Friday 25 May 1660
By the morning we were come close to the land, and every body made ready to get on shore.
The King and the two Dukes did eat their breakfast before they went, and there being set some ship’s diet before them, only to show them the manner of the ship’s diet, they eat of nothing else but pease and pork, and boiled beef.
I had Mr. Darcy in my cabin and Dr. Clerke, who eat with me, told me how the King had given 50l. to Mr. Sheply for my Lord’s servants, and 500l. among the officers and common men of the ship. I spoke with the Duke of York about business, who called me Pepys by name, and upon my desire did promise me his future favour.
Great expectation of the King’s making some Knights, but there was none. About noon (though the brigantine that Beale made was there ready to carry him) yet he would go in my Lord’s barge with the two Dukes. Our Captain steered, and my Lord went along bare with him. I went, and Mr. Mansell, and one of the King’s footmen, with a dog that the King loved,1 (which [dirted] the boat, which made us laugh, and me think that a King and all that belong to him are but just as others are), in a boat by ourselves, and so got on shore when the King did, who was received by General Monk with all imaginable love and respect at his entrance upon the land of Dover. Infinite the crowd of people and the horsemen, citizens, and noblemen of all sorts.
The Mayor of the town came and gave him his white staff, the badge of his place, which the King did give him again. The Mayor also presented him from the town a very rich Bible, which he took and said it was the thing that he loved above all things in the world.
A canopy was provided for him to stand under, which he did, and talked awhile with General Monk and others, and so into a stately coach there set for him, and so away through the town towards Canterbury, without making any stay at Dover.
The shouting and joy expressed by all is past imagination. Seeing that my Lord did not stir out of his barge, I got into a boat, and so into his barge, whither Mr. John Crew stepped, and spoke a word or two to my Lord, and so returned, we back to the ship, and going did see a man almost drowned that fell out of his boat into the sea, but with much ado was got out.
My Lord almost transported with joy that he had done all this without any the least blur or obstruction in the world, that could give an offence to any, and with the great honour he thought it would be to him.
Being overtook by the brigantine, my Lord and we went out of our barge into it, and so went on board with Sir W. Batten, and the Vice and Rear-Admirals.
At night my Lord supped and Mr. Thomas Crew with Captain Stoakes, I supped with the Captain, who told me what the King had given us. My Lord returned late, and at his coming did give me order to cause the marke to be gilded, and a Crown and C. R. to be made at the head of the coach table, where the King to-day with his own hand did mark his height, which accordingly I caused the painter to do, and is now done as is to be seen.
- Charles II.’s love of dogs is well known, but it is not so well known that his dogs were continually being stolen from him. In the “Mercurius Publicus,” June 28-July 5, 1660, is the following advertisement, apparently drawn up by the King himself: “We must call upon you again for a Black Dog between a greyhound and a spaniel, no white about him, onely a streak on his brest, and his tayl a little bobbed. It is His Majesties own Dog, and doubtless was stoln, for the dog was not born nor bred in England, and would never forsake His master. Whoesoever findes him may acquaint any at Whitehal for the Dog was better known at Court, than those who stole him. Will they never leave robbing his Majesty! Must he not keep a Dog? This dog’s place (though better than some imagine) is the only place which nobody offers to beg.” (Quoted in “Notes and Queries,” 7th S., vii. 26, where are printed two other advertisements of Charles’s lost dogs.) ↩
Mary Link to this
My Lord almost transported with joy
This is the first truly personal glimpse that we have had of Mountagu, whose presentation is normally very deferential and leads the reader to assume that he is much older and more 'mature' than Sam. It reminds us that there is very little age difference between Sam and his master; there is a matter of only 7 or 8 years between them.
j a gioia Link to this
the king's dog
pope's lines for the collar of the king's spaniel were written some years hence, but no less apt:
I am his majesty's dog at kew.
prey tell me sir, whose dog are you?
helena murphy Link to this
The accessible personality of the Duke of York as presented here is due to the fact that while in exile he led an independent life, serving as a colonel in the French army under Marshal Turenne. He resigned when France and the Protectorate signed a defensive alliance and went to the Spanish Netherlands where Charles had signed a treaty with Philip IV of Spain against France.
David Quidnunc Link to this
Well of course he loved dogs
Charles's dogs would've been just about the only creatures whose affection for him had nothing to do with his position as King, even in exile. Perhaps his immediate family gave him that, perhaps not. Dogs are very hierarchical and in a sense, every master of a dog is a king with a courtier. But when this courtier asks a favor, no guile is involved and the love is genuine.
Charles, when king, is said to have been remarkably cynical about the people around him -- knowing that many with their hands out had no sincerity about them whatever, yet passing out the favors anyway.
"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," Harry Truman is supposed to have said. (Well, he SHOULD have said it -- it sounds like Truman and has been attributed to him, although you won't find it in Bartlett's, Oxford or the MacMillan quote books.) I bet Charles appreciated the dog's defecating as much as the others did -- if not this day, then on others.
David Quidnunc Link to this
Spoiler: Pepys died on 26 May 1703
So you may want to raise a glass of sack to salute the memory of our departed diarist on the 26th of May. He died at 3:45 a.m. according to this site: http://astext.com/history/4_1.html
Or, if you prefer to mourn his passing on the actual, 300th anniversary, you could wait until 6 June. (If that confuses you, see the calendar page: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/352/ ) There's a precedent for changing the date: Most Americans favored the new style date for celebrating George Washington's birthday, even when he was alive.
Pepys "was buried in St. Olave's [Church] on 5th June at 9 p.m. as requested." according to
http://www.london-footprints.co.uk/peopepys.htm
St. Olave's is having a memorial service on Wednesday, 28 May, 5:30 p.m., according to the same web site.
David Quidnunc Link to this
The vulgar word Pepys actually used
"a dog . . . which [dirted] the boat"
Yes, that's been bowdlerized. The Latham and Matthews edition has: "which shit in the boat."
helena murphy Link to this
The following is a more emotive and animated eye witness account of the landing at Dover. " The King, at his first landing, kneeled down and gave God thanks, then coming to General Monk,, who was kneeling upon his knees, he took him up, embraced and kissed him with the title of "father". The Duke of York kissed him several times. The Duke of Gloucester,whilst all the rest were shouting "God save the King!" he threw up his hat and cried "God bless General Monk!"...The King was in a plain-stuff suit, with a plume of red feathers, the Duke of York with a white one, the Duke of Gloucester green"
Scott, Eva The Travels Of The King Constable 1907
A propos of dogs, the Duke of York also loved and trusted them more than men ,and took them on board with him. During the Anglo-Dutch War ,when his ship was ablaze ,he yelled out orders to "save the dogs and Colonel Churchill!"
David A. Smith Link to this
"Who called me Pepys by name."
This post has a marvelous pinch-me-I'm-dreaming immediacy applicable both to Pepys and to Montagu. They have seen a vicious and bloody Civil War, a king beheaded (a thing unthinkable in English politics), a repressive Puritan theocracy (think The Handmaid's Tale), and a day so long awaited and planned for ... and now it comes off! It is history in the making and they know it. The extraordinary relief of tension catalyzes their happiness: they are drunk with adrenaline.
Not only that, but here is ordinary Sam Pepys at the center of it all, and the Duke of York -- royal blood! -- calls him by name, the royal pooch shits the boat. Sublime and ridiculous all jumbled together in one eventful day.
Pinch me, thinks Sam, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, if I hadn't written it in this private diary (little does he know), I wouldn't have believed it myself.
helena murphy Link to this
A famous dog of the civil war was "Boye"who belonged to Charles' cousin, Prince Rupert. It was the son of "Puddle", a poodle which had been given to the prince by Lord Arundell during his captivity in Austria. The Roundheads attributed Rupert with diabolical powers, perhaps due to his tall dark appearance, firey red cloak , foreign accent ,and the fact that he also kept a pet hare! They saw "Boye" as his familiar, who went behind enemy lines and brought back information to its master. At Marston Moor, Boye broke loose and followed Rupert into battle where it was sadly killed.
Morragh, Patrick Prince Rupert of the Rhine Constable 1976
Roger Miller Link to this
This is an illustration of Charles' landing at Dover from Firth's 1894 biography of Monck. http://www.generalmonck.com/images/dover64.jpg
Link to the biography: http://www.generalmonck.com/biography.htm
A. De Araujo Link to this
For which Charles is the spaniel"Cavalier King Charles"named after? I presume is Charles the 2nd but why cavalier then?
Susanna Link to this
(Cavalier) King Charles Spaniels
This breed is named for Charles II.
The "Cavalier" part of the breed name appears to stem from the fact that in the 19th century the breed was bred away from the appearance that the dogs had possessed in the 17th century. Starting in the 1920s an attempt was made by a small number of breeders to rebreed to the old appearance. This variety then received the name "Cavalier King Charles." (Why "Cavalier", I'm not sure. But there was a need felt to distinguish between the two varieties of King Charles Spaniels.)
For more information, here are websites on the breed's history, from the British and American Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Clubs:
http://www.thecavalierclub.co.uk/start.html
http://www.ckcsc.org/ckcsc/ckcsc_inc.nsf/Founde...
Paul Brewster Link to this
King to-day with his own hand did mark his height
A bizarre note from L&M (an episode worthy Monty Python) "The King had apparently caught his head against a beam. Cf. W. Blundell, Crosby Records (ed. Gibson), p 90: 'I was present on the ship (about five miles from Dover) two or three hours before King Charles II landed in England ... when the King (by reason of an accident) took his own measure, standing under a beam in the cabin, upon his place he made a mark with a knife. Sundry tall persons went under it, but there were none that could reach it.' Charles's height was given as 'above two yards' in the official description issued to aid in his capture after Worcester fight in 1651 ... His funeral effigy now at Westminster Abbey measures 6 ft 2 ins."
Glyn Link to this
Which is strange considering his father was only just over 5ft tall, which is why most of his official portraits show him on horseback, or seated with his queen, rather than standing. There's no doubt that they were definitely father and son, so just shows how people's height can vary over a single generation.
Brian Barr Link to this
The dog in the boat.
If you read the passage carefully, it seems that the dog (and Pepys) were not in the same boat as the king, so Charles probably wouldn't have known of the mess the dog made.
Nix Link to this
Isn't there a well-known painting of Charles with his dogs? Or is it of his brother James?
Susanna Link to this
Antonia Fraser suggests that Charles II's height and appearance were a throwback to his maternal ancestors, the Medicis of Florence:
"Of the many grandchildren of Marie de Medici, Charles was the only one to look purely Italian; the rest being in general both frailer and paler. But his appearance was certainly a complete throwback to his Italian ancestors, the Medici Dukes of Tuscany. Although not directly descended from Lorenzo the Magnificent there is a striking resemblance in their portraits."
("Royal Charles", p. 10)
Paul Brightwell Link to this
Enough, already, with the moist-eyed Royalism! Pace Helena M, I would hate that anybody stumbling into this site should take it for some kind of fan club for Charles II, or indeed any other of that sorry, inbred rabble who have called themselves Kings & Queens of England. Now as then, surely many contemplating this period are deeply queasy about the turn events took in 1660. Despite all the hand (and arse) kissing, I'm struck by the quiet notes of scepticism that Pepys sounds -- a dog shits in a boat & reminds him "that a King and all that belong to him are but just as others are". For, despite all the absolutist posturing of the monarchy and its fans, after 1649 something changed for good in British political life, thank goodness.
Russ Link to this
The Stuart monarchs - and the Tudors for the most part - did not claim to be superior to other men. They just claimed to have a completely different role in the society.
By contrast, the Calvinist Puritans did in fact claim to be better than everyone else.
vincent Link to this
Under every Cavalier their resides a hope for a Title given the opp(u)rtunity
Rumour Had it that A.Bevin was offered the dukedom of Thrombosis: did turn it down after finding it in the Med. dict not in the Gazateer: Rumour?
Dai B Link to this
Vince boyo, if it's Aneurin you're talking about, the surname is Bevan (from Welsh ap Ifan). Nobody called Ernest Bevin a champagne socialist.
vincent Link to this
Dai B: You so correct : He help to start the NHS: "tis worth reading his accomplishments: He is quoted " I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction."
http://www.cyber-nation.com/victory/quotations/...
Wayne Cooper Link to this
Paul Brightwell should realise that the churlish interpretation perpetually read into English history by Americans reflects more on the latter than the former. That Charless II was indisputably the most popluar monarch in English history owes everything to the recent experience of the alternative which had been endured painfully by the populace for over a decade. Had George Washington been a less modest fellow, he may well have been proclaimed King George I of the United Kingdom of America. That the US constitution gives a Presidential veto to one person over the two houses of the Parliament, and allows for Presidential "pardons" of criminals reflects just how close the presidency was intended to be to the role of the English King or Queen. Q: Why is it that bozos like Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge, sleazeballs like Kennedy and Clinton and humourless twerps like Eisenhower and Carter are so revered by US citizens and not described as a "sorry, in-bred rabble"? Surely not because 23% of the people over 21 were drunk enough to turn up and vote on election day? Or maybe it is this commitment to "democracy" that allows Bush to get over Gore because the folks in Florida didn't quite get how to fill in the voting card.
jeannine Link to this
Sandwich's Journal Entry Today
"Friday. About ten of the clock in the morning the fleet came to the anchor in Dover road. About one of the clock in the afternoon the King and the Dukes of York and Gloucester went off on board into the General's barge, Captain Cuttance steering the barge and the General standing before the house of the barge. Beale's brigantine rowed into the shore ahead of the barge, the Vice Admiral upon the starboard quarter and Rear Admiral upon the larborad, divers other boats of the fleet in company; and between three and four of the clock in the afternoon the King's most sacred majesty and their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of York and Gloucester went on shore upon the strand a little northward of Dover pier, where immediately General Monk met him, and when General Mountague had attened his Majesty and the Dukes unto General Mock have had the honour to kiss their hands, he presently went back on board the Charles and sailed that night into the Downs. The Charles fired 3 rounds and the rest of the fleet 5 rounds in salutes."
tonyt Link to this
We get a brief glimpse of Charles' own thoughts at this time in a private letter that he wrote to his 15 year old sister, Princess Henriette-Anne, from Canterbury on May 26th 1660.
'I was so plagued with business at the Hague that I could not write to you before my departure... I arrived yesterday at Dover where I found Monk with a great number of the nobility who almost overwhelmed me with friendship and joy at my return. My head is so prodigiously dazed by the acclamation of the people and by quantities of business that I know not whether I am writing sense or no, therefore you will pardon me if I do not tell you any more, only that I am entirely yours.
For my dear Sister. C. '
(As printed in 'The King My Brother' by Cyril Hughes Hartmann (1954). He gives the primary source as British Museum, Additional Manuscript 18,738.)
Michael Robinson Link to this
at his entrance upon the land of Dover.
Medal commemorating the landing of King Charles II at Dover, 1660.
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object...
Terry F Link to this
THE SEAMEN TO CHARLES II
THE VALIANT SEAMAN'S CONGRATULATION TO HIS SACRED MAJESTY KING CHARLES II - With their wonderfull, heroical atchievements, and their fidelity, loyalty, and obedience. To the tune of Let us drink and sing, and merrily troul the bowl. Or, The stormy winds do Mow. Or, Hey Ho, my Hony.
Great Charles, your English seamen upon our bended knee,
Present ourselves as freemen, unto your Majesty,
Beseeching God to blesse you where-ever that you go, So we pray, night and day, when the stormy winds do blow.
In darkest nights, or shipwracks, alwayes we are on our guard :
Of French or Turkish pirats, we never were afraid.
But cal'd stout English sea-men where-ever that we go,
For we make, them to quake, when the stormy winds do blow.
We are your valiant sea-men that brought you out of Spain :
And will as war-like free-men your royal cause maintain.
If you will give commission to wars with France wee'l go :
Then shall we, merry be, when the stormy winds do blow.
'Twas we did sail you over to English ground agen ;
And landed you at Dover, with all your noble men.
For which we are renowned where-ever we do go :
Honour will, tend us still, when the stormy winds do blow.
And now we are a ranging upon the ocean seas,
The Frenchmen they are changing and cannot be at ease,
For we will make their top-sailes unto our fleet shall bow :
Then shall we, merry be, when the stormy winds do blow.
Sometimes our tacklings breaking, our masts are cut in two :
Our ships are often leaking, great straits we're put unto.
In great tempestuous weather, which few at home doth know,
Thus do we, live at sea, when the stormy winds do blow.
When some at home are feeding and cheering up themselves,
Then we at sea are bleeding amongst the rocks and shelves.
Yet greater dangers ready, still we will undergo,
For our King, and will sing, when the stormy winds do blow.
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/navel-songs-b...
Bill Link to this
We are reminded of this dog-love on looking over files of the London Gazettes of the later years of Charles II. In the first number for 1682, there are no less than three rewards for lost dogs—' spaniels,' and ' little shock dogs.' The offered rewards vary from ten shillings to twenty. These advertisements continue throughout the year. The lost dog is sometimes stated to be the property of his majesty. The reader will remember the picture of the king in Peveril of the Peat, attended by his six or seven little curly-haired spaniels, 'whose gambols seemed to afford him much amusement.' Charles's ladies seem also to have shared in this dog-love of their sultan and master, and to have suffered also occasionally from the like loss or theft of their canine pets. In No. 1841 of the London Gazette (July 9th to 12th, 1683), 'her Grace the Duchess of Portsmouth' advertises an offer of two guineas for the recovery of 'a young little black bitch.' The finder is requested to 'bring her to the porter at Whitehall Gate.' This dog-fancying descended apparently to the Stuarts of illegitimate birth. In 1682, the Gazette advertises 'a black, grisly dog, cropped ear, bobed [sic] tail,' which 'belongs to' the affable, generous, and handsome 'Duke of Monmouth.' On turning over the Gazettes for the very next year, I find a proclamation for the apprehending of the Duke himself.
---Chambers's Journal, 1863