Mumbai today is a large metropolis, teeming with 22 million people. The city moves faster than the country–everyone has places to go, things to do, and lives to live. Imagine if this place, with all its people, is given as dowry by a Portuguese woman to a British womaniser King? All the wealth of the people would be claimed by a King who, in all probability, would leave the woman he married for another. No need to imagine. This already happened, but many centuries ago. Fortunately, no one’s property is in danger.
After having many mistresses and dating low-born actresses in the seventeenth century (Prince Harry was not the first), King Charles II finally decided to settle with a wife. In a parliamentary speech, he said that it has “often been put in mind by my friends that it was high time to marry; and I have thought so myself ever since I came into England. But there appeared difficulties enough in the choice, though many overtures have been made to me.” Many princesses were vying for matrimony with King Charles II, not because he was handsome, but because they belonged to countries that wanted alliances with England. There was only one way to settle it – the dowry system.
Portugal had proposed the fattest of dowry to King Charles II. This dowry was 300,000 pounds of cash, a place called Tangier in the Meditteranean, and Bombay, which was called Bom Bahia back then. Catherine of Braganza, the princess from Portugal who would give the dowry, trumped other princesses in line. King Charles already knew who he wanted to marry in the speech he gave to the parliament. He said, “I can now tell you, not only that I am resolved to marry, but whom I resolve to marry if God please trust me, with full consideration of the good of my subjects in general, as of myself; it is with the daughter of Portugal.”
King Charles II wrote many love letters to her and thought highly of her beauty. Not so everyone else. They thought that she was, in today’s terms, pretty basic. King Charles acknowledged it, too. But he saw in her eyes beauty that was profound. Whether it was the beauty of Bom Bahia is up for debate because King Charles II moved on from her to other ladies quite quickly.
Catherine of Braganza was the one who introduced tea to Britain. The Portuguese already knew of tea because they traded with the East. China, at the time, was the primary supplier of tea. Catherine of Braganza initially did not fit in the English court. When she did, she became a trendsetter. However, she wasn’t going to abandon tea simply because she was in England. And her tea-drinking habits were passed on to others in court. Soon, the elite of the royal court was drinking tea to their heart’s content.
The Queen’s love for tea was so well known that a poet named Edmund Waller wrote this poem for her birthday. It reads:
Venus her Myrtle, Phoebus has his bays;
Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise.
The best of Queens, the best of herbs, we owe
To that bold nation which the way did show
To the fair region where the sun doth rise,
Whose rich productions we so justly prize.
The Muse’s friend, tea, does our fancy aid,
Regress those vapours which the head invade,
And keep the palace of the soul serene,
Fit on her birthday to salute the Queen.
Despite being a trendsetter, Catherine of Braganza was disliked for being a Catholic. The royals were Protestants. If it were at least two centuries earlier, when Protestantism did not exist, she would probably be treated more favourably. To add salt to the wound, she suffered three miscarriages and was unable to produce an heir to the King.
Later, she was believed to be behind a conspiracy to kill the King. Although he moved on from her long ago in search of other bodies, King Charles II defended her in court. The people in court asked him to divorce her. King Charles II chose not to and was married to her until death. This time it is not Bom Bahia, since Bom Bahia was already his.
In any case, the English now had the seven islands of Bombay to themselves. Not the English crown, but the East India Company (EIC). King Charles handed over Bombay to the Company since it was, at the time, a port. The Company would make good use of the trade enabled through the port. While declaring the EIC as owners, he called them “the true and absolute Lords and Proprietors of the [Bombay] Port and Island…at the yearly rent of 10 pounds.”
King Charles did not get all seven islands. He only got one. He, however, expected to get much more, with Salsette, Thana, and Bassein added. In any case, Bombay became a British stronghold, later on, so King Charles’ wishes came true, albeit he was not alive to see it.
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