Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, Wife of Sir Richard Fanshawe, bart, ambassador from Charles the Second to the courts of Portugal and Madrid

Excerpt: ... John of Austria at the battle of Evora;Footnote: Pepys, speaking of this battle, in which the Portuguese completely defeated the Spaniards, says-4th July, 1663. Sir Allen Apsley showed the Duke the Lisbon Gazette, in Spanish, where the late victory is set down particularly, and to the great honour of the English beyond measure. They have since taken back Evora, which was lost to the Spaniards, the English making the assault, and lost not more than three men.-Diary, vol. ii-p. 68. after which our house and tables were full of distressed, honest, brave English soldiers, who by their own and their fellows' valour had got one of the greatest victories that ever was. These poor but brave men were almost lost between the Portuguese poverty and the Lord Chancellor Hyde's neglect, not to give it a worse name.Footnote: It appears however, from Sir Robert Southwell's Account of Portugal (p.138), that Charles II was so pleased with the gallantry of his troops at the battle of Evora, (or, as it is more commonly called by historians, of Ameixal,) that he caused a gratuity of 40,000 crowns to be distributed among them. It would seem that the neglect of which Lady Fanshawe complains, was entirely on the side of the Portuguese. Sir Robert Southwell mentions some curious anecdotes on this subject, particularly with reference to the statement in the Lisbon Gazette, alluded to in the preceding note. While my husband stayed there, he did what he could, but not proportionably either to their merits or wants. About this time my husband sent great assistance to the Governor of Tangiers, the Earl of Peterborough then being Governor, whose letters of supplication and thanks for kindness and care, my husband and I have yet to show. June the 26th, I was delivered of a son ten weeks before my time: he lived some hours, and was christened Richard by our Chaplain, Mr. Marsden, who performed the ceremony of the Church of England at his burial, and then laid him in the...