Buckingham appeared delighted with the way out of the difficulty which the resourceful Bassompierre had suggested:—

However, Bassompierre was determined not to give way on the question of PÈre Sancy:—

Bassompierre’s firmness was not without its effect upon the King and Buckingham, who, realising that he was not to be browbeaten, became much more conciliatory. The following evening Buckingham and Walter Montague came to sup with him and he had a long and apparently amicable conference with the former; while on the 13th, after visiting Henrietta Maria at her “Palais de Sommerset,” he dined with the Duke at York House. Finally, on the 14th, Montague came with a message from Buckingham that, although he had not complied with the King’s wishes in regard to PÈre Sancy, his Majesty was graciously pleased to give him audience the following day.

On the morrow the Earl of Bridgewater arrived with the Royal coaches to convey the Ambassador and his suite to Hampton Court. Here he was received by Buckingham, who conducted him into a gallery, where Charles was awaiting him. The duke then withdrew a little distance, and a long interview took place between Charles and Bassompierre, in which there was much heated discussion.

It is evident, from Bassompierre’s despatches, that after his audience with Charles I, he was, for the moment, tempted to despair of the success of his mission, believing that the King was so embittered against his wife’s French attendants that he would never consent to their return, and that Buckingham, notwithstanding the desire he professed for an amicable arrangement, was not to be trusted.

And to his brother-in-law, the Comte de TilliÈres, he writes:—

However, Bassompierre did not receive orders to return to France, and in the course of the next few days the attitude of Charles I and his Court underwent a welcome change, and every influence was brought to bear upon the Ambassador to induce him to represent to the French Government that the religious and domestic difficulties which had led to the expulsion of the Queen’s attendants had been such as to exonerate, if not to justify, that high-handed action, and to persuade Henrietta Maria to consent to some arrangement satisfactory to all parties concerned. Buckingham called on him several times and brought him to Somerset House for informal discussions. All the great nobles of the Court—Pembroke, Carlisle, Carleton, Holland—whom he visited at “Kinsinthon”—Montgomery, Bridgewater, and Conway, appeared anxious to make amends for the coolness of his first reception by every kind of civility and hospitality. He was permitted to have private audiences of the Queen both at Somerset House and “Houaithall” [Whitehall], and Charles even condescended to discuss his domestic troubles with him in the presence of his consort.

Bassompierre was ready enough to repay the courtesies and confidences which were now lavished upon him by using the influence which the fact that he had been one of her father’s most intimate friends, and had known her since her childhood, gave him over the Queen to bring about an amicable settlement. He recognised that there had been faults as well as grievances on both sides, and, in his private conferences with Henrietta, he pointed out to her that she had committed a very grave error in surrounding herself so closely with her own people and establishing, so to speak, a foreign camp in the midst of the English Court. His task, however, was a far from easy one, and it was complicated by the circumstance that Henrietta was convinced that Buckingham was her personal enemy, and that, jealous lest she should acquire influence with the King, he had made mischief perpetually between them.[74] Eventually, however, by a happy combination of tact, patience, and firmness, he brought her to take a more reasonable view of the situation, though her Majesty’s temper was very uncertain, and more than once, when he flattered himself that differences were satisfactorily adjusted, fresh trouble arose, and he had to begin his work over again. But let us turn to his journal, wherein he has noted the progress of his negotiations from day to day:—

On the Thursday, Conway arrived to request Bassompierre to come on the following day to the Council, where he should receive an answer to proposals which he had made. The next day Buckingham came to dine with him, and afterwards took him to Whitehall, and left him in a room in the King’s apartments, with Goring, Montague, and Lewkenor to entertain him, while he himself went to the Council.

The first part of this document contained a long and elaborated defence of Charles I’s action in summarily expelling the Queen’s attendants from the country, by which, the commissioners maintained, neither the letter nor the spirit of the marriage-treaty had been violated, since “the said persons had been sent back as offenders, who had by their ill-conduct disturbed, in the first place, the affairs of the kingdom, and, secondly, the domestic government of the house of his Majesty and of the Queen his dearly-loved consort, whereon depended the happiness of their lives.”

The Bishop of Mende and his priests (to whom the ambassador, M. de Blainville, had also lent his hand) had endeavoured, by their intrigues, to create factions and dissensions amongst the subjects of his Majesty, exciting fear and mistrust in the Protestants, encouraging the Roman Catholics, and even instigating the disaffected in Parliament against everything connected with the service of the King and the public tranquillity of the kingdom.

The Queen’s house they had converted into a rendezvous of Jesuits and fugitives, and a place of security for the persons, property, and papers of such as had violated our laws.

By subtle means they discovered what was passing in private between the King and Queen, and laboured to create in the gentle mind of the Queen a repugnance to all his Majesty desired or ordered, even to what he did for the honour of his dignity, and avowedly fomented discords between their Majesties, as a thing essential to the welfare of their Church.

They had endeavoured by all means to inspire her with a contempt for our nation and a dislike of our usages, and had made her neglect the English language, as if she neither had, nor wished to have, any common interest among us, who desire nothing more than to promote the happiness of her Majesty.

They introduced, by means of the priests, strange orders and regulations, unheard of in times past, and disapproved by others of their profession.

They had subjected the person of the Queen to the rules of a, as it were, monastic obedience, in order to oblige her to do many base and servile acts, which were not only unworthy of the majesty of a queen, but also very dangerous to her health.[86] Witness what had befallen a person of distinction amongst her attendants, who had died therefrom, and declared at her death that they were the cause of it.

It is perhaps needful to explain that this poor lady died from the severities of the discipline inflicted upon herself, and not upon her royal mistress. The commissioners are not too luminous on this point.

Finally, as the crown of all these delinquencies, came the supposed pilgrimage to Tyburn, already referred to, which, said the commissioners, had exhausted the sorely-tried patience of the King and decided him to rid the country of her Majesty’s French attendants.

The latter part of the document dealt with the non-fulfilment of the engagements respecting the English Roman Catholics, which was defended on the ground of expediency, while it was contended that the article promising liberty of worship had been agreed to by the English commissioners, and accepted by the French, “simply as a matter of form to satisfy the Roman Catholic party of France and the Pope.”

The commissioners concluded by observing that “the visit and deportment of M. de Bassompierre had been very agreeable to his Majesty” and that the King of France might rest assured that in all matters touching the conscience of the Queen the treaty should be strictly observed, and that his Majesty, “from the love he bore to his dear consort,” would show all the indulgence to the Roman Catholics which the constitution and security of his State would allow.

Bassompierre requested the Council’s permission to reply forthwith, and, this being granted, “he did so with great vehemence and better to his own liking than he had ever spoken in his life.” We can understand his satisfaction, for it was undoubtedly a very able and eloquent speech, and gives us a high opinion of his promptitude and address. The turn he gives to the “Tyburn pilgrimage”—the act which the commissioners asserted had driven Charles I to extremities—is extremely ingenious. He admits that the Queen went with her French attendants to Tyburn, but it was in the course of one of her customary evening walks in the park of “St. Jemmes” and the “Hipparc,” which adjoins it—a walk such as she had often taken in the company of the King her husband. But that she had made it in procession, or that she had approached within fifty paces of the gallows, or that she had offered up any prayers, public or private, or that she had fallen on her knees, holding the hours or chaplets in her hands, he most strenuously denies. For the rest, to have thought a little of God at sight of the gibbet seems to him a small offence. “Granted,” says he, “that they prayed for those who died on the gibbet, they did well, for however wicked the men might have been who died on it, they were condemned to death, and not to damnation. And never has one been forbidden to pray to God for such. You tell me that is to blame the memory of the kings who had them put to death. On the contrary, I praise the justice of these kings, and implore the compassion of the King of kings, in order that He may be satisfied with their bodily death, and that He may pardon through our prayers and intercessions (if these be sufficient) the souls upon whom neither the justice nor the pardon of the kings of this world can have any effect. To conclude, I deny formally that this action has been committed, and offer, at the same time, to prove that they would have done very well to commit it.”

Bassompierre’s oration lasted an hour, “and when I came out,” says he, “I went to find the Queen to show her the fine answer which they had given me, and the substance of what I had replied and protested.”

In the evening Buckingham sent the Ambassador word that all of the Council who could speak or understand French would call upon him the following morning, and that he might hope for a favourable conclusion; “for the King had told him that it was his intention to satisfy the King his brother and to send him [Bassompierre] away content.”

At seven o’clock next morning, Lord Dorset came to tell him that he should have satisfaction and that the Council would come soon afterwards to meet him, adding that “it only depended upon himself that all should go right.”

Buckingham and the rest of the Council arrived soon afterwards, and Carleton, on behalf of his colleagues, replied to Bassompierre’s speech of the previous day in a very conciliatory tone, pointing out the mischief that would result from a rupture between the two countries, and proposing that they should leave no means untried to come to some amicable arrangement, which, he knew, was the most earnest desire of the King.

On the following day Buckingham and Holland came to dine with him, and he afterwards received a visit from the young Duke of Lennox. Then he proceeded to Whitehall, where he had a private audience of Charles I, “in which,” he says, “he confirmed and ratified all that his commissioners had negotiated and concluded with me, of which he showed me the draft and made me read it.”[88]

The day which followed Charles I’s ratification of the arrangement intended to secure his domestic peace was Lord Mayor’s Day, and it will doubtless be very gratifying to any member of the Corporation of London who may chance to peruse these pages to learn the respect in which that civic festival was held three centuries ago:—

Notwithstanding that the Queen had done Buckingham the honour to invite him to witness the Lord Mayor’s procession with her the previous day, her Majesty and the duke had not entirely made up their differences; for on the following day we learn that Carlisle came to see Bassompierre “in order to conclude the reconciliation” which the Ambassador succeeded in negotiating.

“On the 11th Bassompierre went with Holland and M. Harber, who had been Ambassador in France”[92] to dine with Lord Wimbledon at the manor from which he took his title, which the marshal thought a very fine house. Wimbledon’s sister-in-law, the Countess of Exeter, had come to assist in doing the honours to the distinguished guests, who were “magnificently entertained.”

Bassompierre’s belief that the Queen was satisfied with the arrangements that had been made in regard to her Household received a rude shock a day or two later, when a more stormy scene took place at Whitehall than had yet occurred.

Bassompierre, out of all patience at seeing Henrietta continue to play the vixen after her grievances had been redressed, told her his mind plainly, without caring for her rank:—

This last sentence constitutes a full justification of Charles’s persistent demands, when Bassompierre first arrived in England, that Sancy should be sent back to France. It is evident that, although the Ambassador had doubtless kept his promise that this meddlesome ecclesiastic should not approach the Court nor even leave his house, the latter had all along been in correspondence with the Queen, had contributed to keep her mind in a most mischievous state of agitation, and now, just when everything seemed to have been settled satisfactorily, was pushing her to fresh demands, so unreasonable that even Bassompierre could not attempt to justify them. There can be no doubt that Sancy was acting under the instructions of the Queen-Mother and BÉrulle, and had come to England with the express purpose of establishing secret relations with Henrietta; but it is not a little surprising to find the English Court so early and so well apprised of his mission as it appears to have been.

The next day, Friday the 13th, the Queen, to whom Sancy had, of course, reported the unfavourable reception which his overtures on her behalf had received, sent for Bassompierre to come to her; but the Ambassador, who was determined to bring her Majesty to reason, begged to be excused. His refusal had the desired effect, for on the Saturday “the Earl of Carlisle came to visit him for the purpose of reconciling him with the Queen,” and peace was re-established.

On the 15th, to celebrate the amicable termination of Bassompierre’s mission, Buckingham gave a magnificent fÊte in the Ambassador’s honour at York House, which the King and Queen graced with their presence:—

On the following day the King, who with the Queen had spent the night at York House, sent to invite Bassompierre to return there to hear a concert given by the Queen’s musicians. The concert was followed by a ball, and the ball by a play, at the conclusion of which the Ambassador, who had been dancing until the small hours of the morning, must have experienced considerable difficulty in remaining awake.

During the next fortnight Bassompierre appears to have entertained, or been entertained by, all the distinguished persons of the Court. At one dinner-party which he gave his guests were: Buckingham, Carlisle, Holland, Theophilus Howard, Earl of Suffolk, Carleton, Walter Montague, Goring, Orazio Gentileschi, the celebrated painter, Thomas Cary, son of the Earl of Monmouth, and a poet of some note in his time, and Saint-Antoine, the King’s French equerry, who is depicted by Vandyck holding his royal master’s helmet in the magnificent picture of Charles I mounted on a white horse; while after dinner William Cecil, Earl of Exeter, and Edward Montague, Lord Mandeville, afterwards Earl of Manchester, joined the party. Seldom can a more interesting company have been gathered round one table.

On November 29 he began to make his adieux:

The following day was occupied in further farewell visits, and in the evening—the last which he was to spend in London—the Countess of Exeter gave in his honour “a magnificent banquet, followed by a ball.”

On December 2 the Ambassador took his departure:

Bassompierre, it will be remembered, had encountered no difficulty in crossing the Channel on his way to England; but now there was a very different tale to tell. No sooner had his retinue embarked than the wind changed and blew half-a-gale from the South; and for four days it was impossible for the vessels to leave the harbour. This delay was the more exasperating, since he had undertaken to defray the travelling expenses of his whole suite, including the liberated priests, in the fond belief that they would be able to sail within a few hours of their arrival at Dover, and every day they lingered on English soil meant several hundred crowns out of the unfortunate Ambassador’s pocket.

On the 8th, Tuesday, Walter Montague came riding into Dover and informed Bassompierre that Charles I had decided to send Buckingham on a special embassy to the Court of France, and that the duke proposed to start immediately. The reasons which had led to this decision were as follows:—

In the many conferences which had taken place between Bassompierre and the English Ministers, other matters besides the re-establishment of the Queen’s French attendants and the treatment of the English Catholics had come under discussion. The most important of these was that thorny question which for centuries has been the cause of so much ill-feeling whenever this country has been at war—the right of searching neutral vessels for contraband of war—but which no naval Power in its sound senses would dream for a moment of abandoning. It was indisputable that, since the outbreak of hostilities with Spain, a large trade had been carried on between Spain and Flanders under the French flag; but it was likewise true that the English cruisers had conducted the blockade of the Flemish coast with more zeal than discretion, and that an unreasonably long time had been permitted to elapse between the seizure of quite innocent French vessels and their release. Thus, in the previous September, three ships belonging to Rouen, with extremely valuable cargoes on board, had been seized, and, notwithstanding the strongest protests from the French Government, were still detained in our ports.

In the discussions on the maritime question, Bassompierre took up the same firm yet moderate attitude which he had observed during the negotiations on that of the marriage-treaty, admitting the reasonableness of England’s objections to the trade which was being carried on under the protection of the French flag, but urging that some understanding should be arrived at by which the perpetual interference of the English cruisers might be obviated. It is quite probable that a treaty prescribing the conditions upon which neutral vessels should be liable to arrest might have been the outcome of these conferences, had not events occurred to exasperate both nations.

Towards the end of November, news arrived that d’Épernon, now Governor of Guienne, who detested Richelieu and his policy of peace with England, had seized a fleet of 200 English and Scottish vessels which were about to sail from Bordeaux with a full cargo of wine, upon which duty had already been paid. It was an open act of war; the London merchants clamoured for letters of marque to defend their vessels and retaliate upon the French “pirates,” and Charles I issued an Order in Council for the seizure of all French vessels in English waters. Short of an actual declaration of war the peace had been broken between the two countries; but Buckingham, blinded by an extraordinary optimism, still believed that, if he were to cross over to France with the friendly and moderate-minded Bassompierre, who, he had learned, was detained at Dover, the dispute might be satisfactorily arranged; and accordingly persuaded the King to appoint him Ambassador Extraordinary to the French Court, and sent Walter Montague to inform the marshal of the mission which had been entrusted to him.

Bassompierre was greatly astonished and embarrassed by the news that Montague brought. He was aware that it was the intention of Charles I to send an ambassador to France, but had never dreamed that Buckingham, after the very plain hint which he had received the previous year that his presence at the French Court would not be tolerated, would have the effrontery to take upon himself the mission. The thought of the indignation of Louis XIII and Richelieu if he were to return to Paris accompanied by the presumptuous favourite was a most unpleasant one; and he therefore begged Montague to inform Buckingham that he advised him strongly to abandon his intention of coming to France, as he very much feared that he would not be received, and sent him back in all haste to London. Then, in order to leave nothing to chance, at two o’clock the next morning he embarked with his suite for Calais, notwithstanding that it was still blowing hard.

He was not, however, to escape Buckingham so easily, for the storm carried them towards Dieppe, and, after beating about the Channel for some time, in a vain attempt to make the French coast, they were obliged to return and land near Dover, to which they sadly made their way back. The bad weather continued for several days, and on the 12th Buckingham, who had learned that Bassompierre was still detained at Dover, sent Montague to beg him to meet him at Canterbury, whither he proposed to come on the following day.

The duke arrived, accompanied by Carlisle, Holland and Goring and the Chevalier de Jars, and, says Bassompierre, “wished to show me his splendour by entertaining me in the evening to a magnificent banquet.” After supper the marshal had a long conference with Buckingham, in which he endeavoured to persuade him to abandon his proposed visit to France; but the latter appeared absolutely determined upon it, and was still in the same mind when they adjourned to bed.

Next morning, however, Bassompierre returned to the charge, and, though the duke refused to hear of giving up his journey, he at length consented to postpone it until the marshal had submitted the proposed embassy to Louis XIII. It was arranged that Balthazar Gerbier should accompany Bassompierre to Paris and bring back word to his patron whether the French Court were prepared to receive him. “At dinner,” says Bassompierre, “he entertained me to as magnificent a banquet as that of the preceding evening; and then we embraced, never to see one another again.”

Much relieved at having extricated himself from a very awkward situation—for had the duke insisted on accompanying him back to France, Bassompierre would undoubtedly have got into serious trouble—the marshal returned to Dover, to find that his suite, acting presumably on his instructions, had taken advantage of a change in the weather and sailed for Calais. Although it was not until several days later that the Ambassador himself was able to cross the Channel, it would have been infinitely cheaper for him had his attendants elected to remain at Dover, notwithstanding the heavy expense which their maintenance there entailed:

“They encountered such ill-fortune,” says he, “that they were unable to reach Calais for five days, and were obliged to cast into the sea my two fine coaches, in which by mischance there were clothes to the value of more than 40,000 francs which I had purchased in England for presents. I lost, further, twenty-nine horses, who died of thirst during those five days, because no fresh water had been laid in for this passage, which in fine weather does not occupy more than three hours.”