duet the queen, who had been espoused at Paris by the duke of Chevereux in the king's name) she landed at Dover, and was met there by his Majesty, who accompanied her to London, where they were received with great expressions of affection and rejoicing. of poison, and the party poisoned being his father, in that to prohibit a due course, or a legal proceeding against the party suspected, it was to deny justice with a refractory hand."Milton, in severe terms, speaks of Charles on this account. "Quam similis Neroni fuerit Carolus, ostendam. Nero, inquis, matrem suam, ferro, necavit. Carolus & patrem, & regem veneno; nam, ut alia omittam indicia, qui ducem veneficii reum legibus eripuit, fieri non potuit quin ipse reus quoque fuerit." i. e. "I will let you (speaking to Salmasius) see how like Charles was to Nero; Nero, you say, put to death his own mother; but Charles murthered both his prince and his father, by poison. For, to omit other evi dences, he that would not suffer a duke that was accused of it, to come to his trial, must needs have been guilty of it himself."-How this conclusion of Milton and the others will stand, the reader must determine. For my own part, though it is evident that Charles acted very unwisely in screening Buckingham from a trial, and gave grounds for his adversaries to surmise that he was not unconscious of the horrid deed, I cannot load his memory with it, for the following reasons: * Observations on the Life and Death of King Charles, p. 20. at the end of the History of his Life and Times, 12mo. Lond. 1721. ⚫ Milton's Works, vol. II. p. 330, 4to. Lond. 1753. The name of this lady was Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. and sister to Lewis XIII. of France, said to be of an excellent air and beauty of countenance, of great vivacity, a lover of intrigues, and one who treated her husband with the utmost inso 1. He never shewed, by any other part of his con→ duct, that he was capable of being a party in so wicked an action. Now where men's private characters are fair, there should be positive proof, ere they be pronounced guilty; which I think is wanting here. 2. The charge is brought by bitter and implacable enemies, and therefore may be somewhat aggravated. 3. In the remonstrance presented to the king, Dec. 1, 1641, which sets forth his evil conduct from the beginning, there is no hint given that he was deemed culpable in this matter; nor do I remember, among all the sharp papers which were published by the two houses against him, that he is once charged with it. 4. At his trial it was not objected to him, nor was he reproached with it by Cooke or Bradshaw. r 5. When going to the scaffold, it being asked him, "Whether he were not consenting to his father's death," he replied, "Friend, if I had no other sin, (I speak it with reverence to God's majesty) I assure thee, I would never ask him pardon"." * These are the reasons for which I am for pronouncing Charles innocent in this matter, nor have I any great doubt about the reader's concurring in the justice of the sentence. However the public, as it has a right, must judge of this as well as other matters here laid Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs, p. 342. 8vo. Lond. 1702. lence". Her behaviour towards his majesty before it, and its judgment will be regulated by facts and reasonings only. 7 Henrietta Maria, a lady of excellent beauty, &c.] Mr. Waller is very lavish in praise of the beauty of Henrietta Maria, in his poem inscribed to her on seèing her picture. The following lines are a specimen of his panegyric. Your beauty more the fondest lover moves (Saved sacred Charles his) never love durst fly. * * * * * * * * * Such eyes as your's, on Jove himself have thrown And in another poem by the same gentleman, addressed to her, there are these lines: Such a complexion, and so radiant eyes, What envious pow'r has plac'd this glorious light! Whether Mr. Waller has taken too great a poetical liberty, will appear from the following description of this lady by lord Kensington, whilst negotiating the match, in a letter to prince Charles, dated Feb. 26, 1624. "Sir, if your intentions proceed this way, as by many reasons of state and wisdom, (there is cause now rather to press it, than slacken it) you will find a lady of as much loveliness and sweetness to deserve your affection, as any creature under heaven can do. And, Sir, by all her fashions since my being here, and will best of all appear by the following in by what I hear from the ladies, it is most visible to me, her infinite value, and respect unto you. Sir, I say not this to betray your belief, but from a true observation, and knowledge of this to be so: I tell you this, and must somewhat more, in way of admiration of the person of madam; for the impressions I had of her were but ordinary, but the amazement extraordinary, to find her, as I protest before God I did, the sweetest creature in France. Her growth is very little short of her age, and her wisdom infinitely beyond it. I heard her discourse with her mother, and the ladies about her, with extraordinary discretion and quickness. She dances (the which I am a witness of) as well as ever I saw any creature. They say she sings most sweetly; I am sure she looks so a." But whatever was her beauty, the temper of her mind was far from being amiable: she was bigotted to the Romish religion, industrious in promoting its interests, and an adviser and an encourager of the king in his most imprudent actions. "Go, coward," said she to his majesty, (when about to seize the five members)" and pull these rogues out by the ears, or never see my face any more." When the civil war broke out, she went into Holland, and pawned the crown jewels, with which she bought ammunition, and sent to her husband. She soon afterwards returned, and gave him counsels most pernicious, as in the course of this work we shall see. Going again to Paris, she endeavoured to raise foreign forces for the king, though in vain; and, after his death, was reduced to great straits; insomuch that she requested * Cabala, p. 312. b Echard. vol. I p. 261. 12mo. Lond. 1723. Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, structions given to lord Carlton, dispatched cardinal Mazarine to solicit Cromwell, that he would at least return her dowry: but his solicitations were ineffectual. During the exile of the royal family, she was full of intrigues to get the ascendancy in her son's councils, and frequently quarrelled with his most faithful servants. Some time before the restoration, "the lord Jermyn had the queen greatly in awe of him, and had great interest with her concerns, was married to her, and had children by her." When Charles II. mounted the throne in reality, she came over to London; but again returned to Paris, where she died August 10, 1669. The following extract will make a proper supplement to this note." The king's attachment to the counsels of the queen and her creatures, and his constant neglect of those of the truest friends of his own and the nation's real interest, is evident from the original letters of one of them, Sir Edward Nicholas, secretary of state to him and to his son and successor. I shall single out a few passages from these letters. In one to lord Hatton, then at Paris, dated Dec. 4, 1650, Sir Edward complains, that the counsels of the Louvre, where queen Henrietta resided, had been fatal to the crown of England. In another to the same lord, of the 1st of Feb. 1650-1, he expresses his fears, that those counsels, which ruined the father, and brought the good and hopeful king [Charles II.] into the sad condition in which he then was, would never do better. In one to the marquis of Ormond, of March 1, 1650-1, he observes, that for the king с * Voltaire's Age of Lewis XIV. p. 88. vol. I. 8vo. Lond. 1752. b Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, p. 4. 8vo. Lond. 1735. Formerly in the possession of William Nicholas, of West-Horsley in Surry, Esq. and now in that of Sir John Evelyn, of Wotton, in the same county, barti |