284 CLEVELAND. Dukedom. 1. Barbara, Countess of Castlkmaink [I.], wife of I 1(170 HoiiEK (Pai.mkiO, Eaul ov Castlkmaink. [I.], was, on 3 Aug . n;7<>,(*) i- 1 ' or.BARONESSNONSUCH.co.Surrey.COUNTESS OF SOUTHAMP- TON and DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND for life, with rem. of then dignities to her eldest sou Charles Palmer, styled Lord Limerick^ 1 ') and the heirs male of his body, with rem. to George Palmer, her second [sic, but should be third] son( 1 ') iu like manner. This notorious lady was da. ami h. of a brave and virtuous soldier, William (ViIXIBRS), 2nd Viscount Grandison [I.] (slain at the seige of Bristol in Hi ll!), by Mary, da. of Paul (Batning), 1st Viscount BaYNing. She was b. about 1611, and when about 18, in.., 14 April 1669, at St. Gregory's, London, "ROOBB P AIMER, Esq.," afterwwdft U Doc. 1881, cr. BARON LIMERICK aad EARL OF GASTLEMAJNE [I ] He, however (from whom she was never legally divorced, and who </. 28 July 1705, but i years before her), does not appear to have been the Father of any of her children unless, perhaps, of the eldest da. See fuller account of him under " CaSTLB- Katnb," Earldom of fx.], cr. 1661 ; ex. 1705. At the Hague, in 1659, she first met with Charles II, whom she accompanied to England the next year (the King spending the first night of his return in her society), and over whom she exercised a pernicious and almost uncontrolled influence for 10 years.() To that King's lasting disgrace he forced his wife in Aug. 1662 (but three months after her marriage) to receive this woman, his acknowledged (and of a large aud miscellaneous assortment of his aubjeets(°l the unacknowledged) Mistress, as a Lady of the Bedchamber. She was accordingly " removed as to her bed, from her own home to a chamber in Whitehall next to the King's own, which [says Mr. Pepys] I am sorry to hear." In 1668, however, her residence there came to an end, and in 1670 she w.-is propitiated for her loss of the Royal favour, and even induced to settle for a time in France by being created a Ducltcu as (a) A docquet of the signed bill fur the creation of tins dignity, as [well as one for the creations cf the Dukedoms of Southampton and Grafton (both in 1670) to two of her sons], is in the Signet Books, but no enrolment of any of there patents appear to have been made. (>') Id the signed bill for this patent, the title of " L'arl of Southampton " is given to him during her lifetime, and the precedency of the children of a Duke to all her issue. These two results would have been the natural consequence of such her creation if her children had been legitimate. (<-') Henry, the second son (who was thus passed over) was cr. Earl of Huston, See., in 1672, and Duke of Grafton in 1675, having, in the former year, m. the heiress (expectant) of the estate of Euston, who became suo jure, on her father's death, Countess of Arlington. ( d ) "The solemn Clarendon, the dignified Ormond, and the virtuous Southampton were alike objects of her ridicule and malevolence." As to the former, indeed, his undeserved dismissal was mainly effected by her. Thomas ("Wriothesley), Earl of Southampton and Chichester, had, when in office (1660-67), refused to admit her name on the Treasury books. Shortly after his death, however (1667), she had the gratification of obtaining for herself and her eldest son both the Earldoms winch ho had enjoyed. (°) One of her earliest lovers was Lord Chesterfield, who is generally considered the father of her first child (Anne, Countess of Sussex), whose paternity was (2) claimed by (the husband of the child's mother) the leyal Father, and (3) was acknowledged by the King in a Royal warrant of 1673. Tha insatiable Countess carried on intrigues (at the same time as with the King), with Hart and Goodman, the Actors, with Jacob Hall, the rope dancer, with "the invincible" Henry Jermyn, with Churchill (afterwards the great Duke), with Wycherley, the Poet, <&c, &o. In 1670, in France, the Chevalier de Chatillon, aud Ralph Montagu (afterwards Duke of Montagu), the English Ambassador, were among those whom she thus favoured. " If she were as beautiful as Helen, she had as many lovers as Messalina. " says .lease, in his " Court uf the Stuarts," Vol. iv. In the magnificent picture of her by Lely, as Minerva, " the face is perfectly beautiful," but her beauty " was of that splendid and commanding character that dazdes, rather than interests." See Jameson's " Court Beauties of Charles II." She is described (when young) by Reresby as " the finest woman of her
