Pedro on 13 Jan 2006  •  Link

Winifred Wells.

"whose attractions included the 'the carriage of a goddess and the physiognomy of a dreamy sheep' (but Barbara compared her to a goose)."

Antonia Fraser...King Charles II.

jeannine on 14 Jan 2006  •  Link

Winifred, one of the Queen's maids of honor, came from an ultra-royalist family, and she served Charles on and off as a lesser mistress for many years, causing him little duress (in comparison to any other mistresses), for "as her father had faithfully served Charles I she thought it would be ill become his daughter to decline to be served by Charles II." (Grammont)

Wim van der Meij on 10 Feb 2006  •  Link

Warrington has also the following on her: "she was considered as one of Charles's mistresses; but the 'petite disgrace' as Hamilton styles it, here related, occurred to another of the queen's maids of honour, Mary Kirk, sister to the Countess of Oxford."

taryn lane on 2 Dec 2006  •  Link

hi, just found your page we have been doing our family tree and found winifred wells to be a relation - fasinating to hear what she was like please send any info!!

many thanks

Michael Robinson on 14 Jun 2009  •  Link

Per L&M Companion:

Maid of Honour to the Queen from 1662; mistress to the King 1664-7. 'A big splendidly handsome creature who dressed finely [and] had the carriage of a Goddess ... [but with] the physiognomy of a dreamy sheep' (Gramont). He adds 'She put up with a feebler resistance than would have been proper'. In 1675 she married Thomas Wyndham.