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Authors: Jenny Uglow
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Ormond’s power hung in the balance. And in Whitehall, as in parliament, Charles used Buckingham to clear the board of those he thought dangerous. His deployment of Buckingham is puzzling, unless one considers that his policy with regard to troublesome men was threefold. He wanted to clear away the men associated with the Dutch war and put a new team in charge of the navy; to get rid of any lingering supporters of Clarendon, whom many people (Charles included) felt was still capable of stirring up trouble from exile; and to rule out any chance of political uprising by dissenters.
The first man to be brought down was Sir William Coventry. The men Coventry worked with, including Pepys, liked his directness and his refusal to curry favour, but the former naval commissioner and secretary to the Duke of York had many enemies, especially the country MPs, who suspected him of feathering his nest from selling places in the navy. His blunt criticism, especially of the court’s carelessness with money, made Charles so impatient that during one encounter the king turned angrily on his heel and stalked away. But he was not an easy man to dismiss. That would be an affront to a leading family – the Coventry brothers, William and Henry, were uncles to George Savile, Viscount Halifax (who was now firmly separating himself from the Buckingham camp), and Henry Savile, Rochester’s rakish friend. William Coventry had led Charles’s triumphant entry into London on 29 May 1660, and since the middle of the decade he and his brother had dominated the House of Commons. ‘A man of great notions and eminent virtues,’ Burnet called him, ‘the best speaker in the house, and capable of bearing the chief ministry.’ 2 And although he had outraged the Duke of York by his attacks on Clarendon, he was still seen as a member of his camp.
The opportunity to oust him came from a crisis of Coventry’s own making, when a rumour spread that he was about to be ridiculed on the stage. The theatre was fast becoming an accepted arena for courtiers to attack their enemies. The Duke of Lerma had implicitly demolished Clarendon; Shadwell’s Sullen Lovers had caricatured Robert and Ned Howard as ‘Sir Positive At-All’ and ‘Poet Ninny’; Barbara Castlemaine had caused uproar by arranging the mockery of Lady Harvey. Most recently, Kynaston’s spectacular mimicry of Charles Sedley in Newcastle’s The Heiress had won the actor a vicious beating from Sedley’s hired thugs. Charles well understood the tactic of demolition through performance. Buckingham’s burlesque of Clarendon had been an effective means of reducing the courtiers’ respect, and later this year, Ralph Montagu, ambassador to Paris, wrote to Arlington in alarm, when a French nobleman told him that Paris was abuzz with (false) rumours of Arlington’s disgrace. Apparently, said Montagu, everyone had heard ‘it is a custom in England that when the King is angry with anybody, that he makes them be acted, and that my Lord Buckingham and Bab May had acted you to the King, and endeavoured to turn you en ridicule ’. 3
In March 1669, Coventry heard that Buckingham and Robert Howard were planning to ridicule him in their new play, The Country Gentleman , as ‘Sir Cautious Trouble-All’. The name stemmed from Charles’s own frustration with Coventry’s pessimism and despair over royal carelessness with money. Coventry had told Pepys the previous December that he was ‘represented to the King by his enemies as a melancholy man, and one that is still prophesying ill events, so as the King called him Visionaire ’. 4 He learnt that in the play, Sir Cautious would be discovered sitting in the middle of a huge circular table (like one that Coventry actually owned), turning round on his chair, fluffing through papers taken from drawers labelled ‘Affairs of Spain’, ‘Affairs of France’, ‘Affairs of Holland’. When Coventry angrily complained to Charles, the king sent for the play but
The first man to be brought down was Sir William Coventry. The men Coventry worked with, including Pepys, liked his directness and his refusal to curry favour, but the former naval commissioner and secretary to the Duke of York had many enemies, especially the country MPs, who suspected him of feathering his nest from selling places in the navy. His blunt criticism, especially of the court’s carelessness with money, made Charles so impatient that during one encounter the king turned angrily on his heel and stalked away. But he was not an easy man to dismiss. That would be an affront to a leading family – the Coventry brothers, William and Henry, were uncles to George Savile, Viscount Halifax (who was now firmly separating himself from the Buckingham camp), and Henry Savile, Rochester’s rakish friend. William Coventry had led Charles’s triumphant entry into London on 29 May 1660, and since the middle of the decade he and his brother had dominated the House of Commons. ‘A man of great notions and eminent virtues,’ Burnet called him, ‘the best speaker in the house, and capable of bearing the chief ministry.’ 2 And although he had outraged the Duke of York by his attacks on Clarendon, he was still seen as a member of his camp.
The opportunity to oust him came from a crisis of Coventry’s own making, when a rumour spread that he was about to be ridiculed on the stage. The theatre was fast becoming an accepted arena for courtiers to attack their enemies. The Duke of Lerma had implicitly demolished Clarendon; Shadwell’s Sullen Lovers had caricatured Robert and Ned Howard as ‘Sir Positive At-All’ and ‘Poet Ninny’; Barbara Castlemaine had caused uproar by arranging the mockery of Lady Harvey. Most recently, Kynaston’s spectacular mimicry of Charles Sedley in Newcastle’s The Heiress had won the actor a vicious beating from Sedley’s hired thugs. Charles well understood the tactic of demolition through performance. Buckingham’s burlesque of Clarendon had been an effective means of reducing the courtiers’ respect, and later this year, Ralph Montagu, ambassador to Paris, wrote to Arlington in alarm, when a French nobleman told him that Paris was abuzz with (false) rumours of Arlington’s disgrace. Apparently, said Montagu, everyone had heard ‘it is a custom in England that when the King is angry with anybody, that he makes them be acted, and that my Lord Buckingham and Bab May had acted you to the King, and endeavoured to turn you en ridicule ’. 3
In March 1669, Coventry heard that Buckingham and Robert Howard were planning to ridicule him in their new play, The Country Gentleman , as ‘Sir Cautious Trouble-All’. The name stemmed from Charles’s own frustration with Coventry’s pessimism and despair over royal carelessness with money. Coventry had told Pepys the previous December that he was ‘represented to the King by his enemies as a melancholy man, and one that is still prophesying ill events, so as the King called him Visionaire ’. 4 He learnt that in the play, Sir Cautious would be discovered sitting in the middle of a huge circular table (like one that Coventry actually owned), turning round on his chair, fluffing through papers taken from drawers labelled ‘Affairs of Spain’, ‘Affairs of France’, ‘Affairs of Holland’. When Coventry angrily complained to Charles, the king sent for the play but
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