Royal Sisters: The Story of the Daughters of James II Read online

  There were many separations in the married life of John and Sarah Churchill and whenever they could be together they took advantage of it.

  John was now at Whitehall and able to see his wife frequently, and on this occasion he had something very serious to say to her. They went down to their home near St. Albans, there to spend a few days with their children. There were five of them now: Henrietta, Anne, Elizabeth, John, and Mary. Sarah counted herself lucky when she considered Princess Anne who had lost all hers.

  John was thoughtful as they left London and, knowing him well, she sensed there was something on his mind.

  “You had better tell me what it is,” said Sarah grimly.

  He gave her a fond smile. There was little she missed.

  “I have much to tell you,” he said.

  “Good news?”

  He nodded.

  “Then tell me quickly. I like not to be kept in the dark.”

  “We took the right road.”

  “Of course we did.”

  “Bentinck has talked with me … made me promises.”

  “What, John, what? What a maddening creature you are! Don’t you know I am the most impatient woman in the world when there is news of my family?”

  “How would you like to be a Countess?”

  “John! Stop this teasing. I will not have it, I tell you.”

  “You may well be ere long.”

  “An Earldom. Is it true then?”

  “Not yet, there is a condition. Bentinck has implied that titles and honors can be ours. Oh, my dear Sarah, what a clever woman you are! Already they realize that you can do what you will with Anne.”

  “And the condition is?”

  “That she agrees to their conditions. Joint Sovereigns. This shall not be the reign of Mary and her Consort but of William and Mary. Not much to ask for an earldom.”

  “But what if they should have a child?”

  “William is impotent.”

  “And cross-eyed Betty Villiers?”

  “It is a blind. He would have the world think him a man when he is only half one.”

  Sarah narrowed her eyes.

  “An earldom,” she murmured.

  “And that would not be all.”

  Her smile was triumphant. “Why, John,” she said, “Do you think what I think?”

  “The Churchills shape the future of England.”

  She laughed and put her hand in his.

  “I shall see that fat Morley agrees to stand aside for Caliban.”

  She loved her children; the days spent with them in the country were something to look forward to; but all the time she was longing to be back at the Cockpit, for she could scarcely wait to take those steps which would lead her to that earldom.

  Playing with the children, riding with John, they talked of nothing else.

  “The Earl of …” Sarah said again and again, putting her head on one side and looking at him with pride.

  “What say you of Marlborough?”

  “Marlborough.” Sarah tried it on her tongue. “It is a grand sounding name.”

  “It was a name which was once in my family. The Leys were Earls of Marlborough.”

  “Marlborough!” cried Sarah. “Oh, I like it.” She threw her arms about him. “Oh, my Lord Marlborough, what a happy day this is!”

  John cautiously reminded her that the title was not yet theirs. There was work to do first.

  So during those days which should have been completely contented, Sarah yearned to be back at the Cockpit.

  The Princess Mary of Orange was growing more and more anxious as she drew near to her native land. This was not the best motive for returning; and in any case she had no wish to return. She remembered how, when she had last looked at the receding coast of England she had seen it through a mist of tears and had believed that to throw herself overboard would have given her greater pleasure than anything else. It seemed incredible that now she should be wishing that the boat would turn and take her back to Holland.

  But she had changed since the days when she had been a weeping bride. She had come to love William, to think only of William’s good and William’s desires, and to make them her own.

  She had wanted the perfect marriage and she assured herself she had found it. Oh, she would be ready to admit that others might not realize the worth of William. He was a great leader, a great hero; and if he was at times brusque—even uncouth—that was because he hated hypocrisy and pretence of any sort; also he suffered acutely and that everyone knew could make the temper short. William was the most wonderful man in the world; the perfect husband, and Mary would not allow herself to think otherwise.

  Obediently she had hated her father when William wished her to although James had always been kind to her; sometimes now she remembered those occasions when he had taken her on his knee and made her talk to the people who came to see him on business, declaring that she understood all that was said. She had believed the evil reports she had heard of him; and when Anne and others had told her of the wicked lengths to which he was ready to go to bring Catholicism back to England—even so far as to introduce a spurious baby in a warming-pan into his wife’s bed—she was ready to believe that too. She knew that Elizabeth Villiers was William’s mistress and she tried not to believe that. Elizabeth was with her now and she was wondering whether his friendship with her would continue when they were in England.

  What pleasure it would give her if she could go back to the quiet life in the Palace in the Wood, at Loo and Honselaarsdijk where William had built and planned gardens. She could visualize such a delightful existence. Planning gardens with William, listening respectfully while he talked of state affairs, playing cards in the evening or dancing. Oh, how she loved to dance, but of course there had been little dancing in Holland. Perhaps in London … but William would not want a gay court. That would be too reminiscent of her Uncles Charles and William. Never were two men less alike.

  Mary would see her old friend Frances Apsley. “Aurelia” as she had called her, and “dear husband.” A foolish fantasy, but the love between them had been painfully passionate and Mary had continued to think of herself as wife to Frances even after the marriage to William. There must be no return of that when she reached England. There was no room in Mary’s life but to be a dutiful wife to one person—and that person was her own dear husband William.

  She frowned thinking of Anne’s friendship with Sarah Churchill, Unwise! she thought. And I do not believe Sarah Churchill to be the best friend Anne could have.

  Perhaps when they were together again she would break that dominance. Anne was like herself in that she found pleasure in these passionate friendships with her own sex. She, Mary, had grown out of that habit which was not only foolish but dangerous. Perhaps when she reached England she would not see a great deal of Frances. Now that she had such a perfect husband she had no need and no desire to have women friends and had in fact, though she would not admit that this was to protect herself, rigidly refrained from making them.

  The land was in sight and she must compose herself. This was going to be one of the most difficult periods of her life. It was no normal homecoming. She was returning to England because her husband had driven her father away. She had not told William, but she had long been praying in Holland that there might be a reconciliation between her father and husband. Mary hated conflict of any sort. She knew so well what she wanted and that was to be on good terms with those about her; to chat incessantly—not of great matters, but of cards and dancing and gardens and fine needlework, although her eyes were too weak nowadays to indulge in the latter. She wanted to hear laughter about her; and although she was devout and her religion, the Protestant religion, was one of the two great passions in her life—the other being her husband—that did not mean that she did not like to be gay.

  But William had frowned on levity, although now she had her special instructions not to be melancholy on arrival. He knew that she had felt melancholy when she contemplate
d the fate of her father; this, he had warned her, must not be shown to the English. They must not have the impression that she came among them as a penitent. She must show no grief for her father’s downfall, which he so richly deserved. She must smile and appear happy to be with them. Graciously she must accept the crown; he wanted smiles from her when she landed in England.

  How strange! So often in Holland she had been forced to curb her levity; now she must feign gaiety, for the truth was that the nearer she came to England the less gay she felt. She could not get out of her mind the memory of childhood days, of her father’s coming into the nursery and picking her up, calling her his dearest daughter. She could not stop thinking of her beautiful Italian stepmother who had shown her nothing but kindness, and had laughingly called her her “Dear Lemon” because she was married to the Prince of Orange.

  Instead of this she must remember her father’s follies, his promiscuity, his disgraceful rule when he had ousted Protestants from the principal posts and tried to replace them with Catholics, his cruelty after Sedgemoor, for although Jeffreys was blamed James was the King and therefore mainly responsible; she must not forget the wickedness of the warming-pan incident. It was thoughts of Sedgemoor which hardened her heart; it had always been so. After that William had had little difficulty in turning her against her father. When she thought of Jemmy, holding her hand in the dance, his dark eyes aflame with … not passionate love, but could she say passionate friendship? … when she thought of that charming head being severed from that handsome body, at the command of her father, then she could hate him. James, Duke of Monmouth, the most handsome man in the world (for admirable as William was even she could not call him handsome) had come to The Hague, had danced as only he could dance, had taught her to skate … and those had been days which seemed apart from all others. But Jemmy was dead and James had killed him.

  My father killed Jemmy. That was what she had to keep saying; and then a fierce anger destroyed her calmness and she knew that she would walk into the palace where her father and stepmother had recently lived and she could laugh and be gay and say to herself: He deserves his misery … for what he did to beautiful Jemmy.

  “Your Highness, we should be preparing to land.”

  Elizabeth Villiers stood beside her, smiling her discreet smile, those peculiar eyes, with what some called a squint, downcast.

  Mary bowed her head and wondered whether when they stepped ashore William would be more aware of Elizabeth than of her. Oh, no, he would be watching his wife, making sure that her expression was what he had commanded it to be, that she gave no sign of uneasiness because she was coming to take her father’s crown. Matters of state would come before any mistress.

  But Elizabeth was there and Mary believed in that moment that she always would be. Why? she asked herself passionately. What can she give that I cannot? But who could probe the strange powers of attraction?

  A crowd was gathered at the landing stairs, but William was not among them. That was characteristic. He could make no gracious gestures. He would wait and receive her formally at the Palace of Whitehall, to remind her perhaps that although she was the Queen of England, he was the King.

  Elizabeth had slipped the cloak from her shoulders and handed it to a page; it seemed to weigh the boy down so voluminous was it with its hanging sleeves and its vivid orange color. The people wanted to see her and she was a handsome sight, for she would have been a very beautiful woman had she not grown so fat. She removed her hood that they might see her face and she stood, tall, stately, and smiling. Her bodice, low cut partly exposing a magnificent bosom, was draped with fine muslin looped with pearls; beneath her purple velvet gown was an orange petticoat which, as she lifted her skirts, showed its flamboyantly symbolic color. Her dark hair was piled high and adorned with agraffes of pearls and ribbons in the same color as the petticoat. She was a magnificent sight: a queen in her glory. Those watching thought: She will be decorative enough to make up for dull William.

  Formally she was greeted by the officials of the Court; then she was led to her waiting horse by her Master of Horse, Sir Edward Villiers, as young girls strewed flowers in her path.

  A colorful homecoming.

  Anne was waiting with Sarah at Greenwich Palace.

  Anne was excited at the prospect of meeting her sister. Sarah was alert. Mary had already shown signs of animosity and Sarah felt she would need to be careful. Anne looked enormous, she was pregnant again, but quite attractive in her excitement apart from her bulk, and beside her was her husband, fat and genial.

  Sarah was thinking that life would be more complicated now that the two sisters would be together.

  As the Queen approached her eyes immediately sought her sister and when she did so, she could not restrain her pleasure.

  There could be no ceremony at such a meeting. Mary dismounted and held out her arms and they embraced.

  “My dearest Anne!”

  “Oh … Your Majesty … you are that now, are you not, now that our father is gone …”

  Mary said: “It is wonderful to see you. This meeting is something I have been anticipating for so long.”

  “To think you will be home again! It is quite wonderful.”

  “And you have been good, dear sister. William appreciates your goodness.”

  “Does he?” said Anne vaguely; the mention of William’s name had curbed her exuberance temporarily; and Mary was reminded of her duties.

  She received her brother-in-law and all those who were waiting to greet her and with Anne beside her they went into the Palace of Greenwich to refresh themselves before going on to Whitehall.

  To Whitehall! There would be too many memories for comfort, thought Mary. She could not forget that a very short time ago her father and stepmother had held Court here. It was here that Mary Beatrice had very recently waited for her apartments at St. James’s to be made ready that she might give birth to a prince—or pretend to.

  As yet Mary had not seen William; she believed that he would be waiting for her at Whitehall and together they would enter the Palace. She hoped so, for she would feel happier if he were at her side.

  But when she reached Whitehall William was not there, and she must enter the Palace alone, knowing that everyone was watching her, asking themselves how a daughter would feel who had driven her father from his home.

  She must forget she was James’s daughter and remember only that she was William’s wife. So she smiled gaily.

  “Whitehall,” she said. “I have thought of it so often. But it does not bear comparison with some of our Dutch Palaces.”

  “Your Majesty will wish to go to your apartments without delay.”

  She agreed that she would.

  To the royal apartment then. Here was the bedchamber in which Mary Beatrice had lain. It was prepared for her, Mary, now. There were the chairs on which her father had sat; his hands had touched those hangings.

  Jemmy’s murderer, she murmured; then it was easier.

  She laughed gaily.

  “It is pleasant to be home in Whitehall,” she said.

  She could not sleep that night—alone in the royal bed. There were too many memories. She dreamed of her father; she was a child and he had taken her on his knee and was looking at her with mournful reproachful eyes from which tears flowed. And there was Mary Beatrice crying: “I cannot believe it … not of our dear Lemon.”

  “It had to be, it had to be.…” She was talking in her sleep. “William said so and William is always right. It was the Papists against the Protestants. It was your own fault, father. And there was Monmouth.… How could you. He called himself the King I know, but he was a King’s son, and he was your nephew. How could you?”

  She awoke and heard herself say: “It had to be. It had to be.”

  Where was she? In her room in the Palace in the Wood, waiting for William, who would not come because he was spending the night with Elizabeth Villiers? No. She was in Whitehall, in the bed which had been used by her f
ather and stepmother.

  This was nonsense. It had to be. He had brought this on himself. William had had no wish for it. It was only because it was his duty to come that he came.

  In the morning she chatted gaily as she was dressed.

  William would want to hear how she had behaved on her arrival and she must please William. Moreover, it was pleasant to chat. How she loved to gossip; and being back in England reminded her of those carefree gossiping days of childhood.

  “I want to go into all the rooms,” she announced. “I want to see how much things have changed.”

  So as soon as she was dressed she went from room to room, opening cupboard doors, turning down the quilts on the bed, laughing and chatting all the time.

  Even her friends were a little shocked. They said: “She seems to be quite insensible of her father’s tragedy.”

  Her enemies talked freely to each other. “What unbecoming conduct!” they said. “What an ungrateful daughter, for however misguided he was, he was always a good father to her.”

  As for Mary, she was thinking of him all the time as she went from room to room; she was resisting with all her might the desire to burst into tears, to ask these men to help her plead with her husband to bring her father back. Let them rule together, let William modify James’s policy; surely that could have been done.

  But William had said: “Smile and be gay. Show no remorse, for that would do ill to our cause.”

  So she smiled and was gay; and Sarah Churchill watching said to herself: “She is a woman of stone. She shows no remorse for her father. This is most unbecoming. She is behaving like a woman in an inn, peering into cupboards, spying into the beds.…”

  Sarah disliked keeping her opinions to herself, but on this occasion she would. William and Mary would reward those who helped them and the glorious Marlborough title was not yet won.

  Only when Mary was installed in Whitehall Palace did William come to her.

  She returned his cool greeting with suppressed exuberance. After the long separation she had forgotten how withdrawn he could be.