Anne Lennard (Previously Palmer and FitzRoy) Countess of Sussex

Anne was the first child of the Duchess of Cleveland, and the eldest of her children with Charles II. She was born on 25 February 1661, less than one year after the Restoration. Until Charles officially recognised her as his daughter, she was given the surname Palmer – that of her mother’s husband, Roger Palmer, Earl of Castlemaine, with whom she lived for several years. Despite the strong evidence that King Charles’ was Anne’s biological father (though many questioned this), Castlemaine was said to be very attached to her and even made her his trustee and main beneficiary in his will.

In 1671 she left for her second stay in Paris, but she did not live there very long, and on the request of Charles she returned in 1672. It was then, at the age of eleven, that the king officially recognised her as his daughter, bestowing her with the surname FitzRoy. At the same time, she and her sister Charlotte were granted royal arms.

Marriage and children

On 11 August 1673, at the young age of thirteen, she was married to Thomas Lennard, a Gentleman of the King’s Bedchamber. Lennard was created Earl of Sussex - Anne therefore becoming Countess of Sussex - a title that the Duchess of Cleveland had earmarked many years before. He was awarded a £2,000 annual pension and given a dowry of £20,000 for Anne.

When the Duchess of Cleveland returned to Paris in 1676, Anne remained at court with her husband and father.

Despite living in separate countries for some time, the couple later went on to have four children. Their two sons both died in very early infancy, but their two daughters went on to marry gentlemen, with the youngest daughter, Anne, marrying three times and having at least five children.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

Sexual frivolity and experimentation seemed to be passed down from mother to daughter. Anne caused scandals that would make even her mother’s promiscuity pale in comparison.

In 1676 Hortense Mancini arrived at the English court. She was the Italian niece of Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of France; incredibly beautiful, overtly bisexual, she had a penchant for cross-dressing, and was as sexually liberated as they came. Hortense and Charles II soon became lovers, and she was one of his favourite mistresses for a year, supplanting even Louise de Kérouaille in the king’s bed.

But the king wasn’t her only conquest at court…

Anne and Hortense quickly became close friends. Anne, who was only fifteen, had fallen pregnant, and was confined to her rooms. Hortense began visiting Anne every day, apparently to nurse her, much to the king’s delight, and often spent the night there. Rumours started to spread that there was more to their connection than a simple friendship. Anne’s husband ordered her to stop seeing Hortense, and the Duchess of Cleveland wrote to her from Paris threatening to remove her there if she did not stop the relationship. Anne, flashing a glimpse of her mother’s determined and fiery spirit, refused them both.

The king defended his beloved daughter to all concerned.  Emboldened by this support, Anne and Hortense became more public in their relationship. One night they ran out into the park, fencing in their nightgowns, in front of many onlookers. The king was sufficiently concerned that he agreed for her husband to take Anne away to the country to his seat at Herstmonceux Castle. Here, Anne stayed in bed constantly, crying for her lover, and kissing a miniature painting of Hortense that she had taken with her. Tired of her pining, the Earl of Sussex sent Anne off to her mother in Paris, where she was put into a convent in an attempt to curb her behaviour.

But her scandalous liaisons did not stop there…

While she was living in Paris with her daughters, the Duchess of Cleveland began a relationship with Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu and English ambassador in France, who was constantly scheming for power and influence. But the pair soon had a monumental falling out, firstly over marriage arrangements for Barbara’s son, Henry, and then when Montagu discovered that Barbara was having an affair with a French noble. At the same time this all broke out, Barbara was on her way to England to continue her son’s marriage negotiations.

The moment Barbara left France, Montagu took her daughter Anne from the convent she was staying at and seduced her. By all accounts, Anne was a willing participant, and their affair became the talk of the French court. When Cleveland returned to Paris, disgusted to find out about the affair, she immediately complained to Charles. He responded by writing to Anne and commanding her to obey her mother, giving instruction that she be sent to a stricter convent, where she could not so easily bribe the nuns for her freedom. Meanwhile Montagu, racing back to England to make amends with the king, found himself stripped of his titles and ambassadorship and banished from court.

At just seventeen years old, the Countess of Sussex had become embroiled in love triangles with both her mother and her father. And, to add to the mess, it was Montagu who had designed Mancini to come to the English court!

A quieter end

Anne remained in the convent until at least 1681, when she rejoined her husband in England, because in May 1682 she gave birth to their second child, Charles.

She certainly wasn’t completely absent from court life, because John Evelyn reported in February 1682 that she was at a reception dinner held for the Moroccan delegation at the Duchess of Portsmouth’s apartments. But her experiences may have led her to lie low, because after she returned from France, there is little information about her life, other than the birth of her children.

In 1688 Lord and Lady Sussex separated, perhaps as a result of  his gambling problems, which necessitated him  to sell several estates, including his main seat of Herstmonceaux, although adultery on both sides surely took a toll on the relationship.

Anne’s estranged husband died in 1715, leaving her widowed; she did not remarry. 

The countess died in 16 May 1721, and was buried in Linsted, County Kent.

Charles FitzRoy, (previously Palmer) 1st Duke of Southampton and 2nd Duke of Cleveland

The first son of the Duchess of Cleveland and Charles II, Charles was born on 18 June 1662. 

Charles was given the surname Palmer, and titled as Lord Limerick, the second title of Roger Palmer, Earl of Castlemaine. Whether or not he knew the boy was actually the king’s son, Castlemaine quickly had Charles baptised as a Catholic and declared the boy as his own. Barbara was furious, and after a struggle with Castlemaine, the child was re-baptised on 18th June in the Anglican faith, with King Charles standing as his godfather, though he acknowledged the boy unofficially as his.

Charles’ birth, and the drama that followed, marked the official separation of Barbara and her husband.

Marriage and Children

The Duchess of Cleveland began plans for her children’s marriages as early as possible.

For Charles, she had selected Mary Woods, the only daughter of the very wealthy Sir Henry Wood, who --at the age of sixty-seven -- was sure to die quickly, leaving Charles to quickly inherit his lands, wealth and titles. In 1670 the King consented to the marriage of the eight-year-old Charles and seven-year-old Mary, but according to the contract that was drawn up, the wedding was not to take place until Mary was sixteen. However, within a few days of the settlement being signed, Sir Henry Wood died, and despite his will stating that Mary should live with his sister until she reached the age of consent, Barbara all but kidnapped the child, pulled rank on the Wood family when they attempted to regain custody of Mary, and moved her into her own home.

In disregard of the settlement (Barbara, however, could not be sued because she was a peer), she immediately had the children informally married to one another, and claimed Sir Henry Wood’s entire estate for her nine-year-old son. They were officially married to each other in 1677, when Mary turned sixteen, as per the agreement. But, just a few months afterwards, Mary contracted smallpox and died. With her death, Southampton inherited the Wood fortune and estates, but with it came more than a decade of viciously fought lawsuits.

Southampton married a second time, in 1694, to Anne, daughter of Sir William Poultney. They had six children together, three daughters and three sons (one of whom died in infancy).

Not the sharpest Tool in the Box

Despite the best efforts from tutors, Charles FitzRoy never had an aptitude for learning. He was sent to Christ Church, Oxford in 1675, just before Barbara set sail for France, but it did him little good; it became clear that, unlike some of his brothers, he was not cut out for an intellectual role in the world. As the dean at Christ Church wrote, he would “ever be very simple, and scarce, I believe, ever attain to the reputation of not being thought a fool.”

He was politically inactive and took virtually no role in the House of Lords, despite his having a seat there. 

However, that didn’t seem to matter much to him, considering he had inherited such vast wealth and estate at the age of just nine years old.

Titles and honours

In 1672, at the age of just ten, Southampton was made a Knight of the Garter and, a few years later in 1675, he was elevated from Earl of Southampton, to Duke of Southampton, and given the subsidiary titles of Earl of Chichester and Baron Newbury.

Like his other siblings, he received generous pensions from the crown, and did little or no work to earn any of them. Though he was given fewer royal appointments than his brothers his early won fortune meant that he did not have to assert himself or clamour for additional income.

On the death of his mother in 1709, who had been given the duchy of Cleveland in her own right, not through her husband, the dukedom passed to Charles, making him 2nd Duke of Cleveland.

The end of the Duchy

Charles, Duke of Cleveland and Southampton died on 9 September 1730 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. His eldest son, William, who was said to be “a greater fool than his father” inherited the titles of 3rd Duke of Cleveland and 2nd Duke of Southampton. However, because he did not have any children, and his brothers had predeceased him, the titles became extinct on his death.

The Duchess of Cleveland’s hard-won titles lasted only two generations after she had secured them.

Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton

Henry FitzRoy was born in September 1663, amid doubts of his true paternity, and for some time Charles II did not recognise the boy as his natural child.

Marriage Contract

Eager to secure a good marriage and financial prospects for her eldest son, Barbara had been working to marry Henry off to Isabella, whose father, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, had been integral in facilitating the Secret Treaty of Dover. As a reward, the King agreed in 1672 that his Arlington’s only daughter, Isabella (aged five), would be married to Henry (aged eight) and the two were informally married.

Even after this marriage was arranged, the Duchess of Cleveland did not stop trying to find even more lucrative matches for Henry and, for nearly seven years, she meddled and schemed in trying to marry him off to more wealthy heiresses, such as the rich Lady Betty Percy.

However, in 1679, to the surprise of many people, the king ordered the formal marriage of Henry and Isabella, and later that year on 6th November the two were officially wed. At the wedding feast, John Evelyn lamented the fact that the young girl had been forced into a marriage with a boy “that had ben rudely bred.”

Titles and honours

Henry’s elevation to the peerage did not come as quickly as with his other brothers due to the fact that the king was not entirely convinced that he was his son.

When Barbara was created Duchess of Cleveland in 1670, Henry was passed over in the succession to the dukedom, where it specified that on her death the title would go to “Charles Palmer, her eldest son, and the heirs male of his body, and for want of such then to George Palmer her second son and the heirs male.” Henry was in fact her second son -- George was the third son -- and so the question of his paternity raged on.

However, at the announcement of his marriage contract to Isabella in 1672, Charles suddenly recognised Henry as his “dear natural son Henry FitzRoy” and granted him the titles of Earl of Euston (after Lord Arlington’s house in Suffolk), Viscount Norwich and Baron of Sudbury. Whatever had happened in those two years, the king was now convinced of his paternity.

The year after the informal marriage, Euston, as the nine-year-old Henry was now known, was granted the office of ‘Receiver General and Comptroller of the Seals of the King’s Bench and Common Pleas’ and shortly afterwards went to Paris for schooling.

In 1675 he was elevated in the peerage to be 1st Duke of Grafton, and awarded his royal coat of arms, at the same time as his brother, Charles and George.

Later in life he enjoyed further benefits from his posts as a colonel of a Guard Regiment, and various high-ranking positions in the Navy.

In the Navy

Despite Charles II’s reluctance to acknowledge him as his son in his early years, Henry became one of Charles’ most beloved, and accomplished, offspring.

At the same date of his marriage, Evelyn wrote that the king intended to put Grafton to work in the navy, which, Evelyn hoped, would help the boy to “emerge a plaine, useful, robust officer; and were he polish’d, a tolerable person.”

He had already spent some time during 1678-9 casually serving in the Mediterranean under Sir William Poole on the hopefully named ship, the Happy Return. After his marriage, he returned to the Mediterranean in January 1680, when he visited Tangier, Izmir, Alicante, and Malaga, before returning to England in December. 

He was rewarded handsomely for his two-year stint at sea, being appointed colonel of the 1st Foot Guards in 1681 and serving as a Master of Trinity House in 1682–3. On 13 January 1683 he succeeded his second cousin, Prince Rupert, as the Vice-Admiral of England, and that April he was made Admiral and Commander-in-chief in the narrow seas. He took command of the ship named in his honour, Grafton, at the beginning of July 1683 but, just a few weeks later, Charles II recalled him from his duty, sending Lord Dartmouth, a much more experienced naval officer, in his place to evacuate the British colony at Tangier.

Furious, the Duke of Grafton left for France in April 1684 to serve under King Louis at the siege of Luxembourg, alongside his younger brother George who had already been there for two years. They both returned home in July at the end of the campaign.

Navy life especially suited him well and seemed to do a lot of good for his character, leading one contemporary to write that he was “a very gallant man, his courage and skill extremely recommended him to the esteem of all the seamen, with whom he was very familiar, and by who he was extremely beloved.”

His good reputation and accomplishments as a naval man no doubt allowed him to get away with terrible behaviour during some of the more questionable moments of his life. 

Dastardly deeds, duelling, and a new duchess

In 1684, after his return from Paris, he and his brother George attempted to separate their mother and the actor Cardell Goodman, by publicly accusing him of highway robbery, and then claiming that he had attempted to poison the brothers. Goodman was fined £1,000 for the alleged poisoning, though there was no real evidence that it was true. 

On 20 February 1686, Evelyn wrote that there had been “many bloody and notorious duels” fought recently. One of them involved the Duke of Grafton who “kill’d Mr. Stanley, brother to the Earl of Shrewsbury, indeede upon an almost unsufferable provocation.” Grafton immediately went into hiding, but he needn’t have worried too much – as with his fellow royal siblings, he was effectively untouchable in the face of scandal. A royal pardon was quickly issued by James II; the only real worry was social: the Queen’s Candlemas Ball that was to be held that night was cancelled.

After this incident, Grafton spearheaded a plan to rid his younger brother George of a non-noble wife that he had secretly married. It seems that George was browbeaten into agreeing to Grafton’s horrific plot to ship her off to a convent in Ghent. After this, a furious James II ordered Grafton to bring her safely back to court.

Life under James II

After the death of his father, Grafton supported his uncle’s succession to the throne and, at the latter’s coronation on 23 April 1685, he acted as lord high chamberlain.

During the Monmouth Rebellion, in which his half-brother James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, attempted to usurp James II’s throne, Grafton served under the king his uncle. During the Sedgemoor campaign he led a led 500 musketeers on 27th June, and on 6th July he fought at the Battle of Sedgemoor – the final defeat of his half-brother’s forces.

For his loyalty he remained in high favour and advanced quickly under James II’s reign. For the next two years of James’ reign, Grafton was sent on official international duties and naval excursions including the escort of papal convoys, chaperoning the new Queen of Portugal to her kingdom, and the renewal of England's treaties with Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

When William of Orange seemed set to invade in 1688, Grafton was certain that he was the only real choice to lead the naval fleet against him. But, just as in 1685, he was passed over in favour of Lord Dartmouth and, to rub salt into the wound, abolished the post of vice-admiral that Grafton had held for five years without question.

Angry at what he saw as a betrayal, Grafton slipped away to the Netherlands to meet with William of Orange. Some sort of plot was hatched to kidnap Dartmouth, so that Grafton could be installed as Admiral. Grafton continued to swear allegiance to James II but, as the king’s agents were already aware of the Grafton and Orange meeting, the conspiracy was suspected, and Grafton openly defected to Orange in November 1688.

William III and the death of Grafton

Despite Grafton’s change in allegiance, he lost all of his royal appointments almost immediately upon the accession of William and Mary in 1689. While he was no longer allowed to serve as a royal officer, he did take a position as a private captain in the navy, spending a year or so leading domestic campaigns for William III in that capacity.

On 20 August 1690, Grafton was second-in-command at the Siege of Cork in Ireland, serving under William III against his uncle’s forces. During the battle he was hit by a musket ball, which broke two of his ribs, and left him severely wounded. Unable to travel due to the severity of his wounds, he remained in Cork, but died on 9 October 1690, aged just 27 years old.

His funeral took place at Westminster Abbey, and he was said to be genuinely mourned by both courtiers and his fellow seamen. His body was later interred at the church of St Genevieve at Euston, Suffolk.

Legacy

The Duke of Grafton and his wife Isabella only had one child --Charles FitzRoy -- who inherited his father’s titles, lands and estates. Through the second duke and his wife, the Grafton line was further secured via their seven children. The descendants of Grafton still hold these titles, coats of arms and some of the estates today, making it one of the longest running peerages in England.

The Duke of Grafton and, of course, his mother, the Duchess of Cleveland, are the ancestors of many prominent members of the modern British aristocracy. Diana, Princess of Wales, was descended through the House of Stuart via Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton (as well as his half-brother, Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and Lennox). This means that the Princes William (second in line to the throne) and Harry are also descended from the illegitimate Duke of Grafton.

Charlotte Lee (nee FitzRoy), Countess of Lichfield (m)

Charlotte was born on 5th September 1664 and, unlike some of her younger brothers and sisters, Charles was sure of his paternity and she was given the surname FitzRoy from birth.

Along with her brother’s Henry and George, she spent several years at Berkshire House, in the care of a governess, and later lived with her mother in Paris for two years before her marriage.

Marriage and Children

“my Lady Castlemayne will in merriment say that her daughter (not above a year old or two) will be the first mayde in the Court that will be married…”
Samuel Pepys’ Diary, 21 February 1665

On the same day that her sister Anne was married, the King arranged for the marriage of Charlotte to another Gentleman of the Bedchamber, Sir Edward Henry Lee. They were married later that month in August 11 August 1673, and Lee was promptly created Earl of Lichfield - making Charlotte Countess of Lichfield. Her dowry was £18,000, slightly less than her sister’s, but her new husband was awarded the same pension of £2,000 per year.

However, because Charlotte was only ten years old at the time of the wedding, the ceremony was purely formal, and she remained with her mother until she came of age. Charlotte accompanied Cleveland on her return to Paris in 1674, until Charles II requested to see her back in London two years later when she turned twelve, and she was officially wedded to the Earl of Lichfield when she turned thirteen.

Despite the young age that Charlotte was when they were wed, the pair were said to have had a very happy and long marriage… and evidence of that may be found in the fact that they had an incredible eighteen children together! They had five girls and the rest were boys; though several died in infancy, two of their sons succeeded to the title of Earl of Lichfield.

The perfect little lady

She was said to be as beautiful as her mother, but different in every other way: she was kind, sweet, and gentle-natured.

Like her sister, though in no way as troublesome, Charlotte was adored by Charles. The king wrote to her regularly, loved having her at court: she was clearly one of his favourite children. James II was also very fond of her, and for her entire life she had an excellent reputation at court.

But unfortunately, because she was such a model daughter, wife and mother, little else is known about her! She caused no scandals, had a happy marriage, did her duties as a wife and mother, and stayed out of politics and public life. She was, therefore, not recorded in the pages of history, despite her parentage.

Charlotte died on the 17 February 1718, aged 53, and was buried in All Saints Churchyard in Spelsbury, Oxfordshire.

George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland

The last of Charles’ acknowledged children by Barbara was George FitzRoy, born on 28 December 1665.

Titles

In August 1673, at the same time that his sister Charlotte’s new husband was created Earl of Lichfield, the Duchess of Cleveland ensured that George was also elevated to the peerage: he was created Earl of Northumberland, Viscount Falmouth and Baron Pontefract.

Ten years later, on 6 April 1683, he was elevated to Duke of Northumberland, after impressing his father with his wartime efforts on behalf of King Louis XIV.

Terrible Teens

When the Duchess of Cleveland left for France in 1676 she took her three youngest children by the king, Henry, Charlotte and George, with her. Henry and George began their education under a tutor, who was reported to find the boys increasingly difficult to work with. George especially was said to be a handful. Mindful of the fact that he was being used as a bargaining chip for a potential marriage match to the exceeding rich Lady Betty Percy, George pushed his luck at every opportunity, knowing full well that his mother (and Ralph Montagu, who was assisting the match for his own benefit) would tolerate his bad behaviour. He picked fights with other boys, refused to take part in his studies, and eventually led his tutor to quit his post.

Charles II encouraged his son to go travelling on the continent. Between 1681-4 he visited Venice, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. During his time there, he served under King Louis XIV on several campaigns and sieges. On his return to England in 1684, Charles II made him a Knight of the Garter.

However, almost as soon as he was home, he and his brother Henry were up to their old tricks again, and were trying to break up the relationship between their mother and the actor Cardell Goodman. They tried to have him arrested, first for alleged highway robbery, and later by claiming that he had tried to poison him and his brother. Their efforts failed miserably.

Marriage Woes

For a long time George was not himself secured in marriage, but seemed to act as a second prize in negotiations for his older brothers.

First, it was stipulated in his brother Charles’ contract to Mary Wood that, should Charles die before the formal wedding took place, the place of the groom would be taken by George. His mother tried to arrange a marriage with Lady Betty Percy, but later decided to thrust this match upon his brother, Henry – despite his being promised to Isabella Bennett - although this all went disastrously wrong and any chance Barbara had of marrying one of her sons off to Lady Percy was lost.

In 1685, at the age of twenty-one, very late in comparison to all of his (full and half) siblings, he eventually chose his own bride, Catherine Wheatley: the widow of an army captain and daughter of a provincial poulterer.

When Grafton came out of hiding after the fatal duel that he had taken part in, he was angered to find that his younger brother, George, had secretly married Catherine. Grafton was outraged, saying that she was poor and, though beautiful, not good enough for his royal brother. He kidnapped the newlyweds and forced George to send his wife to Flanders and place her in a convent in Ghent. Meanwhile, back in England, Grafton sought consultation with lawyers about a divorce for the couple. James II, who had accepted the marriage and considered it binding, was furious with Grafton’s haughty treatment of the new duchess, ordering the brothers to bring her back to England to be presented at court. She was then accepted as a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary.

Royal Appointments

After the death of his father, Northumberland remained loyal to his uncle, James II, during the latter’s reign. In November 1688 he was given the prestigious position of Lord of the Bedchamber. However, when James II was forced to abdicate just a month later by William of Orange, Northumberland chose not to go with him into exile, and instead switched his allegiance to William and Mary.

Though he initially lost some of his appointments, by May 1689 Northumberland was travelling to the Netherlands on court business; the following year he was appointed lord lieutenant of Surrey, constable of Windsor Castle and Park, and ranger of Windsor Forest.

Upon the succession of Queen Anne, he not only retained these posts but also became Keeper of Hampton Court Palace. He renewed his brief military career under Queen Anne, being appointed colonel of the Royal Horse Guards in 1703, promoted major-general in 1708 and, in 1712, restored as captain and colonel of the second Life Guards. 

However, due to his political associations with the Tory party, he lost many of his appointments after the accession of George I in 1714.

End of Northumberland

The Duchess of Northumberland died on 25 May 1714 and, by 10 March 1715, Northumberland was re-married to Mary Dutton. Just over a year later, Northumberland himself died at his home in Epsom, Surrey on 28 June 1716. He was buried in Westminster Abbey the following month.

Northumberland had no children by either of his wives and, with his death, the Northumberland duchy ended.

Lady Barbara FitzRoy

The Duchess of Cleveland gave birth to her final child, Barbara, on 16th July 1672…but the child was not Charles II’s offspring. Though Cleveland initially claimed that Barbara was Charles II’s daughter, and gave her the surname FitzRoy, the king refused to officially acknowledge her as his own. In addition, unlike all of her other children, Cleveland never attempted to gain honours for the child. Barbara had been conceived and born around the same time that the Duchess of Portsmouth, with whom Charles was besotted, had her son Charles Lennox, and the Duchess of Cleveland was also in a relationship with John Churchill at the time, so it is unlikely that the king was her father. But the Duchess of Cleveland never revealed the paternity of her daughter.

When Cleveland moved to France in 1676, she took Barbara (along with Henry, Charlotte and George) with her. The following year, she placed the five-year-old Barbara into an English convent in Paris, the Order of the Conception, to be raised there. She gave them a donation of £1,000 for the trouble – the only recorded charitable donation that Cleveland made.

When she was eighteen, Barbara FitzRoy gave birth to an illegitimate child by her lover, the Earl of Arran. His parents opposed the relationship, especially as a child had been born out of wedlock, and the couple were not permitted to be together. The son, Charles, was raised by the Duchess of Cleveland, who may have (very hypocritically) disowned her daughter.

After giving birth, Barbara became a nun at Pontoise in Normandy. She adopted the religious name of Benedicta, and later became Prioress of the abbey. However, she maintained that she was Charles II’s natural daughter:

My name in the world is Barbe Fitz Roy, in Religion it is Benedicta, daughter of the King of Great Britain, Charles II. I made profession at the Convent of the English Benedictines in Pontoise, the year 1691, the 2nd of April. It is my place of penance.

Lady Barbara FitzRoy, aka Sister Benedicta, died at the monastery on 6th May 1737 at the age of 65, and is buried in the church of the Priory.