DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0071
QUEEN CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA.
65
was authorized to make. Portugal was to pay down in ready
money five hundred thousand pounds sterling, as the marriage
portion of the Infanta; and to assign over to the crown of Eng-
land the fortress of Tangier, on the African coast, and the island
of Bombay in the East Indies, with full liberty to the English of
trading to the Brazils. To the profuse and needy Charles, the
offer of half a million of money, placed at his sole disposal, was a
tempting consideration : the religion of the Infanta was no objec-
tion to him, and he hoped that the advantageous conditions
annexed to the treaty would render it palatable to his people.
When it was laid before the council, Clarendon, whose influence
was then at its height, eagerly supported the measure ; partly
from a conviction of its political utility, partly to prevent the
suspicion that he had been privy to the marriage of his daughter*
with the Duke of York, in the hope of her offspring succeeding to
the crown: perhaps, also, he thought to make the young Queen
his friend, in opposition to the mistresses and profligate courtiers,
whom his natural timidity of disposition made him fear, but whom
the inborn integrity of his character would not allow him to court.
Supported by his credit, and the evident wishes of the King', the
treaty met with no opposition from the council. The Portuguese
ambassador returned to his country to make known the favourable
sentiments of the King, and to bring back full powers for the ratifi-
cation of the treaty: he carried with him also a letter from Charles
to the Infanta, written with his majesty’s own hand, in which he
addressed her as his wife.
Even when matters had gone thus far, and the King’s honour
was in some degree pledged, the treaty was nearly broken off by
the intrigues of the Earl of Bristol, who was devoted to the
Spanish interest, then in direct opposition to that of Portugal.
Bristol,f the most crack-brained of political profligates, whose
* Anne Hyde.
t George Digby. See more of him in the Memoir of Lady Sunderland.
65
was authorized to make. Portugal was to pay down in ready
money five hundred thousand pounds sterling, as the marriage
portion of the Infanta; and to assign over to the crown of Eng-
land the fortress of Tangier, on the African coast, and the island
of Bombay in the East Indies, with full liberty to the English of
trading to the Brazils. To the profuse and needy Charles, the
offer of half a million of money, placed at his sole disposal, was a
tempting consideration : the religion of the Infanta was no objec-
tion to him, and he hoped that the advantageous conditions
annexed to the treaty would render it palatable to his people.
When it was laid before the council, Clarendon, whose influence
was then at its height, eagerly supported the measure ; partly
from a conviction of its political utility, partly to prevent the
suspicion that he had been privy to the marriage of his daughter*
with the Duke of York, in the hope of her offspring succeeding to
the crown: perhaps, also, he thought to make the young Queen
his friend, in opposition to the mistresses and profligate courtiers,
whom his natural timidity of disposition made him fear, but whom
the inborn integrity of his character would not allow him to court.
Supported by his credit, and the evident wishes of the King', the
treaty met with no opposition from the council. The Portuguese
ambassador returned to his country to make known the favourable
sentiments of the King, and to bring back full powers for the ratifi-
cation of the treaty: he carried with him also a letter from Charles
to the Infanta, written with his majesty’s own hand, in which he
addressed her as his wife.
Even when matters had gone thus far, and the King’s honour
was in some degree pledged, the treaty was nearly broken off by
the intrigues of the Earl of Bristol, who was devoted to the
Spanish interest, then in direct opposition to that of Portugal.
Bristol,f the most crack-brained of political profligates, whose
* Anne Hyde.
t George Digby. See more of him in the Memoir of Lady Sunderland.