The marriage of Robert, Earl of Essex, and Lady Francis Howard, was celebrated in the year 1606. The former was not fourteen, and the latter was thirteen years of age. The union was an unhappy one. The "Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S.," contains references to early marriages. He wrote, under date of August 1, 1672: "I was at the marriage of Lord Arlington's only daughter (a sweet child if ever there was any) to the Duke of Grafton the king's natural son by the Duchess of Cleveland; the Archbishop of Canterbury officiating, the king and all the grandees being present." The little girl at this time was only five years of age. Evelyn concludes his entry by saying, "I had a favour given to me by my lady; but took no great joy at the thing for many reasons." Seven years later, the children were re-married, and Evelyn, in his "Diary," on November 6th, 1679, states that he attended the re-marriage of the Duchess Grafton to the Duke, she being now twelve years old. The ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Rochester. The king was at the wedding. "A sudden and unexpected thing," writes Evelyn, "when everybody believed the first marriage would have come to nothing; but the measure being determined, I was privately invited by my lady, her mother, to be present. I confess I could give her little joy, and so I plainly told her, but she said the king would have it so, and there was no going back." The diarist speaks warmly of the charms and virtues of the young bride; and he deplores that she was sacrificed to a boy that had been rudely bred. As might be expected, the facile pen of Samuel Pepys, the most genial of gossipers, furnishes a few facts on this subject. His notes occur in a letter, dated September 20, 1695, addressed to Mrs. Steward. It appears from his epistle that two wealthy citizens had recently died and left their estates, one to a Blue-coat boy and the other to a Blue-coat girl, in Christ's Hospital. The circumstance led some of the magistrates to bring about a match with the youthful pair. The wedding was a public one, and was quite an event in London life. Pepys says, the boy, "in his habit of blue satin, led by two of the girls, and she in blue, with an apron green, and petticoat yellow, all of sarsnet, led by two of the boys of the house through Cheapside to Guildhall Chapel, where they were married by the Dean of St. Paul's." The Lord Mayor gave away the bride.