The Stuarts in 100 Facts Read online

  Dedicated to my dear mother, Edelmira Guadalupe Muñoz Sepulveda.

  First published 2015

  Amberley Publishing

  The Hill, Stroud

  Gloucestershire, GL5 4EP

  www.amberley-books.com

  Copyright © Andrea Zuvich 2015

  The right of Andrea Zuvich to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 9781445647302 (PRINT)

  ISBN 9781445647319 (eBOOK)

  Typeset in 11pt on 13.5pt Sabon.

  Typesetting and Origination by Amberley Publishing.

  Printed in the UK.

  THE FACTS

  1. The End of the Tudors Was the Start of the Stuarts

  2. There Were Two Calendars in Use

  3. Flirty Minette Had a Sad Time of It … as Did Her Daughters

  4. The Bills of Mortality Included Some Truly Horrific Causes of Death

  5. The Coffeehouse Was the Place to Be

  6. John Aubrey Wasn’t Very Good at Completing His Projects

  7. George Villiers Enjoyed a Meteoric Rise to Power, but a Vile End

  8. Charles II Couldn’t Keep It in His Pants

  9. Mathematical Genius Isaac Newton Thwarted a Counterfeiter

  10. Guy Fawkes Was Neither an Anarchist Nor the Ringleader of the Gunpowder Plot

  11. Women Didn’t Wear Knickers

  12. The Stuart Family Had a Nasty Habit of Losing Their Heads

  13. Samuel Pepys Was a Lusty Fellow

  14. Rich or Poor – Parasites Did Not Discriminate

  15. The Royal Society Was Founded by Some of the Brightest of the Stuart Age

  16. Some People Thought Orange Juice Was Dangerous

  17. William Harvey Discovered Blood Circulation

  18. Restoration Rakes Were Oversexed, Overdressed and Over-the-Top

  19. The Bank of England Was Founded in 1694 … and Created the National Debt

  20. Charles I Was the Spare Who Became the Heir

  21. The Reign of William and Mary Was the Only Diarchy in British History

  22. Highwaymen and Footpads Made Journeys Perilous

  23. Shakespeare Left Us the Greatest Works in the English Language … and an Enduring Controversy

  24. Witchcraft Was a Very Serious Matter

  25. New York Used to Be New Amsterdam

  26. Plague Doctors Weren’t Always Doctors

  27. The ‘Bloodless’ Glorious Revolution Definitely Wasn’t Bloodless

  28. Diarist John Evelyn Was a Salad Fiend

  29. Rupert of the Rhine Was a Stuart-Era Renaissance Man

  30. The French Set the Fashion for Nearly Everything

  31. A Physician’s ‘Cures’ Were Often Worse than the Disease

  32. St Paul’s Cathedral Dominated London’s Skyline for over 200 Years

  33. The Stuart Era Had the First Poets Laureate

  34. The Greenwich Observatory Was Created to Solve the Longitude Problem

  35. Monmouth’s Rebellion Ended at the Battle of Sedgemoor

  36. The Duke of Monmouth Was Dashing, but Doomed

  37. The Stuarts Had Some Pretty Normal Hobbies

  38. Not All Members of the Stuart Family Were Buried Together

  39. John Milton Was Blind and Impoverished When He Died

  40. Most of Whitehall Palace Was Destroyed by Fire in 1698

  41. James II’s Followers Were Known as the Jacobites

  42. Kensington Palace Became a Royal Residence in the Late Stuart Period

  43. Some Stuart Ladies Had Killer Beauty Regimes

  44. Sir Christopher Wren Was the Man

  45. Cromwell Was King in All but Name

  46. Ireland Often Got a Raw Deal

  47. The English Civil Wars Changed Everything

  48. Masques Were a Formal Entertainment, but Some Thought Them Immoral

  49. Stuart Philosophers Ushered In an Age of Reason

  50. William and Mary Didn’t Manage to Modernise All of Hampton Court Palace

  51. Pirates, Especially the Barbary Pirates, Were a Constant Terror

  52. Boys Wore Skirts Until ‘Breeched’; Women Sometimes Dressed like Men

  53. Daniel Defoe Kept Getting into Hot Water

  54. Stuart Gardens Were Baroque-Tastic

  55. There Were More Plots in the Stuart Era than in a Soap Opera

  56. We Really Can’t Blame a Mole for William III’s Death

  57. Dogs Were Popular with Kings and Kitchen Staff Alike

  58. The 2nd Duke of Buckingham Duelled over a Married Woman … and Won

  59. English Architecture Shifted from Late Renaissance to Exuberant Baroque

  60. Louis XIV of France Bankrolled Charles II of England

  61. The Stuart Era Had Some Truly Heavy-Handed Laws

  62. Mary, Princess Royal, Had a Mother-in-Law from Hell

  63. A Sovereign’s Choice of Spouse Could Make or Break Them

  64. Insatiable Royal Mistress Barbara Palmer Courted Trouble

  65. Stuart Era Music Could Be Political, but Was Always Beautiful

  66. England and Scotland Were Not Officially United until 1707

  67. There Were Several Popular How-To Books

  68. Anne Hyde Was a Commoner Who Became the Mother of Queens

  69. Questioning a Monarch’s Sexuality Was a Tactic Used to Discredit Them

  70. The Levellers and Diggers Were Totally Radical

  71. A Portuguese Princess Made Tea-Drinking Fashionable in England

  72. Two Royal Sisters Fell Out over the Duke of Marlborough’s Tempestuous Wife

  73. Roundheads and Cavaliers Both Had Important Players

  74. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, Was a Great Military Leader

  75. The Dutch and the English Didn’t Get On

  76. The Most Beautiful Women of the Late Stuart Courts Were Immortalised in Art

  77. A King’s Touch Was Believed to Cure Disease

  78. Behn, Cavendish and Astell Were Successful Female Writers

  79. The Great Fire Made a Great Mess

  80. Three Major American Universities Were Founded During the Stuart Era

  81. Notorious Party-Boy Poet John Wilmot Ended Up in a Very Bad Way

  82. Stuart-Era Plays Were All the Rage

  83. James I’s Daughter Elizabeth Was the ‘Winter Queen’

  84. Puritans Really Weren’t Much Fun

  85. Fringe Religious Groups Were Not to Be Ignored

  86. Northampton Had Its Very Own Great Fire

  87. Stuart Personal Hygiene Was Not Very Hygienic

  88. Baroque Art Was Voluptuous and Extravagant

  89. Childbirth Was Often Fatal – to Mother and Child Alike

  90. The Divine Right of Kings Wasn’t So Divine – It Proved Problematic

  91. Henry Purcell Ruled Seventeenth-Century English Baroque Music

  92. The Great Plague Was Pretty Nasty

  93. Sir John Vanbrugh Wrote Naughty Plays and Designed Stately Buildings

  94. ‘Colonel’ Blood Nearly Stole the Crown Jewels … and Was Ultimately Rewarded

  95. Many of Charles I’s Regicides Met Ghastly Ends

  96. Hooke Showed Us Another World with His Microscope

&nbs
p; 97. Celia Fiennes Was a Stuart-Era Female Travel Expert

  98. Ashmole and Bodley Left Us More than a Museum and a Library

  99. A Royal Birth Started a Revolution

  100. Stuart Misfortunes Led to Hanoverian Power

  INTRODUCTION

  The Stuart Era officially spanned the years from 1603 to 1714, and was a truly unique period in history. It was also an extremely volatile one, which saw the violent clashing of superstitious medieval beliefs with the reason and ideals of the Enlightenment. Although it is largely a neglected period in terms of popularity when compared with the Tudors, for example, there is no justification for such indifference. The Stuart period is simply too full of action, adventure, passion, chaos, violence, beauty, tragedy and monumental changes to the socio-political pattern of the United Kingdom to be ignored. At times, the moral pendulum swung from strict puritanism to full-on hedonism. I have been fortunate to be able to devote many years of my life to the study of the Stuart period – a part of history that I find utterly mesmerising.

  Needless to say, to condense the near-endless number of facts about this period into just 100 was no simple task, for there are many fascinating topics that have had to be set aside. Please note that these facts are not meant to be in-depth academic analyses of the events or people of the time, but rather a taste of what this era has to offer. Hopefully, readers will be inclined to seek out more books about the subjects and topics discussed herein. The Stuart Era was not just about moody-faced Puritans dressed in black (as popular culture may have us think), but about events and ideas that ultimately shaped the modern world in which we live. I hope you enjoy the facts that I have selected, and that they may tempt you to learn more about this fascinating era in history.

  1. THE END OF THE TUDORS WAS THE START OF THE STUARTS

  On 24 March 1603, the last of the Tudors breathed her last. Queen Elizabeth, the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, had enjoyed one of the most successful reigns in English history. The Tudors had reigned since Henry Tudor defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and had presided over monumental changes to the religious fabric of the nation. Elizabeth’s father controversially broke from the Roman Catholic Church and established himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England – thereby creating the Anglican Church. When Elizabeth’s elder half-sister, the Catholic Queen Mary I, died in 1558, Elizabeth began a reign that lasted for nearly forty-five years. Under her, Drake and his sea-dogs had defeated the powerful Spanish Armada, and literature and the arts flourished in a Golden Age.

  There was just one problem. Although there were many suitors for her hand, Elizabeth never married, and thus had no heir. Even as she lay dying upon the cushions spread out under her in her chamber in the Palace of Richmond, there was uncertainty as to who would next sit upon the throne of England. There were rumours that James VI of Scotland would be named heir, for James was a member of the Scottish royal family, the Stewarts – who are usually referred to by the Gallicised spelling of their surname, Stuarts. (There is no ‘correct’ spelling, as both are accepted, but the latter is the one most used by historians.) James’s mother was none other than Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been executed in 1587 under Elizabeth’s reluctant orders. Scotland and France had many ties; Mary was once a Queen of France, and her mother, Mary of Guise, was a French princess. The rumours proved to be true, and the throne of England passed to the King of Scotland, making him King James I of England.

  But Elizabeth, splendid queen that she was, had nevertheless left her successors several problems, including a potential powder-keg of religious sectarianism. Catholics, once the majority before the upheaval of the English Reformation, were marginalised, while the more extremist fringes of the Protestants weren’t content with Elizabeth’s policies. One of the criticisms sometimes placed at Elizabeth’s door is that she didn’t think in the long-term, or about the potential issues with which her successors would have to contend. King James I had to tread carefully; and, by and large, he did.

  In all, there were seven Stuart monarchs, and two Lords Protector, that followed Elizabeth to the throne: James I, ruled 1603–25; Charles I, ruled 1625–49 (executed); Interregnum/Commonwealth of England (1649–60), during which time Oliver Cromwell was the Lord Protector (1653–8), followed by his son, Richard, Lord Protector from 1658–9; Charles II, ruled 1660–1685; James II, ruled 1685–8 (exiled); William and Mary, ruled 1689–94 (Mary’s death); William III, ruled alone, 1695–1702; and Anne, ruled 1702–14. Elizabeth’s legacy was so great that James I’s great-granddaughters Mary II and Anne would eventually be favourably compared with the Virgin Queen – although neither would ever truly fit her shoes.

  2. THERE WERE TWO CALENDARS IN USE

  One of the most important things to understand about Stuart-era history is that there were two calendars in use in Europe at that time. Are you confused? Don’t worry – that’s a completely normal response at first. The calendar most people use nowadays is the Gregorian calendar. The United Kingdom has been officially using this calendar since the eighteenth century (1752, to be precise), but in the seventeenth century, several countries – including England – still used the ancient Julian calendar. Scotland was ahead of the game, though, for they had adopted the new Gregorian calendar back in 1600.

  The Julian calendar that everyone knew and loved was named after Julius Caesar, who is credited with having reformed the Roman calendar to be more accurate. Yes, that’s the same Julius Caesar who conquered Gaul, had an infamous affair with Cleopatra, and was stabbed to death on 15 March in 44 BC. Now, historians often refer to the Julian calendar as the Old Style or O.S. calendar. The Gregorian calendar is therefore the New Style or N.S. calendar. This calendar was introduced under Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Of course, given that a Catholic introduced this calendar, Protestants (who were on the rise in Europe) were sceptical – some thought it was a Catholic plot – and this is one of the reasons why the Gregorian calendar took quite a while to get accepted. Most of the Catholic countries – France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Poland – had adopted the Gregorian calendar quickly in the late sixteenth century.

  If you visit St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle in Windsor, England, you’ll see that the ledger stone upon which Charles I’s death date is engraved states that he died in 1648. This is correct, according to the Old Style calendar. Most historians now say he died in 1649, because that corresponds to the correct year in our calendar – the Gregorian/New Style calendar. The Julian/Old Style calendar’s New Year fell upon 24 March, not 1 January, so when Charles was executed on 30 January 1649, it was still 1648 in England.

  In the seventeenth century, the calendars were different by ten days. For example, when Prince William III of Orange married Mary Stuart at St James’s Palace, England, on 4 November 1677, it was technically his birthday as well, since back home in the Dutch Republic (where the Gregorian calendar was already in use) it was 14 November. Things got a bit trickier with the dawn of the eighteenth century when, in 1701, the difference between calendars moved from ten days to eleven days. The reason behind this was that when the Gregorian calendar was created, it took into account the fact that the Julian calendar was inaccurate, becoming even more so every 100 years. Accordingly, in 1582, ten days were removed in order to make the new calendar accurate. Fast forward to the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in 1752, and 11 days were added to catch up. One plus side – if things don’t go well in January you can always ‘start over’ again in March.

  3. FLIRTY MINETTE HAD A SAD TIME OF IT ... AS DID HER DAUGHTERS

  Princess Henrietta Anne, affectionately known as ‘Minette’, was the youngest child of Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria. Born in Exeter during the English Civil War on 16 June 1644, the young princess’s childhood had little stability. Two years later, she was smuggled out of the country and brought up at the French court, where she eventually married Philippe, duc d’Orléans – the younger brother of
King Louis XIV. Philippe was what we would today define as homosexual. Unfortunately, his behaviour left much to be desired; he was intensely jealous, petulant and arrogant. ‘Monsieur’, as he was known, cruelly carried on his affair with the Chevalier de Lorraine right in front of his wife, who was known as ‘Madame’. Minette was an ebullient and attractive young woman, and her great popularity simultaneously made Monsieur jealous and envious. Minette appears to have had a brief fling with her brother-in-law, Louis XIV, but that died down quickly and he was soon in an affair with her lady-in-waiting, Louise de La Vallière.

  ‘Madame’ was the means by which her brother, Charles II, agreed to the secret Treaty of Dover with Louis XIV. While she was in England with her family, she had a largely happy time of it and Louis even allowed her to stay longer, in spite of his brother’s demands that she return home. Shortly after returning home to France, however, the twenty-six-year-old Minette suddenly became violently ill and died at the Château de Saint-Cloud. Rumours swept the courts that she had been poisoned. For a while, even Charles appears to have believed this to be the case, because ‘Monsieur’ and his close associates had treated Minette appallingly – so it sadly wouldn’t have been much of a surprise if they had indeed poisoned her. Most historians, however, believe that Minette may have suffered from anorexia and that her death was probably due to acute peritonitis.

  Minette’s eldest daughter, Marie Louise (1662–89), fared little better. Marie Louise was married to King Carlos II of Spain, the last Hapsburg, who was a sad product of generations of close inbreeding. The king’s unfortunate lineage produced in him a vast array of debilitating physical and mental disabilities. Although Carlos loved his wife, and she seems to have returned his affections, they were unable to have children (he was, in all likelihood, impotent). Marie Louise, depressed and lonely, died under mysterious circumstances, leading to rumours that she had been poisoned – like mother, like daughter.

  Anne Marie d’Orléans (1669–1728), Minette’s youngest daughter, had the least tragic life out of the three ladies, although it was still unhappy. She was married off to Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, whose infamously obsessive affair with Jeanne Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes she was forced to endure. Anne Marie got the last laugh, though, for her grandson became King Louis XV of France.