Lady Barbara FitzRoy was the sixth and youngest child of Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, a mistress of Charles II of England.
Background
Barbara was born at Cleveland House in Street Martin in the Fields, London, England on 16 July 1672. Around the time she was born, Louise de Kérouaille was supplanting her mother in the king"s bed. Although her mother insisted she was a daughter of the king, Barbara was probably fathered by either John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, a second cousin of her mother, or Lord Chesterfield, whom she is said to have resembled in her features.
Career
She became a Benedictine nun, known as Benedite. lieutenant is generally believ"d that Mr. Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, was her father."
She and her mother were painted by Thomas Pooley in 1677.
They are seen holding a basket of flowers.
Barbara Fitzroy is portrayed as a smiling, round-faced five-year-old with blonde curls. The king died in 1685.
In March 1691, eighteen-year-old Barbara gave birth to an illegitimate son of the Earl of Arran, whom she named Charles Hamilton (1691-1754). Arran"s parents bitterly opposed his relationship with Barbara.
Right after giving birth, she became a nun in the English Priory of Saint Nicholas, at Pontoise in Normandy, France, taking the name Sister Benedicta, where she later became prioress in 1721.
Her son Charles was raised by her mother, the Duchess of Cleveland, who supposedly disowned her. An autograph of the Prioress is as follows:
Roughly translated as:
My name in the world is Barbe Fitz Roy, in Religion it is Benedicta, daughter of the King of Great Britain, Charles World War II I made profession at the Convent of the English Benedictines in Pontoise, the year 1691, the 2nd of April. lieutenant is my place of penance.
The Lady Barbara died there in monastery on 6 May 1737, and lies buried in the church of the Priory.
