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 he tolerate it from a king in petticoats.
This well-known incident is only mentioned to give an idea of the period of English history at which the following story makes its start. It is not, however, with public, but with private life that we are to be here concerned; nor is it in the Court of the Queen, but in the humbler home of