Queen Anne Read online

  MARLBOROUGH. One thing: the King has asked Sophia to come and spend some time in England.

  SARAH. To set up Court, effectively.

  GODOLPHIN. God’s truth. Anne won’t agree to that. And rightly so.

  SARAH. She has no choice. We can’t risk the future of the Grand Alliance for the sake of Anne’s misplaced vanity.

  GODOLPHIN. A little more than vanity.

  SARAH. She may well die before the year is out – though we may pray she doesn’t.

  MARLBOROUGH. We thought to start for town at dawn. We’ll speak to her before the King arrives.

  GODOLPHIN. You must. Why, she’ll reject the notion out of hand to spite him. That aside from all the quite legitimate concerns she’s bound to feel regarding such a plan.

  SARAH. How has she fared without us?

  GODOLPHIN. Badly. This business with the baby has set her back considerably.

  MARLBOROUGH. We heard of it.

  GODOLPHIN. Though there’s a pamphlet going round that claims there was no child at all – only a severe case of wind.

  JACK. Really?

  SARAH. I wouldn’t be surprised it if were true.

  MARLBOROUGH. Now then, my love.

  SARAH. You men are far too soft about these things. But there. We’ll set her straight tomorrow. Only you must promise not to leave me on my own with her. It’s all very well for you – you talk a moment’s policy then leave. I’m left to sit with her for hours. A morning in her presence and there are times when I could throw myself from the nearest window, simply to be sure that I’m alive.

  MARLBOROUGH. You love her though – in honesty.

  SARAH. Do I? If I do, I don’t know why.

  JACK. Can I come to London with you?

  MARLBOROUGH. Of course you can.

  SARAH. But it will mean an early start. To bed, my darling Jack.

  JACK. Goodnight, Papa.

  MARLBOROUGH. Sleep well.

  JACK. Goodnight, Uncle Sidney.

  GODOLPHIN. Goodnight, my boy. Start practising that drum.

  JACK. I’ll practise on your head!

  SARAH. To bed now.

  Exit JACK.

  GODOLPHIN. I suppose I too should leave you. Unless there’s room in there for a little one?

  MARLBOROUGH/SARAH. Sorry, Sidney.

  GODOLPHIN. Hum.

  SARAH. But I can have a room prepared?

  GODOLPHIN. No, no. I really should continue on to London.

  MARLBOROUGH. We’ll meet you at St James’s.

  GODOLPHIN. As early as you can.

  GODOPHIN starts to leave but pauses.

  The Pretender…?

  MARLBOROUGH. Yes. We’d better write to St-Germain.

  GODOLPHIN. I’ll draft a letter.

  SARAH. Goodnight, my dearest friend.

  GODOLPHIN regards her.

  GODOLPHIN. Marlborough – you’re a lucky man.

  Exit GODOLPHIN. SARAH joins MARLBOROUGH in bed.

  MARLBOROUGH. Glad to be home?

  SARAH. Exceedingly. But what a time it was. You were magnificent.

  MARLBOROUGH. Was I?

  SARAH. I watched you move around that mirrored room, advising kings and heads of state. And I thought, he’s mine – thank God he’s mine, that plain John Churchill, that brave and honest man. All those crowns, and only you are great. None of them would go to war without you. None of them would dare.

  MARLBOROUGH. There are many other generals.

  SARAH. Yes. But none can honestly compare. This war will be your making. Your fortune and your fate.

  MARLBOROUGH. Then it will be yours too.

  They kiss.

  Too tired, my darling?

  SARAH. Never.

  Scene Three

  The bedroom, PRINCESS ANNE’s apartments, St James’s. KING WILLIAM (Dutch) is standing in the middle of the room. Behind him is HARLEY. In front of the King is a large bed, the curtains of which are closed. Standing close to the bed is PRINCE GEORGE OF DENMARK, half-dressed. Also present are two ladies-in-waiting – LADY CLARENDON and LADY SOMERSET, whose heads are bowed in deference. WILLIAM is addressing the bed.

  WILLIAM. A visit by the Electress Sophia to these shores will send a signal message to the world. The Protestant succession, together, side by side. It will leave the Spanish and the French no hope of any change in policy for years to come. And our allies with no doubt of our intent. With this you must agree?

  Silence.

  (To GEORGE.) Prince George, does your lady hear me?

  GEORGE. Oh, yes, Your Majesty.

  WILLIAM. Would she at least do me the courtesy of looking at my face?

  GEORGE. Your Majesty, as I am saying, we are only just awake. My Anne is not now in her clothes.

  WILLIAM. And what is that to me? Do you think I would be interested in that?

  Slowly, ANNE emerges from behind the curtains. She is dressed in a shabby nightdress. She stays very close to the bedpost. She does not look WILLIAM in the eye. She is full of anxiety, fear and anger, and it takes all her mental and physical strength to face the King.

  Princess. I hope you do not disagree with what I’ve said?

  ANNE. I do not understand such things and therefore cannot comment.

  WILLIAM. Tomorrow afternoon I will announce the invitation to the Court. All Ambassadors will be present. I ask only that you stand with me, and find your voice, and offer me support. May I count on you for that?

  ANNE. I do not understand such things and therefore cannot comment.

  WILLIAM. Why do you do this? This pretence of dumb stupidity? I know you understand me very well. And have opinions too. You’re quick enough to speak behind my back!

  GEORGE. Your Majesty, I must request, no shouting please.

  HARLEY. Your Majesty, if I might make so bold?

  WILLIAM nods to him.

  Your Highness Princess Anne. Prince George. My name is Robert Harley and I am Speaker of the Commons. I’m gratified beyond expression to find myself admitted to your presence. King William has asked me here today to offer you assurances, and by your gracious leave, I will.

  WILLIAM. Get on with it.

  HARLEY. There are presently two Bills before the House. The first will make it treason to try, in any way, to prevent your Highnesses’ accession to the throne. The second will attaint the Boy Pretender, so that, should he ever dare to show his face upon these Isles, he may be executed without trial. These Bills will meet no opposition. I beg you to believe that there is no one in the House, nay, I might say in England, who has the slightest wish to see your claim usurped.

  Pause.

  ANNE. I am grateful for your words. Now I’m afraid I have to dress. It’s almost time to pray.

  WILLIAM. So what is your answer?

  ANNE. I really cannot say. I do not understand such things and therefore cannot comment.

  WILLIAM. This is impossible. I have done everything in my power of late to bring about a change in our relations. Have I not? When Mary died I thought that we had, finally, achieved some understanding. I lost a most beloved wife. You lost your only sister. I offered then, that very day, to be a brother to you – not just in law, but every way. Now I come to you today, from courtesy, and I am met with this. Intolerable.

  GEORGE. Your Majesty…

  WILLIAM. I begin to ask myself, yes, if you do not prefer to own the Catholic Pretender as your brother after all…

  ANNE flinches.

  GEORGE (to ANNE). My darling, I think what the King is trying to say…

  WILLIAM. I do not need translating! Especially not by you!

  Enter MARLBOROUGH, SARAH and GODOLPHIN, alarmed.

  Marlborough. You had better speak to her for I cannot.

  MARLBOROUGH. By all means, Your Majesty. I came with that in mind. A little late, I see.

  WILLIAM (to SARAH). And you. Madam Favourite. I suggest you use your fabled status to show your mistress where her duty lies.

  SARAH. I hope I can oblige Your Majesty. Thoug
h my mistress is all duty and needs no tutelage from me.

  WILLIAM (to MARLBOROUGH). Come to me in Cabinet as soon as you are done. There is much we must discuss today.

  MARLBOROUGH. Assuredly.

  WILLIAM (leaving). Harley!

  Exit WILLIAM.

  HARLEY. Your Highnesses, forgive me.

  My lords. My lady. Need I say? Colossuses of counsel. Paragons all three. Gratified. Honoured. Excuse me, if you please.

  Exit HARLEY.

  GEORGE. The King is quite impatient. I feel I must go after him and say some words.

  MARLBOROUGH. Oh. Really, sir?

  GODOLPHIN. I would leave him for a while, sir. Allow him to regain his equanimity. Whatever you choose to say at once will not be well received.

  GEORGE. Ah, yes. Yes. Thank you, Lord Godolphin. This is good advice for me.

  SARAH. Young Jack is in the stable yard, Prince George. He was hoping you would pick him out a horse. He means to join the hunt tomorrow morning.

  GEORGE. My happy friend! Of course. I will go to him at once.

  ANNE. A chair.

  A LADY-IN-WAITING takes ANNE a chair and helps her to sit. GEORGE rushes to her.

  GEORGE. Unless… My Anne. My little one. Would you rather that I stayed?

  ANNE. No, no, my love. You go to Jack. You must.

  GEORGE. Then I shall leave you with our dearest comrades.

  GEORGE starts to leave.

  ANNE. George? Don’t forget to eat.

  GEORGE. Ye gods above! I haven’t had my breakfast. Is it not the pleasantest surprise to realise one owes oneself a meal?

  Exit GEORGE.

  MARLBOROUGH. Forgive us, my dear lady. We meant to spare you such a scene. A most unwelcome advent to your day.

  ANNE (slowly and tremulously). I have no words unclean enough to tell you how I hate the King.

  GODOLPHIN (to LADIES). Leave us, please.

  Exit LADIES-IN-WAITING.

  ANNE. Do you know his first remark when he arrived? He asked me why my rooms are decked in black? Why the black drapes at the windows? Why? Is there a woman on this earth with better cause to grieve? My father is not dead three months. Though he was exiled many years, do I not have the right to mourn? And I have lost another babe.

  MARLBOROUGH. We know. News reached us in The Hague. We shed hot tears in thought of you.

  GODOLPHIN. The country shares the burden of your grief.

  SARAH. Indeed.

  ANNE. But what am I doing? I haven’t even welcomed you. Welcome back. Oh, welcome home. You cannot know how much I’ve missed you.

  SARAH. We missed you too.

  ANNE. But did you not receive my letters? I sent one almost every day.

  SARAH. I had the last. Perhaps the others went astray somehow.

  MARLBOROUGH. Sarah was in great demand.

  SARAH. The girls and I were taken here and everywhere. To Ghent, to Amsterdam. We hardly knew where we would be from one day to the next.

  ANNE. Your lucky daughters. If only I could have travelled with you too.

  SARAH. How heavenly that would have been.

  GODOLPHIN. Your Highness, if we might gently touch upon the invitation issued to Sophia?

  ANNE. I can’t allow it. Can I? It’s done to make a fool of me. What, will she jump into my grave?

  MARLBOROUGH. I’m certain that was not the King’s intention.

  SARAH. I doubt that he considered you. You’re not so very major in his thoughts.

  GODOLPHIN. Ma’am, your exiled father’s death in St-Germain has precipitated something of a crisis. As he took his final breaths, they say King Louis knelt beside his bed and swore to him he will not rest until he’s seen his son…

  SARAH. The Pretender.

  GODOLPHIN. Yes – installed upon the English throne.

  SARAH. And England is made Catholic.

  MARLBOROUGH. That’s why, ma’am, this Alliance is so vital. An alliance of Protestant sovereigns united in the solemn aim of defeating Catholic ambition.

  Pause.

  ANNE. But why should Sophia have to come here? She’ll never wear the crown. Her claim is academic, is it not? The Dutchman’s questionable reign is like to last for many years to come and then I will be Queen. And I will have a daughter or a son and he will then succeed me.

  GODOLPHIN. Please God that it is so.

  ANNE. And there’s our Protestant succession.

  SARAH. But we must consider all eventualities.

  ANNE. The Dutchman dared to claim I love the Boy Pretender. I, who have done more than anyone to disavow that impostor, that urchin, who my most misguided father picked up off the street.

  GODOLPHIN. Yes, ma’am.

  ANNE. And to say he came today from ‘courtesy’. He does not know the meaning of the word. He came because he needs me, for there are those, there must be, who heed my actions still.

  MARLBOROUGH. But of course there are, ma’am. That’s why it’s so important that you give the invitation your support.

  GODOLPHIN. Your Highness, as your appointed counsellor, I’m bound to say I wish the King had spoken to you first.

  ANNE. And so do I.

  GODOLPHIN. But now the offer’s made to her, I fear it can’t be taken back.

  MARLBOROUGH. Not without we cause severe offence.

  SARAH. Imagine how our enemies would jeer to see the cracks appear so fast in our united front.

  MARLBOROUGH. Even your silence at this time would shake the people to the core.

  ANNE. Really? I wouldn’t wish unrest upon the land.

  SARAH. Of course you wouldn’t, ma’am.

  GODOLPHIN. There is some Tory opposition to the war and the Alliance. Your silence now would strengthen it, I fear.

  SARAH. I think the invitation has to stand.

  Pause.

  ANNE. Very well. For all the world I wouldn’t risk what you’ve achieved. I’ll go to Court tomorrow and support the King in this.

  GODOLPHIN. Thank you, ma’am. Your wisdom, as ever, is supreme.

  MARLBOROUGH. I hope you know, Your Highness, that if any man were fool enough to put himself between you and the throne, I’d knock him down and trample on his guts.

  ANNE. I doubt it not, dear Marlborough. And heaven knows there is no limit to my gratitude.

  GODOLPHIN. I’ve written a letter on your behalf to the Pretender in St-Germain. As you know, it is our policy to placate the boy with false avowals of your consideration for his claim should you be Queen.

  MARLBOROUGH. His advisers will have been alarmed by news of the Alliance. But a little reassurance should suffice to keep him fast upon our line.

  ANNE. Then you have thought of everything for me. Just as you have always done.

  GODOLPHIN. And will endeavour, tirelessly, to do so.

  SARAH. Now we ought to leave you to your prayers. We know how much they mean to you.

  ANNE. Thank you, my darling. But you’ll return and stay with me tonight?

  SARAH. Tonight? I can’t. Forgive me. Jack soon returns to Cambridge and to his tutor there. I’ve had so little time for him with having been abroad.

  ANNE. Well, then. I know too fully how it feels to crave some laughing moments with a son.

  SARAH. I’ll come back soon, I promise.

  The MARLBOROUGHS and GODOLPHIN move to leave.

  MARLBOROUGH. We’ll see you at the Court, Your Highness, tomorrow afternoon.

  ANNE. Yes. (Pause.) Hopefully.

  They stop.

  I dare say I’ll awaken in the morning and find my resolution gone. Tomorrow will be very hard for me.

  Pause.

  MARLBOROUGH (to SARAH). Perhaps we could delay young Jack’s return?

  SARAH. Why, yes. I really think we must. I’ll wait on you tonight, Your Highness.

  ANNE. Will you, dear one?

  SARAH. Happily.

  Scene Four

  A corridor, St James’s. Afternoon. Enter HARLEY. He looks about him surreptitiously. Enter GODOLPHIN, passing by fro
m another direction. HARLEY tries to slip away, but GODOLPHIN has spotted him.

  GODOLPHIN. Harley.

  HARLEY. Yes, my Lord Godolphin?

  GODOLPHIN. Is Marlborough still in conference with the King?

  HARLEY. He is, my lord. And has been so for many hours. I wouldn’t hazard to suggest when they’ll be done. Lord Marlborough’s expertise, as you’re aware, is unsurpassed. All hang on his authority.

  GODOLPHIN. Where stands the Commons on the war at present?

  HARLEY. Ah. Opinion’s still divided. The Whigs are staunch in their support. The Tories though…

  GODOLPHIN. How I hate this terminology. Must we be tribes?

  HARLEY. Oh, I agree. The Tories though – and I hasten to assure you I am not of this opinion – fear the cost of it and wonder where it’s like to end?

  GODOLPHIN. Hum. Then we have work to do, Mr Harley.

  GODOLPHIN starts to leave.

  HARLEY. I trust to your tenacity, my lord, and will await instruction.

  Exit GODOLPHIN. HARLEY looks about once more, then exits briefly and returns with ABIGAIL.

  Now then. Wait here. She’s soon to pass this way. Flatter her, but not excessively. She hates all manner of dissembling.

  ABIGAIL. She’ll find no insincerity in me.

  HARLEY. Though I must remind you to conceal the matter of our kinship. She has no great aversion to me as far as I’m aware, and yet it might alarm her.

  ABIGAIL. Then I’ll neglect to mention it, and trust there is no lie in the omission.

  HARLEY. But here she comes. You’ll send to me?

  ABIGAIL. If I have anything to say.

  Enter SARAH, in the company of LADIES.

  HARLEY. Countess, my lady, if you please?

  SARAH. What is it, Mr Harley? I am rather pressed.

  HARLEY. Forgive me for detaining you, but I found this woman in the hall. She seeks an audience with you but has been turned away, it seems, on numerous occasions.

  SARAH. I expect there is good reason for it.

  HARLEY. She is related to you, madam. So she claims.

  SARAH indicates to the LADIES to walk on. Exit LADIES.

  SARAH. Related to me? How?

  ABIGAIL. My name is Abigail Hill, my lady. You met my mother once – your aunt – not many years ago. The kindness which you showed my brothers then remained with her until her dying day.

  SARAH. Why, we are cousins.