; and report has even asserted he was a
buccaneer; and that one of his brethren in that profession having asked,
on his arrival in England, what had become of his old chum, Blackbourne,
was answered, he is Archbishop of York. We are informed, that
Blackbourne was installed sub-dean of Exeter in 1694, which office he
resigned in 1702; but after his successor Lewis Barnet's death, in 1704,
he regained it. In the following year he became dean; and in 1714 held
with it the archdeanery [i.e. archdeaconry] of Cornwall. He was
consecrated Bishop of Exeter, February 24, 1716; and translated to York,
November 28, 1724, as a reward, according to court scandal, for uniting
George I. to the Duchess of Munster. This, however, appears to have been
an unfounded calumny. As archbishop he behaved with great prudence, and
was equally respectable as the guardian of the revenues of the see.
Rumour whispered he retained the vices of his youth, and that a passion
for the fair sex formed an item in the list of his weaknesses; but so
far from being convicted by seventy witnesses, he does not appear to
have been directly criminated by one. In short, I look upon these
aspersions as the effects of mere malice. How is it possible a buccaneer
should have been so good a scholar as Blackbourne certainly was? He who
had so perfect a knowledge of the classics (particularly of the Greek
tragedians), as to be able to read them with the same ease as he could
Shakespeare, must have taken great pains to acquire the learned
languages; and have had both leisure and good masters. But he was
undoubtedly educated at Christ-church College, Oxford. He is allowed to
have been a pleasant man; this, however, was turned against him, by its
being said, 'he gained more hearts than souls.'"

[Walpole, in his _Memoirs of the Reign of King George II._, 1847, i. 87,
who makes himself the mouthpiece of these calumnies, says that Hayter,
Bishop of Norwich, was "a natural son of Blackbourne, the jolly old
Archbishop of York, who had all the manners of a man of quality, though
he had been a Buccaneer, and was a clergyman; but he retained nothing of
his first profession except his seraglio."]

* * * * *

"The only voice that could soothe the passions of the savage (Alphonso
III.) was that of an amiable and virtuous wife, the sole object of his
love; the voice of Donna Isabella, the daughter of the Duke of Savoy,
and the grand-daughter of Philip I