Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/240

 23rd the king embarked on board Mountagu's flagship, the Naseby (Mountagu to Monck, Eg. MS. 2618, f. 77), whose name was thenceforth changed to Royal Charles, and on the 25th he landed at Dover. During the nine days' stay of the fleet at Scheveling, and the attendant festivities, Mountagu never went on shore, nor did he leave the ship till the king was on the point of embarking, when he went in the boat to the landing-place and in her received the king, who 'did, with a great deal of affection, kiss him upon his first meeting' (, 23 May).

For his services at this critical juncture Mountagu was nominated a knight of the Garter, garter king-at-arms coming on board the Royal Charles at Dover on 27 May, and investing him with the insignia of the order; on 19 June and again on 24 July he was thanked by the House of Commons' for his late service to his king and country ; 'and on 29 June a warrant was issued to create him Viscount Hinchinbroke and Earl of Portsmouth, but the last title was changed on 12 July to Earl of Sandwich. He was also appointed master of the wardrobe, admiral of the narrow seas, and lieutenant-admiral to the Duke of York. As admiral of the narrow seas he had to provide for the escort and care of all the persons of rank and distinction passing to and fro ; in September he brought the princess royal from Holland, in October the queen-dowager from France, and in the following January took them both to France. On the king's coronation, 23 April 1661, he carried the sceptre, wearing a dress, made in France, very rich with embroidery, which cost him 200l. (ib. 22 April 1661). In June he was elected master of the Trinity House, and on the 19th sailed from the Downs in command of the fleet for the Mediterranean, having also in charge to bring home the young queen, Catherine of Braganza. After being laid up for some days at Alicante, sick with a fever, he went to Algiers and tried to negotiate. The Algerines answered they would have no peace without liberty to search English ships, whereupon on 31 July Sandwich attempted to bring them to terms by force. An easterly wind and a rolling sea rendered the attempt ineffectual; and, as the weather continued bad, he left the fleet under the command of Sir John Lawson, while he himself with a few ships went to Lisbon. After some little stay there he took his squadron to Tangier, where he anchored on 10 Oct. By the marriage treaty Tangier was ceded to the English as part of the queen's dowry ; but among the Portuguese there was a great deal of popular feeling against the marriage of the infanta to a heretic, and the surrender of Tangier or any other place to the commercial rival of Portugal in the far east (, Continuation, p. 353). At Bombay the governor refused to carry out the cession [cf. , third ], and at Tangier the governor had a similar intention. There was thus a considerable delay, which was brought to an end after three months by the garrison sustaining a signal defeat from the Moors and being reduced to ask Sandwich for assistance (12-14 Jan. 1661-2 ;, Register and Chronicle, p. 617 ; , Continuation, p. 354). After this there was no further reluctance on the part of the Portuguese, and Sandwich, on establishing an English garrison and leaving the Earl of Peterborough as governor, returned to Lisbon.

His official reception was all that he could wish, and the opportunity of assisting in the repulse of a Spanish attack won for him the favour of the populace (ib. p. 355). There was, however, a difficulty about the payment of the dowry. The Portuguese were not only unable to pay the whole amount, 300,000l., but when, contrary to his instructions, Sandwich consented to receive the half, it appeared that even that could not be paid in cash. Merchandise he agreed to take, but bills of exchange he refused, and some six weeks passed before the matter could be settled. The queen embarked on 13 April, and on 14 May the squadron anchored at Spithead. Sandwich's conduct of the whole business was approved, and for some time he was in high favour at court ; but afterwards, when quarrels began between king and queen, he found himself blamed by each : by the king for bringing only half the money, and by the queen for having drawn too favourable a picture of the king's 'virtue and good-nature.' According to Clarendon, 'the tempest of so much injustice and the extreme affliction of mind 'threw him into' such a fever as brought him to the brink of his grave' (ib. p. 362) ; but Pepys, in constant attendance on Sandwich, though he speaks of his serious illness (19 Jan.-6 April 1663), describes it as a feverish cold of the nature of influenza, and refers to him, a few days before he was taken ill, as in the king's intimate confidence (12 Jan. 1662-3).

In November 1664, when the fleet was got together under the command of the Duke of York, with Prince Rupert as vice-admiral and admiral of the white, Sandwich, with his flag in the Prince, was rear-admiral of the fleet and admiral of the blue squadron (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 13 Nov.) He continued in