Pepy's Diary. 26 Apr 1667. Thence to Westminster Hall [Map] to hear our cause, but [it] did not come before them to-day, so went down and walked below in the Hall, and there met with Ned Pickering (age 49), who tells me the ill newes of his nephew Gilbert (age 15), who is turned a very rogue, and then I took a turn with Mr. Evelyn (age 46), with whom I walked two hours, till almost one of the clock: talking of the badness of the Government, where nothing but wickedness, and wicked men and women command the King (age 36): that it is not in his nature to gainsay any thing that relates to his pleasures; that much of it arises from the sickliness of our Ministers of State, who cannot be about him as the idle companions are, and therefore he gives way to the young rogues; and then, from the negligence of the Clergy, that a Bishop shall never be seen about him, as the King of France (age 28) hath always: that the King (age 36) would fain have some of the same gang to be Lord Treasurer (age 60), which would be yet worse, for now some delays are put to the getting gifts of the King (age 36), as that whore my Baroness Byron¹, who had been, as he called it, the King's seventeenth whore abroad, did not leave him till she had got him to give her an order for £4000 worth of plate to be made for her; but by delays, thanks be to God! she died before she had it. He tells me mighty stories of the King of France (age 28), how great a Prince he is. He hath made a code to shorten the law; he hath put out all the ancient commanders of castles that were become hereditary; he hath made all the Fryers subject to the bishops, which before were only subject to Rome, and so were hardly the King's subjects, and that none shall become 'religieux' but at such an age, which he thinks will in a few, years ruin the Pope, and bring France into a patriarchate. He confirmed to me the business of the want of paper at the Council-table the other day, which I have observed; Wooly being to have found it, and did, being called, tell the King (age 36) to his face the reason of it; and Mr. Evelyn (age 46) tells me several of the menial servants of the Court lacking bread, that have not received a farthing wages since the King's coming in. He tells me the King of France (age 28) hath his mistresses, but laughs at the foolery of our King, that makes his bastards Princes², and loses his revenue upon them, and makes his mistresses his masters and the King of France (age 28) did never grant Lavalliere (age 22)³ any thing to bestow on others, and gives a little subsistence, but no more, to his bastards.

Note 1. Eleanor, daughter of Robert Needham, Viscount Kilmurrey, and widow of Peter Warburton, became in 1644 the second wife of [his former son-in-law] John Byron, first Lord Byron. Died 1663. B.

Note 2. Louis made his own bastards dukes and Princes, and legitimatized them as much as he could, connecting them also by marriage with the real blood-royal. B.

Note 3. Louise Francoise de la Baume le Blanc de la Valliere (age 22) had four children by Louis XIV., of whom only two survived - Marie Anne Bourbon, called Mademoiselle de Blois, born in 1666, afterwards married to the Prince de Conti (age 6), and the Comte de Vermandois, born in 1667. In that year (the very year in which Evelyn was giving this account to Pepys), the Duchy of Vaujour and two baronies were created in favour of La Valliere, and her daughter, who, in the deed of creation, was legitimatized, and styled Princess. B.