Tea at Trianon: Ravenous: A Life of Barbara Villiers, Charles II's Most Infamous Mistress

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, February 17, 2025

Ravenous: A Life of Barbara Villiers, Charles II's Most Infamous Mistress

I have always seen Barbara Villiers as an unpleasant but inescapable reality of The Restoration, in the same category as both the Plague and the Great Fire of London. On a moral level she did great harm to the newly reconstituted kingdom, especially in making Queen Catherine's life a misery. Yes, Charles II was ultimately to blame as he chose Barbara and raised her to the heights. He had other mistresses, too, but Barbara's flamboyance and rapacious greed probably caused more scandal than all the other courtesans combined. Andrea Zuvich, one of the best historical writers today, and an expert on the seventeenth century, brings Barbara to life in the aptly named Ravenous. Only someone who was a bottomless pit of need could live like Barbara lived, almost as a sociopath, threatening Charles with the murder of her own children if she did not get her way. Andrea presents the details dispassionately, as becomes a historian, while weaving a most vivid tapestry of the era, as becomes an artist.

From the Amazon page:

Barbara Villiers was a woman so beautiful, so magnetic and so sexually attractive that she captured the hearts of many in Stuart-era Britain. Her beauty is legendary: she became the muse of artists such as Peter Lely, the inspiration of writers such as John Dryden and the lover of John Churchill, the future great military leader whom we also know as the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her greatest amorous conquest was King Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with whom she had a tempestuous and passionate relationship for the better part of a decade.

But this loveliest of Stuart-era ladies had a dark side. She hurt and humiliated her husband, Roger Palmer, for decades with her unashamedly adulterous lifestyle, she plotted the ruin of her enemies, constantly gambled away vast sums of money, is remembered for the destruction of the Tudor-era Nonsuch Palace, and was known to unleash terrible rages when crossed. Crassly lampooned by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, and subjected to verbal and written assaults, she was physically abused by a later, violent spouse.

Barbara lived through some of the most turbulent times in British history: civil war, the Great Plague of London, which saw the deaths of around 100,000 people, the Great Fire of London, which destroyed much of the medieval city, and foreign conflicts such as the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Williamite wars, and the War of the Spanish Succession.

An impoverished aristocrat who rose to become a wealthy countess and then a duchess, taking her lovers from all walks of life, Barbara laughed at the morals of her time and used her natural talents and her ruthless determination to the material benefit of herself and her numerous offspring. In great stately homes and castles such as Hampton Court Palace, her portraits are widely seen and appreciated even today. She had an insatiable appetite for life, love, riches, amusement, and power. She was simply ‘ravenous’....

Before reading Andrea Zuvich's Ravenous I read Sophie Shorland's The Lost Queen: The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza, in order to gain some perspective. Barbara was so extreme she tends to skew one's impressions of life at Whitehall, making any account of that epoch into a bawdier rendition of Forever Amber. Catherine's life story includes persecuted Catholics, diplomatic intrigue, charitable endeavors, and a woman who used her intelligence rather than her body to influence world events. No two women could have been more opposite each other yet they spent years under the same roof, loving the same man. Catherine, heeding her mother-in-law's advice, was kind to Barbara and befriended her. In doing so Catherine showed the world that her own position was lofty and untouchable, as she saw the most glittering whore in Christendom as not in the least threatening. Yet Catherine suffered cruelly from Charles II's infidelities, as only a loving wife can suffer, in addition to her heartbreaking childlessness. That is where her strong Catholic faith sustained her and helped her to live a dignified life, returning as a widow to her native Portugal and serving as Regent. Sanctified by her trials,she was uplifted by more than a crown and brought a breath of redemption wherever her sphere of influence happened to be.

When living in Catherine's household even Barbara became a Catholic, although outwardly her morals did not change. She was eventually sent from court and ended up in Paris. I personally will never forgive her for not taking care of Nonsuch palace, which Charles gave her as a parting gift; she sold parts of it to pay her gambling debts. For that I blame Charles; once again his judgment when it came to women left much to be desired.