Marriage with Anne Hyde
James
Stuart, Duke of York, was the third child of Charles I &, for all of his
brother Charles II’s reign, heir to the thrones of England & Scotland. From
the age of 15 James had spent his live in exile, having escaped the country
dressed as a girl. He did not return to England until May 1660, when Charles
was restored to the throne, over 18 months after the death of the Protector,
Oliver Cromwell. James was now 27. Much of his time in exile had been spent in
France and fighting with Turenne’s armies.
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| James Duke of York and Anne Hyde |
During the
following three years James courted Anne during his frequent visits to his
sister’s court in Breda.
His brother Charles too visited his sister, who was funding his exile, from her
son’s inheritance. Princess
Mary was attracted to one of Charles’ courtiers, but Charles ended the
relationship between his sister and Harry Jermyn, after a blazing row with
Mary. He ignored James relationship with Anne, if indeed he even knew about it.
James later
claimed that he was trapped into marriage by Anne, who fended off his
attentions until he had agreed to marry her. Anne, for her part, claimed that
for over a year James promised to marry her and that they contracted to marry
at Breda on 24th November 1659. James was happy enough with his new
bed-fellow and Anne became pregnant by late January, early February 1660.
But in the spring
of 1660 Charles was offered his father’s throne, making James the heir to the
kingdoms of England and Scotland; an alternative future where Anne would not be
welcome. By the time James and Charles returned to England in May, Anne was
noticeably pregnant and her father was furious, as were James’ mother and
sister. Sir Edward, who was to be made Earl of Clarendon the following year,
demanded that Charles throw his pregnant daughter into the Tower, telling his
daughter he wished she were dead.
James was
now encouraged to throw Anne off. Some of James’ friends claimed that they too
had slept with the young woman, in a bid to relieve James of responsibility for
the child’s paternity. Some sources say that James himself insisted on the
marriage, but others claim that it was Charles who demanded that James fulfil
his promises.
On 3rd
September 1660 the heir to the throne married Mistress Anne Hyde in a hole-in-the-wall
ceremony at the Hyde family home, Worcester House. James’ chaplain conducted
the ceremony, which was attended by Lord Ossory, who gave the bride away and
the bride’s maid. Anne’s baby was born on 22nd October, but died on
5th May the following year.
‘I hear tonight that the
Duke of Yorkes son is this day dead, which I believe will please everybody; and
I hear that the Duke and his Lady themselves are not much troubled at it.’[i]
Anne was
recognised by the Privy Council as Duchess of York on 18th February
1661, over six weeks after her son Charles, Duke of Cambridge, was christened,
with his uncle Charles and parental grandmother as Godparents. Charles was the
first of numerous pregnancies and it was not until April 1662 that the Lady
Mary Stuart was born. In 1663 James, Duke of Cambridge was born, their sister
Anne followed two years later in February 1665 and Charles, Duke of Kendal was
born in July 1666. In 1667 the York family lost both their sons, but in
September of that year Edgar, Duke of Cambridge was born.
James’
desire for his wife soon faded and Anne took comfort in food and elaborate
dresses; while her husband dallied with a series of mistresses. Despite a
roving eye, James was a loving father to his brood, particularly to his eldest
daughter.
‘With the Duke. And saw him
with great pleasure play with his little girle – like an ordinary private
father of a child.’[ii]
Anne died on
10th April 1671, possibly from breast cancer. She was followed to
the grave shortly afterward by Edgar, who died in June. Sometime before her
death Anne had secretly converted to Catholicism and in 1672 James too converted,
although he continued to attend the services of the Church of England. Mary and
Anne had been brought up as staunch Protestants, ensuring the Protestant
Succession. James’ leanings towards Catholicism had been noted by Samuel Pepys
as early as 1661;
‘He being a professed friend
to the Catholiques.’[iii]
Marriage with Mary of Modena
It took two
years for James to find a second bride. He was desperate to produce a male
heir, to inherit the kingdom after himself. Charles was obviously not going to
have children with his wife Catherine of Braganza, despite his fourteen
bastards, and he refused to divorce her. James originally desired to marry the
Protestant Lady Bellasyse, but Charles forbad the marriage as the lady was not
Royal.
James
entrusted the Earl of Peterborough with the task of searching out a bride from
the available Catholic princesses of Europe. The beautiful and rich Princess
Claudia of Innsbruck was the first favourite, but James’ prospects paled before
those of another suitor – the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The two other main
favourites were the 15 year old Princess Mary Beatrice, daughter of the Duke of
Modena and her 20 year old aunt Leonora. Both of the princesses wished to take
the veil, but Peterborough was entranced by Mary Beatrice’s fragile beauty and
recommended her. The prospective bride spent the next two days in hysterics.
She was possibly consoled by a letter from the Pope:
‘The orthodox faith
reinstated by you in a place of honour might recover the splendour and security
of former days.’[iv]
That is to
say the 15 year old Mary was to be a pawn in the battle between the Protestant
and Catholic religions. The marriage by proxy took place in September 1673,
with Peterborough standing proxy for James. On her first night in England
crowds marched through the streets with an effigy of the Pope, which was then
burnt on a bonfire. The bride burst into
tears on the first meeting with her husband to be – James was forty, had a cruel expression and stammered when nervous. The wedding itself took
place in Dover on 21st November.
James
introduced the new Duchess of York to Anne and Mary as a playfellow and the
three girls did play together. But Mary was barely out of the schoolroom
herself and was unhappy:
‘I cannot yet accustom
myself to this state of life .... therefore I cry a great deal and am much
afflicted, not being able to rid myself of my melancholy.’[v]
She was also in a cold, foreign country
and far from her family. It took time for Mary to fall in love with her
husband. Her first child was born on 10th January 1675; Catherine
Laura lived until October, dying of convulsions. A second child, Isabella was
born in August 1676. Mary’s next child was Charles, Duke of Cambridge, born in
November 1677, but the baby was less than a month old when he died of smallpox,
caught from his half-sister Anne who was visiting his mother; unfortunately
Anne was still infectious. Then came Elizabeth in 1678, dying the same year.
Isabella died in March 1681. Charlotte was born in August 1682, but died of
convulsions in October.
Mary did not give birth to any more
children for several years. It was not until late September, early October in
1687 when she fell pregnant again. By then James had succeeded to his brother’s
throne and was introducing pro-Catholic legislation. The Protestant Succession
had seemed secure since the death of the Duke of Cambridge in 1677. Now Queen
Mary could give birth to a Prince of Wales, introducing the possibility that
the king might be encouraged to overturn the supremacy of the Church of England.
Memories of Mary Tudor’s counter-Reformation activities were still strong in
Protestant England and fears of a return to Catholicism were paramount. A
paranoid population waited until June the next year to discover that Mary’s
baby was a boy. The scene was set for a revolution.
Bibliography
The Later Stuarts
1660-1744 – Sir George Clark, Oxford University Press 1985
Queen Anne – Edward
Gregg, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980
William and Mary – John
van der Kiste, Sutton Publishing 2003
The Shorter Pepys – ed.
Robert Latham, Penguin 1987
William and Mary – John
Miller, Weidenfeld & Nicholson 1974
The Life & Times of
Charles II – Christopher Falkus, George Weidenfeld & Nicholson 1972
William and Mary - Henri &
Barbara van der Zee, History Book Club 1973
The sort of marital adventures that remind one that marital is an anagram of martial...
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