Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Description
Biographies and Portraits
Barbara Palmer, Lady Castlemaine in the Diary, and later the Duchess of Cleveland, as depicted by artist Peter Lely here and here was one of the many mistresses of King Charles II. Pepys was enthralled by her beauty but, like others of the times, feared her impact on King Charles II to be far too great for the good of England. Several wonderful websites offer excellent short biographies or stories related to Barbara, including: 1911 Encyclopedia;Wikipedia; Everything2 and Grammont, which include references to anecdotes from Pepys’ Diary.
Barbara in the Diary
Barbara’s first entry into the Diary takes place on 13 July 1660 where Sam records that it is already the intent of the King “to make her husband a cuckold”. Soon afterwards, he declares her the King’s mistress and begins a long period of recording his admiration of her beauty. While walking one day Sam finds himself in the Privy-garden where he “saw the finest smocks and linnen petticoats of my Lady Castlemaine’s, laced with rich lace at the bottom, that ever I saw; and did me good to look upon them”. In spite of her beauty, upon her separation from her husband, Sam admits “I know well enough she is a whore”. Sam’s entry on 26 July 1662 records Barbara’s controversial christening of her son and the infamous Bedchamber Incident which was her “power play” involving the Queen. By this time, Barbara has established herself as a force to be reckoned with in the Court of Charles II.
In February1662/1663 Sam introduces gossip from Captain Ferrers detailing the mock marriage of Lady Castlemaine to Frances Stuart, a young Court beauty who will totally captivate the King. This mock marriage frolic and the implications behind the court politics of the time are further detailed in Section I of the Article A Walk with Ferrers.
Although Sam continues to be captured by her beauty, he is somewhat dismayed by the rise of Barbara’s powers and the growing Court factions which he believes are distracting Charles II from his responsibilities of state. By 15 May 1663 Sam laments that:
the King do mind nothing but pleasures, and hates the very sight or thoughts of business; that my Lady Castlemaine rules him, who, he says, hath all the tricks of Aretin that are to be practised to give pleasure. In which he is too able … , but what is the unhappiness in that, as the Italian proverb says, “lazzo dritto non vuolt consiglio.” If any of the sober counsellors give him good advice, and move him in anything that is to his good and honour, the other part, which are his counsellers of pleasure, take him when he is with my Lady Castlemaine, and in a humour of delight, and then persuade him that he ought not to hear nor listen to the advice of those old dotards or counsellors that were heretofore his enemies: when, God knows! it is they that now-a-days do most study his honour. It seems the present favourites now are my Lord Bristol, Duke of Buckingham, Sir H. Bennet, my Lord Ashley, and Sir Charles Barkeley; who, among them, have cast my Lord Chancellor upon his back, past ever getting up again; there being now little for him to do, and he waits at Court attending to speak to the King as others do…
During the Queen’s illness Barbara was faced with the possibility that she could lose her position if Queen Catherine died. Court gossips believe that if the Queen died that Charles’ infatuation, Frances Stuart would become the new Queen. Luckily for Barbara, Queen Catherine survived.
Throughout the Diary years, Barbara, moves in and out of the King’s favor, but remains a force to be dealt with within the Court of the King. She offers Sam a continuous source of enjoyment of her beauty, concern regarding her power over the King, and never ending gossip, which Sam dutifully has recorded.
Further Resources
Biographies and related non-fiction about Barbara are listed below. These books may be available through your local library (with the help of the research department) or are sometimes available through the used book search. Some may be available on the US Amazon or UK Amazon .
- All the King’s Women by Derek Wilson
- The Illustrious Lady by Elizabeth Hamilton
- The King’s Ladies by Dorothy Ponsonby Senior
- The Royal Whore by Allen Andrews
Additional Background Articles
Wikipedia
Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland [1] (12 May 1641 Old Style–9 October 1709) was a royal courtesan and one of the most notorious of King Charles II's mistresses.
![[1]](http://www.kipar.org/period-galleries/paintings/1670/palmer_70.jpg){kind=link}
[edit] Early life
She was born Barbara Villiers,on the 12th of May 1641 (22 May New Style),in the parish of St.Margaret's, Westminster, the only child of William Villiers, 2nd Viscount Grandison (making her a cousin of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham), and the heiress Mary Bayning, daughter of the 1st Viscounts Bayning. In autumn 1643 Lord Grandison died from a wound sustained in battle, leaving his widow and daughter in straitened circumstances.
[edit] King's Mistress
Tall, voluptuous with masses of auburn hair, slanting, heavy-lidded blue-violet eyes and a sensuous, sulky mouth,[1] Barbara Villiers was considered at the time to be one of the most beautiful Royalist women, but her lack of fortune left her with reduced marriage prospects. Her first serious romance was with Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield, but he was searching for a rich wife; he would wed Elizabeth Butler in 1660.[2] On 14 April 1659 she married Roger Palmer against his family's wishes; his father predicted that she would make him one of the most miserable men in the world. Palmer was a Roman Catholic. The two separated in 1662, following the birth of her first son. They remained married for his lifetime, but it is believed that Palmer did not father any of his wife's children. [2]
She became King Charles's mistress in 1660, while still married to Palmer, and whilst Charles was still in exile at The Hague . As a reward for her services, the King created her husband Baron Limerick and Earl of Castlemaine in 1661. Of her six children, five were acknowledged by Charles as his:
- Lady Anne Palmer, later FitzRoy (1661-1722), probably daughter of Charles II, although some people believed she bore a resemblance to the Earl of Chesterfield. She later became the Countess of Sussex
- Charles Palmer, later FitzRoy (1662-1730), styled Lord Limerick and later Earl of Southampton, created Duke of Southampton (1675), later 2nd Duke of Cleveland (1709)
- Henry FitzRoy (1663-1690), created Earl of Euston (1672) and Duke of Grafton (1675)
- Charlotte FitzRoy (1664-1718), later Countess of Lichfield. She gave birth to twenty children.
- George FitzRoy (1665-1716), created Earl of Northumberland (1674) and Duke of Northumberland (1683)
- Barbara (Benedicta) FitzRoy (1672-1737) - Cleveland claimed that she was Charles' daughter, but she was probably the child of her mother's second-cousin and lover, John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough
[edit] Lady of The Bedchamber
She had a bitter enemy in Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. Clarendon, one of the most powerful of the King's advisors, opposed her appointment in the summer of 1662 as a Lady of the Bedchamber (as did, quite understandably, Catherine of Braganza, Charles's wife and Queen). By 1662 she had more influence in the court than did the Queen, and there were bitter feuds behind the scenes between the two women. This was followed by rumours of an estrangement between Barbara and Charles, as the result of his infatuation with Frances Stuart. In December 1663 Barbara announced her conversion to Catholicism; historians disagree as to the reasons why. Some believe it might have been an attempt to consolidate her position with the King, and some believe it was a way of strengthening her ties with her Catholic husband.
Barbara was famously extravagant. She was notorious for helping herself to money from the Privy Purse, as well as taking bribes from the Spanish and French. She was promiscuous, and well known for using her influence on the king to her own benefit. Eventually this would lead to her downfall. Her influence over the King waxed and waned. She also meddled in politics. Along with most of the Court and Parliament,Barbara supported the Second Dutch War,[3] which was declared in February 1665. Diarist John Evelyn called her "the curse of the nation".[4] Yet others also described her as great fun, keeping a good table and with a heart to match her famous temper. Once, after a scaffold had fallen onto a crowd of people at the theatre, Barbara rushed to assist an injured child. She was the only Court lady to have done so.[5]In June 1670 Charles created her Baroness Nonsuch (being the owner of Nonsuch Palace). She was also, briefly, granted the ownership of Phoenix Park in Dublin as a present from the king. Countess of Southampton and Duchess of Cleveland in her own right. However, no-one in the court was sure whether this was an indication that she was being jettisoned by Charles, or whether this was a sign that she was even higher in his favours. The Dukedom was made with a special remainder which allowed it to be passed to her eldest son, Charles FitzRoy, even though he was illegitimate.
[edit] Downfall
While the King had taken other mistresses, the moat notable being the common actress Nell Gwynne, Barbara also took other lovers, including the acrobat Jacob Hall and her second cousin John Churchill. Her lovers certainly benefited financially from the arrangement; Churchill purchased an annuity with £5,000 Barbara had given him. As the result of the 1673 Test Act, which essentially banned all Catholics from holding office, Barbara lost her position as Lady of the Bedchamber, and the King cast her aside completely from her position as mistress, taking Louise de Kéroualle as his newest "favourite."
In 1676 she travelled to Paris with her four youngest children, but returned to England four years later. In 1705 Roger Palmer died, and she married Major-General Robert "Beau" Fielding, an unscrupulous fortune-hunter whom she later had prosecuted for bigamy. She died on 9 October 1709 at Chiswick Mall after suffering from an oedema, known at the time as dropsy.
[edit] Descendants
Barbara had many notable descendants, including Diana, Princess of Wales and Sir Anthony Eden, British Prime Minister from 1955-1957.
[edit] Bibliography
- Elizabeth Hamilton. The Illustrious Lady : a biography of Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland (1980)
[edit] External links
[edit] Sources
- Antonia Fraser "King Charles II"
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New Creation |
Duchess of Cleveland 1670–1709 |
Succeeded by Charles Fitzroy |
1893 text
Barbara Villiers, only child of William, second Viscount Grandison, born November, 1640, married April 14th, 1659, to Roger Palmer, created Earl of Castlemaine, 1661. She became the King’s mistress soon after the Restoration, and was in 1670 made Baroness Nonsuch, Countess of Southampton, and Duchess of Cleveland. She had six children by the King, one of them being created Duke of Grafton, and the eldest son succeeding her as Duke of Cleveland. She subsequently married Beau Fielding, whom she prosecuted for bigamy. She died October 9th, 1709, aged sixty-nine. Her life was written by G. Steinman Steinman, and privately printed 1871, with addenda 1874, and second addenda 1878.
Annotations
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Fitzroys preceded by Fitzcharles
Catherine Pegge, an earlier mistress, was the first to use such a naming convention for the illegitimate children of Charles. Their son Charles Fitzcharles (Earl of Plymouth) was born in 1657; their daughter Catherine Fitzcharles became a nun as Sister Cecilia in Dunkirk.See http://genealogy.euweb.cz/stuart/stuart3.html for all 15 illegitimate offspring of Charles II
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How Restoration society viewed mistresses
A successful mistress to an aristocrat or the King, particularly if she was beautiful, was a celebrity — even celebrated, at least in high society. The best painters would immortalize her and prints of the paintings were then bought and sold. Possible modern equivalents: Gypsy Rose Lee (the “high society stripper”), Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna.
This is from an article in the (British) “History Today” magazine about an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (London) in 2001-02 of Peter Lely’s portraits of the women in Charles II’s court [Minor plot spoiler until 1662 — Pepys is mentioned as liking a particular portrait]:
“This aspect of Restoration society — the widespread appreciation by men of feminine beauty — becomes more interesting when one realises the extent to which these pictures were reproduced. For example, Jane Needham was a commoner without much to recommend her … other than her looks. [She became the mistress of one aristocrat and then another] … [H]er portrait by Lely existed in multiple versions and Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, a prominent politician as well as a connoisseur of art, decided that it was appropriate for her portrait to hang in one of the main state rooms at Althorp.
“The stars of the exhibition are the two principal mistresses of the King, who set the tone for the court as a whole. First was Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine and subsequently Duchess of Cleveland (1641-1709), whose influence on the King, as his leading mistress for the first ten years of his reign, extended beyond the bedroom. Rumoured to have shared the King’s bed on the night before the coronation, Barbara bore him at least four children between 1661 and 1665.
“Barbara was the archetype of beauty during this period … not conventionally beautiful, but with a certain languor and heavy-lidded, `bedroom’ eyes, the physical effect of which was much admired, not least by Samuel Pepys who saw a portrait of her in Lely’s studio in 1662 (it had been locked up on a previous visit) and was determined to acquire a copy. Lely painted her often, and described her `sweetness and exquisite beauty’ as `beyond the compass of art’. His first portrait depicted Barbara as the Penitent Magdalen. This picture became a standard image of her and was much copied, not least by the engraver William Faithorne (1616-91), who was able to sell Pepys three prints, one of which he then varnished and framed as a memento of her beauty.
“Later in the 1660s, Lely painted her as the Madonna and Child, the best version of which was recently for sale. It is an image which, even now, has a capacity to shock in its sacrilegious combination of mistress and Madonna. The Duke of Sunderland, meanwhile, ordered her to be painted as a shepherdess for his collection at Althorp. This portrait of her (c. 1666-67) — with drapery flying behind her in the wind — is most striking: vigorous, beautifully painted, in fact Lely at his best.
“… at the level of the court, this was a society which had an extremely low regard for marital fidelity and a high regard for courtesans.”
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“This was a society which had an extremely low regard for marital fidelity and a high regard for courtesans.”
Monsieur Quidnunc, immorality was primarly practised by the King and the aristocracy. The middle class was moral, though, and not all aristocrats were morally corrupt.
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The Duchess of Cleveland was nothing more than an ugly, scheming slattern.
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Her youngest child, Lady Barbara Fitzroy, was probably the bastard daughter of John Churchill, who would later become the first Duke of Marlborough, not a daughter of King Charles II
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Wife of Roger Palmer, 1st Earl of Castlemaine: http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/3375.php
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from L&M Companion
(1641-1709)…married Apr. 1659 to Roger Palmer, later Earl of Castlemaine. Mistress at 15 [c. 1656] to the Earl of Chesterfield and c. 1659-70 to the King. Tall and fair, with blue eyes, she was to Pepys the loveliest of all the court ladies. She exercised considerable political influence as the ally of Arlington and the enemy of Clarendon. Her greed and bad temper were notorious; so too was her promiscuity. Among her lovers were John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, Wycherley the dramatist and Jacob Hall the rope-dancer. Her hold over the King (at its greatest when she made him force her on the Queen as a Lady of the Bedchamber in 1663) was almost gone when she had herself created Duchess of Cleveland in 1670. She was soon afterwards displaced by Louise de Keroualles (Duchess of Portsmouth). Between 1661 and 1665 she had borne five children acknowledged by the King and surnamed Fitzroy. A pension of L4700 paid to one of them, the Duke of Grafton, was continued to his descendants until 1856 when it was commuted for L91,000.In 1660 she was living in a house belonging to her husband on the e. side of King St., Westminster, backing on to the palace orchard, later a bowling green, and next to the e. end of Sandwich’s lodgings. In the spring of 1663 she moved into the palace, over the Holbein Gate with further rooms to the east of it. In Apr. 1668 she was given Berkshire House but still kept her apartments in the palace.
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Sam remarks as Castlemaine “being quite fallen out with her husband”
A little background from Davidson’s book “Catherine of Braganza”
“It was at the christening of this child of hers, whose paternity she used all her powers to link with shame, that an open rupture came between her and her husband. He insisted on considering the boy his lawful heir, and made preparations for having him baptized by a priest, as he himself was a Catholic. This his wife violently protested against. She said that the child was the King’s son, and should be in his father’s religion. She tore him from her husband and the priest, who had already christened him, and had the baby christened again by a clergyman of the Church of England, with Charles and the Earl of Oxford as godfathers, and Lady Suffolk, Catherine’s chief lady of the bedchamber, for godmother. This so roused the poor-spirited and dishonoured husband that he went of in a rage to the Continent. She seized all the money and jewels of his that she could lay her hands on, and departed at once to her brother’s house at Richmond, so that she might be close to Hampton Court and the King.”
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Godmother of Connecticut?
In 1662, John Winthrop the Younger, son of Massachusetts Bay Colony founder John Winthrop, sailed back to England to get a royal charter for the Connecticut colony. This was important for Connecticut because it would establish a regional government.
Winthrop, a cousin of George Downing, Pepys’ former boss, was granted the charter, which was dated April 23, 1662.
According to this excerpt from David E. Philips’ “Legendary Connecticut,” Barbara may have had something to do with Charles II granting the charter, although all of this may be just legend:
“It has been said that back in the reign of King Charles I, the crown had no more faithful supporter in colonial America than John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. However, John Winthrop’s grandson [Philips got that wrong, he was a son], popularly known as “Winthrop the Younger” to distinguish him from his grandfather of the same name, had early left Massachusetts to cast his lot with the Connecticut Colony. So, after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, when Connecticut decided to request a charter of liberties such as the other colonies had, Winthrop the Younger was chosen to carry the petition to Charles II, son of Charles I, who had been beheaded by Cromwell. The feeling was that the Second Charles might be especially generous with those who had been loyal to the First, and, thus, because of the family connection, Winthrop might be looked upon with special favor by the new king.
“In order to remind Charles II of his father’s close ties with the elder Winthrop, Connecticut’s Winthrop brought with him as a royal gift a magnificent ring, which Charles I had once bestowed upon the Massachusetts Bay Colony governor as a token of their friendship. But as influential as the ring must have been in currying the King’s favor, it was as nothing, according to contemporary court gossip, compared to the good accomplished by Sequassen’s deed and the covetous Dutchess of Castlemain. It seems that among the mementos which ‘Young’ Winthrop had brought with him from Connecticut was an exotic-looking parchment covered with queer totems, the document by which Sequassen had signed away his birthright lands to the English settlers at Hartford. They say that when the Dutchess of Castlemain, Charles II’s current mistress, caught sight of the ‘savage’ deed, she instantly fell in love with it and vowed to have it for her own.
“Promising to entice all kinds of exceptional charter provisions from her royal boyfriend in exchange for the novel parchment, the Dutchess finally persuaded the Connecticut emissary to give it to her.”
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to help finding said painting, the Lass goes by the name Barbara Villiers (1640-1709); http://www.npg.org.uk./live/prduchessappeal.asp
[she]”… was Charles II’s leading mistress during the first decade of his reign, and the mother of five of his children. She set the standard for beauty in her day, but to the King’s critics she represented all that was bad about the new regime. She acquired titles and great wealth, but also exerted considerable political influence through her access to the King. Her relationship with Peter Lely, the King’s painter, operated to their mutual benefit, his many portraits of her publicising her beauty and status, and her prominence at court promoting his art. This most audacious, indeed shocking, of Lely’s portraits - in which the King’s mistress and son are depicted in the guise of figures of the deepest religious veneration - reflects the permissive atmosphere of the new court, reacting to the years of war and repression….”
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Lady Castlemaine: Only a Handful of Appearances left!
Catch her career here, and submit your tally of how many children she had and by whom!
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Conclusion of DNB entry:
As the first acknowledged royal mistress in Britain for some centuries, Cleveland’s potential influence over the king was of prime concern to Restoration courtiers, and her great beauty, forceful personality, and genius for self-promotion made her both admired and feared. Contemporary comment concentrated on condemning her flagrant affairs and extravagant expenditure: in Bishop Burnet’s disapproving opinion she was a ‘woman of great beauty but most enormously vicious and ravenous; foolish but imperious’ (Burnet’s History, 1.132), while another observer wrote, ‘the prodigious amount of money dissipated by this woman, who has no moderation or limit in her desires, passes all bounds and exceeds all belief’ (Lorenzo Magalotti, 72). The author Mary Delariviere Manley, who had lived with Cleveland for a short time in the 1690s, characterized her in a scandal novel, The New Atalantis, as ‘querilous, fierce, loquacious, excessively fond, or infamously rude … The extreames of prodigality and covetousness; of love and hatred; of dotage and aversion were joyn’d together in Hilaria’s [Cleveland’s] soul’ (Steinman, 192). Indeed, Cleveland’s relationship with Charles II often threatened to dissolve under the strain of their respective infidelities, yet she maintained her position for some ten years, in the process establishing the position of royal mistress as one of political significance and acquiring great wealth and high honours for her children.
S. M. Wynne
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Sam may wish it be this- only for fine art specialists and titled gents[DOM] http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=8594&searchid=9572
The inscription on the ledge, ‘Dutchess of Cleveland’, was probably added a century later.
(From the display caption August 2004) -
“The Royal Whore” by Allen Andrews
Barbara Villiers, (Lady Castlemaine, infamous mistress of Charles II) is well known to diary readers for her beauty and adoration by Sam. Barbara was a beauty on the outside but underneath a greedy, vulgar, unfaithful, backstabbing, vindictive Libertine whose main purpose in life was to dig her claws into Charles II and bleed him dry for whatever land, titles, money, jewels, and prestige that she could get. Her tactics ranged from erotic sexual seduction, to blackmail, to emotional battery and politicking, etc. to get what she desired. In order to understand Barbara, Allen takes the reader into the Court of Charles II and then exposes the crass, debauched, libertine lifestyle of the idle, morally corrupt rakes that were the courtiers of the King. In addition, the secret cabals and back room intrigues, along with some not so morally stellar side anecdotes of the entourage are set forth in an entertaining fashion. Barbara had a notorious appetite, not only for sex, where she had an ongoing and never ending overlapping string of partners, but mostly for material gain. She even sunk to an event of prostitution in later days when she found a wealthy man willing to pay for what the King had already tasted. In her glory days she carried a power over Charles which caused fear in those around him. Over time the bond was drawn out to cover the bastards that Charles had so kindly accepted as his own (although it’s doubtful that many of them actually were his as she was always active with an overlapping string of men). As her glory days faded out she sunk into more debauchery and vulgar antics including the all time low of turning the mummified body of Bishop Braybooke (died 1404) into a eunuch by dismembering his private parts right of his coffin with her mouth.
Allen explains “Female rakes are rare, because profligacy with its exaggeration of the natural masculine taste for risk, adventure and sporting insecurity is a gross aberration from the feminine inclination. When women develop as libertines, and retain their maternal instinct to the extent that they give priority to the protection of their children and their lovers, they enlarge the family which must be maintained before they attend to other pleasures; whereas the male voluptuary diminishes or obliterates his family. The consequence is of greater psychological interest to an observer, but entirely devastating to the rake’s intended prey. For since the woman needs more, she is that much more rapacious. When Barbara Cleveland [she was made the Duchess of Cleveland over time]wanted something, or someone, men trembled and obeyed” (p 225). Barbara’s grasp of greed extended to cover her children and ensure titles, land, wealth, noble marriages, etc. and to support the lovers that she “paid” during their periods of “servicing” her. Of note, none of her children who were claimed by Charles amounted to anything of intellect, achievement or “value” and were pretty much classified as “blockheads”, albeit, overindulged and spoiled ones. An interesting read of a complex, highly unlikable woman and her times.Amazon US
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801955254/002-1502459-1948848?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glanceUsed books
http://www.usedbooksearch.co.uk/cgi/book.cgi -
Mall Villiers
A note on Mary Villiers, Barbara’s cousin and antagonist at court, may be found at
http://marauder.millersville.edu/~resound/*vol3iss2/ephelia/e12.html -
from Grammont’s footnotes (quoting Burnet)
This lady who made so distinguished a figure in the annals of infamy, was Barbara, daughter and heir of William Villiers, Lord Viscount Grandison, of the kingdom of Ireland, who died in 1642, in consequence of wounds received at the battle of Edge-hill. She was married, just before the Restoration, to Roger Palmer, Esq., then a student in the Temple, and heir to a considerable fortune. In the 13th year of King Charles II. he was created Earl of Castlemaine in the kingdom of Ireland. She had a daughter, born in February 1661, while she cohabited with her husband; but shortly after she became the avowed mistress of the king, who continued his connection with her until about the year 1672, when she was delivered of a daughter, which was supposed to be Mr. Churchill’s, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, and which the king disavowed. Her gallantries were by no means confined to one or two, nor were they unknown to his majesty. In the year 1670, she was created Baroness of Nonsuch, in Surrey, Countess of Southampton, and Duchess of Cleveland, during her natural life, with remainder to Charles and George Fitzroy, her eldest and third son, and their heirs male. In July 1705, her husband died, and she soon after married a man of desperate fortune, known by the name of Handsome Fielding, who behaving in a manner unjustifiably severe towards her, she was obliged to have recourse to law for her protection. Fortunately it was discovered that Fielding had already a wife living, by which means the duchess was enabled to free herself from his authority. She lived about two years afterwards, and died of a dropsy, on the 9th of October, 1709, in her 69th year. Bishop Burnet says, “she was a woman of great beauty, but most enormously vicious and ravenous; foolish, but imperious; very uneasy to the king, and always carrying on intrigues with other men, while yet she pretended she was jealous of him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour towards him, did so disorder him, that often he was not master of himself, nor capable of minding business, which, in so critical a time, required great application.” — Burnet’s Own Times, vol. i. p. 129.http://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/grammont/notes02.html see note 55
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Picture
Duchess of Cleveland (right)
http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/PLATE58CX.HTML
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From today’s CNN.
LONDON, England (Reuters) — A 17th century portrait by Dutch-born painter Peter Lely of a semi-naked English royal mistress goes on sale in July with a price tag of up to two million pounds ($4 million).
Painted for Charles II in the hedonistic days of the English Restoration after years of Puritanical rule, the painting depicts a slim young woman lounging against pillows with only a sheet draped lightly across her thighs to preserve her modesty.
Hanging in the royal bedchamber behind a secret sliding panel to keep it from prying eyes, the painting was initially catalogued in 1688 as a portrait of famed royal mistress Nell Gwyn.
But there has always been some doubt that this was accurate, with many experts believing that it is in fact a portrait of Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castelmaine, an earlier favourite mistress of the notoriously philandering king.
“The scales are tipping in favor of it being Barbara Villiers because of the eyes and the hair color and the date it was painted,” said a spokesman for auction house Christie’s which will put the painting on sale on July 5.
Villiers, who was considered one of the most beautiful Royalist women of the era, became mistress to Charles in 1660 aged 20 even though she was married, and rose to wield immense power in the royal court.
The king later acknowledged that five of her six children were his.
But her extravagance and open promiscuity led to her downfall, and Charles eventually dumped her in around 1673 in favour of Gwyn.
Villiers died in 1709 after suffering from dropsy, an intestinal disease now known as oedema.
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A full copy of the painting of Villiers can be found at http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1733725.ece
Barry, thanks for the lead.
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Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland,
Miniature by Samuel Cooper, 1661
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/object.asp?searchText=Cleveland&x=12&y=7&object=420088&row=0by Lely, circa 1665 (As Athena)
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/object.asp?searchText=Cleveland&x=12&y=7&object=404957&row=1
References in the diary
- 1660
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Jul: 13
Oct: 14
- 1661
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Apr: 20
Jul: 23
Aug: 27
Sep: 7
Dec: 7
- 1662
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Jan: 22
Feb: 5
Apr: 13, 21
May: 10, 14, 21, 31
Jun: 18
Jul: 6, 16, 26
Aug: 23
Sep: 7, 21
Oct: 6, 17, 20, 24, 27, 31
Nov: 3, 17
Dec: 15, 23, 31
- 1663
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Jan: 1, 12, 25
Feb: 1, 8, 17, 23
Mar: 1, 7
Apr: 4, 25, 29
May: 1, 11, 14, 15, 18
Jun: 4, 12, 13, 30
Jul: 3, 4, 9, 10, 13, 22, 31
Aug: 11
Sep: 22
Oct: 13, 20
Nov: 9
Dec: 22
- 1664
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Jan: 20, 26
Feb: 1, 22
Mar: 7
Apr: 18
May: 2, 29, 31
Jul: 10, 20
Aug: 17
Sep: 19
Oct: 11
- 1665
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Feb: 3, 21
Mar: 19, 31