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Louise Renee de Keroualle duchess of Portsmouth

Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of

The Oxford Companion to British History | 2002 | | Copyright

Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of (1649–1734). Of Breton lineage, Louise de Kéroualle accompanied Henrietta Anne, sister of Charles II, to England in 1670; Charles's despair at Henrietta's sudden death and obvious infatuation with Louise encouraged Louis XIV to send her back to England. Her baby-faced charms led Charles to call her ‘Fubbs’ (fubsy=chubby), though her emotional outbursts prompted ‘the weeping willow’ from Nell Gwyn, and she rapidly rose to become ‘the most absolute of the king's mistresses’. Her son by Charles (1672) was created duke of Richmond and she herself made duchess of Portsmouth in 1673. Universally unpopular as Frenchwoman and catholic, she was mercenary, recklessly extravagant, and haughty to inferiors; her Whitehall apartment, extended and altered 1672–4 (further rebuilt 1678), was so luxuriously furnished and full of silver plate as to surfeit Evelyn. James II offered reassurances of protection, but after the 1691 fire she returned to France.

A. S. Hargreaves
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JOHN CANNON. "Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN CANNON. "Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-PortsmouthLousdKrlldchssf.html

JOHN CANNON. "Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-PortsmouthLousdKrlldchssf.html

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Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of

A Dictionary of British History | 2004 | | Copyright

Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of (1649–1734). Of Breton lineage, Louise de Kéroualle accompanied Henrietta Anne, sister of Charles II, to England in 1670; Charles's despair at Henrietta's sudden death and obvious infatuation with Louise encouraged Louis XIV to send her back to England. She rapidly rose to become ‘the most absolute of the king's mistresses’. Her son by Charles (1672) was created duke of Richmond and she herself made duchess of Portsmouth in 1673. Universally unpopular as Frenchwoman and catholic, she was mercenary, recklessly extravagant, and haughty to inferiors.
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JOHN CANNON. "Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN CANNON. "Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-PortsmouthLousdKrlldchssf.html

JOHN CANNON. "Portsmouth, Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-PortsmouthLousdKrlldchssf.html

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Louise Renée de Kéroualle Portsmouth, duchess of

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

Louise Renée de Kéroualle Portsmouth, duchess of , 1649–1734, French mistress of Charles II 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).

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"Louise Renée de Kéroualle Portsmouth, duchess of." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Louise Renée de Kéroualle Portsmouth, duchess of." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-PrtsmthLRK.html

"Louise Renée de Kéroualle Portsmouth, duchess of." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-PrtsmthLRK.html

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