Catholics. I answered, I humbly thanked her
Majesty for her great grace and favour, which I
would ever esteem and pay with my services, as far
as I was able, all the days of my life ; for the latter
I desired her Majesty to believe that I could not
quit the faith in which I had been bom and bred,
and in which God had pleased to try me for many
years in the greatest troubles our nation hath ever
seen; and that I do believe and hope that in the
profession of my own religion God would hear my
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Memoirs of Lady Fanshanve 221
prayers, and reward her Majesty, and all the princes
of that royal family, for this so great favour which
her Majesty was pleased to offer me in my greatest
affliction.
The 6th and 7th days of this month I was visited
by the German Ambassador's lady, and several other
ladies; also by the Ambassador and the Duke de
Medina de las Torres, de Aveiro, Marquis de
Trucifal, Conde de Monterey, with several others of
that Court.
The Queen sent me, for a present, two thousand
pistoles which her Majesty sent me word was to buy
my husband a jewel if he had lived. The week
following I gave the Secretary of State a gold watch
and chain, worth thirty pounds. I gave the Master
of the Ceremonies, at my coming away, a clock,
which cost me forty pounds. I sold all my coaches
and horses, and lumber of the house, to the Earl of
Sandwich, for one thousand three hundred and eighty
pistoles. I likewise sold there one thousand pounds*
worth of plate to several persons, all the money I
could make being little enough for my most sad
journey to England.
The 8th of July 1666, at night, I took my leave
of Madrid, and of the Siete Chimineas, the house so
beloved of my husband and me formerly. I carried
with me all my jewels, and the best of my plate, and
other precious rarities, all the rest being gone before
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222 Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
to Bilbao, with part of my family. All the women
went in litters, and the men on horseback. Myself,
my son, and four daughters, one gentlewoman, one
chambermaid, Mr. Fanshawe, my husband's Secretary;
Mr. Price, the Chaplain ; Mr. Bagshawe, Mr. Creyton,
Mr. White, Mr. Hellowe, John Burton, William, the
Cook ; besides other Spanish attendants.
My Lord Sandwich came in the afternoon to
accompany me out of town, which offer, though
earnestly pressed by my Lord, as well as by other
persons of quality, I refused, desiring to go out of
that place as privately as I could possibly ; and I may
truly say, never any Ambassador's family came into
Spain more gloriously, or went out so sad.
July the 2 1 St, after a tedious journey, we arrived
at Bilbao, to which place my dear husband's body
came the 14th of this month, and was lodged in the
King's house, with some of his servants to attend
him; but I hired a house in the town during my
stay there, in which I received several letters from
Madrid, from England, and from Paris. The
Queen-Mother was graciously pleased to procure me
passes from the King of France, which I received the
2 1 St of September, stilo novo^ accompanied by a letter
from my Lady Guilford, and several others of her
Majesty's Court ; likewise I did receive a pass from
the Duke of Beaufort, then at Lixa.
October the ist, I sent answers of letters to
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Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe 223
England, to my Lord Arlington, my brother War-
wick, my father, and to several other persons. Here
heard the sad news of the burning of London.
December the 3rd, being Sunday, I began my
journey from Bilbao, with the body of my dear hus-
band, all my children, and all my family but three,
whom I left to come with my goods by sea. The
7th of October, we came to Bayonne, in France,
having had a dangerous passage between Spain and
France. October the 9th, we began our journey
from Bayonne towards Paris, where we arrived the
30th of October, being Saturday.
November the 2nd, the Queen-Mother sent my
Lady Guilford to condole my loss, and welcome me
to Paris: many of her Majesty's family, of their
own accord, did the same.
On the 26th, her Majesty sent Mr. Church, in one
of her coaches, to convey me to Chaillot, a nunnery,
where the Queen then was, who received me with
great grace and favour, and promised me much
kindness, when her Majesty returned to England.
Her Majesty sent by me letters to the King, Queen,
Duke and Duchess of York, with a box of writings
for her Majesty's Secretary, Sir John Winter.
November the i ith, we began our journey towards
Calais; and upon the nth of November, old style,
we embarked at Calais in a little French man-of-war,
which carried me to the Tower Wharf, where I
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224 Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
landed the !next day, at night, being Monday, at
twelve of the clock. I made a little stay with my
children at my father's house, on Tower-hill. The
next day, being the 13th, we all went to my own
house in Lincoln's-inn Fields, on the north side,
where the widow Countess of Middlesex had lived
before ; and the same day, likewise, was brought the
body of my dear husband.
On Saturday following, being the i6th of November
1666, 1 sent the body of my dear husband to be laid
in my father's vault in Allhallows Church, in
Hertford: none accompanied the hearse but seven
of his own gentlemen, who had taken care of his
body all the way from Madrid to London ; being
Mr. Fanshawe, Mr. Bagshawe, Mr. Cooper, Mr.
Freyer, Mr. Creyton, Mr. Tarret, and Mr. Rooks.
On the 1 8th, my Lord Arlington visited me,
proffering me his friendship, to be shown in the
procuring of arrears of my husband's pay, which was
two thousand pounds, and to reimburse me five
thousand eight hundred and fifteen pounds my
husband had laid out in his Majesty's service.
Likewise I was visited to welcome me into England,
and to condole my loss, by very many of the nobility
and gentry, and also by all my relations in these
parts.
November the 23rd, I waited on the King, and
delivered to his Majesty my whole accounts. He
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Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe 225
was pleased to receive me very graciously, and
promised me they should be paid, and likewise that
his Majesty would take care of me and mine. Then
I delivered his Majesty the letters I brought from
the Queen-Mother; then I did my duty to the
Queen, who with great sense condoled my loss, after
which I delivered the Queen-Mother*s letter sent to
her Majesty by me. After staying two hours longer
in her Majesty's bed-chamber, I waited on his Royal
Highness, who having condoled me on the loss of
my dear husband, promised me a ship to send for
my goods and servants to Bilbao ; then I waited on
the Duchess, who with great grace and favour
received me, and having been with her Highness
about an hour, and delivered a letter from the
Queen-Mother, I took my leave. I presented the
King, Queen, Duke of York, and Duke of Cambridge,
with two dozen of amber skins, and six dozen of
gloves. I likewise presented my Lord Arlington
with amber skins, gloves and chocolate, and a
great picture, a copy of Titian's, to the value ot
one hundred pounds; and I made presents to Sir
William Coventry, and several other persons then in
office.
In February, the Duke ordered me the Victory
frigate, to bring the remainder of my goods and
people from Bilbao, in Spain, which safely arrived in
the latter end of March 1667. I spent my time
p
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226 Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
much in solidting and petitioning my Lord Treasurer
Southampton, for the present dispatch of my
accounts, which did pass the Secretary, then Lord
Arlington, and within two months I got a privy seal
for my money, without either fee or present, which
I could never fasten on my Lord. Now I thought
myself happy, and] feared nothing less than further
trouble. God, that only knows what is to come, so
disposed my fortune, that losing that good man and
friend. Lord Southampton, my money, which was
five thousand six hundred pounds, was not paid me
until December 1669, notwithstanding I had tallies
for the money above two years before. This was
above two thousand pounds loss to me. Besides,
these conmiissioners, by the instigation of one of
their fellow commissioners, my Lord Shaftesbury,
the worst of men, persuaded them that I might pay
for the Embassy plate, which I did, two thousand
pounds ; and so maliciously did he oppress me, as if
he hoped in me to destroy that whole stock of honesty
and innocence which he mortally hates. In this
great distress I had no remedy but patience : how far
that was from a reward, judge ye, for near thirty
years' suffering by land and sea, and the hazard of
our lives over and over, with the many services ot
your father, and the expense of all the monies we
could procure, and seven years* imprisonment, with
the death and beggary of many eminent persons of
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Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe 227
our family, who when they first entered the King's
service, had great and clear estates. Add to this the
careful management of the King's honour in the
Spanish Court, after my husband's death, which I
thought myself bound to maintain, although I had
not, God is my witness, above twenty-five doubloons
by me at my husband's death, to bring home a family
of three score servants, but was forced to sell one
thousand pounds' worth of our own plate, and to
spend the Queen's present of two thousand doubloons
in my journey to England, not owing nor leaving
one shilling debt in Spain, I thank God, nor did my
husband leave any debt at home, which every Am-
bassador cannot say. Neither did these circumstances
following prevail to mend my condition, much less
found I that compassion I expected upon the view
of myself, that had lost at once my husband, and
fortune in him, with my son but twelve months old
in my arms, four daughters, the eldest but thirteen
years of age, with the body of my dear husband
daily in my sight for near six months together, and
a distressed family, all to be by me in honour and
honesty provided for, and to add to my afflictions,
neither persons sent to conduct me, nor pass, nor
ship, nor money to carry me one thousand miles, but
some few letters of compliment from the chief
ministers, bidding, * God help me ! ' as they do to
beggars, and they might have added, 'they had
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228 Memoirs 6j Lady Fanshawe
nothing for me,' with great truth. But God did
hear, and see, and help me, and brought my soul
out of trouble ; and by his blessed providence, I and
you live, move, and have our being, and I humbly
pray God that that blessed providence may ever
supply our wants. Amen.
Seeing what I had to trust to, I began to shape
my life as well as I could to my fortune, in order
whereunto I dismissed all my tamily but some.few
persons. At my arrival I gave them all mourning,
and five pounds apiece, and put most of them into
a good way of living, I thank God.
In 1667, 1 took a house in Holborn-row, Lincoln's-
inn Fields, for twenty-one years, of Mr. Cole. This
year I christened a daughter of Lord Fanshawe's.
Here, in this year, I only spent my time in lament
and dear remembrances of my past happiness and
fortune ; and though I had great graces and favours
from the King and Queen, and whole Court, yet I
found at the present no remedy. I often reflected
how many miscarriages and errors the fall from that
happy estate I had been in would throw me ; and as
it is hard for the rider to quit his horse in a full
career, so I found myself at a loss, that hindered my
settling myself in a narrow compass suddenly, though
my narrow fortune required it; but I resolved to
hold me fast by God, until I could digest, in some
measure, my afflictions. Sometimes I thought to
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Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe 229
quit the world as a sacrifice to your father's memory,
and to shut myself up in a house for ever from all
people ; but upon the consideration of my children,
who were all young and unprovided for, being wholly
left to my care and disposal, I resolved to suffer,
as long as it pleased God, the storms and flows of
fortune.
As soon as I got my tallies placed again by the
Commissioners, I sold them for five hundred pounds
less than my assignments to Alderman Buckwell,
who gave me ready money, and I put it out upon a
mortgage of Sir Richard AylofFs estate, in Essex, at
Braxted.
In 1668, I hired a house and ground, of sixty
pounds a year, at Hartingfordbury, in Hertfordshire,
to be near my father, being but two miles from Balls,
both because I would have my father's company, and
because the air was very good for my children ; but
when God took my father, I let my time in it, and
never saw it more.
About this time Sir Philip Warwick retired him-
self from public business, to his house at Frogpool,
in Kent; his son and daughter-in-law lived with
him some time, until this year, 1669, they went into
France. She was the daughter and coheir of the
Lord Freschville.
In my brother Warwick's house, in London, in
1666, died my sister Bedell, and was carried down
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230 Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
into Huntingdonshire, to Hamerton, and was there
buried by her husband in the chancel. She was a
most worthy woman, and eminently good, wise, and
handsome; she never much enjoyed herself since
the death of her eldest daughter, who married Sir
Francis Compton, and, in her right, he had Hamerton,
in Huntingdonshire. She died five years before my
sister, a most dutiful daughter, and a very fine-bred
lady, and excellent company, and very virtuous.
About this time died my brother Lord Fanshawe*s
widow. She was a very good wife and tender
mother, but else nothing extraordinary. She was
buried in the vault of her husband's family in Ware
church. Within a year after this, his son, Lord
Fanshawe, sold Ware Park for 26,000/. to Sir Thomas
Byde, a brewer, of London.
Thus, in the fourth generation, the chief of our
family, since they came into the south, for their
sufferings for the Crown, sold the flower of their
estates, and near 2000/. a year more. There remains
but the Remembrancer's place of the Exchequer
oflice : and very pathetical is the motto of our arms
for us — * The victory is in the Cross.' *
• "In Cruce Victoria." Another motto of the Fanshawe
family was, "Dux vitae ratio." Of these mottoes a Corre-
spondent in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1796, tells the
following story. "When Sir Richard was ambassador, and
was travelling in Spain, in an English carriage, with his arms
upon it, surrounded by the two mottoes belonging to them —
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Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe 231
I had, about this time, some trouble with keeping
the lordships of Tring and Hitching, which your
father held of the Queen-Mother ; but I not being
able to make a considerable advantage of them, gave
them up again : and then I sold a lease of the Manor
of Burstalgarth, which was granted for thirty-one
years to your father from the King. Dean Hicks
bought it, it being convenient for him, lying upon
Humber. There was a widow, one Mrs. Hiliard,
hired this manor, and had so done long. She was
very earnest to buy it at a very under rate. When
she saw it sold, she, as was suspected, fired the house,
which was burnt down to the ground within two
months after I had sold it.
In this year my brother Harrison married the
eldest daughter of the Lord Viscount Grandison. I
let in this year a lease of eleven years of Fanton
Hall, in Essex, to Jonathan Wier, which I held of
the Bishopric of London : this lease was bought
the first year the King came home, of Doctor Sheldon,
then Bishop of London, who was exceeding kind to
Dux tnue Ratio — In Cruce Victoria s a crowd of peasants gath-
ering round the annsual sight of so many foreigners, in a town
where they stopped for refreshment, were very anxious with a
priest, who happened to be amongst them, for an explanation
of the Latin, which being beyond his skill, he informed them
that the coach belonged to the Duke of Vitse Ratio, who had
done great things for the Cross."
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232 Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe
us, and sold it for half the worth, which I will ever
acknowledge with thankfulness.
My dear father departed this life, upon the 28th
of September, 1670, being above eighty years of age,
in perfect understanding, God be praised ! He left
five hundred pounds to every one of my four
daughters ; and gave me three thousand pounds for
a part of the manor of Scallshow, near Lynn, in
Norfolk, but the year before he died, to make my
sister Harrison a jointure. The nth I christened
the eldest daughter of my brother Harrison, with
Lord Grandison, and &* Edmund Turner.
The death of my father made so great an im-
pression on me, that with the grief, I was sick half a
year almost to death ; but through God's mercy, and
the care of Doctor Jasper Needham, a most worthy
and learned physician, I recovered ; and as soon as I
was able to think of business, I bought ground in
St. Mary's Chapel, in Ware Church, of the Bishop
of London, and there made a vault for my
husband's body, which I had there laid by most of
the same persons that laid him before in my father's
vault, in Hertford Church deposited, until I could
make this vault and monument, which cost me two
hundred pounds ; and here, if God pleases, I intend
to lie myself.
He had the good fortune to be the first chosen,
and the first returned member of the Commons'
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MONUMENT IN WAKE CHUKCH, KKEC1KD TO THE
.MEMORY OK HER HUMiAM) HY LADY KANSHAWE
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Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe 233
House of Parliament, in England, after the King
came home ; and this cost him no more than a letter
of thanks, and two brace of bucks, and twenty broad
pieces of gold to buy them wine.
Upon St. Stephen's day the King shut the *
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EXTRACTS
FROM THE
CORRESPONDENCE
OF
SIR RICHARD FANSHAWE
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE MEMOIR
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The Letters from which part of the following Extracts
have been taken, were printed in 1701, under the title of
" Original Letters of his Excellency Sir Richard Fanshawe,
during his Embassies in Spain and Portugal ; which, together
with divers Letters and Answers from the Chief Ministers
of State of England, Spain, and Portugal, contain the whole
negociations of the treaty of Peace between those three
Crowns/* 8vo, pp. 510.
The remainder are now printed, for the first time, from
the rough copies of the originals, or the originals themselves,
preserved in the Harleian MS. 7010, in the British Museum.
Although these Extracts were chiefly made with the view
of illustrating the statements in the Memoir, nearly every
passage has been copied from the Correspondence which is
of the slightest general interest, unconnected with political
afiairs.
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EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE
OF
SIR RICHARD FANSHAWE
To Mr. Secretary Bennet.
[See McMoiKf, p. 15a.]
On Board hit Majesty*! Admiral, entering the Bay
of Cadiz, Wednesday about noon, a4th of Feb-
ruary, 1669, English style.
" By former advertisements, I presume his Majesty, from
you, hath understood how, after sharp storms and cross
winds, with the first favourable breath we adventured to put
to sea a third time, and out of Torbay the second, upon
Monday the 15th instant, at nine of the clock at night;
from whence in so few dajrs, as appears by computation, to
the time of the date hereof, and with the most auspicious
weather that could be imagined, we were all arrived thus
far, in perfect health and safety ; where perceiving some
sailors steering towards us, which we took to be English, and
homewards bound, I thought it my duty, en dudoy to prepare
hastily, thus much only, against we speak with them in
passage ; which may suffice at present, from him who knows
no more as yet."
Original Letters of Sir Richard Famhawe^ p. 30.
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240 Correspondence of
To Mr. Secretary Bennet.
[See McMoiftt, p. 153.]
Ctdi«, '' *'*°*^** '^
^ My last ot the 29th of February, English style, (which
yet cannot go sooner than this, having not met with the
present opportunity of conveyance I then expected,) adver-
tised your honour we were just then entering this bay, after
a brief and very &ir passage from Torbay.
The same evening we came to anchor at some distance
from this city, intending, God willing, the next day, 6th
instant, to come on shore ; but a strong Levant rising, not
only that was impossible, but even for any to come to me
from the land.
The next morning, 7th, our ships weighing, made a hard
shift to get into the port, and I from thence a harder to land
in boats. The Duke of Medina Celi, in the interim, having
complimented me aboard, by a Caballero de el Habito, with
a letter from Port S. Mary, and in person from this city the
deputed governor of this town, Don Diego de Ibarra, both
of them, as by a general order from his Catholic Majesty,
which they had had some weeks by them in case of my
arrival here, in virtue whereof somewhat more than ordinary
salutes were given by this city to his Majesty's Ambassador
and fleet ; also a house ready frirnished for me, whereunto
I was very honourably conducted, with appearance of uni-
versal joy, and there visited the same day by the Duke of
Albuquerque, the Cabildo, and all the nobles and principal
gentlemen here residing. My table, the governor signified,
was to be at my own finding, yet that I must not refuse to
accept of the first meal from him ; of the former I was very
glad, as enjoying thereby a liberty which I preferred to any
delicacies whatsoever upon free cost ; the latter, I was not
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Sir Richard Fanshawe 241
at all nice to receive for once. But I had not been three
hours on shore, when an Extraordinary arrived from Madrid,
with more particular orders than formerly from his Catholic
Majesty, importing, that our Master's fleet, when arrived,
and this Ambassador, should be presaluted from the city, in
a manner unexampled to others, and which should not be
drawn into example hereafter. Moreover, and this so like-
wise, that I and all my company must be totally defrayed,
both here and all the way up to Madrid, upon his Catholic
Majesty's account; with several other circimistances of
particular esteem for our Royal Master above all the world
besides. The substance of all hath been related to me, and
the efiects declare it ; but a copy of the order itself I have
not as yet been able to obtain though desired, it being the
style not to communicate it without leave from above, and
out of the Secretary of State, else I should have thought it
my duty to remit it unto his Majesty from hence, and shall
from thence if I get it.
The first night the keys of the city were brought to me
in a great silver basin, by the governor, which, after several
refusals, I took and put into the right hands; then the
governor forced me to give him the word, which, after like
refusals, I did, and was f^iva el Rey Catolico.
At supper, he and his Lady would bear me and my wife
company, which I accepting as a great fiivour, told him my
wife should eat with her Ladyship, retired ftom the men,
after the Spanish fashion, it being more than sufficient, they
would not think strange, we used the innocent freedom of
our own when we were among ourselves. But by no means,
that he would not sufier ; and to keep us the more in coun-
tenance, alleged this manner of eating to be now the custom
of many of the greatest families of Spain, and had been
from all antiquity to this day of the majestical House of
Q
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242 Correspondence of
Alva ; the generosity whereof, particularly in the person of
the present duke, he took this occasion to celebrate very
highly. So, in fine, he had his will of me in this particular.
As the Duke of Albuquerque, newly created Generalissimo
of the Ocean, and very shortly going to enjoy that high
puesto at his ease in the Court, where he is likewise Gendl-
hombre de la Camara — had done to me before, so yesterday
his Duchess and their daughter, (married to his own brother,
to keep up the name, for want of issue male,) both vastly
rich in jewels, as lately returned from the viceroyship of