INVITATION TO A FUNERAL
a tale of Restoration intrigue by
Molly Brown
From Pepys' Diary, 17 January 1668:
Up, and by coach to Whitehall to attend the
Council there; and here I met all the discourse of the duel
yesterday between the Duke of Buckhingham, Holmes, and one
Jenkins on one side, and my Lord of Shrewsbury, Sir Jo. Talbot,
and one Bernard Howard, on the other side; and all about my Lady
Shrewsbury, who is a whore and is at this time, and hath for a
great while been a whore to the Duke of Buckingham; and so her
husband challenged him, and they met yesterday in a close near
Barne Elmes and there fought; and my Lord Shrewsbury is run
through the body from the right breast through the shoulder, and
Sir Jo. Talbot all along up one of his arms, and Jenkins killed
upon the place, and the rest all in a little measure wounded.
This will make the world think that the King hath good
councillors about him, when the Duke of Buckingham, the greatest
man about him, is a fellow of no more sobriety than to fight
about a whore.
(c) 1996, 1997 Molly Brown