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About Biographies of related people

Jeannine  •  Link

“The Royal Whore” by Allen Andrews

Barbara Villiers, (Lady Castlemaine, infamous mistress of Charles II) is well known to diary readers for her beauty and adoration by Sam. Barbara was a beauty on the outside but underneath a greedy, vulgar, unfaithful, backstabbing, vindictive Libertine whose main purpose in life was to dig her claws into Charles II and bleed him dry for whatever land, titles, money, jewels, and prestige that she could get. Her tactics ranged from erotic sexual seduction, to blackmail, to emotional battery and politicking, etc. to get what she desired. In order to understand Barbara, Allen takes the reader into the Court of Charles II and the exposes the crass, debauched, libertine lifestyle of the idle, morally corrupt rakes that were the courtiers of the King. In addition, the secret cabals and back room intrigues, along with some not so morally stellar side anecdotes of the entourage are set forth in an entertaining fashion. Barbara had a notorious appetite, not only for sex, where she had an ongoing and never ending overlapping string of partners, but mostly for material gain. She even sunk to prostitution in later days when she found a wealthy man willing to pay for what the King had already tasted. In her glory days she carried a power over Charles which caused fear in those around him. Over time the bond was drawn out to cover the bastards that Charles had so kindly accepted as his own (although it’s doubtful that many of them actually were his as she was always active with an overlapping string of men). As her glory days faded out she sunk into more debauchery and vulgar antics including the all time low of turning the mummified body of Bishop Braybooke (died 1404) into a eunuch by dismembering his private parts right of his coffin with her mouth.
Allen explains “Female rakes are rare, because profligacy with its exaggeration of the natural masculine taste for risk, adventure and sporting insecurity is a gross aberration from the feminine inclination. When women develop as libertines, and retain their maternal instinct to the extent that they give priority to the protection of their children and their lovers, they enlarge the family which must be maintained before they attend to other pleasures; whereas the male voluptuary diminishes or obliterates his family. The consequence is of greater psychological interest to an observer, but entirely devastating to the rake’s intended prey. For since the woman needs more, she is that much more rapacious. When Barbara Cleveland [she was made the Duchess of Cleveland over time]wanted something, or someone, men trembled and obeyed” (p 225). Barbara’s grasp of greed extended to cover her children and ensure titles, land, wealth, noble marriages, etc. and to support the lovers that she “paid” during their periods of “servicing” her. Of note, none of her children who were claimed by Charles amounted to anything of intellect, achievement or “value” and were pretty much classified as “blockheads”, albeit, overindulged and spoiled ones. An interesting read of a complex, highly unlikable woman and her times.

Amazon US
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/…

Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…

Used books
http://www.usedbooksearch.co.uk/c…

About Saturday 25 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Susan, My guess would have been that she was naive to the politics. She was most likely thinking of Portugal in the religious sense --recognizing it as a Catholic nation, as opposed to the political issues surrounding this. What is most surprising to me is that Charles would permit her to send them, after all she is his wife and the Queen of England. Where Catholicism wasn't welcome and where her husband was the head of English church I can't figure out his motives here.

About Saturday 25 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

And if you're looking for someother delightful way to dine on neat's feet...
"Neat's Foot or Cow Heel.- The feet are mostly sold so nearly cooked as only to require a warming-up; but the substance of neat's feet consists of so little else besides gelatine and bone (the oil, strong in flavour, being extracted in their preparation), that we consider them more fit to enrich other dishes - soups, stews, fricassees, &c.- than to be served as a dish by themselves.
Neat's Foot with Parsley Sauce.-Warm up or finish cooking your neat's foot in as little water as may be. When ready to serve, make sauce with a little of the liquor, flour, butter, chopped parsley, and a dash of vinegar. Pour this over the foot, and serve."

from http://www.victorianlondon.org/ca…

A vegetarian lifestyle is probably looking pretty good to alot of you right now...

About Saturday 25 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

As a follow on to yesterday’s comments about what the Queen was doing while her husband was involved with Lady Castlemaine ……Davidson reports that “It was in the latter part of October that Catherine began to write letters (page 154-155). The significance of these letters was interesting. First, Charles allowed for her to write them, and if open to a literal interpretation could be seen as more “evidence” of his leaning towards Catholicism. Second, [spoiler not related to Sam] these letters would come back and used against Catherine as accusations during the Popish Plots. Davidson states:
“The burning desire of her heart was to reconcile Portugal with the Papal power, and obtain it’s recognition as a kingdom from the Pope. To so devout a Catholic as herself it must have seemed intolerable that the country that she loved so dearly should remain under the ban of the Church. So on October 25th she wrote to the Pope, and sent her own almoner to Rome with the letter.

Very Holy Father,
The very special respect that I have for the person and for the position of Your Holiness forces me not to deffer any longer giving you these marks of my obedience which have always been my intention since my arrival in this Kingdom, and it is to that end that I now send Master Bellings, who will assure Your Holiness of the veneration I have for you, and the inviolable attachment which I have and will always have to the throne you occupy so worthily. I beg of you not only to give credence to what he shall tell you on this subject, but also to listen willingly to him on what he shall tell you of the state of the Church and the realm whence I have come, and in that which is specially concerned in the prayer he will pray you to make for the state I have entered. I hope that in making your serious reflection on this, you will bring the necessary remedies to the ills which threaten it, and that you will believe that I am with submission,
Your Holy Father,
Your very devoted daughter, C.R.

On the same day she wrote to Cardinal Ursine (probably Orsini)

My Cousin,
Amidst the joy which I have reason to possess I can no longer avoid being sensibly touched by the strange state of the Church, both in the realm of the King my brother, and that here. Nobody knows better than you what it is in Portugall, for you have so generously undertake its protection , but I can tell you that I fear very greatly the evils which he will follow the displeasure of the King my lord and husband, and of his ministers if the court of Rome persists him in refusing him the favour he asks for his relative Monsigneur D’Aubigny, my grand almoner. I trust Master Bellings whom I send to assure His Holiness of my obedience, and to expound to you all these things liberally, and I beg of you to give him entire belief. …”

About Friday 24 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"I predict it’ll all end in tears" -Roger--Over time (and probably even by now) any tears will be in private and replaced by a stoicism that will remain througout her life in England.

About Friday 24 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

The Queen's Nature

Diana, almost forgot.. also to be kept in mind. Catherine was actually a very innocent and devout Catholic. Her marriage vows were sacred to her, and although the Court of Charles II was of a highly debauched and libertine nature full of sex, alcohol and gambling she would go through a short period of "loosening up" her mode of dress and manner to conform to the genteel manner of the English, but never would she partake in non-marital sex, alcohol, gambling for stakes (although she loved to play cards). Her biographers all agree 100% on her virtues. The preface to the biography by Davidson states as follows:
"The court of the second Charles of England fluttered with dazzling and frivolous beauties. They obscured the softer light of other women who boasted only such trite and gentle virtues as womanliness, the fear of God, modesty, honesty and truth. Queen Catherine’s contemporaries detested her for her creed and her piety, for her uselessness as a political tool, for her bitter misfortune of childlessness, for the stumbling block that she innocently formed to their greed and ambition. They have left her portrait to posterity painted in malignant colours. They drew her a hideous, repulsive fool, too dull to be wicked, to narrow and prudish to have a heart. It is time that the blots should be sponged from the picture. Catherine lived in her husband’s court as Lot lived in Sodom. She did justly, and loved mercy, and walked humbly with her God in the midst of a seething corruption and iniquity only equalled, perhaps, in the history of Imperial Rome. She loved righteousness and her fellows,and, above all, the one man who won her heart on the day of her marriage, and kept it till the grave shut over her. She was one of the best and purest women who ever shared the throne of England. She had equal qualities of head and heart, and both were beyond the average. It has been a pleasant and wholesome labor to trace her blameless life, and to unfold the wrappings that have long hidden the character refined and ennobled by much unneccesary suffering."

About Friday 24 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

The role of a wife in the Court of Charles II.

Diana -no courtier for the Queen!
Although not quite yet in the Court of Charles II, Lord Rochester will come forth as a well known rake and rogue along with most of Charles II’s male companions. He will enter the court of Charles II and in many ways Charles will be a father figure and highly influential in shaping young Rochester’s values and concepts of male-female relationships. In his book, “the Profane Wit” Johnson gives a sharp summary of the view of women per Rochester, but this description is so highly applicable to many of the courtiers , and clearly similar to the view of Charles and his cronies. As Johnson explains (p 67)… “ Like his male contemporaries, young Rochester held to a sexual double standard. It was a man’s nature to crave variety. Virtuous young women who refused his advances were cruel and unkind. If a woman succumbed, however, she was a broken toy, fit only to be tossed aside; she had lost her virtue. A woman who played the man’s game of inconsistency was a slut and a whore, deserving his contempt. To marry such a woman was unthinkable – unless a man wanted to risk leaving his property to another man’s bastard. A husband was not expected to be faithful; his wife, of course, was.” So, the wives who were neglected and/or treated horribly by their husbands and perhaps happened by chance to return a smile of another man were whisked away to the country (or worse) while their husbands expected to remain free to pursue any opportunities that they chose to.
Two interesting side notes from the Court of Charles II (little spoilers but not about Sam):
1. Fraser will report that Charles II, “like many unfaithful husbands, managed to work up a fit of illogical jealousy against Edward Montagu [not Sandwich, another E.M], the Queen’s Master of the Horse, because he was thought to have squeezed her hand; Montagu was sacked.” Charles’ behavior during this time became irrational and out of character as seen by his snide comments to Monatgu as the friendship between the Master of the Horse and the Queen began. Clearly, Castlemaine may sleep around and he didn’t care, but a squeeze of Catherine’s hand……
2. When Lord Rochester, one of the most debauched libertine of Charles’ Merry Gang dies he will literally “reach” from the grave to ensure his wife’s fidelity to him. His will left the custody of his only legitimate son under the joint care of his wife and his mother (who his wife hated) and if Elizabeth remarried or carried on in any other way, she’d lose her son.

About Thursday 23 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Meanwhile back at the palace...
Davidson reports (page 159) that Queen Catherine "was already beginning to feel the pinch of that poverty which was soon to become a thumbscrew. Her dowry of sugar and spice had not been sold, and there was no money due to her in the Exchequer. She wrote to John Hervey on October 22 [23 from actual letter], asking for funds". The need for funds will be an ongoing theme during the reign of Charles II, not only for Charles but also for Catherine.What will be a point to watch is where money flows on those occasions when it does touch the hands of the King (hint:not to his wife). Her letter read:

"Our will and pleasure are that you forthwith unto our trusty and well-loved Francesco de Silva (the ambassador) the sum of five hundred pounds for our owne particular use, and for soe doing this shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge. Given at Whitehall this 23rd of Xber 1662, in the year of the reigne of our dearest Lord and Husband.
To our trusty and well-beloved John Hervey, Esq., Our Treasurer and receiver"


About Wednesday 22 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Susan, I too think Bryant harsh and way off the mark here. Unless he has some additional information that he's not footnoting, that summary doesn't come cleanly from the above entry. Ollard's only mention of the incident above is that Sam was making an effort to find Tom a wife to provide a dowry with some suitable working capital and that "Three times he came near success but Tom cannot have been of much help -indeed one of the young ladies declined on the grounds of the imperfections in his speech.Perhaps there was some congenital or glandular disorder?" (p101). Even this comment doesn't fully capture the situation as from the entry the speech imperfections were a part of the picture here, but clearly the financial isses were the "deal breaker" from Sam's conversation with Mrs. Butler. Also interesting is that Ollard also wonders at the speech impairment but doesn't point to a firm statement as to what that disorder is.

About Wednesday 22 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"Sense of drama"
One of the things that is so wonderful about Sam is his vocabulary and how he puts it altogether to "paint" a picture of his life. Sometimes, it's incredibly funny, sometimes almost meldramatic (soap operaish) and sometimes heartbreaking.
Today you can't help but feeling the sadness of the loss of Morena and the frustration that Tom must be feeling for having "failed" again to find a wife.

About Monday 20 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Jan, usually an apprentice would make copies of the original. Per the National Portrait gallery site "Lely and Villiers had a mutually beneficial relationship, in which her prominence at court promoted his art and his art publicised her beauty and status. He seems to have painted her more than anyone else, and his studio assistants and followers also produced numerous versions of these compositions."

About Monday 20 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

I found a gem for a Friday--A Sam Pepys paper doll set that you can dress yourself!

In the process of looking for links to portraits of Lady Castlemaine I came across this link--it gives a great idea of the clothing of the times and is probably pretty accurate!
http://www.gallimauphry.com/PD/pe…

About Monday 20 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"so which painting did Pepys see??
Isn't it obvious to everyone--Pepys saw a picture and came home and talked to his wife about it. Two days from now when we read about Elizabeth being out for the afternoon and the art studio burning down it will all make sense where the actual picture went to and why Elizabeth is so elated....oops, forgive me for a spoiler...

On a serious note, there was quite a market for "duplicate" portraits and it was lucrative business for the artist. Lely also had a long term relationship with Barbara and painted her many times over a long time period. Barbara got her inflated ego flaunted in the process and Lely made money off of her beauty.

The following link will bring you to a picture of Barbara--under it you can click on the "Sitter" and the "Portrait" to get a better understanding of the mutual benefit of the Lely-Villiers relationship. http://www.npg.org.uk/live/prduch…

Also, this url shows a portrait which may have been done as early as 1660.
http://195.172.6.37/live/search/p…
I'll look around for a few more online--I have seen collections in books before which could fit this time period, but haven't located any exact matches online.

About Sunday 19 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"Charles gets his spending money for his pleasures"
Oh Look, Lady Castlemaine is counting it out for him right now.... one for Charles, two for me, one for Charles, three for me, one for Charles, four for me.....

Terry and JWB-Thanks for checking out the closing of the gates!

About Sunday 19 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"And this night, I know not upon what ground, the gates of the City ordered to be kept shut, and double guards every where."
Does anyone know why?

About Saturday 18 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Robert... The only thing missing is Sam teaching his younger brother how to "woo" a lady.....hmmm....perhaps a play?

About Friday 17 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"Here I am told how things go at Court; that the young men get uppermost, and the old serious lords are out of favour"....We're seeing the begining of the shift of power that men like Clarendon, Ormond, etc. who strongly admired and supported Charles I will dread. Many of those "old serious lords" who have sacrificed their estates, families, etc. for Charles II during his exile had hopes that the monarchy as they knew it would be "restored" to what it was. This shifting political balance, the rising influcenes of Charles' whore(s), the placement of his "Merry Gang" (the rakes he "partied" with and pimped for him, like Buckingham, etc.) into positions of power will be a crushing blow to those faithful servants.

About Friday 17 October 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

A teaser here....Barkeley, Benett (aka Arlington) and Castlemaine....a career ending alliance for many to come....
Of note, Castlemaine, with her hot firely temper would go in and out of alliances with the likes of Buckingham (her cousin) etc. over time. It will be interesting to see whose heads will roll (meant in the figurative sense!)....stay tuned as they say.....