WEBVTT - Lucy Walter's Lover and Child 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:04.680 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:06.080 and Mild from Aaron Mankie. 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:07.920 Listener discretion advised. 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:27.440 Let's begin our story In Paris sixteen fifty eight. A 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.240 woman only twenty eight years old is on her deathbed, 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:36.680 dying of a venereal disease. An English churchman is with 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.320 her in her remaining few hours, allowing her to make 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:45.479 a general confession or a Christian prayer of repentance for sins. 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:50.599 An English churchman would know these prayers well, Almighty and 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:54.400 most Merciful Father, we have aired and strayed from thy 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.400 ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.800 devices and desires of our own hearts. That's read by 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:07.720 an Anglican congregation and mass during worship. But what did 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:13.160 this woman specifically have to confess? Maybe her cause of 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.800 death can provide you with a clue. But the extent 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:19.440 of the words that she would utter to the priest 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:24.479 went far beyond simply the sins of lust. She told 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:29.640 the churchmen that there existed a black box, and inside 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:34.760 of it one could find documentary proof that years earlier 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:41.399 she had married Charles, the second King of England. The 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.520 story I just told you of the deathbed confession of 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:51.680 the mysterious Black Box. Proof is likely highly dramatized, but 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:56.200 Lucy Walter, the woman in question, was the very real 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.840 mistress of the King of England, and the story of 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.400 her alleged confession would have a very real impact on 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:10.720 the country at large. Lucy's confession isn't actually the beginning 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:14.280 of our story, but it's also not the end. A 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.760 confession of a secret marriage would be enough to cause 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.839 a scandal, but the confession of a marriage while an 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:28.200 acknowledged illegitimate son lived was enough to send the monarchy 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:34.160 into turmoil. The churchman from the tale was also very real, 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.680 but John Couson, future Bishop of Durham, would pass in 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:43.040 sixteen seventy two. Dying with him would be the only 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:48.240 chance of finding this infamous black box and proving once 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:52.280 and for all that Lucy's son, James Scott, the Duke 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.919 of Monmouth, was not an illegitimate son, but in fact 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:03.600 the King's legitimate, rightful heir to the throne. Notably, the 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.880 story of Lucy's death comes from the memoirs of James 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.880 the second, younger brother to Lucy's lover, King Charles the 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.080 Second and it's a memoir in which she by and 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:19.760 large is portrayed in a rather shameful light. It will 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.480 become clearer as to why that might have been the 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.480 case later, but it's a good reminder that when it 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.160 comes to Lucy's life we could be careful to take 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.120 things with a grain of salt. In a real history 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.320 is written by the victor's moment, we have to ask, 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:42.080 did Lucy even truly die of a quote disease incident 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.960 to her profession, as James the Second put it, or 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.680 as James was fighting the Duke of Monmouth foreclaim to 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.920 the throne, did he really just want his enemy to 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:57.680 be known as the son of a whore? The story 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.720 of Lucy Walter and Charles the Second has all the 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:08.640 makings of a really good scandal. Royalty seduction, bastards, secret marriages, 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.600 a quest for a fabled box, and, since this is 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:18.440 the English monarchy, an eventual beheading. As with any scandal, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:23.240 though no matter how important the participants are, at the 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.839 heart of it is a real messy group of people 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:34.159 making real messy decisions. I'm Danish Schwartz and this is 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:47.479 Noble Blood. Now to introduce the players in this scandal 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.680 when there's a king involved, I imagine that ladies first 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.560 doesn't really apply. So let's start with King Charles the 0:04:55.600 --> 0:05:00.440 Second of England. Charles the Second's father, Charles the First 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:06.719 was an infamously stuffy and unlikable man, so unlikable, in fact, 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.520 that it cost him his head to very very succinctly 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.200 sum up the English Civil War, but his wife, the 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:20.280 French Princess Henrietta Maria, was practically his opposite. Charles the 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:24.279 First was twenty four and she was fifteen at the 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:29.520 time of their vows. He wanted a submissive, traditional queen, 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:34.719 while Henrietta had no such intentions of being one. She 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.200 had been raised in the comparatively liberal environment of the 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.040 French court. Charles the First was the head of the 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:47.320 Church of England, and Henrietta Maria was a Roman Catholic 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:53.440 at a time when religious strife was particularly contentious. The 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.880 couple's biggest similarity at the time of their marriage seemed 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:02.800 to be that both were fairly onely disliked. Parliament and 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.920 the English public were very wary when the king announced 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.400 that he would be marrying a Roman Catholic woman, and 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:15.400 due to religious restrictions, she was never even formally crowned 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:20.240 in a coronation ceremony. In a situation like this of 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:24.480 two very different parents, odds are that children would take 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.120 more after one parent than the other, and in the 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.800 young Charles's case, he took after his mother. The Bishop 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:37.360 Burnet once reflected that quote. The Queen Mother, referring to 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:42.360 Henrietta Maria, observed often that the great defects of the 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.880 late king's breeding and the stiff roughness that was in him, 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.880 by which he disobliged very many and did often prejudice 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:54.160 his affairs very much. So she gave strict orders that 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:59.760 the young princes should be bred to wonderful civility end quote. 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:05.039 Civility may seem a misplaced choice of wording here, but 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.560 in this case it's a reference back to its archaic meaning, 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.560 which was to be learned in the humanities. And so 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.679 the future Charles the second would take after his mother 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:21.840 very much. By design as his mother's favorite, the young 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.240 Charles spent a lot of time being doted on by 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:31.240 Henrietta and her courtiers. The excess of Catholicism opposed by 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:36.400 English Puritans around this time was spiritually embodied by Henrietta 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:41.760 who turned the palace into a personal menagerie. She kept 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.880 herself surrounded by dwarfs, a sadly common practice among royalty 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:51.920 at the time, dogs of all shapes and sizes, gestures. 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:52.440 And monkeys. 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:59.120 The idea was constant entertainment and spectacle. After all, Henrietta's 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.720 mother was Ria de Medici, and if you know anything 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:07.200 about that family, you know that extravagance was a prominent 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:12.120 genotype in their Punnett Square. When young Charles was around, 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.760 the courtiers devised games and jokes for the enjoyment of 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:21.280 the prince, and in Henrietta's court he received a cultural 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:26.720 education simply through exposure. But he was also exposed to 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:31.400 the other side of a hedonistic leaning circle of wealthy followers. 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:33.560 As phrased by. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:40.000 Derek Wilson in his book All the King's Women, quote, flirtations, affairs, 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:43.880 and gossip about those flirtations and affairs. 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:45.640 Were part of the daily routine. 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:51.160 And if adulterous liaisons were not officially approved of, everyone 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:52.520 knew they happened. 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:53.640 End quote. 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.560 It likely took the little prince some time to understand 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:01.040 the full implications of what was going on behind the scenes, 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.920 but adultery and that sort of debauchery was a part 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:17.920 of his daily life from a young age. The Queen 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.080 and her ladies also took great joy in dressing the 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:26.720 young Charles and his royal siblings in fanciful costumes and 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:32.520 staging masks and dances for the young princes to perform in. 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:38.240 Henrietta was a devoted patroness of the arts, particularly when 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.120 it came to masks and plays, even ones that didn't 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:46.600 involve her children. Her husband, Charles the First, for his part, 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.160 was a major patron of paintings and visual arts, but 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.600 their approaches were different. They both wanted the court to 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:00.600 embrace the Beaumont, but Henrietta was determined to do so 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:06.199 through grand French sensibilities, while her husband was the poster 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:12.079 child for English rigid formality and dignity. To get an 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:16.040 idea of the kind of plays Henrietta was hosting, take 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:22.240 this criticism from lawyer William Prine, a staunch Puritan, in 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.319 a paragraph that sounds like it should follow the phrase 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:30.880 this club has everything, Prine admonishes the Court for quote 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:39.320 effeminate mixed dancing, stage plays, lascivious pictures, face painting, health, drinking, 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:46.480 long hair, love, locks, periwigs, women's curling, powdering and cuffing 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:54.000 of their hair, bonfires, new Year's gifts, may day's amorous pastimes, lascivious, 0:10:54.000 --> 0:11:01.760 effeminate music, excessive laughter, luxurious, disorderly Christmas keeping mummeries with 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:07.280 sundry such like vanities end quote. Charles the First was 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.520 so offended by Prin's accusations that he was not the 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.280 moral paragon, that he fancied himself that he had Prin 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:20.120 sentenced to life imprisonment, find five thousand pounds, deprived of 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:25.040 his Oxford degree, and for good measure, liberated of both 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:30.160 his ears. And that was just the initial sentence. But anyway, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.439 back to the sun, there was a third person responsible 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:41.160 for rearing and influencing the young Prince. Charles's nurse, Christabella Wyndham. 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.640 She was in her mid twenties when she was appointed, 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:49.000 and apparently she was quite beautiful, but one of Charles 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:53.439 the second future courtiers once remarked that there was quote 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.560 nothing of woman in her but her body end quote. 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:02.720 Due to her apparent ambitiousness nature, she and her husband, 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:07.440 Sir Edward Wyndham were quickly climbing the social ranks in court, 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.520 and they were trusted by the King, Queen, and most 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:16.000 of all, the young Prince, she readily provided the prince 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.480 with affection, hugs and kisses that a young royal really 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:31.880 couldn't get anywhere else. In sixteen forty two, when twelve 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.880 year old Charles was forced to leave his home for 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.760 the first time to join his father fighting in the 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:42.880 First English Civil War, he was separated from his incredibly 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:47.400 comfortable home life, which included his mother's court and his 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:54.040 beloved nurse. Charles's relatively loose education and preferences for an 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:59.319 easy life hadn't prepared him for the battlefield, but nevertheless, 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.720 in classic Nepo baby tradition, at age fifteen, he was 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:09.360 given his own command. While teenage Charles wasn't a particularly 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.920 effective general, being in the field did give him a 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:18.120 chance to reunite with Christabella, his childhood nurse, for a week. 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.000 He was stationed in her hometown of Bridgewater, where she 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:26.400 herself had become quite the warrior for the Royalist cause. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:31.320 She apparently fired a musket at the Parliamentary General and 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.880 then sent her trumpeter to the enemy commander to taunt 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.240 that if he were a real courtier, he would return 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.319 the compliment with another shot at her. Charles was thrilled 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:47.360 to be reunited with his childhood nurse, but his courtier, 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:53.280 Edward Hyde, was far less thrilled. It was he who 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:59.200 had earlier described her as lacking womanhood, believing that she, Cristabella, 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.920 sought to influence and manipulate the young Charles for her 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.240 and her husband's own gain, which you know, probably to 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:12.920 some degree was true. Hyde now admonished the way that 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.720 she would run across the room to kiss young Charles, 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:22.080 who happily accepted her affection. Hyde feared that his master 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.920 harbored quote fondness, if not affection end quote for his 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:31.880 former nurse, which you know you think, sure he probably did. 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.880 But some historians have interpreted this to mean that the 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:40.760 relationship between them had evolved into something sexual, but there's 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.600 no evidence to corroborate that idea, so the theory is 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:49.520 more likely just a convenient plot point in young Charles's story. 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:56.200 Despite that, Christabella was undoubtedly Charles's first crush, and her 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:08.600 headstrongness would certainly inspire his future taste. Speaking of headstrong women, 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:14.560 let's finally talk about Lucy Walter. There is a definite 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.960 lack of information on Lucy's early life compared to Charles, 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.400 but after all, she was the daughter of Welsh gentry 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:27.840 and he was the future King of England. Lucy was 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:32.360 born in Pembrokeshire, Wales, the same year as Charles, but 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.760 in the later sixteen thirties her parents moved the family 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:43.200 to London. Attracted to high society, Lucy's parents established their 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.840 new home in Covent Garden, the most expensive quarter of 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.600 the capitol. Their attempt to make a name for themselves 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.360 in the city didn't work out as they had hoped, 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.840 and by the time Lucy was ten, there was so 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:02.640 much strain on their marriage that the couple divorced. It 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.960 was not an easy or simple separation, and it ended 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.440 up playing out messily in courts, with claims of infidelity 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:13.119 and unpaid dowries. 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:14.640 For Lucy. 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.320 This meant she and her siblings would be placed in 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.920 the care of her grandfather and brought up at his 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:27.600 house near Exeter. We know that she received no formal education, 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.120 but she learned etiquette and. 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.040 That's about it. For her childhood. 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:36.120 She likely spent time, as many children of divorce do, 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:42.000 bouncing between her grandparents and her parents' respective homes but 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:45.120 by her mid teens we know that she ended up 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:49.960 back in London. We also know that she was charming, spirited, 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.600 and a rare beauty, three qualities that she would come 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:58.400 to rely on. The English writer John Evelyn once famously 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:04.040 described her as quote a brown, beautiful, bold, but insipid 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:08.520 creature end quote. After the two shared a carriage later 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.200 in her life, and it's believed that she at least 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:17.160 understood her appeal. Lucy was at the age when many 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.359 families would begin thinking. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:20.720 Of marriage for their daughters. 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:25.119 But Lucy's family was not only fractured, but by this 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:29.639 point out of money. Not only that, but England was 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.800 at this point at war with itself, and most of 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:39.280 her potential husband candidates were on the battlefield. It's likely 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:43.239 that during this time, without a husband or father to 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:49.360 protect her in London, she sought a quote protector. This 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:55.639 protector arrangement, which was almost always in exchange for sexual services, 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:00.800 was quite common in seventeenth century London, as it has 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:06.439 been informs throughout history. The man who would take on 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:11.800 this protector role for Lucy was Algernon Sidney, Younger, son 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.159 of the Earl of Leicester and bearer of a family 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.200 name that pops up quite a lot on this show. 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:21.800 He had been injured in battle and was waiting to 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:26.640 be reinstated when he assumed his parliamentary seat as MP 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:31.199 of Cardiff. That was the summer of sixteen forty six, 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.920 and at the same time he entered into an agreement 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:39.880 with Lucy. It said she must have made a considerable impression, 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:44.800 as he paid fifty pounds for her services. He later 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.760 complained that he never received them because he was called 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:54.320 back into battle and missed his chance. Shortly after Sidney's departure, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:19:00.000 the conclusion of Lucy's parents's long divorce proceeding was fined, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:04.679 finally reached, and Lucy's father was given custody of Lucy 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.600 and her siblings, likely because her mother couldn't afford to 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.520 care for them. It's fairly clear that Lucy didn't care 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.920 for her father because rather than move in with him, 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.280 she chose to flee the country, changing her last name 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:25.080 to Barlow borrowed from a maternal relative, she boarded a 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.879 ship to Holland to stay at her uncle's family home. 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.639 She wouldn't take much with her except a collection of 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:37.919 letters of recommendation from Algernon Sidney addressed to his younger brother, 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.600 Robert Sidney, who had recently become colonel of the English 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:48.359 regiment in the Netherlands. The letters apparently worked, as Lucy 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:54.639 became Robert's mistress by spring sixteen forty seven. Though Robert 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.399 Sidney was married, he was powerful enough that it didn't 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:03.000 matter if he paraded his a newfound relationship around, and 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:07.880 Lucy likely gained inadvertent access to the heart of culture 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:09.960 happening in the Hague. 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:11.120 On Robert's arm. 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:16.760 Robert Sidney was, however, not the most important affair that 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:17.720 Lucy would. 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:27.719 Have in Holland. 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:38.080 Like Lucy, young Charles also arrived at the Hague seeking refuge. 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:42.679 The First English Civil War ended in sixteen forty six, 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:48.040 with Charles the first surrendering and the prince going into exile, 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.800 spending much of it in France with his mother. His 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:56.320 younger brother James, however, was imprisoned in the Palace alongside 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:02.280 their other siblings. By sixteen forty eight, conflict was already renewed, 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:07.119 marking the beginning of the Second English Civil War. James 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.600 managed to escape the palace disguised as a girl and 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.600 safely arrived in the Hague. To live with his sister 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.760 Mary and her husband, William, the second Prince of Orange. 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:20.960 This feels like one of those spoiler alerts that later 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.960 in history, probably later in a Noble Blood episode, that 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:30.280 couple comes back. Young Charles, the prince in exile, had 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.560 exhausted his options for aid in France, and so he too, 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.600 traveled to meet his brother and pitch the Royalist cause 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:44.000 to Mary and William. Lucy and Charles met almost immediately 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:48.040 upon his arrival in Holland in May sixteen forty eight. 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.280 We don't have details about their first meeting, or about 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:56.240 how their affair began, or as to how Lucy broke 0:21:56.320 --> 0:22:00.280 off her arrangement with Sidney, but we know that Charles 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:05.280 was infatuated from the moment they met. Madame d'lnoy, the 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:09.200 baroness and French author who actually coined the term fairy 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:13.240 tale for her collection of stories, once wrote that upon 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.480 seeing Lucy's beauty for their first meeting, the prince was 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:22.359 quote so charmed and ravished and enamored that, in the 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:26.240 misfortunes which ran through the first years of his reign, 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.680 he knew no other sweetness or joy than to love 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:35.320 her and be loved by her end quote. The couple 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:41.320 were both eighteen, and Lucy was almost certainly Charles's first, 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:48.360 possibly only love, despite his already gained reputation as something 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:52.800 of a cad. Lucy was the first woman Charles began 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:58.920 a relationship with, which explains the buzzy, impassioned language many 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:03.560 historians youth to describe their affair. On Lucy's part, we 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:08.320 don't have any real insight into how reciprocal her feelings 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:12.880 truly were, at least on first glance. It's equally likely 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.360 that Charles was the great love of her life as 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:19.960 it is that she was just seeking out more powerful 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:26.720 quote protection, and positive and negative interpretations of her motives 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:32.120 have ebbed and flowed with history and shifts in historical 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:36.520 schools of thought. What we know for sure, though, is 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:41.320 that by July Lucy was pregnant, the same month in 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:45.320 which the Prince Charles would return to his position of 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:49.280 command and depart with his fleet back to the seas. 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:54.119 In December, tensions escalated back in England, but the Prince, 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:57.920 still in exile, returned to the Hague for the holidays. 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:02.200 At this point in English history, Christmas had been all 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:07.600 but banned by the Puritan Parliament, associating its festivities too 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:14.480 closely with indulgent Catholicism and arguing that Christmas encouraged drunkenness 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:19.399 and debauchery. In Holland, however, the festive season was in 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:23.639 full swing, and it can be assumed that pregnant Lucy 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:35.640 joined Charles at court for celebration. Their happy period quickly 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:39.320 came to an end, though by the time their son 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:44.000 James was born in Rotterdam on April ninth, Charles had 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:48.160 been gone from the Netherlands two months earlier. He had 0:24:48.280 --> 0:24:52.720 learned of his father's execution, and he immediately set off 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:56.840 for Jersey, the only one of his father's dominions in 0:24:56.880 --> 0:25:01.199 which he was now declared king. His agree that the 0:25:01.320 --> 0:25:05.680 death of his father marked a near immediate shift in Charles. 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:09.920 The prince, who had once been described as soft hearted, 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:14.560 had hardened, and will see the consequences of this shift 0:25:14.920 --> 0:25:18.960 as our story goes on. Baby James was left in 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:22.639 the care of a wet nurse in Rotterdam, while Lucy 0:25:22.840 --> 0:25:28.199 returned to Charles's side months later in either Jersey or 0:25:28.359 --> 0:25:33.480 his next destination, Paris, where Charles would reunite with his mother, 0:25:33.640 --> 0:25:38.840 Henrietta Marie in court. It seems the Queen mother was 0:25:38.960 --> 0:25:43.880 not too fond of the mother of her beloved son's child. 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:48.960 From Hyde, the man who once admonished the way Christavella 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:52.840 showed affection to Charles, we get an account of the 0:25:52.960 --> 0:25:58.520 young lady Lucy, who had quote procured a lodging there 0:25:58.640 --> 0:26:03.720 without her majesty consent, and with whom her Majesty was 0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:08.840 justly offended for the little respect she showed toward her 0:26:08.920 --> 0:26:14.679 majesty end quote. Hyde prevailed upon Charles to have this 0:26:14.840 --> 0:26:20.639 woman removed from court, and the King ultimately complied. We 0:26:20.680 --> 0:26:24.200 don't know actually for sure that this woman was Lucy, 0:26:24.720 --> 0:26:29.600 but the timeline matches up, and more specifically regarding Lucy, 0:26:30.160 --> 0:26:35.280 Hyde later comment that Lucy resided for quote some years 0:26:35.320 --> 0:26:39.320 in France in the King's sight, and at last lost 0:26:39.440 --> 0:26:43.760 his Majesty's favor end quote. And so it's believed that 0:26:43.880 --> 0:26:47.960 the couple traveled together for periods through the sixteen fifties 0:26:48.400 --> 0:26:52.280 as Charles made his way to Belgium and the Netherlands 0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:57.840 for negotiations with the Scottish. But the affair between Charles 0:26:57.880 --> 0:27:02.480 and Lucy was ultimately destined to end in the place 0:27:02.560 --> 0:27:08.040 where it began. The details we have of the couple's 0:27:08.560 --> 0:27:13.080 post relationship interactions and of Lucy's later life at large 0:27:13.480 --> 0:27:17.719 are very limited. There's a letter from May sixteen fifty 0:27:17.720 --> 0:27:22.160 five from Charles to Viscount Taife, an Irish Royalist officer 0:27:22.440 --> 0:27:26.960 who accompanied Charles into exile, that reads quote, as soon 0:27:27.000 --> 0:27:29.679 as I have any money, I will not fail to 0:27:29.760 --> 0:27:33.480 send some to missus Barlow. But in the meantime advise her, 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:37.240 both for her sake and mine, that she goes to 0:27:37.400 --> 0:27:40.520 some place more private than the Hague for her stay 0:27:40.560 --> 0:27:45.080 there is very prejudicial to us both end quote. It's 0:27:45.119 --> 0:27:48.760 widely believed that Taife is actually the father of Lucy's 0:27:48.800 --> 0:27:53.920 second child, a daughter named Mary, likely born in sixteen 0:27:54.080 --> 0:27:54.760 fifty one. 0:27:55.560 --> 0:27:56.400 When it came. 0:27:56.200 --> 0:28:01.720 To Charles's request, Lucy evidently ignored his warnings she was 0:28:01.760 --> 0:28:05.840 still in the Hague six months later. This prompted Charles 0:28:05.880 --> 0:28:10.040 to issue an allowance to her of five thousand livres 0:28:10.080 --> 0:28:14.199 per month, which he promised to raise once he was 0:28:14.280 --> 0:28:18.399 formally king. Realizing that he could actually control where she 0:28:18.560 --> 0:28:21.800 chose to live, the allowance was directed to be given 0:28:21.920 --> 0:28:26.320 at Antwerp quote, or some other place as she shall desire. 0:28:27.560 --> 0:28:31.840 Charles wanted Lucy out of the Hague to avoid scandal 0:28:32.000 --> 0:28:36.560 in the Court of Orange, but scandal Lucy did find. 0:28:37.320 --> 0:28:42.360 An account from court reads that Lucy quote was living 0:28:42.440 --> 0:28:47.480 a life so disorderly that the princess's own servant proposed 0:28:47.640 --> 0:28:48.720 to banish. 0:28:48.280 --> 0:28:51.080 Her from the place end quote. 0:28:51.160 --> 0:28:56.719 In this case, a disorderly life consisted of having an 0:28:56.760 --> 0:29:01.120 affair with a married man, allegedly at tempting to murder 0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:05.280 a maid who threatened to reveal the affair, and being 0:29:05.360 --> 0:29:10.560 accused by the same maid of having two abortions. Now, 0:29:10.680 --> 0:29:14.960 the legitimacy of any of these claims has not been verified, 0:29:15.360 --> 0:29:18.760 but for Charles's ye old pr team at the time, 0:29:19.360 --> 0:29:23.800 any press was not a good press. Thus Lucy was 0:29:23.840 --> 0:29:28.480 apparently persuaded to return to England, where she was imprisoned, 0:29:28.560 --> 0:29:31.520 along with the married man with whom she had had 0:29:31.560 --> 0:29:37.000 an affair, her maid, and her brother. Historians have widely 0:29:37.160 --> 0:29:41.240 theorized about why she was arrested and why she returned 0:29:41.240 --> 0:29:44.880 to England in the first place. The most exciting theory 0:29:45.320 --> 0:29:47.640 is that she was working for the king as a 0:29:47.760 --> 0:29:53.600 Royalist spy. In reality, Lucy claimed that she had returned 0:29:53.720 --> 0:29:58.440 to claim the inheritance of fifteen hundred pounds left for 0:29:58.520 --> 0:30:02.760 her by her mother, who had recently died. The timing 0:30:02.920 --> 0:30:07.360 makes this plausible, but her testimony is riddled with lies, 0:30:07.920 --> 0:30:10.200 including the fact that she was the widow of a 0:30:10.280 --> 0:30:13.000 Dutchman who was the father of both of her children. 0:30:14.000 --> 0:30:17.239 She had been the king's mistress, she explained, but they 0:30:17.280 --> 0:30:20.520 had not seen each other for two years and their 0:30:20.600 --> 0:30:25.320 child had died. The parliamentary regime would not have treated 0:30:25.360 --> 0:30:29.360 her favorably as an active mistress of the king, so 0:30:29.440 --> 0:30:34.200 to frame herself instead as a sympathetic widow was likely 0:30:34.320 --> 0:30:40.000 a strategic move. Her maid, however, snitched on every detail 0:30:40.120 --> 0:30:44.120 of the affair, which the parliamentary regime at the time. 0:30:44.480 --> 0:30:45.840 Was more ready to believe. 0:30:51.760 --> 0:30:57.760 Lucy's arrest covered in the pro Republican newspaper Mercius Politicus, 0:30:58.240 --> 0:31:03.960 referred to Lucy as Charles's wife or mistress, and reported 0:31:04.040 --> 0:31:09.160