Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox

Frances Teresa Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (1648-1702) was a prominent member of the Court of the Restoration and famous for refusing to become a mistress of Charles II. For her great beauty she was known as "La Belle Stuart" and served as the model for an idealised, female Britannia.

Biography

The daughter of Walter Stewart, or Stuart, a physician in Queen Henrietta Maria's court, and a distant relative of the ruling dynasty, she was born in exile in Paris, but was sent to England in 1663 after the restoration by Charles I's widow Henrietta Maria to act as maid of honour at Charles II's wedding and subsequently as lady-in-waiting to his new bride, Catherine of Braganza.

The great diarist Samuel Pepys recorded that she was the greatest beauty he ever saw. She had numerous suitors, including the Duke of Buckingham and Francis Digby, son of the Earl of Bristol, whose unrequited love for her was celebrated by Dryden. Her beauty appeared to her contemporaries to be equalled only by her childish silliness; but her letters to her husband, preserved in the British Museum, are not devoid of good sense and feeling.

While a member of the royal court, she caught the eye of Charles II, who fell in love with her. The king's infatuation was so great that when the queen's life was despaired of in 1663, it was reported that he intended to marry Stewart, and four years later he was considering the possibility of obtaining a divorce to enable him to make her his wife because she had refused to become the King's mistress.

She eventually married the Duke of Richmond and Lennox, also a Stuart, in March 1667. It is possible she had to elope to do so, after being discovered with him by a rival for the King's affections, Lady Castlemaine.

The now Duchess of Richmond, however, soon returned to court, where she remained for many years; and although she was disfigured by smallpox in 1669, she retained her hold on the king's affections. It is certain, at least, that Charles went on to post the Duke to Scotland and then to Denmark as Ambassador, where he died in 1672.

The duchess was present at the birth of James Francis Edward Stuart, son of James II, in 1688, being one of those who signed the certificate before the council. She died in 1702, leaving a valuable property to her nephew Lord Blantyre, whose seat of Lethington was renamed Lennoxlove after her.

Britannia

Following the war with the Dutch, Charles had a commemorative medal cast, in which her face was used as a model for Britannia; this subsequently became customary for medals, coins and statues, and is still the case for some of the copper coinage of the United Kingdom. [ [http://britannia.com/history/articles/francesstuart.html Britannia History: Frances Stuart, the Face of Britannia ] ]

References

*Gilbert Burnet, "History of my own Time" (6 vols., Oxford, 1833)
*Edmund Ludlow, "Memoirs, 1625-72", edited by C. H. Firth (2 vols., Oxford, 1894). (R. J. M.).
*Jules J. Jusserand, "A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II" (London, 1892);
*"Memoirs of Beauties of the Court of Charles II, with their Portraits" (2nd ed., Lohdon, 1838)
*"Memoire of Grammont", translated by Boyer, edited by Sir W. Scott (2 vols., London, 1885, 1890); Anna Jameson,
*Samuel Pepys, "Diary", 9 vols. (London, 1893-1899, and numerous editions); Anthony Hamilton,
*1911

External links

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