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The Abbess and Mrs. Brown: Lady Mary Knatchbull and Royalist Politics in Flanders in the late 1650s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Caroline M.K. Bowden
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Extract

The letters of Mary Knatchbull, abbess of the English Benedictine Convent in Ghent between 1650 and her death in 1696, are of considerable interest. They reveal a woman operating with significant influence in two discrete spheres: the enclosed cloister and the royalist court in exile. This article will consider briefly the religious career of Mary Knatchbull and her importance to the Benedictines of Ghent, before examining in detail her part in the restoration of Charles II. It examines the unexpressed dichotomy of seemingly irreconcilable rôles performed by a member of an enclosed Order who on the one hand, in fulfilling her vows, was submissive and obedient, and yet on the other, was able to communicate with senior royalist advisers confidently and involve herself in the strategic planning of the campaign for the return of Charles II to England. As abbess, Mary Knatchbull led her community effectively at a difficult time. Under her leadership the convent survived an expensive building programme, established a successful new house and maintained high standards of practice in the religious life of the convent. From conventual records, it is clear that she was considered one of the outstanding abbesses of the seventeenth century in the English Benedictine community. Her correspondence with the royalists ministers in exile shows her opinions were taken seriously. She was regarded as a competent organiser and she had extensive links covering Flanders, France and England that kept her in touch with developments of interest to the king. Hitherto her life has been little known and published writing has been largely devoted to her rôle as an abbess. Mary Knatchbull’s life challenges categorisation and shows the importance of flexibility of approach to understanding the rôle of women in the early modern period.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , May 1999 , pp. 288 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

Notes on manuscripts. The dates given are those which appear on letters. Dates in Flanders, as in most of the continent were 10 days ahead of those in England, which followed the old (Julian) calendar. The new year is taken to start on 1 January rather than 25 March. Spelling is as in the original except that contractions have been expanded: punctuation has been modernised. Current rates of exchange: 13 florins were the equivalent of £1.

The author is grateful for advice and encouragement in the writing of this paper from Dr Mary Prior.

1 Annals of the English Benedictines of Ghent, now at St Mary’s Abbey, Oulton, Staffs, 1894, afterwards Annals; ‘Abbess Anne Neville’s Annals of English Benedictine Nuns’, Catholic Record Society, Misc. 5, 1909, afterwards ‘Abbess Neville’; Knatchbull-Hugessen, H., Kentish family, Shenval Press, London, 1961.Google Scholar

2 For discussion of women acting in a political capacity see Bowden, Caroline, ‘Women as intermediaries: an example of the use of literacy in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,’ History of Education, 1993, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 215–223.Google Scholar

3 Mary Knatchbull’s manuscripts are to be found in a number of places. Those used for this paper are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Carte and Clarendon collections; British Library, Additional Manuscripts 21,483, 28,225, Egerton 2536; Public Record Office, State Papers and St Mary’s Abbey, Oulton, Staffordshire.

4 Townshend, Dorothea, George Digby, second Earl of Bristol, London, 1924, p. 177.Google Scholar An alternative version is given by Hyde in his memoir of George Digby, when he suggests that the marriage was set up by the abbess and the young man’s mother. Ollard, Richard, Clarendon’s Four Portraits, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1989, pp. 93–94.Google Scholar

5 See ‘Obituary Notices of Nuns of the Benedictine Abbey of Ghent,’ Catholic Record Society, Misc. 11, 1917, pp. 72–80; afterwards ‘Obit. Notices.’

6 ‘Abbess Neville’, pp. 35–36.

7 Annals pp. 162–4; MS Oulton Abbey, Gll.

8 Annals, p. 165.

9 Annals, p. 179.

10 ‘Abbess Neville’, p. 37.

11 See Catholic Archives, Vols. 1–12, 1981–1991.

12 ‘Abbess Neville’, p. 30–36.

13 Hutton, Ronald, Charles II, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 75–77 Google Scholar, afterwards, Charles II.

14 Peacey, Jason T., ‘Order and Disorder in Europe: Parliamentary Agents and Royalist Thugs 164950’, The Historical Journal, 40, 4 (1997), pp. 953–976.Google Scholar

15 Charles II, p. 89.

16 Oxford, Bodleian, MSS Clarendon Vol. 52 f81, 17 July 1656.

17 Bodleian, MSS Clarendon Vol. 52 f341, 18 October 1656.

18 Scott, Eva The Travels of the King: Charles II in Germany and Flanders 1654–1660, London, Constable, 1907, p. 320 Google Scholar, afterwards Travels.

19 Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1704, Vol. 3, pp. 481–482.Google Scholar

20 British Library, MSS Egerton 2536 f243.

21 Travels, p. 372.

22 Travels, pp. 61, 126.

23 Bodleian MSS Clarendon Vol. 64 f183, Mary Knatchbull to Hyde, 6 September 1659.

24 See for example, MSS Clarendon Vol 57 f21, Mary Knatchbull to Hyde, 7 Jan 1658; Vol. 59 ff110–1, Mary Knatchbull to Hyde, 14 October 1658; Vol. 71 ff268–9, Mary Knatchbull to Hyde, 16 April 1660.

25 Austen, Brien, English Provincial Posts 1633–1840, Philimore, London, 1978, pp. 3 & 10.Google Scholar

26 Bodleian, MSS Clarendon Vol. 57 f21, Mary Knatchbull to Hyde, 30 December 1657. Among male letter-writers female names were used as disguise by Lord Willoughby, Hyde, and Morland; Hyde appears as Mrs Sarah Tomlinson, Elizabeth Denman and Madame Shaw.

27 Mary Knatchbull expressed anxiety about delays caused by interference in MSS Clarendon Vol. 65 ff 146–7, 7 October; Vol. 65 ff188–189, 11 October, Vol. 66 ff37–38; 5 November; Vol. 67 ff83–84 30 November; Vol. 67 ff9, 12 December; Vol. 67 f215–216, 24 December, all in 1659; she was concerned about the weather in Vol. 64 f258, 12 September 1659.

28 BL, MSS Egerton 2,536 f243, Mary KnatchbuIl to Nicholas.

29 MSS Clarendon Vol. 66 ff200–201, 18 November 1659, Earl of Bristol to Edward Hyde.

30 PRO, SP77 f32.

31 MSS Clarendon Vol. 59 ff87–88, 17 October 1658; Vol. 64 ffl97–198, 7 September 1659.

32 MSS Clarendon Vol. 59 ff28–29, 5 October 1658.

33 MSS Clarendon Vol. 61 ff191–192, 14 June 1659.

34 MSS Clarendon Vol 67 f83, 30 November 1659.

35 MSS Clarendon Vol. 66 ff37–8, 5 November 1659.

36 MSS Clarendon Vol. 67 ff215–216, 24 December 1659.

37 MSS Clarendon Vol. 64 f183, 16 September 1659.

38 MSS Clarendon Vol. 61 f93, 13 June 1659.

39 MSS Clarendon Vol. 64 f105, Mary Knatchbull to Hyde, 8 September 1659.

40 MSS Clarendon Vol. 65 f69, 4 October 1659.

41 MSS Clarendon Vol. 66 f37, Mary Knatchbull to Hyde, 5 November 1659.

42 MSS Clarendon Vol. 66 fl20v., 12 November 1659.

43 MSS Clarendon Vol. 67 f83, 10 December 1659.

44 Hutton, Ronald, The Restoration, Oxford, Oxford Univeristy Press, 1985, pp. 78–79 Google Scholar, afterwards The Restoration.

45 MSS Clarendon Vol. 67 f215v., 24 December 1659. Mary Knatchbull should here be referring to the Council since the decision was not taken until 10 December to call a new parliament.

46 Bodleian, MSS Carte Vol. 213 f512. Fairfax who had been long retired was prepared to rise against Lambert to assist Monck: see Hutton, The Restoration, p. 72.Google Scholar

47 MSS Carte 213 f636.

48 MSS Carte Vol 30 f543. On 10 March Monck spoke publicly for a Commonwealth, but was reported to have said privately that he would submit to the wishes of the next parliament if it wanted a restoration, The Restoration, p. 106.

49 MSS Carte Vols. 213 ff693, and 314 ff23 and 26.

50 The Restoration, p. 94.

51 MSS Clarendon Vol. 71 f258, 14 April 1660.

52 MSS Carte 30 f541, 3 March 1660.

53 MSS Clarendon Vol. 72 f365b 11 May 1660: and f391 25 May 1660.

54 MSS Carte Vol. 213 f222.

55 See for example, MSS Clarendon Vol. 72 ff365b and f391 of 11 May and 25 May 1660.

56 MSS Clarendon Vol. 57 f21, 7 Jan 1658.

57 MSS Carte Vol. 213 f492 16 December 1659.

58 MSS Carte Vol. 213 f494, New Year’s Day 1660.

59 MSS Clarendon Vol. 71 f164, 6 April 1660.

60 MSS Carte Vol. 214 f234, Bristol to Ormonde, 2 June 1660.

61 Annals, p. 39.

62 ‘Abbess Neville’, p. 39.

63 ‘Abbess Neville’, p. 40.

64 ‘Abbess Neville’ p. 56.

65 BL Add MSS 28225 f293, Mary Knatchbull to Mary of Modena, 1688.

66 Knatchbull-Hugessen, H., Kentish Family, Shenval Press, London, 1961, p 52.Google Scholar

67 CSPD, 1659–60, p. 21. Letter from Philip Throgmorton to Robert Carey.