Monday 1 August 1664

Up, my mind very light from my last night’s accounts, and so up and with Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, and Sir W. Pen to St. James’s, where among other things having prepared with some industry every man a part this morning and no sooner (for fear they should either consider of it or discourse of it one to another) Mr. Coventry did move the Duke and obtain it that one of the clerkes of the Clerke of the Acts should have an addition of 30l. a year, as Mr. Turner hath, which I am glad of, that I may give T. Hater 20l. and keep 10l. towards a boy’s keeping.

Thence Mr. Coventry and I to the Attorney’s chamber at the Temple, but not being there we parted, and I home, and there with great joy told T. Hater what I had done, with which the poor wretch was very glad, though his modesty would not suffer him to say much.

So to the Coffee-house, and there all the house full of the victory Generall Soushe1 (who is a Frenchman, a soldier of fortune, commanding part of the German army) hath had against the Turke; killing 4,000 men, and taking most extraordinary spoil. Thence taking up Harman and his wife, carried them to Anthony Joyce’s, where we had my venison in a pasty well done; but, Lord! to see how much they made of it, as if they had never eat any before, and very merry we were, but Will most troublesomely so, and I find he and his wife have a most wretched life one with another, but we took no notice, but were very merry as I could be in such company. But Mrs. Harman is a very pretty-humoured wretch, whom I could love with all my heart, being so good and innocent company. Thence to Westminster to Mr. Blagrave’s, and there, after singing a thing or two over, I spoke to him about a woman for my wife, and he offered me his kinswoman, which I was glad of, but she is not at present well, but however I hope to have her. Thence to my Lord Chancellor’s, and thence with Mr. Coventry, who appointed to meet me there, and with him to the Attorney General, and there with Sir Ph. Warwicke consulted of a new commission to be had through the Broad Seale to enable us to make this contract for Tangier victualling. So home, and there talked long with Will about the young woman of his family which he spoke of for to live with my wife, but though she hath very many good qualitys, yet being a neighbour’s child and young and not very staid, I dare not venture of having her, because of her being able to spread any report of our family upon any discontent among the heart of our neighbours.

So that my dependance is upon Mr. Blagrave, and so home to supper and to bed.

Last night, at 12 o’clock, I was waked with knocking at Sir W. Pen’s door; and what was it but people’s running up and down to bring him word that his brother, who hath been a good while, it seems, sicke, is dead.


21 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Mr Coventry did move the Duke and obtain it that one of the clerkes of the Clerke of the Acts should have an addition of 30l. a year, as Mr. Turner hath, which I am glad of, that I may give T. Hater 20l. and keep 10l. towards a boy's keeping. Thence Mr. Coventry and I to the Attorney's chamber at the Temple, but not being there we parted, and I home, and there with great joy told T. Hater what I had done, with which the poor wretch was very glad..."

Glad to be cheated out of 10Ls? I know, lucky to get any of it, others would have done him far worse...

***
General Soushe the French mercenary, eh?... Balty's big chance...If he ever left England.

***

Cumsalisgrano  •  Link

I luv it "...there with great joy told T. Hater what I had done, with which the poor wretch was very glad, though his modesty would not suffer him to say much. So ..."

cape henry  •  Link

"...killing 4,000 men, and taking most extraordinary spoil. Thence taking up Harman and his wife, carried them to Anthony Joyce's..." I hope I can be forgiven wondering for an odd moment why Generall Soushe would be taking the Harmans to the Joyce's.

cape henry  •  Link

The encyclopedia informs us that George Penn had at some point been a guest of that fun-loving group, the Holy Office.

djc  •  Link

"but Will most troublesomely so" The Will' referred to here should be William Joyce

Terry F  •  Link

Memorial of the Case of James Lincoln, Matthew Everard, and others
Written from: S. Malo

Date: 1 August 1664

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 33, fol(s). 587
Document type: Original [with eight signatures]

Memorial of the Case of James Lincoln, Matthew Everard, and others, in relation to their proposals for setting forth [Privateer] Frigates, "for the King's Service", in the event of the "breaking out of War between his Majesty & the Hollanders".

Addressed to Sir Nicholas Plunkett, "one of the Agents, for the affairs of Ireland".
------------------------
Subjoined 1

Certificate by Lord Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond that Matthew Everard, James Lincoln, and other persons, herein named, submitted to the Peace of 1648 in Ireland
Written from: Dublin

Date: 6 April 1661

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 33, fol(s). 589
Document type: Original
----------------
Subjoined 1

Notification [or, "Form of Notification", as solicited?] of the King's approval of the Propositions above-described. With a list of persons [to be furnished with Letters of Marque, under circumstances stated].

Date:

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 33, fol(s). 591
Document type: Copy http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Terry F  •  Link

William Coventry to Sandwich

Date: 1 August 1664

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 75, fol(s). 195
Document type: Holograph

Will give the instructions desired in Lord Sandwich's letters as to the provisioning and armament of certain ships specified. Adds: "I am apt to think the Dutch intended nothing in setting out their Fleet but to secure their E. India ships; and the rest only for a bravado". The writer has spoken with H. R. H. the Lord Admiral as to the establishment of a correspondence with Sir George Downing. It is thought that this may best be done by sending a confidential agent to Scheveling.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Cumsalisgrano  •  Link


August first, the "...The Battle of Saint Gotthard (Hungarian: Szentgotthárd) was fought on August 1, 1664 between an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli and an Ottoman army under the command of Ahmed Köprülü. The battle took place at Szentgotthárd in Western Hungary, near the present-day Austro-Hungarian border. The Turks were militarily defeated but were able to negotiate the Peace of Vasvár, which was highly favorable to them.
exithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Vas approx 200 miles Due east of Graz

Now, in 1664, Montecuccoli repeated his tactics of continuous retreat and even gave up Zerinvár, humiliating Zrínyi, whose successes made him jealous. At last Grandvizier Köprili forced Montecuccoli to fight near St. Gotthard at the Austrian frontier, after the general had given the Turks a "free ride" across Hungary. The battle at St. Gotthard was won by the Christians, chiefly through the brave attacks of 6,000 French troops led by La Feuillade and Coligny and the German troops led by Waldeck. Montecuccoli, however, failed to exploit the victory by not pursuing the beaten enemy.

http://www.iearn.hu/balkans/bpeop…

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"his brother"
Some information on George Penn can be found at The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol XX.

Cumsalisgrano  •  Link

St Gotthard [??] there be a dearth of info to this battle and Location.

a]
Coligny-Saligny? battle of; Kormend be at junct E65 and E66

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en…

there be churches St Gotthard but no Leva
Monošter Szigetvár Hungary - Szentgotthárd

Need a Austrian/Hungarian expert to fill some details of this little event that prevented the take over of Austria and its Allies, like France.
The Catholic -Protestant Moslem conflict be there, 30 years of strife.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

"...victory against the Turke; ..."

Per L&M; "Louis Ratuit, Comte de Souches, had just won the battle of Lewencz, in Hungary, on 9/19 July. The news had appeared in 'The Intelligencer' published this day (pp. 494-6), but the number of killed was there given as 'above 6,000.' Cf. A true and perfect relation of the battail and victory lately obtained near Lewentz against twenty five thousand Turks, Tartars and Moldovians' (1664)."

and refers back to an earlier note, iv, 316, Sept. 23 1663:-
"From June (1663) onwards a large Turkish army under Ahmed Kiuprili operating from Turkish territory in E. Hungary overran Transylvania and parts of W. Hungary. It now threatened Austria ('Germany') The diet at Ratisborn ordered prayers to be offered at midday every day for the protection of the Empire. This advance of the Turks - for the first time in a hundred years - made a profound impression on W. Europe. Even Hamburg and the Hanse Towns felt the alarm ... Pepys (in common with the English newspapers of the time) gives a fair amount of attention to these events. The dangers did not pass until the Turk's defeat St St. Gotthard (W. Hungary) in August 1664.

andy  •  Link

It's that raven-heared Mrs Harman again (see 26 July).

Gerry  •  Link

"and there with great joy told T. Hater what I had done, with which the poor wretch was very glad, though his modesty would not suffer him to say much".So thinks Sam but maybe the guy is just biting his tongue afraid of an outburst about being ripped off.

Terry F  •  Link

"having prepared with some industry every man a part this morning and no sooner (for fear they should either consider of it or discourse of it one to another)"

What an interesting, Tolstoian conjecture on Pepys's part! Did the presentations seem 11th-hour? and the rationale for this that he proposes. Was the proposal by Mr. Coventry so surprising? others spur-of-the-moment?

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"I hope I can be forgiven wondering for an odd moment why Generall Soushe would be taking the Harmans to the Joyce's."
I'm not sure if cape henry is serious here, or just twitting Sam for some slapdash prose. But of course it was talk of the general and his victory that the Coffee-house was full of, not the good general himself.

Terry F  •  Link

After the Truce of Vasvár (spoilers -- but no surprises: c'est Louis XIV)

"This treaty formally divided Hungary, which, though nominally a Habsburg principality, had long enjoyed semi-independence as a border region between the two great powers. When the Turks renewed the war in 1683 with an army of 200,000 men, the Hungarians, preferring the Ottoman yoke to what they have seen of the Habsburg, joined forces with the invaders. The Turks were also assisted by Louis XIV, who saw the attack as a welcome opportunity to divert Leopold's attention from his own aggression on the Rhine, though he temporarily suspended aid as a gesture to European public opinion when the Turks stormed up to the very gates of Vienna, subjecting it to a two month siege."
http://hungarian-history.hu/lib/h…

Kevin Peter  •  Link

I wonder what about the life of Will and his wife prompted Sam to label it "wretched". I'm guessing they weren't very well off economically, but it could have had something to do with their relationship with each other.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"a new commission to be had through the Broad Seale to enable us to make this contract for Tangier victualling."

broad seal

The public seal of a nation, especially the British Great Seal of the Realm.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/br…

The Great Seal of the Realm or Great Seal of the United Kingdom (known prior to the Treaty of Union of 1707 as the Great Seal of England;...a seal that is used to symbolise the Sovereign's approval of important state documents.

Sealing wax is melted in a metal mould or matrix and impressed into a wax figure that is attached by cord or ribbon to documents that the Monarch wishes to make official. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gre…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

""Mr Coventry did move the Duke and obtain it that one of the clerkes of the Clerke of the Acts should have an addition of 30l. a year, as Mr. Turner hath"

Thomas Turner (as chief clerk) had been given an extra allowance in 1660:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… A Council order in Pepys's favour for an additional £30 p.a. was issued on 3 August, and in consequence Tom Edwards began to work for him on 27 August.
(Per L&M footnote)

Methinks the "£10 toward a boy's keeping" would be good news to Hayter, who might by a "boy" be relieved of errands and other minor chores. He has been so tasked because he has Pepys's trust, which the new boy will have to earn.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

To clarify: there have been errands Hayter had done, e.g. delivering and fetching letters and other documents, that required observing security.

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.