Duchess of York

“ She was extremely fond of children, and would stop in her walks to notice them. The Duke of York had, during the campaign, seen much of his uncle, the Duke of Brunswick, and he was so charmed with the Princess Caroline, that he mentioned her to his brother the king and the Prince of Wales as a suitable bride for the latter. There was no prospect of the Duke and Duchess of York having any family, and the king was naturally most anxious that the succession to the throne should be indubitably settled by heritage in the direct line. ”

“ Thus, almost before she knew it, Frances's beauty had won, as we had been sure it would, and she was a maid of honor in Whitehall Palace to her Grace, the Duchess of York, sister-in-law to the king.
"The Mother of the Maids will instruct you in your duties, chief of which you will find easy enough, that is, to be beautiful," said the duchess, taking a chair and indicating that we were to be seated. ”

“ On 31 March 1671 the Duchess of York died, after receiving the viaticum of the church of Rome. Her husband and Queen Catherine were present during her last hours. By her desire Blandford, bishop of Worcester, on his arrival with Laurence Hyde, at that time still in doubt as to his sister's conversion, was informed of the fact by the duke. Before taking his departure the bishop contented himself with a short exhortation, on the conclusion of which the dying woman asked, `What is truth?' and in her agony reiterated the word ' truth ' before she breathed her last (Burnet, i. 568) . ”

“ It is well known that when Kings and Princesses of the Blood make an alliance with a subject, their arms are not put into the Royal Escutcheon, nor did ever the late Duchess of York call the Lord Chancellor father, nor did ever the late King James call the Earls of Clarendon and Rochester brothers, nor the Princesses Mary and Anne term them as uncles. ”

“ Whether this consideration weighed with Charles or not, he made then no opposition to the marriage of his favourite and “dearest sister” with the cousin for whom he entertained, with good reason, the strongest dislike and contempt.
On 26th November Lord Craven was writing to the Queen of Bohemia of Anne: “She is owned in her family to be Duchess of York, but not at Whitehall as yet, but it is very sure that the Duke has made her his wife. Your Majesty knows it is what I have feared long although you were not of that opinion. The Princess [Mary] is much discontented at it, as she has reason.” ”

“ He tells me that the Duchess is a divil against him and do now come like Queen Elizabeth and sits with the Duke of York’s council and sees what they do, and she crosses out this man’s wages and prices as she sees fit for saving money, but yet he tells me she reserves £5000 a year for her own spending and my Lady Peterborough by and by tells me that the Duchess do lay up, mightily, jewels. ”

“ The Duchess of York, being desirous of having the portraits of the handsomest persons at court, Lely painted them, and employed all his skill in the performance; nor could he ever exert himself upon more beautiful subjects. Every picture appeared a master-piece; and that of Miss Hamilton appeared the highest finished: Lely himself acknowledged that he had drawn it with a particular pleasure. The Duke of York took a delight in looking at it, and began again to ogle the original: he had very little reason to hope for success ”

“ His near relation to the Duchess of York might also be some recommendation, but his privity to the late pecuniary transactions between the courts of Versailles and London, and the cordiality with which he concurred in them, were by far more powerful titles to his new master’s confidence. ”

“ The Queen, it seems, did not dance, but the King, who “danced rarely,” took out the Duchess of York, and the Duke the Duchess of Buckingham, to dance the bransle, where hands were taken in turn. After this the King led a lady through a lively coranto, in which dance it appears he excelled; and another of the best performers was the little Duchess of Monmouth, Anne Scott, the greatest heiress of her day, who in her childhood had been given 178to the unlucky pretender who was to suffer so grim a fate in after days. ”

“ The duchess declared his identity beyond doubt, did him honor as a born prince, gave him a body-guard of thirty halberdiers, who were clad in a livery of murrey and blue, and called him by the taking title of the "White Rose of England." He seemed, indeed, like one risen from the grave to set afloat once more the banners of the White Rose of York.
The tidings of what was doing in Flanders quickly reached England, where a party in favor of the aspirant's pretensions slowly grew up. Several noblemen joined it, discontent having been caused by certain unpopular acts of the king. ”

“ She, however, adroitly turned the circumstances of the King’s acknowledgment of the match into a means of gaining his consent to his younger sister’s marriage, for she represented to him that he must consent to the Princess Henrietta becoming Duchess of Orleans, for “she could not suffer her to live at his Court to be insulted by Hyde’s daughter.” The fact of the case was that in England the Duchess of York would take precedence of the Princess. ”

“ The Princess is very much troubled about it; the queen is politic and says little of it. There is no question to be made but that they are married. They say my lord Chancellor shall be made a duke.” [135]
135. “James II. and his Wives,” Allan Fea; “Life of Henrietta Maria,” J. A. Taylor.
The Duke of York was godson of his aunt Elizabeth, it must be noted here. ”

“ The first meeting took place at the ancient palace of Greenwich, which had been little used for 175many years, its day having almost passed. Here Henrietta made the gentle Portuguese bride sit on one arm-chair on her right hand, while she herself occupied another. The King, waiving his precedence, of which, indeed, he was never very tenacious in such matters, took a stool, while the Duchess of York sat on one also, and the Duke stood by them. ”

“ The Duke and Duchess of York had a family of eight children, but only two of these, Mary and Anne, lived more than a year or two beyond infancy. The eldest of their four sons (whose identities have been much confused; they are distinguished accurately in Lister, Life of Clarendon, ii. 485, from Sandford, Geneal. Hist.; cf. Doyle, Official Baronage, i. 298, ii. 268; and W. A. Lindsy, Pedigree of the House of Stuart, 1889) , Charles, duke of Cambridge, died 5 May 1661 (cf. Hartlib to Worthington in Worthington, Diary and Correspondence, i. 310) ”

“ It is strange, because 277for one occupying the position she did for ten years of English history, Anne, Duchess of York, had left personally a very slight impression on that position. The place that knew her was so soon content to know her no more, the gap she left was so quickly filled.
It is not to her but to her children that we must look for any consideration of her life as important. No doubt in the early days in Flanders Edward Hyde watched the unfolding of his daughter’s keen intelligence with hope and confidence as a factor in her future. ”

“ It was not long after this that the Duchess of York asked for her, and from that time she lived, outwardly, 194the beautiful, admired, lively maid of honour; inwardly, a life “hid with Christ.” Evelyn himself was long unwilling to know much of her, fancying her “some airy thing that had more wit than discretion”; and Pepys with much relish relates that he, in company with Sir John Smith, dined with her, Mrs Ogle and Mrs Anne Howard (another maid of honour, afterwards Lady Sylvius) , and that it “did me good to have the honour to dine with them and look upon them.” ”

“ Pepys, who, as has been already remarked, never lost an opportunity of a fleer at her, says, as early as 13th April 1661, of “Edward Pickering his discourse most about the pride of the Duchess of York.” This may or may not be true, for Pepys was 160nothing if not prejudiced, and the man who could, with his eyes open, write with foolish admiration of “my dear Lady Castlemaine,” cannot be considered an authority to be altogether respected. It is however certain, from other sources, that from the first, Duchess Anne was known unfavourably for her arrogance. ”

“ She dresses and breakfasts at three o’clock, afterwards walks out with all her dogs, and seldom appears before dinner-time. At night, when she cannot sleep, she has women to read to her. The Duchess of York [9] is clever and well-informed; she likes society and dislikes all form and ceremony, but in the midst of the most familiar intercourse she always preserves a certain dignity of manner. Those who are in the habit of going to Oatlands are perfectly at their ease with her, and talk with as much [6] freedom as they would to any other woman, but always with great respect. ”

“ Proud rather than principled, and a coquette, this lovely, aspiring woman had no sooner entered upon her duties of a maid of honour, than her youth and innocence were assailed by every art which could be devised, among men whose professed occupation was what they termed gallantry. Frances united to her other attractions remarkable powers of conversation; her raillery was admirable, her imagination vivid. It was not long before her fascinations attracted the notice of that devotee and reprobate, James Duke of York, whose Duchess she served. ”

“ But Sir Harry told me a little while ago that he was going to present me at court as soon as Parliament met, and that it had already been settled that I should be appointed one of the Duchess of York's pages. ”

“ The poor Duchess was in doubt which would die first. (Pepys.)
Someone, no doubt, tells the King that his errand is vain. The frail little lives are passing out of sight, and he turns away silent. He is moved and sorry. He is good-natured, even kind-hearted, when he remembers to be, but Prince Rupert’s noble face is clouded and the luminous eyes are misty, for no sorrow appeals to him in vain.
But worse evils are coming on England than even the loss of the seed-royal. The Dutch fleet is in the river, and coming up to Gravesend, intent on vengeance. ”

“ But the new queen was soon to be expected. On the 23rd April, the anniversary of the coronation, she set sail for England, arriving at Portsmouth on 14th May.
The Duke of York, in virtue of his office of Lord High Admiral, was despatched to receive her as his brother’s representative, and she welcomed him in her cabin, sitting under a canopy on a chair of state, but displaying frank, if shy cordiality. [161] Charles himself was in no violent hurry to see his richly-dowered bride, for he did not leave London till the 19th, travelling in Lord Northumberland’s coach. ”

“ Considering the passion which Anne had certainly inspired in several men, and which in the Duke of York had now raised her to her lofty position, one is forced to the conclusion that, in spite of her lack of physical beauty, she must have been possessed of some conquering charm of manner which, joined to undoubted wit and certain brilliant endowments of mind, made up for the want of personal attractions in an age which, perhaps of all others, most prized such an attribute. ”

“ There was at one time a rumour coupling the name of the Duchess of York with Henry Savile, another of the Duke’s grooms of the bedchamber, and in reference to this report, Pepys piously ejaculates: “God knows what will be the end of it!” However, as in the case of Sidney, there is no positive evidence beyond rumour, and rumour was not likely to spare anyone who 189had so many enemies as Anne Hyde. ”

“ In 1461, Edward of York became King, and the reward of Alice's faithlessness was the marriage of the young Duke, her son, with the lady Elizabeth, the King's sister, while she herself retained her Castle. There the heartless duchess and her son received under their custody the ex-Queen Margaret of Anjou, who had been the friend and patroness of her youth, but who now remained for five years her prisoner, until in 1476 her ransom was paid, and she returned to France. ”

“ Clarendon State Papers. Marquess of Ormond to E. H. Brussels, 21st June 1657: “The Duke of York will take exceedingly in the army. He is as brave and as little troublesome as any prince can be.”
It may be that neither England nor France was in favour of the Princes taking service in the Spanish army, a circumstance which would have some force in determining James, who very probably was quite willing to fling a defiance in the teeth of Cromwell. ”

“ James, Duke of York, the King’s second 120brother, the heir presumptive to the Crown, and the Chancellor’s elder daughter, Mistress Anne Hyde, were married, and every one, whether remotely interested or no, stood aghast. ”

“ On 20th April of this year 1661, Pepys writes acidly: “Saw the King and Duke of York and his Duchess, which is a plain woman, and like her mother my Lady Chancellor.”
162In fact, if nearly all the pictures of her which exist may be trusted, they certainly dispose of Anne’s pretensions to beauty. They represent for the most part a large, heavy looking woman, with an abnormally wide mouth; and we know from contemporary evidence that she became very fat early in life. ”

“ But happy and triumphant as one may picture her, the personal troubles of the Duchess had already begun. In the autumn just past there occurred the Duke’s ephemeral passion for Elizabeth Butler, Lady Chesterfield, the daughter of Ormonde, who on her part by no means reciprocated it, but to put an end to the situation, which she probably found embarrassing, promptly retired into the country from London. [170]
170. ”