Mary on 22 Dec 2003  •  Link

'young Jermyn'

is 24 in 1660. Described in L&M Companion as a courtier and debauchee; 'The favoured of Venus and the desperate duellist' according to Gramont.

There was no truth in the report that he had married the Princess Royal; he married the daughter of Sir Edmund Pooley.

He appears to have been a loyal servant to James, Duke of York, eventually accompanying him into exile after the revolution of 1688. However, this loyalty seems to have been partial, as he is said to have numbered Anne Hyde and Barbara Castlemaine amongst his conquests, thus risking the wrath of both Stuart brothers.

Roger Arbor on 22 Dec 2003  •  Link

'... among his conquests..."
Pretty likely the other way around. Both Anne and Barbara were notorious man-eaters. Although an enthusiatic debauchee, he would likely have been available and young... a winning combination to both.

Wim van der Meij on 20 Aug 2005  •  Link

He was a younger nephew of the Earl of St. Albans. He was created Baron Jermyn of Dover 1685 and died in 1708.
Apparently he turned out quite allright.

Terry Foreman on 7 Mar 2012  •  Link

Henry Jermyn, 3rd Baron Jermyn and 1st Baron Dover PC (c. 1636–1708) was the second son of Sir Thomas Jermyn, of Rushbrooke, Suffolk, who died in 1659.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henr…

Bill on 30 Jun 2015  •  Link

JERMYN, HENRY, first Baron Dover (1636-1708), nephew of Henry Jermyn, first earl of St Albans; master of the horse to Duke of York, 1660; Intrigued with Lady Castlemaine aud Lady Shrewsbury; wounded in duel with Colonel Thomas Howard, 1662; being a Romanist was created Baron Dover by James II, 1685; a commissioner of the treasury, 1687; entrusted with the Prince of Wales at the revolution; followed James to France; commanded troop at the Boyne, 1690; reconciled to William III; buried at Bruges.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

Bill on 13 Aug 2015  •  Link

Henry Jermyn, younger nephew of the Earl of St Albans. He was created Baron Jermyn of Dover, 1685, and died in 1708, s.p.; his elder brother, Thomas, became second Baron Jermyn of Bury St Edmund's, on the death of his uncle, the Earl of St Albans, in 1683, and died unmarried in 1703. Thomas Jermyn was Governor of Jersey.

San Diego Sarah on 10 May 2020  •  Link

Henry Jermyn, later 1st Jacobite Earl of Dover PC (c. 1636–1708) was a supporter of James II and the second son of Sir Thomas Jermyn, of Rushbrooke, Suffolk, who died in 1659. His widow, Rebecca Rodway, married secondly Henry, 3rd Viscount Brouncker (making Henry Jermyn a step-brother of Pepys’ colleague, the Commissioner William, Lord Brouncker).

During the Interregnum, Jermyn obtained a post in the household of the Duke of York. Despite strong disapproval by Charles II, he became James' master of the horse at the Restoration, and rode in the Coronation.

Henry Jermyn's most notable conquest was Charles' widowed sister, Mary of Orange, whom he met during the Interregnum, and there were stories they were secretly married. Historians discount these rumors, but Charles II took them seriously, and reprimanded his sister for her lack of discretion, to no effect: Mary sharply reminded her brother that his love affairs hardly entitled him to judge her moral conduct. Charles was especially angry because of the rumors that Jermyn's uncle, Lord St. Albans, had secretly married the Queen Mother.

So, having offended Charles by courting Princess Mary, Jermyn gave further offence by having an affair with Barbara Villiers Palmer (then the chief royal mistress), and he was banished from court for six months.

Henry surpassed his uncle, Lord St. Albans, for profligacy, figuring frequently as "the little Jermyn" in the Grammont Memoirs as the lover of Lady Castlemaine, Lady Shrewsbury, Miss Jennings and other Court beauties.

The little Jermyn was a noted duelist and a lifelong gambler. In an infamous duel with Col. Thomas Howard (younger brother of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle) in August 1662, which Pepys noted, Jermyn was left for dead. He recovered, but his second was killed by Howard's second. The cause of the duel was said to be the rivalry between Jermyn and Howard for the affections of Lady Shrewsbury, who was notorious for her many lovers.

On May 8, 1667 Henry Jermyn was a guest at a lunch given by Henry Hyde, Lord Cornbury (son of Chancellor Clarendon and Lord Chamberlain to Queen Catherine). Grammont gossips that his first wife, Theodosia Capel Hyde, had made her affections for Henry Jermyn known at the time he preferred Mrs. Palmer.

Another guest was Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex -- Theodosia's brother. But Theodosia had died in 1662.

Also at the lunch were Francisco de Melos, the Portuguese Ambassador and uncle to Queen Catherine, and John Evelyn.

Henry Jermyn was a member of The Wits, a group that lasted about 15 years after 1665, included John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester; Charles, Lord Buckhurst; John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave; Henry Killigrew; Sir Charles Sedley, and the playwrights William Wycherley and George Etherege, as well as George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (who also loved Lady Shrewsbury). (Fraser...King Charles II)

I would love to have been a servant serving that lunch. It was a small world.