HOUSEKEEPER’S ROOM.
No. 75.
SHE was daughter and co-heir of Henry Cavendish, second Duke of Newcastle, by Frances Pierrepoint, daughter of the Earl of Kingston. Her large possessions made her a most desirable match in the eyes of General Monck, Duke of Albemarle, for his son Christopher. Feeling his end approaching, the anxious father hurried on the negotiations for the marriage, which were pending with Elizabeth’s family, and went so far as to insist that the nuptials should be celebrated in his own bedchamber, a few days previous to his death in 1670.
We have at this time no means of gaining much information respecting the married life of Christopher, second Duke of Albemarle, and his wife; but in 1687 he went out as Governor-General to Jamaica, and died there the following year. Neither are we in a position to ascertain the circumstances attending the insanity of his widow, as we have no trace of her life until the mention of her second marriage with Ralph, Lord (afterwards Duke of) Montagu. This eccentric man, after losing his beautiful and accomplished wife (Elizabeth Wriothesley, widow of Josceline Percy, Earl of Northumberland) in 1690, thought to console himself with the wealth of the Duchess of Albemarle, whose madness was then well known. This trifling impediment was not considered by any means insurmountable, and the unfortunate woman, or rather her large fortune, had many suitors.
One of the disappointed band, Lord Ross, gave vent to his spite, on hearing of Lord Montagu’s success, in the following lines:—
Finding that the poor maniac had announced her determination of marrying no one but a Sovereign, Montagu caused himself to be presented to her as the Emperor of China, and doubtless the mumming and masquerading which ensued suited his volatile and eccentric humour. But if he looked forward to enjoying his wife’s wealth without her society, he was disappointed, as she survived him twenty-six years. Happy in her royal illusions, served to her dying day on bended knee, addressed always as Majesty, while even after death, her wishes were obeyed by the sumptuous funeral which was given to her remains in the lofty pile of Westminster Abbey compatible with her imperial dignity.
No. 76.
BENEDETTO, of the noble House of Odescalchi, of Como, went to Rome, and on to Naples, when about twenty-five years of age, with no possessions save the weapons which he required for the military profession he had chosen. But a Cardinal, with whom he became acquainted, dissuaded him from becoming a soldier, and on his return to Rome Odescalchi entered on the career of the ‘Curia,’ where he was soon distinguished for zeal and ability, and gradually rose to elevation in several public offices. In 1645 he obtained the Cardinal’s Hat, and the Bishopric of Novara, a step which his enemies unjustly attributed to the influence of the celebrated Donna Olympia, for Odescalchi was ever remarkable for the morality, and even austerity, of his life.
He became so popular in Rome, that when the Conclave was sitting, a large concourse assembled under the portico of St. Peter’s, and shouted out his name; and the election of Innocent XI. to the Papal Chair gave very general satisfaction.
The new Pontiff, upright and conscientious by nature, first turned his thoughts to financial reform. He reduced the annual expenditure, inquired into all the abuses of Government sinecures, and though he had a worthy kinsman to whom he was much attached, he eschewed nepotism; he also watched over the state of the money market, and after the lapse of a few years, his efforts were rewarded by a great increase of the public revenue. Innocent showed himself a firm opponent of Louis XIV., when that King encroached, as His Holiness deemed, on spiritual privileges. He embraced the cause of the Jansenist priests who had fallen under the displeasure of the ‘Grand Monarque’ for withstanding some of the decrees they considered arbitrary, more especially on the long-vexed question of the ‘Regale.’ They appealed to the Pope, who wrote once, and yet twice, to the King on the subject, admonishing him not to listen to flatterers, and not to lay hands on the immunities of the Church, lest by so doing, he should ‘dry up the fountains of divine grace from his kingdom.’
Finding his homilies of no avail, Innocent spoke out more boldly still, assuring Louis that he ‘would suffer no storm nor danger to appal him, but would use every resource of that power he held at the hands of God’ to resist his injustice. But so completely were the mass of the French clergy enslaved by His Majesty that the Prince de Condé was used to say that if Louis chose to go over to the Protestant faith, the priests would be the first to follow him. Therefore they feared to stand by the Pope, who had defended their rights so zealously, and the ‘Declarations’ that were published from year to year increased and strengthened the royal authority in spiritual concerns.
This was especially manifest in the Articles of the Convocation of 1682; but the Pope was not easily disheartened. To those members of the Declaration whom Louis had preferred before all other candidates for Episcopal offices, Innocent denied spiritual institution. They might indeed receive the revenues of the sees, but ordination was refused them, neither could they exercise one spiritual act of their office.
About this time, the King, it was said, thought to ingratiate himself with the Holy See by his cruel persecutions of the Huguenots, but such measures were not calculated to please a man of Odescalchi’s character, and fresh disputes arose. One of the abuses which the Pope had endeavoured to abolish in Rome was the ‘right of asylum,’ as it was called, hitherto claimed by foreign Ambassadors. Not only on their arrival in the imperial city had they a palace assigned them, but quarters for innumerable hangers-on, in several adjacent streets. The Emperor, the King of Spain, and others, had listened to the remonstrances of His Holiness, and waived their claim to these unreasonable privileges; but Louis was glad of a fresh opportunity to oppose the Pope, boasting that he was not in the habit of following the example of others.
Accordingly, he sent his Ambassador, with a considerable armed force, to demand the rights of ‘asylum’ in the name of his royal master. The formidable array brought no fear to the brave heart of Benedetto Odescalchi. ‘They come with horses and chariots,’ he said, ‘but we will walk in the name of the Lord.’ The French emissary was excommunicated, and the Church of St. Louis (the patron saint of France), where he attended mass, was placed under interdict.
Reprisals were now the order of the day. The Papal Nuncio was detained a prisoner in Paris, many French bishops deprived of their canonical institutions, a territory of the Holy See occupied by France; in fact, daggers drawn! But other Powers besides Rome were jealous of the encroachments and arrogance of the French monarch, and Innocent allied himself with them from political motives. He made a friend of Austria, by assisting her with subsidies in the war with Turkey, and he incurred blame from some of the Catholic bystanders by an alliance with the Protestant Prince William of Orange. The plea was, that William had undertaken the command of the Rhine, and would defend not only the rights of the Empire, but also those of the Church, against Louis XIV. Be this as it may, it seems strange that the Pope should perhaps unwittingly have assisted in the elevation of the enemy of James II., to whose son he had stood godfather. But if the head of the Roman Catholic Church proved indirectly instrumental in furthering the Protestant cause in England, the Protestants, on their side, by maintaining the balance of power in Europe, did His Holiness a good turn. Innocent died soon after these events, leaving behind him a character for courage and steadfastness, combined with great humility and gentleness of manners. As we have already said, he was remarkable for the purity of his morals, and made himself very unpopular with the women of all classes by denouncing, in no measured terms, the indecency of dress and laxity of manners, which were (he considered) unusually prevalent in his reign. He was much opposed to the sect of the Quietists, and confirmed the sentence of the Inquisition against their unfortunate founder Molinos, who was imprisoned, and eventually died in the cells of that dread institution. He was but a poor scholar, and his secretaries were obliged to translate or turn into Italian, all Latin documents with which he had to deal.
Innocent XI. was charitable to the poor, and much beloved, especially by his dependants, of whose wellbeing he was most careful. He died in the month of August 1689, and the Roman people flocked round his tomb, invoking him as a saint, and disputing with each other any available relic of their favourite Pontiff.