Charlotte FitzRoy, Countess of Yarmouth (m)

Unfortunately, we do not have much evidence about Charlotte’s life. She was probably born in 1652 at the English royalist court-in-exile in Paris, where she would have lived with her mother Elizabeth and her legal but non-biological father Francis Boyle until at least 1660, when the family would have likely moved back to England after the Restoration.

Charlotte was recognised by Charles II as his natural daughter, and at some point was given the surname FitzRoy, meaning son of king, to represent her paternal line.

Her first husband, James Howard, was a dramatist who wrote two plays that both starred Nell Gwyn! Through this first marriage she had a daughter, Stuarta, who went on to be a lady-in-waiting to the future Queen Mary II.

 After being widowed she married William Paston in 1674. Through this marriage, she gained the title of the Countess of Yarmouth when William’s father died and he succeeded as Earl of Yarmouth, inheriting his entire estate and Oxnead Hall. Charlotte and William had four children together, but as their sons died without issue, their titles became extinct.

Charlotte died suddenly on 28th July 1684, aged just 33 years old, and was buried at Westminster Abbey on 4th August.