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 confidential servant, Richard Bellings [q. v.], himself a very strong catholic, to Rome, with letters to the pope and the leading cardinals (see drafts of the letters in Add, MS. 22548, ff. 23-70;, Portugal Restaurado, iv. 196). They chiefly related to the condition of Portugal, which had thus far been refused recognition as a kingdom by popes devoted to the Spanish interest. Subsequent correspondence of the same kind, though exciting odium, was generally of little importance, and often, as in 1674 to 1682, of a merely formal and complimentary character (Rawlinson MS. A. 483). It was also complained that her chapel became the resort of English catholics, and in 1667 an order of council forbade their flocking there (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1667, p. 457). The present of a richly bound Portuguese New Testament from the English chaplain at Goa was the only attempt recorded that could be even suspected as aiming at her conversion (it is still preserved in the Bodleian, MS. Tanner, lxxxiii.)

Catherine followed the history of her country with the keenest interest. Her mother's death, though long kept from her, affected her profoundly (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665-6, p. 342; cf. Hatton Correspondence, i. 49). Generally averse to letterwriting, she yet kept up a very considerable correspondence with her brother Peter (in Egerton MS. 1534 are eighty unedited letters of hers to him in Portuguese holograph). On one occasion her patriotic instincts led her to insult, very unnecessarily, the Spanish ambassador. When on what was thought to be her deathbed, her most earnest requests to her husband were to suffer her body to be buried in her beloved fatherland, and never to desert that alliance on which its independence mainly rested.

Catherine played a very small part in the intellectual life of her age. She encouraged Italian music in this country. Her chapel music, painfully bad when she first came over, was gradually improved. The first Italian opera performed in England was acted in her presence. She was fond of masques, and plays were constantly performed before her (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1666-7, p. 305). She set to Lely for her portrait, still at Hampton Court. She set a patriotic example of largely wearing English fabrics (ib. 1665-6, p. 31). Her devotion to tea, introduced into England by her countrymen, did much to make that beverage popular (see poem in Works, p. 221, ed. 1729). She is celebrated in the annals of fashion as introducing from Portugal the large green fans with which ladies shaded their faces before the introduction of parasols.

Her council and household had often to contend with the most pressing financial difficulties. On one occasion she complained to parliament that, of 40,000l. of her allowance, she had only received 4,000l. In 1663 lack of funds postponed a visit to Tunbridge Wells from May to July; and when the physician recommended the waters of Bourbon, she could only get enough money to go to Bath, though its stifling air was soon found to disagree with her (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1663-4, p. 234). A state visit to Bristol and a progress through the West Midlands followed this; and gossips noticed that, with the spread of a rumour that the queen was pregnant, Castlemaine fell out of favour, and Charles became more attentive to his wife (, 7 June 1663). Soon, however, after Catherine's return to London, she was prostrated by so severe a 'spotted fever accompanied by sore throat' that her life was despaired of (15 Oct.) Charles was much moved; he spent the greater part of the day in tears ly her bedside; and his affection,it was thought, did more to restore Catherine than the cordials and elixirs of her physicians. In March 1664 she was well enough to accompany Charles to the opening of parliament. In 1665 she was driven by the plague to Salisbury, and thence to Oxford to meet the parliament in October. Here she remained several months, lodged in Merton College. In February 1666 she miscarried; 'the evidence of fecundity must allay the trouble of the loss' (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Feb. 5; cf. Hatton Correspondence, i. 48). Clarendon's fall in 1667 deprived Catherine of an austere though real friend. His successors were ready to make political capital out of schemes to conciliate popular and court support by projects for her repudiation or divorce. Rumour spread that she was going to retire to a nunnery, and to be divorced on the plea of a vow of chastity, a pre-contract, or some similar excuse (, 7 Sept. 1667; cf., p. 842). Some divines recommended polygamy as the better way of getting a direct heir to the throne (, Own Times, Oxford edition, i. 480). Southwell, the English ambassador at Lisbon, was covered with confusion by the Queen of Portugal asking him whether the report had any foundation (Southwell to Arlington, 2-12 Dec. 1667). One wild rumour said that Buckingham had asked Charles for leave to steal her away and send her to some colony, and then ground a divorce on the plea of wilful desertion. Many found in Miss Stewart a new Anne Boleyn. Twice again (in 1668 and in 1669) there were hopes of her bearing children, but again they were doomed to 