Plaidy, Jean - Royal Sisters: The Story of the Daughters of James II

Sarah left Anne to write her letters and went to her own apartments to cool off her temper.

The Princess of Orange had never liked her. A pretty state of affairs if she should return and take the throne. Who knew what influence she would try to exert over Anne—she, and her Caliban of a husband.

Anne could be a sentimental fool. Like her father she was often brooding on the old days of childhood. It was “Dear Mary this” and “Dear Mary that.”

Well, thought Sarah, not even the Queen of England shall insult Sarah Churchill.

Sarah came running into her mistress’s apartments. She was flushed and breathless and before she spoke Anne saw that something had happened to upset her.

“You have not yet heard the rumors,” said Sarah. “I can see that.”

“Tell me, Sarah, what is it?”

“The Queen believes that she may be pregnant.”

Anne started at Sarah; not until this moment had the Princess realized how deep were her desires, how ambitious she had become.

The Queen pregnant! What if she should be brought to bed of a son. That would be the end of all Anne’s dreams. If she had a half brother, neither she nor Mary could come to the throne.

THE WARMING-PAN SCANDAL

s soon as the news was made public the Court and country was alive with speculation. “This is the end of hope,” said some. Others retorted: “On the contrary, this is the beginning. This is the chance.”

There were some who said that if James had a son who was Prince of Wales and rightful heir to the throne, the people would have no one but him to be King.

A boy brought up to be a Catholic? And did they think his father and mother would allow him to be brought up otherwise? Then there would be no doubt whatever of the old religion coming back. And were the people going to endure that?

James and his Queen were overjoyed. Neither of them seemed conscious of the trouble all about them. James went on bringing in unpopular measures which favored Catholics; and in the streets the people cried: “No popery.”

Anne spent her days in discussion with Sarah. It must not happen, they said; and because it would be the end of all their hopes they believed it never would.

No one was sure who started the rumor that the Queen was not really pregnant but was pretending to be. The theme of these rumors was that the King was so desirous of bringing back the Catholic faith to England that he would foist a spurious baby on the country if necessary. The child would be brought up as a Catholic; he would have only Catholics about him; and how easy it would be when all the important positions were in the hands of papists, and the King was a papist, to turn the whole country back to Rome!

Anne liked this rumor; it appealed to her love of intrigue as well as to her ambition; with Sarah’s help she sought to keep it alive.

She wrote to Mary:

Mansell’s wife looks better than she ever did which is not usual. I believe that her great belly is a false one. She is positive that the child will be a son, and the principle of that religion being such that they will stick at nothing, be it never so wicked if it will promote their interest, indicates that some foul play is intended.

In Holland Mary read her sister’s letters and showed them to her husband, whom she obeyed in all things. It was very comforting to them that the rumors were being spread in England.

James, having heard nothing of the rumors, continued delighted, while he deluded himself that his dear daughters were as pleased at the prospect of a birth in the family as he was.

Mary Beatrice, the Queen, was better informed, although she knew that it was quite impossible to make James face the fact that Anne was not the devoted daughter he believed her to be. She herself was bewildered because she had always been on good terms with both her stepdaughters and at first believed that others were poisoning Anne’s mind against her.

But Anne’s behavior at the Queen’s toilet—at which it was the Princess’s duty to attend—began to worry Mary Beatrice. Anne was continually spying on her, attempting to feel her body, to catch glimpses of her naked, and Mary Beatrice, who had a great sense of her own dignity, became very resentful.

The more obvious this became, the more Anne turned against her stepmother; she was now doing everything possible to convince her sister Mary that the Queen was posing as a pregnant woman when she was not so at all.

On one occasion Anne, leaning forward to help her stepmother with her chemise, attempted to touch her body. Mary Beatrice was suddenly so angry that she lifted a glove which lay on a table and struck Anne across the face with it.

Anne drew back in astonishment.

“Your Majesty …” she stammered.

But the Queen threw the glove back on to the table and stared straight in front of her.

Anne returned to her own apartments and it was not long before Sarah came hurrying to her, for the story of the slap in the face had been quickly spread.

“The insolence!” cried Sarah.

“She would reply to that, that she is the Queen.”

“For the moment,” said Sarah darkly. “Oh, it’s clear to me that she is a guilty woman. Why, if she were not, should she fly into such a passion? I think you should write to your sister. This is a terrible thing which is about to burst on our country.”

So under Sarah’s guidance Anne wrote once more to Mary.

She should, to convince the world, make either me or some of my friends feel her belly. But whenever one talks with her being with child she looks as if she is afraid one should touch her. I believe when she is brought to bed nobody will be convinced it is her child, except it prove a daughter.

This letter brought an unexpected and alarming response. Mary wrote to Anne telling her that in view of all these doubts as to whether or not the Queen was pregnant, she and the Prince had decided that it was desirable that they should come to England to see for themselves whether in fact the Queen was about to bear a child.

Anne was shaking with dismay when she read that letter. She remembered all that she had said of her father to her sister; and she feared that if Mary and James met, too much would be revealed and he would be able to tell Mary that he had been maligned.

If Mary came to England now, if she talked with their father, if she pointed out to him the folly of his ways … which she might well do, for Anne did not believe that—although she would support William in everything—Mary wished to see her father deposed … there might be a reconciliation between them.

Anne was too stupid to be a subtle intriguer; Sarah was too hasty.

Here was an awkward situation. How were they going to extricate themselves?

Together they found the answer.

“If either of you should come,” wrote Anne, “I should be very glad to see you, but really if you or the Prince should come I should be frightened out of my wits for fear any harm should happen to either of you.”

Mary’s reply to that was that Anne must be present at the birth. She must make sure that the baby was in fact the son of her father and the Queen.

Anne, who had been rather alarmed by the turn of events and desperately disappointed at the possibility of being deprived of her ambition, and at the same time weakened in health by yet another miscarriage, developed a fever and was confined to her bed.

The King came to visit her.

He sat by the bed and held her hand, and when she opened her eyes she recognized him and smiled, for she had forgotten all the trouble of the last months and thought she was a child again.

“Dear Father,” she murmured; and James’s eyes filled with tears.

“My beloved,” he said, “you must get well. You know what you mean to me. I could never be truly happy without you.”

She was aware of George on the other side of the bed; and the presence of these two comforted her.

Sarah, who found that her authority was weakened when Anne was not there to help her enforce it, was terrified that Anne was going to die. It was clearly brought home to her that Anne was necessary to her future—hers and John’s. If Anne were to die now, what would become of them? They would rise in the world, she was sure of that; but it would take them years to recover what they would lose with the removal of Anne.

Anne was of vital importance to them; Anne must live; and when she was recovered they must be closer than ever.

As soon as Sarah could get into the sickroom, she nursed Anne. She amazed everyone with her efficiency, for no one had thought she would make a good nurse; she was gentle with the patient, although fiercely authoritative with everyone else. As for Anne, she drew strength from Sarah and when Sarah said: “You will get well!” Anne believed her.

The King and Prince George had to be grateful to Sarah Churchill, although they could not like her, and under Sarah’s ministrations Anne recovered more speedily than was hoped.

As the time for the Queen’s confinement drew nearer the excitement increased.

Mary Beatrice had said that she would lie in at Windsor.

Anne and Sarah smiled significantly when they heard this.

“Naturally,” said Sarah. “Why at Windsor it will not be so easy to summon those people who should be at her bedside. Can you not imagine it, Mrs. Morley? It will be: ‘My pains are beginning. Come quickly.’ And by the time all those who should witness the birth have arrived, there will be a bonny baby in the bed!”

“Oh, the wickedness!” cried Anne.

It may have been that some of the Queen’s friends were aware of this rumor, for shortly afterward she changed her mind and said that she would lie in at St. James’s.

“St. James’s!” said Anne. “Such a bustle there was about lying in at Windsor and now it is to be St. James’s. St. James’s is a better place to cheat in.”

It was surprising how she and Sarah made each other believe these spiteful observations. Both knew that St. James’s was the palace in which the Queens usually gave birth to their children, Whitehall being unsuitable since it was more or less a public place in which people could enter night and day. It was noisy; matters of state were dealt with there; and the apartments of the Queen looked straight on to the river along which there was constant traffic. St. James’s on the other hand was an intimate Palace; it had been the home of Mary Beatrice when she had first come to England and she felt sentimental toward it. Therefore naturally she was determined that this most important child should be born in this Palace.