Barbara Villiers Part 4: Downfall and Death

Barbara Villiers by Sir Peter Lely

 It's been a while since I posted about Barbara Villiers, mainly because writing about how her relationship with Charles affected Catherine of Braganza got me a little teared up. I can't help it, this family just give me way too many feelings ok? As I've said previously, I find Barbara utterly fascinating but well, she really wasn't the nicest of women was she? Anyway, today's post will concentrate on her downfall, her banishment and her death as a lonely, penniless old woman.

As mentioned in the previous post, Barbara had taken the pretty young Frances Stuart under her wing, manipulating the King's obsession with her to her own ends. Sadly for Barbara, the King's obsession with Frances meant that he began to spend less time with Barbara, and Frances had really begun to outshine the King's main mistress. And so, in a carefully planned display of power, Barbara would take it upon herself to wear more Jewell's than both Frances and the Queen put together. There was also an incident at the theatre where one evening she left her ow box and walked uninvited into the King's box, perching herself between the King and the Duke of York. This was Barbara Villiers making sure that people knew she wasn't going to be left out. Barbara was also incredibly greedy, raiding the Privy Purse on her own whim, and taking the King's New Year gifts of silver all for herself, and she would end up gambling a lot of money away - some estimates say she squandered over half a million pounds on her gambling habits. She would also then have to find ways of paying off her debts, which lead to her acquiring land from the King and then selling said land off - a good example of this being her being given Nonsuch Palace which she consequently ransacked and demolished to pay her debts.

The next really important event in Barbara's life that needs talking about is her role in the downfall of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. As we have already seen, the two did not get on at all and Clarendon particularly disliked her. The main issue was that Barbara had placed her own puppets at the centre of politics and this left poor Clarendon with very little to do. Barbara had been waiting for a long time to be rid of Clarendon and to get rid of the man that she so despised; that opportunity came with the signing of the Treaty of Breda which was agreed before Parliament could be assembled. Clarendon was blamed for preventing Parliament from doing anything about it, and the outcry was headed by none other than Barbara Villiers.

The Treaty of Breda

As such, Charles was persuaded. Clarendon had to go. Clarendon was thus summoned to a private meeting in which he spoke out against Barbara's influence on the King. Charles, of course, was outraged and stormed out leaving Clarendon standing there at a loss. What on earth had he done? Two days later, Charles sent to Clarendon to collect the seal of Office from Clarendon and dismissed him from service. Poor Clarendon, victim of Barbara's scheming, left England on 3rd December 1667.

What was it that made Charles want to get rid of Barbara though? It started when Barbara was pregnant again, this time with Jermyn's child. She attempted to force Charles to admit paternity of the child but Charles resisted, saying he hadn't slept with her for months. "God damn ye, but you shall own it!" she cried; and she threatened that if he did not acknowledge the child she would dash its brains out before him, and parade all of his bastards before him. The real turning point came when Barbara made a public fool of the King, and made him fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness saying she didn't care whose child she bore as long as the King recognised it as his own.

Charles on his knees before Barbara Villiers by William Powell Frith

From then on, the King wanted rid of her, or so the court talk said. After an episode of insolence (yet again) he banished her from court and after three days she collected her things. But once they came face to face everything would be fine again. But at this stage, they were really beyond repair and began to outdo each other in their infidelity - Charles took a fancy to the actress Moll Davis, and later Nell Gwynne would make her way into the King's affections. She would end up lasting much longer than Moll ever did. And to keep Barbara out of the way at this time, Charles bestowed more and more gifts upon her. To remove her from the immediate vicinity of Whitehall he gave her Berkshire House, and she lived there with her children until it became necessary to sell due to her debts. During this time she also took countless other lovers including a rope dance by the name of Jacob Hall. Much later she would take John Churchill, Duke if Marlborough to her bed, By this time she was well out of favour and was making the most of Charles' "gifts" whilst he spent his time with his other mistresses.

Louise De Kerouelle eventually became Charles' Maitresse-En-Titre, completely eclipsing Barbara. And at the same time Nell Gwynne was the woman that Charles escaped too when he wanted a break from the political machinations of his mistresses - Nell made him laugh, and asked little from him unlike Louise. Yet at the same time Barbara still demanded that her sons be given titles.

In 1676, Charles finally managed to get Barbara out of the picture and she moved to Paris where she took a number of lovers. But by the time of Charles' death in 1685, they were still friends despite everything and on his deathbed Charles apparently asked his brother to be kind to her (as well ash is famous comment to "Let not poor Nelly starve"). After Charles' death, Barbara was heavilly involved with a man by the name of Cardonell Goodman, nicknamed "Scum", and there was an incident in which he was found guilty of trying to poison her children which she ultimately ignored.

Barbara would live to a relatively old age and at the age of 64 would become involved in a massive scandal, which involved a trial for bigamy. At 64, completely based on lust, Barbara threw herself into a relationship with Robert Fielding, a man who was known to be incredibly violent. They married on 25th November 1775, and 6 months later she discovered that he had another wife who he had married just two weeks before their own wedding. Why had he done this? To get his hands on their money of course, Barbara herself was said to be worth over £60,000! She had, of course, lost most of her fortune in this unfortunate marriage.

On 9th October 1709, Barbara Villiers died at the age of 68 having spent her last few years at Chiswick. She was cared for by the Duke of Grafton who showed real devotion to her despite her previous issues with Fielding. Her once famous beauty had been destroyed by dropsy, a condition which swelled her body to a vast bulk. She was buried at Chiswick Parish Church in 1709.

Barbara Villiers may have been a nasty piece of work, a woman who had a brilliant mind and who knew who to twist people around her little finger but she died a sad death, lonely and, it seems to me at least, unloved. She had known great power, both being loved by a King and politically but in the end she allowed her lust to get the better of her. Fielding used her, spent most of her fortune and left her high and dry and let her die a sad, lonely old woman. In this sense I feel incredibly sorry for Barbara, she had had a brilliant life spent in the limelight at court, she didn't care that many hated her. She had real political influence over the King and managed to keep his attention on her for a good many years. She had known the best, only to die with nothing. She was a remarkable woman and a woman who honestly interests me greatly. And whilst as a person, from reading about her, I may dislike her immensely (if only for how she made poor Queen Catherine feel) but also as a person she interests me greatly, she knew how to get what she wanted and managed to keep the King's interest for many, many years. Barbara Villiers was a woman of her time, who used her womanhood and sexuality to get what she wanted, yet at the same time immersed herself in the male role of politics - and despite how nasty she could be, those qualities alone make her a woman to look up to!

Further reading

Fraser, A, 1979, King Charles II, Butler & Tanner: London
Fraser, A, 1984, The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth Century England, Phoenix: London
Masters, B, 1979, The Mistresses of Charles II, Constable: London
Uglow, J, 2009, A Gambling Man, Faber & Faber: London

Barbara Villiers Part 3: The Cracks Begin To Show

Helen McCrory as Barbara Villiers in "Charles II: The Power & The Passion"

In the last post, I wrote about Barbara's early years at court, her rise to being known as "Lady Castlemaine", the rocky relationship with her husband and the children she bore the King. Today's post will concentrate in her years at court from the arrival of Queen Catherine of Braganza to the beginning of her decline.

Catherine of Braganza arrived in England in 1662 to a swathe of celebration and bonfires were lit in celebration in every street in London, except outside of the house of Barbara Castlemaine. During May 1662, whilst the celebrations raged, the King was inside Barbara's house in King Street dining and playing with her until it was time for him to leave for Portsmouth to meet his new Queen. Barbara was said to be very upset and the King leaving her company, and it should be worth noting that at this point she was heavily pregnant with the King's second child by her.

When Charles first laid eyes on Catherine, he was rather taken aback. The difference between her and Barbara was astounding. Catherine had lead such a retired existence in Portugal that she wore fashions that had not been seen in England since the late Tudor era, and would have looked rather odd to the eyes of the English. She had also been advised by her parents that to surrender to the English way of dressing would prove detrimental to the dignity of Portugal. Yet despite this initial stubbornness Charles found her demeanour to be incredibly pleasing, and he told Clarendon that he thought himself "very happy" at having her for a wife. Yet after their marriage, the two did not consummate their marriage - Charles complained that he was too sleepy. He claimed this was due to the journey but it may have also had something to do with the fact that he had come to meet Catherine straight from the bed of Babara Castlemaine!

Queen Catherine of Braganza by or after Dirk Stoop

Charles II and Catherine were married in a private ceremony the day after her arrival in Portsmouth and from there the royal couple went to Hampton Court for their honeymoon. Almost immediately Barbara began causing a stir, as she proposed that at the same time as the royal couple were there, she should be at Hampton Court for the birth of her son. The idea was rejected outright by Charles! But as Barbara fought to maintain her place as the most important woman in Charles' life, it was the Queen's own ladies in waiting who helped to cement her place there. These women were old, proud and fiercely overprotective of Queen Catherine, they refused to learn English and kept wearing the Portuguese fashions whereas at least Catherine began to dress in more of an English manner, and they also made it startlingly clear that they would not sleep in any bed that had previously been slept in by a man! Charles of course would not put up with this behaviour for long, and began to put together a list of English women to be her new ladies in waiting. And the name at the top of that list was Barbara Castlemaine. At finding this out Catherine fainted in shock, it was obvious that she knew enough about the infamous Lady Castlemaine. How was it then that the King's mistress managed to receive this post? Quite simply Barbara had pleaded with the King to give her the post as a demonstration of his loyalty to her and of course, Charles weakly agreed to her demands. What Charles did not know was that Catherine had heard of Barbara, even all the way in Portugal, and Catherine's mother had told her not to allow Barbara's name to mentioned in her presence and for a long time Catherine made no allusion to Barbara's presence. Now though, she had the royal Mistresses presence slapped right in front of her and would be forced to deal with Charles' sexual betrayal every single day. In utter fury she struck Barbara's name from the list and demanded that the King allow her this privilege or she would go back to Portugal. Charles, of course, would have been taken aback and not prepared that his wife would have a will of her own. He tried to calm her down to start with, insisting that his affair with Barbara belonged to his past, he didn't need the mistress now that Catherine was in his life. Charles, as we know from hindsight, never kept this promise. Did he even intend to keep it?

A few days later, Charles managed to introduce his mistress to his wife. Catherine had of course never come face to face with Barbara and so, although had heard about her, would never recognise her if they came face to face. Queen Catherine received her gratefully, allowing her to kiss the royal hand but when one of Catherine's Portuguese ladies whispered in her ear who it was, Catherine became agitated and her eyes filled with tears but she tried to control herself, until blood began pouring from her nose and she had to be carried from the room. All Charles could see at this point was that his wife had denied him, it was if at this stage he hadn't quite realised just how deep his wife's feelings went for him. Clarendon was summoned, who of course took Catherine's side but Charles argued that if he allowed the Queen to get her way he would be seen as weak. Moreover, Charles used the argument that now Lord Castlemaine had left his wife, it was his own duty to secure her a position of honour in the Queen's household, and that if Catherine stopped making a fuss he would never push another appointment on her again. He also threatened that if she continued in this way, he would get himself even more mistresses. Clarendon was sent to her as the bearer of bad news and he, although siding with her, said that if she would only allow Barbara as first lady of the bedchamber then all would be well. Catherine of course flew into a rage, saying that the King must hate her and that she would pack her bags up and leave for Portugal. Clarendon tried to calm her down, advising her to accede to the Kings wishes and he also advised the King to let the matter lie for a few days for things to calm down. But a consequent meeting between husband and wife ended up in a full scale shouting match, he accused her of stubbornness and she called him a tyrant. He then told her he would send all her Portuguese ladies right back where they came from. The argument was so loud that the next day everyone at Court knew what had happened, and also noticed that they barely looked at each other! But now the King found himself in a quandary, he was growing ever more fond of his wife but couldn't let Barbara down. However Catherine spent the next few days crying alone in her rooms, and in public feigning indifference although still ignoring him. After this, Barbara formally took up her position as lady of the bedchamber at Whitehall Palace and there, poor Catherine had to see her husbands mistress  as more popular than she was. For months she took everything in silence, noticing as her own servants showed more respect to Barbara knowing full well she had more influence with the King than Catherine did. But this silence gained her many admirers, and one day bored with loneliness she began to chat happily with Barbara, showing outwardly all signs of friendliness, and Barbara was even seen to be waiting on the Queen at Mass. Catherine, although only outwardly showing her acceptance did so as she did not want to displease her husband due to the simple fact that she was so in love with him that she would put up with his lover.

During this time, Barbara used her influence at court and there seemed no end to it. After Lady Gerard, another lady of the Queen's bedchamber made remarks that Barbara took offence to, she had her dismissed. She began persuading Charles to dismiss elderly statesmen, and having them replaced with younger men who were more in touch with the modern world, and there was no point in Charles protesting this despite the alarm felt by others at court. And it was during 1662-63 that Barbara began to use her influence to bring about the downfall of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. He had much to fear from her, knowing how much she hated him, and it was Barbara who influenced the decline in his influence.

This was when Barbara was at her height, the King would dine with her four or five times a week, often not returning to Catherine's bed until the next morning, and he made n effort to hide it from her. He would openly walk from Barbara's apartments to the palace and for a period of about three months did not dine with the Queen once, preferring to spend his time with Barbara. By April 1663, Barbara had apartments in Whitehall near the King and no matter how fond of Catherine Charles was, she could not compete with Barbara's dazzling wit and her sexual prowess.

Barbara was certainly not loyal to Charles, and she had a string of other lovers including Sir Charles Berkeley, James Hamilton a groom of the King's bedchamber, Lord Sandwich and Henry Jermyn.

Yet Barbara's power would soon start to crack when rival's for the King's affection began to make their mark. The earliest example is when Frances Stuart, a young girl of fifteen from Paris, joined the court as a maid of honour. This girl was apparently incredibly beautiful and immediately captivated the King, and she was the polar opposite of Barbara Castlemaine and was incredibly virtuous. So virtuous in fact that she just kept on refusing the King.

Frances Stuart, La Belle Stuart by Sir Peter Lely

Of course Barbara quickly took the young, naive Frances under her wing, inviting the young thing to all nights out and making sure that she was always present at occasions where the King was, and indulged Frances' love of childish games. One famous story (which can be seen in Charles II The Power & The Passion with Rufus Sewell) involved a play where Barbara and Frances would pretend to be man and wife, going through a pretend marriage and going to bed in the traditional manner. When the King arrived, Barbara ceded the place of the husband to him but still Frances would now allow anything to go beyond a game which must have been very frustrating for Charles! However during Charles' seeming obsession with young Frances, Barbara began to go about the Court with a sour look on face and it was clear that she was beginning to lose favour. She was seen less and less in the Kings company, and in public people began to pay less attention to her.

One of the main events that saw Barbara's fall from favour in 1663 was the fact that Catherine became seriously ill in the October. It was sudden and mysterious and it was feared that she would not recover. The raging fever made her believe that she had given birth to a son, and she apologised to Charles that he was so ugly. The King, who had spent many hours by her bedside, told her that their son was a pretty boy. By this time, it had been established that the Queen must be barren, and thoughts that she may be dying gave way to talk of a new Queen for Charles, and the name of Frances Stuart was thrown around. The Queen however recovered only to be faced with the reality of her childlessness and the King's continued dalliance with his mistresses.

Further reading

Fraser, A, 1979, King Charles II, Butler & Tanner: London
Fraser, A, 1984, The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth Century England, Phoenix: London
Masters, B, 1979, The Mistresses of Charles II, Constable: London
Uglow, J, 2009, A Gambling Man, Faber & Faber: London

Barbara Villiers Part 2: "The Finest Woman Of Her Age"

Charles II and Lady Castlemaine by William Powell Frith

In the last post, I wrote about Barbara Villiers early life, the early scandals that attached themselves to her, her marriage to Roger Palmer and the beginnings of her career at court. After she caught the eye of the King, she became a regular sight around the Court inspiring scandal wherever she went and it is her court years that we know much, much more about. Today's post will concentrate on these years at court, the children she bore the King and of course the scandal that followed her wherever she went.

Barbara was certainly a very beautiful woman, not only did she have Charles fall for her, but Samuel Pepys also managed to fall head over heels in love with her. Indeed, all contemporary evidence points to how beautiful Barbara was - Reresby called her "the finest woman of her age" and Boyer wrote that she was "perhaps the finest woman in England in her time". Indeed she was so beautiful that the celebrated artist Sir Peter Lely kept on wanting to paint her, for the sheer fact that he believed his paint brush could not do justice to his subject. In fact Barbara was one of the first to patronise Lely when he was made court painter in 1661, and he adored her saying that her beauty was "beyond the power of art". He painted her in many guises, that of St Catherine, an Amazon and indeed in a version of the Madonna and Child; and these portraits of her would become a template for court paintings.

Barbara Villiers and her son Charles Fitzroy by Sir Peter Lely

What as it that attracted King Charles to this woman other than her beauty? They certainly had little in common apart from their sheer sense of lust for each other, which given the times honestly did not matter. During the Restoration attitudes had changed whereupon people wanted to live their lives to the full with music, dancing and of course, sex. And Charles' nature reflected this, so much so that he became almost a slave to Barbara's sexual nature.

Barbara would find herself the mother of a good many of Charles' illegitimate children. The first was born on 25th February 1661, less than 9 months after Charles' triumphal return to London. The child's name was Anne Palmer, and Barbara's poor naive husband was convinced the child was his; Barbara insisted the child was the King's but it took him 13 years to admit paternity. With this child, there were at least three possible fathers but Charles eventually admitted paternity to placate Barbara and make the child's marriage to Lord Dacre easier. This also meant that Barbara's place at court was secure. In total Charles would have 5 more children by the King which would lead to some fireworks between the couple, including the rather famous incident when Barbara was pregnant with another child. This child was certainly not fathered by Charles but rather by Henry Jermyn and at some point towards the end of 1667 or early 1668 Barbara demanded that Charles acknowledge paternity of the unborn child. He refused on the basis that he had no memory of sleeping with her in the past six months. Barbara exploded, "God damn me! But you shall own it!" She threatened that, if the child was not christened at Whitehall, she would dash its brains out in front of him. When Charles still refused, Barbara left to stay in Covent Garden with her friend Lady Harvey. Of course, as what always happened between them Charles begged forgiveness and Barbara returned to court, with nothing else being said on the issue of the controversial pregnancy!

Barbara was universally disliked at court, due to how influential she was on the King, her arrogant nature and her imperious ways. She had a brilliant mind and knew how to get what she wanted but so many at Court disliked her, even feared her possibly down to them being jealous of her, or disapproved of her political influence with the King. Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon could not even bring himself to mention her name, calling her "that lady" is he couldn't avoid it. These two ended up hating each other so vehemently that they each fought for the others downfall, which ultimately ended up in Clarendon losing favour at court and losing the battle with Barbara. John Evelyn, the famous seventeenth century diarist said that she was "the curse of our nation" which seemingly was a reflection of how the public felt of her. As we know however, Samuel Pepys gazed lustfully after her. Barbara was even slighted in public, and there was a particular incident in St James' Park which perfectly illustrates this; she was set upon by three well dressed, masked men who berated her with awful language and compared her to Jane Shore, Edward IV's mistress - they said she would end up dying in poverty just as Jane had. When Barbara returned to her apartments she collapsed in fear.

Yet in 1661 Charles showed just how indifferent he was to public opinion of his mistress by giving Roger Palmer a title so that Barbara could enjoy the privileges of higher rank and her children could also benefit. Roger was humiliated at this, knowing that the title would in fact mean nothing to him but it would all go to his wife. On 8th November the warrant was passed through, and Barbara was known as "Lady Castlemaine" and Roger as "Lord of Castlemaine", an Irish title. Roger Palmer however never took his seat at the House of Lords and rarely used his new title due to his disgust at the manner of his ennoblement. And it was following this that Roger finally caught on, and after the birth of Barbara's second child in the Spring of 1662 they had a huge argument. Roger was a staunch Catholic, and wanted the child baptised as a Catholic and so the child was baptised as a Catholic in St Margaret's, Westminster. After this Barbara had the child baptised again by a Protestant Minister with the King as a witness and she promised that the child had not already been baptised. Following this, Roger and Barbara separated - she stalked out of their house on King Street with everything, leaving poor Roger with just the walls of the house. He ended up going to France, leaving Barbara to return to the house in triumph. She now felt like she could do anything, she felt as if she were the most important woman at Court and she would make sure she stayed that way. The King's new wife was on her way from Portugal and Barbara had too much to lose, she had to keep her place as the most important woman in the King's life.

Queen Catherine of Braganza by Sir Peter Lely

The next few years would see Barbara at loggerheads with both the new English Queen, Catherine of Braganza as well as the new mistresses in Charles' life. She would continue to be disliked at Court and would end up in a furious battle of wits with Clarendon, before Charles would become tired of her. The next post in this series will concentrate on those years, leading up to her dismissal and ultimate death.


Further Reading

Fraser, A, 1979, King Charles II, Butler & Tanner: London
Fraser, A, 1984, The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth Century England, Phoenix: London
Masters, B, 1979, The Mistresses of Charles II, Constable: London
Uglow, J, 2009, A Gambling Man, Faber & Faber: London

Barbara Villiers - Part 1

Barbara Villiers by Sir Peter Lely

The name Barbara Villiers conjures up images of a greedy, power hungry woman who had King Charles II wrapped around her little finger. This woman is exceptionally fascinating, how did she retain such favour and stay an almost constant presence in the court of Charles II? But who was she?

Barbara was part of the Villiers family, a very old English family who could trace their beginnings back to at least the Norman Conquest when they were granted estates in Nottingham, Leicestershire and Lancashire. The family rose to prominence thanks to Barbara's great-great grandfather, Sir George Villiers, a man who was sheriff of Leicestershire in 1591 and father to George Villiers, the first duke of Buckingham and favourite of James I. The 2nd Duke of Buckingham, another George Villiers was the very same man who introduced Charles II to such a deplorable lifestyle in Paris, introducing the young Charles to the delights of young women. And it was this very same George who was the cousin of Barbara Villiers herself.

 George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham by Sir Peter Lely

Barbara Villiers herself was born in around 1641 in Westminster. Her father was William Villiers, a man who had fought for the Royalists at Edgehill and died from wounds received at the siege of Bristol. Her mother was Mary Bayning who, after William died, married another Villiers by the name of Charles, Earl of Anglesey. Charles was a relatively poor man, and according to Masters in his book "The Mistresses of Charles II", Barbara would have been brought up in relative poverty but with the name of Villiers, and a relative of the first Duke of Buckingham who had been a favourite at the time of James I and Charles I, as soon as the monarchy was restored, the poverty would not last for long. The family would doubtless be back in favour. 

Barbara's life of depravity no doubt started when she was relatively young. By the age of 15, she was involved in an affair with Lord Chesterfield. This man would sleep with any woman if she were not old or ugly, and of course Barbara was neither. The two of them met often in secret and it seems that Barbara's feelings were so much for this man that she could be incredibly jealous of him and got rather upset when he would seek another woman's arms. Yet she would still send him letters which were nothing more than invitations to bed and would always make herself available if he wanted her.

In 1659, she married Roger Palmer and this poor man would soon become cuckolded by her, though he often had no idea what was going on under his very nose. They married on 14th April 1659 when Barbara was 18 years old, and by this time she already had a very black reputation, so much so that when Palmer decided on marrying her his own father warned him off saying, "If you persist in marrying that woman...you will live to be the most miserable man in the world". Roger of course completely ignored those very wise words. After they married, Palmer took his new wife to live in the country where she could be kept away from temptation. Yet the young Barbara snuck away whenever she could, taking herself back to Lord Chesterfield. Palmer remained ignorant of this, even failing to notice when Barbara wrote letters to Chesterfield stating that she would go anywhere in the world with him. But by 1660 her affair with Chesterfield was over when she contracted smallpox - it put Chesterfield off her completely so much so that he fled to the Continent following a duel in which he killed another member of the nobility, received a pardon from the future King Charles II and returned to England in triumph with the Restoration of the Monarchy. 

It was in 1660 when Barbara and Charles met for the first time, likely in Holland when Barbara and Roger went to offer their support. We do not know whether Barbara returned with her husband in the April or stayed behind and become involved with the King but she certainly was not present when the King returned to London on 29th May. It is said however that she was in his bed at the end of the day, so had the affair already begun before his return? The first concrete evidence of  Barbara's presence at court was when Samuel Pepys noted seeing her in his famous diaries - he was disturbed one evening as he was writing letters by a rather loud party coming from next door, which was the house of Roger and Barbara and he noted that both the King and Duke were there with "Madam Palmer" who both men had taken a bit of a fancy to! By October, she had firmly found her place in Court Circles and she knew what she wanted. Her name begins to crop up more and more, particularly in the diaries of Pepys (who was somewhat in love with her!) and even at this early stage she was well on her way to becoming Maitresse-en-titre and having such a hold over the King that many within the circles at Court would end up disliking her. Clarendon was one of the main court men to detest her presence, and refused to accept her as the King's mistress, even going as far as to forbid his own wife from receiving her!

Barbara Villiers would end up having a long career and court, full of sexual scandal. She would be universally disliked and fall in and out of favour with the King. She would bear him countless children, argue with him about their paternity and demand titles for them. She would also prove herself to have a shrewd head for politics and to be exceptionally clever, she knew how to keep her men exactly where she wanted them and she knew how to make people tick. Barbara was such a complex woman and her scandalous life still manages to capture people's imagination.

Further reading

Fraser, A, 1979, King Charles II, Butler & Tanner: London

Masters, B, 1979, The Mistresses of Charles II, Constable: London

Uglow, J, 2009, A Gambling Man, Faber & Faber: London

Review: The Mistresses of Charles II by Brian Masters

I found this book after doing a search on Amazon for Nell Gwynne, who as you all know is my favourite mistress of Charles II. And when I saw this gem for such a bargain I couldn't resist, as not only do I adore Nell but have a bit of a fascination with the other mistresses too particularly Lucy Walter and Barbara Villiers. And so it was with a sense of sheer excitement that I picked up this book and began to read.

The first thing I will say is that this is quite an old book, having first been published in 1979 and I noticed as I read that Masters said that certain events definitely happened, when in fact they are apocryphal. This may be because he based a lot of his research on some very old sources, including works written in the early 1900's. For instance during Barbara Villiers' chapter he mentions an incident whereupon Barbara bit off the penis of a perfectly preserved priest - despite her many faults I honestly don't think that she would have done this and I have never read a credible source that says she did this. Also with a few of his statements he does not state WHERE he got the information from and indeed this book is not cited very well at all - there are no footnotes as you go through the chapters rather a list of sources at the end of each chapter. Had the work been cited properly then I think I would trust it a little more than I do. Saying that however, I did enjoy this book but I had to go into it with my eyes open.

Masters concentrates on the main four mistresses that Charles II kept throughout his reign, although he is said to have had many, many more; Lucy Walter, Barbara Villiers, Nell Gwynne and Louise De Kerouelle. Each chapter gives and overview of each woman's life, from their birth until their death and describes in detail their careers at the court of Charles II. Masters starts with the first well known mistress that Charles had whilst he was in exile, Lucy Walter. I found this chapter to be very interesting and I know very little of Lucy bar the fact that she gave birth to the ill fated James, Duke of Monmouth. She was the first woman that Charles ever loved and it seems that he was so head over heels in love with her that his advisors at the time believed him to have gone mad! Later in his reign there would be rumours that Charles had actually married Lucy, but these started much earlier and during their actual relationship. Yet according to Masters, she would turn on him once their relationship had ended and Charles resorted to kidnap attempts to get his young son away from her. I won't go too much into it as it's a whole other post, but young James was eventually taken back by Charles and grew up under the care of William Crofts. His mother did not survive to see the Restoration of the monarchy as she died in 1656 and so did not have the chance to see her sons fall from grace in 1685. Barbara Villiers is perhaps the best known of Charles' mistress after Nell Gwynne and from the get go we get a sense of Barbara's lust for power, her greed. She wanted Charles all to herself and often conspired against others at court, including the Queen and Clarendon. She always tried to outshine the Queen and Charles' other mistresses, showing up to events in much much more jewellery than them. As I read through this chapter I must say I felt so, so sorry for Queen Catherine of Braganza - she showed up at Charles' court completely naive in the ways of the world, only to have his mistress shoved in her face from the get go. Is it any wonder she at first refused to have Barbara join her bedchamber? And any wonder she spent so much time on her own? If I am brutally honest, whilst I find Barbara Villiers utterly fascinating, I can't help but dislike her an awful lot. This is a woman who was so, so greedy that she ended up pulling down Nonsuch Palace to pay off her gambling debts. She may have had Charles wrapped around her little finger for much of her life but she ended her own life almost penniless, having married a man who squandered most of her fortune. We then come onto Nell Gwynne, my favourite mistress. I have covered Nell and her life in great detail in previous posts so won't go too much into detail here but I couldn't help but notice that Masters spends very little time in discussing the arguments of the place of Nell's birth (It must be London because she's known as a cockney in the public eye...) and totally discarding the other arguments. There is also no mention of the year of her birth either and the debate surrounding it. But never mind. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed reading her chapter and found myself giggling at some of her exploits, how she always tried to pull one over on Louise De Kerouelle. Nell was the mistress who made Charles laugh and who asked for very little in return. Last but not least were the chapters on Louise De Kerouelle, a young woman first brought into Charles' notice during a visit from his sister Minette. Charles wanted Louise to stay in England but Minette said no. However after Minette's death, Louise came back to England and became Charles II's mistress. She was also the go between between England and France, a spy if you will. By this point in the book, I found my interest waning somewhat. I have never been overly fond of Louise due to the fact that she thought so highly of herself, came across as a bit of a snob and was able to turn her tears on and off at will. And like Barbara she had a lust for power and position, and was somewhat greedy. She had no much given to her from Charles because she believed it was her right and for all intents and purposes lived like a Queen. But like Barbara, she ended her own life in heaps of debt and had to keep running from her creditors (she relied on Louis XIV to keep them at bay) yet she died at the exceptional age of 85 years old.

This book did flow nicely, and the style of writing was very easy to follow. It was an easy read, although I would have liked to know more about Lucy and Barbara in particular it would be very difficult to write more about these women without heading into speculation (somewhat like Beauclerk's "biography" of Nell Gwynne!) which never comes across well in a history book. I would certainly recommend this to anyone interest in the mistresses of Charles II as it is a good starting point, but I would also recommend reading more on these women also as since this was published there has been a lot more work done on these women. Still, a good read and recommended.