Literature of the Stuart Successions by Andrew McRae;John West;

Author:Andrew McRae;John West;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Manchester University Press

IV.3 Samuel Pepys, from his diary (25 May 1660)

The diary of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) is one of the most important records of English society in the years following the Restoration, and Pepys himself was closely involved in the events surrounding Charles’s return. As secretary to Edward Montagu, whom he referred to in the diary as ‘My Lord’, Pepys set out for the Netherlands on board the Naseby (soon to be renamed the Royal Charles), part of an expedition to collect the three Stuart brothers, Charles, James and Henry, and bring them back to England. In this entry, he recounts their return to Dover and describes the formal ceremonies that greeted Charles there. Yet the smaller details arising from Pepys’s proximity to unfolding events and the returning Stuart brothers add a human touch to this account that is largely absent from many printed sources.

Source: Pepys kept his diary from January 1660 to May 1669. It is kept with the rest of his library at Magdelene College, Cambridge. The modern edition, based a full transcription of the Magdelene College papers, is The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription, ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews, 11 vols (London: Bell & Hyman, 1970–83), vol. 1, pp. 157–9. We follow this authoritative edition for our text.

By the morning we were come close to the land and everybody made ready to get on shore.

The King and the two Dukes did eat their breakfast before they went, and there being set some ship’s diet before them, only to show them the manner of the ship’s diet, they eat of nothing else but peas and pork and boiled beef.

I had Mr. Darcy1 at my cabin and Dr. Clarke,2 who eat with me and told me how the King had given £50 to Mr. Shipley3 for my Lord’s4 servants, and £500 among the officers and common men of the ship. I spoke with the Duke of York about business, who called me Pepys by name, and upon my desire did promise me his future favour.5

Great expectation of the King’s making some knights, but there was none. About noon (though the brigantine6 that Beale7 made was there ready to carry him), yet he would go in my Lord’s barge with the two Dukes; our captain steered, and my Lord went along bare8 with him. I went, and Mr. Mansell9 and one of the King’s footmen, with a dog that the King loved (which shit in the boat, which made us laugh and me think that a king and all that belong to him are but just as others are) went in a boat by ourselves; and so got on shore when the King did, who was received by General Monck10 with all imaginable love and respect at his entrance upon the land of Dover. Infinite the crowd of people and the gallantry of the horsemen, citizens, and noblemen of all sorts.

The mayor of the town came and gave him his white staff, the badge of his place, which the King did give him again.

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