died at Theobalds in 1625, were brought to this palace before their interment in Westminster Abbey: the King's body lay in state here from the 23d of April till the 17th of May.

Penuant says, "The back front and the water-gate were built from a beautiful design of Inigo Jones, after the year 1623," but it may be questioned whether those were not the new buildings spoken of by Strype as having been previously raised by Anne of Denmark. The chapel, which Pennant states was begun by Jones in the above year, and afterwards finished, was "intended for the use of the Infanta of Spain, the designed spouse of Charles I. when Prince of Wales; but, on the failure of that romantic match, it served for the uses of the professors of her religion."*

After the marriage of Charles the First with Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry the Fourth, of France, and Mary de Medicis, Denmark House was fitted up for the Queen's particular use, and by a grant dated February the 15th, 1626, it was settled on her for life.

By the marriage articles, extraordinary concessions were made in favour of the Catholics, and there can be no doubt of the match having been agreed to on the part of the Romanists, with the covert design of effecting the restoration of Popery in this Kingdom.

Admiral Seymour, observes, that "the train of the Queen, and the long gown of the Duchess, raised a dust which put out the eyes of both their husbands."-" Worthies," under Wiltshire.

* Vide," London," p. 155; edit. 1793.

The Queen was not only allowed to have, herself, the free exercise of the "Roman Catholick-Apostolick Religion," but all her children were to be brought up in the same faith, and under her own direction till they were thirteen years of age. She was to have a chapel in all the royal palaces, "beautified with decent ornaments," and, also, in every place in which she might reside in the King's dominions. A Bishop of her own faith was to be her almoner, twenty-eight priests, or ecclesiastics, were to serve in her chapel, and all the regulars among them were to wear the habit of their order; the domestics of her household were to be French Catholics.*

Under the authority of those stipulations, this mansion became the very focus of Catholicism, and a convent of Capuchin Friars was established here by the Queen. The great encouragement thus given to the Papists, had a most important bearing on the unhappy dissensions between Charles and his Parliament, which terminated in the Civil War, and so early as 1628, the House of Commons, in a particular Remonstrance to the King, complained of the number of families that attended mass at Denmark House. The ferment was much increased by the coming to England of the Queen's mother in 1638, (who was lodged at St. James's,) the open practice of the Romish worship by the two Queens, having made many proselytes, especially among those of rank and consequence.-The

* See Du Chesne, p. 1182; and Rymer's "Fœdera," tom. xvii. p. 673.

King's court was kept at Whitehall, but he occasionally resided in this house with the Queen; and here, in 1641, William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, (father of William the Third) had his first interview with the Princess Mary, previously to their marriage on the 2d of May following. Within a short time after, the Prince returned to Holland. In the ensuing February, 1641-2, the Princess of Orange left England to rejoin him, accompanied by the Queen, her mother, who secretly took with her the crown jewels, which were soon afterwards sold to purchase arms and ammunition for her ill-fated husband.*

The Catholic establishment at this Palace, soon became a subject of Parliamentary attention, and on the 10th of November, 1642, it was ordered, "that the Sheriffs do cause the altar, and such crucifixes, images, and monuments of idolatry, as are in the chapel and monastery there, to be demolished." At the same time the Friars were commanded to depart the kingdom "within a month," but that order having been disobeyed, the House of Commons further resolved, on the 13th of March, 1642-3, that the Capuchins be taken into custody to be "sent into France," and

* The ruthless design to coerce the people, and deprive them of their rights by force of arms, must unquestionably, have been entertained before the Queen's departure, or the crown jewels would not have been intrusted to her charge, To the excessive bigotry of Henrietta-Maria, and the great influence she had obtained over the King's mind, must be ascribed a considerable part of those despotical proceedings, which, deservedly, brought him to the block.