Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille Duchess of Portsmouth 1649 1734 mistress
Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth (September 1649 – 14 November 1734), was a mistress of Charles II of England. The exact date of her birth is apparently unknown. Louise was placed early in her life in the household of Henrietta Anne Stuart, the Duchess of Orleans, sister of Charles II and sister-in-law of Louis XIV of France. Saint-Simon asserts that her family threw her in the way of Louis in the hope that she would become a royal mistress. In 1670, she accompanied the duchess of Orléans on a visit to Charles II at Dover. The sudden death of the duchess, attributed on dubious evidence to poison, left her unprovided for, but the king appointed her a lady-in-waiting to his own queen, Catherine of Braganza. It was later said that she had been selected by the French court to fascinate the king of England, but for this there seems to be no evidence. Yet when there appeared a prospect that the king would show her favour, the intrigue was vigorously pushed by the French ambassador, Colbert de Croissy, aided by the secretary of state, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, and his wife. Louise, who concealed great cleverness and a strong will under an appearance of languor and a rather childish beauty (John Evelyn, the diarist, speaks of her "baby face"), yielded only when she had already established a strong hold on the king's affections and character. Her son Charles (1672–1723) was created Duke of Richmond in 1675. The support she received from the French envoy was given on the understanding that she should serve the interests of her native sovereign. The bargain was confirmed by gifts and honours from Louis XIV and was loyally carried out by Louise. However, she was much disliked by the people in England. However, the hatred openly avowed for her in England was due as much to her own activity in the interest of France as to her notorious rapacity. Nell Gwynne, another of Charles's mistresses, called her "Squintabella", and when mist
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