NS
Vol 7 No 1-2 (December 2001)
Royal relationships
by Edward M Kandel
TWO of the characteristics that made up the
complex nature of King Charles II were his inclination to indulgence in
pleasure and his addiction to the love of women. By the year of his death in
1685 his name had been linked with a succession of recognised mistresses whose
attachment to him – or his to them – prevailed for both longer and shorter
periods, and also with other ladies who conducted a more casual and impermanent
encounter. He is credited with the paternity of 14 children although he had no
legitimate offspring by his wife Queen Catherine, the Portuguese Infanta and
daughter of King João IV, to whom he was married in 1662, for whom he retained
a lasting affection and regard and who survived him by twenty years.
He had the “common touch” and his
fortuitous contacts with his subjects were informal and affable. His partners
in his extra-marital exploits were usually ladies whose status, from their
family background, title, prominence, heraldic achievement and land-owning
prestige was apparent although, provided that they were witty and amusing, his
choice was not inhibited by social class or standing. Indeed one of his
partners was daughter of a London fruiterer and another a Wiltshire
milkmaid. This account attempts to list a number of those persons concerned
with or connected to the “Merry Monarch’s” amatory exploits and to witness to
his eclectic and tolerant attitude to his choice of female partners.
The Battle of Naseby, which
virtually confirmed the eclipse of the Royalist hope of final victory over the
parliamentary forces, took place in 1645 and shortly afterwards Charles saw his
father for the last time. He, then being 16 years of age, was sent to Bristol,
which appeared to offer safety, but the advance of the Roundheads put him in
jeopardy and the best solution to the problem of his preservation from capture
was that he join his mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, in Paris. He left the West
Country, breaking his journey in the Scilly Islands, before sailing to Jersey, its proximity to France discouraging raids by the
parliamentary fleet. There he was entertained by the island’s Governor, Sir
George Carteret (Gules, four fusils conjoined in fess Argent and he met the governor’s daughter
Marguerite, four years older than he was. A close and intimate friendship
developed between them to such good effect that in 1647 Marguerite gave birth
to a son known as “Giacomo Stuart”. Some years later Marguerite married a Jersey resident Jean de la Cloche and her
son took his name, being known as James de la Cloche. In his 21st year he
joined the House of Novices of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Rome and after his father’s Restoration
as Charles II was kept well supplied with funds and was furnished with a letter
in which his natural father confirmed his paternity. James de la Cloche died in
1669.
William Walter of Roche Castle, County Pembroke, had been Comptroller of the
Household of Charles I when he was Prince of Wales. Married to Elizabeth,
daughter of John Protheroe and Eleanor née Vaughan, niece of the 1st Earl of Carbery (Sable
two bars Or, in chief three mullets of the last). They had two sons and a daughter Lucy born in 1630 who met
Charles in The Hague when he was 18 years of age. Lucy was living a
somewhat dissolute life and she did not use her real name but called herself
“Mrs Barlow”, a pseudonym borrowed from her uncle John Barlow of Slebech, Co
Pembroke (Argent on a chevron engrailed between three cross-crosslets fitché
Sable two lions passant counter passant of the first). Lucy became the Prince’s mistress in 1648 and a year later in
Rotterdam bore a son James. At the age of 10
years this son was taken from his mother and given into the charge of William
Crofts who was created Baron Crofts of Little Saxham, Co Suffolk (Or
three bulls’ heads caboshed Sable armed Or), the young man being then known as James Crofts. In the same
year of 1618 Lucy Walter died in Paris two years before the Restoration,
her death being recorded as of “Lucy Walter alias Barlow”, her liaison with Charles
having ended seven years previously.
Three years after the Restoration a
marriage was arranged between James Crofts and Lady Anne Scott, Countess of
Buccleuch. Shortly before the marriage took place James assumed the name of
Scott, being created Baron Scott, Earl of Doncaster and Duke of Monmouth and on
the day of the marriage the couple were created Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch.
The arms which were used by the duke were the royal arms of his father Charles
II (Quarterly, 1st and 4th France and England quarterly, 2nd Scotland, 3rd Ireland) overall a bend sinister Argent.
Monmouth invariably maintained that
his father when Prince of Wales and his mother Lucy Walter had been the
subjects of a legal and binding marriage in Holland but this was strenuously denied by
Charles. Had this union taken place, Monmouth would have been the legal
successor to the throne, displacing James, Duke of York, Charles’s younger
brother. But after the death of his father Monmouth determined to put his
ill-founded claim to the test. On 11 June in that year he landed at Lyme Regis
with a ludicrously small force, hoping that the country would rise in his
support in opposition to James II, whose inclination to the Church of Rome and
tolerance of Catholics was making him increasingly unpopular. Monmouth
proclaimed himself king at Taunton, but his makeshift and amateur army
of rustic labourers was routed by the force of the Crown at the Battle of
Sedgemoor, the last pitched battle to be fought on English soil. Monmouth, a
fugitive from the débacle, was captured. In spite of a personal appeal to his
uncle James II, he was executed just a few months after his father’s death and
his dukedom was attainted, although his widow the Duchess (Or
on a bend Azure a mullet of six points between two crescents of the field was permitted to enjoy her Scottish title.
In 1651 Charles took as his mistress
Elizabeth Killegrew, wife of Francis Boyle, sixth son of the Earl of Cork,
created Viscount Shannon in 1660 (Per bend crenellé Argent and Gules). Lady Shannon had been a Maid of
Honour to Queen Henrietta Maria and though eight years his senior, Charles had
no doubt known her in his boyhood years at Court. Lady Shannon had a daughter
Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Maria Fitzroy who married James Howard, grandson of
the 2nd Earl of Suffolk (Gules on a bend between six cross-crosslets
fitché Argent an escutcheon Or charged with a demi lion rampant pierced through
the mouth with an arrow within a double tressure flory counter flory Gules –
the Escutcheon being an augmentation granted to Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey,
commander at the English victory at the Battle of Flodden in 1513). The daughter of Charlotte Fitzroy
and James Howard was given the fanciful name, in allusion to her royal
grandfather, of Stuarta.
Catherine Pegge who died in 1668 was
the daughter of a Derbyshire squire Thomas Pegge of Yeldersley (<>Argent
a chevron between three wedges Sable).
By this lady Charles had both a son and a daughter, the latter dying unmarried
but the son, originally known as “Don Carlos”, which name appeared to recall
some imaginary Spanish romantic episode, was eventually called the more
appropriate Charles Fitzcharles. He married Lady Bridget Osborne, daughter of
the 1st Duke of Leeds (Quarterly Ermine and Azure a cross Or) and created Earl of Plymouth in
1675. He was killed during the Siege of Tangier five years later.
Charles was neither disconcerted nor
embarrassed in acknowledging the paternity of his natural children and did so
quite openly and readily. There was however no issue from his relationship with
the widowed Lady Byron, nee Elizabeth Needham, daughter of Viscount Kilmorey (Argent
a bend engrailed between two bucks heads caboshed Sable) relict of Lord Byron of Newstead
Abbey (Argent three bendlets enhanced Gules).
In 1591 George Villiers was Sheriff
of Leicestershire and his son, a favourite of James I, was created 1st Duke of
Buckingham (Argent on a cross Gules five escallops Or). The Duke’s nephew William
Villiers, Viscount Grandison, married Mary née Bayning (Azure a chevron between
three escallops Argent) and
their daughter Barbara born in 1641 married Roger Palmer of Dorney Court, Co
Bucks, 18 years later. As a result of the protracted and tempestuous
relationship between Charles and Barbara there were five children, Barbara
being created Duchess of Cleveland in 1670. The first child was Ann Palmer,
born in 1661, who married Thomas Leonard, Earl of Sussex (Or
on a fess Gules three fleurs de lis of the field) and the second child and first son was Charles Palmer born
1662. Being originally passed off as the children of Roger Palmer, their
paternity was eventually acknowledged by Charles. In 1663 Henry Palmer was born
and in spite of his surname was noted as “our second naturall son by ye Lady
Barbara”. On his creation as Duke of Grafton he used for his arms the Royal Arms and overall a Baton in bend
sinister compony of six Argent and Azure. The fourth child of Barbara born a year later was more
fittingly named Fitzroy, as Roger Palmer had not been in England for the previous two years.
Charlotte Fitzroy died in 1718 having of her marriage to Edward Lee, Earl of
Lichfield (Argent a fess between three crescents Sable) 13 sons – although even with this extensive progeny the line
became extinct with the death in 1776 of the 4th Earl. Charles and Barbara’s
fifth and final child and third son George Palmer was born in 1665 and recorded
at birth as “filius naturalis regis Carolus II”.
The family of Gwynn was far removed
from Court Circles, ownership of broad acres and “the boast of heraldry”. It is
believed that Thomas Gwynn, an indigent Welshman from Hereford, lived in an unsalubrious quarter
of London and plied his trade as a fruiterer.
He had two daughters, the elder married to a man convicted of highway robbery
who, possibly on account of influence from high places, contrived to be
released from Newgate Prison. The younger daughter Eleanor, known to English
history as Nell Gwynn, worked in her early years in her mother’s establishment
dispensing “strong liquors to gentlemen” though whether the provision of drink
was the only service offered to gentlemen at Mistress Gwynn’s is problematical.
At the age of 13 Nell was working as an orange seller to members of the
audience at the King’s Theatre and in 1664 she realised her ambition to become
an actress. The King was attracted to “pretty witty Nell”, so described by
Samuel Pepys, and on the dismissal of Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, he took
her as his mistress in 1670. In that year and the next Nell bore two sons, Charles
and James Beauclerk. The younger brother died at the age of eight years but the
elder was in 1684 created Duke of St Albans (The Royal Arms and
overall a Baton sinister Gules charged with three roses barbed and seeded
Proper).
Charles adored his youngest sister,
fourteen years his junior, whom he called “Minette”. She was in actuality
Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans married to Philip, Duke of Orleans, the
effeminate brother of Louis XIV of France. Employed by the French King on a
diplomatic mission to Charles masquerading as a mere family reunion she came to
London accompanied as her Maid of Honour by Louise, daughter of Count Guillame
Penancoet de Keroualle, a pretty Breton girl with whom Charles became
infatuated. Within three weeks of their return to France “Minette” died of
peritonitis and Charles was devastated by the tragedy. Learning of Charles’s
fascination with “la belle Bretonne” Louis XIV sent her back to England, ostensibly as a Maid of Honour to
Queen Catherine. Succumbing to Charles’s advances she gave birth to a son known
as Charles Lennox. In 1662 the boy was created Duke of Richmond in England and of Lennox in Scotland bearing the arms of Charles II within a bordure compony Argent
and Gules charged with eight roses of the second barbed and seeded proper.
His mother was created Duchess of Portsmouth, and in recognition of her
services as an intermediary with Charles II, was granted by Louis XIV the Duchy
of Aubigny, subsequent Dukes of Richmond bearing its arms over theirs on an escutcheon of pretence Gules three
buckles Or. Louise remained the King’s mistress until his death, save for
his two-year interlude with Hortense Mancini, and she returned to France, dying in 1734 at the age of 85.
The impudent and irrepressible Nell
Gwynn who could not – or would not – pronounce her name of Keroualle correctly
called her the nearest which her Cockney tongue could pronounce, “Mrs Carwell”
and her insular aversion to French Papists in general and her rival in
particular gave rise to a celebrated remark in a London street. Mistaken by a
hostile crowd for the Catholic Louise she corrected their mistake, saying: “Be
civil, good people, I am the Protestant whore”.
There was a fortuitous connection
between the family of Keroualle and the dismal and ill-fated attempt of the
Duke of Monmouth to seize the Crown.
Louise’s sister, Henriette, married
Thomas Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke, and their daughter Charlotte married the
notorious Judge Jeffreys who presided over the “Bloody Assize” following the
Battle of Sedgemoor where he condemned many to death and more to transportation
to the West Indies as indentured labourers.
To Moll Davis, a Wiltshire milkmaid
turned professional dancer, fell the doubtful honour of bearing the last of
Charles’s natural children. Known as Lady Mary Tudor she married the 2nd Earl
of Derwentwater and there were three sons of the marriage. The elder, who
succeeded his father as 3rd Earl, and his younger brother were committed
Jacobites who “came out” for the Old Pretender “James III” in 1715. The 3rd
Earl held a position of command in the Jacobite army and he and his brother
were both captured, found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. The
elder, at the age of 26, was beheaded in 1716 but the younger contrived to
escape to Europe. He returned to England in 1746 but was apprehended and
executed in accordance with the sentence passed upon him 30 years earlier.
Charles’s final and short-lived liaison was with Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin. Depressed by her husband’s religious mania she fled from him and after a sojourn in Savoy arrived in England in 1675. She was a passionate, lustful and sensuous woman who was at the King’s side for only two years, after which she was dismissed, Charles being disgusted by her public philandering and intrigue with a number of handsome young men. There were no children by her association with the King.
Samuel Pepys said of Charles II that “it is not in his nature to gainsay anything that relates to his pleasures” and there is some corroborative evidence of this in the foregoing account. Another contemporary critic wished that “the King would set a better value on himself and not use familiarity with persons of so much inferior quality”. But it was the reports of Charles’s easy intimacy and tolerance with those who amused him, delighted him or even loved him which endeared him to the majority of his subjects. The free-and-easy atmosphere which, in the public estimation, he did so much to foster, succeeded in erasing the memory of oppressive Puritanism, the control by Cromwell’s major-generals and the official disapproval of gaiety and frivolity and helped to restore the mood of England in good King Charles’s golden days.
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