Lady Barrymore had been very ill, but was recovering. Lady Dungarvan,[83]
whose second little girl had died at Salisbury House, in London, before
the boys left London, had a little son at last; but “lyttle Franck,” the
Dublin-born daughter, remained the old Earl’s pet. The heir was born
on November 17 in the House of the Savoy, and christened in the Savoy
Chapel by the name of “Charles,” the King himself standing sponsor,
while the Countess of Salisbury was godmother, and the other godfather
was the Marquis of Hamilton. But the great news of all was the news of
Kynalmeaky’s marriage—a very splendid marriage it had been—with the Lady
Elizabeth Fielding, one of the ladies of the Queen’s privy chamber, and
daughter of the Earl and Countess of Denbigh. Their other daughter was
married to the Marquis of Hamilton, and the Countess of Denbigh herself
was a sister of the King’s favourite, the murdered Buckingham.
The marriage of Lord Kynalmeaky and the Lady Elizabeth Fielding had
been arranged under royal auspices. The King had dowered the lady, and
the wedding, like Frank’s, had been in the Royal Chapel of Whitehall.
The King had given away the bride, and “put about her neck” the Queen’s
gift of a rich pearl necklace, “worth £1500.” There was much revelling,
dancing and feasting afterwards, and the King and Queen “did the young
couple all honour and grace.” The Earl of Cork, always a strange mixture
of generosity and thrift, had supplied £100 for Kynalmeaky’s wedding
garments, and lent him “my son Franck’s wedding shoes” for the occasion.
Broghill also was to be married. “Your friend Broghill,” the Earl wrote
to Marcombes, “is in a fair way of being married to Mrs. Harrison, one of
the Queen’s maids of honour, about whom a difference happened yesterday
between Mr. Thomas Howard, the Earl of Berkshire’s son and him, which
brought them into the field; but thanks be to God, Broghill came home
without any hurt, and the other gentleman was not much harmed; and now
they have clashed swords together they are grown good friends. I think
in my next I shall advise you that my daughter Mary is nobly married, and
that in the spring I shall send her husband to keep company with my sons
in Geneva.”[84]
The old Earl, when he wrote to Marcombes in January 1640, did not guess
the sequels to these two little romances. For though the wedding clothes
were making, Broghill was never to marry Mrs. Harrison, whom he, like
many other gallants, had “passionately loved.” On the contrary, it was
Mr. Thomas Howard, “not much harmed,” who was to be the happy man; and
the lady whom Broghill was presently to marry was the Lady Margaret
Howard, the beautiful daughter of the Earl and Countess of Suffolk, and a
cousin of Mr. Thomas Howard. The two young men had clashed swords to some
purpose; but Lord Broghill’s marriage with Lady Margaret Howard comes
into another chapter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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