It seemed that Charles’s prophecies about James were coming true.
Accompanied by one or two of the married ladies of my household, I came to the place and was taken to the bedchamber where the birth was to take place.
What an ordeal for Mary Beatrice, to have her agonies witnessed by so many. But it was the royal custom, and in this case certainly proved to be a necessity.
How glad I was when at last I heard the cry of the child, and to my great joy, and that of everyone, it was a boy and looked likely to survive.
He was named James Francis Edward; and seven days after his birth he was christened and I was appointed his godmother.
IT WAS SOON AFTER the birth that the wicked rumors started.
There were many who were planning that the King should go, and, now that he had a son to follow him, there could be difficulties, for if the father were deposed, the son would be there to take the crown.
I believe that to be the reason for the rumors, because they certainly were absurd and without foundation.
Who first put the story about, I did not know, but very soon it was talked of throughout the court and in the streets. I was sure that the whole of country would soon be discussing it.
It was said that while the attendants crowded round the Queen’s bed, one of the King’s trusted servants had been standing by with a warming-pan in which was a live and healthy baby boy.
The Queen, they said, had given birth to a stillborn child; the warming-pan had been thrust into the bed and under cover of the bedclothes the infants had been changed and the healthy one brought out as the Queen’s child, while the stillborn child was hastily put into the warming-pan and taken away.
It was a preposterous story but, as Charles often said, people believe what they want to. Such a foolish rumor should have been dismissed immediately, but such was the unpopularity of the King and Queen that it persisted.
It was surprising that so much credence should have been given to it that it was necessary to call a meeting of the Privy Council, that all those who had been present at the birth could give evidence of having witnessed it.
I was one of these.
What an extraordinary occasion it was!
The King was present and I was given a chair beside him. The ladies who had been in the lying-in chamber were also present.
The King spoke to us and the Council listened attentively. “It grieves me,” he said, “that there has been this necessity of bringing you here. There has been much malicious gossip concerning my son, the Prince of Wales. There are those who maintain that the child which bears that title is not mine. Your Majesty, my lords and ladies here today, I am asking you who were present at the birth to declare what you know of it.”
I spoke first. “I was sent for when the Queen began her labor. I was in the bedchamber with her when the Prince of Wales was born.” And I went on to say that I had seen the Prince of Wales born and that the story of the warming-pan was an utter lie.
The others gave evidence in the same vein and what we said was written down and afterward we all signed the document.
That should have been enough, for we all declared that there had been only one baby and he was certainly the Prince of Wales. But the rumor persisted and people continued to whisper about the warming-pan baby.
AS THAT YEAR PASSED a certain menace crept into the atmosphere. If James was aware of it, he did not change his ways. He heard Mass in a manner which could only be called ostentatious. He prosecuted the convenanters in Scotland; he was at odds with the Church and seven bishops were prosecuted for seditious libel.
When they were declared “not guilty” there were loud cheers throughout the court; and when the people waiting in the streets heard the verdict there was loud singing and cheering and the entire city was in uproar.
This should have shown James how unpopular his policies were, and he should have known the English would never accept Catholicism, and that if he persisted in trying to promote it, his days would be numbered.
Oh James, I thought, why cannot you understand? Why do you do this foolish, dangerous thing? He was like his father, who had defied Parliament by his insistence on the Divine Right of Kings.
And as the year progressed, it was becoming more and more clear that the people were deciding they would not have James.
The next in line of succession, if one did not count the little Prince of Wales, was James’s elder daughter Mary, and she was married to Protestant William of Orange.
It had to come. The country demanded it.
A deputation was sent to Holland inviting William of Orange, with his wife Mary, to depose James and take the throne.
LORD FEVERSHAM CAME TO ME.
He said: “Your Majesty, you know this means war.”
“War!” I repeated blankly.
“Most likely. The King will never relinquish the throne without a struggle.”
“The people will not have him.”
“He is the King,” said Lord Feversham. “I have given my oath to serve him. I must say good-bye to you and join King James.”
“This is tragic,” I cried.
“It has been coming for some time.”
“Do you think the Prince of Orange will accept?”
Lord Feversham smiled. “It is what he has been waiting for since the death of Charles.”
“I trust the King will come safely out of this.”
“I promise Your Majesty that I shall do my best to assist him in that.”
November was with us when news came that William of Orange had landed at Torbay.
WILLIAM AND MARY
THERE FOLLOWED A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY WHEN THERE was chaos in the streets of London, and mobs were always eager to find an excuse to attack the homes of rich and well-known Catholics. I wondered if they would turn on me.
I think James must have realized from the first that he was going to lose his throne. It was typical of him that, after the first shock, he would accept this in an almost resigned manner as the inevitable sacrifice he had had to make for his faith.
I was filled with pity for him and his Queen, so recently proud of their little son.
James would have been desolate by the news of the desertion of those on whom he had relied. John Churchill was the first, and he had most of the army with him; others followed. James’s son-in-law, the Prince of Denmark, had declared for William.
The most cruel desertion was by his daughter Anne. He had called on her for comfort, only to find that, in the company of Sarah Churchill, she had left, which meant that she too was not on his side.
I remembered well his love for his daughters. I had often seen him playing with them when they were little more than babies. Now Mary, who had been his favorite, was the wife of the man who had come against him. He would expect her to stand with her husband. But Anne…his little Anne…influenced no doubt by Sarah Churchill, had left him and gone over to the enemy.
It may have been that after that he had little heart for the fight. How could he, with only a few friends to help him?
Perhaps even then, if he had given up his faith, he might have reinstated himself; but that was something he would never do. Knowing how precarious his position was, he had sent the Queen and her little baby to France.
I wondered what would become of me. Charles’s niece Mary would now be Queen. I remembered her as she had been on her wedding day — a tearful bride, dreading marriage, particularly marriage to William, Prince of Orange. I knew a little about him now, for he had made himself an important figure on the continent and had become a man of some significance. I wondered if Mary was reconciled to her marriage.