Monday 29 May 1665
Lay long in bed, being in some little pain of the wind collique, then up and to the Duke of Albemarle, and so to the Swan, and there drank at Herbert’s, and so by coach home, it being kept a great holiday through the City, for the birth and restoration of the King. To my office, where I stood by and saw Symson the joyner do several things, little jobbs, to the rendering of my closet handsome and the setting up of some neat plates that Burston has for my money made me, and so home to dinner, and then with my wife, mother, and Mercer in one boat, and I in another, down to Woolwich. I walking from Greenwich, the others going to and fro upon the water till my coming back, having done but little business. So home and to supper, and, weary, to bed. We have every where taken some prizes. Our merchants have good luck to come home safe: Colliers from the North, and some Streights men just now. And our Hambrough ships, of whom we were so much afeard, are safe in Hambrough. Our fleete resolved to sail out again from Harwich in a day or two.
10 Annotations
First Reading
Robert Gertz • Link
A little mix of pleasure and business, some reasonably good war news... Presumably Albemarle was not too upset by the slow progress of the resupply ships.
Apparently no serious fears of the plague in surrounding towns as yet...Sam and family were able to move in and out of London today without any fuss worthy of entry.
dirk • Link
John Evelyn's diary
"I went (with my little boy) to visite my District over Kent, & to make up Accompts with my Officers; & so by Coach to Rochester, lay at Sitingburne,"
Pedro • Link
"And our Hambrough ships, of whom we were so much afeard, are safe in Hambrough."
See yesterday for Sandwich’s Journal entry concerning this...
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
JWB • Link
Hamburg
Built by Charlesmagne, hamm=forest, & for centuries extorted by Danes, it survived the Thrity Years War intact though its income severely hampered and it received a large refuge influx hungry for succor. So in Pepys' day it was eager for trade & what it offered in exchange was probably @ discount.
Pedro • Link
“fleete resolved to sail out again from Harwich in a day or two.”
On this day from the Journal of Montagu edited by Anderson…
“The Duke called Council of War and communicated Sir George Downing’s letters, which say the Dutch fleet have orders to seek us out even at the mouth of the river Thames. Whereupon it was concluded best for our fleet to move to Southwold Bay, where we had more open sea and not the danger of sands behind us and nearer the enemy, wither our provisions and water yet at Harwich might come to us as well as here, and this was determined to be done tomorrow morning…”
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"the setting up of some neat plates that Burston has for my money made me,"
"for my money"?
In September 1665 the Navy Treasurer paid £4 15s. for a plate of Deptford yard to hang in the Navy Office (L&M)
Might that have been another plate and this one paid for by Pepys? Possibly.
Terry Foreman • Link
"a great holiday through the City, for the birth and restoration of the King."
See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Terry Foreman • Link
"And our Hambrough ships, of whom we were so much afeard, are safe in Hambrough. "
L&M note this is a mistake: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
(L&M note)
StanB • Link
Happy 388th Birthday your Majesty.....
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
SPARTICUS EDUCATIONAL has this to say about the Interregnum/Restoration:
'The restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660 was the decision of all the property-owning classes -- the old nobility, the new nobility, the commercial interests and the manufacturers. For these classes, the land question had been solved. Land could now be bought and sold without restriction as any other commodity. The barriers to trade and commerce had been destroyed. The English Revolution had achieved its objective of sweeping away the barriers which were preventing the rise of the new system.
'The English Revolution, during its first phase, shattered the bonds of feudalism, and laid the foundation for the new system of capitalism. The restoration was not a defeat of the English Revolution; it consolidated the power of the commercial classes. Only the aims of the Levellers and Diggers had not been achieved.
'Although the king was restored to the throne, the powers of Charles II were entirely different from those of Charles I. He ruled with limited powers, controlled by the commercial class. The Restoration showed the strength the new middle class, not its weakness, and was a sequel to the revolution. Indeed, as one writer puts it, although Charles II was called king by the Grace of God, in reality he was king by the merchants and squires.
'The newly restored ruling class took revenge on the most active men of the English Revolution, as ruling classes have done throughout history. They took a gruesome revenge on Cromwell. They dug up his corpse in Westminster Abbey, dragged it through the streets, and hung it in chains on Tyburn gibbet.
'The condemned rebels went undaunted, to their death. On the way to the scaffold, Major-Gen. Harrison of the New Model Army said: "I go to suffer upon the account of the most glorious cause that ever was in the world."'
Highlight from
https://spartacus-educational.com…
I have to agree, it was a glorious cause: Sadly it took another 350 years for many of their ideas to be implemented. The time wasn't right yet, even if the inspiration was there. And as we'll see, Charles II never accepted that he wasn't as powerful as his father.