Monday 10 June 1661
Early to my Lord’s, who privately told me how the King had made him Embassador in the bringing over the Queen. That he is to go to Algier, &c., to settle the business, and to put the fleet in order there; and so to come back to Lisbone with three ships, and there to meet the fleet that is to follow him.
He sent for me, to tell me that he do intrust me with the seeing of all things done in his absence as to this great preparation, as I shall receive orders from my Lord Chancellor and Mr. Edward Montagu. At all which my heart is above measure glad; for my Lord’s honour, and some profit to myself, I hope.
By and by, out with Mr. Shepley, Walden, Parliament-man for Huntingdon, Rolt, Mackworth, and Alderman Backwell, to a house hard by, to drink Lambeth ale. So I back to the Wardrobe, and there found my Lord going to Trinity House, this being the solemn day of choosing Master, and my Lord is chosen, so he dines there to-day.
I staid and dined with my Lady; but after we were set, comes in some persons of condition, and so the children and I rose and dined by ourselves, all the children and I, and were very merry and they mighty fond of me. Then to the office, and there sat awhile. So home and at night to bed, where we lay in Sir R. Slingsby’s lodgings in the dining room there in one green bed, my house being now in its last work of painting and whiting.
31 Annotations
First Reading
daniel • Link
this is fascinating to see our hard-working ambitious Sam sequestered to the "childrens' table"! Likewise that he seemed to have a good time with the tykes! perhaps after being entrusted with the important news of the day he didn't mind relaxing and not standing on ceremony in the presence or those "persons of condition".
Australian Susan • Link
Wouldn't it have been wonderful if Sam had had children - we would have learned so much about raising children at that time (one can be sure Sam would have recounted all the problems in his diary!), and he is obviously fond of children.
vicente • Link
so wonderfully honest."...At all which my heart is above measure glad; for my Lord's honour, and some profit to myself, I hope…” love “I hope” so…
vicente • Link
Note the the Political climate. This Day Arundel and party did
"Petition of Roman Catholics, about them....
do at length presume to implore the Favour of this Honourable House, towards the procuring them some Ease and Relief in their sad Condition..."
From: British History Online
Source: House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 10 June 1661. House of Lords Journal Volume 11, ().
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Date: 11/06/2004
Copyright 2003 University of London & History of Parliament Trust
Paul Chapin • Link
Mr. Edward Montagu
In the context, this cannot refer to Sandwich, contrary to the current link. Presumably it is the Edward Mountagu who is the 2nd Earl of Manchester, who was closely involved in the match with Catherine (see annotations on him in "People").
Sjoerd • Link
The entry seems to be quite clear about this, Paul ? Maybe Hilda Lewis was confused ?
Pedro. • Link
Too many Edwards.
Sam's Lord is entrusted to bring over the new Queen.
Hilda Lewis says that when the Portuguese Ambassador was first instructed to check out the possibility of an arrangement, he first approached Edward Montagu, who was the Lord Chamberlain (Lord Manchester), and consequently close to Chas. He and the Lord Chancellor (Hyde) were the persons closest to the King, and it was mainly with them that he discussed the pro's and con's.
David A. Smith • Link
"glad; for my Lord's honour, and some profit to myself, I hope”
I’m with Vicente: refreshingly honest in so many ways, even down to his parenthetical ‘I hope.’
A. De Araujo • Link
"all the Children and I" I think SP sometimes acts and behaves like a big Child himself;as far as having Children he never mentions wanting a
child; anyway they could have adopted; I am sure there were many Foundlings at the time.
daniel • Link
"children"
in a latter entry at a "gossips dinner" a sort of party after a christening, Sam and his wife seem comfortably resigned to remaining childless, even making jokes about it. i wonder what he feels at this stage.
JWB • Link
Kids
He could have taken his brother Tom's daughter at Tom's death. Tomalin counted it a moral failing that he did not.
JWB • Link
Foreshadow
"I staid and dined with my Lady; but after we were set, comes in some persons of condition, and so the children and I rose and dined by ourselves, all the children and I, and were very merry and they mighty fond of me." This foreshadows the coming 11 mos. of Montagu's absence. Sam'll be in loco pater familias. Again, I think there is more art to this diary than just the posting of daily events.
David A. Smith • Link
"all the children and I, and were very merry"
Throughout this diary, as indeed in most Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Restoration comedy (especially but not exclusively), I continue to be struck by how *their* conception of acceptable adult behavior seems to us childish: the bets, the games, the masques, the festivities, the slap-and-tickle, the drinking contests, the balcony leaps, the duels ....
Are we more mature than they? Or have we, in our Anglo-Saxon sang-froid (only French allows such a word), become less human, less connected? To the point where psychiatrists have to *remind* us (well, some of us, anyhow) to 'get in touch with our inner child'?
Mary McIntyre • Link
David, guess you don't know the 40ish guys I know. A night of foolishness @ the local drinking hole, then pick-up hockey in the parking lot w/a squashed beer can. O wait -- maybe that's just my brothers...
Mary • Link
General merriment.
By and large (discounting occasional visits to the theatre or to one of the annual fairs) people had to make their own fun. This might mean musical soirees, a good gossip, general conversation and, indeed, acting the fool from time to time. Domestic comedy was not available at the touch of a TV button; you didn't sit and watch it, you made it for yourself.
vicente • Link
We are so afraid to lose "face"[and expose the person inside] except when we have used natures supplements to adle the mind, or the alternatively, talk to ones own diary.
Rex Gordon • Link
" ... all the children ..."
Perhaps their seeming more childlike is due to the fact that people entered into "adulthood" at a much earlier age than we do. When we read of girls put into domestic service or boys apprenticed to tradesmen, we're reading about people taking up their life's work at ten or eleven, or even younger ages among the poor. Even the aristocratic generals at the head of armies were often in their twenties. And life expectancy was short. "Few people lived to seventy and those who did were considered to be very old. In the 17th century when no more than about 5 per cent of the population was over sixty, life expectancy at birth was probably no more than twenty-two or twenty-three." (C. Hibbert, "The English: A Social History", p. 386) Maybe because the greater part of society was quite young, their enjoyments were those of youth. (At this point in the diary Sam isn't yet thirty.)
helena murphy • Link
I believe that formal social interaction,such as we know today, was a much later development,probably coming of age in the very early 19th century. Spontaneous singing,dancing,storytelling,poetic recital, and dramatice action were all part of social discourse in the 17th and 18th centuries. Interestingly enouogh,such behavioural social patterns existed in rural Ireland up to relatively recent times.
helena murphy • Link
The role of Mr Symonds, the dancing master, who goes to sea with Sandwich is among other things probably to teach the court dances of the Portuguese royal court to Sandwich and his entourage, as well as bringing the steps and music back to England. Such matters as these are of diplomatic significance in their own way and must not be under rated.
A. Hamilton • Link
He sent for me, to tell me that he do intrust me with the seeing of all things done in his absence as to this great preparation
Ah, the prototype of a familar figure in modern politics, the advance man. I've just returned from Ronald Reagan's funeral at Washington National Cathedral, where I sat not ten feet from Prime Minister Blair and his wife, and about five rows behind the honorary pall bearers, many of whom were once Reagan's young Sam Pepyses. I was there courtesy of my niece's fiance, a young man of about Sam's age at this time, whose boss, formerly an advance man for President Reagan, had entrusted him with a large part of organizing the seating. From where I sat, one could see the faces of Prince Charles, former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney & wife, Baroness Thatcher (veiled), a rather plump Mikhail Gorbachev, Nancy Reagan, former President Carter, Clinton and Bush senior, as well as the current president and Laura. It was like some of the scenes Sam reports on. He would have felt right at home.
Pedro. • Link
That he is to go to Algier, &c., to settle the business, and to put the fleet in order there;
Many sources say that the first thing Charles did, after the Marriage Certificate was signed, was to make arrangements to take over Tangier. Less say that it was the first thing he did after he decided to marry Catherine. From Sam's Diary, and all the preparations that have gone on lately, it is probable that the latter is true.
There must have been talk about the purpose of this fleet in the Admiralty, but why has Sam not mentioned this before?
vicente • Link
Discussions:They just trickle down as required:[at this time he[Sam] was not in the main loop yet{as the saying goes}] The fleet was disbanding except for those required for defending commerce and those needed for retrieving captured VIP's from those pesky pirates of the Mediterranean. Now lop off three boats for the side issue of sailing up the Tagu, that happened to be returning from their tour of duty. The fleet needed a local port for stocking and refitting, And this treaty in the making was a Saviour for the navies future [they Hoped]
Josh • Link
"glad; for my Lord's honour, and some profit to myself, I hope" &c.
Come on, boys and girls, let’s be as honest as Sam! My Lord “do intrust me with the seeing of all things done in his absence as to this great preparation, as I shall receive orders from my Lord Chancellor and Mr. Edward Montagu”—-this is a hell of a lot of work, and difficult people to please, and who among us would be willing to do it gratis? The line forms to the right.
Paul Chapin • Link
Clarification re Edward Montagu
I don't normally repeat myself on the anno page, but I think my point above was misunderstood. It is a matter of grammar, not history. "My lord", i.e. Sandwich, tells Sam that he is to take orders from two people, the Lord Chancellor and Mr. Edward Montagu. He could not have been referring to himself; if he had been, the sentence would have been phrased differently. Therefore the Mr. Edward Montagu referred to must be a different person, probably Manchester.
Second Reading
Sasha Clarkson • Link
Which Edward Montagu?
I am convinced that this is "Ned", son of Baron Montagu of Boughton, not Manchester. See my annotation for June 14th.
Gerald Berg • Link
"persons of condition" !? What, a group of pregnant women getting together? That's the only condition I now know. Well, one other sort. I always did love the Kenny Rogers line: 'Just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.'
I know exactly what he means.
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘ . . 10. c. person of condition n. arch. a person of position, rank, or ‘quality’.
1673 tr. A. de Courtin Rules Civility (ed. 2) viii. 84 If we meet any person of condition in the street..we must always give him the Wall.
. . 1780 E. Burke Speech Econ. Reform in Wks. (1842) I. 248 Men of condition naturally love to be about a court; and women of condition love it much more.
1823 Scott Peveril I. viii. 218 Such satisfaction as is due from one gentleman of condition to another.
1859 P. Beaton Creoles & Coolies iii. 108 There were about..one hundred women of condition in the colony.’
Terry Foreman • Link
"Early to my Lord’s, who privately told me how the King had made him Embassador in the bringing over the Queen. That he is to go to Algier, &c., to settle the business, and to put the fleet in order there; and so to come back to Lisbone with three ships, and there to meet the fleet that is to follow him."
Sandwich had been given command of the fleet on 10 May, and was later made ambassador-extraordinary. The treaty arranging the marriage between Charles II and Catherine of Braganza was signed on 23 June, and Sandwich's instruction in that matter (based on art iv of the treaty) are in Carte MSS Bodleian Library, 74, f.449r. His instructions with regard to Algiers were to conclude a treaty for free passage of ships, and failing that to attack the town: ib. fff. 388-9 (printed in Sandwich, pp. 288-90). in the event, he made an abortive attack in August, (L&M note)
Terry Foreman • Link
I have been unable to find online a copy of the "treaty arranging the marriage between Charles II and Catherine of Braganza" but there is this sketch of what it did -- though not of its articles:
The Marriage Treaty or the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty was a treaty of alliance agreed between the Kingdom of England and Portugal in 1661. It led to the marriage of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of John IV of Portugal. The pact renewed the traditional Anglo-Portuguese Alliance between the countries. It was a marriage of state, common in the era. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar…
Terry Foreman • Link
Instructions for Edward, Earl of Sandwich, our Vice-Admiral of England, Admiral & Commander-in-Chief of our Fleet now employed for the Mediterranean Sea &c.
Date: Undated [1661?]
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 74, fol(s). 449-450
Document type: Draft; with corrections
The Admiral is ordered to proceed to the Bay of Algiers; and if possible, to conclude a treaty for peaceful & secure traffic on assured terms; failing that, he is to declare open & immediate hostilities and to take or destroy all ships belonging to that Government or to its Subjects. http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Terry Foreman • Link
"So I back to the Wardrobe, and there found my Lord going to Trinity House, this being the solemn day of choosing Master, and my Lord is chosen"
L&M: He succeeded Albemarle and served for the usual term of one year.