The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck

The Curious Case of Lady
Purbeck

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Title: The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck A Scandal of the XVIIth
Century
Author: Thomas Longueville
Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15257]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE
CURIOUS CASE
OF
LADY PURBECK
A SCANDAL OF THE XVIITH CENTURY
BY THE AUTHOR OF
"THE LIFE OF SIR KENELM DIGBY," "THE ADVENTURES OF

KING JAMES II.," "MARSHAL TURENNE" "THE LIFE OF A
PRIG," ETC.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW,
LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1909

PREFACE
The curious case of Lady Purbeck is here presented without
embellishment, much as it has been found in old books and old
manuscripts, chiefly at the Record Office and at the British Museum.
Readers must not expect to find any "well-drawn characters," "fine
descriptions," "local colour," or "dramatic talent," in these pages, on
each of which Mr. Dry-as-dust will be encountered. Possibly some
writer of fiction, endowed with able hands directed by an imaginative
mind, may some day produce a readable romance from the rough-hewn
matter which they contain: but, as their author's object has been to tell
the story simply, as it has come down to us, and, as much as was
possible, to let the contemporaries of the heroine tell it in their own
words, he has endeavoured to suppress his own imagination, his own
emotions, and his own opinions, in writing it. He has the pleasure of
acknowledging much useful assistance and kind encouragement in this
little work from Mr. Walter Herries Pollock.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Sir Edward Coke--Lady Elizabeth Hatton--Bacon--Marriage of Coke
and Lady Elizabeth--Birth of the Heroine 1

CHAPTER II.
Rivalry of Coke and Bacon--Quarrelling between Coke and Lady
Elizabeth--Coke offends the King and loses his offices--Letter of Bacon
to Coke 10

CHAPTER III.
Coke tries to regain the favour of Buckingham and the King by offering
his daughter to Sir John Villiers--Anger of Lady Elizabeth--Lady
Elizabeth steals away with her daughter 21

CHAPTER IV.
Coke besieges his wife and carries off his daughter--Coke and
Winwood v. Lady Elizabeth and Bacon--Charges and counter-charges
30

CHAPTER V.
Lady Elizabeth tries to recover her daughter--Her scheme for a match
between Frances Coke and the Earl of Oxford--Bacon, finding that he
has offended both Buckingham and the King, turns round and favours
the match with Villiers--Trial of Lady Exeter--Imprisonment of Lady
Elizabeth at an Alderman's house 39

CHAPTER VI.
Frances is tortured into consent--The marriage--Lady Elizabeth comes
into royal favour and Coke falls out of it--Lady Elizabeth's dinner-party
to the King--Carleton and his wife quarrel about her 52

CHAPTER VII.

Buckingham ennobles his own family--Villiers becomes Lord
Purbeck--Purbeck and the Countess of Buckingham become
Catholics--Rumours that Purbeck is insane 64

CHAPTER VIII.
The insanity question--Quite sane--Thought insane again--Letter from
Lady Purbeck to Buckingham--Birth of Robert Wright--Sir Robert
Howard 74

CHAPTER IX.
Proceedings instituted against Sir Robert Howard and Lady
Purbeck--Buckingham's correspondence about them with his
lawyers--Lanier, the King's musician--Buckingham accuses Lady
Purbeck of witchcraft--Dr. Lambe--Laud and witchcraft 83

CHAPTER X.
Trial of Lady Purbeck before the High Commission--The
sentence--Archbishop Laud--The Ambassador of
Savoy--Escape--Clun--Some of our other characters--Lady Purbeck
goes to Stoke Pogis to take care of her father--Death of Coke 102

CHAPTER XI.
Lady Purbeck goes to London--Laud--Arrest of Lady Purbeck and Sir
Robert Howard--Question of her virtue at that time--Lord
Danby--Guernsey--Paris--Sir Robert Howard turns the tables on
Laud--Changes of religion 114

CHAPTER XII.
Lady Purbeck in Paris--The English Ambassador--Serving a writ--Lady
Purbeck at a convent--Sir Kenelm Digby--His letter about Lady
Purbeck--Lady Purbeck returns to England 125

CHAPTER XIII.
Lord Purbeck takes Lady Purbeck back again as his wife--He
acknowledges Robert Wright as his own son--Death of Lady
Purbeck--Retrospect of her life and character--Her descendants--Claims
to the title of Viscount Purbeck 137

CHAPTER I.
"After this alliance, Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep,
And every creature couple with its foe." DRYDEN.
The political air of England was highly charged with electricity. Queen
Elizabeth, after quarrelling with her lover, the Earl of Essex, had boxed
his ears severely and told him to "go to the devil;" whereupon he had
left the room in a rage, loudly exclaiming that he would not have
brooked such an insult from her father, and that much less would