England, accompanied by Baron von Bothmar, the Elector of Hanover's plenipotentiary. It is likely enough that the queen's mind had been inflamed against him by the story that a design was on foot which could only be defeated by her having ‘no man in any considerable command but such as might be depended upon’ (Mesnager, 167). For there can be little doubt that his dismissal was a settled matter before his arrival. The whigs, though they had not agreed to dethrone the queen, had desperately engaged in a very questionable manœuvre. The high-church tory, Nottingham (‘Not-in-the-game’), for whom no office had been found in the tory government, proffered the whigs his alliance on the condition of their supporting an endeavour on his part to carry a bill against occasional conformity. With Nottingham and Somerset the whigs were certain of a constant majority in the lords, by which a peace unacceptable to their party could be rendered absolutely impossible. On 7 Dec. the queen, after opening parliament, had the mortification of listening to a debate in which both Nottingham and Marlborough inveighed against the preliminaries, and by a majority of 62 to 54 a clause was added to the address, declaring no peace to be safe in which Spain and the West Indies were left to the house of Bourbon. In the commons a similar clause was indeed defeated by a large majority; but the deadlock had been established. According to Swift (Letters, i. 113) some of the lords who voted in the majority had been told that by doing so they would please the queen. This it is not easy to credit; but he also says, on the authority of Mrs. Masham, that on leaving the house after the debate the queen had given her hand in a marked manner to Somerset, one of the most vehement opponents of the peace, and she continued to show great favour to the Duchess of Somerset (Wentworth Papers, 223, 235). Out of leading-strings she seemed hard to hold; it was almost as if she refused to be directed except by her caprices. As for the whigs, they paid their part of the bargain by helping Nottingham to carry the bill against occasional conformity through the lords, whereupon it easily passed through the commons, and at last became law (December).
The ministry were not slow in retaliating. Charges of peculation and falsified accounts were trumped up against Marlborough, and the report containing these was published by order of the House of Commons. At a cabinet council on 31 Dec. the queen ordered the removal of Marlborough from all his employments, on the ground of the information laid before parliament. On the same day as that which witnessed the downfall of Marlborough, the famous simultaneous creation of twelve peers was announced, by which, though the House of Lords can hardly be said to have been ‘swamped,’ the coalition majority was hopelessly undone. One of the new peers was Mrs. Masham's husband.
At the beginning of 1712 the queen was again troubled with gout; hence her message to the lords, requesting them to adjourn to the same day as that fixed by the commons, which gave rise to a debate on privilege. Her illness must have served her as a welcome excuse for not showing much personal attention to Prince Eugene, who early in January had arrived in London on a visit of several weeks; but on her birthday she presented him with a sword splendidly set with diamonds (Luttrell, vi. 723). The peace negotiations opened at the end of the month without the prince having been able to produce any change in the policy of the British government. The ministers, who greatly resented his coming, did not disdain to listen to denunciations accusing him of a plot with Count Gallas and Marlborough to set fire to London, seize the person of the queen, and oblige her to convoke a new parliament, for the purpose of putting an end to the peace negotiations and punishing their authors (see Torcy's Mémoires, ii. 139–140, where the authenticity of these designs is judiciously treated as an open question. No doubts as to the ‘hellish plot’ beset Hamilton; see his Transactions during the Reign of Queen Anne, 205–8). As usual, the most was made of the alarm; the queen's guards were doubled; several entrances to St. James's Palace were closed; and even Prince Eugene was ‘protected’ (Torcy, ii. 142). London was, as a matter of fact, in an excited and turbulent condition. The Mohocks were abroad, and Marlborough was supposed to have or to contemplate an understanding with them. On the queen's birthday he was insulted by the mob in the park, while the court was ‘crowded more than ever by all the church, nobility, and gentry’ (Original Papers, ii. 270). In parliament the proceedings against him and others connected with the administration of the army (Walpole and Cardonnel) continued, and he was condemned virtually unheard (January). Then the Barrier treaty, signed by Townshend in October 1709, was taken into consideration, and those who had concluded or advised it were censured as enemies to the queen and kingdom. In the meantime the peace congress, in which England was represented by the Bishop of Bristol (Robinson)
