It was disaster…the greatest we had had.
Queen Anne very kindly offered me the Château of St. Germain for the summer and I was grateful for that, and there in the beautiful castle I brooded on what was happening at home.
There was worse to come. Rupert had surrendered Bristol to the Roundheads. Bristol…that loyal city! Charles said he would never forgive Rupert for giving it up. Poor Rupert! Poor Charles! How wretched they must have been! Charles, after Naseby, had lost half his army. What hope had he against Cromwell’s trained men? Cromwell! That name was on every lip. How I hated him and yet there was a tinge of admiration in my venom. If only he had been for us instead of against us. He had trained men to an excellence which could compare with the regular army and at the same time he had imbued them with religious fervor. He was the greatest leader in the country and he was against us. None more fervently so. His aim was to destroy the Monarchy, and after Naseby and the loss of Bristol it looked as though he were going to do it.
My anxiety was intense. Charles was more or less a fugitive and my children, with the exception of the Prince of Wales, were in the enemy’s hands. They were treated as commoners, all royal rank denied them; and there was a rumor that my little Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, was to be apprenticed to a trade. Shoemaking was being considered.
I wept until I could not see. I thrust aside the comfort my friends had to offer. I would not listen—even to Henry Jermyn and Madame de Motteville.
But after a while I began to bestir myself. Everything was not lost. Charles had gone to Scotland; he was going to see if he could persuade the Scots to help him against the Roundheads. They would settle their religious differences; he would promise them almost anything in return for their help.
It was a desperate situation but just as my spirits had sunk to their very nadir, I was hoping again and beginning to make plans.
My hopes were on my eldest son. He had escaped to Jersey and I wanted him to come to France to me. He was fifteen years old and if I could get him advantageously married it might be possible to raise a fresh army which I could send to England. The suggestion of a Dutch marriage had not been received with any great enthusiasm by the Prince and Princess of Orange. This meant that they were beginning to suspect that the Roundheads had almost won the day and that the heir to a throne which might not be there was not a very good match. I wanted him with me. I did not want to be separated from all my family. I longed for my baby more than any of the other children; I worried about her constantly. She was just over a year old and I wondered what would become of her. I knew that when Exeter had fallen to the Roundheads she had been removed to Oatlands and was still in the care of Lady Dalkeith.
I wrote to that good and faithful woman and begged her to do all she could to bring my daughter to me, although before, when she had been in Exeter with her at the time of the siege, I had abused her for not leaving the city with my child.
Many royalists had come to me in France, which was another indication of how badly everything was going at home. Some of them did not like the idea of the Prince of Wales’s coming to France because they thought that I would endeavor to make a Catholic of him and if he became one that would put an end to his ever succeeding to the throne. I had other ideas. I wanted a good marriage for him.
Lord Digby was one of those who was against my sending for the Prince and I knew it was because of religion, but I managed to persuade him of the necessity to get arms so that the King might fight again, and finally I won their agreement, and they went off to Jersey to tell the Prince that I wished him to come to Paris.
They were a long time gone and in due course I had a communication from Digby to the effect that the Prince was very reluctant to leave Jersey because he had become enamored of the Governor’s daughter. This was the first of Charles’s countless love affairs which were to be talked of all over Europe. He was only fifteen but he was already showing the way he would go. That he could dally in such a way when so much was at stake angered me. I sent urgent messages to Digby, but still Charles would not leave the Governor’s daughter.
Meanwhile there was news from the King. He was going to Scotland. I was frantic. I wrote to him asking him to command our son to come to me at once.
While I was waiting for his arrival, which could not now be long delayed, I turned my attention to my niece, Mademoiselle de Montpensier or the Grande Mademoiselle as she was often called—the richest heiress in France. She was in fact Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans—a royal Princess, daughter of my brother Gaston and therefore worthy to mate with the Prince of Wales on account of her birth and doubly so on account of the money she had inherited through her mother. I did not greatly care for her. She was a haughty, arrogant creature and being fully aware of my unfortunate position she was not going to let me forget it. She flaunted her superiority. Her clothes were always so much richer than those of others; she scintillated with precious jewels as though to say, “Look at me. The richest heiress in France! The most desirable wife for some lucky man. He shall be of my choice though.” She had been spoiled all her life and now it was too late to correct that. She was very fair, which made her outstanding in our dark-haired almost black-eyed family. Her large blue eyes were slightly prominent and although she had not inherited our darkness she certainly had the big nose of the family. She glowed with health and I rather spitefully noticed that her teeth were discolored and spoilt her looks. She had visited me now and then, having been prevailed on to do so by kindhearted Queen Anne, and she would sit with me superciliously noting, I was sure, my clothes, which if they were a little worn were more elegant than hers. I thought her somewhat vulgar and if it had not been for her immense fortune I would not have considered her for one moment as a suitable bride for Charles.
Ah, but that fortune! I must set myself out to win it.
“You have never been to England,” I said to her. “Oh, what pleasures you have missed.”
“There is not much pleasure to be found there now, Madame.”
“The green fields are there…those little rivers all sparkling in the sun. There is no country quite so beautiful. I confess I long for a glimpse of those white cliffs once more.”
“Let us hope the King is able to keep a hold on the crown.”
“Can anyone doubt it? This is nothing…a rebellion of a few wicked men. Rest assured the King will recover all very shortly.”
“He has been rather long in doing so, dear aunt.”
“Victory is within his grasp.”
She was looking at me cynically. I knew she was thinking: Naseby. Bristol. The King in Scotland feebly trying to win the help of an ancient enemy. The family scattered.
“The Prince is growing up,” I said. “He will be there to stand with his father.”
“He if fifteen, I believe. I am seventeen.”
“I know it well,” I said. “But you are much of an age. I have a feeling that when he comes here you are going to be very good friends.”
“I do not greatly care for the society of young boys,” she answered slyly.
“Charles is a man. He is older than his years. Why, in Jersey…”
But no. I was being impulsive again. It would be unwise to tell her of his philandering with the Governor’s daughter.
She went on: “My aunt died recently, as you know.”
“I still mourn my dear sister,” I said.
“The King of Spain will be looking for a wife, I daresay. His period of mourning will soon be over.”