Lucy Walter
Encyclopedia
Lucy Walter or Lucy Barlow (c. 1630 – 1658) was a mistress
Mistress (lover)
A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...

 of King Charles II of England
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 and mother of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...

. She is believed to have been born in 1630 or a little later at Roch Castle
Roch Castle
Roch Castle is a 13th century castle, located near Haverfordwest, Wales.Built by Norman knight Adam de Rupe in the second half of the 12th century, probably on the site of an earlier wooden structure...

 near Haverfordwest
Haverfordwest
Haverfordwest is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales and serves as the County's principal commercial and administrative centre. Haverfordwest is the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire, with a population of 13,367 in 2001; though its community boundaries make it the second most populous...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 into a family of middling gentry. Rumours that she had married the king during his exile (and thus that she was Queen of England
Queen of England
Queen of England may refer to:* Any of the female monarchs of England* Any wife of a male monarch of England who functioned as his official consort during his reign; see List of English consorts...

) appeared by the mid-1650s, but the question was later seized upon during the Exclusion Crisis
Exclusion Bill
The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1678 through 1681 in the reign of Charles II of England. The Exclusion Bill sought to exclude the king's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland because he was Roman Catholic...

, when a Protestant faction wished to make her son the heir to the throne, while the king denied any marriage, and supported the claim of his brother, the Duke of York.

Origins

Lucy Walter, a Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

 noblewoman, was the daughter of Richard or William Walter, of Roch Castle
Roch Castle
Roch Castle is a 13th century castle, located near Haverfordwest, Wales.Built by Norman knight Adam de Rupe in the second half of the 12th century, probably on the site of an earlier wooden structure...

 and of Haverfordwest
Haverfordwest
Haverfordwest is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales and serves as the County's principal commercial and administrative centre. Haverfordwest is the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire, with a population of 13,367 in 2001; though its community boundaries make it the second most populous...

 and wife Elizabeth Protheroe, daughter of John Protheroe, of Hawkesbrook and wife Elinor Vaughan, maternal granddaughter of Walter Vaughan, of Grove and wife Mary or Katherine ferch Gruffud FitzUryan, in turn daughter of Griffith ap Rice FitzUryan (d. 1592) and wife Eleanor Jones, daughter of Sir Thomas Jones, and paternal granddaughter of Rhys FitzUryan and wife Lady Katherine Howard (c. 1518 - 12 April 1554, interred 11 May 1554), daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal , styled Earl of Surrey from 1483 to 1514, was the only son of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk by his first wife, Katherine Moleyns...

 and Agnes Tilney
Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk
Agnes Howard was the second wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Two of King Henry VIII's Queens were her step-granddaughters, Anne Boleyn, and Katherine Howard...

. The Walters were a Welsh family of good standing, who declared for the king during the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

. The family home Roch Castle
Roch Castle
Roch Castle is a 13th century castle, located near Haverfordwest, Wales.Built by Norman knight Adam de Rupe in the second half of the 12th century, probably on the site of an earlier wooden structure...

 was captured and burned by the parliamentary forces in 1644, and Lucy Walter found shelter first in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and then at the Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

.

Courtesan or Queen?

The nearest thing to a contemporary biography of Lucy Walter is a short memoir drawn from the state papers
State papers
The term State papers is used in British and Irish contexts to refer exclusively to government archives and records. Such papers used to be kept separate from non-governmental papers, with state papers kept in the State Paper Office and general public records kept in the Public Records Office...

 of King James II, her son's successful rival for the throne. This states that Lucy Walter moved from Wales to London as a young girl, and nearly became the mistress of Algernon Sidney, a Roundhead
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...

 officer and second son of the Earl of Leicester
Earl of Leicester
The title Earl of Leicester was created in the 12th century in the Peerage of England , and is currently a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1837.-Early creations:...

. When he was sent out of the capital on military duty, she moved to the Netherlands, and instead began an affair with his younger brother, Colonel Robert Sidney, who commanded a regiment of English soldiers in the Dutch army.

John Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...

, a junior member of James II's government, also reported the story of a relationship with a member of the Sidney family, and Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

 and Lord Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.-Early life:...

 also record similar tales about her background. Evelyn had met Lucy Walter briefly in 1649, and remembered her as a "brown, beautiful, bold but insipid creature", a "beautiful strumpet".

What is certain is that Lucy was a distant cousin of the Sidneys, and that she left England around the age of eighteen, using the name "Mrs. Barlow" (or "Barlo"). Around the same time, The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

 became a base for exiled English Cavalier
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

s after the king's defeat in the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

, and by the autumn of 1648, Lucy had become the lover of the exiled Prince of Wales.

In January 1649, the prince became Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

, king-in-exile. Shortly after this, Lucy bore a son, James
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC , was an English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter...

, who Charles acknowledged as his own, and whom he subsequently created Duke of Monmouth. James II and Evelyn, in contrast, reported that the boy's father was one of the Sidney brothers.

There is no conclusive evidence to support the story that Lucy Walter was secretly married to the king, but the intimacy between them lasted with intervals until at least the autumn of 1651, and perhaps for rather longer. Lucy's maid claimed to Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

's interrogators that the couple had spent "a night and a day together" as late as May 1656, long after the memoir claims their relationship was over.

The next month, Lucy Walter moved back to London. The reason is not clear; propaganda written in support of her son claims that she was received as Queen by the royalists, but she was quickly arrested by the Republican regime
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...

, who publicly announced the capture of "Lucy Barlow, who... passeth under the character of Charles Stuart's wife or mistress", and sent her back to Holland in a bid to embarrass the king.

After her return from London, there were claims of an affair with her cousin Colonel Thomas Howard, and at the end of 1657 and the start of 1658, concerted attempts were made by the King, encouraged by Sir Edward Hyde
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.-Early life:...

, to separate her son from her; a clumsy attempt at kidnapping was obstructed by the Earl of Castlehaven
James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven
James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven was the son of Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven and his first wife, Elizabeth Barnham...

, the rulers of the Spanish Netherlands and the burghers of Brussels, but eventually, her son was transferred into the care of a Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

-educated tutor named Thomas Ross.

By this time, however, Charles's exiled court had moved to Brussels, where Lucy also was; in August, a Commonwealth spy reported that she had engaged in a "combat" against one of his chaplains, and emerged victorious. But by December, she was dead, apparently in Paris, where she was living in the care of the Earl of Mar
John Erskine, 18th Earl of Mar
John Erskine, 2nd Earl of Mar was a Scottish politician, the only son of John Erskine, 1st Earl of Mar. Together with King James VI of Scotland he was educated by George Buchanan...

's brother - his sister's granddaughter would later marry her son. It is generally assumed that she had been separated from her son, but he seems to have also been brought to that city; the memoir says she died of syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...

, but is certainly wrong about the date, which it places after 1660.

A daughter, Mary Crofts (The Hague, 1651 - 1693), was later repudiated by the king. James II's papers identified the father as "E. Carlingson" (according to the copy made by Thomas Carte
Thomas Carte
Thomas Carte was an English historian.-Life:Carte was born near Clifton upon Dunsmore...

 around 1740) or "the Earl of Carlington" (in the copy by James Macpherson
James Macpherson
James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...

 in the 1770s, the independence of which is unclear). Later historians have identified this man with the Earl of Carlingford
Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford
Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford , known as 2nd Viscount Taaffe, of Corren and 2nd Baron of Ballymote between 1642 and 1661, was a Royalist officer who played a prominent part in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and accompanied Charles II in exile...

, who was sometimes called "Earl of Carlington" and who acted as go-between for Lucy and the King, or else with the Earl of Arlington
Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington
Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington KG, PC was an English statesman.- Background and early life :He was the son of Sir John Bennet of Dawley, Middlesex, and of Dorothy Crofts. He was the younger brother of John Bennet, 1st Baron Ossulston; his sister was Elizabeth Bennet who married Robert Kerr,...

.

Mary Crofts married firstly William Sarsfield and had female issue, and married secondly William Fanshawe (b. The Hague, May 1651), and had issue.

In Books and Literature

  • The novelist Elizabeth Goudge
    Elizabeth Goudge
    Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was an English author of novels, short stories and children's books as Elizabeth Goudge...

     published a novel about Lucy, The Child from the Sea, in 1970
  • Her descendent, Lord George Scott, published a biography called "Lucy Walter Wife or Mistress". London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, 1947.

In Film & Television

  • In the 2003 Television
    Television
    Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

     Documentary
    Documentary
    A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...

    , The Boy Who Would Be King, Sandra Darnell portrays Lucy Walter.
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