Thomas Hobbes (1588 -1679) -- quotes from his writings:
"The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof."
‘Anxiety for the future time, disposeth men to enquire into the causes of things.’
“… they that are discontented under monarchy, call it tyranny; and they that are displeased with aristocracy, call it oligarchy; so also, they which find themselves grieved under a democracy, call it anarchy, which signifies the want of government; and yet I think no man believes, that want of government, is any new kind of government.”
"Riches, knowledge and honor are but several sorts of power."
"God put me on this Earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I'll never die."
"No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
“I obtained two absolutely certain postulates of human nature, one, the postulate of human greed by which each man insists upon his own private use of common property; the other, the postulate of natural reason, by which each man strives to avoid violent death.”
“Hell is truth seen too late."
“Every man ought to endeavor peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it, and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war.”
“That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far-forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things, and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.”
“… there is scarce a commonwealth in the world whose beginnings can in conscience be justified.”
“For what is it to divide the power of a commonwealth, but to dissolve it; for powers divided mutually destroy each other?”
"The universe is corporeal; all that is real is material, and what is not material is not real."
“The condition of man ... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone”
'Other writings were not made public until after his death, including Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England and of the Counsels and Artifices by which they were carried on from the year 1640 to the year 1662.'
In 1668 Hobbes was trying to get BEHEMOTH approved ... one of his thoughts from that book: “The Universities have been to the nation, as the wooden horse was to the Trojans.” -- Thomas Hobbes (1588 -1679) – from “Behemoth” where he argued that Oxford and Cambridge were the core of the rebellion in the recent civil wars.'
Too much education is a bad thing? Free thinking leads to arguments? Educated people want to be King? This one doesn't fly for me, Mr. Hobbes. How about the King wasn't as educated as his servants, and they got ahead of him (pun intended).
The problems created by the months of delay on approving a new victualling contract were very real:
Sept. 3, 1668 Sir Wm. Coventry to the Navy Commissioners.
You will perceive by the enclosed what interpretation is put upon the delay of the articles, and the preparations in your hands for the new contract for victualling.
An advertisement very like this has been given by another hand to another Treasury Commissioner. [S.P. Dom., Car. II. 245, No. 164 ]
Encloses,
Dodington to Sir Wm. Coventry.
The Navy Commissioners have not yet delivered any further articles, as ordered and promised; the season wastes, and if some conclusion be not made before next week, it will be impossible for any new contractors to undertake it, and it must remain in the present hands, or be put to commission.
I cannot meddle in it unless some speedy course be taken; I wish there may be no practice between those their lordships employ, and some of the competitors, of which I and my partners are more than jealous . [S.P. Dom., Car. II. 245, No. 1641.]
“The world is my oyster” – from The Merry Wives of Windsor: This phrase has changed meaning over the centuries. It was originally spoken by the character Pistol: “Why then, the world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open.” In the context of the play, it has a violent connotation, as Pistol intends to forcibly open the metaphorical oyster to obtain money. These days we use it to indicate all is possible.
Thanks for the work-around, Stephane. It is a lot more work, but better than nothing!
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Actually, it was Pepys' brother-in-law wanting his back pay for himself AND HIS SERVANT ... Balty has gone up in the world:
Sept. 1. 1668 B. St.Michel to Sam. Pepys. Deal
Has done nothing in the musters. Sir Jer. Smith and others, with several boats' crews being absent at Dover to wait on the Duke, who was sworn today at the Devil's Drop.
The Kingfisher arrived laden with tobacco, bound for London.
Wants a bill for his salary as deputy treasurer for 13 months, and for his servant's salary. [S.P. Dom., Cur. II. 245, No. 148.] --- Since the content is sandwiched together, it's hard to tell if the absence of Sir Jeremy Smith and his crews accounts for Balty not doing the musters (head counts needed to justify pay). Since it's the beginning of the month it makes sense that a count would be expected by the Pay Office, and so Balty is explaining why his will be late this month ... along with nudging for his own back pay.
Cavalier King Charles spaniels: The especially large number of potentially harmful genes in the genomes of cavalier King Charles spaniels, compared to other dogs, likely resulted from its breeding history. Records suggest that small spaniel-type dogs have existed for at least 1,000 years and were popular at royal courts for several hundred years throughout Asia and Europe, including at the court of King Charles II (1630-1685). These spaniels experienced several "bottlenecks" where only a small percentage of the population passed on their genes to the next generation. The bottlenecks may have made the harmful genes more common in the cavalier King Charles spaniel genome before the dog achieved recognition as a breed in 1945.
On 10 September, the Privy Council issued a proclamation for a day of humiliation during which collections would be made for the poor. Having overcome the immediate danger of the fire, minds now turned to the need to appease an apparently wrathful God. The Council also expressed an understandable concern over the amount of gunpowder held in private hands, ordering any within ten miles of the City or the King’s ship yards to be brought into royal stores for safekeeping.
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The final entry relating to the fire made in the register during September 1666 gives an indication of the losses suffered by some individuals. Captain John Wadlow stated he had lost 100 tunns (casks) of Spanish and French wines as well as his greatly valuable household goods. He appears to have been unable to empty his house in the face of the oncoming flames as it was requisitioned by the Duke of York and Privy Councillors and the streets around were blocked with timber. Although he pointed out that he had paid significant amounts in customs, including one payment of £1,000 that year, he did not ask for compensation, but merely permission to import further casks of wine which he held in Flanders.
The aftermath of the fire continued to feature regularly in the Privy Council’s business for many months, and years, as plans to rebuild the City took shape.
On September 6 the Privy Council met again and turned its attention to the people affected, ordering that the charitable hospitals and companies destroyed by ‘the suddain & lamentable accident of this violent Fire’ should ensure that their almspeople and pensioners ‘now exposed to the saddest Condicion immaginable & in danger to perish with hunger and Cold’ were provided with food and housing.
Next the Council addressed the water engines, buckets and fire hooks owned by the City which had been abandoned everywhere. They ordered them collected and repaired, and the roadway over London Bridge cleared to allow for the delivery of provisions to the City.
The fear the fire could reignite and threaten the rest of London and Westminster was caused by the areas which were still smouldering. The Deputy Lieutenants and JPs were therefore ordered to supply 200 able-bodied men, together with tools and food, at Temple Bar at 17:00, ready to prevent ‘the further fury of the rageing Element’.
The Victualler of the Navy was required to provide biscuits, butter and cheese to the men working on extinguishing the fire. The order includes details of the areas which were still at risk, all west of the City – from Temple Bar via the Rolls Garden to Holborn Bridge.
Next the Privy Council addressed a major source of royal revenue: the Customs House had been burned down, so an alternative venue for the payment of this tax had to be identified. (It took 20 days for the Council to be as concerned about the law courts, perhaps because the Michaelmas law term starts in October.)
The Lord Mayor was told to focus on relieving the poor and on removing them ‘out of the open Fields into such Covert & shelter, as the Suburbs & the remayning part of the City will afford, so to prevent their utter ruine & destruction’. A common theme in these orders is that existing systems of poor relief were to be used; there was no contribution from the king’s revenue. Churchwardens and parish officers were asked to care for those lying in the fields, particularly women about to give birth and the sick, using vacant houses, then inns and places of public entertainment and, once those were full, resorting to private homes. Those able to pay for their lodgings were required to do so.
The Privy Council then addressed the risk posed by a subsequent fire. Those people living next to the Tower of London, who were probably breathing a sigh of relief at having avoided destruction by fire, must have been dismayed to learn of the Council order to demolish their homes in order to protect the Tower. Affected inhabitants successfully petitioned for time to remove their houses and goods.
The Great Fire, which was officially extinguished on September 5, 1666, not only destroyed the homes and livelihoods of thousands of people, but was also a significant threat to the government, destroying law courts, sources of taxation, and risking the defensive symbol of the nation itself, the Tower of London.
On 5 September, the Privy Council, with Charles II present, met for the first time since the outbreak. Their first concern did not relate to the City of London, or its inhabitants. Instead, they wanted to protect the records of Parliament, despite the fact they were over a mile away from the blaze. They ordered the demolition of house of the Clerk of Parliament, which adjoined where the records were kept, in the case of imminent danger from fire and the windows closed up with earth.
Yew trees are very significant in Britain: yes, this is a bit off topic, but interesting nevertheless:
For a long time people wondered why it’s so common to find Yew trees growing in British church yards. We now know that the relationship is the reverse: churches were built next to Yew trees.
The Ancient Britains were obsessed with the cycle of life and death. Yews are not only evergreens, but seem to live forever, typically 2,000 years, with some documented as living twice as long. Consequently, ground capable of supporting a tree that lives forever was seen as magical.
There are other Yew properties that concern people: Drooping branches of old yew trees can root and form new trunks where they touch the ground -- the circle of life again. Every part of the Yew is toxic, even the sawdust. The falling toxic needles and thick shade will kill other plants trying to grow beneath it. We know Shakespeare was familiar with these qualities when he had Macbeth concoct a poisonous brew. The deadly drink included “slips of yew, silvered in the moon’s eclipse”.
Also, and most importantly, the Yew is the best material to make that most deadly weapon - the Long Bow. The Scots also used Yew Long Bows: Robert the Bruce ordered bows to be made from the sacred yews at Ardchattan Priory in Argyll. These were used at the Scots’ victorious battle at Bannockburn in 1314.
So when missionaries were trying to introduce the new Christian Religion, where better to "plant" a church than on ground already considered sacred by the natives, and deeply symbolic of the circle of life?
CORRECTION: Hobbes wrote a letter to William Cavendish, 4th Earl of Devonshire in 1641 ... should be "Hobbes wrote a letter to William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire ..."
I know it's confusing, but there really were two William Cavendishes, one an Earl and the other a Marquess, at the same time, and they both knew Thomas Hobbes.
In 1645 in Paris, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle hosted a dinner which turned into a debate which lasted years between Dr. John Bramhall, Bishop of Derry and Thomas Hobbes.
Newcastle had been governor to Charles, Prince of Wales from 1638 to 1641; Newcastle’s friend, Thomas Hobbes had been the Prince's mathematics tutor from 1646 to 1648. Newcastle was privy counsellor to Charles II in the early 1650s; and on the eve of the Restoration he wrote a long letter of advice to the king, so we know Newcastle conducted a decades-long campaign to shape Charles II’s ideas.
"Newcastle has traditionally been considered the greatest single influence upon Charles II’s personality." -- Ronald Hutton, Charles the Second: King of England, Scotland and Ireland (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 2.
During the Hobbes-Bramhall "debate", Hobbes insisted in more than one published writings that he was opposed only to Episcopacy jure divino; that is, that he had never had any qualms with Episcopacy, so long as it was by the civil sovereign’s authority (jure civili).
For example, in the dedication of Problemata Physica (1662), an epistle addressed to Charles II, Hobbes claimed that in LEVIATHAN (1651) he had written ‘nihil ... contra episcopatum’ (‘nothing ... against episcopacy’).5 5 Problemata Physica, OL, iv, 302; trans. as ‘Seven Philosophical Problems’ (1682), EW, vii, 5.
However much one would like to credit this claim, there is no denying that Hobbes wrote a letter to William Cavendish, 4th Earl of Devonshire in 1641 in which he condoned the replacement of an Episcopal by a quasi-Presbyterian church organization of lay commissioners. Twenty years later, had he changed his mind?
Hobbes argued in LEVIATHAN, the fear had often been, and could still be, exploited by clergy to make subjects disobey the civil sovereign. The civil sovereign might be able to command subjects to disobey the ecclesiastic on pain of imprisonment or death, but the ecclesiastic could command subjects to disobey the civil sovereign on pain of damnation. This gave the clergy more power over subjects.
By denying the clergy of their divine right, Hobbes was denying them their power of determining damnation. By reducing clergy civil officials to be like all other officials (e.g., JPs, lords lieutenant), Hobbes deprived himself of the ability to complain that the ‘spiritual’ officers were invading or meddling in the ‘temporal’ sphere. Hobbes replied this distinction of spiritual–temporal was hocus-pocus, ‘to make men see double’. Lev., xxxix, 316.
From these brief descriptions of some of the issues involved in LEVIATHON and Hobbes' other works, you can see how he would upset the establishment. But Charles II knew the old man, and knew he was a Royalist ... a Royalist who wanted change.
"... and took coach home, and taking coach was set on by a wench that was naught, and would have gone along with me to her lodging in Shoe Lane, but ego did donner her a shilling and hazer her tocar mi cosa and left her, ..."
I trust you tipped the coachman a similar amount. The task of the see-nothing-hear-nothing taxicab driver and the hackney coachman is similar.
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It had to be a different Mrs. Martin ... but there is no other candidate. L&M no help with this quandry, so maybe Sam and Betty did bluff their way through a meal with Elizabeth and William Batelier this once. A conversation about how well Mr. Martin the purser's career was going could explain her attendance, especially as he had dined with the Pepyses on August 1. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
CURRENT EVENTS: Stuart Britain Lecture Series, Gresham College
Gresham College is running a free public lecture series, which covers European influences on culture under the Stuart Kings James I and Charles I, and then the cultural shock of the revolutionary decade of 1649-60 when Parliament ruled Britain. The lectures are hybrid - you can watch online or in person, or later (they stay up online) and include:
The Spanish Culture of Charles I's Court, Simon Thurley FSA, Provost of Gresham College In 1623, Charles I (as heir to the throne) made a secret and hazardous trip to Madrid to win the hand of a Spanish princess. For eight months he was the guest of the Spanish king, Philip IV, living in the Alcazar of Madrid. The opportunities to study art, architecture and court ceremonial made a profound impact on the 23-year-old Charles, and it influenced his own taste when two years later he inherited the thrones of England and Scotland.
Going Global: James I and the Wider World, Anna Whitelock From the mid-16th century, the Break with Rome, and latterly Queen Elizabeth’s war with Spain, had left England isolated, but with James VI’s accession and peace with Spain, all was to change. King James was determined to have a decisive role in European politics and the reunification of Christendom, and English trade moved beyond Europe to new international markets. The inhabitants of ‘Britain’ became some of the most well-travelled people of the age whose interests and religious loyalties were increasingly aligned with protestants in Europe.
Life in a Revolutionary Decade in Britain, Anna Keay This lecture explores the immense changes of the period through the personal experiences of prominent figures. It argues that, despite the failure of the republican project and the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the decade forged the British Isles and created the conditions for the commercial and colonial prosperity of the centuries that followed.
Date: 3 March 2022, 1pm Location: Barnard's Inn Hall, Online or Watch Later More information https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lecture… I BET THIS ONE INCLUDES LOTS OF INFORMATION PROVIDED BY PEPYS.
"This afternoon I had a letter from Mr. Creed, who hath escaped narrowly in the King’s yacht, and got safe to the Downs after the late storm; and that there the King do tell him, that he is sure that my Lord is landed at Callis safe, of which being glad, ..."
I note Pepys comments on his church attendence is about the content of the sermons, and occasionally the choir and/or music, but one aspect consistently eludes him: “He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.” — Rev. George Herbert MP (1593-1633)
The courage of all the seamen we meet in the Diary astounds me.
Sadly, all good things come to an end. I hadn't previously appreciated that our access to the illuminating letters was a pandemic gift from the British Library, giving us things to play with from home. Now they wants us to go back to work, so a pay wall has gone up. I'd like to express my gratitude to them for making the archives free and open during a truly awful year, as the correspondence helped me appreciate the misery and pain inflicted on the English people by the greed of the City of London who manipulated Charles II into starting the Second Anglo-Dutch War for no valid reason. It really is a cautionary tale for the ages.
There are many possible citations to back up my opinion; this one plus the annotations summarizes things fairly well: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
My L&M says: Sophia Stewart, a younger sister; later married to Henry Bulkeley, Master of the Horse.
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Bill is correct; Sophia Stewart was named for her mother.
The rule of thumb is that the royal family adopted the French spelling of Stewart in order to distinguish themselves from the rest of the clan. Considering Charles Stewart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox was a cousin, shows this "rule" was fluid -- or that he had no wish to be considered as wanting to be King.
Comments
Second Reading
About Hobbes' 'Leviathan'
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thomas Hobbes (1588 -1679) -- quotes from his writings:
"The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof."
‘Anxiety for the future time, disposeth men to enquire into the causes of things.’
“… they that are discontented under monarchy, call it tyranny; and they that are displeased with aristocracy, call it oligarchy; so also, they which find themselves grieved under a democracy, call it anarchy, which signifies the want of government; and yet I think no man believes, that want of government, is any new kind of government.”
"Riches, knowledge and honor are but several sorts of power."
"God put me on this Earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I'll never die."
"No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
“I obtained two absolutely certain postulates of human nature, one, the postulate of human greed by which each man insists upon his own private use of common property; the other, the postulate of natural reason, by which each man strives to avoid violent death.”
“Hell is truth seen too late."
“Every man ought to endeavor peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it, and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war.”
“That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far-forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things, and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.”
“… there is scarce a commonwealth in the world whose beginnings can in conscience be justified.”
“For what is it to divide the power of a commonwealth, but to dissolve it; for powers divided mutually destroy each other?”
"The universe is corporeal; all that is real is material, and what is not material is not real."
“The condition of man ... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone”
About Thursday 3 September 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
'Other writings were not made public until after his death, including Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England and of the Counsels and Artifices by which they were carried on from the year 1640 to the year 1662.'
In 1668 Hobbes was trying to get BEHEMOTH approved ... one of his thoughts from that book:
“The Universities have been to the nation, as the wooden horse was to the Trojans.” -- Thomas Hobbes (1588 -1679) – from “Behemoth” where he argued that Oxford and Cambridge were the core of the rebellion in the recent civil wars.'
Too much education is a bad thing?
Free thinking leads to arguments?
Educated people want to be King?
This one doesn't fly for me, Mr. Hobbes. How about the King wasn't as educated as his servants, and they got ahead of him (pun intended).
About Thursday 3 September 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
The problems created by the months of delay on approving a new victualling contract were very real:
Sept. 3, 1668
Sir Wm. Coventry to the Navy Commissioners.
You will perceive by the enclosed what interpretation is put upon the delay of the articles, and the preparations in your hands for the new contract for victualling.
An advertisement very like this has been given by another hand to another Treasury Commissioner.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 245, No. 164 ]
Encloses,
Dodington to Sir Wm. Coventry.
The Navy Commissioners have not yet delivered any further articles, as ordered and promised; the season wastes, and if some conclusion be not made before next week, it will be impossible for any new contractors to undertake it, and it must remain in the present hands, or be put to commission.
I cannot meddle in it unless some speedy course be taken; I wish there may be no practice between those their lordships employ, and some of the competitors, of which I and my partners are more than jealous .
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 245, No. 1641.]
https://play.google.com/books/rea…
PAGE 616-617
About Merry Wives of Windsor (William Shakespeare)
San Diego Sarah • Link
“The world is my oyster” – from The Merry Wives of Windsor:
This phrase has changed meaning over the centuries.
It was originally spoken by the character Pistol: “Why then, the world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open.”
In the context of the play, it has a violent connotation, as Pistol intends to forcibly open the metaphorical oyster to obtain money.
These days we use it to indicate all is possible.
About Tuesday 1 September 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thanks for the work-around, Stephane. It is a lot more work, but better than nothing!
@@@
Actually, it was Pepys' brother-in-law wanting his back pay for himself AND HIS SERVANT ... Balty has gone up in the world:
Sept. 1. 1668
B. St.Michel to Sam. Pepys.
Deal
Has done nothing in the musters.
Sir Jer. Smith and others, with several boats' crews being absent at Dover to wait on the Duke, who was sworn today at the Devil's Drop.
The Kingfisher arrived laden with tobacco, bound for London.
Wants a bill for his salary as deputy treasurer for 13 months, and for his servant's salary.
[S.P. Dom., Cur. II. 245, No. 148.]
---
Since the content is sandwiched together, it's hard to tell if the absence of Sir Jeremy Smith and his crews accounts for Balty not doing the musters (head counts needed to justify pay).
Since it's the beginning of the month it makes sense that a count would be expected by the Pay Office, and so Balty is explaining why his will be late this month ... along with nudging for his own back pay.
About Friday 25 May 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Cavalier King Charles spaniels:
The especially large number of potentially harmful genes in the genomes of cavalier King Charles spaniels, compared to other dogs, likely resulted from its breeding history.
Records suggest that small spaniel-type dogs have existed for at least 1,000 years and were popular at royal courts for several hundred years throughout Asia and Europe, including at the court of King Charles II (1630-1685).
These spaniels experienced several "bottlenecks" where only a small percentage of the population passed on their genes to the next generation.
The bottlenecks may have made the harmful genes more common in the cavalier King Charles spaniel genome before the dog achieved recognition as a breed in 1945.
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-r…
About Monday 10 September 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
On 10 September, the Privy Council issued a proclamation for a day of humiliation during which collections would be made for the poor.
Having overcome the immediate danger of the fire, minds now turned to the need to appease an apparently wrathful God.
The Council also expressed an understandable concern over the amount of gunpowder held in private hands, ordering any within ten miles of the City or the King’s ship yards to be brought into royal stores for safekeeping.
@@@
The final entry relating to the fire made in the register during September 1666 gives an indication of the losses suffered by some individuals.
Captain John Wadlow stated he had lost 100 tunns (casks) of Spanish and French wines as well as his greatly valuable household goods. He appears to have been unable to empty his house in the face of the oncoming flames as it was requisitioned by the Duke of York and Privy Councillors and the streets around were blocked with timber. Although he pointed out that he had paid significant amounts in customs, including one payment of £1,000 that year, he did not ask for compensation, but merely permission to import further casks of wine which he held in Flanders.
The aftermath of the fire continued to feature regularly in the Privy Council’s business for many months, and years, as plans to rebuild the City took shape.
For more information, see https://blog.nationalarchives.gov…
About Thursday 6 September 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
On September 6 the Privy Council met again and turned its attention to the people affected, ordering that the charitable hospitals and companies destroyed by ‘the suddain & lamentable accident of this violent Fire’ should ensure that their almspeople and pensioners ‘now exposed to the saddest Condicion immaginable & in danger to perish with hunger and Cold’ were provided with food and housing.
Next the Council addressed the water engines, buckets and fire hooks owned by the City which had been abandoned everywhere. They ordered them collected and repaired, and the roadway over London Bridge cleared to allow for the delivery of provisions to the City.
The fear the fire could reignite and threaten the rest of London and Westminster was caused by the areas which were still smouldering.
The Deputy Lieutenants and JPs were therefore ordered to supply 200 able-bodied men, together with tools and food, at Temple Bar at 17:00, ready to prevent ‘the further fury of the rageing Element’.
The Victualler of the Navy was required to provide biscuits, butter and cheese to the men working on extinguishing the fire. The order includes details of the areas which were still at risk, all west of the City – from Temple Bar via the Rolls Garden to Holborn Bridge.
Next the Privy Council addressed a major source of royal revenue: the Customs House had been burned down, so an alternative venue for the payment of this tax had to be identified.
(It took 20 days for the Council to be as concerned about the law courts, perhaps because the Michaelmas law term starts in October.)
The Lord Mayor was told to focus on relieving the poor and on removing them ‘out of the open Fields into such Covert & shelter, as the Suburbs & the remayning part of the City will afford, so to prevent their utter ruine & destruction’.
A common theme in these orders is that existing systems of poor relief were to be used; there was no contribution from the king’s revenue.
Churchwardens and parish officers were asked to care for those lying in the fields, particularly women about to give birth and the sick, using vacant houses, then inns and places of public entertainment and, once those were full, resorting to private homes.
Those able to pay for their lodgings were required to do so.
The Privy Council then addressed the risk posed by a subsequent fire.
Those people living next to the Tower of London, who were probably breathing a sigh of relief at having avoided destruction by fire, must have been dismayed to learn of the Council order to demolish their homes in order to protect the Tower.
Affected inhabitants successfully petitioned for time to remove their houses and goods.
For more information, see https://blog.nationalarchives.gov…
About Wednesday 5 September 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Great Fire, which was officially extinguished on September 5, 1666, not only destroyed the homes and livelihoods of thousands of people, but was also a significant threat to the government, destroying law courts, sources of taxation, and risking the defensive symbol of the nation itself, the Tower of London.
On 5 September, the Privy Council, with Charles II present, met for the first time since the outbreak.
Their first concern did not relate to the City of London, or its inhabitants. Instead, they wanted to protect the records of Parliament, despite the fact they were over a mile away from the blaze.
They ordered the demolition of house of the Clerk of Parliament, which adjoined where the records were kept, in the case of imminent danger from fire and the windows closed up with earth.
For more, see https://blog.nationalarchives.gov…
About Friday 22 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
Yew trees are very significant in Britain: yes, this is a bit off topic, but interesting nevertheless:
For a long time people wondered why it’s so common to find Yew trees growing in British church yards.
We now know that the relationship is the reverse: churches were built next to Yew trees.
The Ancient Britains were obsessed with the cycle of life and death. Yews are not only evergreens, but seem to live forever, typically 2,000 years, with some documented as living twice as long. Consequently, ground capable of supporting a tree that lives forever was seen as magical.
There are other Yew properties that concern people:
Drooping branches of old yew trees can root and form new trunks where they touch the ground -- the circle of life again.
Every part of the Yew is toxic, even the sawdust.
The falling toxic needles and thick shade will kill other plants trying to grow beneath it.
We know Shakespeare was familiar with these qualities when he had Macbeth concoct a poisonous brew. The deadly drink included “slips of yew, silvered in the moon’s eclipse”.
Also, and most importantly, the Yew is the best material to make that most deadly weapon - the Long Bow.
The Scots also used Yew Long Bows: Robert the Bruce ordered bows to be made from the sacred yews at Ardchattan Priory in Argyll. These were used at the Scots’ victorious battle at Bannockburn in 1314.
So when missionaries were trying to introduce the new Christian Religion, where better to "plant" a church than on ground already considered sacred by the natives, and deeply symbolic of the circle of life?
For more, see https://treesforlife.org.uk/into-…
About Hobbes' 'Leviathan'
San Diego Sarah • Link
CORRECTION:
Hobbes wrote a letter to William Cavendish, 4th Earl of Devonshire in 1641 ... should be "Hobbes wrote a letter to William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire ..."
I know it's confusing, but there really were two William Cavendishes, one an Earl and the other a Marquess, at the same time, and they both knew Thomas Hobbes.
About Hobbes' 'Leviathan'
San Diego Sarah • Link
In 1645 in Paris, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle hosted a dinner which turned into a debate which lasted years between Dr. John Bramhall, Bishop of Derry and Thomas Hobbes.
Newcastle had been governor to Charles, Prince of Wales from 1638 to 1641; Newcastle’s friend, Thomas Hobbes had been the Prince's mathematics tutor from 1646 to 1648.
Newcastle was privy counsellor to Charles II in the early 1650s;
and on the eve of the Restoration he wrote a long letter of advice to the king, so we know Newcastle conducted a decades-long campaign to shape Charles II’s ideas.
"Newcastle has traditionally been considered the greatest single influence upon Charles II’s personality." -- Ronald Hutton, Charles the Second: King of England, Scotland and Ireland (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), 2.
During the Hobbes-Bramhall "debate", Hobbes insisted in more than one published writings that he was opposed only to Episcopacy jure divino; that is, that he had never had any qualms with Episcopacy, so long as it was by the civil sovereign’s authority (jure civili).
For example, in the dedication of Problemata Physica (1662), an epistle addressed to Charles II, Hobbes claimed that in LEVIATHAN (1651) he had written ‘nihil ... contra episcopatum’ (‘nothing ... against episcopacy’).5
5 Problemata Physica, OL, iv, 302; trans. as ‘Seven Philosophical Problems’ (1682), EW, vii, 5.
However much one would like to credit this claim, there is no denying that Hobbes wrote a letter to William Cavendish, 4th Earl of Devonshire in 1641 in which he condoned the replacement of an Episcopal by a quasi-Presbyterian church organization of lay commissioners.
Twenty years later, had he changed his mind?
Hobbes argued in LEVIATHAN, the fear had often been, and could still be, exploited by clergy to make subjects disobey the civil sovereign.
The civil sovereign might be able to command subjects to disobey the ecclesiastic on pain of imprisonment or death, but the ecclesiastic could command subjects to disobey the civil sovereign on pain of damnation.
This gave the clergy more power over subjects.
By denying the clergy of their divine right, Hobbes was denying them their power of determining damnation.
By reducing clergy civil officials to be like all other officials (e.g., JPs, lords lieutenant), Hobbes deprived himself of the ability to complain that the ‘spiritual’ officers were invading or meddling in the ‘temporal’ sphere.
Hobbes replied this distinction of spiritual–temporal was hocus-pocus, ‘to make men see double’. Lev., xxxix, 316.
From these brief descriptions of some of the issues involved in LEVIATHON and Hobbes' other works, you can see how he would upset the establishment. But Charles II knew the old man, and knew he was a Royalist ... a Royalist who wanted change.
https://www.academia.edu/41369276…
About Brooke House Committee (Committee of Accounts)
San Diego Sarah • Link
William Jessop -- Secretary to the Brooke House Committee, 1668
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Tuesday 1 September 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and took coach home, and taking coach was set on by a wench that was naught, and would have gone along with me to her lodging in Shoe Lane, but ego did donner her a shilling and hazer her tocar mi cosa and left her, ..."
I trust you tipped the coachman a similar amount. The task of the see-nothing-hear-nothing taxicab driver and the hackney coachman is similar.
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It had to be a different Mrs. Martin ... but there is no other candidate.
L&M no help with this quandry, so maybe Sam and Betty did bluff their way through a meal with Elizabeth and William Batelier this once.
A conversation about how well Mr. Martin the purser's career was going could explain her attendance, especially as he had dined with the Pepyses on August 1.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Tuesday 1 September 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
CURRENT EVENTS:
Stuart Britain Lecture Series, Gresham College
Gresham College is running a free public lecture series, which covers European influences on culture under the Stuart Kings James I and Charles I, and then the cultural shock of the revolutionary decade of 1649-60 when Parliament ruled Britain.
The lectures are hybrid - you can watch online or in person, or later (they stay up online) and include:
The Spanish Culture of Charles I's Court, Simon Thurley FSA, Provost of Gresham College
In 1623, Charles I (as heir to the throne) made a secret and hazardous trip to Madrid to win the hand of a Spanish princess. For eight months he was the guest of the Spanish king, Philip IV, living in the Alcazar of Madrid. The opportunities to study art, architecture and court ceremonial made a profound impact on the 23-year-old Charles, and it influenced his own taste when two years later he inherited the thrones of England and Scotland.
Date: 15 September, 2021 - 6pm
Location: Museum of London, Online or Watch Later
More information https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lecture…
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Going Global: James I and the Wider World, Anna Whitelock
From the mid-16th century, the Break with Rome, and latterly Queen Elizabeth’s war with Spain, had left England isolated, but with James VI’s accession and peace with Spain, all was to change. King James was determined to have a decisive role in European politics and the reunification of Christendom, and English trade moved beyond Europe to new international markets.
The inhabitants of ‘Britain’ became some of the most well-travelled people of the age whose interests and religious loyalties were increasingly aligned with protestants in Europe.
Date: 25 January 2022, 1pm
Location: Barnard's Inn Hall, Online or Watch Later
More information https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lecture…
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Life in a Revolutionary Decade in Britain, Anna Keay
This lecture explores the immense changes of the period through the personal experiences of prominent figures. It argues that, despite the failure of the republican project and the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the decade forged the British Isles and created the conditions for the commercial and colonial prosperity of the centuries that followed.
Date: 3 March 2022, 1pm
Location: Barnard's Inn Hall, Online or Watch Later
More information https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lecture…
I BET THIS ONE INCLUDES LOTS OF INFORMATION PROVIDED BY PEPYS.
About Saturday 26 July 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
"This afternoon I had a letter from Mr. Creed, who hath escaped narrowly in the King’s yacht, and got safe to the Downs after the late storm; and that there the King do tell him, that he is sure that my Lord is landed at Callis safe, of which being glad, ..."
I note Pepys comments on his church attendence is about the content of the sermons, and occasionally the choir and/or music, but one aspect consistently eludes him:
“He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea.” — Rev. George Herbert MP (1593-1633)
The courage of all the seamen we meet in the Diary astounds me.
About Monday 28 April 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
The meaning of the word "philosophy" to Pepys:
Many SPOILERS in this article, but it may clarify your understanding.
https://psyche.co/ideas/so-far-an…
About Wednesday 1 March 1664/65
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Here was very fine discourses and experiments, but I do lacke philosophy enough to understand them, and so cannot remember them."
Clearly the meaning of the word "philosophy" has changed since 1665.
This is one of the uses which caught the attention of a Pepys Diary reader, Jacky Colliss Harvey, who posted this article in PSYCHE today:
https://psyche.co/ideas/so-far-an…
About Tuesday 1 September 1668
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sadly, all good things come to an end. I hadn't previously appreciated that our access to the illuminating letters was a pandemic gift from the British Library, giving us things to play with from home. Now they wants us to go back to work, so a pay wall has gone up.
I'd like to express my gratitude to them for making the archives free and open during a truly awful year, as the correspondence helped me appreciate the misery and pain inflicted on the English people by the greed of the City of London who manipulated Charles II into starting the Second Anglo-Dutch War for no valid reason.
It really is a cautionary tale for the ages.
There are many possible citations to back up my opinion; this one plus the annotations summarizes things fairly well:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
About Sophia Stuart
San Diego Sarah • Link
My L&M says: Sophia Stewart, a younger sister; later married to Henry Bulkeley, Master of the Horse.
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Bill is correct; Sophia Stewart was named for her mother.
The rule of thumb is that the royal family adopted the French spelling of Stewart in order to distinguish themselves from the rest of the clan. Considering Charles Stewart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox was a cousin, shows this "rule" was fluid -- or that he had no wish to be considered as wanting to be King.