1665. Richard Duke, the poet. 1668. Sir Richard Blackmore, the poet and physician. 1668. 1673. 1675. Edmund Smith, the poet. Nicholas Rowe, the dramatic poet. Sir John Friend, the philosopher and physician. 1681. Barton Booth, the celebrated actor. 1693. Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle, minister to George the Second. 1700. John Dyer, the poet. 1703. Bishop Newton, author of the "Dissertation on the Prophecies." 1706. Isaac Hawkins Browne, the poet. 1721. Thomas Sheridan, the author and actor. 1730. Thomas King, the comedian. 1731. William Cowper, the poet. 1731. Charles Churchill, the poet. 1732. Warren Hastings. 1732. Richard Cumberland, the dramatic writer. 1733. Robert Lloyd, the poet. 1733. George Colman, the dramatic writer and scholar. 1774. Robert Southey, the poet, historian, and biographer. CHAPTER XII. OLD PALACE OF WESTMINSTER. Its Early Regal Builders and Tenants - Edward the Second and Gaveston-Death Scene of Henry the Fourth - Henry the Eighth the Last Resident - Court of Requests - Painted Chamber Gunpowder Plot-St. Stephen's Chapel-Old and New Palace Yard. THE earliest notice which we discover of a royal residence at Westminster is in the reign of Canute, who is mentioned as holding his court here in 1035; and it seems to have been from one of the windows of this palace that the perfidious Saxon traitor, Duke Edric, was thrown, by order of Canute, into the Thames. The palace of the Dane was burnt down a few years afterward, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, who, on its site, erected a far more magnificent structure. Every trace of Canute's palace has ceased to exist, but the foundations and a considerable part of the Confessor's structure still remain; and, but for the fatal fire which took place on the 16th of October, 1834, we should still be able to wander into the Court of Requests and the Painted Chamber, the former, it is said, the banqueting-room, and the latter the sleeping-apartment of the "meek Confessor," which, with the exception of internal adornment, remained in the same state in which they existed in the middle of the eleventh century. It is scarcely necessary to remark that Old Palace Yard points out where stood the palace of the Confessor, and New Palace Yard, the site of the additions made by the early Norman kings. From the windows of the former, the Confessor could watch the progress made by the glorious abbey toward completion, the principal object of his life. "He pressed on the work," says Sulcardus, "very earnestly, having appropriated to it a tenth of his entire substance in gold, silver, cattle, and all other possessions." In 1085 we find William the Conqueror holding his court at Whitsuntide, in the palace of Westminster, on which occasion he received the homage of his subjects, and knighted his youngest son, afterward Henry the First. William Rufus held his court here in 1099, and the following year kept the festival of Whitsuntide within the magnificent hall which had recently risen under his auspices. During the reign of Henry the First, the Confessor's palace appears to have been the constant residence of that monarch, and of his pious and gentle consort, Matilda, daughter of Malcolm the Third, King of Scotland, and niece to Edward Atheling. During Lent, the good queen was constantly to be seen issuing from the palace, barefooted and clothed in a garment of horsehair, crossing the Old Palace Yard to the "Old Chapter House," where she performed her devotions and washed the feet of the poor. She died in Westminster Palace, on the 1st of May, 1118, and was buried within the walls of the Chapter House, which had so often been witness to her charities and her piety. Here King Stephen and Henry the Second were both crowned at Westminster, and both, at different times, held their courts in the Old Palace. Richard Cœur de Lion held a magnificent court on the occasion of his coronation, in September, 1189, and here it was, when seated at dinner in the "Little Hall," at Westminster, that the news was brought to him that King Philip, of France, had invaded his Norman duchy, and besieged Vernoil. Starting from table in a violent rage, he swore passionately that he would never "turn away his face" till he had met the French king and given him battle, and immediately set off for Portsmouth, where he embarked for Normandy. On the return of the lion-hearted king to his dominions, in 1197, having dispossessed his brother John of the throne, we find him again crowned at Westminster. After the death of his brother, King John was crowned in the abbey, with the usual formalities, and during his reign we find him more than once keeping Christmas at Westminster. Henry the Third, the successor of King John, made great additions to the palace of the Confessor. During his reign, we find numerous notices of his having kept his court and held diverse festivals at Westminster. Here especially, in 1235, took place the interesting betrothment of Isabella, the king's sister, to the Emperor Frederic. "In February, 1235," writes Matthew Paris, "two ambassadors from the emperor arrived at Westminster, to demand in marriage for their master the Princess Isabella, the king's sister. The king summoned a council of the bishops and great men of the kingdom, to consider the proposals of the emperor; to which, after three days' consultation, a unanimous consent was given. The ambassadors then entreated that they might be permitted to see the princess. The king sent confidential messengers for his sister to the Tower of London, where she was kept in vigilant custody; and they most respectfully brought the damsel to Westminster into the presence of her brother. She was in the twenty-first year of her age, exceedingly beautiful, in the flower of youthful virginity, becomingly adorned with royal vestments and accomplishments, and thus she was introduced to the imperial envoys. They, when they had for awhile delighted themselves with beholding the virgin, and judged her to be in all things worthy of the imperial bed, confirmed by oath the emperor's proposal of matrimony, presenting to her, on the part of their master, the wedding |