WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Samuel Pepys 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.960 Happy Saturday. With this week's episode on John Evelyn's Fumafujium, 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.080 we thought we'd bring out our past episode on his 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:16.480 contemporary and fellow diarist, Samuel Peeps. Samuel Peeps also fond 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:20.279 of irritating women in public spaces, and sometimes they would 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.200 stick him with pins. So know that this episode originally 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:28.720 came out on May twenty ninth, twenty nineteen, So enjoy. 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.800 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:43.920 of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracey E. V. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:48.200 Wilson and I'm Polly Frying. Samuel Peeps has been something 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.440 of a recurring character on our show. We have either 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.040 name dropped him or read bits of his diaries, and 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.640 our episodes on and Lister and the Pirate Henry every In, 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.160 the Straw Hat Riots and Britain's Theft of Tea from 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.920 China and the Body House Riots of sixteen sixty eight, 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.759 and the belief that the Royal Touch could cure your scrofula. 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.959 I have to imagine previous hosts have at some point 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.479 said something about Samuel Peeps too, but that's a lot 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.000 harder for us to track at this point. I think 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:21.240 all historians eventually talk about Samuel Peeps. It all eventually 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.520 comes back to Peeps. Something that came up in one 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.679 of these discussions between Holly and me, which is was 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.400 that we had both read selections from Peep's diary in school, 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:33.560 and yet we did not know until working on this 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.160 podcast how funny it could be. It was like our 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.960 experience was the opposite of The Princess Bride, where somebody 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.560 had gone through the diary and only left in the 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:46.160 boring parts. When I started working on this episode, I 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:48.640 was also surprised to learn that the funny parts were 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.000 not the only thing left out of my Samuel Peeps 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.040 experience in school. Our episode on Ann Lister's diaries talked 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.520 about how much of them were dedicated to detailing her 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.640 sexual relationships, and the same thing. It's true for Samuel Peeps, 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.760 and parts of his diary are similarly explicit. Like one 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.240 passage that I was reading as I was researching this 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.360 caused me to go whoa out loud at my desk. 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.200 We aren't going to be reading that package passage. But 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.480 just like fair warning. See I knew there was dirty 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.320 stuff in the diaries, and I wonder if and I 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.640 don't remember exactly what copy I read at various points 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.400 in my education. I wonder if maybe in my case, 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:29.440 some of the funny stuff was there, but I didn't 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:36.760 get the comedy. I think probably every Samuel Peeps thing 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:39.080 that I had read had been in an anthology, like, 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.919 not a standalone copy of anything. And I went back 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:44.480 and looked as I was working on this, to be like, 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.280 am I like fudging my own memory here? And no? 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:52.320 Like my Norton Anthology of English Literature from back in 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.040 my college days, like only has a couple of passages, 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.560 They're only about the fire. They're not funny or racy 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.320 in any way. And I think that was the case, 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.200 like anything that I was reading was excerpted in another 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:09.560 work and not like a standalone, more lengthy thing. Regardless, though, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.360 we're coming up on the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.919 of Peep's last diary entry, which was written on May 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.280 thirty first of sixteen sixty nine, so it seemed like 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:20.320 a good time to take a closer look, not just 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.840 at the diary, but also at who Peeps was beyond 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:28.040 his famous chronicle of life in seventeenth century London. Samuel 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:31.280 Peeps was born in London on February twenty third, sixteen 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.520 thirty three. His father was a tailor and his mother 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.280 was a butcher's daughter, so they were not a particularly 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:41.880 prominent or affluent family. Samuel had ten siblings, but only 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.800 two of them lived to adulthood, and of those three, 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.360 Samuel was the oldest. With the help of other family, 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.760 Samuel was able to go to school. He went to 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.200 Huntingdon Grammar School and then moved on to Saint Paul's School. 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:56.760 From there he went to Cambridge, where he started a 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.720 lifelong friendship with John Dryden, who would go on to 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.720 be England's first poet laureate. Peeps graduated with a BA 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.440 in sixteen fifty three. The Peeps family had one connection 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.880 that served Samuel extremely well. That was Edward Montague, who 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.280 was Samuel's father's cousin and would eventually become the first 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.640 Earl of Sandwich. He took an interest in Samuel and 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.880 hired him as a secretary. Had that not happened, Samuel 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.280 probably would have pursued a career in law. In sixteen 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.400 fifty five, Samuel married Elizabeth sa Michelle. She was the 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.080 daughter of a French Huguenot who had come to England 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.600 as a refugee. They had a religious ceremony on October tenth, 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.760 sixteen fifty five, when Elizabeth was fourteen and Samuel was 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.800 twenty two, and then they had a civil ceremony on 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.159 December first, by which point she had turned fifteen. This 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.680 was definitely a match made for love and not for money. 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.120 The sam Michel's had been well off and prominent, but 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:55.760 they had fallen on hard times in part because of 0:04:55.760 --> 0:05:00.320 her father's religious conversion. Samuel wound up supporting seven of 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.359 them financially, but at the start of his marriage to 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.320 Elizabeth he wasn't in a position to do that at all. 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.240 He couldn't even afford lodgings for the two of them, 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.360 so they had to live in his room in Montague's 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.039 quarters at Whitehall Palace. In spite of their feelings for 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:16.800 one another, which I mean they do seem to have 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.120 genuinely been very fond of each other, and their ages 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.120 today are highly questionable, but at the time like that, 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.520 those are pretty normal ages to get married. Their marriage 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.240 got off to a really rocky start. Elizabeth had some 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.200 sort of recurring, persistent gynecological problem, and Samuel was in 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.839 a lot of pain due to stones and his bladder 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.919 and urinary tracts, so from the very beginning their physical 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.680 relationship was difficult and probably painful for both of them. 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.080 Elizabeth's feelings on this aren't really recorded anywhere, but it 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:50.680 was hugely frustrating for Samuel. Also, while Samuel was besotted 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.640 with his wife, he was deeply jealous and possessive. She 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.320 was lovely, lively and charming, and tended to attract the 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.960 attention of other men. As far as we know, Elizabeth 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.440 was always faithful to Samuel, but she also clearly enjoyed 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.039 flattery and attention. If Samuel thought a man was paying 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.600 too much attention to her, or that she was being 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.000 too flirtatious, he would get angry about it, and aside 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.040 from that, he could be very critical of her. All 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.800 of this together made their relationship really tense. Elizabeth went 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:23.640 back home to her family for a few months in 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.440 sixteen fifty seven, returning to Samuel at Whitehall in December. 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.200 They finally moved into a place of their own the 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.000 following August. Although their relationship continued to have just serious 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:37.760 ups and downs, they both had volatile tempers. Peeps had 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.599 a lot of affairs, and they were known to fight 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.040 and even threaten each other when things got really heated. 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.400 At least in Peepe's diary, though, which is virtually the 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.360 only source of information that we have about Elizabeth. They 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.120 also seemed really genuinely fond of each other when things 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:56.080 were good. On March twenty sixth, sixteen fifty eight, Peeps 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.080 had a lithotomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.480 a bladderstone. A surgeon named Thomas Hollier removed a stone 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:07.479 that measured about two inches in diameter, which Samuel kept 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.440 in a specially made case to show to people afterward. 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:15.080 He recovered with no complications, which is incredible considering that 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.560 there was no anesthesia and the instruments weren't in any 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.200 way sterile. These surgeries weren't uncommon at the time, but 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:27.120 deaths and complications were pretty commonplace. Peeps developed other stones 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.600 later on, but for a time after this procedure he 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.720 was almost symptom free. I said in this outline that 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.040 he recovered with no complications. He and Elizabeth never had 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.360 any children, and one of the things that people cite 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.480 as maybe a reason for that is that this procedure 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.120 might have been successful at removing the stone, but also 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.600 might have inadvertently made him unable to have children. That's 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.240 all very speculative, though, like we don't know exactly why 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.840 they didn't have any children. Peeps wrote his first diary 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.160 entry on January first, sixteen sixty, and he referred to 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.920 this ailment in the very first sentence, quote, Blessed be God. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:02.880 At the end of the last year, I was in 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.880 very good health, without any sense of my old pain, 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.600 but upon taking of cold. We'll talk more about the 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.040 diary later, especially through this next section of the episode, 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.840 but this is when he started keeping it. Sixteen sixty 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.960 was a big year for Samuel Peeps. He finished his 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.080 master's degree and he was part of the fleet that 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:25.080 brought King Charles the Second back to England. Super quick recap. 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.400 Charles the Second's father, Charles the First, was king during 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.240 the English Civil Wars, which were a series of conflicts 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:36.480 primarily between royalists and parliamentarians. Charles the First was executed 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.440 in sixteen forty nine and Charles the Second was forced 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:43.600 into exile in sixteen fifty one. Oliver Cromwell, who had 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.280 been at General on the parliamentarian side, became Lord Protector 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:51.080 of England, Scotland and Ireland. Not long after Cromwell's death 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.440 in sixteen fifty eight, royalists started working out a deal 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.080 to restore Charles two to the throne. Obviously, it was 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.800 a lot more complicated than was quick highlights. And also 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:07.280 complicated were the loyalties of Peep's patron, Edward Montague. Montague 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:09.679 had fought on the parliamentarian side, and he had been 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.320 closely connected to both Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard, 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.600 who tried unsuccessfully to follow in his late father's footsteps. 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:20.800 Montague had actually advocated for Oliver Cromwell to be crowned 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.080 as king, but by the spring of sixteen fifty nine, 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:29.840 Royalists and parliamentarians alike were wondering if Montague's allegiance was shifting. 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:34.040 Charles the second's representatives made overtures to him while Parliament 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.640 stripped him of his Admiralty commission, and for good reason, 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.000 he was negotiating in secret for the return of the king. 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.600 But after a very politically chaotic end of sixteen fifty 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.520 nine and beginning of sixteen sixty, Montague was reappointed to 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.920 the Admiralty Commission and made General of the Sea along 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.080 with George Monk, who was actively working to restore Charles 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:59.960 the Second to the throne. Once a deal was negotiated 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.679 for Charles's return, Montague secured the fleet that traveled to 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.720 the Netherlands to bring him back to England, and thanks 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.760 to Montague's influence, Samuel Peeps was on board with that fleet. 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.160 The fleet landed back at Dover with the king on 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:17.679 May twenty fifth, sixteen sixty, and almost immediately Charles the 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:21.160 Second made Montague an Earl. That was the beginning of 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.240 a tremendously eventful decade for Peeps personally and for Britain 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.240 in general. And we're going to talk more about all 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:40.160 of that after a sponsor break. After Edward Montague became 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.360 the Earl of Sandwich, he told Samuel Peeps quote, we 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.079 must have a little patience and we will rise together. 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:48.319 In the meantime, I will do you all the good 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.920 jobs I can. This's worked out really well for Peeps 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:54.840 through the Earl's influence. In the summer of sixteen sixty, 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.240 he was named Clerk of the Axe at the Navy 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.800 Board that's the administrative board responsible for running the Royal 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.240 Navy and keeping it maintained and supplied. This position came 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.959 along with a salary and a house, and it also 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.280 meant that Peeps became a justice of the peace in 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.400 the counties where the dockyards were located. This was the 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:16.439 beginning of a lifelong career as a naval administrator. Peeps 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.679 was a very hard worker, but he didn't actually know 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.959 anything about the navy like at all. Nearly his entire 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.920 experience was going on that voyage to bring Charles the 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:29.440 Second back to England, so at first he mostly just 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.560 deferred to the rest of the board, some of whom 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.840 had decades of navy experience. But over the next couple 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.640 of years, Peeps realized that having a long career in 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.040 the Navy didn't necessarily make a person an upstanding naval 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.800 administrator or any good at it. He started to see 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.800 a lot of laziness and waste and corruption, and he 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.200 became especially distrustful of the men whose commands had been 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.079 passed down to them through their families, rather than rising 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.880 through the ranks based on their merit. But none of 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.839 these opinions erased the fact that these men had not 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.560 knowledge and experience that Peeps just didn't, so he got 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.600 to work trying to close that gap as much as 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.480 he could. His own education had been really weak in maths, 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.720 so he got a tutor and started learning multiplication tables. 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.959 He immersed himself in the terminology and procedures and measurements 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.520 that were needed to build, maintain and supply ships. Soon 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.240 he stopped following the lead of the more senior board 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.320 members and started trying to make things more efficient and orderly, 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.160 which really drew the ire of some of his colleagues. 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.040 Peeps was taking on additional roles as well. He became 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:36.199 secretary of the committee that ran the English colony at Tangier, 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.320 which had been part of Catherine of Braganz's dowry when 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.840 she married Charles the Second. He was elected as Fellow 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.600 of the Royal Society in sixteen sixty five. The Second 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.400 Anglo Dutch War started later that year, and many of 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.680 the rest of the board were aging or at sea, 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.600 so Peeps found himself overseeing a large part of the 0:12:55.679 --> 0:13:01.000 Navy's wartime administration, including setting up a centralized provisioning system. 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.160 In the mid sixteen sixties, Peeps witnessed two catastrophes in 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.360 very quick succession. The Great Plague of London and the 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.800 Great Fire of London. The plague struck London in sixteen 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.560 sixty five, although Peep's diary also includes news of the 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:20.160 diseases spread elsewhere in the years before that. On April thirtieth, 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.240 sixteen sixty five, he wrote, quote, great fears of the 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.160 sickness here in the city, it being said that two 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.839 or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us. 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.640 All His entries through sixteen sixty five and into sixteen 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.360 sixty six detail fear of the plague and death tolls, 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.840 some of which were enormous. On August thirty first, he wrote, 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.040 quote in the city died this week seven four hundred 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.000 and ninety six, and all of them six thy one 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.120 hundred two of the plague. But it is feared that 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:52.080 the true number of the dead this week is near 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.319 ten thousand, partly from the poor that cannot be taken 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:58.160 notice of through the greatness of the number, and partly 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.560 from the Quakers and others that will not have any 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.160 bell ring for them. For the first few months of 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:07.240 sixteen sixty six he records numbers that decrease, and then increase, 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.320 and then decrease again, then finally noting a day of 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:13.720 thanksgiving for the plague's end on November twentieth, although he 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.440 acknowledges that people were still dying, the plague was in 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.480 its last months when the fire began on September second, 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.240 sixteen sixty six. Peeps chronicled the fire much like he 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.680 did the plague, detailing people's fears along with what was 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.480 burning and the progression of the fire itself and how 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.000 the city tried to stop it. The fire affected Peeps 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:38.440 for months after it was over. The following February, he wrote, quote, 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.200 the weather for three or four days being come to 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.680 be exceedingly cold again as any time this year. I 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.720 did within these six days see smoke still remaining of 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.200 the late fire in the city. And it is strange 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.920 to think how to this day I cannot sleep at 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.360 night without great terrors of fire. And this very night 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.840 I could not sleep till almost two in the morning 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:02.520 through thoughts of fire. The Second Anglo Dutch War was 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.680 going on through all of this, and peace negotiations started 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.120 in August of sixteen sixty six and lasted into the 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:13.640 following year. As the negotiations progressed, the British government decided 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.480 to recall the fleet and scale down the navy while 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.040 still trying to protect England from a Dutch attack. On 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.320 March twenty third, Peeps wrote quote at the office where 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.080 Sir W. Penn come being returned from Chatham from considering 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.200 the means of fortifying the River Medway by a chain 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.040 at the stakes and ships laid there with guns to 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.560 keep the enemy from coming up to burn our ships. 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.680 All our care being now to fortify ourselves against their 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.040 invading us. So basically they didn't have enough money to 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.280 keep maintaining the navy like at the strength that it 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.760 had been while they were more actively at war. But 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:52.400 the peace treaty had not been signed yet, so they 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.920 needed to still have some kind of defense, and they 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.880 were attempting to do this with a chain stretched across 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.320 the mouth of the river. But a Dutch force did 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.160 indeed attack the River Medway. That happened on June ninth, 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.800 sixteen sixty seven. They broke through that chain, destroyed some 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.360 of the ships, and captured others, including capturing the fleet's flagship, 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:16.000 the Royal Charles. This was disastrous for the navy. It 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.640 was terrifying for the British people since it put the 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.760 Dutch in striking distance of London. Of course, then people 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.560 questioned the judgment of the king over the whole thing, 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.840 but the war did end with the Treaty of Breta 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.480 a month later. Peeps, being the administrator who had arranged 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:36.120 so much of the withdrawal, was investigated repeatedly. In the end, 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.760 though the officers who made the decisions took more of 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.080 the blame than the Navy board, who had figured out 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.440 just how to carry out those decisions. Soon, though, Peeps 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.600 had other problems to worry about. On October twenty fifth, 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.160 sixteen sixty eight, his wife caught him with one of 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.120 their maids, Deborah Willett. Deb was eighteen and she had 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.760 been hired primarily as Elizabeth's companion, and Elizabeth was of 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:03.000 course outraged. They were not caught talking. Peeps was explicit 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.800 in his diary about exactly what was going on. On 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.920 October thirty first, he wrote, quote, so ends this month 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:11.920 with some quiet to my mind, though not perfect, after 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.280 the greatest falling out with my poor wife and through 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.800 my folly with the girl that I ever had, and 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.160 I have reason to be sorry and ashamed of it, 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.520 and more to be troubled for the poor girl's sake, 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.359 whom I fear I shall, by this means prove the 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.520 ruin of though I shall think myself concerned both to 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.800 love and be a friend to her. In November, Elizabeth 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.320 forced Samuel to dismiss Deb from their staff and agree 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.040 to never see her again, but he did not keep 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.840 that promise. He figured out where Deb had gone and 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.639 went to visit and give her some money. It is 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.240 not clear whether he continued their affair after she was 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.960 out of the household, though, And also, this was not 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.879 the only affair that Peeps detailed in his diary. He 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.160 wrote about dalliances with his friend's wives, and his wife's 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.560 friends and maids in their household, and on and on 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:02.640 and on us and these episodes were not always welcome. 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.160 On August eighteenth of sixteen sixty seven, he wrote about 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.879 going to church, where he quote stood by a pretty 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.399 modest maid, whom I did labor to take by the 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.440 hand and the body, but she would not, but got 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.000 further and further from me, and at last I could 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.560 perceive her to take pins out of her pocket to 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:23.800 prick me if I should touch her again, which seeing 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:25.879 I did for bear, and was glad I did spy 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.040 her design, and then I fell to gaze upon another 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.159 pretty maid, and a kew close to me, and she 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:33.719 on me, and I did go about to take her 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.440 by the hand, which she suffered a little, and then withdrew. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:39.440 So the sermon ended, and the church broke up, and 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.840 my amars ended too, and so took coach and home, 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.680 and there took up my wife and to Islington with her. 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:51.080 Oh Peeps. As he was writing about the fallout of 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.159 his wife's discovery of his affair, Peeps was also writing 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.240 about problems with his eyes. His diary entries record pain, 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.600 sensitivity to light, and trouble seeing. He found that drinking 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.040 made it worse, but he didn't want to give up drink. 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.919 He loved going to the theater, but the light bothered 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.000 him there, and he was forced to stop going. He 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.240 tried all kinds of compresses and potions and pills to 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.120 no effect, and he was granted several months of leave 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.720 to try to recover. On May thirty first, sixteen sixty nine, 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:24.160 he wrote his last diary entry, saying, in part quote, 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:26.880 and thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.199 be able to do with my own eyes in the 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.760 keeping of my journal, I being not able to do 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:34.760 it any longer, having done now so long as to 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:37.920 undo my eyes almost every time that I take pen 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.199 in my hand, and therefore whenever comes of it, I 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:45.040 must forbear, and therefore resolve from this time forward to 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.879 have it kept by my people in long hand, and 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:50.840 must therefore be contented to set down no more than 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.119 is fit for them and all the world to know. 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.920 Or if there be anything which cannot be much, how 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.880 my amours to deb are past, and my eyes hinder 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.480 me in almost all other pleasures, I must endeavor to 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.360 keep a margin in my book open, to add here 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.000 and there a note in shorthand with my own hand. 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:11.640 And so I would take myself to that course, which 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.640 is almost as much as to see myself go into 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.600 my grave, for which and all the discomforts that will 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.960 accompany my being blind, the Good God prepare me. Not 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.560 long after, Samuel and Elizabeth went to the Low Countries 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:28.240 in France, where she contracted some sort of fever. She 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.280 died on November tenth, sixteen sixty nine, at the age 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:35.160 of twenty nine. Samuel never remarried, but he did start 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.399 an ongoing relationship with a woman named Mary Skinner. Not 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.879 long after, she eventually moved into his home and seems 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:44.600 to have acted as his wife in everything but name. 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:47.879 But in spite of this real certainty in the last 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.919 diary entry that he was going blind, Peeps did not 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.040 lose his sight as he feared that he would, and 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.719 his career continued on for almost two decades after his 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.720 wife's death. We'll have more on that after another quick 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:11.040 spot to break. As Samuel Peeps was struggling with his 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.679 eyesight and traveling with his wife, he was also up 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:15.879 for election to the House of Commons, and that was 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.520 an election that he lost. He also started facing rumors 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.520 that he was a crypto papist or a secret Catholic. 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.440 Catholics were highly suspect in England at this point, and 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:30.000 Peeps had Catholic friends, some Catholic family members, there were 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.600 some Catholic books in his library. All of this raised 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.240 a lot of eyebrows. The Third Anglo Dutch War started 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:40.959 in March of sixteen seventy two, and Peepe's old benefactor 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:44.119 of the Earl of Sandwich, was killed in action. The 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:46.920 two men hadn't been closed for a while. The Earl 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.280 had been caught up in a scandal about the distribution 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.280 of wartime prizes, and Peeps had made enough of a 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:54.719 name for himself that he didn't really need the Earl's 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:58.880 patronage anymore. Even so, Peeps was a banner bearer at 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:02.800 the funeral. In sixteen seventy three, Parliament passed a test 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:07.679 Act which banned Catholics and nonconforming Protestants from holding public office. 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.240 King Charles the Second's brother, the Duke of York, refused 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:15.600 to take the required oaths that were mandatory for Catholics, 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.280 which he was, so he was forced to resign as 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:22.720 Lord High Admiral. Afterward, the King established an Admiralty Commission 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:25.840 and Peeps became its secretary. This was a promotion. It 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:29.040 came with more income, more prestige, and a lot more influence. 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.600