LUCY WALTER 223 his abode at Rhosmarket, a house that belonged to his connection, John Barlow. She was about seventeen or eighteen when she first met the Prince of Wales. In June, 1648, a portion of the Parliamentarian fleet mutinied, and casting anchor before Brill, awaited the Prince's orders. Charles proceeded to Calais, and apparently Lucy ・mea FROM STAINED GLASS AT LA MÉAUGON found a place in the cavalcade. So did Clarendon, who speaks of her as a "private Welshwoman of no good fame but handsome." In what relation she stood to the Prince has been matter of dispute. Her grandfather, a Carnarvonshire squire, believed that she was married to Charles, for against her name on his genealogical tree he entered, "Married King Charles ye Second of England." Charles addressed her in his letters as "My wife." And Charles went on board a frigate at Calais and sailed to Helvoetsluys, and sent his "family," and with it Lucy, to the Hague. He proceeded in the mutinous fleet to the Thames, but the expedition came to nothing. He returned to the Hague, where Lucy awaited him. In January King Charles I. was beheaded, and after a fashion Lucy might regard herself as Queen of England. The ragged court retired to Rotterdam, where a child, the future Duke of Monmouth, was born. James II., speaking of her, admitted that she was a very handsome girl; she had not much wit, but a good deal of low cunning. In 1646, in August, Evelyn travelled in her company, and calls her a "brown, beautiful, bold, but insipid creature." During July and August, 1649, she was with Charles in Paris at S. Germain. In June, 1650, he left her at the Hague upon embarking for Scotland. During his absence she entered into an intrigue with Colonel Henry Bennet, afterwards Earl of Arlington, and Charles, on his return, broke off all relations with her, in spite of her little arts to persuade Dr. Cosin that she was innocent. In 1656 Richard Walter was High Sheriff for the county of Pembroke, and Lucy, who had drifted to Cologne, returned to London, where she was recognised, and at once arrested and consigned to the Tower. In the Mercurius Politicus, July 16th, 1656, is a notice of her : "His Highness (the Lord Protector Cromwell), by warrant directed to Sir John Barkstead, Lieutenant of the Tower, hath given order for the release of Lucy Barlow, who for some time hath been a prisoner in the Tower. She passeth under the character of Charles Stuart's wife, or mistress, and hath a young son whom she openly declareth to be his, and it is generally believed, the boy being very like him, and the mother and child provided for by him. When she was apprehended she had one Master Husard in her company, and the LUCY WALTER 225 original of this Royal transcript was found about her, sealed with Charles' signet and signed with his own hand, and subscribed by his secretary Nicholas, which you have transcribed verbatim: CHARLES R.: Wee do by these Presents of our especial Grace, give a grant unto Mrs. Lucy Barlow an annuity or yearly pension of five thousand livres, to be paid to her or her assigns in the City of Antwerp, or in such other convenient place as she shall desire, at four several payments, to begin from the 1st of July, 1654, and so to continue from three months to three months during her life, with assurances to better the same when it shall please God to return us to our kingdom. Given under our Sign Manual at our Court of Cologne, this 21st day of January, 1655, and in the sixth of our Reign." The article proceeds : "By this those that hanker after him may see they are furnished already with an heir apparent, and what a pious, charitable Prince they have for their master, and how well he disposeth of the collections and contributions which they make for him here, towards the maintenance of his concubines and Royal issue. Order is taken forthwith to send away this lady of his pleasure, and the young heir, and set them on the shoare in Flanders, which is no ordinary courtesie." From this time poor Lucy sank from bad to worse. Charles was weary of her. The promised pay was never forthcoming. The children were taken charge of by the Queen Dowager. She went to Paris, led a degraded life, and died penniless in September or October, 1658. A beautiful half-length portrait of her as a girl of sixteen or seventeen, with finely moulded features and clear complexion and coal-black hair, was preserved at Portclew, near Pembroke. She is represented as dressed in a lowcut, short-sleeved, grey gown; in her left hand she holds down a flapping grey hat lined with black; in her right hand she clasps a shepherd's crook. It was sedulously asserted that Charles had married her, and that the marriage took place in the presence of Sir Gabriel Gerard, who had charge of the contract, and Q |