Chapter 10

Upon the 10th of June came news to this Court of the total rout of Don John of Austria at the battle of Evora;[Footnote: Pepys, speaking of this battle, in which the Portuguese completely defeated the Spaniards, says--"4th July, 1663. Sir Allen Apsley showed the Duke the Lisbon Gazette, in Spanish, where the late victory is set down particularly, and to the great honour of the English beyond measure. They have since taken back Evora, which was lost to the Spaniards, the English making the assault, and lost not more than three men."-Diary, vol. ii-p. 68.] after which our house and tables were full of distressed, honest, brave English soldiers, who by their own and their fellows' valour had got one of the greatest victories that ever was.

These poor but brave men were almost lost between the Portuguese poverty and the Lord Chancellor Hyde's neglect, not to give it a worse name.[Footnote: It appears however, from Sir Robert Southwell's Account of Portugal (p.138), that Charles II was so pleased with the gallantry of his troops at the battle of Evora, (or, as it is more commonly called by historians, of Ameixal,) that he caused a gratuity of 40,000 crowns to be distributed among them. It would seem that the "neglect" of which Lady Fanshawe complains, was entirely on the side of the Portuguese. Sir Robert Southwell mentions some curious anecdotes on this subject, particularly with reference to the statement in the Lisbon Gazette, alluded to in the preceding note.] While my husband stayed there, he did what he could, but not proportionably either to their merits or wants.

About this time my husband sent great assistance to the Governor of Tangiers, the Earl of Peterborough then being Governor, whose letters of supplication and thanks for kindness and care, my husband and I have yet to show.

June the 26th, I was delivered of a son ten weeks before my time: he lived some hours, and was christened Richard by our Chaplain, Mr. Marsden, who performed the ceremony of the Church of England at his burial, and then laid him in the Parish Church in which we lived, in the principal part of the chancel.

The Queen sent to condole with me for the loss of my son, and the Marquees de Castel Melhor, the Marquees de Nica, the Condessa de Villa Franca, (Donna Maria e Antonia,) with many other ladies, and several good gentlewomen that were English merchants' wives.

Several times we saw the Feasts of Bulls, and at them had great voiders of dried sweetmeats brought us upon the King's account, with rich drinks.

Once we had some dispute about some English Commanders that thought themselves not well enough placed at the show, according to their merit, by the King's officers, which did so ill represent it to my husband that he was extremely concerned at it. Upon notice being given to the Chief Minister, the Conde de Castel Melhor came from the King to my husband, after having examined the business, and desired that there might be no misunderstanding between the King and him, that the business was only the impertinence of a servant, and that it might so pass. My husband was well satisfied, and presented his most humble acknowledgments to the King for his care and favour to him, as well as the honour he had received. The Conde de Castel Melhor, when he had finished his visit to my husband, came to my apartment, and told me he hoped I took no offence at what had passed at the feast, because the King had heard I was sad to see my husband troubled; assuring me that his Majesty and the whole Court desired nothing more than that we should receive all content imaginable. I gave him many thanks for the honour of his visit, and desired him to present my humble service to the King, assuring him, that my husband and I had all the respect imaginable for his Majesty; true it was, according to the English fashion, I did make a little whine when I saw my husband disordered, but I should ever remain his Majesty's humble servant, with my most humble thanks to his Excellency. And so he returned well satisfied.

The 14th, the Chief Ministers met my husband in order to his return home for England, and expressed a great trouble to part from him; they from the King presented my husband with twelve thousand crowns in gold plate, with many compliments and favours from the King, whom my husband waited on the next day to receive his Majesty's commands for his Master in England. After giving his Majesty many thanks for the many honours he had received from his Majesty's kind acceptance of his service, he thanked his Majesty for his present, saying that he wished his Majesty's bounteous kindness to him might not prejudice his Majesty, in this example, by the next coming ambassador; to which his Majesty replied, 'I am sure it cannot, for I shall never have such another ambassador.' Then my husband took his leave, performing all those ceremonies with the same persons and coaches as he made at his entry.

Upon the 19th of August my husband and I took our leaves of the Queen- Mother, at her house, who had commanded all her ladies to give attendance, though her Majesty was then in a retired condition.

Her Majesty expressed much resentment at our leaving the Court; and after our respects paid to her Majesty, and I receiving her Majesty's commands to our Queen, with a present, I took my leave with the same ceremony of coaches and persons as I had waited on her Majesty twice before.

Upon the 20th, my husband took his leave of Don Pedro, his Majesty's brother. The 21st of August, the Secretary of State came to visit me from the King and Queen, wishing me a prosperous voyage, and presented me with a very noble present. The same day I took my leave of my good neighbour the Condessa de Palma, as I had done of all the ladies of my acquaintance before, who all presented me with fine presents, as did my good neighbour the Countess Santa Graca, who had with her, when I went to take my leave, many persons of quality, that came on purpose there to take their leaves of me, and from whom I received great civility, and the Countess gave me a very great banquet.

On the 23rd of August 1663, we, accompanied by many persons of all sorts, went on board the King of England's frigate, called the Reserve, commanded by Captain Holmes, where, as soon as I was on board, the Conde de Castel Melhor sent me a very great and noble present, a part of which was the finest case of waters that ever I saw, being made of Brazil wood, garnished with silver, the bottles of crystal, garnished with the same, and filled with rich amber-water.

Lisbon with the river is the goodliest situation that ever I saw; the city old and decayed; but they are making new walls of stone, which will contain six times their city. Their churches and chapels are the best built, the finest adorned, and the cleanliest kept, of any churches in the world. The people delight much in quintas, which are a sort of country houses, of which there are abundance within a few leagues of the city, and those that belong to the nobility are very fine, both houses and gardens. The nation is generally very civil and obliging. In religion divided, between Papists and Jews. The people generally not handsome. They have many religious houses, and bishopricks of great revenue; and the religious of both sexes are for the most part very strict.

Their fruits of all kinds are extraordinary good and fair; their wine rough for the most part, but very wholesome; their corn dark and gritty; water bad, except some few springs far from the city. Their flesh of all kinds indifferent; their mules and asses extraordinary good and large, but their horses few and naught. They have little wood and less grass.

At my coming away I visited several nunneries, in one whereof I was told, that the last year there was a girl of fourteen years of age burnt for a Jew. She was taken from her mother as soon as she was born, in prison, her mother being condemned, and brought up in the Esperanca; although she never heard, as they did to me affirm, what a Jew was, she did daily scratch and whip the crucifixes, and run pins into them in private; and when discovered confessed it, and said she would never adore that God.

On Thursday, August 25th, 1663,[Footnote: The 25th of August, 1663, fell on a Tuesday.] we set sail for England. On the 4th of September, our style, being Friday, we landed at Deal, all in good health, God be praised!

Saturday 5th, we went to Canterbury, and there tarried Sunday, where we went to church, and very many of the gentlemen of Kent came to welcome us into England.

And here I cannot omit relating the ensuing story, confirmed by Sir Thomas Barton, Sir Arnold Braeme, the Dean of Canterbury, with many more gentlemen and persons of this town.

There lives not far from Canterbury a gentleman, called Colonel Colepeper,[Footnote: Lady Barbara, daughter of Robert Sydney, Earl of Leicester, and widow of Thomas, first Viscount Strangford, married secondly Sir Thomas Colepeper, by whom she had Colonel Colepeper, and a daughter, Roberta Anna, who married Major Thomas Porter, and died issueless, June 16th, 1661, more than two years before Lady Fanshawe was told this story, the circumstances of which she states to have happened only three months previously. The Colonel was a most extraordinary character, and though a man of genius and erudition, was very nearly a madman. A voluminous collection of his MSS. is preserved in the British Museum, whence it appears that he was in the habit of committing his most private thoughts to paper; that there was scarcely a subject to which his attention was not directed; and that the Government and eminent persons were continually tormented with his projects and discoveries, embracing among others the Longitude. His quarrel with the Earl of Devonshire, which led to the imposition upon that nobleman of the exorbitant fine of, L30,000, is well known. But he was always involved in disputes and law-suits, and not unfrequently he was a prisoner for debt. He filed affidavits in Chancery, denying his sister's marriage, with the view of justifying his refusal to pay her portion to her husband; but the only thing which in any way bears on the anecdote of the vault, is the fact that one of the Colonel's conceits was a plan for embalming dead bodies. The horrible suspicion alluded to by Lady Fanshawe is unsupported by any other statement, and it may be hoped that she was as misinformed on the subject as she was about the time of Mrs. Porter's decease. Part of Colonel Colepeper's papers relate to the particulars of a secret marriage, which he says, in a petition to the Court of Chancery, had taken place between him and the daughter and heiress of Alexander Davies, of Ebury, the widow of Sir Thomas Grosvenor; the unusual engagement into which they entered on the wedding-night; the pretended capture of the lady by the Algerines; his correspondence with the French Government to procure her release; the various attempts to violate her person by one Fordwich; her refusal after her return to England to acknowledge the Colonel as her husband, and his efforts to effect that recognition. His wife's letters to him during his imprisonment, which are preserved in the Harleian MS. 7005, and the account of her efforts to procure his release, exhibit proofs of the most touching and devoted affection, and cannot be read without the highest esteem for her character. She was one of the co-heiresses of the last Lord Frecheville.] whose mother was widow unto the Lord Strangford: this gentleman had a sister, who lived with him, as the world said, in too much love. She married Mr. Porter. This brother and sister being both atheists, and living a life according to their profession, went in a frolic into a vault of their ancestors, where, before they returned, they pulled some of their father's and mother's hairs. Within a very few days after, Mrs. Porter fell sick and died. Her brother kept her body in a coffin set up in his buttery, saying it would not be long before he died, and then they would be both buried together; but from the night after her death, until the time that we were told the story, which was three months, they say that a head, as cold as death, with curled hair like his sister's, did ever lie by him wherever he slept, notwithstanding he removed to several places and countries to avoid it; and several persons told us they had felt this apparition.

On Monday, the 7th of September, we went to Gravesend, and from thence by water to Dorset House, in Salisbury Court, where we stayed fifteen days. The 8th of September, 1663, within two hours after our arrival, we were visited by very many kindred and friends, amongst whom his Grace of Canterbury, who came the next day and dined with us. The same day came the Bishop of Winchester, as did many others of the greatest clergy in England.

Upon the 10th of September, my husband went to Bath, to wait upon his Majesty, who was then there: his Majesty graciously received him, and for a confirmation that he approved his service in his negotiation in Portugal, he was pleased to make him a Privy Counsellor. He was also very graciously received by her Majesty the Queen. Being indisposed with a long journey, my husband fell sick, but it continued but two days, thanks be to God!

On the 17th he went by Cornbury, where the Lord Chancellor then was, and so to London, and, in his absence, I, on the 16th, took a house in Boswell Court, near Temple Bar, for two years, immediately moving all my goods thereto, as well those, which were many, that I had left with my sister Turner in her house in my absence, as those that I brought with me out of Portugal, which were seventeen cart-loads.

Upon Saturday, the 19th, my husband returned from his Majesty, and met me at our new house in Boswell Court.

On Monday, the 21st, being at a great feast at my sister Turner's, where there met us very many of our friends upon the same invitation, whereof Sir John Cutler was one, who after dinner brought me a box, saying, "Madam, this was to go to Portugal, but that I heard your Ladyship was landed." In it there was a piece of cloth of tissue for me, and ribbons and gloves for my children. Whilst we were at dinner, there came an express from Court, with a warrant to swear my husband a Privy Counsellor, from Sir Henry Bennet. The 22nd we went down to Hertfordshire, to my brother Fanshawe's; 24th we dined at Sir John Wats', where we were nobly feasted with great kindness, and to add to my content, I there met with my little girl Betty, whom I had left at nurse within two miles of that place, at my going to Portugal. After being entertained at Sir Francis Boteler's, our very good friend, we went to St. Albans to bed, where, the next day, we bought some coach- horses, and on the 26th we returned to London.

On Tuesday, the 29th, we went again to St. Albans, where my husband bought eight more coach-horses; the same night we returned to London.

On the 1st of October, my husband was sworn a Privy Counsellor, in the presence of his Majesty, his Royal Highness, and the greatest part of his Majesty's honourable Privy Council. On the 3rd, my husband waited on her Majesty the Queen-Mother, who received him with great kindness: the 4th I waited on her Majesty at Whitehall, and there delivered the presents which the Queen-Mother of Portugal had sent her Majesty, who received both them and me in her bed-chamber, with great expressions of kindness. I stayed with her Majesty about an hour and a half, which she spent in asking questions of her mother, brothers, and country; after which I waited on her Majesty in the drawing-room, whereinto the King entered presently after, and I seeing the King, retired to the side of the room, where his Majesty came to me presently, saluting me, and bade me welcome home, with great grace and kindness, asking me many questions of Lisbon and the country.

On Sunday the 4th of October, my husband took his place as Privy Counsellor in the Lords' seat; likewise this day his Grace of Canterbury took his seat, and the Bishop of Winchester, both in the same place: his Grace of Canterbury did his homage to the King. The same day that my husband was sworn a Privy Counsellor, I waited on the Queen-Mother at Somerset House, and the Duke and Duchess of York at St. James's, who all received me with great cheerfulness and grace. On the 7th, the Lord Mayor invited all the Lords of the Privy Council to dinner, among whom was my husband.

The 1st of January 1664, New Year's day, my husband, as Privy Counsellor, presented his Majesty with ten pieces of gold in a purse; and the person that carries it hath a ticket given him of the receipt thereof, from the cupboard of Privy Chamber, where it is delivered to the Master of the Jewel-house, who is thereupon to give him twenty shillings for his pains, out of which he is to give to the servant of the Master of the Jewel-house eighteen-pence.

We received, as the custom is, fifteen ounces of gilt plate for a Privy Counsellor, and fifteen ounces for Secretary of the Latin Tongue; likewise we had the impost of four tuns of wine, two for a Privy Counsellor, and two for a Master of Requests.

January 15th, I took my leave of the King and Queen, who, with great kindness, wished me a good voyage to Spain. Then I waited on the Queen-Mother at Somerset House: her Majesty sent for me into her bed- chamber, and after some discourse I took my leave of her Majesty. Afterwards I waited on their Royal Highnesses, who received me with more than ordinary kindness, and after an hour and a half's discourse with me, saluted me and gave me leave to depart.

On Tuesday, January 19th, my husband carried the Speaker, Sir Edward Turner's eldest son, and my brother Turner, to the King, at Whitehall, who conferred the honour of knighthood on them both, my husband particularly recommending my brother Turner to his Majesty's grace and honour.

On the 2Oth of January my husband took his leave of his Majesty and all the Royal Family, receiving their dispatches and their commands for Spain, from which hour to our going out of town, day and night, our house was full of kindred and friends taking leave of us; and on Tuesday the 21st, 1664, in the morning, at eight o'clock, did rendezvous at Dorset House, in Salisbury Court, in that half of the house which Sir Thomas Fanshawe then lived in, who entertained us with a very good breakfast and banquet. The company that came thither was very great, as was likewise that which accompanied us out of town. Thus, with many coaches of our family and friends, we took our journey at ten of the clock towards Portsmouth.

The company of our family was my husband, myself, and four daughters; Mr. Bertie, son to the Earl of Lindsey, Lord Great Chamberlain of England; Mr. Newport, second son to the Lord Baron Newport; Sir Benjamin Wright, Baronet; Sir Andrew King; Sir Edward Turner, Knight, son to the Speaker of the Commons' House of Parliament; and Mr. Francis Godolphin, son to Sir Francis Godolphin, Knight of the Bath. The most part of them went by water.

We lay the first night at Guildford, the second at Petersfield, the third at Portsmouth, where we stayed till the 31st of the same month, being very civilly used there by the Mayor and his brethren, who made my husband a freeman of the town, as their custom is to persons of quality that pass that way; and likewise we received many favours from the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Philip Honywood, with the rest of the commanders of that garrison. As I said before, we went on board the 31st, being Sunday, the Admiral of the Fleet then setting out, Sir John Lawson, Chief Commander, in his Majesty's ship called the Resolution; there was Captain Berkeley, Commander of the Bristol frigate, Captain Utber, Commander of the Phoenix, Captain Ferne, Commander of the Portsmouth, Captain Moon, Commander of the York, and Sir John Lawson's ketch, commanded by Captain King.

Thus, at ten o'clock, we set sail with a good wind, which carried us as far as Torbay, and then failed us; there we lay till Monday the 15th of February, at nine o'clock at night, at which, it pleasing God to give us a prosperous wind, we set sail, and on the 23rd of February, our style, we cast anchor in Cadiz road, in Spain.

So soon as it was known that we were there, the English Consul with the English merchants all came on board to welcome us to Spain; and presently after came the Lieutenant-Governor from the Governor for the time being, Don Diego de Ibara, to give us joy of our arrival, and to ask leave of my husband to visit him, which Don Diego did within two hours after the Lieutenant's return. The next morning, stilo novo, came in a Levant wind, which blew the fleet so forcibly, that we could not possibly land until Monday, the 7th of March, at 10 o'clock in the morning. Then came the Governor, Don Diego de Ibara, aboard, accompanied by most of the persons of quality of that town, with many boats for the conveyance of our family, and a very rich barge, covered with crimson damask fringed with gold, and Persia carpets under foot. So soon as it was day, we set sail to go nearer the shore. We were first saluted by all the ships in the road, and then by all the King of Spain's forts, which salutation we returned again with our guns.

My husband received the Governor upon deck, and carried him into the round-house, who, as soon as he was there, told my husband, that contrary to the usage of the King of Spain, his Majesty had commanded that his ships and forts should first salute the King of England's Ambassador, and that his Majesty had commanded that both in that place of Cadiz and in all others to the Court of Madrid, my husband and all his retinue should be entertained upon the King's account, in as full and ample manner, both as to persons and conveyance of our goods and persons, as if his Majesty were there in person. My husband and self and children went in the barge, the rest in other barges provided for that purpose.

At our setting off, Sir John Lawson saluted us with very many guns, and as we went near the shore the cannon saluted us in great numbers. When we landed we were carried on shore in a rich chair supported by eight men: we were welcomed by many volleys of shot, and all the persons of quality of that town by the sea-side, among whom was the Governor, did conduct my husband with all his train. There were infinite numbers of people, who with the soldiery did show us all the respect and welcome imaginable. I was received by his Excellency Don Melchor de la Cueva, the Duke of Albuquerque's brother, and the Governor of the garrison, who both led me four or five paces to a rich sedan, which carried me to the coach where the Governor's lady was, who came out immediately to salute me, and whom, after some compliments, I took into the coach with me and my children.

When we came to the house where we were to lodge, we were nobly treated, and the Governor's wife did me the honour to sup with me. That afternoon the Duke of Albuquerque came to visit my husband, and afterwards me, with his brother Don Melchor de la Cueva. As soon as the Duke was seated and covered, he said, 'Madam, I am Don Juan de la Cueva, Duke of Albuquerque, Viceroy of Milan, of his Majesty's privy council, General of the galleys, twice Grandee, the first Gentleman of his Majesty's bed-chamber, and a near kinsman to his Catholic Majesty, whom God long preserve!' and then rising up and making me a low reverence with his hat off, said, 'These, with my family and life, I lay at your Excellency's feet.'