Charlotte Fitzroy was born on 5 September, 1664. By that time Roger Palmer had left his wife, Barbara, so there was no disguising the fact that the little girl was the child of King Charles II. Both Charles and James, Duke of York doted on Charlotte who was as affectionate as she was lovely.
Barbara was less enamoured of any of her children. On occasion she threatened to leave them with their father. And, in one notable instance the glass in the window of her mother’s coach broke while Charlotte was in it. She burst into tears fearing her mother’s wrath. Charles II intervened to prevent the girl from being punished.
When she was only ten years old a marriage was arranged by the Countess of Rochester, who was Edward Lee’s grandmother. The pair were distantly related and a similar age. As soon as the couple were engaged, Edward was created Earl of Lichfield. When the couple were married, the union would be a long and, it seems, very happy one.
In 1676 Charlotte went with her mother and her younger sister Barbara to France where the pair were sent to a convent to be educated along with other members of the English aristocracy. The following year Charles II demanded that he daughter be returned home and married. He provided her and her new husband with a town house designed by Christopher Wren which was known as Lichfield House. Charlotte’s dowry, provided by Charles was £18,000 and he also gave his daughter a pension of £2,000 per year.
By the time she was nineteen years old Charlotte had given her husband four children. Fourteen more would be born. In between caring for her expanding family Charlotte remained a favourite with her father and was often at court. Existing correspondence shows that father and daughter retained close contact throughout Charles II’s life and that he was an affectionate father.
After Charles’ death the couple remained at the heart of the court and Charlotte would be one of the women who testified that her aunt by marriage Mary of Modena had indeed given birth to a son rather than a changeling being introduced. However, she was not present at the birth itself. Because of their loyalty to James II, Charlotte and Edward were not welcome at court in the years following the Glorious Revolution of1689. Instead they spent their time at Edward’s home at Ditchley (Yes – Edward was descended from Queen Elizabeth I’s somewhat scandalous champion, Henry Lee.)
Because Edward remained loyal to the Stuart dynasty they were not permitted to return to court when Charlotte’s cousin Anne ascended the throne.
Edward died in 1716, followed by Charlotte who died two years later, aged fifty-three. She was the only one of Barbara Villiers daughters who did not have a scandal in their lives. The next generation were rather less fortunate and in later times Charlotte could count among her descendants the Mitford Sisters who have to be among the most famous, not to mention most scandalous, sisters of the twentieth century. Also descended from Charlotte and thus Charles II was British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden.