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| Charles II of England @Wikipedia |
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Charles' appearance was anything but English, with his sensuous curling mouth, dark complexion, black hair and dark brown eyes, he much resembled his Italian maternal grandmother, Marie de Medici's side of the family. During his escape after the Battle of Worcester, he was referred to as 'a tall, black man' in parliamentary wanted posters. One of the nick-names he acquired was the black boy His height, at six feet two inches, probably inherited from his Danish paternal grandmother, Anne of Denmark, also set him apart from his contemporaries in a time when the average Englishman was far smaller than today." (English Monarchs)
The king simply loved the ladies---lots of them!
"Monarchs have always kept mistresses, but the reign of Charles II is often remembered as being far more licentious than most, perhaps because after a decade of repressive Puritan rule, the vigor with which Charles pursued his affairs offered such a vivid contrast to the door days of Cromwell. The king simply loved the ladies---lots of them---and did so with unabashed enthusiasm. In the process he sired scads of bastards, a dozen or so, by seven or eight women, prompting the Duke of Buckingham to quip, 'A king is supposed to be the father of his people, and Charles certainly was a father to a good many of them.'" (Behind the Palace Doors: 127)
Charles II's mistresses.
" . . . Charles is not known as 'the Merry Monarch' for nothing."
"Lucy Walter, the attractive Welsh Royalist exile, was Charles's first major mistress. In April 1649, she bore him his eldest and most beloved son, 'Jemmy', James Crofts, later James Scott, Duke of Monmouth. After Charles's ardour had cooled, Jemmy was taken from his mother and Lucy eventually died in poverty.
"Next came the volatile Barbara Palmer, nee Villiers, who was as calculating and domineering as she was beautiful and fecund (she gave birth to five children with Charles). Barbara was capable of some major scenes of histrionics when she didn't get her way and Charles eventually got fed ip with her behaviour.
"'Pretty, witty Nell' as described by Samuel Pepys, is by far the most popular of all of Charles II's many mistresses. Her rise from impoverished orange-seller to popular actress to king's mistress was no mean feat. Nell gave her lover more children, sought and obtained the freehold on her London property and also owned Burford House in Windsor.
"Nell's contemporary rival was Louise de Keroualle, whom Charles referred to affectionately as 'Fubbs' because she was a little chubby. As popular as Nell was, Louise was reviled, because she was French and Catholic -- two things that were quite unpopular in Stuart England at the time. Charles bestowed upon his French mistress the title of Duchess of Portsmouth.
"Both Nell and Louise were sidelined when Italian beauty Hortense Mancini arrived on the scene. Hortense was one of the gaggle of Cardinal Mazarin's nieces who were popularly referred to as The Mazarinettes. Hortense was promiscuous, pleasure-loving, whirlwind of a woman, and liked to push the envelope. Unfortunately, she pushed things way too far when she began an affair with one of Charles's daughters, Anne. She may have also had a relationship with the female Restoration playwright Aphra Behn.
"Charles also bedded the actress Moll Davis, who unfortunately fell foul of one of Nell's jokes. Nell gave her food laced with a strong laxative and when Charles came for his assignation with her she was rather under the weather! Despite his obvious inability (or refusal) to be faithful, Charles seemed to be fond of his wife, Catherine of Braganza. Although he had been under great pressure to divorce her from his ministers in order to have legitimate children with another, he never did. He must ha (dare we say it?) loved Catherine, in his own way." (The Stuarts in 100 Facts)
Charles II's descendants.
"Charles II had mistress after mistress, and the guilt of these dissolute women was emblazoned to the world by the gift of titles and estates, so that royal bastards were sent among the English nobility. The Duke of Monmouth was the son whom Charles II had with Lucy Walters, and was the ancestor of the Dukes of Buccleuch. The Dukes of Grafton are descended from Charles II and Barbara Palmer, whom the king created Duchess of Cleveland. The Dukes of St. Albans are the posterity of Charles II and Nell Gwyn. The Dukes of Richmond are the descendants of the same king and Louise de Querouaille, a French mistress, whom the king created Duchess of Portsmouth, and whom the French court had send to England to win Charles II to its interests." (Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: 1023)
"Charles II had no children by his queen. By his numerous mistresses he had a large illegitimate progeny. By Barbara Villiers, Mrs Palmer, afterwards Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland, mistress en titre till she was superseded by the Duchess of Portsmouth, he had Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Southampton and Cleveland, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, George Fitzroy, Duke of Northumberland, Anne, countess of Sussex, Charlotte, countess of Lichfield, and Barbara, a nun; by Louise de Keroualle, duchess of Portsmouth, Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond; by Lucy Walter, James, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, and a daughter; by Nell Gwyn, Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans, and James Beauclerk; by Catherine Peg, Charles FitzCharles, Earl of Plymouth; by Lady Shannon, Charlotte, Countess of Yarmouth; by Mary Davis, Mary Tudor, Countess of Underwater." (Luminarium)
Charles II's lovers were:
Christabella Wyndham (1604-1694)
Lover in 1644.
English royal wet-nurse; Governess to future Charles II.
Daughter of: Hugh Pyne, MP & Mabel Staverton
Wife of: Col. Edmund Wyndham, (1600-1681), mar 1623
English politician, Governor of Bridgewater; Groom of the Bedchamber 1660; Colonel in Royalist Army; M.P. for Bridgewater 1640.
Son of: Sir Thomas Wyndham & Elizabeth Coningsby
A royal teenager mature for his age and so well-grown.
"Christabella Wyndham was a celebrated beauty and heiress of the Stuart Era. She was also the wet-nurse of Charles II of England, and later (when the Prince was not yet fifteen years old) his first lover. . . When, in the early stages of the war the situation in England became too dangerous for the teenage Charles to remain with his father, he was sent to the west of the country with his guardian Edward Hyde. Here he was reunited, quite intimately with his former wet-nurse. Though Charles was only fourteen, he was mature for his age and well-grown. It was not at that time considered wrong for an older, married woman to educate a young prince in this way, although she raised a few eyebrows with her lack of discretion and public shows of affection. On one occasion on seeing young Charles on the other side of a crowded room, Christabella ran over to him and smothered him with kisses." (The Stuart Kings @tumblr)
Taking her royal charge's virginity.
"Women were essential to Charles II, and he started with them quite young. The Earl of Clarendon wrote disapprovingly of Charles's saucy nurse, Mrs. Wyndham, who took her charge's virginity when he was fourteen and celebrated the conquest with untoward familiarity. . . ." (Behind the Palace Doors: 128)
Strong influence on the king.
" . . . Christabella (B. Pyne, d.c. 1662), a strikingly beautiful woman, had been Charles II's nurse, and retained a strong influence over him for several years - so strong that she almost succeeded in having her husband made Secretary of State." (Pepys Diary)
"Charles was brought up by strong women — his French mother Henrietta Maria and his pretty nanny-cum-governess Christabella Wyndham, who was rumoured to have educated the teenage prince in more ways than one. As a result, he was always attracted to feisty females." (Daily Mail)
Charles II's wet-nurse to whom he lost his virginity at age fourteen (Aneurin)
"It had been said that war can act as an aphrodisiac; if so, it worked is spell on the young Prince and his former nurse. When they were reintroduced, sparks flew. This scandalous liaison was to set the tone for much of Charles's future life -- a desire to please himself, allied to a total disregard for propriety, rather than the expected interest in tedious activities and duties. Hyde was outraged; being a loyal servant of the Crown he was unable to criticise the Prince's character, so he vented his spleen by recording a far from glowing assessment of that of Christabella Wyndham: 'she being a woman of no good breeding, and of a country pride, Nihil muliebre praetor corpus gerens, valued herself much upon the power and familiarity which her neighbours might see she had with the Prince of Wales; and therefore, upon all occasions, in company, and when the concourse of the people were greatest, would use great boldness towards him. . .' Worse was to come. It became clear tat the Prince and his former nurse had developed a secret world in which they shared private jokes. The Prince encouraged Christabella's disparaging views about his advisors. . . ." (The King's Bed: Sex, Power and the Court of Charles II)
Personal & family background.
She was "(s)ister-in-law to Colonel Francis Wyndham, who sheltered Charles after his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Worcester. . . ." (Behind the Palace Doors: 128)
"On 4 March 1645, in Oxford, fourteen-year-old Charles Stuart said goodbye to his father, King Charles, for the last time, and rode off to become the figurehead commander of the Royalist forces in the West Country, in the Civil War. . . In 1645 they moved to Bridgewater in Somerset; here things were much more enjoyable for him, with his passionately affectionate reunion with his former nurse (a less hands-on position than it might seem), Christabel, Lady Wyndham, who met him with open arms. Now in her early thirties, a very attractive and forceful woman, she had been the first woman to show him much physical affection as a boy . . . Now, the warmth of their relationship was remarked on -- despite court formalities, sometimes 'she would run the length of the room and kiss him; Edward Hyde (later Lord Clarendon) wrote stiffly that Charles felt 'fondness, if not affection' for Christabel. Others later suggested she might well have decided to 'make a man of', and do a favour to, this rather lonely, gangling youth (while also possibly doing herself and her family some good in later years, as Clarendon wrote). It is possible; certainly, her close familiarity and fondness with the prince led her to encourage him to act more independently and irresponsibly, while she, in effect, showed off and put herself about in court. Very soon, the council had to separate them, and Charles was moved away, further west." (Scandalous Liaisons: Charles II and his Court)
Margaret de Carteret.
Lover in 1645-1647.
Daughter of: George de Carteret, Baronet, Governor & Bailiff of Jersey.
Natural offspring: James de Carteret (1646-1667), a Jesuit priest.
"Although Lucy Walter (see below) is often cited as the mother of the first of Charles' children, many accounts (following Alison Weir) name a Marguerite or Margaret de Carteret and state that she bore Charles a son named James in 1646." (everyting2.com)
"Apparently, the first woman to have his child was Margaret de Carteret. She bore a son who was called James de la Cloche in 1646; he died at around the age of twenty-three. However, Margaret's husband Jean de la Cloche was also named as his father." (Libertines and Harlots: 30)
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| Lucy Walter |
Lucy Walter (1630-1658)
Lover in 1648-1650.
English royal mistress.
Wife of:
1. William Sarsfield
2. William Fanshawe.
Lucy's personal & family background.
She was the daughter of William Walter of Haverfordwest and Elizabeth Prothero. "There has been much confusion as to the name and parentage of Charles's mistress. Lucy Walter was the daughter of William Walter of Roch Castle, co. Pembroke . . . Roch Castle was taken and burnt by the Parliamentary forces in 1644. . . ." (Pepys: 557)
Lucy's love life.
" . . . Lucy was in London in 1648, where she made the acquaintance of Colonel Algernon Sidney. She then fell into the possession of his brother, Colonel Robert Sidney. In September of this same year she was taken up by Charles, Prince of Wales. Charles terminated his connection with her on October 30th, 1651, and she died in 1658. . . ." (Pepys: 557)
" . . . [She was the] seductive and energetic daughter of William Walter of Haverfordwest, became the mistress of Col. Robt. Sidney at The Hague in 1644 and then of Charles II from 1648 to 1650 when Henry Bennet (later E. of Arlington) shared her with others. She represented a personal bond between Charles and Bennet. The King was the father of her son James, D. of Monmouth (b.1649) and, less likely, of her daughter Mary (b. 1651). . . It was strenuously asserted between 1673 and 1680, and three times publicly denied by Charles II, that he had married her." (Arnold-Baker. The Companion to British History: 1285)
"[She] . . . was the daughter of a Welsh gentleman, and in 1648 became the mistress of Charles II., by whom she was tho mother of James, Duke of Monmouth. She lived with Charles in Holland. In 1656 she came over to England, where she was imprisoned in the Tower, but shortly afterwards released. After this little or nothing is known of her. When Monmouth put forward his claims to the throne it was contended by his adherents that his mother had been secretly married to Charles II., but of this assertion no proof was forthcoming, and Monmouth himself subsequently retracted it." (Pulling. The Dictionary of English History: 1051).
Offspring.
"The Duke of Monmouth (1649-85) was the son of Charles II's first mistress, Lucy Walters, whom she had met and seduced in Jersey and, according to persistent rumour, secretly married. After Charles's death in 1685 Monmouth would launch an invasion of England as a claimant to the throne, only to be defeated at Sedgemoor and executed." (Magnusson. Scotland: the Story of the Nation: 489)
Persona or Character.
"Charles, while a wanderer on the Continent, had fallen in at the Hague with Lucy Walters, a Welsh girl of great beauty, but of weak understanding and dissolute manners. She became his mistress, and presented him with a son. A suspicious lover might have had his doubts; for the lady had several admirers, and was not supposed to be cruel to any. . . ." (Macaulay. The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol 1: 194)
Beneficiaries and Patronages.
" . . . James Crofts . . . was married, while still in tender youth, to Anne Scott, heiress of the noble House of Buccleuch. He took her name, and received with her hand possession of her ample domains. The estate which he acquired by this match was popularly estimated at not less than ten thousand pounds a year. Titles, and favors more substantial than titles, were lavished on him. He was made Duke of Monmouth in England, Duke of Buccleuch in Scotland, a Knight of the Garter, Master of the Horse, Commander of the first troops of Life Guards, Chief Justice of Eyre south of Trent, and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. . . ." (Macaulay. The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol 1: 194)
Charles's first mistress and illegitimate child.
" . . . King Charles II (1630-1685) was an extraordinarily active monarch, who ran more than one mistress in harness at a time and made no secret of his fourteen illegitimate children. Charles started young, at eighteen, when he was in exile in France following Parliament's victory in the Civil War against his father, Charles I. There, in his idleness, Charles had little to do but womanise. The first pretty girl to catch his eye and the first of at least fifteen mistresses, was a Welshwoman, Lucy Walter whom he met in The Hague in the summer of 1648. Lucy took up with Charles shortly after his arrival, and in 1649 gave birth to his first child, James, later Duke of Monmouth. Lucy was her lover's constant companion, but he made the mistake of leaving her behind when he left The Hague in 1650. He returned to find she had been intriguing with a certain Colonel Henry Bennet. Charles ended the affair there and then, leaving Lucy to a life of prostitution. She died, probably of venereal disease, in 1658." (Britannia)
Short but fruitful affair.
"A second story about Charles in exile that prefigures important characteristics of Charles as a ruler is that of his brief relationship with Lucy Walter. Lucy was a Welsh gentlewoman of modest means but other endowments whom Charles impregnated in 1648, in the Netherlands, when they were both teenagers. She had already had an affair with Algernon Sidney, a parliamentary military officer and future republican political theorist, and she had high hopes for her relationship with the Stuart heir. Indeed, Walter was soon the mother of Charles's first son, later created the Duke of Monmouth and destined to become on of his father's most troublesome subjects. Lucy's relationship with Charles lasted only a year or two, however. In 1651 another royalist gentlewoman took her place, bearing Charles a daughter. Other mistresses quickly succeeded in Paris and Bruges, but Lucy Walter continued to bother Charles with demands for money and recognition until her untimely death in 1658." (Restoration and Revolution in Britain: 19)
First Encounter.
"Charles first met Lucy Walter in the Hague when he was sixteen and she most likely eighteen. Born in Haverfordwest and of a Welsh Royalist family, Lucy was described by John Evelyn as "brown, beautiful, bold, but insipid" and she and Charles spent the summer of 1648 together. On the 9th March 1649 Lucy duly gave gave birth to a son named James. She later died in Paris probably from syphilis in 1658 and her son was brought up in Paris by John, Lord Crofts and was thus known as James Crofts." (aneurin@everything2.com)
"Already the mistress of Colonel Robert Sidney at the The Hague, she met Charles in September 1648, they soon became lovers and bore Charles a son in April 1649. . . The child was named James 'Crofts' (after his guardian Lord Crofts)." (Unusual Historicals)
" . . . How the young Prince of Wales came to meet Lucy Walter is not known. She was with the exiled court at the Hague in the summer of 1648, and subsequently in Paris. Their son, James was born) at Rotterdam on 9 April 1649. Lucy also had a daughter, Mary, born) at the Hague on 6 May 1651. . . ." (Welsh Biography)
Affair's end & aftermath.
" . . . The Republicans captured Walters and sent her back to Holland. Unfortunately for Walters, she was left with no income, destitute; she became a prostitute who eventually died in Paris from syphilis. Monmouth was beheaded in 1685 after attempting to depose his uncle James II and VII in the Monmouth Rebellion." (Libertines and Harlots: 30)
Lucy Walters' other lovers:
Lover in 1647.
Brother of Robert Sidney.
". . . Algernon Sidney told James, duke of York, that he had given fifty gold pieces for her, but, having to join his regiment hastily, had missed his bargain. His brother, Colonel Robert Sidney secured the prize, but did not retain it long. During the summer of 1648 this 'private Welshwoman,' as Clarendon calls her, 'of no good fame, but handsome,' captivated Charles II, who was at The Hague for a short while about this time. He was only eighteen, and she is often spoken of as his first mistress, but there seems good reason to suppose that he was deniaise as early as 1646. . . . " (Wikisource)
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| Henry Bennett 1st Earl of Arlington |
Lover in 1650.
". . . During July and August 1649 she was with Charles at Paris and St. Germain, and she may have accompanied him to Jersey in September. In June 1650 he left her at The Hague upon embarkation for Scotland. During his absence Lucy intrigued with Colonel Henry Bennett (afterward Earl of Arlington), and Charles on his return terminated his connection with the lady, in spite of all her little artifices. . . . " (Wikisource)
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| Col. Robert Sidney |
". . . In 1648 he was promoted to Colonel, and he remained with the regiment in Holland until he was recalled to England by Charles II in 1665. . . His sojourn in Holland was not marked solely by military duty, however, as he was also notorious for an affair with Lucy Walters, later mistress to King Charles II. Rumour held that Sydney and not Charles was the father to the Duke of Monmouth, born in 1649, a belief that remained current throughout the Duke's life and was fuelled by the similarity in the appearance of the two men--indeed, a trace of this suspicion lingers in the misidentification of this sitter as Monmouth in the 1798 Fife catalogue." (Historical Portraits)
" . . . Her infidelities were so numerous and notorious that her enemies had found no difficulty in detaching Charles from her, after a brief infatuation. She had been easily won, if not actually his temptress, having previously yielded up her virtue to 'handsome Sidney,' that is, Colonel Robert Sidney, and perhaps to others also, before she fascinated the exiled Prince of Wales, who, on September 4th, 1648, came with Prince Rupert to the Hague. . . ." (The Roxburghe Ballads, Vol 2, Part 1: 508)
". . . During Charles II's exile, Robert Sidney was often with the King, and shared too many of his tastes. the Duke of Monmouth's mother, a Welsh girl named Lucy Walters, was for many years his mistress, and although Charles II publicly recognized Monmouth as his son, it was thought by many that Colonel Sidney was in reality the Duke's father. Certainly his appearance was mote that of a Sidney than a Stuart, and in height, complexion, and even in the warts that marked his face, he is said to have borne a close resemblance to Robert Sidney." (Sacharissa: Some Account of Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Sunderland, Her Family & Friends: 192)
Personal, Family & Professional Background: "Robert was the 4th son of Robert, 2nd Earl of Leicester. . . He entered Dutch service at the age of 17 and was a close companion of Charles II when he was in exile, although he fell out of favour later. He was a handsome man and many thought he was the real father of the Duke of Monmouth. The reasons for this assumption were that Robert's mistress at one time was one of the King's mistresses, Lucy Waters (sic) (Mrs. Barlow), also that the resemblance was so strong that many remarked on it." (The Buffs)
Real Father of James, Duke of Monmouth?: "Lucy Walter had almost as bad a reputation as the prince himself, and it is not at all certain that Charles was the natural father of James. According to (the) biographical research of Hugh Noel Williams (Williams, 1915, Rival sultanas) on 9 April 1649 Lucy Walter had given birth to James, later Duke of Monmouth, whom Charles II (who was Lucy's lover in those months) acknowledged as his. Charles, however, had not arrived at The Hague until the middle of September 1648, which meant Monmouth could not actually have been sired by king Charles. Instead, Lucy Walter had in Summer 1648 been (the) mistress of colonel Robert Sidney, a younger son of the Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester. Serious doubts about Monmouth's real paternity were present already in days of his birth. And, according to contemporaries' visual observations, when Monmouth grew to manhood, he bore a much stronger resemblance to Robert Sidney than he did to his reputed father the king. It also was claimed that Monmouth was much too good-looking to be the biological son of king Charles. If Monmouth was Sidney's son, then his uncles included Algernon Sydney (sic) and Henry Sydney (sic), and an ancestral uncle had been the poet Philip Sidney. . . Whatever the truth, king Charles recognised James as his son, but did not make him his heir." (Gen-Medieval-L Archives)
Irish Royalist officer.
" . . . Unfortunately, Lucy became a little too loose with her favors, which was thus an embarrassment to Charles. . . Charles instructed his friend Lord Taaffe, who had also slept with Lucy, 'for her stay there is very prejudicial to us both.'" (Behind the Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Great Britain: 129)
"Theobald, Viscount Taaffe . . . had gone on to become a stalwart of the court in exile, making himself the protector of Charles II's discarded mistress Lucy Walter and even adopting a daughter believed to be the king's. . . . " (Divided Kingdom: Ireland 1630-1800: 131)
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Elizabeth Killigrew |
Elizabeth Killigrew (1622-1680)
Viscountess Shannon
Lover in 1649-1652.
Maid of Honour to Queen Henrietta Maria.
Daughter of: Sir Robert Killigrew, Vice Chamberlain to Queen Henrietta Maria.
Wife of: Francis Boyle, 1st Viscount Shannon, Irish aristocrat & landowner, mar 1638.
"Elizabeth Killigrew, daughter of Sir William Killigrew. This gentleman had been the faithful servant of the king's father for many years, and his biographers have mentioned his appointment to the office of gentleman usher of the privy chamber, and subsequently to that of principal vice-chamberlain to the queen, as instances of the king's occasional remembrance of services: but they, of course, were ignorant when they uttered this praise, that his daughter was the king's mistress, a merit that did not particularly qualify him, one would think, to be in close attendance upon the queen. Elizabeth Killigrew had her infancy rendered more conspicuous by being created viscountess Shannon. Her daughter, Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Maria Fitzroy, had two husbands, James Howard, esq., and sir William Paston, earl of Yarmouth.---Tindal's Rapin's Hist. of England, ii, 740." (Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time: 110)
" . . . Lady Shannon had a daughter by King Charles II, and I should be glad to know if this daughter (Charlotte Maria Jemima, afterwards Countess of Yarmouth) was born before the marriage (the date of which I do not know) of Elizabeth Killigrew to Francis Boyle, and if she bore the arms of Boyle, or those of King Charles with some abatement." (Notes and Queries: 258)
"Francis Boyle, born June 25, 1623, was the sixth son of Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork. Francis, created Viscount Shannon, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Killigrew and sister of Sir William Killigrew, by whom he had issue two sons and one daughter. . . Grammont speaks of Elizabeth Killigrew's liaison with Charles II under her maiden name.The time of the birth of Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Boyle, alias Fitzroy, is not recorded. She died in London, July 28, 1684, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. She was twice married: first to James, only son of Thomas, second son of Theophilus Howard, Earl of Suffolk; and secondly, to William Paston, son and heir of Robert, Earl of Yarmouth. No coat is given to her as Countess of Yarmouth, who before this marriage was sometimes called Boyle and sometimes Fitzroy." (Notes and Queries: 258)
Natural offspring:
a. Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Maria Fitzroy (1650-?)
"Elizabeth Killigrew (1622-1680) was next to bare him a child; she was the younger sister of Thomas Killigrew. In 1650 Charles and Elizabeth had a daughter nane Charlotte Jemima Fitzroy. In 1660 Elizabeth married Francis Boyle and in the same year she became Viscountess Shannon after her husband was created the 1st Viscount. Charlotte was to marry twice; she passed away at the young age of thirty-four." (Libertines and Harlots: 31)
"Elizabeth Killigrew was the sister of Thomas Killigrew the dramatist who joined Charles during his period of exile and later became Master of the Revels. Elizabeth's marriage to Francis Boyle, 1st Viscount Shannon, but having come to the king's attention through her position as maid-of-honour to Henrietta Maria of France (Charles II's mother) her marriage was regarded as no bar to her also becoming the king's mistress. Elizabeth bore Charles one daughter named Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Maria FitzRoy in 1650 who was married off to William Paston, 2nd Earl of Yarmouth in 1672." (everything2.com)
"At the time of her daughter's birth Elizabeth Boyle was twenty-eight years old and Charles just twenty years old. The age difference is interesting simply because it is the only recorded case of Charles having an older woman as his mistress. . . . " (Royal Bastards.)
". . . In 1639 Elizabeth was wed at sixteen to Mary's brother, Francis, a son of Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork. Francis soon toured Europe, while Elizabeth frequently took Mary to plays and at the same time became the instigator and go-between in the secret courtship of Mary by the parentally unapproved Charles Rich. During the civil wars Elizabeth joined the court-in-exile and bore two of Charles II's many children. . . ." (Early Responses to Renaissance Drama: 232)
Personal & Family Background: " . . . Elizabeth (was the) daughter of Sir Robert Killigrew, Vice Chamberlain to Charlotte's grandmother, Queen Henrietta Maria. Elizabeth had been married in 1638, at the age of sixteen, in the Chapel Royal at Whitehall to Francis Boyle, the 4th surviving son of the 1st Earl of Cork. Francis was later created Viscount Shannon, the original patent was dated 1654 at Paris and sold at Sothesby's in 1865. According to the Duke of Ormonde, Viscount Shannon was 'a plain, honest gentleman' and from his surviving letters would seem to have been 'a kindly and fair-minded man'." (Royal Bastards)
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Jane Robarts Credits: flickriver.com |
Jane Robarts (d.1679)
Lover in 1651-1653.
English royal mistress
A clergyman's daughter
"Jane Roberts, beyond the story of her frailty, and the fact of her having been the daughter of a clergyman, possesses but slight to the notice of the historian. The tale of her fall from virtue appears to have been attended by circumstances unusually distressing, and, in her hours of solitude and reflection, were dwelt upon by the the unfortunate creature with the bitterest remorse. 'Her first education,' says Bishop Burnet, 'had so deep a root, that, though she fell into many scandalous disorders, with very dismal adventures in them all, yet a principle of religion was so deep-laid in her, that, though it did not restrain her, yet it kepi alive in her such a constant horror of sin, that she was never easy in an ill course, and died with a great sense of her former ill life.' The bishop, to whom she applied for spiritual consolation when she was dying, was a frequent attendant in her sick chamber during the three last months which preceded her dissolution. In the enthusiasm of her heart-felt repentance, she expressed an anxious desire to address a letter to the King, expressing the bitter sense she entertained of the wickedness of their past life. She was no less desirous of reminding her royal lover of the value of his own soul, and of the disastrous consequences which attend a life of pleasure. She was too weak, however, to indite the letter herself, and accordingly, at her express wish, the bishop undertook the task. . . The penitent and unfortunate creature, who forms the subject of the present memoir, appears to have died in 1681. Her portrait was undoubtedly painted by Lely, but of the fate of the picture we have no record." (Memoirs of the Court of England During the Reign of the Stuarts, Vol 3: 390)
Jane Robart's other lover was:
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Eleanor Needham Lady Byron |
Eleanor Needham (1627-1664).
Lady Byron
Lover in 1652.
Daughter of: Robert Needham, 2nd Viscount Kilmorey, & Eleanor Dutton.
Wife of:
1. Peter Warburton (d.1644), mar 1638
2. John Byron, 1st Baron Byron of Rochdale (1599-1652), mar 1644
" . . . Lady Byron was Charles II's seventeenth mistress when in exile , and extorted from him at that time 15,000 pounds: she was at the Restoration given up for Lady Castlemaine, and died two years after. No portrait of her is mentioned in James II's catalogue." (A Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the Royal Collection at Hampton: 58)
"Elinor Needham, daughter of Lord Kilmurrey, married at eleven years old to Peter Warburton, Esq., who died before she was fifteen, and after his death the wife of the first Lord Byron, is described in Sir Peter Leycester's Antiquities of Chester, as 'a person of such comely carriage and presence, handsomeness, sweet disposition, honor, and general respect in the world, that she hath scarce left her equal behind.' But Sir Peter was personally the friend of the lady, and connected with her family, and his testimony is rather incorrect and partial. The fact is, that this Lady Byron became, after the death of her husband, the mistress of Charles II during his exile; and, avarice being her ruling passion, she contrived to extort from him, even in the midst of his distresses, upwards of 15,000 pounds in money and jewels, etc. She was dismissed for the sake of Lady Castlemaine, before the king's return, and died at Chester, within two years after the Restoration. . . ." (Hamilton. Memoirs of Count Grammont: 372)
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Catherine Pegge Lady Greene @ Pinterest |
Catherine Pegge (1635-1678)
Lover in 1656-1658.
Lady Greene
English royal mistress.
Daughter of: Thomas Pegge & Catherine Kniveton, daughter of Sir Gilbert Kniveton, Baronet.
Wife of: Edward Green, an Essex baronet, mar 1667
"Catherine Pegge was the daughter of a Thomas Pegge of Yeldersley in Derbyshire, who bore Charles a son known as Charles FitzCharles in 1657. Popularly known as 'Don Carlo', Charles was created the Earl of Plymouth on the 28th July 1675 and married Bridget Osborne, a daughter of the Duke of Leeds but died without issue on the 17th October 1680 at Tangier. There was also a daughter named Catherine FitzCharles born 1658. She later became a nun at Dunkirk in France. Known there as Sister Cecilia, she died in 1759, obviously without issue." (Everything2)
"At the age of twenty-two Charles seemingly had notched up his seventeenth conquest on the royal bed post. Catherine Pegge met Charles in Bruges, Holland around 1656; her family were also in exile. Pegge became a long-term mistress of Charles; she gave birth to two of his children. Their boy was named Charles FitzCharles who was born in 1657; he became the 1st Earl of Plymouth at the age of eighteen. He became friends with John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham who was ten years his senior. Their other child was named Catherine FitzCharles who was born in 1658; she became a nun. In the same year, Charles had a brief engagement to Countess Henriette of Nassau but his reputation annulled the future marriage which is hardly surprising." (Libertines and Harlots: 31)
"At the little court that he had established at Bruges Charles took another mistress Catherine Pegge, an English Catholic exile of good family, who bore him two children in quick succession. Don Carlos, the son, was educated as a catholic and subsequently created Earl of Plymouth but his sister did not survive infancy. Lady Green, as he later became, was the daughter of Thomas Pegge, of Yeldersley, Derbyshire and grand daughter of Sir Gilbert Kniveton, Bart. Unlike Lady Shannon and Lucy, however, Lady Green did not have any royal connections despite being descended from some very respectable catholic gentry families." (Royal Sex)
" . . . While exiled, Charles also began an affair with Catherine Pegge and, in 1657, she gave birth to Charles FitzCharles 1st Earl of Plymouth, followed by a daughter Catherine FitzCharles. Catherine’s position did not last long, and in 1667 she was married off to Sir Edward Greene. . . ." (Derrick. Top 10 Philandering English Monarchs @listverse)
Natural Offspring with Catherine Pegge.
"Charles FitzCharles, Earl of Plymouth, was born in 1657, during the exile of his father. His mother was Catherine, daughter of Thomas Peg, Esquire, of Yeldersley, in Derbyshire. Little is known of this lady, but that she possessed great beauty, which is said to have been inherited by her son. After the discontinuance of her intimacy with Charles, she married Sir Edward Green, Baronet, of Essex. On the 29th of July, 1675, the King created her son Baron Dartsmouth, Viscount Totness, and Earl of Plymouth. . . ." (Memoirs of the Court of England During the Reign of the Stuarts, Vol 3: 168)
Elizabeth Farley (1640-1678)
Lover in 1660.
English actress
" . . . Actress in the King's Company 1660-78, playing minor roles. Born Farley, and briefly (c. 1660) mistress to the King." (The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Companion: 472)
"Elizabeth Farley began her career as Mrs. Farley, but later married and changed her name to Mrs. Weaver. Although, some evidence suggests that she never actually married Mr. Weaver, just used his name. Scandal ensued when she became pregnant and word spread that their union wasn’t legal. As suggested in the play, Mrs. Farley was possibly an early mistress of Charles II, ca. 1661. Sadly, information about Mrs. Farley seems to center on the men with whom she associated as opposed to her own accomplishments and personality." (COHO Productions)
First encounter.
" . . . The actress Mrs. Knepp told Samuel Pepys in 1668 that Charles II 'first spotted Mrs. Weaver, which is very mean, methinks, in a prince' but that must have happened much earlier in the 1660's. . . ." A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800: Tibbett to M. West: 306)
" . . . Elizabeth Farley, generally known as Mrs. Weaver, was one of these. She was born about 1640, and as a member of The King's Company from 1660 to 1665, played secondary roles at the Theatre Royal. According to Pepys's actress friend Mrs. Knepp, Elizabeth Farley was 'first spoiled' i.e., seduced, by the King himself. If true, the relationship did not last very long, for by the winter of 1660 Elizabeth Farley was living with James Weaver, a gentleman of Gray's Inn. Although she was never married to Weaver, Elizabeth Farley ran up bills of credit as his wife, and was also generally listed as Mrs. Weaver in the cast lists of the theatre. Weaver not only cast off his mistress but also sought permission of the Lord Chamberlain to sue her for the return of 30 pounds; and she had other debts. Furthermore, Elizabeth Farley was by now pregnant, although she continued desperately to act, since so long as she was a member of the The King's Company, she was immune from arrest. The visible signs of her pregnancy could bot be concealed for ever. 'Mrs. Weaver' was finally discharged. Carefully misrepresenting the cause of her dismissal, Elizabeth Farley appealed to the King for reinstatement. Sir Henry Bennet, on behalf of the King, was ordered to see to it. At this point Sir Robert Howard, the principal shareholder in The King's Company, issued an indignant protest. Mrs. Weaver, he said, had been dismissed because she was 'big with child' and 'shamefully so' since she was not married. . . ." (The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England)
" . . . Mrs. Elizabeth Weaver was one of the original actresses in the King's Company when it was formed in 1660, along with Anne and Rebecca Marshall, and Nell Gwyn. She was usually called Mrs. Weaver in cast lists, but her maiden name was Farley, and she apparently never married James Weaver. Samuel Pepys hinted on January 11th 1668 that Elizabeth Farley was for a brief period after the Restoration a mistress of Charles II but by the end of the 1660-1661 theatrical season she was known as Mrs. Weaver. In 1662 she announced she was leaving the stage. After that it was discovered she was pregnant and not married to James Weaver, the man from which she had taken her name. A petition against her by Henry Dobson dating September 1662 stated that she had changed her name to Weaver to try and defraud her creditors, and she had been found of not being married to James Weaver although having a child by him. she owed Dobson over 25 pounds. . . ." (A Biographical Dictionary: 306)
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| Barbara Villiers 1st Duchess of Cleveland |
Lover in 1660-1670.
Duchess of Cleveland
[See The Uncrowned Queen @Royal Favourites]
Winifred Wells (1642-?)
Lover in 1662-1673?.
English courtier & royal mistress.
Maid-of-honour to Queen Catherine of Braganza.
[Pix]
Daughter of: Gilbert Wells.
Wife of: Thomas Wyndham, King's equerry, mar 1673.
First encounter: "The other daughter of Gilbert and Mary who come to prominence was Winifred Wells, their youngest child. She too grew up at Brambridge, and it was there she first met the King. Charles II had commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to build him a splendid palace, greater even than Hampton Court, near Winchester. He came to visit the site, but for a while at least, passed time with Gilbert Wells at Brambridge. Although no evidence exists, it is likely that during his visit he noticed Gilbert's attractive young daughter, Winifred, who, coming from a Catholic and Royalist family, was given a place at Court as Maid of Honour to his Catholic Queen, Catherine of Braganza. Winifred was one of her original Maids of Honour when in May 1662, Catherine arrived at the Royal Court to meet the King following their proxy marriage in Lisbon. Within a few months, Winifred had caught the King's eye, and become his mistress. Philibert de Gramont, in his Memoirs, wrote of her: 'As ehr father had first served Charles I, she thought it would ill become his daughter to decline to be served by Charles II.'" (A History of the Attwell Family, 1200-1650: 65)
Winifred's physical appearance & personal qualities: " . . . Perhaps a more astute, damaging and inspiring description of Winifred is provided by Gramont thus: "She was a tall girl, exquisitely shaped; she dressed very well, walked like a goddess; and yet, her face, though made like those that generally please the most, was unfortunately one of those that pleased the least; nature had spread it a certain careless indolence that made her look sheepish. This gave but a bad opinion of her wit; and her wit had the ill-luck to make good that opinion. However, as she was fresh coloured, and appeared inexperienced, the King, whom the fair Stewart did not render (A History of the Attwell Family, 1200-1650: 65)
"Winifred Wells was a Maid of Honor to Queen Catherine and, from 1662, she was also Charles mistress, though she never gained much favor or power. Samuel Pepys wrote in 1662 that Winifred “dropped a child during a court ball held on 31 December” this child was allegedly the king's, but never officially recognised. In 1673, after Charles lost interest, she was married to Thomas Wyndham...." (Derrick).
"Apart from Charles's more serious illicit relationships with women, such as Barbara, there were also many frivolous dalliances throughout the years. There was a fling with Winifred Wells, who became a maid of honour to the Queen in 1662 and about whom Buckingham wrote a bawdy poem in French. It was said that Winifred had actually given birth to a baby while dancing at court. . . ." (Charles II and the Duke of Buckingham)
Winifred's spouse & children: "Mrs. Wells was one of Catherine of Braganza's original Maids of Honour, but she did not become the King's mistress until after he had cast aside Lady Castlemaine in 1667. Winifred is credited by Samuel Pepys with having aborted the King's child at a court ball in 1662/3, which was allegedly taken up by the King in his handkerchief for subsequent dissection in his laboratory. Winifred later went on to marry Thomas Wyndham, one of the King's equerries and bore him two children, the son, Charles, was made a page of honour to James II and followed him into life-long exile and served in Captain Dorrington's regiment in the armies of the King of France. . . . " (Powell. Royal Sex: Mistresses & Lovers of the British royal Family)
Mary Knight.
Lover in 1667.
English singer.
"Mary Knight, another mistress of Charles, was principally remarkable for the lustre of her beauty and the sweetness of her voice. She appears to have become the mistress of the King as early as the year 1667, when, according to a lampoon of the period, she was employed by him to procure the favours of Nell Gwynn. The very fact of the King's engaging a former mistress, in a transaction of so delicate a nature, would naturally imply a total cessation, if not of confidence, at least of either sentiment or regard. It would seem, however, that Charles continued the intimacy during a lapse of many years. On the 13th March, 1682, Pepys writes to Lord Brounker:---'I have not yet been to Mrs. Nelly's, but I hear that Mrs. Knight is better, and the King takes his repose there once or twice daily.' Her admirable singling probably served to prolong the connection long after mere personal beauty had ceased to charm. The singular sweetness of her voice is celebrated by Pepys." (Memoirs of the Court of England During the Reign of the Stuarts, Vol. 3: 7392)
"Mary Knight, a notable mistress of Charles II, was frequently at Newmarket during the sojourns of the Merry Monarch. Mary was principally remarkable for the lustre of her beauty and the sweetness of her voice. She appears to have become the mistress of the king early in the year 1667, when, according to a lampoon of the period, she was employed by him to procure the favours of Nell Gwynn. The very fact of the king engaging a former mistress, in a transaction of so delicate a nature, would naturally imply a total cessation, if not of confidence, at least of either sentiment or regard. It would seem, however, that Charles continued the intimacy during a lapse of many years, as it is evident he was a frequent visitor to her lodgings during this Newmarket meeting, notwithstanding the circumstance that Nell Gwynn and the two duchesses---Richmond and Cleveland---were in attendance upon the court at the same time. Mary Knight's admirable singing probably served to prolong the connection long after mere personal beauty had ceased to charm. The singular sweetness of her voice is celebrated by Pepys, and, moreover, in Waller's 'Poems' we find 'a song sung by Mrs. Knight to her Majesty on her birthday.' According to the lampoons of the period Mary, or Moll, Knight was no less celebrated for her profane swearing than for the angelic sweetness of her voice. There were reasons to believe that, like her companions in frailty, Nell Gwynn and Jane Roberts, she died sorrowful and repentant. Her picture by Kneller represents her in mourning, kneeling in a devout posture before a crucifix. Although the portrait seems to have been taken when she was in the decline of life, her countenance nevertheless exhibits exceeding beauty. Her arms are meekly forded upon her breast, while penitence and humility are strongly impressed upon her features." (The History of Newmarket and the Annals of the Turf, Vol 3: 37)
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Mary Bagot Countess of Falmouth |
Mary Bagot (1645-1679)
Countess of Falmouth
Countess of Dorset
Lover in 1667-1668.
British aristocrat, courtier & royal mistress.
Maid of Honour to the Duchess of York
Daughter of: Colonel Henry Bagot, of Pipe Hall & Dorothea Arden.
Wife of:
1. Sir Charles Berkeley, 1st Earl of Falmouth, Son of Sir Charles Charles Berkeley, Baron Berkeley, Viscount Fitzharding, Baron Bottecourt & Earl of Falmouth 1664, mar 1663
2. Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, mar 1674.
"Falmouth was young, brave, and handsome; he had been one of the faithful companions of the Duke of York in his exile, and by him introduced to the King: he soon became the declared favourite of both, and a sharer in all their profligate adventures. He had done every thing in his power to prevent the acknowledgment of the duke's marriage with Ann (sic) Hyde, which he regarded as disgraceful to his patron: he even went so far as to traduce her infamously, but was afterwards obliged to retract the unmanly slander. This offence the duchess magnanimously forgave, but her father, Lord Clarendon, as bitterly avenged, by leaving us in his history a most odious portrait of Berkeley, whom he describes as 'a young man of a dissolute life, and prone to all wickedness in the judgment of all sober men....... One in whom few men had even seen any virtue or quality which they did not wish their friends without.'" (Memoirs of the Beauties of the Court of Charles II, Volume 2: 68)
Mary Bagot's personal & family background: "Elizabeth (sic) Bagot was the daughter of Colonel Hervey Bagot, third son of Sir Hervey Bagot, Baronet, one of the ancestors of the present Lord Bagot. Her mother, Dorothea Arde, of the Ardens of Park Hall, in Warwickshire, died in 1649, leaving an only daughter, an infant. Colonel Bagot, soon after the death of his first wife, married Elizabeth Rotheram, who made an affectionate and careful step-mother. The whole family of the Bagots had adhered to the party of Charles the First, and had suffered more or less in the royal cause. Colonel Hervey had particularly distinguished himself by his chivalrous loyalty, and his defence of Lichfield: these claims were nt overlooked like those of many others. On the Restoration, he became one of the Gentlemen-pensioners of Charles the Second, and his daughter Elisabeth (that is, Mary)was appointed Maid of Honour to the Duchess of York. (: 66-67)
"Among the pictures by Lely at Hampton Court are two which for many years bore wrong names, but which have since been identified. One, a portrait of a beautiful woman with dark, slightly arched brows, is Mary, the Countess of Falmouth, the only daughter who lived to maturity of Colonel Harvey Bagot, of Pipe Hayes, Aston, in Warwickshire. Colonel Bagot's first wife bore him a son and daughter, Arden and Mary; his second wife one daughter, named Elizabeth, who died as an infant. This is mentioned because there has been some confusion between these two girls, the picture in Hampton Court being generally written of as representing Elizabeth, Countess Falmouth. Mary Bagot was born in 1645, and in September, 1660, was appointed one of the four maids of honour to Anne, Duchess of York, the only one of them, according to Gramont, who was really possessed of virtue and beauty. 'She had beautiful and regular features, and that sort of brown complexion which, when in perfection, is so particularly fascinating, and more especially in England, where it is uncommon. There was an involuntary blush almost continually upon her cheek, without having anything to blush for.'" (The Fair Ladies of Hampton Court: 122)
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Mary Davis |
Mary Davis (1648-1698)
Lover in 1667-1673.
English entertainer, courtesan, singer, actress & royal mistress.
Daughter of: Colonel Thomas Howard, Earl of Berkshire (Women of History - D)
Wife of: James Paisible, French composer & flautist, mar 1686 (Women of History - D)
First royal encounter --- 1667."Charles was not fussy about the status of his women. A pretty face and a comely figure were enough for a mistress to be taken on the strength, and he was particularly prone to actresses. The state provided a handy hunting-ground for the regular royal theatre-goer, and it was here that Charles encountered Moll Davis in about 1667. Moll was a popular singer-dancer-comedienne, but she had her dark side. Mrs. Pepys, wife of Samuel Pepys the diarist, called her 'the most impertinent slut in the world' and she was grasping and vulgar with it. Moll flaunted her success as a royal mistress, showing off her 'mighty pretty fine coach' and a ring worth the then vast sum of 600 pounds. Moll, who gave up the stage in 1668, had a daughter by Charles the following year but soon fell foul of Nell Gwynne, one of the King's concurrent mistresses, who had a wicked sense of humour. Hearing that Moll was due to sleep with the king on a night early in 1668, Nell invited her to eat some sweetmeats she had prepared. Unknown to Moll, her rival had mixed in a hefty dose of the laxative jalap After that, the night in the royal bed did not exactly go as planned. Charles, too, had a sharp sense of humour, but this time, he was not amused and Moll was summarily dismissed. Being a generous man, though, Charles sent Moll packing with a pension of 1,000 pounds a year." (Britannia)
" . . . In January 1668 Pepys heard that Moll Davis had become mistress to Charles II, who had given her a ring worth 600 pounds and was furnishing a house for rent in Suffolk Street. By the end of May she had left the stage permanently, returning only once to sing in a performance at court in February 1675. Her daughter by Charles II, Lady Mary Tudor, was born in 1673 and married in 1687 to Edward, Viscount Radcliffe, later Earl of Derwentwater. . . ." (A Historical Dictionary of British Women: 271)
" . . . Moll was a charming little singer and actress, and a wonderful dancer from the Duke's Theatre . . . Mrs. Pepys described her as 'the most impudent slut in the world,' but she soon became a great favourite of the King, who was entirely captivated by her saucy songs and her flaming vitality." (Bright Tapestry: 291)
". . . According to Samuel Pepys, Davis had become the mistress of Charles II (1660–1685) by Jan, 1668 and retired from the stage soon afterwards, returning to the stage for one sole performance a decade later (1675). Her liaison with King Charles lasted for several years, and he provided her with a residence in Suffolk Street. . . . " (Women of History - D)
"Moll was a popular singer-dancer-comedienne, who first attracted Charles' in about 1667. Samuel Pepys recorded his wife's view of her "the most impertinent slut in the world" presumably because she delighted in flaunting the wealth that consequently came her way. . . . " (everything2.com)
Natural Offspring: ". . . Mary bore him an illegitimate daughter, whom he recognized under the title of Lady Mary Tudor (1673–1725). Lady Mary was later married (1687) to Edward Radcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater. . . ." (Women of History - D)
"She became a child actress under the supervision of Sir William Davenant, in whose home she was raised and educated. Her first recorded stage appearance was a Viola in Davenant’s own work The Law Against Lovers (1662). A talented and graceful dancer, and popular vocalist, Davis later appeared as Celania in, The Rivals The Mad Shepherdess at Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre. The diarist Samuel Pepys considered her a finer actress than Nell Gwyn." (Women of History - D)
Benefits: "Pepys informs us that, in 1667, Mary Davis was publicly acknowledged by Charles:---that he presented her with a ring valued at seven hundred pounds, and furnished for her a house in Suffolk Street. Pepys happened one day to be passing by when she was stepping into her coach in Suffolk Street, and he tells us a ;mighty fine coach' it was." (Memoirs of the Court of England During the Reign of the Stuarts, Vol 2: 239)
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| Nell Gwyn |
Lover in 1668-1685.
Lady of the Privy Chamber to Catherine of Braganza 1675
Daughter of: Thomas Gwynne, English soldier & Eleanor Smith.
Natural offspring:
1. Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St. Albans (1670-1726)
2. James Beauclerk, Lord Beauclerk (1671-1680)
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| Nell Gwynne |
First encounter (1668).
"No mistress could have been more different from these haughty grasping beauties than the kindhearted, faithful, diverting Nell Gwynne. She first met Charles at the Duke's House theatre in 1668. He was enchanted by the unaffected girl Pepys later called 'pretty, witty Nell' and before long they became lovers. Nell was totally committed to the King, so much so that she punched the Duke of Buckingham over the ear when he tried to kiss her. Buckingham was not the only one would-be seducer at court, but like him, all of them found Nell was completely uninterested." (Britannia)
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| Nell Gwynn |
Nell's fist love?.
"Who was Nell Gwyn's first love has been a matter of amiable controversy---a controversy that will now, of course, never be settled. those put forth bu various champions for the honour are 'a Cully of the City;' one Durgan, Dongan or Duncan, who may or may not have been the citizen; Charles Hart the actor; and John Lacy, dramatist and comedian." (Nell Gwyn: The Story of Her Life: 37)
" . . . As a girl Nell served drinks in a local brothel, hawked fish, then sold oranges at the Theatre Royal. She appeared on stage as early as 1664, but her first important role was in 1665 as Cydaria in The Indian Emperor by John Dryden, who wrote her other suitable parts, such as Florimel in Secret Love, considered her most successful performance. 'A bold merry slut' and 'pretty witty Nell' (Samuel Pepys's descriptions), she was an excellent comedienne. Charles II first met Nell in 1668, attracted by her saucy wit and her urchin looks. She became his mistress in 1669 and bore him two sons, Charles (born in 1670 and created Duke of St. Albans i 1684) and James (born in 1671)." (Historical Dictionary of Stuart England, 1603-1689: 218)
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| Nell Gwynn |
" . . . On the 25th of December, 1671, Nelly was delivered of another beautiful boy, called James, of whom his father was as fond as he was of Charles. About 1673 the King was conferring titles on other natural children of his, and Nelly thought it was time to look after her own beautiful buds---for whom she seems to have . . ."
Nell's benefits from the affair.
"Charles gifted Nell the lease (but, unlike gifts to the other amours, not the freehold) of the Bestwood Park estate in Nottinghamshire. Once part of Sherwood Forest, it had already been for centuries a popular hunting ground for visiting monarchs and landed gentry and contained a hunting lodge dating back to Edward III. After Charles's death in 1685, Nell received the freehold of the estate from his brother and successor, James II. On her death in 1687, the estate passed to her son, the 1st Duke. When it reached the 10th Duke he demolished the medieval lodge and, in 1863, built a grand house, Bestwood Lodge, in which he and his Duchess often entertained the future Edward VII, as well as British statesmen and poets. The estate stayed in the family until 1940." (Duchesses: Living in 21st Century Britain)
The legend of how Nell acquired Bestwood Park.
"This popularity resulted in the construction of a mediaeval hunting lodge, and the eventual enclosure of the site - using pale fencing and ditching - to form the original Bestwood Park. The enclosed park remained in Crown possession until the 17th century and time of King Charles II. At this point it was gifted to his mistress, Nell Gwynn, and their illegitimate son, who became the 1st Duke of St. Albans. The popular story is that Charles II and his guests, when staying in the lodge, would tease poor Nell for sleeping in and missing a good morning's sport. Charles II offered to gift to Nell, "All the land she could ride around before breakfast," and was surprised the next day to find Nell sitting for breakfast before the King and all the guests. It was claimed she had ridden out early, dropping handkerchiefs along her route, and the encircled area became Bestwood Park." (Nottinghamshire County Council)
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| Nell Gwyn |
Nell Gwyn's other lovers:
Charles Hart (1625-1684)
British actor
"Charles Hart went on the stage at an early age---the exact date of his birth is not known---making his first appearance in women's parts, and playing the Duchess in Shirley's The Cardinal, which play was licensed in 1641, though not printed until twenty years later. At the outbreak of the Civil War he served in Prince Rupert's regiment of horse; during the Commonwealth, when the theatres were closed, he took part in dramatic performances at Holland House and other private residences; and at the Restoration he joined the company at the Vere Street Theatre. In 1663 he went with Killigrew to the King's House, where he remained until the junction of the two companies in 1683, a year before his death. He was not only a creditable actor---he played with success such parts as Othello, Brutus in Julius Caesar, and Alexander---but he was evidently a very personable fellow and a great deal of a gallant." (Nell Gwyn: The Story of Her Life: 40)
"Just before the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, acting resumed on a larger scale, and Hart seems to have been then a member of a company performing at the Cockpit playhouse, led by Michael Mohun II's. . . ." (Wikipedia)
.jpg%2F185px-Charles_Sackville%2C_6th_Earl_of_Dorset_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller%2C_Bt_(2).jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*)
"Lord Buckhurst was reputed the best-bred man of his day, was a brave soldier, young, accomplished, and 'the most munificent patron of literature and country has yet seen.' He was a fine-hearted English gentleman whose epitaph was afterwards written y Pope, while Prior, Walpole, and Macaulay, have all praised him with the warmth of friends. The connection was, in fact, much to Nelly's credit in one point of view---poor, ignorant girl as she had been, now introduced to the society as the most accomplished men of her time, and filling her new position with a grace and charmingness which made Lord Buckhurst as much envied as she was, when she 'kept merry house' with him at Epsom. . . Eventually, however, Lord Buckhurst and she parted, upon some quarrel, and in October, 1667, Pepys gives us a glimpse of Nell behind the scenes again. . . On the 11th of January, 1667-8, Pepys notes a rumor that 'the King had sent for Nelly;' and it is known that Lord Buckhurst was then pensioned, promised a peerage, and sent on what Dryden calls 'a sleeveless errand' to France. . . ." (The Eclectic Magazine, Vol. 35: 424)
" . . . About 1667 he acquired notoriety as a lover of Nell Gwyn, before she was taken into keeping by the King. . . "
John Lacy.
"John Lacy, who must have been some ten or more years older than Hart, was also one of the principal actors in the King;s company, and was, it has been put on record, 'of a rare shape of body and good complexion.' He made his mark as a comedian. He got into disgrace in 1667 when, playing Change of Crowns, he, as Pepys puts it, 'did act the Country Gentleman come up to Court, who do abuse the Court with all imaginable wit and plainness about selling of places and doing everything for money,' for Charles, who was present at the performance, was so angry at being abused to his face that he ordered the theatre to be closed and Lacy to be committed to the Porter's Lodge. Forgiveness, owing to the intercession of Killigrew, followed soon upon the punishment. Lucy, who was of a literary turn of mind, wrote several comedies and farces, which had some success in their day, but have not survived. (Nell Gwynn: The Story of Her Life: 39)
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| John Wilmot 2nd Earl of Rochester |
Robert Duncan
Lover in 1662.
"In 1662, at the age of 12, Nell began an affair with someone named Duncan – possibly an officer in the guards named Robert Duncan – and he moved her out of her mother’s house and into private rooms. He might also have been the one who got her a job in the new theatre on Drury Lane, though it’s more likely it was her mother’s friendship with the woman who was given the concessions license there, Molly Meggs. All theatres had been closed and banned as immoral during the reign of Parliament, but Charles had ordered them reopened. Nell’s job was to sell oranges (a popular snack) to the crowd during performances, a job that generally required the wit and forwardness to banter with potential customers to entice sales. It also required the girls to act as messengers from wealthy men who wished to meet with the actresses backstage, and it was probably while carrying one of those messages that Nell caught the eye of Thomas Killigrew." (History)
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Louise de Keroualle |
Lover in 1670-1685.
Duchess of Portsmouth
Duchesse d'Aubigny
French aristocrat & royal mistress
Maid of Honour to Henrietta Anne, Duchesse d'Orleans 1668-1670; Lady in Waiting to Queen Catherine of England 1670; Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen 1673
Daughter of: Guillaume de Penancoet, Sieur de Kerouaille & Marie de Ploeue.
Natural offspring:
Charles Lennox (1672-1723), 1st Duke of Richmond 1675
Louise's personal & family background.
She, 'was born in September 1649 at the Manoir de Keroualle, the second of three children of Guillaume de Penancoet, count de Keroualle (d.1690), and his wife, Marie-Anne (d.1709), daughter of Sebastien de Ploeuc, marquess of Timeur and of Kergolay, and his wife, Marie de Rieux. Keroualle boasted an ancient lineage but was of relatively minor and apparently somewhat impoverished Breton nobility, while his wife was a connection of the powerful Rieux family. . . ." (ODNB)
First encounter.
"Charles had two mistresses who gained political significance, the countess of Castlemaine and her replacement in the king's affections, Louise-Renee de Keroualle, daughter of the French count de Keroualle. Louise first met Charles in 1670 when she was maid of honour to 'Madame', Charles's sister Henrietta-Anne. That May it was she who, on behalf of Louis XIV and with Louise in attendance, conducted the successful negotiations with her brother over the secret Treaty of Dover. She returned to Versailles in triumph but died unexpectedly soon after. Both Charles and his cousin Louis were profoundly shocked at the sudden death of the popular 'Madame' who was only twenty-six years old. . . ." (James VII: Duke and King of Scots: 1635)
The King's principal mistress.
"In 1670, after Lady Castlemaine's influence had waned, the king fell in love again. The subject of his affections was a 21-year-old French woman, Louise de Keroualle, daughter of a minor French nobleman and maid of honour to his beloved sister, Henriette, wife of Louis XIV's brother, Philippe duc d'Orleans. . . Louise accompanied her mistress to England in May 1670, on the visit associated with the sealing of the Secret Treaty of Dover. Shortly after their return to France, Henriette, still only in her mid-twenties, died unexpectedly. The news left Charles heartbroken, and it may be that this desperate sadness for the loss of his sister was at the root of the strength of feeling he developed almost instantly for her lady in waiting, who arrived back in England a months later. Louise was another striking beauty with black hair and pale skin and within a year she was established as the king's principal mistress and -- like Barbara before her -- was given extensive apartments at Whitehall Palace. Though Charles would have other liaisons, not least with the colourful Nell Gwyn, Louise's position was never seriously threatened and she retained his affections for the rest of his life. When Charles died, a full-length portrait of Louise hung in his bedchamber at Windsor Castle, simple e." (The Magnificent Monarch: Charles II and the Ceremonies of Power: 130)
Mlle. de Keroualle at first played her game so cautiously as to dispirit the French ambassador, Colder de Croissy. In November Evelyn first saw the new 'famous beauty, but in my opinion of a childish, simple, and baby face' (Diary, ii, 263). Gradually, however, her charms and her coyness prevailed, and the ministers began to pay court to her. During a sojourn of the king at Newmarket she was, in October 1671, invited to Lady Arlington's country seat of Euston, where, with the cooperation of the French ambassador and others, she was established as mistress en titre (ib., ii, 26-267) . . . ." (Wikisource)
Charles II's most disliked mistress?.
Of all Charles II's mistresses, Louise de Kéroualle was most disliked. Born in 1649 in France, Louise first came to England in 1670 as a maid of honor to Charles's sister, Henrietta. Charles's interest was apparent, and when Henrietta died later that year, Louise returned to London and was established as the King's mistress, receiving Louis XIV's congratulations on her success. After giving birth in 1672 to another of Charles's sons named Charles, later the Duke of Richmond, she was created the Duchess of Portsmouth. Though Louise's unpopularity was due mostly to her being French and Catholic, she was also known to be wildly extravagant with the King's money. Her apartments at Whitehall were rebuilt three times, and John Evelyn said they had ten times the richness and glory beyond the Queen's." (Real People @Lauren Royal)
Affair's benefits to Louise.
"Louise had done very well for herself as a royal mistress. Under Charles, so to speak, she had pocketed an annual pension (which had started at 18,600 pounds in her early days), plus an annuity from taxes paid by the clergy, and 25,000)---a figure that probably didn't include the money she made selling pardons to wealthy criminals, or the value of her vast collection of jewels, including a pair of diamond earrings worth 18,000 pounds that Louis XIV had given her in 1675 for services rendered to the French crown." (Royal Affairs: 222)
Lavish home & lifestyle.
"As Charles's mistress, Louise became a prominent hostess, entertaining many at court. On the evening of 24 January 1682, she hosted a magnificent reception for the Moroccan Ambassador in her apartments at Whitehall Palace. Located at the south-west end of the famous Stone Gallery, her apartments occupied a prime position in the palace. Over the last decade as Charles's mistress, she had decorated them several times until they outshone even those of the queen herself. They were richly furnished in the latest style with silver tables, stands, vases and sconces, interspersed with japanned cabinets and screens. An exquisite marquetry cabinet, with matching pier table and candle-stands, now at Goodwood, was presented to her by Charles. The walls were hung with superb French tapestries depicting French royal palaces, including Versailles and Saint Germain, along with some of the best paintings from Charles's collection. Expensive clocks ticked and chimed in every room. Evelyn, who was present at the reception, was bowled over by the 'rich & splendid furniture'." (Glorious Goodwood: A Biography of England's Greatest Sporting Estate)
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Hortense Mancini Duchesse de Mazarin |
Lover in 1676.
(WDW 1659-1669)
Duchesse de Mazarin
"And then over the horizon, sailed the mesmerising -- and once upon a time stratospheric ally rich -- Hortense Mancini, the star beauty to whom Charles had proposed when he was penniless and been turned down flat. In a marvelous twist of fate the temptress, now totally broke, arrived in London to re-enter Charles's life and become his last truly grand passion. Hortense was flamboyant, outrageous, fiercely intelligent and ostentatiously bisexual. After turning down Charles all those years ago in Paris, she'd escaped from a disastrous marriage to the fabulously rich but unhinged Duc de la Mailleraye." (The King's Bed: Sex, Power and the Court of Charles II)
Elizabeth Jones (1665-1758)
Countess of Kildare
Lover in 1679.
English noblewoman.
Daughter of: Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh.
Wife of: John Fitzgerald, 18th Earl of Kildare, mar 1684.
"The Countess of Kildare was among the most famous of the beauties of the Caroline court, just as her father Richard Jones, Earl of Ranelagh, was among its most ambitious and acquisitive courtiers, described by Carte in his Life of the Duke of Ormonde (vol. IV, p.501), as 'craving and greedy of money, yet at the same time profuse and lavish.' . . . At this date the sitter's father must have content himself with Elizabeth Jones's rumoured position as mistress to King Charles II. The Earl of Kildare married her June 12th 1684 at the Earl of Burlington's chapel in St. Martin's in the Fields. As co-heiress she brought with her an impressive dowry, and the Earl gained 10,000 pounds by the match. Although the Earl and Countess spent most time when they were not in London at their Oxfordshire house at Caversham . . . Kildare is described as 'keeping open house for all the Irish' during a stay at Bruges in 1700. . . The Earl died at Caversham November 9th `707; his wife lived well into the eighteenth century, dying aged 93 10th April 1758. She is buried in Westminster Abbey." (Historic Portraits)
"The earl had three daughters. The eldest and most beautiful, Elizabeth (c.1665-1758) married the harum-scarum Earl of Kildare in 1684; after his death she would enjoy 50 years of widowhood. She brought her husband a dowry of 10,000 pounds, but also the reputation of an amorous adventurer. Then followed twin sisters, born around 1674: Frances, who would become Coningsby's second wife, and Catherine, later a friend of Swift. One of the daughters, undoubtedly Elizabeth, was reputed to have been a mistress of Charles II. All three women became trapped in the legal maelstrom created by their father's involved financial circumstances." (The Life and Times of Tohams, Lord Coningsby: 69)
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Diana Kirke Countess of Oxford |
Diana Kirke (1646-1719)
Countess of Oxford
Maid of Honour to the Duchess of York.
Daughter of: George Kirke (d.1675), Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles I, Housekeeper of Whitehall Palace, & Mary Townshend.
Wife of: Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford (1627-1703) mar 1659
Personal & family background.
"Diana was the daughter of George Kirke, Groom of the Bedchamber and Housekeeper of Whitehall Palace, and his second wife Mary (nee Townshend, who were married on 26 February 1646. The Kirkes were impoverished royalists and on Diana's marriage to Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford, shortley before 12 April 1673, the King paid the marriage portion of £2000 and gave the couple a pension of £2000 a year. A satire written after the marriage claimed Diana had had affairs with Prince Rupert and Henry Jermyn, and in 1682 she was strongly suspected of conducting an affair with Henry Sidney. Her daughter, Diana, married Charles, 1st Duke of St. Albans, son of Nell Gwyn and Charles II, on 17 Apr 1694. She died on 7 Apr 1719." (Rootsweb)
Diana Kirke's spouse & children.
"About April 1673, Diana Kirke married Aubrey de Vere, twentieth Earl of Oxford. She produced a daughter, also Diana, who on April 17, 694, married Nell Gwyn's son, Charles, Duke of St. Albans, and died on January 15, 1742." (Court Satires of the Restoration: 258)
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Frances Teresa Duchess of Richmond |
Duchess of Richmond
Lover in 1663.
Maid-of-honour to Infanta Catalina de Braganza
Lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England
Wife of: Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, mar 1667.
Frances Stuart's physical appearance and personal qualities.
"Perhaps it was Barbara's growing promiscuity that helped attract Charles to Frances Stewart, a strikingly innocent maid, who came to court after a French education to serve as one of Queen Catherine's maids of honour. Without doubt she was a beautiful woman, with a fine figure, and slim legs which showed off to great effect by wearing men's clothes. Princess Henrietta-Anne called her 'the prettiest girl imaginable,', while Pepys thought her ' a glorious sight'. Charles agreed, using her as the model for Britannia, whose effigy adorned England's pennies for centuries." (Royal Mistresses: 69)
" . . . Frances Stewart was a maid of honor at Charles and Catherine’s wedding in 1663, and then a lady-in-waiting. Legend has it that Frances refused to sleep with the king unless he married her, however there is strong evidence that Frances and Charles had a daughter, Rebecca Stuart, but she was kept secret to protect Frances’s reputation. Frances realised that the only thing she would ever be to Charles was a mistress, so she eloped with the Duke of Richmond, leaving Charles heart broken. . . ." (Derrick)
Royal love at first sight.
"When the King saw Frances, it was love at first sight on his part. She was graceful, beautiful, frivolous, a superb dancer with impeccable dress sense. She laughed at his jokes, was easy to amuse and never dabbled in politics or intrigue. She was all the merry monarch desired, but Frances was not all she seemed as he was to find out. For Frances was a romantic at heart. Love ruled her feelings, not physical passion. Flirting and teasing, she led the King on, encouraging him with her smiles and kisses. This only inflamed his desire for her, and he pursued her relentlessly." (The Face of Britannia)
Royal infatuation spurned.
" . . . Reportedly, Charles became infatuated with the girl, but she resisted his advances. In 1664, after England won several naval victories against the Dutch, the king had medals struck depicting the figure of Britannia, he chose Frances for the model. Considered a great beauty, she had numerous suitors, eventually she eloped with Charles Stuart, a fourth cousin of the king and the 4th Duke of Richmond and 6th Duke of Lennox in March 1667. She fell out of favor at court for marrying without royal consent. About 1669 she became seriously ill with smallpox and the king reportedly rushed to her bedside and forgave her for marrying. Upon her recovery, she was appointed Lady of the Bedchamber for the Queen. The king appointed the duke ambassador to Denmark, but Frances stayed in England, managing the estate and business affairs. The duke died in December 1672 and as he had no heir his estates reverted to the Crown. Charles II granted Frances a 1000 pound pension per annum for life. In 1702 Frances arranged to purchase the estate of Lethington. She died that same year leaving her estate to her nephew Lord Blantyre who renamed Lethington Lennoxlove in her honor." (Find a Grave)
Marrying another Charles Stuart.
"Providentially, she met another Charles Stuart, a distant relative and 4th cousin of the King. This Charles was the 4th Duke of Richmond and 6th Duke of Lennox. He was extravagant, an invertebrate (sic, "inveterate"?) gambler and a drinker, but Frances saw him as a convenient way out of her fraught relationship with the King. When the King learned of their wedding plans, he schemed to stop them. The couple retaliated by eloping. Learning of their marriage, the King realized Frances had deceived him and angrily vowed never to forgive or see her again. On her marriage, Frances acquired the title of Duchess of Richmond and Lennox." (The Face of Britannia)
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Margaret Hughes |
Margaret Hughes (1645-1719)
English actress & royal mistress
Daughter of: George de Carteret, Baronet, Governor & Bailiff of Jersey.
Natural offspring: James de Carteret.
"Although Lucy Walter is often cited as the mother of Charles' children, many accounts name a Marguerite or Margaret de Carteret and state that she bore Charles a son named James in 1646. . . James de Carteret is believed to have died sometime around 1667 and is likely an entirely different person from the impostor named James de la Cloche." (everything2)
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"The first theatre on the site was built at the behest of Thomas Killigrew in the early 1660s, when theatres were allowed to reopen during the English Restoration. Initially known as "Theatre Royal in Bridges Street", the theatre's proprietors hired a number of prominent actors who performed at the theatre on a regular basis, including Nell Gwyn and Charles Hart. In 1672 the theatre caught fire and Killigrew built a larger theatre on the same plot, designed by Sir Christopher Wren; renamed the "Theatre Royal in Drury Lane", it opened in 1674. This building lasted nearly 120 years, under the leaderships of Colley Cibber, David Garrick and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the last of whom employed Joseph Grimaldi as the theatre's resident Clown." (Wikipedia)
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