Lucy Walter was an extraordinary dark-haired, blue-eyed Celtic beauty. She was called “brown, beautiful, and bold”, even by John Evelyn[1] and even James II conceded that she was “very handsome, [though] of little wit, and some cunning”.[2] Lucy[3] was born at Roch Castle in 1630. She was the daughter of William Walter (d. 1650) of Roch Castle, near Havorfordwest, Pembrokeshire by Elizabeth (d. 1652), daughter of John Protero and niece of John Vaughn, first Earl of Carberry.[4] The Walters were a Welsh family of good standing, who declared for the King during the Civil War. When Lucy was eight the Walters quarreled, each accusing the other of infidelity. The Roch Castle was captured and burned by Parliamentary forces in 1644. The family then moved, with Lucy and her brothers, Justus and Richard, to London. Two years later William Walter abandoned his wife and children and Mrs. Walter took refuge with her mother and her sister Margaret in a house at St-Giles-in-the-Fields. Margaret was married to a Dutch merchant, Peter Gosfright. They could do little for Mrs. Walter, who in 1640 brought an action for maintenance against her husband in the House of Lords, eventually obtaining 60 pounds a year from his estate.[5]
According to some sources, Lucy Walter traveled with her uncle to The Hague via Paris with her Uncle during this time. Other historians claim that in 1644, Algernon Sidney paid Lucy fifty broad pieces to become his mistress and then she later became the mistress of his brother Robert Sidney, groom of the bedchamber to Prince Charles. It was allegedly through Sidney that Charles met Lucy. This story has been disputed by Coote who says that Algernon Sidney was not even in the area at the time.[6] It is unclear when Lucy traveled to the continent or whether she met Charles at Golden Grove or in London. She is usually considered the earliest love of the Prince of Wales (later King Charles II), however this story has also been disputed and it has been said that Charles II had lovers dating back to 1644.
One of the basic questions about their relationship was whether Lucy and Charles married, as Lucy always insisted they did. To this day no one knows, although most historians believe there was no marriage. It is possible that they secretly married, especially when one considers that his brother, James II, secretly married a woman named Anne Hyde, daughter of Charles’s Lord Chancellor. Some historians argue they did in fact have a traditional marriage at Rhos market. It has also been asserted that Lucy was legally married to Charles on the Continent: even the place where the ceremony was alleged to have taken place, the city of Liege, has been confidently named though others claim the marriage took place in Paris. Additionally, it has been argued that Charles may have misled Lucy into believing they were married in any effort to have a relationship with her.[7] These considerations later became the basis for the rumors of the “black box”.
Nevertheless, by the time Charles left Holland, his son had been conceived and Lucy, now known as Mrs. Barlo(w), was his public mistress. At some time, probably, when he returned to The Hague two months later to find her pregnant, it is likely that Charles did indeed promise to marry Lucy. On 9 April 1649 their son, James Scott (later Duke of Monmouth) was born at Lucy’s Uncle’s house at Rotterdam. [8] During July and August 1649 she was with Charles in Paris. After the birth of the child, Lucy lived in the house of Mrs. Harvery. Charles, despite being short on funds, provided money which enabled Lucy to live in “great splendor.” The child was placed under the care of an English nurse at the house of Mr. Claes Ghysen.[9] It is possible that during the time James was under the care of a nurse, around his second birthday, that Charles’ made the first of a number of attempts to kidnap the boy.[10]
In June 1649, Charles returned from The Hague to Paris where he resided for three months. Lucy accompanied Charles to Paris. He returned to The Hague and then went to Scotland. During the summer of 1650, Lucy is said to have been with Colonel Bennet. Others say she passed this time with Theobald, second Viscount Taafe. In May of 1651, Lucy’s daughter Mary was born. It has been argued that she was the daughter of Charles or Taafe. It has also been said that she was Bennet’s daughter. Both were living at the Louvre, much to Henrietta Marie’s indignation but she could not afford to pay Lucy to leave. Taafe was keeping her and her children and the Queen Regent and Cardinal Mazarin, both preoccupied by the Fronde Revolution, ignored her complaints of the infamous Mrs. Barlow’s impertinences. Charles’ behavior was characteristic. He had done with Lucy, but was perfectly willing that she and Taafe should remain under the same roof as himself, as long as he didn’t have to pay for her and could keep in touch with his son.[11]
In October of 1651, Charles returned from Scotland to The Hague and when he proceeded to Paris, Lucy Walter went there as well. Others say he cut off contact at this point, but it appears this was not the case and that he actually continued to correspond with her as well as give her an expensive pearl necklace.[12]
In June or July of 1652, Lucy went to London. It is said that she traveled to London with her brother, Justus, to recover a several thousand pound inheritance from her mother. However, it has also been argued that she had been acting as a Royalist spy at The Hague.[13] Either way, she was arrested upon orders of Cromwell and sent to the Tower of London. On the 16th of July, she was released upon a warrant to Colonel Sir John Barkstead, the Lieutenant of the Tower. She called herself the wife of Charles II at this time. She was deported and “set on shoar in Flanders.” It should be noted that she was treated with unusual courtesy during the entire proceeding, which may be evidence of her importance. From Flanders, Lucy proceeded to Paris to find that she had “lost all favor with Charles II.” Nevertheless, he sent her messages promising her money and support, all the while publicly denouncing her. Ostensibly this was to prevent her from publishing “certain papers which Charles was anxious to obtain, potentially the same papers which were the subject of the mystery of the black box.”[14]
According to Chapman, Lucy became involved with Sir Henry de Vic, the King’s representative in Brussels around this time. Their relationship caused such talk that this rather simple gentleman became bent on marrying Mrs. Barlow. It is said they traveled to Cologne for Charles’ permission. This was refused, de Vic was reprimanded for having left his post without leave and he, Lucy, and the child returned to Brussels. In January of 1655 Charles consulted with Sir Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon and James Butler, first Duke of Ormonde and it was agreed that Lucy must, somehow, be pensioned; for she and de Vic had parted and she was then in sole care of the six year old James for whom his father was, as ever much concerned. Charles then sent Lucy a written promise of 400 pounds a year at four separate payments. So, presumably Charles tried to but could not forget the mother of his son. He could have threatened to stop her annuity if she became a nuisance; he could have handed her over to Sir Henry de Vic and saved himself 400 pounds a year. That he did neither seems to show that she still had a hold on him.[15] A few months after she received the first installment Lucy and her children came under the protection of a married man, Colonel Thomas Howard, brother of Earl of Suffolk and master of the house to Mary of Orange. During this time, Lucy neglected the education of her young son, threatened Charles, and created public scandals around him while he was himself still dependent upon the goodwill of foreign royalty for his own support. Thus, Lucy came to be considered by Charles’ sister Mary and his political advisors as a great obstacle to the hoped-for restoration of the monarchy, which looked increasingly possible as the Commonwealth faltered and Oliver Cromwell and his successor son were rapidly losing popularity in England. Unfortunately for Charles, Lucy had in her hands both his beloved son and a number of letters and papers apparently of critical importance to him. Increasingly desperate, Lucy threatened Charles that she would make these papers public. Some argue these papers provided proof of their marriage.[16]
Shortly after Charles left Cologne, Lucy, still calling herself Mrs. Barlow, decided to leave the Dutch Netherlands for those of Spain presumably in order not to be drummed out of The Hague. This entailed her parting from Colonel Howard. In Antwerp she, young James, and her daughter were joined by Lucy’s two brothers Justus and John. At about this time it is rumored that John became a Cromwellian agent, reporting on Lucy’s dealings with the King and that under the name of Mr. Hall, he traveled to and from England.[17] Additionally, around this time, Charles enlisted the assistance of Daniel O’Neill, known as the “Infallible Subtle” to spy on Lucy. Although, it is unclear whether his report was true, O’Neill reported an affair with the married Thomas Howard that was creating so much scandal among the proper burghers of The Hague that the Orangists wanted her removed as soon as possible. O’Neill also reported that Walter’s maid was blackmailing her by threatening to spread the story of her adulterous liaison, as well as stories of two self-induced abortions. He even reported that a desperate Lucy suggested to him that they solve the problem of the maid by running a needle through the woman’s ear and into her brain while she was asleep. He advised the King not to give Lucy any more money and that if hew ere prepared to recognize James as his son that they get the boy away from his mother as soon as possible.[18]
The irate and worried King was now determined to wrest his son from Lucy’s grasp and he arranged for James sand Lucy to be lodged in the house of his agent and Lord Bristol’s secretary, Sir Arthur Slingsby. Slingsby was order “in a quiet and silent way, if it could be, to get the child out of the mother’s hands.” Slingsby caused a stir when he tried to have her arrested for failing to pay for her keep ad she ran into the street weeping and crying, clutching her son, when passersby came to her aid. Slingsby made matters worse by declaring that he was acting on behalf of the English King. This provoked such an uproar that the Governor of Brussels was forced to intervene and Charles could do nothing but find Lucy alternative housing. Charles employed Ormonde to explain the situation to the Governor of Brussels. He claimed that Lucy’s “wild and disgraceful course” had exasperated all those involved and all concerned wished Lucy would quietly disappear and that failing to do so would only further injure her child and that anyone who helped Lucy in these circumstances would be doing an “injury” to Charles and “supporting” her would be in “mad disobedience” to his pleasure. Faced with bullying such as this, an ailing Lucy vowed that she would publish all Charles’ letters to her. O’Neil suggested that Slingsby get the letters and other such documents as she possessed as quickly as possible, while Charles sent his agent Edward Prodgers to Brussels to remove the boy from his mother’s care. Lucy made another public scene when Prodgers attempted to do so. The contest was too much for her though and eventually, exhausted and ill, she submitted to the inevitable and surrendered James to his father.[19]
In December 1657, the boy was given to the Queen Mother, Henrietta Marie, who became responsible for his upbringing and put him in school at Port-Royal near Paris. Lucy’s objections were finally subdued by the threat that Charles would disown the boy if she tried to get him back. She was then driven from Brussels. Less than a year later, she died in Paris, where she had moved presumably to be as close as possible to her son in his nearby school.
The end of Lucy’s life is obscure. Bishop Kennet says that she was under the care of a clergyman. According to Evelyn, Lucy died in abject poverty. Another account says that Lucy became a penitent of Dean Cosin, later Bishop of Durham[20] and while pretending to be converted from her loose manner in life, continued her vicious ways. James II said that she died of a “disease incident to her profession.” In any event, Lucy died in October or November of 1658 and may have been buried in the Huguenot Cemetery in the Faubourg Saint Germain.[21]
After Lucy Walter’s Death: The Continued Controversy
In January, March, and June of 1680 Charles made three official declarations that he was never married to Lucy Walter. James’s succession to the throne depended upon the illegitimacy of Monmouth, so the dead Lucy, it is said, had to be blackened by James and his supporters in order to stop any possible claim to the royal succession by her son. Most modern historians are skeptical of the worst version of Lucy’s life proposed after her death. Maurice Ashley in 1971 wrote that because of the fight for the throne, “James’s opprobrious stories about the character of Monmouth’s mother are hard to credit and must be ignored by the impartial historian.” Antonia Fraser in 1979 wrote that Lucy was neither “a whore, as one legend suggests, nor the chosen bride of the Prince of Wales. But she did belong to that restless and inevitably light-moralled generation of young ladies who grew up in the untrammeled times of the Civil War.”
The question whether Monmouth was legitimate and thus heir to the throne depends on whether Charles married Lucy. Therefore, everyone who did not want this to happen disparaged Lucy before and long after her death. She was called a “whore” and said to have been “low born”. Nevertheless, those who (included Protestants) feared James’ Catholicism and the Parliamentarians who feared his royalist absolutism, believed James had developed too much of a dependence and a relationship with Louis XIV and had forgotten English rights. They needed a legitimate heir to keep James off the throne. So, even after Lucy’s death she was involved in great controversy in the Royal Court. By the late 1670s, the Parliamentarians were pushing hard to legitimize Monmouth by supporting Lucy’s claim that she and Charles II had been married. This effort became known as the affair of the “black box” into which they said Lucy before her death had placed her marriage records and other documentary proof and given it to Anglican Bishop Cosin, whose death in 1671 left no direct witnesses to testify. The story was resurrected in the 1670s, at the height of the Exclusion Crisis, and a fruitless search for the “black box” began. Witnesses swore they had received a black box from the Bishop or had seen it in someone else’s hands though neither the box nor the papers were ever found. Witnesses claimed that the box contained a contract of marriage between the two, signed at a ceremony performed by Dr. Fuller, Bishop of Lincoln.[22] The black box, if it ever existed, must have been lost or destroyed, along with the papers inside. All of those who claimed to have seen the contents of the black box were called before the Council and denied having seen any documents during the Black Box Inquiry in 1680. Sir Gilbert Gerard, Bishop Cosin’s son-in-law, denied any knowledge of the Black Box despite his earlier allegations that his father-in-law left him the “box” and that he had found the marriage contract inside.[23]
However, the wife of one Mr. Lassels stated that Mrs. Sambourne, who was Lucy’s aunt, said, “that her niece Mrs. Barlow had told her ‘that she was married to the King.’”[24] Also, it is argued that Bishop Paterson knew the names of the witnesses at the marriage ceremony.[25] Additionally, hearsay evidence was presented that Oliver Cromwell’s officers confiscated the marriage certificate from Lucy while she was under arrest.[26] Others noted that all records of birth and wedding filed in Lucy’s home county of Pembrokeshire in the year of Monmouth’s birth had been destroyed at the Restoration.[27]
Throughout the inquiry Charles was very ill at ease, possibly due to a guilty conscience.[28] The King then published a declaration he had made the previous year that he and Lucy Walter were not married (January 1678/9). A reply to the declaration was published in 1681 in the form of a pamphlet entitled, “A Letter to a Person of Honour Concerning the King’s Disavowing Having been Married to the Duke of Monmouth’s mother.” This pamphlet has been attributed by some to Ferguson (“the plotter”[29]) inferred that the King-in-exile had married Lucy Walter with his mother’s permission when his life was despaired of through the combination of an attack of smallpox and his frustration at being denied marriage to Lucy.[30] Charles II also gave an oath to the Privy Council three times during this period and twice for publication in the government newspaper that in his whole life had married only the Queen. His declaration in March was registered in chancery.[31] Later it was said that the third Duke of Buccleuch, Henry Scott, one day found a marriage certificate between Charles II and Lucy Walter in the muniment room at Dalkeith, and, in front of the Duke of Abercorn, burned the document.[32]
On the 15th of July, 1685 the Duke of Monmouth, prior to execution signed a paper stating that the late King told him he never married Lucy Walter. However, this may occasion little weight since it was probably written to spare his descendants persecution following his death.
Although Lucy’s son was executed for treason, her family tree continued. Lucy’s daughter, Mary, married William Sarsfield (d. 1675) and secondly in 1676, William Fanshawe (d. 1708) with whom she had children.[33] While a young daughter of Monmouth died of illness in the Tower where they were still living after his execution; Monmouth’s two sons became Scottish earls and one grandson and a great-great grandson became Dukes of Buccleugh. Monmouth’s widow married Charles, third Lord Cornwallis.
Lucy Walter also figures in the ancestry of the famous Spencer family of Althorp. Therefore, the late Diana, Princess of Wales and her son Princess William, heir-to-be to the British throne are distantly related the ill-fated mother of the Duke of Monmouth.
Bibliography
Arthur, Frank, The Abandoned Woman: The Story of Lucy Walter (1630-1658), Heinemann, 1964.
Bagford, John & Ebsworth, Joseph Woodfall, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts, 1876.
Bryant, Arthur, The Letters, Speeches, and Declarations of King Charles II, Northumberland Press Limited, 1935.
Chandler, David G., Sedgemoor, Appendix D: The Mystery of the ‘Black Box’, London: Anthony Mott Ltd, 1985.
Chapman, Hester W., The Tragedy of Charles II in the years 1630-1660, Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd, Bugay, Suffolk, 1964.
Clark, G.N., The Later Stuarts 1660-1714, Oxford Clarendon Press, 1934
Coote, Stephen, Royal Survivor: A Life of Charles II, St. Martin’s Press, 2000.
Evelyn, John, The Diary of John Evelyn, Dutton Adult, 1977.
George, Julia, A History of the English and Scottish Rebellions of 1685, Cady & Burgess, 1851.
Hale, Rev. E., The Fall of the Stuarts and Western Europe, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1876.
Heron, G. Allan, Lucy Walter, Auburn University at Montgomery, 1929.
Macaulay, Thomas Sir, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Harmondsworth, Eng.; New York: Penguin Books, 1979.
Scott, Lord George, Lucy Walter: Wife or Mistress. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, 1947.
Steinman, George, Althorp Memoirs, J. Parker and Co, 1869.
"Walter, Lucy," Dictionary of National Biography. New York: Macmillan Co., 1908.
“Walter, Lucy” Dictionary of National Biography 2007 (last viewed Nov. 20, 2007).
Watson, J.N.P., Captain-General and Rebel Chief: The Life of James, Duke of Monmouth, Appendix A: Circumstantial Evidence on Allegations that Charles II married Lucy Barlow, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1979.
Wyndham, Violet, The Protestant Duke: A Life of Monmouth, Chapter 7: The Black Box, Cox & Wyman Ltd, 1976.
[1] John Evelyn, Diary of John Evelyn, (Dutton Adult 1977) (1890).
[2] Lucy Walter, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, available at http://www.oxforddnb.com.proxy-remote.galib.uga.edu:2048/view/article/28639 (last viewed Nov. 12, 2007).
[3] She has been called Lucy Walters by other sources; however, according to the Dictionary of National Biography her name is Lucy Walter. Later in life, she went by the name of Mrs. Barlow or Barlo.
[4] "Walter, Lucy." Dictionary of National Biography. (New York: Macmillan Co., 1908).
[5] Hester Chapman, The Tragedy of Charles II in the years 1630-1660 108-110 (Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk 1964).
[6] Stephen Coote, Royal Survivor: A Life of Charles II 60 (St. Martin’s Press 2000).
[7] Lord George Scott, Lucy Walter: Wife or Mistress 69 (London: George G. Harrap & Co. 1947).
[8] Supra note 5 at 131
[9] Id.
[10] Supra note 7 at 164-166.
[11] Supra note 5 at 219.
[12] Allan G. Heron, Lucy Walter 21-23 (Auburn University at Montgomery, 1929).
[13] Supra note 7 at 127.
[14] Id. at 23-26.
[15] Supra note 5 at 285.
[16] Supra note 6 at 153.
[17] Supra note 5 at 307-308
[18] Supra note 6 at 153.
[19] Id. at 156-158.
[20] Supra note 2; Frank Arthur, The Abandoned Woman: The Story of Lucy Walter (1630-1658) (Heinemann, 1964).
[21] Supra note 12 at 27-28.
[22] John Bagford & Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts 785 (1876).
[23] George Steinman, Althorp Memoirs 113 (J. Parker and Co. 1869). Sir Gerard earlier alleged that the Bishop made him promise not to open the box until the King died and he had found the marriage contract upon breaking that vow. Violet Wyndham, The Protestant Duke: A Life of Monmouth 83 (Cox & Wyman Ltd 1976).
[24] Supra note 7 at 55.
[25] David G. Chandler, Sedgemoor Appendix D (London: Anthony Mott Ltd. 1985).
[26] Wyndham at 84.
[27] Id.
[28] Supra note 7 at 205.
[29] Wyndham p. 83
[30] Supra note 12 at 37-40; supra note 25 at 191.
[31] Supra note 4.
[32] Supra note 25 at 191; J.N.P. Watson. Captain-General and Rebel Chief: The Life of James, Duke of Monmouth, Appendix A, 276 (George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1979).
[33] Supra note 4.