estate was sold in 1739, the tapestries in the ‘Great Room’ were valued at £1,000. HMC, Lothian, 147.
25. 22 August had proved a singularly unfortunate date for the Hobarts. Lady Elizabeth Hobart, Sir Henry Hobart and his father Sir John Hobart had all died on this date.
26. The Hobart family accounts for November 1702 record items sent from Blickling to Gunnersbury, including ‘stockens, and pin-money for ye children’. NRS 16334 32 C2.
27. See, for example, NRS 10385 25 A6, 20 December 1703.
28. Mary died in April 1704, aged 18; Philippa died in September 1704, aged 10; and Elizabeth died in April 1705, aged 18.
CHAPTER 2 ‘MAN’S TYRANNICK POWER’
1. Addison, 52.
2. Sedgwick Some Materials, I, 40.
3. Mahon, Letters, II, 440, 459.
4. NRS 22953 Z76.
5. The church still survives today, sandwiched between the modern buildings of London’s financial district, and close to the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666.
6. It was not until late into the reign of Queen Victoria that white became the traditional colour for bridal gowns. The fashion for evening dresses at this time was for low square necks, three-quarter-length sleeves and full skirts, and most were made from silk.
7. BM Add. MS 22627 ff.40–1; Walpole, Reminiscences, 58.
8. Mahon, Letters, II, 459; ‘The Present State of Matrimony, or The Real Causes of Conjugal Infidelity in Marriages’, in Jones, 80.
9. The records do not reveal any details about these lodgings, beyond the fact that the rent was just £25 per year. BM Add. MS 22627 f.41.
10. Summerson, 21.
11. BM Add. MS 22627 f.41.
12. Ibid. ff.41, 45.
13. Ibid. f.44.
14. Ibid. f.41.
15. Ibid. ff.43, 46.
16. Ibid. f.41.
17. Ibid. f.43.
18. Ibid. f.45.
19. BM Add. MS 22727 ff.40–2.
20. Again, there is no record of where these lodgings were, and because the couple were going by a false name (probably still Smith), it is almost impossible to find out for certain.
21. BM Add. MS 22727 f.41. Some secondary accounts have, erroneously, claimed that Henrietta considered selling her hair in order to fund a dinner for some courtiers once she and her husband had arrived in Hanover. There is no evidence to substantiate this within the original sources, and Henrietta’s own written testament states that it was to fund the voyage.
CHAPTER 3 HANOVER
1. Wharncliffe, I, 135, 138.
2. Ibid., 138.
3. Mahon, Letters, II, 452; Halsband, Letters, I, 6.
4. Kroll, Letters.
5. Wharncliffe, I, 6.
6. Walpole, Reminiscences, 29–30.
7. Mahon, Letters, II, 458.
8. Wharncliffe, I, 13.
9. Mahon, Letters, II, 453.
10. Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 321.
11. Mahon, Letters, II, 454; Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 320.
12. People with this condition tend to talk continuously, unaware of the listener’s interest, and may also appear insensitive to their feelings. They commonly excel at learning facts and figures, and often develop an almost obsessive interest in a hobby or pastime. Any change to their routine will cause them great distress and they prefer to order their day according to a set pattern.
13. Ibid., I, 261.
14. Wharncliffe, I, 13.
15. RA Geo. Add. MS 28/52.
16. Arkell, 19.
17. Wharncliffe, I, 13.
18. Kroll, Sophie, 216.
19. Wharncliffe, I, 13–14.
20. Walpole, Reminiscences, 142.
21. BM Add. MS 22627 ff.41–2.
22. Ibid., f.42.
23. BM Add. MS 22628 ff.29–30.
24. Walpole, Reminiscences, 121.
25. HMC, Portland, V, 200.
26. Burgess, 12–15.
27. Walpole, Reminiscences, 28.
28. Wilkins, 81.
29. Wharncliffe, I, 13.
30. Wilkins, 80.
31. Kroll, Sophie, 243.
32. HMC, Portland, V, 480.
CHAPTER 4 ST JAMES’S
1. Clarke and Ridley, 12; The London Gazette, 3 August 1713.
2. Mahon, Letters, II, 452.
3. Kroll, Letters, 167.
4. The London Gazette, 4–7 September 1714.
5. The Weekly Journal, 22 September 1714.
6. Beattie, 9; Saussure, 41; Defoe, I, 357.
7. Picard, 37.
8. Chenevix Trench, 21.
9. Cowper, 102.
10. The Daily Courant, 12 October 1714.
11. Cowper, 5.
12. Ibid., 7–8.
13. Lady Cowper incorrectly cited Henrietta’s appointment as 2 December 1714, stating that ‘In the afternoon came Mrs Darcy, to desire me to speak to the Princess to make Mrs Howard a Bedchamber Woman. She urged that Mrs Howard had had a promise of it from Hanover in Princess Sophia’s time.’ Lady Cowper’s tendency to overstate her own influence at court led her to make such inaccurate claims on many other occasions, and more reliable sources state that all of the Women of the Bedchamber were appointed on 26 October. See for example the Institute of Historical Research’s lists of office-holders in modern British households, which can be accessed online at www.history.ac.uk/office. Henrietta’s own account implies that her appointment happened very shortly after the coronation. BM Add. MS 22627 f.42.
14. Graham, 302.
15. Beattie, 162.
16. Wharncliffe, I, 214–15.
17. Van der Kiste, 79.
18. The equivalent of £61,000 and £37,000 today.
CHAPTER 5 IN WAITING
1. The best account of the royal household in early Georgian England is provided by Beattie.
2. This post later became known as Mistress of the Robes.
3. Cowper, 10.
4. Walpole, Reminiscences, 91.
5. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 67–8.
6. Carelessness.
7. Walpole, Reminiscences, 60.
8. Mahon, Letters, II, 42.
9. Wilkins, 137.
10. Ibid., 138.
11. HMC, Portland, VII, 423.
12. Longford, 292–3.
13. Cowper, 99; Wilkins, 133.
14. Cowper, 43.
15. Ibid., 98.
16. Ibid., 46.
17. Stead, 73.
18. Saussure, 162–4.
19. Griffith Davies, 42; Matthews, 310.
20. Cowper, 120.
CHAPTER 6 THE SWISS CANTONS
1. Matthews, 298–9, 310.
2. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 72.
3. Mahon, Letters, II, 463; Walford, 99.
4. Law, III, 208.
5. BM Add. MS 22628 f.19. Hartshorn was a leavening agent commonly used in making bread, but was also occasionally taken as a tonic in the eighteenth century.
6. Thurley, 248.
7. Cowper, 123.
8. Wilkins, 208–9.
9. Thurley, 254.
10. Wharncliffe, I, 311.
11. Walpole, Reminiscences, 40–1; HMC, Portland, V, 541–4.
12. BM Add. MS 22627 f.42.
13. Hill, Eighteenth-Century Women, 93.
14. BM Add. MS 22627 f.13.
15.
Ibid. f.16.
16. Ibid. f.17.
17. Ibid. f.18.
CHAPTER 7 ‘THESE FOOLS MAY NE’ER AGREE’‘
1. HMC, Portland, V, 544.
2. Wilkins, 229; Plumb, Sir Robert Walpole, I, 260.
3. HMC, Portland, V, 547.
4. Walpole, Reminiscences, 132; HMC, Portland, V, 548.
5. Walpole, Reminiscences, 59.
6. Mahon, Letters, III, 12.
7. Impey, 72.
8. Wright and Tinling, 215; Sherburn, I, 412–13.
9. Groom and Prosser, 30.
10. BM Add. MS 22626 f.43.
11. Walpole, Reminiscences, 59.
12. Sherburn, II, 201–2.
13. Ibid., 141.
14. Melville, Lady Suffolk, 86; Russell, II, 165; Chenevix Trench, 83.
15. Russell, II, 315; BM Add. MS 22625 ff.50, 66, 125.
16. Ibid. ff.54–5, 82, 92.
17. Ibid. f.98.
18. BM Add. MS 22626 f.22.
19. BM Add. MS 22625 f.68; 22626 ff.27, 31.
20. BM Add. MS 22626 ff.29–32, 64.
21. Ibid. f.32.
22. Ibid. ff.105–6.
23. Ibid. f.61.
24. Sherburn, II, 201–2.
25. NRC MC 3/284 f.70; HMC, Polwarth, I, 176; Mahon, Letters, I, 301.
26. Mahon, Letters, I, 300; BM Add. MS 22625 f.46.
27. BM Add. MS 22625 ff.21, 114; Williams, Correspondence, IV, 111–12; Sherburn, II, 141, 182, 322.
28. BM Add. MS 22627 f.87; Sherburn, II, 446; Lewis, XXXI, 266; Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 380.
29. BM Add. MS 4805 f.158; 22629 f.10.
30. BM Add. MS 22628 f.20; The Gentleman’s Magazine, January 1731; Walpole, Reminiscences, 66, 67n.
CHAPTER 8 ‘J’AURAI DES MAîTRESSES’
1. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 41.
2. Gay, ‘Welcome to Pope from Greece’.
3. BM Add. MS 22627 ff.90–1.
4. Ibid. f.89.
5. Walpole, Reminiscences, 61.
6. Ibid., 61–2.
7. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 41.
8. Walpole, Reminiscences, 62.
9. Hardy, 64.
10. Walpole, Reminiscences, 62; Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 42.
11. She later miscarried.
12. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 41; HMC, Egmont, II, 134; Walpole, Reminiscences, 68. In his Reminiscences, Horace Walpole cites the time of their meetings as nine o’clock, but in the original draft of this work he says it was seven o’clock. The latter is most likely, given the timing of the formal routines of court.
13. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 41.
14. Wharncliffe, I, 12.
15. Mahon, Letters, II, 453; Walpole, Reminiscences, 66; Walpole, Memoirs, I, 154.
16. BM Add. MS 22629 ff.4–5.
17. BM Add. MS 22627 ff.97, 107.
18. Walpole, Reminiscences, 66.
19. BM Add. MS 22627 f.107.
20. BM Add. MS 22628 f.9; 22629 f.122.
21. W. A. Shaw (ed.), Calendar of Treasury Books, XXXII, part ii (London, 1957).
22. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 43.
23. Ibid., I, 253–5.
24. Wharncliffe, I, 13. See also Mahon, Letters, II, 457.
25. Plumb, The First Four Georges, 70; Walpole, Reminiscences, 50–1.
26. Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 498.
27. Wharncliffe, I, 13; Coxe, I, 278–9.
28. HMC, Egmont, II, 134.
29. Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 474; Walpole, Reminiscences, 68.
30. BM Add. MS 22625 f.27.
31. Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 474.
32. Hardy, 15.
33. Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 474.
34. Ibid., I, 43.
35. HMC, Egmont, II, 134.
36. Llanover, I, 137; Walpole, Reminiscences, 65.
37. Russell, II, 278; Mahon, Letters, II, 459.
38. Wright and Tinling, 262.
39. Arkell, 132.
40. Hardy, 33.
41. Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 385.
42. Mahon, Letters, I, 315.
43. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 44.
44. Ibid.
45. Mahon, Letters, I, 441.
46. Coxe, I, 281.
47. BM Add. MS 22627 f.114.
48. Ibid. f.121.
49. Ibid. f.96.
50. HMC, Portland, V, 553.
51. Walpole, Reminiscences, 38.
52. Cowper, 142.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid., 143.
55. BM Add. MS 22629 f.8.
56. Walpole, Reminiscences, 37.
57. Cowper, 152.
58. HMC, Portland, V, 96.
CHAPTER 9 ‘A HOUSE IN TWITTENHAM’
1. HMC, Portland, V, 599; BM Add. MS 22629 f.8.
2. HMC, Portland, V, 606; Sherburn, II, 52–3.
3. ‘Character of Sir Robert Walpole by Dean Swift’, BM Add. MS 22625; Mahon, Letters, II, 473.
4. D. W. Hayton, ‘Ascending the Greasy Walpole’, History Today, January 2006, 67.
5. Wilkins, 301.
6. Mahon, Letters, II, 468.
7. BM Add. MS 22627 f.96.
8. BM Add. MS 22626 f.87; 22627 f.70.
9. BM Add. MS 22627 f.94.
10. Ibid. f.21.
11. Ibid. ff.22, 24, 39, 95.
12. £1.5 million today.
13. NRS 22955 Z76.
14. BM Add. MS 22627 f.96.
15. BM Add. MS 22626 ff.29, 30.
16. BM Add. MS 22627 ff.55–7.
17. Wharncliffe, I, 348. This was something of an exaggeration, for the population at that time was less than 1,500.
18. Sherburn, II, 116, 307.
19. Ibid., 236–40, 257; Draper, 15.
20. Sherburn, II, 197.
21. BM Add. MS 22625 f.107.
22. BM Add. MS 22626 f.17.
23. Wharncliffe, I, 367, 369.
24. Sherburn, II, 262–3, 298–9.
25. Ibid., II, 261.
26. Girouard, 204.
27. BM Add. MS 22626 f.92; 22629 ff.115–16.
28. BM Add. MS 22628 f.15.
29. R. White, Chiswick House and Gardens (English Heritage, 2001), 37.
30. BM Add. MS 4805 f.120.
31. See also J. H. Pye, William Gilpin, Illustrated Notebooks, 1781, GB 0161 MSS. Eng. e. 3326-9, p.25. A Short Account of the Principal Seats and Gardens, In and About Twickenham (1760).
32. Sherburn, II, 436.
33. BM Add. MS 22627 f.93.
34. Sherburn, II, 257.
35. Ibid., II, 322.
36. BM Add. MS 22625 ff.7–8; 22626 ff.9–10.
37. BM Add. MS 22625 ff.6, 7–8; Sherburn, II, 412.
38. BM Add. MS 22625 f.13.
39. Sherburn, II, 387.
40. BM Add. MS 4805 f.126; Sherburn, II, 407.
41. BM Add. MS 22625 f.6.
42. Ibid. ff.111, 160.
43. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 93.
44. BM Add. MS 22627 f.25.
45. Ibid. ff.26, 27.
46. Ibid. ff.28–9.
47. Ibid. ff.30, 31, 37.
48. Ibid. ff.37–9.
49. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 93; Walpole, Reminiscences, 63.
50. BM Add. MS 22627 f.35.
51. Sherburn, II, 436.
52. Ibid., 435–6.
CHAPTER 10 ‘DUNCE THE SECOND REIGNS LIKE DUNCE THE FIRST’
1. Wilkins, 315–16.
2. HMC, Polwarth, V, 5.
3. Saussure, 226–7.
4. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 25.
5. Ibid., I, 28; Sherburn, II, 437.
6. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 28.
7. Ibid., I, 39.
8. Mahon, Letters, II, 460; Coxe, I, 276.
9. BM Add. MS 22626 f.117; 22627 f.79; 22629 f.20.
10. BM Add. MS 22626 f.6.
11. Ibid.
12. BM Add. MS 22625 f.14.
13. Sherburn, II, 455, 460.
14. Williams, Correspondence, III, 471.
15. Ibid., III, 352; IV, 100.
16. Ibid., IV, 135; Sherburn, III, 251.
17. Williams, Correspondence, IV, 98–100, 110–12.
18. ‘Character of the Honourable Mrs Howard, Written and given to her by Dr Swift, Dean of St Patrick’s’, BM Add. MS 22625 ff.4–5.
19. BM Add. MS 4805 ff.44–5. The ‘Crown and Plad’ were a trinket and some Irish cloth that Swift had given her during the early days of their friendship.
20. BM Add. MS 22627 f.10; Saussure, 258.
21. Llanover, I, 137.
22. Ibid., 138.
23. Saussure, 256.
24. Llanover, I, 139.
25. This impressive feat was achieved by suspending fine cords of cotton wool, almost invisible to the eye, along the rows of candles, each soaked with flammable liquids such as spirits and wine, which carried the flame rapidly from one candle to another. ‘This arrangement had been so skilfully prepared that hardly a single candle failed to take fire,’ observed one of the guests. Saussure, 262.
26. Ibid., 264–5.
CHAPTER 11 ‘THE INDISSOLVABLE KNOT’
1. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 45.
2. Black, The Hanoverians, 96.
3. Walpole, Reminiscences, 70–1.
4. Sedgwick, Some Materials, I, 68–9.
5. Walpole, Reminiscences, 72.
6. Mahon, Letters, II, 461.
7. BM Add. MS 22628 f.21.
8. BM Add. MS 22627 ff.4–5.
9. Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 473.
10. Ibid., I, 93.
11. Sherburn, II, 445–6.
12. BM Add. MS 22626 ff.94, 96; 22625 ff.28–9.
13. BM Add. MS 22626 ff.34–5.
14. BM Add. MS 22627 f.36.
15. Jones, 80.
16. Ibid., 143, 217.
17. Ibid., 112.
18. BM Add. MS 22627 f.35.
19. Ibid. ff.40–2.
20. Ibid. ff.43–6.
21. Sedgwick, Some Materials, II, 473–4.
22. Ibid., I, 94.
23. NRS 22956 Z76.
24. Sherburn, II, 478, 491.
25. NRS 8862 21 F4; BM Add. MS 22626 f.96.
26. BM Add. MS 22626 f.26; 4805 f.160.
CHAPTER 12 ‘COMFORTING THE KING’S ENEMIES’
1. Ilchester, 169.
2. Ibid.
3. BM Add. MS 22626 ff.26, 99.
4. BM Add. MS 22628 ff.19–20.
5. Ashdown, 144.
6. BM Add. MS 22626 ff.28–9.
7. BM Add. MS 22628 f.29.
8. Ibid. f.21.
9. Ibid. f.27.
10. Sherburn, II, 446; BM Add. MS 22626 f.13.