Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth

Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kéroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth (5 September 1649 – 14 November 1734) was a French mistress of King Charles II of England. She was also made Duchesse d'Aubigny in the peerage of France.

Early life


Louise was the daughter of Guillaume de Penancoët, Seigneur de Kéroualle, and his wife, Marie de Plœuc, Dame de Timeur et de Kergorlay. The Kérouaille family were nobles in Brittany, and their name was so spelt by themselves. The form "Quérouaille" was commonly used in England. All are derivations of the original Breton name Kerouazle, which is the most common form in Brittany. Louise had a sister, Henriette Mauricette de Penancoët de Kérouaille, who married firstly in 1674 Philip Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke, and secondly in 1685 Jean-Timoléon Gouffier, Marquis de Thais. Her paternal aunt, Suzanne de Penancoët married Claude Le Veyer; their daughter Catherine became the matriarch of the Breton noble family de Saisy de Kerampuil of Carhaix, Brittany.

Mistress to Charles II
De Kéroualle was introduced early to the household of Henrietta Anne Stuart, Duchess of Orléans, sister of King Charles II of Great Britain, and sister-in-law of King Louis XIV of France. The diarist Saint-Simon asserts that her family threw her in the way of Louis XIV in the hope that she would become a royal mistress. In 1670, she accompanied Henrietta on a visit to Charles II at Dover. The sudden death of Henrietta left her unprovided for, but Charles appointed her as a lady-in-waiting to his own queen, Catherine of Braganza. Unlike Charles' previous mistress Barbara Palmer, who had openly insulted the Queen, de Kéroualle was careful to show her every respect, and relations between the two women were never less than amicable. One of the possible reasons for that was the fact that Louise shared the queen's Roman Catholic faith.

It was later said that de Kéroualle had been selected by the French court to fascinate Charles, but there seems to be no evidence for that. Yet when there appeared a prospect that Charles would show her favour, the intrigue was vigorously pushed by the French ambassador, Colbert de Croissy, who was aided by the English secretary of state Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, and his wife.

De Kéroualle, who concealed cunning and ambition under an appearance of languor and a rather childlike beauty (diarist John Evelyn speaks of her "baby face"), yielded to Charles' romantic advances only after she had established a strong hold on his affections.

In 1672, de Kéroualle gave birth to Charles II's son. The following year, on 19 August 1673, the titles of Baroness Petersfield, Countess of Fareham and Duchess of Portsmouth were granted to her for life. Her pensions and money allowances were enormous, £136,000 in 1681 alone. The French court gave her frequent presents and, in December 1673, at the request of Charles II, conferred upon her the title Duchess of Aubigny in the Peerage of France. Her son by the king, Charles (1672–1723) was created Duke of Richmond in 1675.



At about that time, the new Duchess of Portsmouth introduced a young Frenchman who proposed a solution to the longitude problem. While the proposal was ineffective, it led Charles to establish the Greenwich Royal Observatory and appoint John Flamsteed as Astronomer Royal.

The support Portsmouth received from the French envoy was given on the understanding that she should advance the interests of her native sovereign. The bargain was confirmed by gifts and honours from Louis XIV and was loyally carried out by Portsmouth, but she was much disliked by the English public. Louis XIV gave her a pair of earrings worth the astonishing sum of eighteen thousand pounds, his most expensive gift to England that year and more lavish than anything he had ever given Charles' queen.

Louise is mentioned in "A Satyr on Charles II", a 1673 poetical lampoon at the King's expense, written by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, in which she is referred to with her last name spelt Carwell. At that time Charles II himself happened to request a specific piece by Rochester &mdash; who, upon delivery, discerned that he had delivered directly into the hands of the King the impudent satire aimed at his person instead of the sought-after text. This led to Rochester's abrupt flight from Court. Despite this incident, there appears to be evidence of the King's continued friendship, as he acquired two coveted offices at the royal court. He did not finally meet with a prolonged banishment from Court until 1675, when he was condemned by Portsmouth and remained in banishment for the remaining five years before his death.

Portsmouth was openly distrusted and even hated in England due to her religion and nationality as well as her sinful role as mistress. Her work to secure alliances with and favours for France provoked strong resentment. Nell Gwynne, another of Charles' mistresses, called her "Squintabella" and, when mistaken for her, replied, "Pray good people be civil, I am the Protestant whore."

Portsmouth's thorough understanding of Charles' character enabled her to retain Charles' affections to the end. She contrived to escape uninjured during the crisis of the "Popish Plot" in 1678, and found an unexpected ally in Queen Catherine, who was grateful for the kindness and consideration which Portsmouth had always shown her. She was strong enough to maintain her position during a long illness in 1677, and even after a visit to France in 1682. One of Charles' nicknames for her was 'Fubbs', meaning the plumpness thought ideal for the female form at the time; in 1682, Charles built the royal yacht HMY Fubbs. According to the French ambassador, she assisted in having Charles II received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed in 1685. That Charles was truly attached to her is shown by his dying instruction to his brother to "do well by Portsmouth", making her one of three women in his life, along with the Queen and Nell Gwynne, who were in his thoughts at the end.

After Charles II's death
Soon after the death of Charles II, Portsmouth quickly fell from favour. She retired to France, where she remained except for a short visit to England during the reign of James II and her attendance at the coronation of George I. Her attendance at George I's coronation was remarked upon by the Countess of Dorchester when they met the Countess of Orkney ("we three whores"). Between them, they had been in turn the maîtresse en titre for successive kings for over 20 years. Her pensions and a grant on the Irish revenue given her by Charles II were lost either during the reign of James II or at the Revolution of 1688.

During her last years, Portsmouth lived at Aubigny under mounting debt, but she received a pension and protection against her creditors from king Louis XIV and later the regent Philippe II. Portsmouth died in Paris on 14 November 1734, aged 85.

In literature

 * Louise figures, together with Barbara Villiers and Nell Gwyn, in Bernard Shaw's late play In Good King Charles's Golden Days (1939) and Jessica Swale's Nell Gwynn (2015).
 * Louise briefly appears in Kathleen Winsor's Forever Amber.
 * Louise is mentioned in the children's novel, Eliza Rose, by Mary Hooper, as a minor role.
 * Louise appears in Dark Angels by Karleen Koen, although her character goes by the name of Renee.
 * Louise is the primary character in The French Mistress by Susan Holloway Scott.
 * Louise is a major character in The Empress of Ice Cream by Anthony Capella.
 * Louise, and the Royal Yacht were mentioned in the film England, My England. Of Louise, a character notes that she was "squat, and broad of beam."