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