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Like the Russells, so the
Bentincks, Earls and Dukes of Portland, owe the high position which they
hold in the highest grade of our aristocracy to a mere accident, which
made their founder the object of royal favor. Part of the story is well
known; but the accident to which I refer is known only to members of a
narrow and privileged circle.
When William, Prince of
Orange, came over to England in order to rid us of the unpopular rule of
James II, he brought
with him a large army of Dutch soldiers, and a goodly sprinkling of the
members of the Dutch nobility, who doubtless were quite content to
exchange their dwellings among the dykes of Holland for the green fields
and pleasant. homesteads of this country. Among
them were the Schombergs, the De Ginkels, the Auverquerques, the
ZuIesteins, the Keppels, and last, not least,
the Bentincks.
Burke and the heralds tell us
but little about the antecedents of the Bentincks in their own country.
But they would appear to have been soldiers of fortune, and always ready
to risk their lives and substance in the service of their prince.
The particular member
of the house of Bentinck who resolved to share the fortunes of William the
Dutchman was William, son of Henry Bentinck, who is styled Herr Van
Dipenham in Overyssel. The son, as a youth, was page of honor to the
prince, and in his early manhood became his 'confidential
adviser.' He had already given the prince a strong proof of his fidelity
and affection; for, when the former was ill with the small-pox, he not
only nursed him day and night, but voluntarily shared his bed-room, and
even his bed, at the risk of his own life.
Such heroic conduct
deserved a reward, and for a wonder it received one. Bentinck was
sent, whilst quite a young man, to England, on a confidential and
delicate mission, namely, to negotiate the marriage of the Prince of
Orange with the Princess Mary, daughter of
James, Duke of York. Accompanying his royal master to our shores, he
landed with him in Torbay, rode up to London by his side, and as soon as
the prince had accepted the throne which was offered to him by the Houses
of Parliament, he was appointed groom of the stole and first gentleman of
the royal bed-chamber, and sworn a member of the Privy Council. Two days
before the coronation of William and Mary, he was made a peer
of his adopted country, by the 'name, style, and title of Earl of
Portland, Viscount Woodstock, and Baron of Cirencester:' He subsequently
held the important command of the king's own regiment of Dutch Guards, and
in that capacity played a leading part at the battle of the Boyne.
He was a man marked by no great brilliancy of
parts, but of sterling integrity and fidelity, and his bravery was beyond
question. By his first wife, who was a Villiers, the sister of the Earl of
Jersey, he had a family of daughters, most of whom were married to English peers, and also a son, who became at
his death second earl, and was shortly afterwards created Duke of
Portland.
Bentiuck does not seem
to have taken any open part in the intrigues and negotiations of 1688-9,
but there is little doubt that he acted privately as 'wire-puller'
for his royal master throughout. Some ten years
after William's accession, Lord Portland was dispatched into a sort of
honorable exile, being sent as ambassador to Louis XIV. at Versailles
after the peace of Ryswick; and it is probable that he himself sought this
appointment, because he was growing jealous of a rival in the king's favor
namely, Keppel, who had been made Lord
Albemarle. Lord Portland's embassy was very stately and imposing, as
befitted so great a man at the court of Le Grand Monarque;
but it would seem to have been remarkable rather for profusion than for
elegance and taste; and accordingly it was made an object of pleasantry
among the gay lords and ladies of the French court, whilst some of them
strove, but in vain, to vex the ambassador by most trivial squabbles about
precedence on the royal staircase. It is on record that he
endeavored, though in vain, to persuade Louis to send James II. from St.
Germain to the sunny south, either to Avignon or to Italy. What is more
certainly true is that in the so-called 'partition treaty' made with Louis
with reference to the succession of the crown of Spain, that negotiation
was effected by King William, not through the
English ministers, but through his Dutch favourite, who consequently was
regarded with great and scarcely concealed dislike by his brother peers in
England.
What Bentinck
lacked in the way of friendship from his brother peers, however, seems to
have been made up to him in other quarters in a more substantial manner,
for William rewarded him with large grants of land on the marches of North
Wales, and also gave him the royal palace of Theobalds, in Herts. The
earl, however, preferred the domain of Bulstrode Park, in Buckinghamshire,
where he died in 1719. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
The subsequent fortunes
of the Bentincks were largely secured by the marriages of the
successive heads of the family with the noblest houses in the
land-the Noels, the Harleys, and the Cavendishes; and, as at almost every
step the lady was an heiress, the ducal title was amply secured by a
corresponding amount of property; so that for the last two centuries the
Dukes of Portland have stood almost as high for their wealth as for their
rank. Thanks to the marriage of his ancestor with a Cavendish a century
and a half ago, the present duke owns the freehold of nearly half of the
parish of Marylebone.
The third duke, who held the title from 1762 till the present
century, was distinguished by the personal favor and friendship of King
George III., who sent him as viceroy to Ireland, and made him twice
premier. The second son of this duke, Lord William Bentinck, was
Governor-General of India, where his name is still remembered for the
exertions which he made in the cause of education and in the abolition of
the horrors of 'suttee.' Another son, Lord George Bentinck, after spending
big life on the turf, and winning its `blue ribbon'
at Epsom, late in life became joint leader of the Conservative
party along with Benjamin Disraeli, and, had it not been for
his sudden death, it was quite 'upon the cards' that he might have been
Premier of England.
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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