Feuds, Factions and Fornication

Abstract

Survival was the main concern of exiled Cavaliers; how to overcome the constant nagging shortage of money and the emotional distress of separation from one’s family and absence from one’s home. To cope with these problems and hardships and not be overwhelmed or demoralised by them was probably the most challenging task facing the exiles. But if, by resorting to one or more of the various measures discussed in the previous chapter, physical survival could be made reasonably certain, then another major problem emerged. How were those royalists who remained on the continent to occupy their time in exile? The enforced idleness of an emigre’s life was not the kind of existence with which royalists of the kind who remained in exile were familiar. After all, the majority of the exiled Cavaliers were in the prime of life, in their thirties. If it had not been for the long series of defeats suffered by the royalists in the civil wars, they would have been enjoying the full and satisfying careers and activities traditionally available to men of their social background: positions of influence and prestige at court, seats in Parliament, the management of estates, the opportunity to play a part in government administration at national or local level, the social round of county communities, even the traditional recreations like hunting.

The [royal] party is divided into factions; but some labour to reconcile all differences.

(Report of one of Thurloe’s agents, Aachen, 22 August, 1654)¹