Portsmouth, Louise Renée de Kéroualle, duchess of
Portsmouth, Louise Renée de Kéroualle, duchess of
(lwēz rənā` də kāro͞oäl`), 1649–1734, French mistress of Charles IICharles II,1630–85, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660–85), eldest surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria. Early Life
Prince of Wales at the time of the English civil war, Charles was sent (1645) to the W of England with his council,
..... Click the link for more information. of England. She exerted a powerful influence over the king in favor of France—and to her own advantage—from 1671 until his death in 1685. She was made duchess of Portsmouth in 1673 and was the mother by the king of Charles Lennox, duke of Richmond. Hated by many English as a French-Catholic menace, she lived mostly in France after 1685.
Bibliography
See J. Delpech, The Life and Times of the Duchess of Portsmouth (tr. by A. Lindsay, 1953).